Unit 2
History of the uk
The history of the United Kingdom as a unified sovereign state began with the political union of the kingdoms of England, which included Wales and Scotland in 1707. The history prior to the Act of this Union is studied separately as the history of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. This unit will describe the items starting with the preconditions to the Act of Union:
1. Britain in the 17th century
2. Britain in the 18th century
3. Britain in the beginning of the 19th century
3. Victorian era (1837 – 1901)
4. Britain in the 20th century
5. Britain in the 21st century
The 17th century
Union of the Crowns: The Union of the Crowns refers to the accession of James VI, King of Scots, to the throne of the England as James I, in March 1603, thus uniting Scotland and England under one monarch.
Queen Elizabeth I (1573 - 1587 Henry VII of England (1457 - 1509)
This followed the death of his unmarried and childless cousin, Queen Elizabeth I of England, the last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. The term itself, though now generally accepted, is misleading; for properly speaking this was merely a personal or dynastic union, the Crowns remaining both distinct and separate until the Acts of Union in 1707 during the reign of the last monarch of the Stuart Dynasty, Queen Anne.
James IV King of Scotland (1473-1513) Margaret Tudor (1489 - 1541)
This event was the result of an event in August 1503: James IV, King of Scots, married Margaret Tudor, the eldest daughter of Henry VII of England as a consequence of the Treaty of Perpetual Peace, concluded the previous year which, in theory, ended centuries of English-Scottish rivalry. This marriage merged the Stuarts with England's Tudor line of succession. Almost 100 years later, in the last decade of the reign of Elizabeth I of England, it was clear to all that James of Scots, the great-grandson of James IV and Margaret Tudor, was the only generally acceptable heir. Elizabeth died in the early hours of 24 March. Within eight hours, James was proclaimed king in London, the news received without protest or disturbance.
The Jacobean era refers to a period in English and Scottish history that coincides with the reign of James I (1603–1625). The Jacobean era succeeds the Elizabethan era and precedes the Caroline era, and specifically denotes a style of architecture, visual arts, decorative arts, and literature that is predominant of that period.
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Caroline era refers to a period in English and Scottish history that
coincides with the reign of Charles I (1625—1642). The Caroline era
succeeds the Jacobean era, the reign of Charles's father James I
(1603–1625); it was succeeded by the English Civil War (1642–1651)
and the English Interregnum (1651–1660).
King James VI of Scotland, James II (1685-1688) King James I of England (1566 - 1625)
King Charles I of England (1600 – 1649) King Charles II (1630–1685)
English Civil War: The English Civil War consisted of a series of armed conflicts and political machinations that took place between Parliamentarians (known as Roundheads) and Royalists (known as Cavaliers) between 1642 and 1651. Basically, it covers a period of fighting that took place between 1642 and 1651 among England, Scotland and Ireland. Some people consider it to be one big war, while others think it should be seen as several different wars that were linked. Some of these wars and conflicts have been given their own names, such as:
The First English Civil War
The Second English Civil War
The Third Civil War
A civil war is a war where the sides involved in the fighting are both from the same country. In the period of the English Civil War, the King ruled England, Scotland and Ireland, but the fighting that took place in each of these countries broke out at different times and for several different reasons.
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first (1642–1646) and second (1648–1649) civil wars pitted the
supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long
Parliament, while the third war (1649–1651) saw fighting between
supporters of King Charles II and supporters of the Rump Parliament.
The Civil War ended with the Parliamentary victory at the Battle of
Worcester on 3 September 1651. The Diggers were a group begun by
Gerrard Winstanley in 1649 who attempted to reform the existing
social order with an agrarian lifestyle based upon their ideas for
the creation of small egalitarian rural communities. They were one of
a number of nonconformist dissenting groups that emerged around this
time. The English Interregnum was the period of parliamentary and
military rule in the land occupied by modern-day England and Wales
after the English Civil War. It began with the regicide of Charles I
in 1649 and ended with the restoration of Charles II in 1660.
William III of England (1650-1702) Mary-II-of-England (1689 - 1694)
The Civil War led to the trial and execution of Charles I, the exile of his son Charles II, and the replacement of the English monarchy with first the Commonwealth of England (1649 – 1653) and then with a Protectorate (1653 –1659), under the personal rule of Oliver Cromwell, followed by the Protectorate under Richard Cromwell from 1658 to 1659 and the second period of the Commonwealth of England from 1659 until 1660. The monopoly of the Church of England on Christian worship in England came to an end, and the victors consolidated the already-established Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. Constitutionally, the wars established a precedent that British monarchs could not govern without the consent of Parliament, although this concept became firmly established only with the deposition of James II of England, the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the passage of the English Bill of Rights, and the Hanoverian succession. For the remainder of the century, Britain was ruled by William III of England, until 1694 jointly with his wife and first cousin, the daughter of James II, Mary II of England.