England: Notable Concepts (inc. Systems, Technologies, etc.) and Notable Colonies

400s - Saxons (All Facts)

• One of the three major Germanic tribes who settled in Great Britain after the departure of the Romans there, along with the Angles and Jutes

• In 480, they were led by Aelle onto Britain’s south coast, where they drove the (Celtic) Britons westward and eventually established their namesake southern kingdom (modern-day Sussex)

• Along with the Normans and Anglos, they comprised the origins of the English people

400s - Jutes (All Facts)

• One of the three major Germanic tribes who settled in Great Britain after the departure of the Romans there, along with the Angles and Saxons

400s - Angles / Anglos (All Facts) 

• One of the three major Germanic tribes who settled in Great Britain after the departure of the Romans there, along with the Jutes and Saxons

• Along with the Normans and Saxons, they comprised the origins of the English people

800s - 1066 - Normans (All Facts)

• Descendants of Vikings who settled in northwestern France in the namesake region, they invaded England under their king William “the Conqueror” which gave him both kingdoms on both sides of the English Channel

• Along with the Anglo-Saxons, they comprised the origins of the English people

• They conquered not just England but Sicily, taking it from the Muslims

English (All Facts)

• As a group of people, they emerged as a combination of Anglo-Saxons and Normans

Stirrup (All Facts)

• Technology introduced to England and Europe from the East in the early 700s which gave horsemen far greater control and greatly enhanced the importance of cavalry

• By the 1000s, this technology made it possible to deal an enemy a fierce blow with a heavier spear or lance couched under one armpit without falling out of the saddle

  • However, buying all the relevant equipment for this technique, especially protective armor, was quite costly

Jousts (All Facts)

• Tournaments / training sessions which became great social and courtly occasions for the wealthy men and aristocrats of the Holy Roman Empire and Europe in the 1000s who could afford to equip themselves or others as knights

• Tournaments which

  • Provided excellent practice in the martial arts

  • Gave successful knights substantial prices

  • Offered chances for the upper classes to meet both socially and for political or diplomatic discussions

  • Promoted ceremony, the concept of chivalry, and the kind of theater epitomized by Ulrich von Lichtenstein and his “Venusfahrt” or “Venus Tour”

• Tournaments which were most strongly associated with the legend of King Arthur and his Round Table, with tournaments taking place within elaborate recreations of Camelot

Chivalry (All Facts)

• Term used to refer to “Horsemanship,” which in 1000s England and Europe became a prestigious occupation

• Term used to refer also to the codes of behavior that had been reinforcing the common bonds of the increasingly aristocratic knights

Great Survey (All Facts)

• Comprehensive census that was taken during William the Conqueror’s reign as King of England

• Census taken of all landholdings and livestock in which every horse, cow, pig, and hen in England was counted throughout England

• It was meant to serve as a massive audit of the nation’s wealth

• Its results were then recorded and compiled in court circles into two volumes known as the “Domesday Book”

• It ultimately allowed William the Conqueror to consolidate his hold on England and harmonize England’s feudal system with that of the Duchy of Normandy

• Its terms overhauled land tenure, with all land in England at that point deemed to be held directly by their king or by his subjects on his behalf

Jews (All Facts)

• They were never accepted in England

• The uneasy tolerance they enjoyed in England was shattered in 1190

• They were attacked in riots that spread throughout the kingdom into the 1200’s, from Durham in the North to Winchester in the South; with the most deadly riots being those in Stamford and Newark

• Religious fanatics in England convinced the simple-minded that the namesake group was responsible for all their problems, and the image of the namesake as a wealthy usurer inevitably made people, especially those who used the namesake group’s services, quite envious

• They were especially targeted by those about to set off on crusades in order to whip up the crusaders’ enthusiasm, since they saw the namesake as enemies of the faith

• Moreover, passionate supporters of the Crusaders or Crusaders themselves who could not afford the journey to the Holy Land found the namesake group to be vulnerable and a far more accessible target than the far-off Muslims

• Under Church law, Christians could not operate as usurers (lending money at interest)

  • Because the namesake were not bound to such a restriction, they filled the necessary role with great skill and effectively monopolized it

• While their community was small by the reign of King Edward, perhaps 3K people total, they played a major role in financing the nation as usurers

• Under the reign of King Edward of England, they were

  • forbidden to practice usury, just like their fellow Christians, in Edward’s namesake statute of 1275

  • however, they refused to comply with this law

  • thus, they were expelled and banned from living in England via the Edict of Expulsion of 1290 as a result of their refusal to comply with previous English law

Scutage (All Facts)

• Tax paid on a knight who wanted to pay money instead of provide military service

Stanches (All Facts)

• Also known as navigation weirs, they maintained a depth of water for ships and were built in English rivers and canals

• One famous one was built on the Thames River in 1306

Enclosure (All Facts)

• Practice of dividing up and closing off the common lands of peasants

Mary Rose (All Facts)

• Flagship of King Henry VIII

• In 1545, it was newly delivered from the builders’ yard and the pride of the Royal Navy, was hastily loaded with new cannons and inspected the 400 bowmen in their leathern jackets as they went to their stations

  • It had brought the news that a French fleet had been sighted out in the channel

  • This took place at Portsmouth Harbor, the scene in which hectic activity occurred as the British prepared for action against the French

• It was warped out into the Solent where a stiff wind was blew up from the Needles Channel

