Samenvatting Geschiedenis en cultuur van de Angelsaksische landen PDF

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Samenvatting AngelsaksischeIntroductionDebates on British history  Often framed as unique or exceptional o Brexit is a recent example.  Distinct pattern within European history, but certainly not unique o Pre-industrial era: superiority of water transportation over land transportation o Connected ...

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Samenvatting Angelsaksische Introduction Debates on British history  Often framed as unique or exceptional o Brexit is a recent example.  Distinct pattern within European history, but certainly not unique o Pre-industrial era: superiority of water transportation transportation o Connected through migration, trade, war o Increasing military independence in 19th and 20th century.

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Chapter 1 – the British Isles before the Norman conquest of 1066 British Isles as part of a Pan-European pattern  Permanently settled since 10.000 BCE  Neolithic revolution (ca. 4000 BCE) o Agriculture in dispersed settlements (hamlets)  First developed on the plains in the south-east  Villages was a later phenomenon o Social inequality, incl. slavery and patriarchy o Technological development  Deforestation around 1000 BCE because of climate change  Emergence of Celtic societies o From the 6th c. BCE o Linguistic and cultural coherence  Same religious base o Politically fragmented world  Independent polities ruled by a warlord and warrior elite.  War was frequent Early British society and its close interactions with the continent  Megaliths in Britain and megaliths in Brittany The birth of Roman Britain  A social tranformation o Roman colony ‘Britannia’  Existed from ca. 43 CE to 410 CE  Established by Claudius  Limited to a part of the Isles  Caesar:  Earlier on the island, invited by tribes to aid in a war (55 BCE) 1

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o Impact of Rome  Urbanization and economic development  Effective integration in Roman economy o Roman coins o Villas  One of the most prosperous parts of the empire  Introduction of Latin  Elite language >< Gaul, Spain  Increased literacy  Introduction of Christianity  Late and restricted impact  Did not imply the disappearance of the older customs and beliefs Integration of the British Isles into the Mediterranean world. o Became part of the extensive empire o Development of roads o Specialized production

Roman Britain  Ireland & Scotland were not invaded Britannia as the first urbanized society on the British Isles  Roman York  A testament to elite Roman culture: Bath  Integrated into an empire The fall of Roman Britain  A gradual process o First erosion and collapse of Roman economy and urban infrastructure  Increasing fiscal pressure because of military defence against Scottish and Irish raiders.  Protracted process: ca. 350-420 CE  Rome retreated its legions to Gaul to aid against the Germanic invasions. o Later politically abandoned by Rome and invaded by Anglo-Saxon settles (5 th c. CE)  Agrarian orientation  Taxes affected the purchasing power of Britons and caused economic contractions.  Urban network collapsed  End of Christianity and of use of Latin  Resurgence of Celtic languages/practices  Introduction of Germanic languages/practices The Dark Ages (5th and 6th c.)  A cultural reset with long-lasting implications o Difficult period to assess 2

 No written sources, hence ‘Dark’ o Formation on linguistic-cultural spheres  Germanic society: birth of English  After violent clashes the Germanics won and started to integrate into the local elite. o This new elite started to call themselves English (Angles)  English started to develop (Beowulf, ca. 700) o Quickly used in administration and governance  Because Latin was not very penetrated in society  Scottish, Irish, and Welsh societies:  Continuity of a range of Celtic languages o This does NOT imply shared ‘Celtic’ identity!  Scotland o Celtic dominant until 11th century: after that slow takeover by English.  Ireland: o Celtic dominant until 1800s  Wales o Celtic dominant until 1900  This development would have long lasting effects on society Early middle ages (7th-11th centuries)  The (re)Christianisation of the British Isles o First introduction and disappearance in 3rd c CE with Romans o Reintroduction first in Ireland  5th c. CE  Saint Patrick  Independent from the papacy until 12th C. o Later in Scottish, Welsh and English world  7th c. CE  Anglo-Saxon Church has closer ties with Roman-Catholic papacy (Synod of Whitby) o Top-down process  Very gradual o Only surviving religion on the British Isles  The rise of the state o 9th century  Starting situation: the heptarchy  Kent  Sussex  Essex  Wessex  East Anglia  Mercia  Northumbria 3

