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St. Bede the Venerable, Bede also spelled Baeda or Beda, (born 672/673, traditionally Monkton in Jarrow, Northumbria [England]-died May 25, 735, Jarrow; canonized 1899; feast day May 25), Anglo-Saxon theologian, historian, and chronologist. St. Bede is best known for his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum ("Ecclesiastical History of the English People"), a source vital to the history of the conversion to Christianity of the Anglo-Saxon tribes.

During his lifetime and throughout the Middle Ages, Bede's reputation was based mainly on his scriptural commentaries, copies of which found their way to many of the monastic libraries of western Europe. The method of dating events from the time of the incarnation, or Christ's birth-i.e., ad (anno Domini, "in the year of our Lord")-came into general use through the popularity of the Historia ecclesiastica and the two works on chronology. Bede's influence was perpetuated at home through the school founded at York by his pupil Archbishop Egbert of York and was transmitted to the rest of Europe by Alcuin, who studied there before becoming master of Charlemagne's palace school at Aachen.

Nothing is known of Bede's parentage. At the age of seven he was taken to the monastery of St. Peter at Wearmouth (near Sunderland, Durham), founded by Abbot St. Benedict Biscop, to whose care he was entrusted. By 685 he was moved to Biscop's newer monastery, of St. Paul, at Jarrow. Bede was ordained a deacon when 19 years old and priest when 30. Apart from visits to Lindisfarne and York, he seems never to have left Wearmouth-Jarrow. Buried at Jarrow, his remains were removed to Durham and are now entombed in the Galilee Chapel of Durham Cathedral.

Bede's works fall into three groups: grammatical and "scientific," scriptural commentary, and historical and biographical. His earliest works included treatises on spelling, hymns, figures of speech, verse, and epigrams. His first treatise on chronology, De temporibus ("On Times"), with a brief chronicle attached, was written in 703. In 725 he completed a greatly amplified version, De temporum ratione ("On the Reckoning of Time"), with a much longer chronicle. Both these books were mainly concerned with the reckoning of Easter. His earliest biblical commentary was probably that on the Revelation to John (703?-709); in this and many similar works, his aim was to transmit and explain relevant passages from the Fathers of the Church. Although his interpretations were mainly allegorical, treating much of the biblical text as symbolic of deeper meanings, he used some critical judgment and attempted to rationalize discrepancies. Among his most notable are his verse (705-716) and prose (before 721) lives of St. Cuthbert, bishop of Lindisfarne. These works are uncritical and abound with accounts of miracles; a more exclusively historical work is Historia abbatum ( c. 725; "Lives of the Abbots").

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In 731/732 Bede completed his Historia ecclesiastica. Divided into five books, it recorded events in Britain from the raids by Julius Caesar (55-54 bce) to the arrival in Kent (597 ce) of St. Augustine of Canterbury. For his sources, he claimed the authority of ancient letters, the "traditions of our forefathers," and his own knowledge of contemporary events. Bede's Historia ecclesiastica leaves gaps tantalizing to secular historians. Although overloaded with the miraculous, it is the work of a scholar anxious to assess the accuracy of his sources and to record only what he regarded as trustworthy evidence. It remains an indispensable source for some of the facts and much of the feel of early Anglo-Saxon history.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Amy Tikkanen, Corrections Manager.

Learn More in these related Britannica articles:

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Saint Bede the Venerable | Biography, Facts, & Legacy

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Saint Bede the Venerable, Anglo-Saxon theologian, historian, and chronologist. He is best known for his historical writings that document the conversion to Christianity of the Anglo-Saxon tribes. The method of dating events from the time of Christ's birth came into general use through his works.

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Who Was the Venerable Bede?

The Venerable Bede - also known as St Bede - is widely regarded as the greatest of all the Anglo-Saxon scholars. He lived and died in between the twin monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow in the North East of England between 673 and 735 AD and wrote or translated some forty books on practically every area of knowledge, including nature, astronomy, and poetry. He also wrote the first martyrology (a chronicle about the lives of the saints).

However, his most famous writing was on theology and history and his best known work is The Ecclesiastical History of the English People.

Read more about the Life and Death of Bede.

Why Was the Venerable Bede Important?

Although Bede was a polymath and religious figure who described himself as having " devoted [his] energies to the study of the scriptures, observing monastic discipline, and singing the daily services in church" and for whom "study, teaching, and writing had always been [his] delight", he is remembered today as the earliest English historian, whose work has shed light on a period of English history that would have otherwise been unknown.

He is often referred to as ' The Father of English History.'

Bede's Association with Durham

The Venerable Bede's bones have been in Durham Cathedral since 1022. They were brought from Jarrow by a monk called Alfred who had them buried alongside Cuthbert's relics, where they remained until they were moved to the Cathedral's Galilee Chapel in the 14 th century.

Why is Bede called the 'Venerable' ?

In fact, 'the Venerable Bede' comes from the Latin inscription on Bede's tomb in Durham Cathedral, reading:

HIC SUNT IN FOSSA BEDAE VENERABILIS OSSA
Here are buried the bones of the Venerable Bede

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The Venerable Bede - also known as St Bede - is widely regarded as the greatest of all the Anglo-Saxon scholars. He lived and died in between the twin monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow in the North East of England between 673 and 735 AD and wrote or translated some forty books on practically every area of knowledge, including nature, astronomy, and poetry.

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The Venerable Bede was a monk at the monastery of Jarrow in the 8th century, and is most famous for his seminal work, Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum or The Ecclesiastical History of the English People...

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Everything you need to know about the Anglo-Saxon king Alfred the Great (849-899), including facts about his life, accomplishments, his family, his death and his burial place...
Q: Who was King Alfred?

A: Alfred was the fifth son of King Æthelwulf (839-58), ruler of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex - the area south of the river Thames. When he was born at Wantage in 849, it might have seemed unlikely that Alfred would ever become king, but in a period of increasing Viking attacks, his four brothers all died as young adults.

Alfred took over as king of Wessex in 871 (bypassing his nephew Aethelwold, son of the late king Aethelred) in the middle of a year of nine major battles between the West Saxons and Vikings, which the former were lucky to survive. Alfred was also tested in 878 when he was forced to retreat to the marshes of Athelney (Somerset), scene of some of the legendary stories about him, including the well-known burning of the cakes.

However, Alfred came back to win a decisive victory in the same year over his Viking opponent Guthrum at Edington (Wiltshire). There were further serious Viking attacks in the 890s, but by this time Alfred had made military improvements and was better able to resist them with the help of West Mercian [an Anglo-Saxon kingdom north of Wessex] and Welsh allies.

In 868 Alfred had married Ealhswith, a descendant of the Mercian royal house, probably as part of a long-term West Saxon plan to bring the royal houses of the two provinces closer together.

They had two sons and three daughters, who survived to adulthood. The middle daughter became abbess of Shaftesbury nunnery, one of two religious houses founded by Alfred. The other was at Athelney, perhaps in thanksgiving for his escape there from the Vikings.

The other two daughters entered into diplomatic marriages to the ruler of Mercia (this was Aethelflaed, who became the 'Lady of the Mercians') and the Count of Flanders. Little is known of Alfred's 'spare', his second son, Æthelweard, but his heir, Edward the Elder, succeeded their father in 899, and continued the family success story.
THE LAST KINGDOM SEASON 4 REVIEWS:
Q: Alfred is well known for his victories against the Vikings. What can you tell us about them?

A: Alfred's priority was survival in the face of Viking attacks. There had been four Anglo-Saxon kingdoms at the time of Alfred's birth, but before his death all but Wessex had been overrun by the Vikings, and their kings killed or exiled.

Having survived by the skin of his teeth all-out Viking attacks in the 870s, when the other provinces fell, Alfred then enacted a series of military reforms to make Wessex less vulnerable in the future. Most important was a network of fortified and garrisoned sites that created 'fortress Wessex', which the Vikings were unable to penetrate to any great extent in the 890s.

Alfred also organised a rota of military service to make keeping forces in the field for any length of time more viable; the field army could respond quickly to a request for aid from a local garrison should the Vikings attack. The king also overhauled his naval forces, bringing in experienced Frisian sailors to help with his new designs for ships.

Q: What else is Alfred famous for?

A: There are many Anglo-Saxon kings who were great military commanders - what makes Alfred stand out is that he was also interested in learning, and in the promotion of English as a written language.

Here we can see the impact of the great religious and cultural movement from across the Channel, known as the Carolingian Renaissance, which had also much influenced his father. Alfred recruited Carolingian scholars [from what is now France and western Germany], as well as others from within Britain to act as his advisers on improving educational and religious standards in Wessex.

He himself studied key works with them, and these seem to have had a profound effect on his own understanding and concept of duty, which he felt others at his court should share. He assisted in the translation of some of these works from Latin into Old English, so that they could be more readily understood within his kingdom.

Alfred's resistance to the Vikings required a major commitment from his subjects, and so he may well have been attracted to the Carolingian emphasis on obedience to the king as a religious duty, and perhaps also sought to reinforce an English, Christian identity in opposition to a Scandinavian, pagan one.

The title 'King of the Anglo-Saxons' was one he used towards the end of his reign, as he became increasingly influential beyond Wessex itself.

Q: Why is King Alfred significant?

A: Military and intellectual activities were in themselves sufficient to have established Alfred's reputation, but what really made him stand out to succeeding generations was the fact that his Welsh adviser Asser wrote a biography of the king in 893.

This work undoubtedly contains useful information about Alfred and his family, but it is also based on classical, Biblical and Carolingian ideals of kingship, which can cause a difficulty in distinguishing idealisation from fact.

It may be significant that Alfred is not known to have endorsed the work or ordered its circulation. It may not be how he thought of himself or how he wanted to be remembered.

But in the 19th century, when there was great interest in Anglo-Saxon origins of the English state and character, there were no such doubts. Alfred was "the most perfect man in history", and the famous statue in Winchester was erected in 1901 as the climax to international celebrations of the millenary of his death.

Q: In the December 2013 issue of BBC History Magazine, Alex Burghart asked whether we're guilty of overplaying Alfred's greatness. What do you think?

A: Alex Burghart was right to suggest that Alfred's reputation is in danger of being exaggerated. As a result of being the only Anglo-Saxon king to have a contemporary biography, he has been sometimes handed the credit by later writers for everything of note that happened in the Anglo-Saxon period.

Alfred did not invent Anglo-Saxon law or the navy, though he did write laws and design ships. There was also an element of luck in his survival at the beginning of his reign, and in the fact that the Vikings were more interested in eastern England that was closer to their homelands.

Mercian involvement was crucial to his success in defeating the Vikings in the 890s. But to a certain extent Alfred made his own 'luck', a quality much prized in Anglo-Saxon leaders, and the qualities of intellectual curiosity, inventiveness and an essential attention to detail come through in Asser's account, for all its problems.

Alfred does seem to have been a rather exceptional ruler, but it seems to have been a case of the right person in the right place at the right time.

Q: Where, when and how did King Alfred die, and who was he succeeded by?

A: Alfred died on 26 October 899. The exact circumstances and the place of his death are not known.

He was laid to rest at first in the cathedral in Winchester, the Old Minster, but his elder son and successor at once commissioned work on a bigger, grander church - the New Minster immediately to the cathedral's north. It seems to have been intended as a burial place for the new dynasty of English kings founded by Alfred.

The bodies of Alfred and Ealhswith were transferred to New Minster, to be joined eventually by Edward himself and other members of the royal family. Edward continued and developed the policies of his father, and used the idea of garrisoned, fortified centres offensively against Viking-settled areas of eastern England.

By 920 he had extended his rule to the river Humber, and Edward's own son Aethelstan (who reigned from 924-39) gained control of the rest of England to create the country more or less as we know it today.

Q: What might we learn from the discovery of a piece of pelvic bone, most likely belonging to King Alfred or to his son, Edward?

A: In 1110 the monks of New Minster relocated to the suburb of Hyde in the north of Winchester, because of the cramped conditions in the centre, and took with them the bodies of Alfred, Edward and Ealhswith, which were laid in honoured positions in front of the High Altar.

It was thought that their bodies had been lost when the site was dug up for a prison in the late 18th century. In the 19th century an amateur historian claimed he had dug up their bones, but no one locally believed him, and it appears that he had in any case been digging in the wrong part of the site.

These bones were the ones buried in an unmarked grave in St Bartholmew's graveyard in Hyde. Radio-carbon testing established once and for all that they were later medieval in date.

However, Dr Katie Tucker, the osteoarchaeologist from the University of Winchester who led investigations, checked whether there might be other human bones of interest from the previous excavations at Hyde Abbey.

Part of a male pelvis found near the High Altar produced a radio-carbon date centring on the 10th century, thus raising the possibility that it could be part of the body of either Alfred or his son, Edward. This leaves us with the exciting possibility that further remains of them might be recovered.

Asser provides no physical descriptions of either Alfred or Edward, so the thought that we might one day be able to rediscover their appearance and give them a proper reburial is an enticing prospect.
Barbara Yorke is professor emerita of early medieval history at the University of Winchester, from which she has recently retired after a long career. Her research interests lie with early medieval British history, with special interests in kingship, conversion, Wessex, women, religion and 19th-century Anglo-Saxonism This article was first published by HistoryExtra in 2014

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Alfred the Great is famous for his victories against the Vikings, and is the only English monarch known as 'the Great'. But how much do you know about him? Barbara Yorke, professor emerita of early medieval history at the University of Winchester, brings you the facts about the Anglo-Saxon king

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kings and queens from alfred the great to elizabeth ii

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Key facts about King Alfred the Great who was born c.849, reigned (871 - 899) including biography, historical timeline and links to the British royal family tree.

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Alfred the Great (r. 871-899 CE) was the king of Wessex in Britain but came to be known as King of the Anglo- Saxons after his military victories over Viking adversaries and later successful negotiations with them. He is the best-known Anglo- Saxon king in British history thanks to his biographer Asser (died c. 909 CE) and that work's impact on later writers.

Alfred's epithet 'the great' was not given to him in his lifetime but centuries later when Asser's work became more widely known and the significance of Alfred's reign was more fully recognized. Even so, in his lifetime, Alfred was respected as a noble king who won the trust of his people for his reforms in education and law, and most notably, his leadership against the Viking threat. Alfred is featured in the TV series where he is played by Irish actor Ferdia Walsh-Peelo. The character in the show is loosely based on the historical Alfred but significant departures are made, most notably in his parentage.

The Vikings had begun their raids on Britain c. 793 CE and, by Alfred's time, had established themselves throughout the land from Northumbria through Mercia with increasing incursions into Wessex. Alfred defeated the Viking leader Guthrum (died c. 890 CE) at the Battle of Eddington in 878 CE, after which he was able to deliver terms including the Christianization of Guthrum and his closest advisors, thus bridging the religious gap between the two peoples. Although this victory did not end Viking raids in Britain nor drive the Vikings back to Scandinavia, it allowed for a period of relative peace in which Alfred's reforms could be implemented and take root.

Alfred's impressive military and administrative skills stabilized Britain after almost a century of Viking raids and warfare. He established the practice of translating classical works from Latin into English, set up public schools, reformed the military, and revised and expanded the law code. Later historians, especially during the Victorian Age, would consider him the most perfect king of the Middle Ages for his piety, justice, and noble vision of a better future for his people.

Youth & Rise to Power

Alfred was born in 849 CE, the son of King Aethelwulf of Wessex and his wife Osburh. At the age of four, his father sent him to Rome on pilgrimage, where he was confirmed in the faith by the Pope and, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, was anointed as king. Although it is possible this ceremony took place, it seems unlikely as Alfred was the youngest of five children and his older brothers - Aethelbald, Aethelberht, and Aethelred - would have all been in line to succeed to the throne before him.

He learned poetry by hearing it recited & then repeating it but could not read it himself until sometime in his teenage years.

Whatever effect the trip to Rome may have had on Alfred's character, it does not seem to be as profound an influence as that of his mother. Osburh is described in Asser's Life of King Alfred as a religious and intelligent woman who had a significant effect on his life-long interest in learning; a characteristic which chiefly defines Alfred and shaped his later accomplishments.

He learned poetry by hearing it recited and then repeating it but could not read it himself until sometime in his teenage years and even then could not read Latin in which the most important works of his time were written.

The role of his mother in his life, as well as his paternity, are the most significant departures made in Alfred's character arc in the TV series Vikings. In the show, his mother is Judith, Princess of Northumbria (played by English actress Jennie Jacques) who is married to Aethelwulf but becomes pregnant through an affair with the Christian monk-turned-Viking-turned-cleric, Athelstan (played by English actor George Blagden). Although the character of Judith is portrayed as caring and concerned for her son, no mention is made of Alfred's mother's impact on his literacy. His frailty in youth and the trip to Rome are also depicted with more or less accuracy but his brothers and their accomplishments are combined and fictionalized in the character of Aethelred (played by Darren Cahill) and elements of Aethelwulf's reign and personality are also significantly altered.

