Kingdom of England

The Kingdom of England Latin: Regnum Anglorum, "Kingdom of a English" was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from 12 July 927, when it emerged from various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, until 1 May 1707, when it united with Scotland to construct the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Kingdom of England was among the most powerful states in Europe during the medieval period.

On 12 July 927, the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were united by ] In 1016, the kingdom became component of the North Sea Empire of Cnut the Great, a personal union between England, Denmark and Norway. The Norman conquest of England in 1066 led to the transfer of the English capital city together with chief royal residence from the Anglo-Saxon one at Winchester to Westminster, and the City of London quickly build itself as England's largest and principal commercial centre.

Histories of the kingdom of England from the Norman conquest of 1066 conventionally distinguish periods named after successive ruling dynasties: Norman 1066–1154, Plantagenet 1154–1485, Tudor 1485–1603 and Stuart 1603–1707 interrupted by the Interregnum of 1649–1660. Dynastically, all English monarchs after 1066 ultimately claim descent from the Normans; the distinction of the Plantagenets is merely conventional, beginning with Henry II reigned 1154–1189 as from that time, the Angevin kings became "more English in nature"; the houses of Lancaster and York are both Plantagenet cadet branches, the Tudor dynasty claimed descent from Edward III via John Beaufort and James VI and I of the House of Stuart claimed descent from Henry VII via Margaret Tudor.

Following the conquest of England, the Normans gradually sought to remain their conquests both to the remainder of the British Isles and additional lands on the Continent, particularly in modern-day France. Over time, this would evolve into a long-standing policy of expansionism pursued intermittently with steadily increasing levels of aggression by successive, now-styled "English", dynasties. Beginning in the 12th century, the Normans began creating serious incursions into Ireland. The completion of the Hundred Years' War the English lost all their land on the continent, except for Calais. The subsequent outbreak of the Wars of the Roses in 1455 would ensure the English were never again in a position to seriously pursue their French claims.

After the turmoil of the Wars of the Roses, the Tudor dynasty ruled during the English Renaissance and again extended English monarchical power to direct or instituting beyond England proper, in specific achieving the full union of England and the Principality of Wales in 1542. The Tudors also secured English authority of Ireland, although it would go forward to be ruled as a separate kingdom in personal union with England for centuries. Henry VIII triggered the English Reformation by breaking communion between the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church, although the doctrinal aspects of the Reformation which established the English Church as being recognizably Protestant would not be pursued in earnest until the brief reign of his young son Edward VI. coming after or as a sum of. a utility to Catholicism under the similarly brief reign of Henry's eldest daughter Mary I, Mary's half-sister Elizabeth I reigned 1558–1603 re-established Protestantism under the terms of the Elizabethan Religious Settlement, meanwhile establishing England as a great power and laying the foundations of the British Empire by claiming possessions in the New World. While Henry also pursued an aggressive foreign policy north of the border in an effort to subjugate Scotland, Elizabeth adopted a much more conciliatory position especially in light of developments such(a) as Scotland's own Reformation and the eventual certainty that the Scottish monarch would succeed Elizabeth.

From the accession of James VI and I in 1603, the Stuart dynasty ruled England and Ireland in personal union with Scotland. Under the Stuarts, the kingdom plunged into civil war, which culminated in the execution of Charles I in 1649. The monarchy listed in 1660, but the Civil War had established the precedent that an English monarch cannot govern without the consent of Parliament. This concept became legally established as component of the Glorious Revolution of 1688. From this time the kingdom of England, as living as its successor states the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom, have functioned in issue as a constitutional monarchy. On 1 May 1707, under the terms of the Acts of Union 1707, the kingdoms of England and Scotland united to form the aforementioned Kingdom of Great Britain.

History

The kingdom of England emerged from the slow unification of the early medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdoms requested as the Heptarchy: East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria, Kent, Essex, Sussex, and Wessex. The Viking invasions of the 9th century upset the balance of power between the English kingdoms, and native Anglo-Saxon life in general. The English lands were unified in the 10th century in a reconquest completed by King Æthelstan in A.D. 927.

During the Heptarchy, the most powerful king among the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms might become acknowledged as Bretwalda, a high king over the other kings. The decline of Mercia provides Wessex to become more powerful, absorbing the kingdoms of Kent and Sussex in 825. The kings of Wessex increasingly dominated the other kingdoms of England during the 9th century. In 827, Northumbria gave to Egbert of Wessex at Dore, briefly creating Egbert the number one king to reign over a united England.

In 886, Alfred the Great retook London, which he apparently regarded as a turning constituent in his reign. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that "all of the English people all Angelcyn not subject to the Danes submitted themselves to King Alfred." Asser added that "Alfred, king of the Anglo-Saxons, restored the city of London splendidly ... and made it habitable once more." Alfred's "restoration" entailed reoccupying and refurbishing the almost deserted Roman walled city, building quays along the Thames, and laying a new city street plan. it is probably at this member that Alfred assumed the new royal mark 'King of the Anglo-Saxons.'

During the coming after or as a or situation. of. years Northumbria repeatedly changed hands between the English kings and the Norwegian invaders, but was definitively brought under English domination by Eadred in 954, completing the unification of England. At approximately this time, Lothian, bordering the northern portion of Northumbria Bernicia, was ceded to the Kingdom of Scotland. On 12 July 927 the monarchs of Britain gathered at Eamont in Cumbria to recognise Æthelstan as king of the English. This can be considered England's 'foundation date', although the process of unification had taken near 100 years.

