Kingdom of England (927–1707)

Kingdom of England
927–1707
Flag Coat of arms
Capital	London
Dominant mode of production	Feudalism (10th–17th century) Capitalism (17th–18th century)
Government	Monarchy

The Kingdom of England was a medieval and early modern state located on the island of Great Britain until it officially annexed the Kingdom of Scotland in 1707 to become the Kingdom of Great Britain. It limited the power of feudal barons by largely relying on mercenaries rather than knights, which gave it a military advantage against France and other countries.

History

Anglo-Saxon period

Following the departure of the Romans from Britain in the 5th century, North German tribes, commonly known as the Anglo-Saxons, began conquering the island. By the end of the 6th century, a number of early feudal kingdoms had been created with the native Celtic peoples having been exterminated, enslaved, or driven out of England into Scotland, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany. Kingdoms such as Wessex, Mercia and Kent fought with each other for dominance over England with them slowly uniting over time, but the structure of England was also affected by the arrival of the Norsemen in the 8th century, who seized the northeast for their own as Danelaw.

Early England was dominated by Earls who became large landowners with the aristocracy sharing power with the Christian church and the monarchy. Feudalism became entrenched and due to fear of the Norse invaders the peasantry slowly became dependent on the landowners become serfs. The slowly uniting kingdoms would finally become fully united under Æthelstan, King of Wessex, who at Eamont Bridge on 12 July 927 accepted the fealty of several minor Kings and became King of the English. Although now a single entity, the Kingdom was very decentralized and would fragment several more times and suffer foreign invasions before becoming stable.

Norman invasion

William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066 and invited merchants into the country to commercialize its economy and improve trade. Using forced labour, the Normans built 500 castles within twenty years to put down rebellions.

During the 12th century, Henry Plantagenet increased the power of royal courts while weakening local courts controlled by feudal barons. He established a single set of commercial laws to expand international trade.

The Black Death spread to Europe in 1348 and killed a third of the total population. Peasants led by Wat Tyler rebelled in 1381, made an alliance with sections of the urban population, and confronted the King.

Wars of the Roses

From 1445 to 1485, descendants of Edward Plantagenet, representing the houses of Lancaster and York, battled for the throne. At the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, Henry Tudor of Lancaster defeated and killed Richard of York (King Richard III). Henry was then crowned King Henry VII starting the Tudor Dynasty, he then married Richard's niece Margaret to unite the two dynasties.

The Tudor dynasty centralized power while strengthening Parliament and decreasing the power of the feudal lords. Henry also created treaties with France and Holland to increase the wool trade and evade the Pope's monopoly.

Henry Tudor was the first of several monarchs to implement laws against the early proletariat, starting in the late 15th century.

Protestant Reformation

Under the influence of the early bourgeoisie, Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church in the 1530s, establishing the Church of England, a branch of Protestantism with the English monarch as its head. With their preferred religion now in place the early bourgeoise expanded in strength benefitting from a stronger base of support and the selling of monastery lands to the gentry. In 1530, Henry passed a law that punished able-bodied vagabonds with whipping and imprisonment and executed them for the third offence.

In 1547, the first year of his reign, Edward VI ordered that anyone who refused to work would become a slave of the person who reported them. His successor, Mary I, along with her husband Philip II of Spain, tried to restore Catholicism but failed, and Protestantism became the official religion of England. Queen Elizabeth I ordered any unlicensed beggars above the age of 18 to be executed unless they will work for someone for two years. In 1588, Elizabeth defeated the Spanish armada which was attacking the Netherlands during its bourgeois revolution.

Following the death of Elizabeth I in 1603 without an heir, the Tudor dynasty ended and the throne passed to her closest living relative, James Stuart (James VI of Scotland) making him King James I, uniting the crowns of Scotland and England. Although the two Kingdoms would be still officially independent from each other for another 100 years they were effectively united under the Stuart monarchy with Scotland being the junior partner.

Civil war

The English Revolution consisted of four groups: conservative royalists who wanted to undo the civil war, Presbyterians who wanted to create a compromise with the king and uphold big land ownership, independents like Cromwell, and radical Levellers.

In 1629, King James Stuart dissolved the Parliament and aligned with Catholic powers. He passed laws against beggars that remained in effect until the early 18th century. His successor, Charles I, attempted to impose Anglican Protestantism on Scotland, which caused a war from 1637 to 1639. Charles resurrected Parliament to try to get funds for the war, but they refused to support him. In 1641, a fight broke out in Westminster between monarchists and progressive protestors. The House of Commons then impeached and arrested twelve leading bishops.

In January 1642, Charles entered the House of Commons and attempted to organize a coup before fleeing to set up a rival capital at Oxford. Royalists still controlled one-third of the House of Commons and two-thirds of the House of Lords. In 1645, Parliament banned its members from holding military commands. Oliver Cromwell emerged as a leading revolutionary and defeated all monarchist resistance by 1646. Charles later escaped from captivity and resumed the civil war, forming an alliance with Presbyterians from Scotland and Wales. The Independents then captured and executed King Charles in 1649 but also crushed the Levellers.

Cromwell became a military dictator in 1653 and divided England into military districts ruled by generals. He died in 1658, and General George Monck of Scotland launched a coup in 1660 to restore the monarchy under James's son Charles. The bourgeoisie made a truce with the aristocracy, and the Great Settlement of 1668 specified the power of the parliament and crown.

Glorious Revolution

James II became King of England in 1685 and was Catholic and pro-French. He wanted to rule as an absolute monarch. James Scott, the Duke of Monmouth and James's son, attempted to claim the throne but was defeated at the Battle of Sedgemoor. The Parliament organized a coup against the King and installed William and Mary of Orange as the new rulers of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The army mutinied in favor of William and forced James to flee to France. James's supporters attempted to overthrow the Protestant monarchy in 1689, 1715, and 1745 with French backing.

Following the Glorious Revolution, the new bourgeois government established the death penalty for more than 150 crimes, most of which were minor property crimes such as theft. Until 1803, attempted murder was only a misdemeanor, but stealing a single shilling was a capital crime. Many peasants lost their land as common land was enclosed.