British History to 1688

Norman Conquest

Invasion that led to the defeat of Harold II at Hastings in 1066 killing all the leading nobility and led to William the Conqueror being put on the throne.

Domesday Survey (1086)

A census of the population so the government could know who owed what taxes.

Conciliar Rule

Joint rule of the king and powerful magnates

Exchequer

In England and Normandy, and later in Scotland, an auditing and accounting meeting which collected debts to the ruler and registered payments.

Justiciars

An office which evolved in twelfth-century England as the king’s alter-ego in matters of justice and administration. It lapsed in the early thirteenth century when the king was no longer routinely on the continent. Its importance was as a step towards centralizing executive government and making it a process independent of the king.

Magna Carta (1215)

“The Great Charter” was an agreement imposed on King John of England on June 15, 1215, by rebellious barons in order to limit his power and prevent arbitrary royal acts like land confiscation and unreasonable taxes.

Simon de Montfort

Earl of Leicester, political enemy of Henry III, and leader of a Civil War against the king, eventually defeated at the Battle of Evesham

Provisions of Oxford (1258)

A document created by a group of Barons that forced Henry III to rule in concordance with a council of Barons.

Dictum of Kenilworth (1266)

Repeals the Provisions of Oxford

“Model” Parliament (1295)

Called by King Edward I that is widely regarded as the first representative parliament.

Articles of Grievances (1297)

Wars in Wales, Scotland, and France proved to be expensive, Edward I was strapped for cash, and he attempted to revive extraordinary measures to raise money and troops. In 1297 these Grievances were presented to the King.

Purveyance

by which the royal household had the right to commandeer a specified amount of food from each county to feed the court

New Ordinances (1311)

Debt, bad administration, and Gaveston led to barons, led by the earl of Lancaster, forcing the king to accept these in order to limit the King’s executive powers.

Battle of Bannockburn (1314)

Battle where the Scots defeat the English for the 1st time ever, leaves Edward II lower than ever.

Battle of Crecy (1346)

Edward III defeats Philip VI and makes gains in France.

Ordinance of Laborers (1349)

Tries to keep wages at pre-plague levels

Good Parliament (1376)

Goes after parliament and impeaches corrupt royal officials.

Peasants Revolt (1381)

A revolt that began in Essex and Kent and led by Wat Tyler and John Ball that demanded an end to unfair taxation and greater legal and social equality. They entered London and attacked symbols of royal authority and murdered royal officials.

Wat Tyler

Leader of the Peasant Revolt in 1381

Merciless Parliament (1388)

Parliament that passes sentences of treason on King Richard II’s advisors and claims they interred.

Revenge Parliament (1397)

Parliament called by Richard II in an attempt to strike back at those in the Merciless Parliament. He packs Parliament to support him.

Henry Bolingbroke (Henry IV)

John of Gaunt’s son and Duke of Lancaster, deposed Richard II and became king, start of the Lancastrian dynasty. His claim to the throne was shaky, and his reign was dominated by conspiracy and rebellion against him.

Lollards

A movement created by John Wycliffe, who believed that power and authority depended on righteousness alone, a perilous position which opened the same door the Cathars had, which was that priesthood and spiritual leadership were open to those who felt justified before God, not just to those the Church authorized by ordination.

Battle of Agincourt (1415)

Huge win in France for Henry V that led to him pursuing open conquest in France.

Treaty of Troyes (1420)

Henry V marries the sister of the Dauphin and becomes the regent of France.

Cade’s Rebellion (1450)

Rebellion led by John Cade, an Irishman that briefly occupied London and attempted a witch-hunt against the household faction. The king and his allies proved ineffectual in attempts to defuse the situation, and in the end the rebels were dispersed only by wholesale issuing of pardons

Wars of the Roses

Civil War between the Yorks and the Lancastrians on who would rule England, power eventually fell into the hands of Henry Tudor, leading to the Tudor dynasty.