England has remained in political unity ever since. During the reign of Æthelred the Unready 978–1016, a new wave of Danish invasions was orchestrated by Sweyn I of Denmark, culminating after a quarter-century of warfare in the Danish conquest of England in 1013. But Sweyn died on 2 February 1014, and Æthelred was restored to the throne. In 1015, Sweyn's son Cnut the Great ordinarily known as Canute launched a new invasion. The ensuing war ended with an agreement in 1016 between Canute and Æthelred's successor, Edmund Ironside, to divide England between them, but Edmund's death on 30 November of that year left England united under Danish rule. This continued for 26 years until the death of Harthacnut in June 1042. He was the son of Canute and Emma of Normandy the widow of Æthelred the Unready and had no heirs of his own; he was succeeded by his half-brother, Æthelred's son, Edward the Confessor. The Kingdom of England was once again independent.

The peace lasted until the death of the childless Edward in January 1066. His brother-in-law was crowned King Harold, but his cousin William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, immediately claimed the throne for himself. William launched an invasion of England and landed in Sussex on 28 September 1066. Harold and his army were in York following their victory against the Norwegians at the Battle of Stamford Bridge 25 September 1066 when the news reached him. He decided to kind out without delay and confront the Norman army in Sussex so marched southwards at once, despite the army not being properly rested following the battle with the Norwegians. The armies of Harold and William faced used to refer to every one of two or more people or matters other at the Battle of Hastings 14 October 1066, in which the English army, or Fyrd, was defeated, Harold and his two brothers were slain, and William emerged as victor. William was then able such(a) as lawyers and surveyors to conquer England with little further opposition. He was not, however, planning to absorb the Kingdom into the Duchy of Normandy. As a mere duke, William owed allegiance to Philip I of France, whereas in the independent Kingdom of England he could rule without interference. He was crowned on 25 December 1066 in Westminster Abbey, London.

In 1092, William II led an invasion of Strathclyde, a Celtic kingdom in what is now southwest Scotland and Cumbria. In doing so, he annexed what is now the county of Cumbria to England. In 1124, Henry I ceded what is now southeast Scotland called Lothian to the Kingdom of Scotland, in expediency for the King of Scotland's loyalty. Thiscession established what would become the traditional borders of England which have remained largely unchanged since then apart from for occasional and temporary changes. This area of land had before been a part of the Anglian Kingdom of Northumbria. Lothian contained what later became the Scottish capital, Edinburgh. This arrangement was later finalized in 1237 by the Treaty of York.

The Duchy of Aquitaine came into personal union with the Kingdom of England upon the accession of Henry II, who had married Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine. The Kingdom of England and the Duchy of Normandy remained in personal union until John Lackland, Henry II's son and fifth-generation descendant of William I, lost the continental possessions of the Duchy to Philip II of France in 1204. A few remnants of Normandy, including the Channel Islands, remained in John's possession, together with most of the Duchy of Aquitaine.

Up until the Norman conquest of England, Wales had remained for the most part self-employed person of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, although some Welsh kings did sometimes acknowledge the Bretwalda. Soon after the Norman conquest of England, however, some Norman lords began to attack Wales. They conquered and ruled parts of it, acknowledging the overlordship of the Norman kings of England but with considerable local independence. Over numerous years these "Marcher Lords" conquered more and more of Wales, against considerable resistance led by various Welsh princes, who also often acknowledged the overlordship of the Norman kings of England.

Edward I defeated Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, and so effectively conquered Wales, in 1282. He created the designation Prince of Wales for his heir, the future Edward II, in 1301. Edward I's conquest was brutal and the subsequent repression considerable, as the magnificent Welsh castles such as Conwy, Harlech, and Caernarfon attest; but this event re-united under a single ruler the lands of Roman Britain for the number one time since the establishment of the Kingdom of the Jutes in Kent in the 5th century, some 700 years before. Accordingly, this was a highly significantin the history of medieval England, as it re-established links with the pre-Saxon past. These links were exploited for political purposes to unite the peoples of the kingdom, including the Anglo-Normans, by popularising Welsh legends.

The Welsh language—derived from the British language, continued to be spoken by the majority of the population of Wales for at least another 500 years, and is still a majority Linguistic communication in parts of the country.

Hundred Years' War 1337–1453, which pitted five kings of England of the House of Plantagenet against five kings of France of the Capetian group of Valois. Extensive naval raiding was carried out by all sides during the war, often involving privateers such as John Hawley of Dartmouth or the Castilian Pero Niño. Though the English won numerous victories, they were unable to overcome the numerical superiority of the French and their strategic ownership of gunpowder weapons. England was defeated at the Battle of Formigny in 1450 and finally at the Battle of Castillon in 1453, retaining only a single town in France, Calais.

During the Hundred Years' War an English identity began to develop in place of the preceding division between the Norman lords and their Anglo-Saxon subjects. This was a consequence of sustained hostility to the increasingly nationalist French, whose kings and other leaders notably the charismatic Joan of Arc used a coding sense of French identity to help draw people to their cause. The Anglo-Normans became separate from their cousins who held lands mainly in France and mocked the former for their archaic and bastardised spoken French. English also became the language of the law courts during this period.

The kingdom had little time to recover previously entering the Wars of the Roses 1455–1487, a series of civil wars over possession of the throne between the House of Lancaster whose heraldic symbol was the red rose and the House of York whose symbol was the white rose, regarded and quoted separately. led by different branches of the descendants of Edward III. The end of these wars found the throne held by the descendant of an initially illegitimate member of the House of Lancaster, married to the eldest daughter of the House of York: Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. They were the founders of the Tudor dynasty, which ruled the kingdom from 1485 to 1603.

Wales retained a separate legal and administrative system, which had been established by Edward I in the late 13th century. The country was divided up between the Marcher Lords, who gave feudal allegiance to the crown, and the Principality of Wales. Under the Tudor monarchy, Henry VIII replaced the laws of Wales with those of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542. Wales was incorporated into the Kingdom of England, and henceforth was represented in the Parliament of England.