Alfred's brothers each ruled in succession following their father's death until Alfred was officially named successor to his brother Aethelred in c. 865 CE and elevated to the rank of military commander. It may be that Alfred's family had low expectations of him as a warrior-king as he was more given to books than action and was often ill as a young man (possibly afflicted with Crohn's disease). If so, they were mistaken as Alfred proved himself a capable leader in battle, between c. 865-871 CE, alongside his brother and on his own after Aethelred died.

The Viking Wars

In 865 CE the Great Army of Vikings led by Halfdane and Ivar the Boneless invaded East Anglia and swiftly defeated any force sent against them. In 866 CE they took the city of York, and in 867 CE they killed the Northumbrian kings Osbert and Aelle and consolidated their control of the region. In 868 CE they made constant raids throughout Mercia and by 869 CE had completely overrun East Anglia. In 870 CE reinforcements for the Great Army arrived from Scandinavia and Halfdane led his forces to take Wallingford, ravage Mercia, and drive on into Wessex the next year.

Aethelred and Alfred mobilized their forces and met the Vikings in battle at Reading but were badly defeated. Asser comments how "the Christians were aroused by the grief and shame of this, and four days later, with all their might and in a determined frame of mind, they advanced against the Viking army at a place called Ashdown" (Asser, 37, Keynes & Lapidge, 78). The Battle of Ashdown in January 871 CE would prove Alfred's skill in military leadership and his ability to think clearly and act in a crisis.

Although Asser never criticizes Aethelred directly, he makes the point that a strategy had been laid whereby Alfred and Aethelred would command joint forces which would strike at different points of the Viking forces but that Aethelred never appeared to take command of his part of the battle. The Vikings held the high ground and had already fortified their defenses when Alfred arrived on the field and found his brother the king was still at his prayers. Alfred, then, had no choice but to take command of the entire army and lead the attack. It should be noted that Asser's account of the battle has been challenged and other sources credit Aethelred with full participation in the engagement.

Whether his brother was involved or not, Alfred was victorious, skillfully leading his forces, and drove the Vikings from the field. Encouraged by this victory, the brothers pursued the Vikings and met them again at Basing but were defeated. In April, Aethelred died and Alfred became king. He led his army against the Vikings again at the Battle of Wilton and here again seems to have shown himself an effective leader on the field - at least at first. The Viking lines were broken and in flight, but there were too few of Alfred's forces to pursue. The Vikings were able to regroup and countercharge, defeating the West Saxons and taking the field. Alfred at this point had no choice but to pay the Viking commanders a large sum to leave Wessex.

Over the next few years, Alfred would continually have to mobilize what troops he could muster to defend his realm. Although the money he had paid to Halfdane secured Wessex for the time, it did not mean the Vikings had to leave Britain. They consolidated their power in Northumbria, made peace with the Mercians, and were free to threaten the autonomy of Wessex whenever they pleased. In 875 CE the Vikings had firmly established their kingdom, and a new Norse warlord, Guthrum, had taken command.

In 876 CE Alfred made a treaty with Guthrum in which he gave the Viking leader hostages, and the Vikings swore an oath to leave Wessex alone. For unknown reasons, the Vikings broke the treaty, killed the hostages, attacked, and then retreated to Exeter where they wintered. Alfred rallied his forces and blockaded the Viking fleet at Devon, forcing them to withdraw to Mercia but, by 877 CE, the Vikings were back at the borders and, in early 878 CE, they took Chippenham. The raid on Chippenham was a surprise attack launched during the Christmas season when Alfred was observing the holiday in the area and was completely unprepared. The Vikings massacred much of the populace, but Alfred escaped with his family and a few men and went into exile. Asser describes this period:

At the same time King Alfred, with his small band of nobles and also with certain soldiers, was leading a restless life in great distress amid the woody and marshy places of Somerset. He had nothing to live on except what he could forage by frequent raids, either secretly or even openly, from the Vikings as well as from the Christians who had submitted to the Vikings' authority. (Asser, 53, Keynes & Lapidge, 83)

Alfred & the Burnt Cakes

It is during this period that the events related in the legends surrounding Alfred are said to have taken place. Although it is often assumed that these legends come from Asser's work, they are all later creations, c. 10th century CE. The most famous of these is the story of Alfred and the burnt cakes, which comes from The Life of St. Neot.

It relates how Alfred, traveling alone at this time, came upon the cottage of a swineherd and asked for hospitality without revealing who he was. They took him in for a few days, and one day when the swineherd was out, his wife was baking bread in the oven while Alfred sat nearby preoccupied with his troubles. The wife was cleaning house when she smelled the bread burning and hurried to the oven to draw the loaves out. She chastised Alfred, who was sitting close by, saying, "You hesitate to turn the loaves which you see to be burning, yet you're quite happy to eat them when they come warm from the oven!" (Keynes & Lapidge, 198).

The story would go through many different incarnations with the wife depicted as evil and ignorant or simply exasperated by her houseguest, but in all, Alfred's response epitomizes humility and grace. He never reveals himself as king or argues with the wife but accepts her scolding as appropriate and helps her bake the bread.

The Battle of Eddington

Alfred remained in exile, hiding from the Vikings, for less than three months, during which time he seems to have been preparing for an offensive against the Vikings through a network of spies and chieftains who remained loyal to him. By March, according to Asser, he was waging a successful guerrilla war against the Danes. By May of 878 CE, he had assembled a large enough force to meet the Vikings in battle. He had a fortress built at Athelney which formed a base of operations and seems to have used this to recruit men as well as to launch raids.

At some point in early May, he managed to draw the Vikings out of their stronghold at Eddington and defeated them in battle using the tactic of the shield wall. The Wessex forces would have held tight formations against the Viking onslaught and then counterattacked. The Vikings were driven from the field and fortified the defenses of their stronghold. Alfred, however, destroyed all of the crops surrounding the Viking defenses, killed all the men found outside, and took the cattle. The Vikings were left with whatever provisions they had inside and after two weeks of siege surrendered.

Alfred's terms were lenient: Guthrum and 30 of his chieftains would submit to Christian baptism and renounce their pagan faith, hostages would be provided to ensure compliance, and the Vikings would leave Wessex; all of these conditions were met. Wessex was secure for the time being, but there is no evidence that Alfred thought Eddington had put an end to his Viking troubles.

Restoration, Reform, & Education

The theory that Viking raids were the wrath of God had gone unchallenged since the Lindisfarne raid in 793 CE as there was no better available, and Alfred most certainly believed it. Following the Battle of Eddington, he went to work to resolve the underlying causes of the raids which, in his view, were the poor state of education, clerical learning, and lack of unity in his kingdom.

Beginning in 880 CE, Alfred reorganized his kingdom and implemented educational, legal, and military reforms which would transform Wessex and eventually the whole of Britain. He began by rebuilding those cities and towns which had been destroyed in the Viking Wars and improving upon the earlier structures. Recognizing that these could be destroyed just as easily as their predecessors, he then reformed the military and the very structure of settlements in his kingdom.

Early in the 880's CE, Alfred implemented innovations which included a restructuring of the network of towns and cities. These initiatives are known as the Burghal System, in which improved roads linked a series of 33 burhs (fortified settlements) throughout his kingdom. On a trip to Rome, at some point after Eddington, Alfred had learned defensive tactics and stratagems from the Carolingian kings of France who had been dealing with their own Viking problems for centuries. Alfred's Burghal System seems to have been adapted from the Carolingian precepts.

In order for each burh to be able to defend itself, it had to be garrisoned, and those men had to be paid, and so Alfred reformed the tax code based on the abundance of crops gathered from a person's land. The productivity of a region was then taken into consideration when stationing a certain number of troops there. The burhs were situated in such a way that any garrison could move to support any other within a day's march.

At the same time, Alfred imported a number of learned clerics from Wales and France to reintroduce Latin learning to the court and translate Latin works into English. Public schools were created in which students learned to read English; those who were to go on to pursue holy orders would also be taught Latin. It was during this period that Asser, formerly of Wales, came to Alfred's court as his personal tutor. In time, Alfred himself would translate works from Latin to English, serving as a role model for his subjects.

It should not be thought, however, that this period was - as has often been claimed - a "quiet time" in which Alfred could devote himself to study and domestic policies. He was daily involved in foreign policy decisions, and the problems of the Vikings in Britain persisted. In the early 880's Alfred had gained control of Mercia, but the Vikings had settled the region from Northumbria known as the Danelaw and still made incursions into other regions.

Efforts to UnitE England

In 886 CE Alfred captured London in a stunning victory, and "all the English people that were not under subjection to the Danes submitted to him" (Keynes & Lapidge, 38). There may have been an official oath of loyalty to the king that the populace, or at least landowners, had to take, but even if there was not, it is clear that Alfred had united the people of Britain under his rule. Keynes and Lapidge note that Alfred's victory at London marked "the emergence among the English of a sense of common identity, under a common leader, in a common cause" (38). Alfred was now king of all England not occupied by the Danes.

Shortly after taking London, Alfred sealed an alliance with Mercia by arranging a marriage between his daughter Aethelflaed (r. 911-918 CE) and the earl of that region, Aethelred II (r. 883-911 CE). It is certain they were married by 887 CE when Aethelflaed's name appears on land charters with Aethelred's. Aethelflaed would continue Alfred's work in conjunction with her husband and then as sole ruler and Lady of the Mercians.

Alfred continued his educational programs, enlarged and reformed the navy, and drew up his own law code based on the Christian Bible and founded on the Ten Commandments. All penalties took the form of fines except for those which involved crimes of treachery or treason. The supremacy of lordship was emphasized throughout as Alfred believed that the king ruled by divine will and, if he were true to his calling, would rule justly in the best interests of his people.

Although illiterate in his youth, Alfred himself wrote the law code and translated a number of works, including Gregory's Pastoral Care, Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, St. Augustine's Soliloquies, and the first 50 psalms. All of these books had influenced Alfred personally for the better and so, he believed, would do the same for others.

By the time Alfred died, on 26 October 899 CE, he had transformed Britain from a disparate region of separate kingdoms to something resembling a unified nation. In spite of his accomplishments and fame, Alfred was not as highly respected at this time as he would come to be in later centuries, possibly because the Viking invasions would continue in Britain until c. 1066 CE.

Another important factor, however, is that Asser's Life of King Alfred was not widely read at this time since Asser never completed it or had it copied for distribution. The work was only brought to public attention in the 17th century CE when Sir John Spelman published it as a guide for kingly behavior. In the 18th century CE, Alfred was regarded as the epitome of a noble king, and by the time of the Victorian Period (1837-1901 CE), he was embraced as the founder of the British Empire, father of the British Navy (although he only reformed it), and the greatest king to ever rule England.

His educational reforms paved the way for public schools in England, his law code served as the basis for future legal reforms, and his restructuring of the cities, towns, and roadways changed the infrastructure of the country forever. His daughter Aethelflaed of Mercia would continue his war with the Vikings as well as his educational reforms and Burghal System along with her brother Edward of Wessex, who had succeeded Alfred. Edward's son, Aethelstan, would in time become the first King of England, reigning over a united land, and continue his grandfather's legacy.

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Alfred the Great (r. 871-899 CE) was the king of Wessex in Britain but came to be known as King of the Anglo- Saxons after his military victories over Viking adversaries and later successful negotiations with them. He is the best-known Anglo- Saxon king in British history thanks to his biographer Asser (died c.

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The earliest recorded use of that nickname occurs in the 1120s, and it didn't really take off until the 13th century. At the time of his death in 1087, William was called 'the Great' by his admirers, and 'the Bastard' by his detractors; the latter a mocking reference to his illegitimate birth (he was the son of Robert I, Duke of Normandy, and his mistress Herleva).

The Anglo-Saxons were not famed for building in stone, and during the first half of the 11th century had not embraced the new architectural style, now known as 'Romanesque', that had become fashionable on the continent. Before 1066, the only major Romanesque church in England was Edward the Confessor's new abbey at Westminster, still not quite finished at the time of the king's death on 5 January that year.

Normandy, by contrast, had experienced a church-building boom during the rule of William the Conqueror, with dozens of new abbeys founded and ancient cathedrals rebuilt. After the Conquest, this revolution was extended to England, beginning with the rebuilding of Canterbury Cathedral from 1070. England had 15 cathedrals in the 11th-century. By the time of William's death in 1087 nine of them had been rebuilt, and by the time of the death of his son Henry I, in 1135, so too had the remaining six. The same was true of every major abbey. It was the single greatest revolution in the history of English ecclesiastical architecture.

Castles were a French invention - the earliest examples were built around the turn of the first millennium along the Loire valley. There were plenty in Normandy before 1066, but only a tiny handful in England, built in the previous generation by French friends of the English king, Edward the Confessor. The Norman conquest changed all that. "They built castles far and wide, oppressing the unhappy people", wept the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 1066.

By the time of William's death in 1087, around 500 castles had been built across England and Wales. Most were constructed from earth and timber, but work had also begun on great stone towers in London, Colchester and Chepstow.

This may perhaps seem unsurprising, but it is worth emphatically re-stating, given the various alternatives that have attracted media attention in recent years.

It is generally very difficult to pinpoint the location of medieval battles with any accuracy. People often suppose that archaeology can solve the problem, but this is seldom the case. Metal rusts and wood rots, and battlefields were picked clean of valuables by scavengers and bodies were carted away to be buried in grave pits. The battle of Falkirk, fought between Edward I and William Wallace in 1298, was one of the largest engagements in medieval Britain, with almost 30,000 men on the English side alone, but not so much as a single arrowhead has ever been unearthed.

Happily, however, the case for Battle is well grounded, because William built an abbey to mark the site, which still stands today. The tradition that states he did this was not, as conspiracy theorists assert, invented by the monks of Battle in the late 12th century, but stretches right back to the time of the Conqueror himself. In its obituary of William, the contemporary Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says: "on the very spot where God granted him the victory, he caused a great abbey to be built".

The size of the armies on both sides at Hastings is unknown, but neither is likely to have exceeded 10,000 men. Many were killed during the battle, but thousands more would die in the years that followed, as English resistance led to Norman repression. In the winter of 1069-70, after a combined English rebellion and Danish invasion, William laid waste to England north of the Humber, destroying crops and livestock so that the region could not support human life. Famine followed, and, according to a later chronicler, 100,000 people perished as a result. Modern analysis of the data in Domesday Book suggests that a drop in population of this magnitude did indeed occur.

Savage in their warfare, William and the Normans were more civilised in their politics. Before 1066, the English political elite had routinely resorted to murdering their political rivals, as they would do again in the later Middle Ages. But for more than two centuries after the Conquest, chivalry prevailed, and political killing became taboo. "No man dared slay another, no matter what wrong he had done him", said the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in its summary of the plus points of William's reign. Waltheof of Northumbria, beheaded in 1076, was the only earl to be executed after the Norman takeover. The next execution of an earl in England occurred in 1306, some 230 years later.

In pre-Conquest England, at least 10 per cent of the population - and perhaps as much as 30 per cent - were slaves. Slaves were treated as human chattels, and could be sold, beaten and branded as their masters saw fit. It was a sin to kill a slave, but not a crime. The Norman Conquest hastened the demise of this system.

William banned the slave trade and in some cases freed slaves, to the extent that by the end of his reign their number had fallen by 25 per cent. By the early 12th century, slavery in England was no more. "After England had began to have Norman lords", wrote Lawrence of Durham in the 1130s, "the English no longer suffered from outsiders that which they had suffered at their own hands; in this respect they found foreigners treated them better than they had themselves".

It is still common to hear it said that William was unusually tall, and his wife, Matilda, was exceptionally short. There is no evidence to support either assertion, and plenty to contradict it. Contemporaries described William as being strong, certainly, but described his height only as "proper". In Matilda's case, they noted only that she was beautiful, and said nothing at all about her stature.

William and Matilda were both buried in Caen, he in the abbey of St Etienne that he had founded in 1063, she in the nunnery of Holy Trinity, founded in 1059. Their tombs were destroyed in the 16th century, so only fragments of their skeletons survive - in William's case a single bone. In 1959 these remains were examined by French archaeologists and it was widely reported that Matilda had been a diminutive 127cm (4'2"), William a strapping 178cm (5'10").