Battle of Towton Moor (1461)

A win for the Yorkists that led to the ascension of Edward IV to the throne.

Edward IV

The first ruler of the Yorkist era and was faced with rebuilding the prestige of the crown after Lancastrian mismanagement. Let his brother, Richard of Gloucester and William, Lord Hastings to run the government.

Battle of Bosworth (1485)

Battle that led to the fall of Richard III and the Yorkists and the rise of Henry Tudor (Henry VII) and the start of the Tudor Dynasty.

Act of Attainder

Statute that declares the party in question “attainted” of treason, without a formal trial. Those attainted lost their lives, titles, lands, and goods.

Justice of the Peace

An unpaid officer of the Crown in the localities, usually a gentleman, who acted as a magistrate, sitting in judgment over (usually) noncapital felonies; regulating markets and prices; maintaining roads; and supervising the Poor Law, among many other responsibilities. The mainstay of county government.

Battle of Flodden (1513)

Win for the English against the Scots, led to the death of James IV.

Cardinal Thomas Wolsey

A Cardinal and the archbishop of York and became essentially the ruling force of England. He was widely hated by everyone but the King.

King’s “Great Matter”

Henry VIII wanted a divorce from his wife Catherine of Aragon, because he wanted a male heir and he was worried for his mortal soul.

Thomas Cromwell

Henry’s Great Minister after Cardinal Wolsey, he was a brilliant parliamentary tactician, as well as an able debater and a tireless worker. Cunning and ruthless in pursuit of his goals, he would dominate the political scene for the rest of the 1530s and secure for the king not only his divorce, but a great deal more besides.

Praemunire

Statutes prohibiting English subjects from acknowledging papal jurisdiction in certain cases.

Act in Restraint of Appeals (1533)

Statute that forbade appeals in legal cases to jurisdictions beyond that of the king of England (such as Rome). It not only made Henry VIII's divorce from Catherine of Aragon possible; some historians believe it established a modern conception of royal and national sovereignty in England.

Act of Supremacy (1534)

Made the King the only supreme head in the church of England.

Pilgrimage of Grace (1536)

Uprisings in the North in 1536–7. Ostensibly in reaction to Henry VIII's innovations in religion, they also had economic and social causes. After promising concessions, the Henrician regime crushed the movement, executing its most prominent leader, Robert Aske, and about 180 rebels.

Dissolution of the Monasteries

One rationale for attacking the regular orders of the clergy (monks and nuns) was that these orders – such as the Benedictines or Cistercians – were directly under papal authority, with no intervening bishops or other hierarchy. Obviously, these links had to be broken. Another was that the monasteries had put up some of the strongest resistance to Henry’s reformation. But the principal motive for dissolution and confiscation was the king’s need for money.

Rough Wooing

Henry VIII’s policy of pressuring the Scots into marrying their new young Queen Mary to England's new young King Edward – and wreaking havoc upon them if they refused.

Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset

Edward VI’s uncle who became lord protector of the realm while Edward VI was a child.

Chantries Act (1547)

The statute denounced the doctrine of Purgatory and the efficacy of prayers for the dead and dissolved and confiscated the property of chantries, almshouses, schools, and hospitals. This further reduced the Church's institutional presence in English lives.

Act of Uniformity (1549)

Statutes mandating attendance at church and the use of the English Book of Common Prayer in its services.

Kett’s Rebellion

Rebellion led by Robert Kett in East Anglia in 1549 in response to hard economic times. The rebels demanded lower rents and entry fines, the inviolability of common lands, and a greater say in the selection of local officials. After the duke of Somerset hesitated, its ruthless suppression by the earl of Warwick helped catapult him to power.

John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland

Edward VI’s second Lord Protector after the first Lord Protector failed to suppress rebellions in East Anglia.