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Catalyst of Viking attacks and response under Alfred the Great, first king of a unified England.  The pillars of power:  Fiscal system o Initially to repent Danish invaders (Danelaw) and to pay Danegeld  After the defeat the tax was still collected and made the king very rich. o Independence against thanes (large scale landowners)  More advisory role (Witenagemot)  In return property rights  Administration o Remarkable degree of centralisation  Shared coin o Shires  Own sherrif  Sacral kingship o Sacral aura o Ruled by the grace of God o The rise of the Scottish state (10th – 12th c.)  Later and partially modelled after English state  Less centralised  Alpinid dynasty united the warlords  Up until the 13th century the Scottish crown was in a subordinate position vis-a-vis the English crown. o Political fragmentation in Wales and Ireland  Incomplete trends to centralization  Wales: o Llywelyn the Great (between 1216 and 1240) controlled large parts of Wales, never fully unified  Ireland o Number of polities decreased  150 (5th c) to 10 (11th c.) o High King of Ireland  Did not mean permanent subservience  Militarised societies  Polities led by a warlord and warriors Economic and social change o After Romans  Thinly populated  Military rulers and clergy lived of the agricultural surplus o Reordering of rural society (10th and 11th c.)  Dispersed population now clusters in villages  Development of manors (basis of the nobility)  Lords had fiscal and judicial rights over villagers o Peasants had strong claims to the use of the land  End of slavery, but lords control labour

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Development of parish churches

o Rebirth of urban society (10th-11th c.)  Towns are small but omnipresent  A lot of them still exist today  Some on the site of a previous Roman settlement  Centres of trade and industry  Thus, the development of new groups o Merchants, craftsmen, and service providers  Literacy on the rise. o Important in these urban settings

Chapter II – The British Isles between 1066 and 1485 The Norman conquest of England (1066)  A contested watershed o Elements of continuity  Not the first takeover of England by a foreign ruler  Cnut (Denmark)  English state remains intact  Shires and sherrifs  Tax system o Elements of change  Reorientation from Northern to Western Europe  Most European fase in British history  Scotland remained focussed on Scandinavia until 13th C.  Anglo-Saxon elite largely replaced by Norman elite  Both clerical and noble  Temporary suspension of English in governance  Increasing surplus-extraction by lords o Many peasants became serfs  Anglo-Norman imperialist policies  Both on the continent and on the British Isles  England made the dukes of Normandy kings, so English affairs were rarely ignored.

Patterns of internal conflict and external expansion (11th – 16th c.)  THE ENGLISH STATE AS AN AGENT OF CHANGE IN BRITISH HISTORY o Two important things to consider  England became integrated in a greater political union that included polities on the European mainland.  The ambiguous relation between the crown and the nobility  Noblemen wanted lucrative wars  Wanted the king to refrain from autocratic tendencies 5

o Introduction of the Common Law by Henry II (12th century)  Only accepted because nobility was allowed to implement it. o 1066-1214: Expansionist policies  Angevin Empire  Anglo-Norman polity: 1066-1214 o Eventually countered by French state o Henry II  England, Anjou, and Normandy  Aquitaine through marriage o His children (Richard and John)  Failed to consolidate his new belongings and lost every French possession except Gascony  First incursions in Ireland o More durable: the “English Pale”  First English colony and basis for further conquest (1160-ish) o 1214-1277: Internal conflict  The Barons’ Wars  Series of conflicts between the Crown and the English nobility: 1214-1277 o Fueled by the collapse of the Angevin Empire  Start of constitutional restrictions to royal power (e.g. Magna Carta: 1215) o Crown authority was largely restored in 1260 by Edward I o 1277-1453: Expansionist policies  The English Conquest of Wales (c. 1280) (Edward I)  Mountainous, politically fragmented region  Gradually integrated into the English state o Wales got the English legal system in the 16th century in exchange for representation in the English parliament.  The English-Scottish Wars (c. 1300-1320)  William Wallace and Robert the Bruce  Failed  Secured Scottish Independence o Battle of Bannockburn (1314)  Scottish aristocracy also restrained the king of Scotland o Same as in England  The Hundred Years War (c. 1330-1450)  Series of conflicts with French state  Eventual French victory  KEY CHARACTERISTICS o Conflict between Plantagenet and Valois dynasty over French Crown 6