Widely, but not accurately. The experts in 1959 had actually concluded that Matilda was 152cm (5') tall, making her just 5cm shorter than the average medieval adult female - a height, as the royal gynaecologist Sir Jack Dewhurst observed, far more compatible with her nine successful pregnancies. William's single surviving thighbone, meanwhile, was re-examined in 1983 and the estimate of his height reduced to 173cm, just 2cm greater than that of the average medieval adult male.

The high point of William's career was his coronation as king of England at Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066, but things did not go according to plan. The ceremony took place in an atmosphere of high tension, the Normans surrounded by thousands of disgruntled Englishmen from nearby London. When the congregation shouted their assent to William's rule, the Normans on guard outside the church mistook the noise for treachery and began setting fire to the surrounding buildings, at which those inside ran out to protect their property or join in the looting.

Similar embarrassing scenes attended William's death in 1087. He died at the priory of St Gervais near Rouen, and as soon as he was dead his attendants looted his belongings and left his body almost naked. Eventually his body was taken by boat for burial in Caen, but as he was being led through the town a fire broke out, leading to scenes of chaos. His funeral ceremony in St Stephen's Abbey was interrupted by an irate heckler, who complained that the church had been built on his father's property without compensation.

Finally, William's body proved to be too fat to fit into his stone sarcophagus, and when the monks tried to force the issue his swollen bowels burst, filling the abbey with such a stench that everyone apart from the officiating clergy fled.
Marc Morris is a historian who specialises in the Middle Ages. His publications include William I: England's Conqueror (Penguin Books, 2016); King John: Treachery, Tyranny and the Road to Magna Carta (Penguin Books, 2016) and The Norman Conquest (Windmill Books, 2013). Join us for a day of talks and discussion with five experts on the Bayeux Tapestry at St Anne's College, Oxford on Sunday 17 June 2018. Our speakers will explore the tapestry and the era that created it, and share the latest ideas and research about the monumental embroidery. The talks will be followed by audience Q&As and book signings and the ticket price also includes refreshments and a buffet lunch. To listen to our podcast interview with Marc on the story and legacy of the Norman Conquest, click here. This article was first published by History Extra in 2016 Tickets are on sale now and BBC History Magazine subscribers can enjoy a discount - click here to buy. You can follow him on Twitter @Longshanks1307.

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10 surprising facts about William the Conqueror and the Norman conquest

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The earliest recorded use of that nickname occurs in the 1120s, and it didn't really take off until the 13th century. At the time of his death in 1087, William was called 'the Great' by his admirers, and 'the Bastard' by his detractors; the latter a mocking reference to his illegitimate birth (he was the son of Robert I, Duke of Normandy, and his mistress Herleva).

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William the Conqueror, one of the most brilliant warriors of all time, stands at the crossroads of Anglo French history. The Norman Conquest and the Anglo Norman kings' struggles to establish their independence from the mainland were essential steps in the evolution of the English nation state.

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William the Conqueror, one of the most brilliant warriors of all time, stands at the crossroads of Anglo French history. The Norman Conquest and the Anglo Norman kings' struggles to establish their independence from the mainland were essential steps in the evolution of the English nation state.

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Caxton was the first English printer and a translator and importer of books into England.

Caxton was born in around 1422 in Kent. He went to London at the age of 16 to become an apprentice to a merchant, later moving to Bruges, the centre of the wool trade, where he became a successful and important member of the merchant community. From 1462 to 1470 he served as governor of the 'English Nation of Merchant Adventurers', which allowed him to represent his fellow merchants, as well as act as a diplomat for the king.

Caxton affiliated himself with the household of Margaret, the duchess of Burgundy, sister of the English king Edward IV. She became one of his most important patrons and encouraged him with his translation of 'The Recuyell of the Histories of Troye' from French to English. In the early 1470s Caxton spent time in Cologne learning the art of printing. He returned to Bruges in 1472 where he and Colard Mansion, a Flemish calligrapher, set up a press. Caxton's own translation of 'The Recuyell of the Histories of Troye' was the first book printed in the English language.

In 1476 Caxton returned to London and established a press at Westminster, the first printing press in England. Amongst the books he printed were Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales', Gower's 'Confession Amantis' and Malory's 'Le Morte d'Arthur'. He printed more than 100 books in his lifetime, books which were known for their craftsmanship and careful editing. He was also the translator of many of the books he published, using his knowledge of French, Latin and Dutch. He died in 1492.

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Discover the biography of William Caxton who brought printing to England in the 15th century

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William Caxton and the introduction of printing to England

A S G Edwards explains how William Caxton brought the printing press to England, and published printed versions of works by writers including Chaucer, Malory, Gower, Cicero and Virgil.

Printing with moveable type was introduced to the Western world in the 1450s by Johann Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany. Gutenberg invented the printing press: this new print technology involved setting pages of type from individually cast metal letter forms that were then run off on a hand press. For the first time it was possible to rapidly and mechanically reproduce multiple copies of the same work. This new technology heralded the beginnings of a massive cultural revolution. Before Gutenberg's invention, books were usually copied by hand, in manuscript, a laborious and cost-intensive process. The potentialities of Gutenberg's machine were quickly grasped and printing spread rapidly throughout Europe in the second half of the 15th century.

Gutenberg Bible

The Gutenberg Bible is the earliest full-scale work printed in Europe using moveable type.

The advent of printing in England was due to the efforts of William Caxton, who was born, probably in Kent, between 1415 and 1424. He was apprenticed to a member of the Mercers' Company in London and subsequently worked for much of his adult life as an English merchant in the Low Countries, particularly in Bruges, where he became governor of the resident English merchants. Caxton's commercial experience must have made him quick to see the potential of print.

Caxton learns to print

Caxton seems to have learnt how to print in Cologne, in what is now Germany. The first evidence of his interest in this new technology was his involvement in the printing there, in 1472, of a massive Latin encyclopaedic work, Bartholomaeus Anglicus's De Proprietatibus Rerum [' On the Properties of Things ']. Wynkyn de Worde, Caxton's associate and successor, who printed an English translation of Bartholomaeus in Westminster in 1495/96, says in the verse epilogue to it that 'William Caxton [was] first printer of this book | In Latin tongue at Cologne'. In fact, the Cologne edition was probably undertaken by a German printer, possibly Johannes Schilling, who organised the production of this book for Caxton and instructed him in the techniques of printing while he was resident there. It is possible that Caxton published other books while in Cologne, but the evidence is not conclusive.

Subsequently, Caxton applied the experience he had gained in Cologne by printing various books in the Low Countries. He seems to have published the first book in English in Ghent, in around 1473. This was his own translation of the Recuyell of the Histories of Troy, an account of the Trojan legend. Caxton states in the preface that he had completed the translation while he was in Cologne in September 1471. In the following year he printed another of his own English translations, the Game of Chess. In Bruges, in 1475, he printed a few more books.

The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye

The first book published in English by William Caxton was his own translation of The Recuyell of the Histories of Troy, an account of the Trojan legend.

Caxton brings printing to England

In around 1476 Caxton returned to England and set up the first printing shop in the country near Westminster Abbey. From here he issued over a hundred books between 1476 and 1492, the year of his death. The size of his organisation is unclear. But since from early in his career he had been publishing large books he must have had a number of workmen to undertake the various aspects of printing, including typesetting, operating the press, proofreading and binding. The great majority of these books were written in English, although a few were in Latin. One of the first major books he printed, in 1477, was Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Caxton was evidently keen to make available to his readers the writings of the most widely known of medieval English poets. He printed a second edition of The Canterbury Tales in 1483, as well as other poems by Chaucer: his Parliament of Fowls and Anelida and Arcite (both c. 1477-78), and his Troilus and Criseyde and House of Fame, both in 1483. He also printed Chaucer's prose translation of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy (1478). Thus Caxton established the tradition of Chaucer in print that has continued over the centuries.

William Caxton's illustrated second edition of The Canterbury Tales

Illustration of the pilgrims from Caxton's second edition of The Canterbury Tales.

Chaucer's works had had a wide manuscript circulation and Caxton used the medium of print to maintain and extend their appeal as the new print technology began to displace copying by hand. He also printed works of other major medieval English poets whose works had enjoyed manuscript popularity, including John Gower's Confessio Amantis and John Lydgate's Life of Our Lady, both of which were published in 1483. Caxton's printed editions brought these poems to a new, contemporary audience. Evidence of early ownership of copies of his editions suggests the social breadth of that audience, including royalty, nobility, gentry, the mercantile classes and religious houses.

Confessio Amantis

Manuscript of Confessio Amantis by John Gower. The poem was popular in its own day, surviving in 59 manuscripts, and Caxton saw this as an opportunity to create a printed version of the work.

However, most of the books Caxton printed in English were in prose. Once more, some of these reflected earlier traditions of manuscript popularity. Thus, he made available in print for the first time such popular historical writings as the prose Brut, a chronicle of English history, that he printed in 1480 and again in 1482, and an English translation of a Latin universal history, the Polychronicon, published in 1482; both of these works had previously circulated widely in manuscript. He also printed English religious works that had enjoyed a similar earlier manuscript appeal, including editions of Nicholas Love's early 15th-century Speculum vitae Christi ['Mirror of the Life of Christ'] in 1484 and 1490, the Pilgrimage of the Soul (in 1483) and editions of various sermon collections, including two of the Festial of John Mirk (in 1483 and 1491), which was printed with the Quattuor Sermones ['Four Sermons']. The largest religious work Caxton printed was a collection of prose saints' lives, The Golden Legend, in 1483. The final works from his press included several concerned with spiritual well-being: The Art and Craft to Know Well to Die (1490), The Craft for to Die Well (1491) and a collection of spiritual writings generally known as The Book of Divers Ghostly [i.e. spiritual] Matters (1491).

Creating new reading markets

But Caxton was not content to simply draw on pre-existing markets for manuscripts for his readership. He also used print to create new markets for novel and different kinds of writing. His most sustained effort of this kind was the publication of a series of prose romances, essentially a new literary form in England in the later 15th century. The most famous work of this kind was his edition of Thomas Malory's prose Arthurian romance, Le Morte Darthur (1485), one of the biggest books his press produced. He printed a number of other romances of this kind, all in his own translations, including Godfrey of Boulogne (1481), The Knight of the Tower (1484), Charles the Great and Paris and Vienne (both in 1485) and Blanchardin and Eglantine and The Four Sons of Aymon (both in 1490).

Le Morte Darthur

The sole surviving manuscript copy of Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur. Under a microscope it is possible to see tiny ink smudges, which suggest that the manuscript was at one time in Caxton's printing shop.

In all, Caxton published more than 20 translations that he had made himself. In fact, these translations virtually sustained his press, being the single most abundant source of material: publications such as Cicero's Of Old Age, Of Friendship and Of Nobility (1481), Christine de Pizan's early 15th-century French Moral Proverbs (1478) and Fayttes of Arms (1489) and Alain Chartier's Curial (1483) were all the result of Caxton's own translation efforts. He also translated Aesop's Fables (1484), a collection of encyclopaedic material, the Mirror of the World (1481), a lengthy religious work called the Royal Book (1487) and a prose version of Virgil's Aeneid, the Eneydos (1490), from French versions. His collection of saints' lives, The Golden Legend, published in 1483 and again in 1487, was partly a translation from French, supplemented by some lives written in Middle English. He published his only translation from Dutch - the beast fable Reynard the Fox - in 1481 and again in 1489. His rendering of the Vitas Patrum ['Lives of the Fathers'], one of the longest of his translational projects, was not published until 1495 by Wynkyn de Worde.

Aesop's Fables printed by William Caxton, 1484

The fable of the raven and the fox from Caxton's 1484 translation of Aesop's Fables.

Adapting for his audience: Caxton as editor and publicist

Caxton's direct involvement in the books he printed was not limited to publishing his own translations. He was also an editor and publicist who adopted various methods to make the books he printed more accessible - and attractive - to his audiences. Many of the books he published contain his own prefaces or epilogues, explaining the contents and/or the circumstances that led him to publish them. And at times he took an active role in editing a work. He made extensive changes to the manuscript of Malory's Morte Darthur, dividing it into books and chapters and modifying some parts of the text where he felt the language could pose difficulties for his readers. On occasions, he added substantial material of his own to a work. He appended an additional 'Liber ultimus' ['Final Book'] to his edition of the Polychronicon to bring its account of history closer to modern times. Caxton clearly felt it necessary and appropriate to consider what he felt were the needs of his audience in preparing his books for publication.

Caxton's cultural and historical impact

It has been estimated that Caxton published over three million words of his own writings during his career, either in direct translation or in passages he added to books he printed. His own prose made important contributions to the English language, including the introduction of a large number of new words into the lexicon: his writings provide the first recorded use of such nouns as 'concussion', 'fortification', 'servitude' and 'voyager' for example. In all, he provides the first usage of over 1,300 words.

Caxton also introduced a limited number of technical changes to the production of his books over the course of his career. He used a variety of different type fonts and he was the first English printer to commission woodcuts to illustrate his books. They appear for the first time in his edition of Mirror of the World (1481) and thereafter in a number of other books, perhaps most famously in his second edition of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, with its portraits of the pilgrims.

William Caxton's illustrated second edition of The Canterbury Tales

Woodcut illustration depicting the Wife of Bath, one of the 31 pilgrims from The Canterbury Tales.

Caxton's emphasis on trying to develop markets for English writings, both for older and for new kinds of writing, is another important aspect of his historical and cultural importance. The works he printed were a significant factor in the development of literacy and readership in late medieval England. English writings became far more widely available than ever before through the proliferation of copies that print technology made possible. After his death, Caxton's press was taken over by his associate Wynkyn de Worde who, initially using Caxton's own type and woodcuts, further extended the range of publications in English, printing over 800 books before his own death in the 1530s. By then the market for English printed books was firmly established in England.
Further reading
The standard biography of Caxton is by George Painter, William Caxton (London: Chatto & Windus, 1976). This now needs to be read in conjunction with Lotte Hellinga, William Caxton and Early Printing in England (London: British Library, 2010), which modifies a number of Painter's conclusions.

A. S. G. Edwards, PhD, FSA, FEA, is Honorary Professor of Medieval English Manuscripts at the University of Kent at Canterbury and Visiting Professor in the English Department at University College, London. He writes mainly about late medieval English manuscripts and early printed books

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William Caxton and the introduction of printing to England | The British Library

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A S G Edwards explains how William Caxton brought the printing press to England, and published printed versions of works by writers including Chaucer, Malory, Gower, Cicero and Virgil.

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"We should note the force, effect, and consequences of inventions which are nowhere more conspicuous than in three discoveries that the ancients didn't know; namely printing, gunpowder, and the nautical compass. These three have changed the whole aspect and state of things throughout the world."

Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, Novum organum, Aphorism 129

William Caxton was born 1422 in the Weald of Kent, England. He is the first English printer and, as a translator and publisher, he exerted an important influence on English literature and language.

Caxton went to London at the age of 16 to become an apprentice to a merchant, later moving to Bruges, Belgium the centre of the wool trade as well as an important centre in the trade of paintings and manuscripts, where he became a successful and important member of the merchant community. From 1462 to 1470 he served as governor of the 'English Nation of Merchant Adventurers' in the Low Countries, which allowed him to represent his fellow merchants, as well as act as a diplomat for the King of the day. This also allowed him to accrue significant wealth and influence. Sometime in 1470 he ceased to be governor and entered the service of Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, sister of Edward IV, the King of England, possibly as her financial adviser.

In this period Caxton's interests were also turning to literature. Although printing with movable type had been invented in 11th-century China, in Europe the technology was not developed until the mid-15th century. The first full-scale book produced with moveable type was printed in the 1450s by Johann Gutenberg in Mainz, but Caxton had realised the English literature demand needed more. In March 1469, and heavily encouraged by Margaret, he had begun to translate Raoul Le Fèvre's ' Recueil des histoires de Troye' from French to English, which he subsequently laid aside and did not finish until September, 1471. In the early 1470's Caxton spent some time in Cologne, Germany learning the art of printing. As a university city as well as an important commercial centre, Cologne was an ideal location for the fledgling book trade. By the 1470s it had become the most important centre of printing in north-west Germany.

He returned to Bruges in 1472 where he and Colard Mansion, a Flemish calligrapher, set up a press. Caxton's own eventual translation of 'Recueil des histoires de Troye' (Eng. - A collection of the histories of Troy) was the first book in history printed in the English language. In the epilogue of Book III of the completed translation he tells how his "pen became worn, his hand weary, his eye dimmed" with copying the book; so he "practised and learnt" at great personal cost how to print it. He set up a press in Bruges about 1474, and the Recueil, the first book printed in English, was published there in 1475. Caxton's translation from the French of ' The Game and Playe of the Chesse' (in which chess is treated as an allegory of life) was published in 1476. Caxton printed two or three other works in Bruges in French, but toward the end of 1476 he returned to England and established his press at Westminster. From then on he devoted himself to writing and printing.