1552 Book of Common Prayer

A more protestant version of the book of Common Prayer where instead of attending a sacrificial Mass celebrated by a priest at an altar at the east end of the church, the English people were now to worship at a commemorative service presided over by a minister at a communion table placed in the middle.

Thomas Wyatt

Led a rebellion of 3,000 people in Kent against the marriage.

Cardinal Reginald Pole

An English Catholic exile, returned from the continent to serve as both papal legate and Mary's chief religious’ adviser.

William Cecil, Lord Burghley

The leader of the 1st group of Elizabeth I’s court, and the secretary of state and lord treasurer, he tended to favor diplomacy as less dangerous and more frugal than war.

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester

The leader of the second group of Elizabeth I’s court and her Master of the Horse, Dudley was fun and exciting and brought with him a circle of soldiers and poets.

Act of Uniformity (1558)

A new Act of Uniformity which required all of the queen's subjects to attend church on Sundays and holy days on pain of a 12 pence fine.

Marian Exiles

Protestant clergy that fled to the continent under Mary I

Edmund Grindal

Elizabeth I’s first Archbishop of Canterbury who was sympathetic to puritans and refused to suppress “prophesyings”

Thomas Cartwright

a Cambridge divinity professor, presented a series of lectures criticizing the Church of England and, especially, the bishops' role in it.

John Whitgift

Elizabeth I’s second archbishop of Canterbury who was anti-puritan and used a royal tribunal called the court of High Commission to eject from their livings some three to four hundred clergy who refused to conform to the practices of the Church of England.

Treaty of Edinburgh

A treaty which stated that Mary Queen of Scots was to recognize Elizabeth's title to the English throne while Scotland was to enact religious toleration and to be governed by a council, evenly divided between Calvinist Protestants and Catholics.

Mary, Queen of Scots

Elizabeth I’s Catholic heir to the throne who was the subject of plots to bring Catholicism back to England by getting rid of Elizabeth and putting her on the throne. This led to her execution to secure Protestantism and solidify Elizabeth’s rule.

Northern Rebellion (1569-1570)

Revolt in 1569 that started out as a plot by the duke of Norfolk to marry Mary Queen of Scots and replace William Cecil in Elizabeth's councils. When he hesitated, the earls of Northumberland and Westmorland raised the North for Catholicism and marched south to Durham. The rebellion lost steam and was suppressed brutally.

Ridolfi Plot (1571)

Plot engineered in 1571 by Robert Ridolfi and supported by Philip II and the pope to overthrow Elizabeth and replace her with Mary Queen of Scots. Foiled by the government.

Francis Walsingham

Oversaw Elizabeth I’s spies and espionage and intercepted and read Mary, Queen of Scots letters while she was in England and engineered the Treaty of Berwick.

Treaty of Berwick

In addition to the usual pledges of mutual assistance, the Scottish king received a pension of £4000 a year and the tacit assurance that if he allowed Elizabeth free rein with his mother, he would succeed to the English throne at Elizabeth's death.

Babington Plot

Plot engineered in 1586 by Anthony Babington, page to Mary Queen of Scots, to assassinate Elizabeth and place Mary on the throne. Discovered by Secretary Walsingham's spy system, the secretary waited to see if Mary would incriminate herself. Historians debate whether in fact she did so or was framed by Walsingham. Led to her trial and execution.

Spanish Armada

Mary Queen of Scot’s execution gave Philip II impetus to use this, and while large and impressive, but it had several problems EX: Francis Drake had weakened it, Commander had no experience, could only move as fast as the slowest ship and warships were ill-fitted.

Hugh O’Neil, Earl of Tyrone

Led the largest rebellion against English Rule in Ulster starting in 1594.

Robert Devereaux, Earl of Essex

A courtier soldier who was a favorite of Elizabeth I’s, but he lost her favor after failing in Ireland and he tried to start a rebellion.

