Dan G.

Birth of Modern Europe --London D-band
Mr. Meyers
3/6/02

Political Prehistory of London

    The history of England traces back tens of thousands of years. However, little is known about its political history before the age of the Roman Empire. The city of London came into existence shortly after the emperor Claudius ordered an invasion of England in 43 AD. Then called Londinium, London sprang up as England’s major port city on the Thames River. This site was chosen because the Thames becomes too marshy towards the east and too narrow towards the west. England thrived under Roman control; London grew so much that the Romans erected a wall to protect its boundaries.
However, all of England lost its protection when the Romans left in the early 400’s to defend Rome against the Barbarians. With the Romans gone, the native Britons were defenseless against such tribes as the Picts from Scotland, and the Scots from Ireland. The most dangerous threats, though, came from three seafaring Germanic tribes: the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons. The Jutes were the first tribe to arrive, settling in the southeastern part of England, and making many attacks on London. They were shortly followed by the Angles and Saxons, who establish kingdoms throughout southern and eastern England. These tribes, after many victories, drove the Britons entirely out of London and its surrounding area, forcing them into the extreme northern and eastern regions of England.
    London was controlled by the Saxons, and developed little from the 400’s to the 1000’s. However, England changed vastly during this time, known as the Anglo-Saxon period. In 597, St. Augustine traveled from France and converted many influential people to Christianity. He built a monastery near Canterbury, making it England’s religious center. The Angles and Saxons divided England up into seven different kingdoms –Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Kent, Essex, Sussex, and Wessex –known as the Heptarchy. Northumbria and Mercia took turns controlling the other kingdoms during the 7th and 8th centuries. The Danish attacked England in the 800’s, and conquered all of the kingdoms except Wessex. Alfred the Great, the king of Wessex, drove the Danish into Northeastern England. Alfred became a great king, strengthening England in many aspects. His successors became the kings of England up until Edward the Confessor, the last Anglo-Saxon king.
    Edward built a palace and church just outside of London, in Westminster, moving the center of the kingdom from Winchester. This reestablished London as England’s most prominent city. After Edward’s death, dispute arose over who would become England’s next king. Harold was appointed king, but William, Duke of Normandy, claimed that he was promised the kingdom by Edward. In an attack known as the Norman Conquest, William invaded England and his knights defeated Harold’s forces at the Battle of Hastings. The Anglo-Saxons became serfs at first, but after time, the Normans and the Anglo-Saxons assimilated their cultures, and blended their languages to form English. William established a strong, central government, and demonstrated his power by building many cathedrals and castles, including the Tower of London. He also gave London the right of self-government.
    For a while, England struggled with conflict between the nobles and the kings. After nearly a century of revolts and civil war, Henry II became king in 1154. He was a powerful, centralized king, but also managed to maintain strong local rule. Before Henry, local courts decided cases based on local law. Henry wanted to unite England, so he sent judges throughout England to administer the same laws. These laws became the basis of common law, which applied equally throughout England, and later became the basis of modern British, American, and Canadian law.
    Henry’s son, Richard the Lion-Hearted, left England after he became king to fight in the crusades. After his death, his brother John became king. John was known as an evil and unscrupulous leader. He made enemies among the barons and religious leaders of England, who rebelled and forced John to sign the Magna Carta, which placed John under English common law and greatly diminished his power. During the late 13th century, Edward I, John’s grandson, called meetings of lords, nobles, church leaders, knights, and representatives of the towns to discuss government problems. One such meeting in 1295 was called Model Parliament because it set the arrangement for following Parliaments.
    What followed in England were many years of war. England and France fought from 1337 to 1453 in The Hundred Year’s War. The war began over disputed lands in France, but after a few years, both sides lost sight of what the war was about. The war had a devastating effect on both countries, killing many men. Towards the end of the war, a dispute arose over who would take England’s throne. The houses of Lancaster and York fought each other in The Wars of the Roses for supremacy for 30 years until 1485, when Henry Tudor, later Henry VII, killed Richard of York, and won the crown for the Lancasters.
    London grew rapidly during the 16th and early 17th centuries. Henry VII’s son, Henry VIII, inherited tremendous wealth. Under him, nobles began to expand beyond London’s walls. They built estates towards the west and began developing on the other side of the Thames. Henry married Catherine of Aragon of Spain to strengthen ties between England and other countries. However, Henry wanted to annul his marriage after Catherine couldn’t birth a son. Henry, not given the pope’s authority to dissolve the marriage, declared himself the supreme head of the new Church of England. With his large ego, Henry gained ownership of six palaces in London, including Westminster Palace, which became the Parliament’s meeting place after his death.
    After Henry’s daughter Mary died, his other daughter Elizabeth gained the throne and ruled during what was known as the golden age in England. With developments in trade, literature, and exploration, and a strong victory over the Spanish in the Spanish Armada, England enjoyed unprecedented wealth and power. London became a hub for commerce, theater, and luxurious living. However, the majority of people lived outside London’s walls, in districts that were becoming slums.
    After Elizabeth’s death, James VI of Scotland became king. He was widely disliked because he increased taxes, royal spending, and debt. His absolutist beliefs conflicted with Parliament. These tensions continued to grow when his son, Charles I took over. Puritans, lawyers, and members of the House of Commons united to fight against the king. Civil war broke out and ended in 1649, when Oliver Cromwell, emerging as the leader of the Parliament’s army, defeated Charles and beheaded him. For four years, England was ruled by Parliament, until 1653, when Cromwell disbanded Parliament and became the Lord Protector of England. Under him, England gained control of Scotland and Ireland.
    London became less prosperous under Parliamentary and Protectorate rule. When Charles II emerged as the king of England in 1660, the Londoners welcomed him excitedly. Unfortunately, as London was looking to rebuild, the bubonic plague broke out, killing over 100,000 people in the greater metropolitan area. If that weren’t bad enough, the Great Fire of London broke out just as the plague died. The fire lasted for five days, destroying most of the city, including 80 churches and 13,000 houses.
    Londoners rebuilt the city quickly with brick and stone instead of wood. Businesses soon recovered and London became prosperous again. The Tories and Whigs, opposing political parties, developed in Parliament. George, a German prince, and relative of Queen Anne, became the first king of Great Britain, which formed under the Act of Union as a kingdom containing England, Wales, and Scotland. George did not know much English, and gave control to his councilors in the Whig party. His chief minister, Sir Robert Walpole, developed the British cabinet system and became Britain’s first Prime Minister. The 1700’s were a time of expansion in Britain. They controlled France’s colonies in the New World, as well as their own, much of India, and even Australia.
    By 1800, London became the world’s largest city, with over 1 million people. The Industrial Revolution, which began in England in the late 18th century, fueled the growth of factories throughout England, even in London. But London’s role in the revolution was to develop a marketplace for the factories’ products. The West End of London prospered, amassing enormous wealth while the East End became poorer and slummier.
    In France, Napoleon Bonaparte became the country’s first emperor, with visions of global domination. The British, led by Horatio Nelson, defeated him at Trafalgar in 1805, and later, led by the Duke of Wellington, defeated him at Waterloo for the final time in 1812. During the Napoleonic Wars, Ireland rebelled against British control. With a second Act of Union, Ireland and Great Britain became the United Kingdom, a tremendous force with a tremendous city, London, as its capital.

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