Most continental printers produced books in Latin, the international language of the day, in order to be able to sell them in a number of countries. Caxton, on the other hand, mainly produced books in English for a local market. Although printed books could reach a much wider audience than manuscripts, they were still a luxury in Caxton's day and were thus aimed at fairly wealthy people. However, printing soon led to books becoming available at a cheaper price, and Caxton was part of the beginning of a major change in the way in which people acquired books for information and for entertainment.

Despite the wider readership of the printed book, printers still had to keep in favour with the aristocracy. 1483, the year that saw the second edition of the Canterbury Tales, also saw the death of Edward IV, a major supporter of Caxton's work. When the throne was seized by his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, Caxton lost little time in acknowledging the new regime. The next year his ' Ordre of Chyvalry or Knyghthode' was wisely dedicated to Richard III. The defeat of Richard by Henry VII in 1485 established the Tudor dynasty and restored Caxton's connections at court. A few years later he was commissioned to print the parliamentary statutes passed under Henry VII. For the first time, they were printed in English rather than French - a measure of technological and social change in the age of Caxton.

Just as Martin Luther made the dialect of his home region the standard form of German through his Bible translation, Caxton was responsible for the form of English which was to become the standard. He adopted a special variety of Middle English; the so-called 'King's English' commonly used in London and its surroundings, for his translations and spread this language variety throughout England by his trade. If this was a conscious choice cannot absolutely be asserted, but he had an acute sense of language through his time spent abroad and was aware of the problem of dialect variation in England. Therewith other dialects of the vernacular were marginalised, lost their importance and sometimes died out. So Caxton's introduction of printing marks a turning point in the development of English as a national and later on international language.

The English language was changing rapidly in Caxton's time and the works that he was given to print were in a variety of styles and dialects. Caxton was a technician rather than a writer, and he often faced dilemmas concerning language standardisation in the books that he printed - similarly his successor Wynkyn de Worde faced similar problems. Caxton is credited with standardising the English language through printing-that is, homogenising regional dialects and largely adopting the London dialect. This facilitated the expansion of English vocabulary, the regularisation of inflection and syntax, and a widening gap between the spoken and the written word. It is asserted that the spelling of "ghost" with the silent letter 'h' was adopted by Caxton due to the influence of Flemish spelling habits.

As a successful merchant and businessman he made little attempt to educate or lead public taste, but printed what it was easy for him to know was popular, or what the prevailing predilection for religious writings made a certain success. Romances and poetry were another reasonable venture, while a few works of instruction completed his list. He also worked under patronage in many instances, so that of seventy-seven original works published by him we know that for twenty-three of them he was assured of financial support, and the favour of influential personages.

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How did William Caxton influence and change modern English Language?

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"We should note the force, effect, and consequences of inventions which are nowhere more conspicuous than in three discoveries that the ancients didn't know; namely printing, gunpowder, and the nautical compass. These three have changed the whole aspect and state of things throughout the world."

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About 1474 something never seen in print before rolled off the press: the English language. William Caxton, an English merchant and diplomat, had recently learned of the new technology of print invented by Johann Gutenberg twenty years before, and Caxton capitalized on the commercial opportunity offered by this revolutionary invention. William Caxton and the Birth of English Printing celebrates this foundational moment in the history of English literature and language. Caxton published key works of English literature, such as Chaucer and Malory, as well as short religious and didactic texts, many of which he translated from French or Latin. Through his publishing activity, Caxton also helped to stabilize the English language by promoting a single dialect, and through print this dialect became more prevalent and helped to form the basis of our modern language.

As artifacts of nationalistic importance, Caxton imprints have been choice prizes for collectors since the 18th century. Pierpont Morgan favored Caxton over Gutenberg as a founder of printing and strove to acquire a premiere collection of his work. The Morgan has the third largest collection of Caxtons in the world, preserved for their literary, linguistic, and historical significance.

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William Caxton and the Birth of English Printing

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About 1474 something never seen in print before rolled off the press: the English language. William Caxton, an English merchant and diplomat, had recently learned of the new technology of print invented by Johann Gutenberg twenty years before, and Caxton capitalized on the commercial opportunity offered by this revolutionary invention.

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In the autumn of 1535, the English Bible translator William Tyndale awaited his fate in Vilvoorde Castle near Brussels. Charged with heresy by the Roman Catholic authorities, he was ill, cold and alone in his cell.

During his life he had translated the New Testament and Pentateuch into English, giving England its first translation from the original languages. ( Wycliffe's earlier English translation had been from Latin). But Tyndale still had work to do: the rest of the Old Testament lay ahead. So he wrote a letter to the prison governor requesting his Hebrew Bible, Hebrew grammar books and a Hebrew dictionary, as well as warmer clothing to help him endure the coming winter. Perhaps understanding the futility of his request but trusting in the God he had come to know through translating His words, Tyndale concluded his letter: "But if any other decision has been taken concerning me, . . . I will be patient, abiding the will of God. . . ."

Tyndale grew up with an understanding of the need for a Bible printed in English. He was born around 1494 in Gloucestershire, a county long associated with the Lollards, who preached from Wycliffite Bibles that had been laboriously copied by hand. This gave him a perspective that most of England missed. All other religious services were conducted in Latin, though few, including the priests, understood the language. The Latin Bible itself was a cumbersome volume seen only occasionally in the nation's churches.

While attending Oxford University, Tyndale became skilled in Greek and Latin and, through Desiderius Erasmus's Novum Instrumentum, gained access to the Greek New Testament. The Dutch humanist and theologian had written the work in an effort to correct the Latin Vulgate's many errors. His was the first Latin translation of the Greek New Testament in over a thousand years. Printed in parallel columns of Greek and Latin, the new Latin version caused outrage in conservative circles, but access to the Greek gave Tyndale the start he needed to make his English translation.

Several years later, however, Tyndale's skill with the Scriptures would lead to accusations of heresy, though these were never proved. An incident recorded by the historian John Foxe in his Acts and Monuments (known today as Foxe's Book of Martyrs ) strengthened Tyndale's commitment to give the English people a Bible they could finally understand. Foxe relates that a learned man told Tyndale, "We were better to be without God's law than the pope's." Tyndale replied, "I defy the pope, and all his laws," and added that "if God spared [Tyndale] life, ere many years he would cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of the Scripture than [the pope] did."

Sometime in the summer of 1523 Tyndale approached the Bishop of London, Cuthbert Tunstall. Armed with his translation of a speech by Isocrates, a Greek orator of the fourth century B.C., Tyndale presented proof of his readiness to render the Greek New Testament into English. Although Tunstall was a friend of Erasmus and would have recognized Tyndale's abilities as a translator, he refused the request. Realizing that he would not be able to undertake his translation in England, Tyndale sailed to Germany, never to return.

[Tyndale's] pocket-sized New Testaments had to be smuggled into England, where they were sold openly to eager buyers.

After narrowly avoiding capture in Cologne during the early stages of the printing of his first New Testament, Tyndale managed to complete a large print run in Worms in 1526. The pocket-sized New Testaments had to be smuggled into England, where they were sold openly to eager buyers. Furious, Bishop Tunstall burned all the copies he could trace and arranged for his representatives to buy up translations before they left the Continent. Ironically, this served to fund Tyndale's subsequent translation and revision efforts, and the flood of English New Testaments continued unabated.

In addition to his translations of the Bible, Tyndale wrote several books including The Obedience of a Christian Man, The Parable of the Wicked Mammon and The Practice of Prelates. Although written to contradict the allegations against him, the books further angered his enemies, especially the English statesman Sir Thomas More. More privately admired Tyndale's translations, but he nevertheless considered him a heretic who had to be destroyed. Calling him a "hell-hound in the kennel of the devil" and "a new Judas," More said that in translating the New Testament into English, Tyndale was "discharging a filthy foam of blasphemies out of his brutish, beastly mouth."

Foxe records that shortly after Tyndale started translating the Old Testament into English, he headed for Hamburg to print the book of Deuteronomy, but was shipwrecked. He lost everything, including copies of his manuscript, and had to start afresh. With the help of another English translator, Miles Coverdale, he published his Pentateuch in early 1530. Hebrew was virtually unknown in England-Tyndale apparently learned it in Germany-so with his Old Testament work, the English were able for the first time ever to read English translated from Hebrew.

Tyndale published a revision of his magnum opus, his New Testament translation, in 1534. Printed again in pocket size, this was the first translation to have his name on the title page. In the prologue he acknowledged the delay in production but assured his readers that he had done the most careful job possible: "I have looked over [it] again . . . with all diligence, and compared it unto the Greek, and have weeded out of it many faults, which lack of help at the beginning, and oversight, did sow therein."

Shortly after publication of the revised New Testament, Tyndale was betrayed to the authorities in Brussels and imprisoned for 16 months. On or about October 6, 1536, after all attempts to secure his release had failed, he was strangled to death at the stake and his body burned. Foxe records that before he died, Tyndale cried out in a loud voice, "Lord! open the king of England's eyes."

His prayer appears to have been answered within a matter of months. Shortly after Tyndale's death, King Henry VIII licensed the first official English Bible. Published in 1537 and named "Matthew's Bible," it was prepared by Tyndale's friend, John Rogers, and included Tyndale's final revision of his 1534 New Testament, the 1534 Pentateuch and his Old Testament work up to the book of Chronicles. The remainder of the Matthew's Bible's Old Testament was edited from Coverdale's English Bible. (Coverdale, apparently unbeknownst to Tyndale, had printed the first complete English Bible in 1535, working primarily from the Latin Vulgate.) Between the two Testaments in the Matthew's Bible, the large ornamental initials WT silently attest to Tyndale's remarkable contribution.

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In the autumn of 1535, the English Bible translator William Tyndale awaited his fate in Vilvoorde Castle near Brussels. Charged with heresy by the Roman Catholic authorities, he was ill, cold and alone in his cell. During his life he had translated the New Testament and Pentateuch into English, giving England its first translation from the original languages.

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Christian History | Learn the History of Christianity & the Church

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Translator of the first English New Testament

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William Tyndale was an English scholar who became a leading figure in the Protestant Reformation in the years leading up to his execution. He is well known for ...

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William Tyndale, (born c. 1490-94, near Gloucestershire, England-died October 6, 1536, Vilvoorde, near Brussels, Brabant), English biblical translator, humanist, and Protestant martyr.

Tyndale was educated at the University of Oxford and became an instructor at the University of Cambridge, where, in 1521, he fell in with a group of humanist scholars meeting at the White Horse Inn. Tyndale became convinced that the Bible alone should determine the practices and doctrines of the church and that all believers should be able to read the Bible in their own language.

Because of the influence of printing and a demand for Scriptures in the vernacular, William Tyndale began working on a New Testament translation directly from the Greek in 1523. After church authorities in England prevented him from translating the Bible there, he went to Germany in 1524, receiving financial support from wealthy London merchants. His New Testament translation was completed in July 1525 and printed at Cologne. Again under pressure, this time from the city authorities, Tyndale fled to Worms, where two more editions were published in 1525. The first copies were smuggled into England in 1526, where they were at once proscribed.

When the New Testament was finished, Tyndale began work on the Old Testament. The Pentateuch was issued in Marburg in 1530, each of the five books being separately published and circulated. Tyndale continued to work on the Old Testament translation but was captured in Antwerp before it was completed. Condemned for heresy, he was executed by strangulation and then burned at the stake at Vilvoorde in 1536.

At the time of his death, 18,000 copies of his New Testament had been printed; however, only two complete volumes and a fragment remain today, at London's British Library. Tyndale's greatest achievement was the ability to strike a felicitous balance between the needs of scholarship, simplicity of expression, and literary gracefulness, all in a uniform dialect. The effect was the creation of an English style of Bible translation, tinged with Hebraisms, that was to serve as the model for future English versions for nearly 400 years, beginning with the King James Version of 1611.

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William Tyndale | Biography, Bible, Death, & Facts

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William Tyndale, English biblical translator, humanist, and Protestant martyr. He believed that the Bible alone should determine the practices and doctrines of the church. He translated the New Testament and parts of the Old Testament into English before being executed for heresy.

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Few English monarchs enjoy a loftier reputation than the 'hero' of Agincourt. Yet, says Ian Mortimer, the real Henry V was a cold, aloof man, prone to acts of breathtaking cruelty and arrogance

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Few English monarchs enjoy a loftier reputation than the 'hero' of Agincourt. Yet, says Ian Mortimer, the real Henry V was a cold, aloof man, prone to acts of breathtaking cruelty and arrogance

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Teresa Cole explores the life and legacy of the medieval warrior king in her book, Henry V: The Life of the Warrior King & the Battle of Agincourt 1415. Here, writing for History Extra, she reveals 10 lesser-known facts about Henry V...

1

Henry V was born at Monmouth castle, perched high above the River Monnow, but there is no record of his birth, and even the year is uncertain. Some say his birthday was 9 August 1387, but an alternative date is 16 September 1386. The latter comes from a horoscope drawn up for the king and apparently commissioned by him just before the Agincourt campaign.

However, the French astrologer who drew the horoscope was later accused in Paris of being an English spy, and it is possible the work was just an excuse for the man to come to England and meet with Henry. The king apparently showed no interest in the horoscope afterwards.

2

When his father, Henry Bolingbroke, seized the throne, the young Henry was in the custody of King Richard II as a hostage for his father's good behaviour. Had it been a few centuries earlier he could have expected, at the least, to be blinded if not put to death.

Richard, however, was made of different stuff. He had treated the boy well, spent time with him, took him with him on the expedition to Ireland, and even knighted him on the way. Even when he heard of the attack on his crown, he made no threats against him.

It seems that, in return, Henry saw Richard as something of a father figure. According to one account, when his own father - now secure in the palace of Westminster - sent for him, Henry went instead to Richard in the Tower, and only at his insistence went on to his father. When Henry himself became king he had Richard's body exhumed from its obscure grave and reburied in Westminster Abbey.

3

Henry's first battle [before he was king] was not against the French, but the English. At Shrewsbury on 21 July 1403 the 16-year-old Henry, Prince of Wales, lined up alongside his father to face the forces of the rebel lord, Henry Percy.

At Shrewsbury Henry led his forces well, and made a major contribution to the victory. In the course of the battle, however, he was shot in the face by an arrow that entered below his eye, missed both brain and spinal cord and stuck in the bone at the back of the skull. To remove the embedded arrowhead, special tongs had to be designed, made and carefully inserted nearly six inches into the wound to grip and extract the metal.

It took a further three weeks to cleanse and close up the hole - and all this in the days before anaesthetics.

4

The tactics used by Henry V in his French wars were first tried out in Wales. At about the same time that he became Prince of Wales (aged 13), Owain Glyndwr began a violent rebellion against the English. The king's policy of attack and withdraw was unsuccessful, and Glyndwr rapidly spread his influence from north Wales to almost the whole country.

When, however, in his late teens, Henry was given a freer hand, he changed tactics. Now he concentrated on taking strategic castles which were then garrisoned and held securely, cutting off supply routes and enabling further advances. Gradually Glendower was forced back to two strongholds on the west coast - Aberystwyth and Harlech. Each was besieged and battered by traditional siege weapons, and, for what is thought to have been the first time in Britain, cannon were used.

Eventually Glyndwr's supporters were starved into submission, and though Glyndwr himself was never captured, the war was ended. A few years after this, using the same tactics, Henry conquered first Normandy, and then a large part of northern France.

5

In 1307, Philippe IV of France seized the property of the wealthy Order of Knights Templar, and tortured and put to death its members. The story is told that, as the last Grand Master died, he laid a curse on Philippe and his descendants, saying the king would die within a year. Eight months later Philippe died in a hunting accident.

Two years after that his son, Louis X died, aged 26, after a strenuous game of tennis. His son, John I, born five months later, lived only five days, and in the next 12 years the last direct male descendants of Philippe also died.

Those closest in line to the empty throne were Jeanne, daughter of Louis and Jeanne of Navarre, and Edward III of England, whose mother was Philippe's daughter. Navarre and England, however, were equally unacceptable, and Philippe de Valois, a cousin of the last king [Charles IV], was crowned instead. Edward challenged this starting the so-called Hundred Years' War, and it was his claim that was later revived by Henry V.

6

A large slice of the money needed to pay for the French campaigns was raised by loans rather than taxes. In May 1415 Henry sent letters appealing for money to individuals, and to towns. Typically a town would decide on the amount of the loan, and then every citizen would be assessed to contribute even a few pennies to the sum agreed.