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Crucial role of the French nobility, which shifted its allegiances between claimants o First phase (ca. 1330s-1360)  Initial English success; French recovery  Just a famous victory: Crécy and Poitiers o Second phase (ca. 1415-1453)  Initial English success; French recovery  Just a famous victory: Azincourt o After 1453  Greater French identity  Ambition of a French-English empire was abandoned. o Experiments with conquest & colonization o 1453-1485: Internal conflict  Wars of the Roses  Dynastic conflict between two branches of the Plantagenet dynasty (c. 1453-1485) o York: White Rose; Lancaster: Red Rose o Lancasters ruled until 1461 o Yorks until 1485  Accession of the Tudor dynasty o Battle of Bosworth (1485): victory of Henry Tudor, the founder of a new royal dynasty o Death of Richard III  Detrimental to the high nobility o Breaks the mold of medieval politics o Parliament gains importance  Lesser nobles and city-dwellers o 1485-1603: Expansionist policies  Conquest of Ireland  English Pale  Progressively conquered in ca. 1530s-1600s  Colonization and centralized rule from Dublin o Sparked revolts, bloody repression, and land confiscation by English  Introduction of Common Law and centralised rule. o Patchwork of entities was centralised in one kingdom o Irish parliament  wars with Scotland THE AMBIVALENT RELATIONS BETWEEN CROWN AND LORDS  Growing strength of the state o Development of the Common Law  From 12th century onwards  Judicial authority transferred from the manors to royal administration  The expectations of English lords

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o Continued power over rural society through control over manors / royal administration o Foreign wars under leadership of the Crown as a source of profit and honour The long-term consequences of war and conquest  THE LEGACY OF IMPERIALISM o Trend towards political unification  Two states:  England-Wales-Ireland  Scotland o The galvanization of national identities  “English”, “Welsh”, “Scottish” and “Irish”  Political threat from English caused identities to flourish  Anglo-Norman nobility lost possessions in France and started to embrace English identity  National identities have medieval roots, but its gradual reinforcement is not self-evident  Papal appointments already a burden for English kings o The development of Parliament  Advisory body; dominated by lesser elites  Commons and Lords  Fiscal support to Crown in return for co-rule  Fixed institution  Important for later developments  Not valid because king proclaimed it, but because parliament confirmed it  From advisory role to replacing the aristocracy as the counterweight to the English monarchy The socio-economic transformation of the British Isles  INCREASING SOCIAL COMPLEXITY o Progressive commercialization and urbanization  Increasingly performant economy  Increasingly complex society o Large middling groups o Cities o Increase in population  e.g. emergence of higher education o Improving position of the peasantry  Peasant resistance  Declining surplus-extraction by lords by 1300 o From 28-45 % GDP to 18 – 20% GDP  Impact of Black Death (from ca. 1350 onwards)  End of labour regulation (end of serfdom, 1400) o Labourers became scarce  Better wages  Demographic stagnation up to ca. 1650 8

 Direct control of lords reduced o Declining position of women (c. 1450-1650)  Before better  Agriculture, but also craft industry and services  Deteriorated from ca. 1450 o Low-paid, low status jobs  Discrimination against minority groups  Beggars, gypsies, Jews (Already banned since 1290)

Chapter III – The British Isles in the Early modern The reformation in the British Isles  THE SIXTEENTH-CENTURY RELIGIOUS CONFLICT o Reformation was one of the main things in the 16th century, however it is exactly the role of the state that makes the English case of ‘Protestantism’ remarkable.  Support and stimulation of the state o England and Wales: Church of England  Protestant: Anglican (a protracted process)  Catholic and Puritan minorities  Puritans argue for a radical Protestantism (cast out of the church in 1660)  Two step development  First: Henry VIII (1509-1547)  More of a dynastic concern o Male heir o Pope refused divorce  Reformation Parliament o Redefined English church as an independent state church o Bishops no longer appointed by pope  Second: Edward VI o Anglican church actually became protestant o Scotland: Church of Scotland (the Kirk)  Protestant: Presbyterian Calvinism  Eventually state religion made by Scottish Parliament  Royal support for Calvinist preachers as John Knox  Catholic minorities  In the Highlands, which enforced the cultural and linguistic differences with the Lowlands o Ireland: divided  Southern Ireland: Roman Catholic  Northern Ireland (Ulster): Protestant settlements

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The sixteenth-century theological development of the Anglican Church  A COMPLEX DEVELOPMENT o Henry VIII (1509-1547)  Independent from Rome  Theologically ambivalent  Dissolution of the monasteries (1536) o Edward VI (1547-1553)  Protestant orientation o Mary Tudor: “Bloody Mary” (1553-1558)  Catholic Restoration  Prosecution of Protestants o Elisabeth Tudor: “The Virgin Queen” (1558-1603)  Permanently Protestant  Book of Common Prayer  Religious tolerance (private, not public)  Elizabethan settlement  Puritans wanted more radical Protestantism  Called dissenters and will eventually abandon Anglican Church The growth of the Tudor state and the Elizabethan age  Increasing royal power in England o Medieval legacy  Administrative structures  Shires and sheriffs  bureaucrats  National identity  Provided a base for the support of the Tudors  Decline of high nobility  War of Roses  Eliminating last aristocratic dynasties o Anglican Church removes clerical opposition  Dissolution of monasteries  Appointment of bishops by king o Financial security  Temporary independence from Parliament  Thanks to dissolution of monasteries o Under Elisabeth I this waned again  Strengthened taxation system o Parliamentary cooperation with royal policy  Not yet the political counterweight it will become  Mostly occupied by gentry  Got lands from the monasteries, so they were happy o Supported the Anglican Church