  • With her sails billowing and her crew scurrying over her decks as they readied themselves for action, she made a stirring sight for the King who watched from Spithead, until, with no warning, a strong gust of wind caused the namesake flagship to heel suddenly

  • Thereafter, her newly-installed guns broke loose, crashing to her lee side and in less than a minute, had to disappeared below the white-capped Solent

The Great Harry (All Facts)

• Flagship of King Henry VIII

• At the time of its prominence, it was the largest ship in the world and first four-masted vessel launched in England

• It served as

  • the model for the ships built by the English navy during the reign of Queen Elizabeth

  • a symbol of the revolution in shipbuilding and navigation which had taken Englishmen and other Europeans at the time around the world

The Golden Hind (All Facts)

• Galleon of Francis Drake

• He captained and sailed on this ship during his circumnavigation of the globe

1581 / 1585 - 1590 - Roanoke Island (All Facts)

• First English colony in Virginia in North America

• It failed to last

Tudor Women (All Facts)

• Were expected to be obedient and diligent

  • Queen Elizabeth of England ran counter to that notion and overcame many handicaps

• Sir William Fitzwilliam of Ireland had this to say about Queen Elizabeth, her lord deputy in Ireland: “God’s wounds, this it is to serve a base, bastard, pissing kitchen woman”

Tobacco (All Facts)

• Introduced to England by John Hawkins, who had discovered the namesake from his time in the New World

  • By his death, virtually every English pub provided a communal pipe of the namesake for its customers despite the high price of three shillings per ounce

• Pipe smokers of the namesake included princes and peasants

Sweet Potatoes / Potato Tubers (All Facts)

• Introduced to England by John Hawkins, who had discovered the namesake from his time in the New World

  • By his death, they quickly became part of the European diet and were grown widely throughout Europe

1607 - 1624 - Jamestown / Virginia (All Facts)

• First successful colony established by England in North America

• During the “Starving Time,” a man was put to death for eating his wife’s body

• By 1612, its settlers had began to cultivate tobacco plants

• By 1614, the Indian princess Pocahontas was married to John Rolfe, with the idea that the settlers and Indians would have peace thereafter

• By 1616, its population was 351: 205 officials and workers on company land, 81 tenants, and 65 women and children

• By 1618,

  • Headright Laws were passed that offered 50 acres per colonist to each investor who paid the cost of the Transatlantic Passage

  • colonists began to cultivate wheat

• By 1619,

  • slaves were first brought to the colony, from a Dutch frigate of 20 Africans who were indentured servants at the port, the first cargo of its kind to be brought to the American colonies

    • the status of slave did not exist in the law, paving the way for total exploitation of this labor force

  • some 1,200 settlers brought the colony’s population to 3,000+, with the newcomers being “choice men, born and bred up to labor and industry” plus 90 women and 100 London slum children

• By 1620, it had its first public library in Henrico, where landowners were able to donate their books

• By 1621, its first ironworks are constructed, at Falling Creek

• In 1622, an eight-year peace between its settlers and the Native Americans was shattered by a Native American attack in the James River area which left 350 colonists dead in their fields and homes; the inhabitants having been saved by a warning from Chanco, a Native American who had converted to Christianity and was living on a settler’s farm

• By 1624, it was reinstituted as a royal chartered colony (its original charter was revoked) due to its having failed on multiple accounts centereing around its unprofitable operations including

  • the failure by its settlers to grow their own food despite fertile soil and a good climate

  • the settlers feeling obliged to buy or extort grain or corn, from the Native Americans

  • the settlers’ decision to express their gratitude to Native Americans for their corn by killing them and burning their crops

• Despite the colonial success of tobacco, King James had banned it due to its perceived health effects

1607 - James Fort (All Facts)

• Built by colonists at Jamestown to defend themselves against attacks by the Spanish and Native Americans

1607 - Popham Colony (All Facts)

• Colony founded and settled on the Sagadahoc River in the northeast of North America

New Plymouth Colony (All Facts)

• In 1623

  • lumber and furs were the first cargo to leave New Plymouth for England

  • colonists there established the system of trial by 12-man jury for the American colonies

Virginia Pinnace (All Facts)

• The first ship built in the northeast of the colonies by settlers in the Popham Colony (Maine) at the mouth of the Kennebec River

Half-Moon (All Facts)

• Ship of Henry Hudson

Discovery (All Facts)

• Ship of Henry Hudson

• It was launched by the English East India Company

Bowls (All Facts)

• Game played by Jamestown / Virginia’s settlers, the first game for which settlers in England found time to play

Saldanha Bay (All Facts)

• British colony near the Cape of Good Hope which failed

  • Initially, after a journey to find the mouth of Henry Hudson’s river is aborted because of bad weather, would-be settlers put in at the harbor of the Cape of Good Hope

Mayflower (All Facts)

• Name of ship sailed on and voyage and compact made by Puritan pilgrims leaving the Netherlands after escaping persecution in England

• It was a 180-ton ship normally used to carry wine

• It had brought 120 anti-Catholic Puritans to the shores of what they called “New England”

• The ship was moored into a harbor dubbed “New Plymouth” which became a refuge for the colony

1600s - Corantos (All Facts)

• Precursors to newspapers

• They were news-books whose publication greatly increased the spread of information to the English public

• They offered short reports of events happening in a variety of places, often abroad

• They appeared in new editions every week and originated in Europe, mainly in Germany and the Netherlands

• The first of them in England detailed events in Europe’s religious wars