Royal jewels, plate and regalia were handed out as security for repayment. Not only did this raise a large amount of money, but it meant almost everyone had an interest in the outcome of the French wars.

One individual in London who lent money to Henry was Sir Richard Whittington, a rich cloth merchant who was indeed the same Dick Whittington as in the children's story. He was lord mayor of London three times.

7

With the French king subject to fits of madness, his son the dauphin plays a prominent role in the accounts of Henry's campaigns. The impression is often given that 'the dauphin', who, if Shakespeare is to be believed, insulted Henry with a gift of tennis balls [a sign of mockery], was the same 'dauphin' who would later be crowned Charles VII by Joan of Arc at Rheims cathedral.

In fact there were three different dauphins over this period. The first was Louis of tennis ball fame, who, though kept away from the battle of Agincourt, died soon after, possibly of dysentery or pneumonia. Louis was followed by his brother John, who was the son-in-law of the Burgundian leader, John the Fearless.

This dauphin died suddenly in April 1417, some said by poison, and he was succeeded by his last remaining brother, Charles, who after the death of Henry V, and with a great deal of help from his mother-in-law, Yolande of Aragon, finally became Charles VII in 1429.

8

The French plan at Agincourt was to use massed cavalry to charge down the English archers. Henry V learnt of this from a French prisoner some days before the battle, and immediately took steps to counter it: every archer was to drive a sharpened stake into the ground in front of him on the battlefield to stop a charging horse.

The plan worked very well but was probably not Henry's own plan. The French commander, Marshal Boucicaut, had earlier fought against the Turks at the battle of Nicopolis, and had seen a cavalry charge halted by a similar mass of sharpened stakes. He had written an account of this and it is possible that either Henry himself, or perhaps one of his commanders, Edward Duke of York, had read it and remembered the effectiveness of the tactic.

9

There are no reliable figures for the size of the French army at Agincourt, but they numbered many thousands, and in their eagerness to get at the English most of the leading figures were crammed into the front ranks.

When the action was triggered by a flight of arrows from the English side, the French charged forward in accordance with their battle plan. Funnelled into a narrower part of the field where Henry had taken up his position, the French were crammed together, and though many did not reach the English ranks, many more did. As these were cut down, those pressing behind climbed over them, and anyone who slipped or fell in the muddy ground had little chance of getting up again.

As the battle progressed the pile of bodies rose higher, and any who were wounded or simply knocked over were crushed beneath the weight of those coming behind. Very few were found alive when the heaps of bodies were at last unpicked after the battle.

10

Sieges were dangerous places for both those inside and out: insanitary conditions and a shortage of fresh water frequently led to outbreaks of dysentery among the besieged and the besiegers, and it is likely that Henry contracted his final illness at the siege of Meaux - though it took some time to weaken him and claim his life.
To find out more about Teresa Cole's Henry V: The Life of the Warrior King & the Battle of Agincourt 1415 (Amberley Publishing, 2015) click here. This article was first published in April 2015
His body was brought back to England for burial, and after considerable ceremony he was laid to rest behind the altar in Westminster Abbey, close to his hero Edward the Confessor, and within yards of the tomb of Richard II. A magnificent chapel was erected around him, and a life-sized effigy placed on the tomb with a head of solid silver.

Sadly the silver was stolen in the 16th century, and the later Tudor building dwarfs his resting place. Thousands of tourists pass the spot without realising he is there, and all that can be seen of the effigy is the soles of its feet.

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10 things you (probably) didn't know about Henry V and the battle of Agincourt

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Henry V (born c1386/7) ruled England from 1413 until his death in 1422. He is one of England's most popular kings, famed for his victory of the French at the 1415 battle of Agincourt, during the Hundred Years' War with France.

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Teresa Cole explores the life and legacy of the medieval warrior king in her book, Henry V: The Life of the Warrior King & the Battle of Agincourt 1415. Here, writing for History Extra, she reveals 10 lesser-known facts about Henry V...

1

Henry V was born at Monmouth castle, perched high above the River Monnow, but there is no record of his birth, and even the year is uncertain. Some say his birthday was 9 August 1387, but an alternative date is 16 September 1386. The latter comes from a horoscope drawn up for the king and apparently commissioned by him just before the Agincourt campaign.

However, the French astrologer who drew the horoscope was later accused in Paris of being an English spy, and it is possible the work was just an excuse for the man to come to England and meet with Henry. The king apparently showed no interest in the horoscope afterwards.

2

When his father, Henry Bolingbroke, seized the throne, the young Henry was in the custody of King Richard II as a hostage for his father's good behaviour. Had it been a few centuries earlier he could have expected, at the least, to be blinded if not put to death.

Richard, however, was made of different stuff. He had treated the boy well, spent time with him, took him with him on the expedition to Ireland, and even knighted him on the way. Even when he heard of the attack on his crown, he made no threats against him.

It seems that, in return, Henry saw Richard as something of a father figure. According to one account, when his own father - now secure in the palace of Westminster - sent for him, Henry went instead to Richard in the Tower, and only at his insistence went on to his father. When Henry himself became king he had Richard's body exhumed from its obscure grave and reburied in Westminster Abbey.

3

Henry's first battle [before he was king] was not against the French, but the English. At Shrewsbury on 21 July 1403 the 16-year-old Henry, Prince of Wales, lined up alongside his father to face the forces of the rebel lord, Henry Percy.

At Shrewsbury Henry led his forces well, and made a major contribution to the victory. In the course of the battle, however, he was shot in the face by an arrow that entered below his eye, missed both brain and spinal cord and stuck in the bone at the back of the skull. To remove the embedded arrowhead, special tongs had to be designed, made and carefully inserted nearly six inches into the wound to grip and extract the metal.

It took a further three weeks to cleanse and close up the hole - and all this in the days before anaesthetics.

4

The tactics used by Henry V in his French wars were first tried out in Wales. At about the same time that he became Prince of Wales (aged 13), Owain Glyndwr began a violent rebellion against the English. The king's policy of attack and withdraw was unsuccessful, and Glyndwr rapidly spread his influence from north Wales to almost the whole country.

When, however, in his late teens, Henry was given a freer hand, he changed tactics. Now he concentrated on taking strategic castles which were then garrisoned and held securely, cutting off supply routes and enabling further advances. Gradually Glendower was forced back to two strongholds on the west coast - Aberystwyth and Harlech. Each was besieged and battered by traditional siege weapons, and, for what is thought to have been the first time in Britain, cannon were used.

Eventually Glyndwr's supporters were starved into submission, and though Glyndwr himself was never captured, the war was ended. A few years after this, using the same tactics, Henry conquered first Normandy, and then a large part of northern France.

5

In 1307, Philippe IV of France seized the property of the wealthy Order of Knights Templar, and tortured and put to death its members. The story is told that, as the last Grand Master died, he laid a curse on Philippe and his descendants, saying the king would die within a year. Eight months later Philippe died in a hunting accident.

Two years after that his son, Louis X died, aged 26, after a strenuous game of tennis. His son, John I, born five months later, lived only five days, and in the next 12 years the last direct male descendants of Philippe also died.

Those closest in line to the empty throne were Jeanne, daughter of Louis and Jeanne of Navarre, and Edward III of England, whose mother was Philippe's daughter. Navarre and England, however, were equally unacceptable, and Philippe de Valois, a cousin of the last king [Charles IV], was crowned instead. Edward challenged this starting the so-called Hundred Years' War, and it was his claim that was later revived by Henry V.

6

A large slice of the money needed to pay for the French campaigns was raised by loans rather than taxes. In May 1415 Henry sent letters appealing for money to individuals, and to towns. Typically a town would decide on the amount of the loan, and then every citizen would be assessed to contribute even a few pennies to the sum agreed.

Royal jewels, plate and regalia were handed out as security for repayment. Not only did this raise a large amount of money, but it meant almost everyone had an interest in the outcome of the French wars.

One individual in London who lent money to Henry was Sir Richard Whittington, a rich cloth merchant who was indeed the same Dick Whittington as in the children's story. He was lord mayor of London three times.

7

With the French king subject to fits of madness, his son the dauphin plays a prominent role in the accounts of Henry's campaigns. The impression is often given that 'the dauphin', who, if Shakespeare is to be believed, insulted Henry with a gift of tennis balls [a sign of mockery], was the same 'dauphin' who would later be crowned Charles VII by Joan of Arc at Rheims cathedral.

In fact there were three different dauphins over this period. The first was Louis of tennis ball fame, who, though kept away from the battle of Agincourt, died soon after, possibly of dysentery or pneumonia. Louis was followed by his brother John, who was the son-in-law of the Burgundian leader, John the Fearless.

This dauphin died suddenly in April 1417, some said by poison, and he was succeeded by his last remaining brother, Charles, who after the death of Henry V, and with a great deal of help from his mother-in-law, Yolande of Aragon, finally became Charles VII in 1429.

8

The French plan at Agincourt was to use massed cavalry to charge down the English archers. Henry V learnt of this from a French prisoner some days before the battle, and immediately took steps to counter it: every archer was to drive a sharpened stake into the ground in front of him on the battlefield to stop a charging horse.

The plan worked very well but was probably not Henry's own plan. The French commander, Marshal Boucicaut, had earlier fought against the Turks at the battle of Nicopolis, and had seen a cavalry charge halted by a similar mass of sharpened stakes. He had written an account of this and it is possible that either Henry himself, or perhaps one of his commanders, Edward Duke of York, had read it and remembered the effectiveness of the tactic.

9

There are no reliable figures for the size of the French army at Agincourt, but they numbered many thousands, and in their eagerness to get at the English most of the leading figures were crammed into the front ranks.

When the action was triggered by a flight of arrows from the English side, the French charged forward in accordance with their battle plan. Funnelled into a narrower part of the field where Henry had taken up his position, the French were crammed together, and though many did not reach the English ranks, many more did. As these were cut down, those pressing behind climbed over them, and anyone who slipped or fell in the muddy ground had little chance of getting up again.

As the battle progressed the pile of bodies rose higher, and any who were wounded or simply knocked over were crushed beneath the weight of those coming behind. Very few were found alive when the heaps of bodies were at last unpicked after the battle.

10

Sieges were dangerous places for both those inside and out: insanitary conditions and a shortage of fresh water frequently led to outbreaks of dysentery among the besieged and the besiegers, and it is likely that Henry contracted his final illness at the siege of Meaux - though it took some time to weaken him and claim his life.
To find out more about Teresa Cole's Henry V: The Life of the Warrior King & the Battle of Agincourt 1415 (Amberley Publishing, 2015) click here. This article was first published in April 2015
His body was brought back to England for burial, and after considerable ceremony he was laid to rest behind the altar in Westminster Abbey, close to his hero Edward the Confessor, and within yards of the tomb of Richard II. A magnificent chapel was erected around him, and a life-sized effigy placed on the tomb with a head of solid silver.

Sadly the silver was stolen in the 16th century, and the later Tudor building dwarfs his resting place. Thousands of tourists pass the spot without realising he is there, and all that can be seen of the effigy is the soles of its feet.

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10 things you (probably) didn't know about Henry V and the battle of Agincourt

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Henry V (born c1386/7) ruled England from 1413 until his death in 1422. He is one of England's most popular kings, famed for his victory of the French at the 1415 battle of Agincourt, during the Hundred Years' War with France.

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Studying the History of English, (c) Raymond Hickey

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Studying the History of English is a guide to the history of English maps, charts, figures and much background information. Written by Raymond Hickey, University of Limerick, Ireland. Last update: July 2026.

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The Anglo-Saxon settlement

It's never easy to pinpoint exactly when a specific language began, but in the case of English we can at least say that there is little sense in speaking of the English language as a separate entity before the Anglo-Saxons came to Britain. Little is known of this period with any certainty, but we do know that Germanic invaders came and settled in Britain from the north-western coastline of continental Europe in the fifth and sixth centuries. The invaders all spoke a language that was Germanic (related to what emerged as Dutch, Frisian, German and the Scandinavian languages, and to Gothic), but we'll probably never know how different their speech was from that of their continental neighbours. However it is fairly certain that many of the settlers would have spoken in exactly the same way as some of their north European neighbours, and that not all of the settlers would have spoken in the same way.

The reason that we know so little about the linguistic situation in this period is because we do not have much in the way of written records from any of the Germanic languages of north-western Europe until several centuries later. When Old English writings begin to appear in the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries there is a good deal of regional variation, but not substantially more than that found in later periods. This was the language that Alfred the Great referred to as 'English' in the ninth century.

The Celts were already resident in Britain when the Anglo-Saxons arrived, but there are few obvious traces of their language in English today. Some scholars have suggested that the Celtic tongue might have had an underlying influence on the grammatical development of English, particularly in some parts of the country, but this is highly speculative. The number of loanwords known for certain to have entered Old English from this source is very small. Those that survive in modern English include brock (badger), and coomb a type of valley, alongside many place names.

The Scandinavian settlements

The next invaders were the Norsemen. From the middle of the ninth century large numbers of Norse invaders settled in Britain, particularly in northern and eastern areas, and in the eleventh century the whole of England had a Danish king, Canute. The distinct North Germanic speech of the Norsemen had great influence on English, most obviously seen in the words that English has borrowed from this source. These include some very basic words such as take and even grammatical words such as they. The common Germanic base of the two languages meant that there were still many similarities between Old English and the language of the invaders. Some words, for example give, perhaps show a kind of hybridization with some spellings going back to Old English and others being Norse in origin. However, the resemblances between the two languages are so great that in many cases it is impossible to be sure of the exact ancestry of a particular word or spelling. However, much of the influence of Norse, including the vast majority of the loanwords, does not appear in written English until after the next great historical and cultural upheaval, the Norman Conquest.
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Five events that shaped the history of English: part one | OxfordWords blog

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It's never easy to pinpoint exactly when a specific language began, but in the case of English we can at least say that there is little sense in speaking of the English language as a separate entity before the Anglo-Saxons came to Britain.

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How did the Celts fight back?

When the Romans invaded, the Celtic tribes had to decide whether or not to fight back. If they made peace, they agreed to obey Roman laws and pay taxes. In return, they could keep their kingdoms. However, some Celtic leaders chose to fight.

After years of heavy taxes and the Romans taking their land, some Celtic tribes were desperate for revenge. In AD60, one leader who chose to fight was Queen Boudica of the Iceni tribe. She raised a huge army and went on a rampage, burning the Roman towns of Colchester and London, before heading north to St Albans.

When the Roman army heard about this, they turned back from their campaign in Wales to face Boudica. Even though the Romans were outnumbered by Boudica's 200,000 warriors, they were better trained and had better armour. Both sides clashed in a fierce battle, but the Romans won.

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When the Romans invaded, the Celtic tribes had to decide whether or not to fight back. If they made peace, they agreed to obey Roman laws and pay taxes. In return, they could keep their kingdoms. However, some Celtic leaders chose to fight.

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From Julius Caesar's first landing on the shoreline of England in 55BC to the famous 'Look to your own defences' letter of AD410, the Romans played an important part in British history for over 400 years. In this article, we take a look at the ups and downs of this often fraught relationship!

55 BC - Julius Caesar leads the first Roman military expedition to Britain, although his visit did not lead to conquest.

54 BC - Julius Caesar's second expedition; again, the invasion did not lead to conquest.
Above: Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain
27 BC - Augustus becomes the first Roman emperor.

AD 43 - The Roman Emperor Claudius orders four legions to conquer Britain

AD 43 (August) - The Romans capture the capital of the Catuvellauni tribe, Colchester, Essex.

AD 44 (June) - The Romans capture the hills forts of Dorset, including Maiden Castle.

AD 48 - The Romans have now conquered all territory between the Humber Estuary and the Severn Estuary. Parts that remain under British control include Dumnonii ( Cornwall and Devon), Wales and the North West of England.

AD 47 - The Romans force their allies, the Iceni tribe of East Anglia, to relinquish all of their weapons. The Iceni resist but their revolt is short lived.

AD 49 - The Romans found a colony (or colonia) at Colchester for retired soldiers. This was to be the first civilian centre of Roman Britain and - for a time - the capital of the territory.

AD 51 - The leader of the exiled Catuvellauni tribe, Caratacus, is captured. He had led a protracted guerrilla war against the occupying Roman forces for years, but was eventually brought to battle by the Roman governor Publius Ostorius. Caratacus spent the remainder of his days in retirement in Italy.

AD 60 - The Romans attack the Druid stronghold of Anglesey. The campaign to occupy Wales was however cut short by the Iceni revolt in south east England.