Flight of the Earls (1607)

the cream of the Irish nobility, led by Tyrone and Rury O'Donnell, earl of Tyrconnell (1574/5–1608), absconded to Europe. They hoped to secure support from a Catholic patron, perhaps the pope, and return to reclaim their patrimony. But they never set foot in Ireland again. Which led to the English government taking land from Gaelic and Old English tenants in Ulster and giving it to new, protestant owners

Golden Speech (1601)

Showed that Elizabeth I was still able to appeal to her subjects to get out of sticky political acts, kept Parliament happy with her despite her monopolies.

Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury

Son of William Cecil, he was made secretary of state in 1596, Like his father, he was an assiduous administrator with a following among the queen's officials. Like his father, he was opposed by a faction of courtier‐adventurers.

Inflation

More demand of food led to higher prices which was compounded by coinage and influx of bullion from Spain.

Engrossment

A larger population also allowed employers to pay lower wages to workers because anyone who refused those wages could be replaced easily. For substantial landowners this meant greater profit margins and, sometimes, more land because many independent small farmers and tenants, unable to keep up, went into debt and, eventually, sold out. A great landowner could thus expand his holdings fairly cheaply, allowing him to rationalize and consolidate them

Masterless Men

Many poor cottagers went to London or other cities, hoping to obtain work no longer available in the countryside. They often failed to do so, not least because England's one major industry, the wool trade, stagnated at the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries. Migrants unable to find jobs resorted to begging or other makeshifts. They were widely regarded as vagrants and potential criminals.

Yeomanry

Generally, this group held at least 50 acres either outright or leasing it, unlike gentlemen, they worked their own land but unlike most husbandmen, they employed farmhands and domestic servants to assist them.

Crisis of Gender Relations

There was an increase in anxieties about insubordinate women and speaking out of turn especially in public.

Neighborliness

A sense of communal sharing and mutual responsibility that knit a community together and a sense of personal credit and debt which filled in for a lack of institutions.

Primogeniture

the right of succession belonging to the firstborn child, especially the feudal rule by which the whole real estate of an intestate passed to the eldest son.

Paternalism and Deference

As we have seen, an aristocratic landlord was expected, like a good father (hence “paternalism”), to look after his tenants and the ordinary people in his locality as he would his children. In return, the common man or woman was expected, in the words of the Prayer Book, “to ordre myselfe lowlye and reverentlye to al[l] my betters”

Poor Laws

Statutes designed to provide relief for the “deserving” poor, that is, those who could not work because of gender, age, or illness, out of taxes – the poor rate – collected and distributed on a parish‐by‐parish basis. Some of these laws also had punitive provisions for “sturdy beggars,” that is, those who would not work. The 1598 act was the basis for poor relief for 200 years. That of 1662 allowed parishes to send itinerant poor back to their parishes of origin.

Witchcraft Statutes

First statute against witchcraft in 1542 but between 1560 and 1640 there was an epidemic of witchcraft accusations and persecutions.

Food Riots

Occurred in times of dearth and were directed against middlemen. Often involved ritual and theatricality meant to grab the attention of the local ruling elite.

Cockayne Project

A government attempt to encourage the English finished‐cloth industry by forbidding the export of raw wool by the Merchant Adventurers. But English cloth could not keep up in either quality or quantity with its continental equivalent and the result was a depression in the cloth trade from 1614 to 1617.

Joint Stock Company

Companies that shared risk and pooled resources.

Edward Coke

Believed that English constitutions and parliament and privileges derived from Common Law, not Kings.

Godwin’s Case (1604)

Briefly, the election of Sir Francis Goodwin (1564–1634) as MP for Buckinghamshire had been thrown out by the court of Chancery on the technical grounds that he was an outlaw because of an unpaid debt. But after hearing Goodwin at the bar of the house, the Commons decided to seat him on the grounds that it, not the law courts, had the right to determine its own membership. James objected to this because it placed the rights of the Commons above those of a royal court of law, but Parliament argued that Parliament's privileges do not derive from the king. Rather, they exist independently of him.