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The birth of the United Kingdom  THE COMPLETION OF THE ANGLO-NORMAN IMPERIAL PROJECT o Tudor State of Elizabeth I († 1603) (The Virgin Queen)  Queen of England & Wales, Ireland  lack of heirs o Succeeded by James I Stuart (1603-1625)  King of Scotland  And thus became king of every kingdom on the British Isles  Act of Union in 1707 (NOT JAMES I!)  Independent kingdoms ceased to exist  Scottish Parliament was disbanded (remember Wales?) o They got seats in the English parliament  Second act of Union  Incorporated Ireland o They did NOT like this o Gradual institutional and cultural confirmation  Birth of the United Kingdom (1707; 1800)  Birth of Britishness, but without most Irish  Sense of belonging to this new state  Developed in the 18th and 19th c.  Shared socio-economical profile (industrialisation (later!) and religious profile (Protestantism)  Development into parliamentary monarchy in 1688 (Glorious revolution). The crisis of the seventeenth century  FROM CRISIS TO REVOLUTION (I) o James I Stuart  Already some tensions with catholics  Gun Powder plot o Reign of Charles I Stuart (1625-1648)  Religious Crisis  Breakdown of “Elizabethan Settlement”  Conservative turn in Anglican Church o Puritans (Gentry got influenced by them)  Political Crisis  Claim to divine right of kings (absolutism)  Suspension of role of Parliament o Were only called again when Scotland was revolting o Civil War (1642-1648)  Revolts in Calvinist Scotland and Catholic Ireland  Parliament ‘always in session’  Roundheads (Parliament) vs. Cavaliers (Crown)  Also a conflict of rural (cavaliers) and more urbanised (roundheads) groups  Defeat and execution of Charles I Stuart 11

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An unexpected outcome: Oliver Cromwell’s Republic o Charles I was tried and convicted for treason o Puritan experiment of government  First wanted a big role for the parliament  But he noticed throughout the war that Parliament wanted peace with Charles and he could not allow this  Also became distrustful regarding the levellers o Wanted far reaching democratic reforms o Redistribution of wealth  Republic carried by the military (eventually a military protectorate (1553); parliament is subdued (because he did not trust them)  Repression of democratic experiments  Levellers  Repression of revolts  Reticent in Scotland; aggressive in Ireland o Both became independent during the war  So a burden, because could not be trusted in case of unrest.  Reintegrated Jews in society o Eventually a political failure (1659-1660)  Regime ends soon after Cromwell’s death  His son Richard almost immediately resigns  Structural lack of social support  Radical plans received little support From crisis to revolution o Restoration (1660-1688)  Monarchy: Charles II Stuart  Restrained from absolutist ambitions like his fathers  Parliament: self-consciously powerful  Again dominated by the members of the landed elite  Anglican and conservative  Coffeehouses and discussion culture o Public debate o Until 1700 active censorship  Anglican Church: repression of puritans  Puritans forced to become an independent religious group (Dissenters) o Persecuted after 1660 o Migrated to North America  Catholics also persecuted  Not a simple return to pre-1640 situation  Political balance has shifted from crown to parliament

o Glorious Revolution (1688) 12

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Parliamentary revolt against James II Stuart  Threat of Absolutism and Catholicism Accession of Mary Stuart & William III of Orange (“Age of William and Mary”) James II was forced to flee After Mary’s rule, and her sister Anne, the crown went to the Hannover dynasty. Political reforms  Bill of Rights  Sovereign authority was transferred to parliament  Crown became a port of the branch of the executive government (no longer the heart)  No longer by grace of God, but by grace of parliament (oaths and promises)  However, the monarchy remained powerful o But no longer dominated political life. o Mentally ill kings didn’t disrupt political life The idea of a religious homogenous country was abandoned  Religious minorities were free to set up schools and churches Bloodless (glorious) in England, but not in Ireland and Scotland were the Jacobites revolted and were defeated at the battle of the Boyne (1690) Long lasting impact  Completely reshuffled the cards and put in place the parliamentary monarchy known to this day

The political structures of the ‘Long eighteenth century’ (1688-1835)  THE GENTRY ASCENDANT o L...