AD 61 - After attempting to fully annexe East Anglia, Boudica leads a rebellion of the Iceni against the Romans. After burning down Colchester, London and St Albans, Boudica was eventually defeated at the Battle of Watling Street.
Above: Boudica (or Boudicea) leading the Iceni rebellion against the Romans.
AD 75 - Building of the palace at Fishbourne commences.

AD 80 - London has grown to the point where it now houses a forum, basilica, governor's palace and even an amphitheatre.
Above: The remains of London's Roman Basilica, which can still be seen today in a barber's shop in Leadenhall Market!
AD 84 - The Romans engage the Caledonians at Mons Graupius, Scotland. Although the location of this battle is uncertain, it is thought that it took place somewhere in modern day Aberdeenshire.

AD 100 - Most of the 8,000 miles of Roman roads in Britain are completed, allowing troops and goods to travel easily across the country.

The new Roman emperor, Trajan, also orders a complete withdrawal from Scotland and the construction of a new frontier between Newcastle-on-Tyne and Carlisle.

AD 122 - To strengthen the border between Roman-occupied Britain and Scotland, Emperor Hadrian orders the construction of a wall. Interestingly, many of the early forts along Hadrian's Wall face south into Brigantian territory, showing the ongoing threat posed by recently subverted tribes of northern England.
Above: Hadrian's Wall today. ©VisitBritain
AD 139 - 140 - The Antonine Wall in Scotland is built, dramatically shifting the northern border of Roman occupied Britain. This new wall is built of earth and timber, and is strengthened by a series of forts along its length.

AD 150 - Villas start appearing across the British countryside. Compared to their southern counterparts they are fairly modest however, with fewer than ten having mosaic floors.

AD 155 - St Albans in Hertfordshire, one of the largest towns in Roman Britain, is destroyed by fire.

AD 163 - The order is given to abandon the Antonine Wall and for Roman troops to withdraw back to Hadrian's Wall. Although the reasons for this are unclear, it is thought that an uprising by the Brigantes had forced the retreat.

AD 182 - The Brigantes, along with other tribes of southern Scotland and northern England, start revolting against the Romans. Fighting continued for years along Hadrian's Wall, with towns further south building preventative defences should the rioting spread.

AD 197 - After a period of in-fighting within Rome, a series of military commissioners arrive in Britain looking to purge any supporters of the recently ousted usurper, Decimus Clodius. They also look at rebuilding Hadrian's Wall after over 15 years of clashes with the northern tribes.

AD 209 - After years of protracted conflict with the northern tribes, the Romans lead an army to Hadrian's Wall border to engage the Caledonians. With the Romans aiming to meet the rebels in pitched battle, the Caledonians instead opt for guerrilla warfare. This forces peace treaties to be signed between the belligerents.

AD 211 - Britain is divided up into two separate provinces; the south was to be called "Britannia Superior" (superior being in reference to the fact that it was closer to Rome), with the north being named "Britannia Inferior". London was the new capital of the south, with York the capital of the north.

AD 250 onwards - New threats to Roman Britannia emerge as the Picts from Scotland, as well as the Angles, Saxon and Jutes from Germany and Scandinavia, start threatening Roman lands.

AD 255 - With the increasing threat from seaborne Germanic tribes, London's city wall is completed with the final stretch along the north bank of the Thames.
Above: A portion of London's Roman city wall seen by the Tower of London.
AD 259 - Britain, Gaul and Spain split away from the Roman Empire, creating the so-called 'Gallic Empire'.

AD 274 - The Gallic Empire is re-absorbed into the main Roman Empire.

AD 287 - The admiral of the Roman Channel fleet, Carausius, declares himself Emperor of Britain and Northern Gaul and starts minting his own coins.

AD 293 - Carausius is assassinated by his treasurer, Allectus, who quickly starts work on his palace in London to solidify his claim to authority. He also starts building the famous 'Saxon Shore Forts' along the coasts of Britain, both to strengthen defenses against the Germanic tribes to the east but also to prevent Rome from sending a fleet to recover Britain for the empire.

AD 296 - The Roman Empire recaptures Britannia and Allectus is killed in battle near Silchester in Hampshire. Britain is then split up into four provinces; Maxima Caesariensis (northern England up to Hadrian's Wall), Britannia Prima (the south of England), Flavia Caesariensis (the Midlands and East Anglia) and Britannia Secunda (Wales).

AD 314 - Christianity becomes legal in the Roman Empire.

AD 343 - Probably in response to a military emergency (although no-one is quite sure what this emergency was in relation to), Emperor Constans makes a visit to Britain.

AD 367 - Barbarians from Scotland, Ireland and Germany co-ordinate their attacks and launch raids on Roman Britain. Many towns are plundered throughout the province, and Britain falls into a state of anarchy.

AD 369 - A large force from Rome, led by military commander Theodosius, arrives in Britain and drives back the Barbarians.

AD 396 - Large scale Barbarian attacks on Britain start up again. Large naval engagements are ordered against the invaders, with reinforcements arriving from other areas of the empire.

AD 399 - Peace is fully restored throughout Roman Britannia.

AD 401 - A large amount of troops are withdrawn from Britain to assist with the war again Alaric I, who is attempting to sack Rome.

AD 406 - For the past five years, Roman Britannia has suffered frequent breaches of its borders by Barbarian forces. With the Roman Empire focused on the more serious threats to Italy, reinforcements have stopped and Britain is left to its own devices.

AD 407 - The remaining Roman garrisons in Britain proclaim one of their generals, Constantine III, Emperor of the Western Roman Empire. Constantine quickly pulls together a force and crosses the English Channel to invade Gaul, leaving Britain with only a skeleton force to defend itself.

AD 409 - After throwing off their allegiance to Constantine III in 408, the local British populace expel the final remnants of Roman authority in 409.

AD 410 - With increased incursions from the Saxons, Scots, Picts and Angles, Britain turns to the Roman emperor Honorius for help. He writes back telling them to 'look to their own defenses' and refuses to send any help. This letter marked the end of Roman Britain.

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From Julius Caesar's first landing on the shoreline of England in 55BC to the famous 'Look to your own defences' letter of AD410, the Romans played an important part in British history for over 400 years. In this article, we take a look at the ups and downs of this often fraught relationship!

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The influence of Scandinavian in Britain and Ireland can be seen by examining placenames which are of Viking origin. In England these are mostly in the Danelaw. In Scotland they are found on Shetland and Orkney as well as the north-west of the mainland with the offshore islands.

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The period of the Scandinavian invasions

Viking invasions and settlements

Small scattered Viking raids began in the last years of the 8th century; in the 9th century large-scale plundering incursions were made in Britain and in the Frankish empire as well. Though Egbert defeated a large Viking force in 838 that had combined with the Britons of Cornwall and Aethelwulf won a great victory in 851 over a Viking army that had stormed Canterbury and London and put the Mercian king to flight, it was difficult to deal with an enemy that could attack anywhere on a long and undefended coastline. Destructive raids are recorded for Northumbria, East Anglia, Kent, and Wessex.

A large Danish army came to East Anglia in the autumn of 865, apparently intent on conquest. By 871, when it first attacked Wessex, it had already captured York, been bought off by Mercia, and had taken possession of East Anglia. Many battles were fought in Wessex, including one that led to a Danish defeat at Ashdown in 871. Alfred the Great, a son of Aethelwulf, succeeded to the throne in the course of the year and made peace; this gave him a respite until 876. Meanwhile the Danes drove out Burgred of Mercia, putting a puppet king in his place, and one of their divisions made a permanent settlement in Northumbria.

Alfred was able to force the Danes to leave Wessex in 877, and they settled northeastern Mercia; but a Viking attack in the winter of 878 came near to conquering Wessex. That it did not succeed is to be attributed to Alfred's tenacity. He retired to the Somerset marshes, and in the spring he secretly assembled an army that routed the Danes at Edington. Their king, Guthrum, accepted Christianity and took his forces to East Anglia, where they settled.

The importance of Alfred's victory cannot be exaggerated. It prevented the Danes from becoming masters of the whole of England. Wessex was never again in danger of falling under Danish control, and in the next century the Danish areas were reconquered from Wessex. Alfred's capture of London in 886 and the resultant acceptance of him by all the English outside the Danish areas was a preliminary to this reconquest. That Wessex stood when the other kingdoms had fallen must be put down to Alfred's courage and wisdom, to his defensive measures in reorganizing his army, to his building fortresses and ships, and to his diplomacy, which made the Welsh kings his allies. Renewed attacks by Viking hosts in 892-896, supported by the Danes resident in England, caused widespread damage but had no lasting success.

Alfred's government and his revival of learning

Good internal government contributed to Alfred's successful resistance to the Danes. He reorganized his finances and the services due from thegns, issued an important code of laws, and scrutinized carefully the exercise of justice. Alfred saw the Viking invasions as a punishment from God, especially because of a neglect of learning, without which men could not know and follow the will of God. He deplored the decay of Latin and enjoined its study by those destined for the church, but he also wished all young freemen of adequate means to learn to read English, and he aimed at supplying men with "the books most necessary for all men to know," in their own language.

Alfred had acquired an education despite great difficulties, and he translated some books himself with the help of scholars from Mercia, the Continent, and Wales. Among them they made available works of Bede and Orosius, Gregory and Augustine, and the De consolatione philosophiae of Boethius. Compilation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle began in his reign. The effects of Alfred's educational reforms can be glimpsed in succeeding reigns, and his works continued to be copied. Only in his attempt to revive monasticism did he achieve little, for the monastic idea had lost its appeal-in England as well as on the Continent-during the Viking Age.

The achievement of political unity

The reconquest of the Danelaw

When Alfred died in 899, his son Edward succeeded him. A large-scale incursion by the Danes of Northumbria ended in their crushing defeat at Tettenhall in 910. Edward completed his father's plan of building a ring of fortresses around Wessex, and his sister Aethelflaed took similar measures in Mercia. In 912 Edward was ready to begin the series of campaigns by which he relentlessly advanced into the Danelaw (Danish territory in England), securing each advance by a fortress, until he won back Essex, East Anglia, and the east-Midland Danish areas. Aethelflaed moved similarly against the Danish territory of the Five Boroughs (Derby, Leicester, Nottingham, Lincoln, and Stamford). She obtained Derby and Leicester and gained a promise of submission from the Northumbrian Danes before she died in 918. Edward had by then reached Stamford, but he broke off his advance to secure his acceptance by the Mercians at Tamworth and to prevent their setting up an independent kingdom. Then he took Nottingham, and all the Danes in Mercia submitted to him.

Meanwhile another danger had arisen: Norsemen from Ireland had been settling for some time west of the Pennines, and Northumbria was threatened by Raegnald, a Norse leader from Dublin, who made himself king at York in 919. Edward built fortresses at Thelwall and Manchester, and in 920 he received Raegnald's submission, along with that of the Scots, the Strathclyde Welsh, and all the Northumbrians. Yet Norse kings reigned at York intermittently until 954.

The kingdom of England

Athelstan succeeded his father Edward in 924. He made terms with Raegnald's successor Sihtric and gave him his sister in marriage. When Sihtric died in 927, Athelstan took possession of Northumbria, thus becoming the first king to have direct rule of all England. He received the submission of the kings of Wales and Scotland and of the English ruler of Northumbria beyond the Tyne.

Athelstan was proud of his position, calling himself "king of all Britain" on some of his coins and using in his charters flamboyant rhetoric carrying the same message; he held great courts attended by dignitaries from all over England and by Welsh kings; he subjected the Welsh to tribute and quelled a revolt of the Britons of Cornwall. His sisters were married to continental princes-Charles the Simple, king of the Franks; Otto, son of Henry the Fowler; and Hugh, duke of the Franks. Among those brought up at his court were Louis, Charles's son; Alan of Brittany, Athelstan's godson; and Haakon, son of Harald Fairhair of Norway; they all returned to win their respective inheritances with his support. He was a generous donor to continental and English churches. But Athelstan is remembered chiefly as the victor at Brunanburh, against a combine of Olaf Guthfrithson, king of Dublin; Owain of Strathclyde; and Constantine, king of the Scots, whom Athelstan had defeated in 934. They invaded England in 937, and their defeat is celebrated by a poem in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

Immediately after Athelstan's death in 939 Olaf seized not only Northumbria but also the Five Boroughs. By 944 Athelstan's successor, his younger brother Edmund, had regained control, and in 945 Edmund conquered Strathclyde and gave it to Malcolm of Scotland. But Edmund's successor, Eadred, lost control of Northumbria for part of his reign to the Norse kings Erik Bloodax (son of Harald Fairhair) and Olaf Sihtricson. When Erik was killed in 954, Northumbria became a permanent part of the kingdom of England.

By becoming rulers of all England, the West Saxon kings had to administer regions with variant customs, governed under West Saxon, Mercian, or Danish law. In some parts of the area of Danish occupation, especially in northern England and the district of the Five Boroughs, the evidence of place-names, personal names, and dialect seems to indicate dense Danish settlement, but this has been seriously questioned; many "Danish" features are also found in Anglo-Saxon areas, and Danish names do not always prove Danish institutions. Moreover, the older Anglo-Saxon regions, such as Mercia, which often cut across both Danish and English areas, were politically more significant. Money, however, was calculated in marks and ores instead of shillings in Danish areas, and arable land was divided into plowlands and oxgangs instead of hides and virgates in the northern and northeastern parts of the Danelaw. Most important was the presence in some areas of a number of small landholders with a much greater degree of independence than their counterparts elsewhere; many ceorls had so suffered under the Danish ravages that they had bought a lord's support by sacrificing some of their independence. Excavations (1976-81) have shown 10th-century Jorvik (York), a Danish settlement, to have been a centre of international trade, economic specialization, and town planning; it was on its way to becoming by 1086 (in the Domesday survey) one of Europe's largest cities, numbering at least 2,000 households.

The kings did not try to eradicate the local peculiarities. King Edgar (reigned 959-975) expressly granted local autonomy to the Danes. But from Athelstan's time it was decreed that there was to be one coinage for all the king's dominion, and a measure of uniformity in administrative divisions was gradually achieved. Mercia became divided into shires on the pattern of those of Wessex. It is uncertain how early the smaller divisions of the shires were called " hundreds," but they now became universal (except in the northern Danelaw, where an area called a wapentake carried on its fiscal and jurisdictional functions). An ordinance of the mid-10th century laid down that the court in each hundred (called "hundred courts") must meet every four weeks to handle local legal matters, and Edgar enjoined that the shire courts must meet twice a year and the borough courts three times. This pattern of local government survived the Norman Conquest.

The church and the monastic revival

To those who judged the church solely by the state of its monasteries, the first half of the 10th century seemed a period of inertia. In fact, the great tasks of converting the heathen settlers, restoring ecclesiastical organization in Danish areas, and repairing the damages of the invasions elsewhere must have absorbed much energy. Even so, learning and book production were not at so low an ebb as monastic reformers claimed. Moreover, new monasteries were founded and benefactions were made to older ones, even though, by post-revival standards, none of these monasteries was enforcing a strict monastic rule and several benefactions were held by secular priests. Alfred had failed to arouse much enthusiasm for monasticism. The movement for reform began in England about 940 and soon came under the influence of reforms in Fleury and Lorraine. King Edgar, an enthusiastic supporter, promoted the three chief reformers to important positions- Dunstan to Canterbury, Aethelwold to Winchester, and Oswald to Worcester and later to York. The secular clergy were violently ejected from Winchester and some other places; Oswald gradually replaced them with monks at Worcester. All three reformers founded new houses, including the great monasteries in the Fenlands, where older houses had perished in the Danish invasion; but Oswald had no success in Northumbria. The reformers, however, were concerned with more than monasticism-they paid great attention to other needs of their dioceses; the scholars Abbot Aelfric and Archbishop Wulfstan, trained by the reformers, directed much of their writings to improving the education and morals of the parish clergy and, through them, of the people.

The monastic revival resulted in a great revival of both vernacular and Latin literature, of manuscript production and illumination, and of other forms of art. It reached its zenith in the troubled years of King Ethelred II (reigned 978-1016), after a brief, though violent, reaction to monasticism following Edgar's death. In the 11th century monasteries continued to be productive and new houses were founded; there was also a movement to impose a communal life on bodies of secular priests and to found houses of secular canons.

The Anglo-Danish state

The Danish conquest and the reigns of the Danish kings

Ethelred succeeded as a child in 978, after the murder of his stepbrother Edward. He took the throne in an atmosphere of insecurity and distrust, which partly accounts for the incompetence and treachery rife in his reign. Viking raids began in 980 and steadily increased in intensity. They were led by formidable leaders: from 991 to 994 by Olaf Tryggvason, later king of Norway, and frequently from 994 by Sweyn, king of Denmark. Ethelred's massacre of the Danes in England on St. Brice's Day, 1002, called for vengeance by Sweyn and, from 1009 to 1012, by a famous Viking, Thorkell the Tall. In 1013 the English, worn out by continuous warfare and heavy tributes to buy off the invaders, accepted Sweyn as king. Ethelred, his wife Emma, and his younger sons sought asylum with Richard, duke of Normandy, brother of Emma. Ethelred was recalled to England after Sweyn's death in 1014; but Sweyn's son Canute (Cnut) renewed the invasions and, in spite of valiant resistance by Ethelred's son and successor, Edmund, obtained half of England after a victory at Ashingdon in October 1016 and the rest after Edmund's death that November.

Canute rewarded some of his followers with English lands and ruthlessly got rid of some prominent Englishmen, among them Edmund's brother Edwy. (Edmund's infant sons, however, were carried away to safety in Hungary.) Yet Canute's rule was not tyrannical, and his reign was remembered as a time of good order. The Danish element in his entourage diminished; and the Englishmen Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and Godwine, Earl of Wessex, became the most powerful magnates. Canute married Ethelred's widow, Emma, thus removing the danger of Norman support for her sons by Ethelred. Canute fought a successful campaign in Scotland in 1031, and Englishmen were drawn into his wars in Scandinavia, which made him lord of Norway. But at home there was peace. Probably under the influence of Archbishop Wulfstan he became a stout supporter of the church, which in his reign had the vitality to engage in missionary work in Scandinavia. Religious as well as political motives may have caused his pilgrimage to Rome in 1027 to attend the coronation of the emperor Conrad; from the pope, the emperor, and the princes whom he met he obtained concessions for English pilgrims and traders going to Rome. Canute's laws, drafted by Archbishop Wulfstan, are mainly based on those of earlier kings, especially Edgar.

Already in 1018 the English and Danes had come to an agreement "according to Edgar's law." No important changes were made in the machinery of government except that small earldoms were combined to make great earldoms, a change that placed much power in the hands of their holders. No attempt was made to restore the English line when Canute died in 1035; he was followed by his sons Harold and Hardecanute, whose reigns were unpopular. Denmark passed to Sweyn, son of Canute's sister Estrith, in 1043. Meanwhile the Norwegians in 1035 had driven out another Sweyn, the son whom Canute had set to rule over them with his mother, Aelfgifu, and had elected Magnus.

The close links with Scandinavia had benefited English trade, but they left one awkward heritage: Hardecanute and Magnus made an agreement that if either died without a son, the survivor was to succeed to both kingdoms. Hardecanute died without a son in 1042, but he was succeeded by Ethelred's son Edward, who was known as the Confessor or the Saint because of his reputation for chastity. Magnus was prevented by trouble with Denmark from invading England as he intended in 1046; but Harold Hardraada inherited Magnus' claim to the English throne, and he came to enforce it in 1066.

The reign of Edward the Confessor and the Norman Conquest

It is easy to regard the years of Edward's rule simply as a prelude to the catastrophe of 1066, yet there are other aspects of his reign. Harrying caused by political disturbances or by incursions of the Scots or Welsh was only occasional and localized; friendly relations were usually maintained with Malcolm of Scotland, whom Earl Siward of Northumbria had supported against Macbeth in 1054; and in 1063 the victories of Harold, Earl of Wessex, and his brother Tostig ended the trouble from Wales. The normal course of administration was maintained, with efficient mints, writing office, taxation system, and courts of justice. Trade was prosperous. The church contained several good and competent leaders, and bad appointments-like those of the Normans, Ulf to Dorchester and Robert to London and Canterbury, and of Stigand to Winchester-were the exception. Scholarship was not in decline, and manuscripts were produced in great number. English illumination and other forms of art were admired abroad.

The troubles of the reign came from the excessive power concentrated in the hands of the rival houses of Leofric of Mercia and Godwine of Wessex and from resentment caused by the king's introduction of Norman friends, though their influence has sometimes been exaggerated. A crisis arose in 1051 when Godwine defied the king's order to punish the men of Dover, who had resisted an attempt by Eustace of Boulogne to quarter his men on them by force. The support of Earl Leofric and Earl Siward enabled Edward to secure the outlawry of Godwine and his sons; and William of Normandy paid Edward a visit during which Edward may have promised William succession to the English throne, although this Norman claim may have been mere propaganda. Godwine and his sons came back the following year with a strong force, and the magnates were not prepared to engage them in civil war but forced the king to make terms. Some unpopular Normans were driven out, including Archbishop Robert, whose archbishopric was given to Stigand; this act supplied one excuse for the papal support of William's cause.

Harold succeeded his father Godwine as earl of Wessex in 1053; Tostig was made earl of Northumbria in 1055; and their younger brothers were also provided with earldoms. To settle the question of succession, negotiations were begun in 1054 to bring Edward, Edmund's son (nephew of Edward the Confessor), from Hungary; but Edward died in 1057, leaving a son, Edgar Aetheling, then a child, who was passed over in 1066. In about 1064 Harold of Wessex, when visiting Normandy, swore to support William's claim. Only Norman versions of the incident survive and the true circumstances cannot be ascertained, but William used Harold's broken oath to help secure papal support later. In 1065 Harold acquiesced in the appointment of Morcar, brother of Edwin, Earl of Mercia, to replace Tostig when the Northumbrians revolted against him, and thus Harold turned his brother into an enemy. King Edward, when dying, named Harold to succeed him, and, after overcoming Northumbrian reluctance with the help of Bishop Wulfstan of Worcester, Harold was universally accepted.

Harold might have proved an effective ruler, but the forces against him were too strong. The papacy, without hearing the defense in favour of Harold's succession, gave its blessing to an invasion of a people who had always been distinguished for their loyalty to Rome, and this papal support helped William to collect his army widely. The threat from Harold III Hardraade, who was joined by Tostig, prevented Harold from concentrating his forces in the south and took him north at a critical moment. He fought at Hastings only 24 days after the armies of Mercia and Northumbria had been put out of action by enormous losses at Fulford and only 19 days after he had defeated and killed Harold III Hardraade and Tostig at Stamford Bridge. Harold was slain at Hastings, and on Christmas Day, 1066, William of Normandy was crowned king of England. Although the Anglo-Saxon fighting force was perhaps the best in Europe and the defeat at Hastings due largely to a series of historical accidents, it is not difficult to understand the English chronicler's view that God was angry with the English people.
Dorothy Whitelock William A. Chaney

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United Kingdom - The period of the Scandinavian invasions

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United Kingdom - The period of the Scandinavian invasions: Small scattered Viking raids began in the last years of the 8th century; in the 9th century large-scale plundering incursions were made in Britain and in the Frankish empire as well.

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Scandinavian migration to Britain is a phenomenon that has occurred at different periods over the past 1,200 years. Over the last couple of centuries, there has been regular migration from Scandinavia to Great Britain, from families looking to settle, businesspeople, academics to migrant workers, particularly those in the oil industry.

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What was the Norman Conquest?

This article was most recently revised and updated by

Norman Conquest, the military conquest of England by William, duke of Normandy, primarily effected by his decisive victory at the Battle of Hastings (October 14, 1066) and resulting ultimately in profound political, administrative, and social changes in the British Isles.

Invasion of England

The conquest was the final act of a complicated drama that had begun years earlier, in the reign of Edward the Confessor, last king of the Anglo-Saxon royal line. Edward, who had almost certainly designated William as his successor in 1051, was involved in a childless marriage and used his lack of an heir as a diplomatic tool, promising the throne to different parties throughout his reign, including Harold Godwineson, later Harold II, the powerful earl of Wessex. The exiled Tostig, who was Harold's brother, and Harald III Hardraade, king of Norway, also had designs on the throne and threatened invasion. Amid this welter of conflicting claims, Edward from his deathbed named Harold his successor on January 5, 1066, and Harold was crowned king the following day. However, Harold's position was compromised, according to the Bayeux Tapestry and other Norman sources, because in 1064 he had sworn an oath, in William's presence, to defend William's right to the throne.

From almost the beginning of his reign, Harold faced challenges to his authority. Tostig began raiding the southern and eastern coasts of England in May, eventually joining forces with Harald III. Harold was able to keep his militia on guard throughout the summer but dismissed it early in September, when he ran out of supplies and his peasant soldiers needed to return to their fields for the harvest. This left the south without defenses, exposing it to invasion by William. Before William arrived, however, Harald III and Tostig invaded in the north; Harold hastened to Yorkshire, where at Stamford Bridge (September 25) he won a smashing victory in which both Harald III and Tostig perished.

Meanwhile, on the Continent, William had secured support for his invasion from both the Norman aristocracy and the papacy. By August 1066 he had assembled a force of 4,000-7,000 knights and foot soldiers, but unfavourable winds detained his transports for eight weeks. Finally, on September 27, while Harold was occupied in the north, the winds changed, and William crossed the Channel immediately. Landing in Pevensey on September 28, he moved directly to Hastings. Harold, hurrying southward with about 7,000 men, approached Hastings on October 13. Surprised by William at dawn on October 14, Harold drew up his army on a ridge 10 miles (16 km) to the northwest.

Harold's wall of highly trained infantry held firm in the face of William's mounted assault; failing to breach the English lines and panicked by the rumour of William's death, the Norman cavalry fled in disorder. But William, removing his helmet to show he was alive, rallied his troops, who turned and killed many English soldiers. As the battle continued, the English were gradually worn down; late in the afternoon, Harold was killed (by an arrow in the eye, according to the Bayeux Tapestry), and by nightfall the remaining English had scattered and fled. William then made a sweeping advance to isolate London, and at Berkhamstead the major English leaders submitted to him. He was crowned in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1066. Sporadic indigenous revolts continued until 1071; the most serious, in Northumbria (1069-70), was suppressed by William himself, who then devastated vast tracts of the north. The subjection of the country was completed by the rapid building of a great number of castles.

Consequences of the conquest

The extent and desirability of the changes brought about by the conquest have long been disputed by historians. Certainly, in political terms, William's victory destroyed England's links with Scandinavia, bringing the country instead into close contact with the Continent, especially France. Inside England the most radical change was the introduction of land tenure and military service. While tenure of land in return for services had existed in England before the conquest, William revolutionized the upper ranks of English society by dividing the country among about 180 Norman tenants-in-chief and innumerable mesne (intermediate) tenants, all holding their fiefs by knight service. The result, the almost total replacement of the English aristocracy with a Norman one, was paralleled by similar changes of personnel among the upper clergy and administrative officers.

Anglo-Saxon England had developed a highly organized central and local government and an effective judicial system ( see Anglo-Saxon law). All these were retained and utilized by William, whose coronation oath showed his intention of continuing in the English royal tradition. The old administrative divisions were not superseded by the new fiefs, nor did feudal justice normally usurp the customary jurisdiction of shire and hundred courts. In them and in the king's court, the common law of England continued to be administered. Innovations included the new but restricted body of "forest law" and the introduction in criminal cases of the Norman trial by combat alongside the old Saxon ordeals. Increasing use was made of the inquest procedure-the sworn testimony of neighbours, both for administrative purposes and in judicial cases. A major change was William's removal of ecclesiastical cases from the secular courts, which allowed the subsequent introduction into England of the then rapidly growing canon law.

William also transformed the structure and character of the church in England. He replaced all the Anglo-Saxon bishops, except Wulfstan of Dorchester, with Norman bishops. Most notably, he secured the deposition of Stigand, the archbishop of Canterbury-who held his see irregularly and had probably been excommunicated by Pope Leo IX-and appointed in his place Lanfranc of Bec, a respected scholar and one of William's close advisers. Seeking to impose a more orderly structure on the English episcopacy, the king supported Lanfranc's claims for the primacy of Canterbury in the English church. William also presided over a number of church councils, which were held far more frequently than under his predecessors, and introduced legislation against simony (the selling of clerical offices) and clerical marriage. A supporter of monastic reform while duke of Normandy, William introduced the latest reforming trends to England by replacing Anglo-Saxon abbots with Norman ones and by importing numerous monks. Although he founded only a small number of monasteries, including Battle Abbey (in honour of his victory at Hastings), William's other measures contributed to the quickening of monastic life in England.

Probably the most regrettable effect of the conquest was the total eclipse of the English vernacular as the language of literature, law, and administration. Superseded in official documents and other records by Latin and then increasingly in all areas by Anglo-Norman, written English hardly reappeared until the 13th century.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Adam Augustyn.

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Norman Conquest | Definition, Summary, & Facts

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Norman Conquest, the military conquest of England by William, duke of Normandy, primarily effected by his decisive victory at the Battle of Hastings (October 14, 1066) and resulting ultimately in profound political, administrative, and social changes in the British Isles.

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The story of how Duke William of Normandy invaded England in 1066 and effectively ended Anglo-Saxon rule in Britain.

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1066 was a momentous year for England. The death of the elderly English king, Edward the Confessor, on 5 January set off a chain of events that would lead, on 14 October, to the Battle of Hastings. In the years that followed, the Normans had a profound impact on the country they had conquered.

Discover more here about the Battle of Hastings itself and its consequences, and find out where you can see some of the spectacular castles and great abbeys the Normans built across the land.

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1066 was a momentous year for England. The death of the elderly English king, Edward the Confessor, on 5 January set off a chain of events that would lead, on 14 October, to the Battle of Hastings. In the years that followed, the Normans had a profound impact on the country they had conquered.

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The name the Hundred Years' War has been used by historians since the beginning of the nineteenth century to describe the long conflict that pitted the kings and kingdoms of France and England against each other from 1337 to 1453. Two factors lay at the origin of the conflict: first, the status of the duchy of Guyenne (or Aquitaine)-though it belonged to the kings of England, it remained a fief of the French crown, and the kings of England wanted independent possession; second, as the closest relatives of the last direct Capetian king (Charles IV, who had died in 1328), the kings of England from 1337 claimed the crown of France.

Theoretically, the French kings, possessing the financial and military resources of the most populous and powerful state in western Europe, held the advantage over the smaller, more sparsely populated English kingdom. However, the expeditionary English army, well disciplined and successfully using their longbows to stop cavalry charges, proved repeatedly victorious over much larger French forces: significant victories occurred by sea at Sluys (1340), and by land at Crecy (1346) and Poitiers (1356). In 1360, King John of France, in order to save his title, was forced to accept the Treaty of Calais, which granted complete independence to the duchy of Guyenne, now considerably enlarged to include almost a third of France. However, his son Charles V, with the help of his commander in chief Bertrand du Guesclin, by 1380 had succeeded in reconquering almost all the ceded territory, notably by a series of sieges.

After a hiatus, Henry V of England renewed the war and proved victorious at Agincourt (1415), conquered Normandy (1417-1418), and then attempted to have himself crowned as the future king of France by the Treaty of Troyes (1420). But his military successes were not matched by political successes: although allied with the dukes of Burgundy, the majority of the French refused English domination. Thanks to Joan of Arc, the siege of Orleans was lifted (1429). Then Paris and the lle-de-France were liberated (1436-1441), and after the French army had been reorganized and reformed (1445-1448), Charles VII recaptured the duchy of Normandy (the Battle of Formigny, 1450), and then seized Guyenne (the Battle of Castillon, 1453). The end of the conflict was never marked by a peace treaty but died out because the English recognized that the French troops were too strong to be directly confronted.

English territory in France, which had been extensive since 1066 (see Hastings, Battle of) now remained confined to the Channel port of Calais (lost in 1558). France, at last free of the English invaders, resumed its place as the dominant state of western Europe.

The Reader's Companion to Military History. Edited by Robert Cowley and Geoffrey Parker. Copyright © 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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The name the Hundred Years' War has been used by historians since the beginning of the nineteenth century to describe the long conflict that pitted the kings and kingdoms of France and England against each other from 1337 to 1453.

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Hundred Years’ War | Summary, Causes, Effects, Combatants, Timeline, & Facts

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Hundred Years’ War, intermittent struggle between England and France in the 14th–15th century over a series of disputes, including the question of the legitimate succession to the French crown. By convention it is said to have lasted from 1337 to 1453, but there had been periodic fighting since the…

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Conflict with the 'ancient enemy' has shaped the identities of both countries, and memories of the war remain long on both sides of the Channel. Charles de Gaulle remarked in June 1962: "Our greatest hereditary enemy was not Germany, it was England. From the Hundred Years' War to Fashoda, she hardly ceased to struggle against us... she is not naturally inclined to wish us well."

The legend that the origins of the 'v' sign can be found in the Hundred Years' War is, sadly, just legendary. There are no contemporary sources that suggest English archers, as an insult, raised to the French the two fingers with which they drew their longbows, nor that the French dismembered captured archers - removing those same fingers and thus preventing them from ever firing a bow again.

There is, however, an account of the French 'mooning' a detachment of English troops during the campaign that led to the battle of Crécy. This so enraged the English that they launched an ill-advised attack on a well-defended position and were beaten back with heavy losses.

Battle of Crécy, 26 August 1346. Hand-coloured later. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

We are often told that 'total war' is a sad product of the modern, industrial age. It is, however, difficult to find any section of English or French society that was not affected by the Hundred Years' War.

The peasantry in both countries, for example, were central to the war effort and suffered greatly as a consequence. Indeed, its members were targeted directly: because of the connection between taxation (paid chiefly by the peasantry) and military defence, the status of 'non-combatants' became very uncertain during the war. So, by attacking taxpayers, the English also attacked French military resources.

Furthermore, as the war unfolded it became a consciously 'national' struggle and, consequently, there were few reasons non-combatants should be immune from its effects. This policy and its brutally sophisticated implementation are clear from a letter written in 1355 by Sir John Wingfield, who served in the retinue of Edward the Black Prince (1330-76):
It seems certain that since the war against the French king began, there has never been such destruction in a region as in this raid. For the countryside and towns which have been destroyed... produced more revenue for the king of France in aid of his war than half his kingdom... as I could prove from authentic documents found in various towns in the tax-collectors' houses.
Wingfield served as 'governor of the prince's business' (essentially his business manager), and he wrote in the aftermath of the so-called grande chevauchée (a raid across southern France in which an army of around 6,000 soldiers destroyed 500 settlements of various sorts - villages, castles, towns, hamlets - and may have devastated up to 18,000 square kilometres of territory).

The Black Prince, however, was not content merely to orchestrate and witness the destruction, he wished to determine its exact extent, and so he brought officials such as Wingfield with him to calculate the precise cost to the French treasury. The psychological cost of this sort of raiding - the fear and insecurity it surely engendered - is more difficult to measure, but as the war drew on in France the ringing of church bells might as easily mean an impending raid as a call to prayer.

The battle of Agincourt began at about 11am on 25 October 1415 (the feast day of Saints Crispin and Crispian). It had not been a pleasant night: heavy rain had turned the ploughed field between the two armies into something approaching a quagmire. The English and French forces had deployed in the cold before dawn, and hours had passed without either side making any move. Finally, King Henry V (r1413-22) ordered an advance.

But before they moved forward, a fascinating and seemingly extraordinary act took place: each man knelt - archers and men-at-arms alike - kissed the ground, and took a little earth in his mouth. This collective and yet deeply personal ritual seems to have been sacramental; a ceremony that combined elements of the Eucharist with the burial service. It served as a blessing, a purification, and a preparation for death.

Throughout the Anglo-French war, battles had enormous religious and symbolic significance. Not only was victory or defeat an indication of divine judgement, but for many it might bring one decidedly closer to divine judgement of a very personal nature.

The battle of Agincourt, 25 October 1415, (1910). (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

While chronicle accounts allow us to reconstruct the narrative of the battle of Agincourt with some precision, the size of the opposing forces remains a matter of contention. Shakespeare would have us believe that in 1415 the English were outnumbered at least 10-to-one. Such a number was shaped by dramatic necessity and also by various contemporary and near-contemporary English sources that suggested the French army totalled between 60,000 and 160,000 men.

Such numbers are patently absurd given what we know of the possibilities of military recruitment at this time; they were grossly inflated with the aim of exaggerating the scale of Henry's victory. Recent work makes it clear that the Valois army was considerably more modest in size, perhaps 20,000-30,000 troops. And, indeed, in her 2005 account of the battle, Anne Curry argues that the French army was smaller still, numbering no more than 12,000 soldiers.

By comparison, Henry commanded between 6,000 and 9,000 soldiers - the anonymous author of the Gesta Henrici Quinti (The Deeds of Henry V), who witnessed the battle, suggested he led 5,000 archers and around 1,000 men-at-arms (although the numbering is not precise). The French, therefore, outnumbered the English by two to one, but probably no more.

Some other aspects of Shakespeare's account of the battle closely accord with contemporary accounts, and there is good reason to believe them to be accurate. When Sir Walter Hungerford (1378-1449) bemoaned the lack of archers in his company, Henry is said (again by the author of the Gesta Henrici Quinti) to have reprimanded him in a speech remarkably similar to that familiar from Shakespeare: "That is a foolish way to talk", the king said, "because by God in Heaven... I would not, even if I could, have a single man more than I do. For these I have here with me are God's people... Do you not believe that the Almighty, with these His humble few, is able to overcome the opposing arrogance of the French".

The Hundred Years' War saw some major developments in military strategy and technology. Indeed, some historians have argued that these changes amount to a 'military revolution'.

Among such developments, the evolution of gunpowder weaponry was particularly significant. That evolutionary process was, however, a slow one. At Agincourt, for example, it appears that French artillery accounted for a solitary English archer during the battle, and in 1431 Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, fired 412 cannonballs into the town of Lagny and succeeded only in killing a chicken.

Nonetheless, as the war entered its final phase such weapons were becoming increasingly effective. They played important roles in a number of Joan of Arc's battles and sieges, and the 'Maid' was considered particularly adept in aiming the weapons. Then, in the late 1430s, Charles VII (1422-61) took steps to put in place a professional artillery train under the command of the Bureau brothers - John, the king's Master Gunner, and his brother, Gaspard.

Thereafter, the weapons available to the French grew in number and efficiency, and they proved their worth in successive sieges. Gunpowder weapons allowed the French to eject the English from Normandy and Gascony with astonishing speed. In 1437, the castle of Castelnau-de-Cernès in Gascony was "broken down... by cannon and engines, and a great part of the walls were thrown to the ground". In some cases, as at Bourg in 1451, the mere presence of guns was sufficient to bring about an immediate surrender.

Around this time, gunpowder weapons also began to be used effectively as field artillery. Formigny in 1450 (a decisive victory for the French) may have been the first battle decided by gunpowder artillery. The engagement began with a cavalry assault on the English infantry and longbowmen, which was repulsed. Soon afterwards, however, the Bureau brothers arrived with two breechloading culverins on wheeled carriages.

These were capable of a high rate of fire and could outdistance the English archers. Although it required the arrival of further reinforcements to decide the battle, the artillery clearly played a telling role.

This was also the case at Castillon in 1453 (a decisive French victory), the final engagement of the Hundred Years' War. This was, undoubtedly, determined by artillery, and, as a consequence, the battle marks a deeply significant point in the history of European warfare.
David Green is senior lecturer in British studies at Harlaxton College and the author of The Hundred Years War: A People's History (Yale University Press, 2014; paperback edition 2015). This article was first published by History Extra in October 2015 Anne Curry will be speaking about 'Henry V: A Life of Transformations' at our Kings and Queens Weekend in March 2019. Find out more here

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The Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) was a series of conflicts fought between England and France over succession to the French throne. It lasted 116 years and saw many major battles - from the battle of Crécy in 1346 to the battle of Agincourt in 1415, which was a major English victory over the French.

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In the last chapter we saw how Spain built up its colonies. In this chapter, we will look at another powerful coloniser of the 14th century.
What is 'the British Empire'?

The British Empire was the most extensive empire in world history. It was a product of the European Age of Discovery in the late 15th century.

The 'first British Empire' included British expansion from the Americas in the 17th and 18th centuries. The 'second British Empire' included all colonies in Asia and Africa from the 18th century until the early 20th century.

At its height in the late 19th and early 20th century, the British Empire had colonies on all continents. The British colonies made up about a quarter of the world's population and area. As the British Empire expanded, it brought with it European ideas and the English language to its colonies.

Why did the British colonise?

The British began colonising mainly because of their need to trade, rather than the need for military conquest. This is why they are known as a trade-based empire.

In the 16th century, England was a poor country. When they began colonising, it was not as missionaries. When the English put to sea, it aimed to seek immediate profits.

The Industrial Revolution which took place in Europe in 17th century gave rise to the need for raw materials. The British looked at Southeast Asia as a good target as they were rich in natural resources. After some early colonies were established and become the sole markets to buy English goods, the English realised the huge commercial potential of overseas acquisitions. They consequently tried to expand their colonisation.

The British Empire lasted very long because of three reasons. First, the British have good command of the sea. Second, they were outstanding in international trading, and finally, the British rule was flexible.

The First Empire

In the late 16th century, Britain had many chartered companies. They were private companies established by the crown. Having the exclusive right to do business in a certain area, these companies became influential in politics. To expand their business and find buyers for their products, these companies looked for trading posts in the other countries. When the government in these countries was not strong enough, the English gradually took complete control. This enable the British to built up colonies in India and the East Indies as well as Hudson Bay.

The most popular chartered company known during the First Empire is the British East India Company. This company was granted an English Royal Charter by Elizabeth title "Elizabeth I of England" in 1600 to support trading in India.

In the 17th century, the British set up plantations to produce sugar and tobacco on the islands of the Caribbean as well as in North America. These colonies attracted a large amount of European settlers. The British needed labourers to work in these plantations, so they started to trade slaves.

During this time, the common way the British traded with its colonies was that it would sell West Indian molasses, sugar, English cloth, manufactured goods, American fish and timber to its colonies. In exchange for these goods, the colonies would sell them African slaves, who the British could use in their plantations. To secure its right and to increase its wealth, the British government passed a law which allowed only British ships to trade with the colonies. This meant that these colonies could only sell their products to England.

In the early 18th century, chartered companies were reorganised. In India, from the 1740s to 1763, the British East India Company had a conflict with its French counterpart. The British finally won. In 1763, the British established colonies in India and Canada. However, the British met many difficulties when they tried to colonise America. The first British Empire ended with the successful revolution of thirteen colonial states in America.

The Second Empire

Realising the potential of the colonies, the British started to expand further, first by the voyages of Capt. James Cook to Australia and New Zealand in the 1770s and second, through new conquests in India after 1763.

After the victories of the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815), the British had more colonies. These included, Cape Colony, Mauritius, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia, British Guiana (Guyana), and Malta. Early in the 19th century, the British gradually abandoned many strict regulations. It became a very strong country in the world, which allowed it to apply the principle of free trade.

To improve the lives of many native inhabitants, the British government also abolished slave trade in 1807 and slavery in 1833. The British also built up regular civil service to create a more efficient colonial administration. However, when these colonies became less dependent on the British, they also developed a stronger national identity. Thus, they tried to liberalise themselves from the British, who also encouraged these colonies to have a government of its own.

In 1839, Lord Durham, in response to unrest in Canada, issued his "Report on the Affairs of British North America." Durham suggested, that to retain its colonies, Britain should grant them a large measure of internal self-government.

In 1867, the British gradually surrendered their direct governing powers. Australia and New Zealand also became self-governing dominions. However, the British government still needed to control India because of its relationship with the East India Company. To govern territories with large native populations, the British developed a system called the crown colony system. Such colonies were ruled by a British governor and consultative councils from the native inhabitants.

In the later decades of the 19th century, other European countries competed for empire in which the British acquired or consolidated vast holdings. These colonies included Nigeria, the Gold Coast (later Ghana), Rhodesia (Zambia and Zimbabwe), South Africa, Egypt, Burma (Myanmar) and Malaya. This forced the British to encourage a tie and solidarity between its colonies. In 1887, the British government issued the Imperial Conference, which was an attempt to strengthen Britain's ties with those colonies that had become self-governing territories.

Legacies

The British left many legacies to its colonial countries. Although we still discuss the values of these legacies, they should be listed as follows:

It brought significant changes to Southeast Asia. The British built more ports, railways and roads to these countries.

The British colonisation changed the social and racial structure of the colonised countries.

The British colonisation led many local intellectuals to rise up to liberalise their country. It led to the appearance of nationalism.

As a result of British colonisation, English became a popular language of the world and continues to be dominant even today.

The British colonisation brought law, order and technology into India and changed them into a modern state.

The modern technology from the British, which was aimed to serve their productions and trading, was also introduced into the colonised countries thus enabling their modernisation and development.

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Great Britain, Colonisation History, Colonisation: resources, power and exploration, SOSE, Year 6, QLD In the last chapter we have seen how the Spanish built up its colonies. In this chapter, we will discover another powerful coloniser of the 14th century. You will understand why there is such a saying 'The sun never sets on the British Empire'.

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From the seventeenth century onwards, the English began to extend their language over the world. It is due to so important factors as the power of the British Empire, the importance in the Industrial revolution taking place in England for the first time or the supremacy of America in all over the world. Moreover, we all know that English has become a global language in the last fifty years, being the official language of the international and multinational companies and industries, and the language of Internet.

It is important to have in mind how and why English has spread across the globe the way it has:

We all know that long before this expansion of English as a global language, there were other minor spreads of the language, as for instance the spread of English to Scotland because of the military escapades of William the Conqueror (11 th century) or to Ireland with the Anglo-Norman troops sent by Henry II.

But in global terms, the spread of English began in 16 th century, when the language became a tool of imperial expansion, and end up by gaining a special place in the history of a significant number of countries. This was what happened in USA, but also in other colonial areas. You have here a table in which you can find how English spread took place in different territories conquered by the English.

As we can imagine, British colonialism was the first step of the expansion of English across the world. But it is also very important the Industrial Revolution in terms of the spread of English. Britain was the leader of the Industrial Revolution, and large-scale manufacturing and production machinery were just some of the major technological advancements being pioneered there. Countries which needed this new industrial knowledge could access it via the medium of English, something which made powerful again the language internationally.

And the development of technology was side by side with the spread of English. For instance, English was the language in which the system of telegraph was developed, and English became the international language of all telegraph operators.

c) American Economic superiority and Political Leadership.

Although Britain had been the greatest political, economic and industrial power in the world in the 18 th century, by the end of the 19 th and the early 20 th centuries USA emerged as an economic and political superpower. During this time, the countries if the world began to came together in international organizations, and they need to be able to communicate. However, it was very expensive to run multilingual operations, so they decided that English would be the language used in their international interactions. Moreover, The League of Nations was created after the World War I, but then it was replaced by the United Nations, which ends up in New York. Thus, the world´s focus shifted to the United States.

The influence of United States combined then the economic and political factors and the huge seize of its population: The United States has 70 per cent of all native speakers of English in the world.

d) American Technology Leadership.

After the World War II and particularly in the 1980s and 1990s, the computer revolution began all over the world. It was due to the American technology and the American know-how. So, it is logic that the language of the computers is English. The main reason why it is like this is the fact that, although it could be designed with languages of one own country, this process it very expensive.

During the 19 th century the use of advertisements in publication increased, especially in more industrialized countries, due to the fact that there was more money and also more people interesting on them. In USA, however, they realized that if they put advertisements in their magazines, they could put lower the price of their magazines, something which led them to sell more and more of them. And as the international market grew, the media spread to all parts of the world, and became one of the most noticeable global manifestations of English language use. American English ruled.

- Broadcasting: As it has been already mentioned, the invention and use of telegraph supposed a very great impulse to English language. Britain was the pioneer in the use of telegraph, and all communications were made in English, having being necessary that all telegraph operators spoke English. So, it was one of the most important fact in the spread of English though the world.

- Motion pictures: The new technologies altered the way of public entertainment, and it also serves as a thrust of the English language. The development of the cinema was made initially by France and England, but the years during the World War I supposed a kind of blockage of cinema, and then American began to dominate it. Moreover, when the sound was added to the films, it was the spoken English which came to the movies. And although the film industry was developed also in other countries, it is still English language the dominant medium, maybe because the main studio, Hollywood, is in an English-spoken area.

- Popular music: The other important entertainment technology was the recording industry, and also here the English language had the dominance. All the major recording companies in popular music had English-language origins, and when popular music arrived, it was in English scene mostly. The pop groups of English-speaking nations dominated the recording world: Elvis Presley in USA or the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in UK. No other single source has spread English around the world so rapidly.

-International travel and safety: The medium in transportation and accommodation is English. Equally, English instructions about safety on international flights and sailings and indications about emergency procedures are in English. English then has become the international language. "Airspeak", the language of international aircraft control, emerged after the Second War World, and it was decided that English would be the international language of aviation.

- Education: Internationally, areas as science and technology have the medium of English language to spread over the world their ideas. It is the main reason why many countries have adopted English as the chief foreign languages in schools. It is obvious that people all over the world have to know English if they are students, as most of the important words in the field of education are written in English.

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The spread of English across the Globe: Social, Political and Cultural factors

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From the seventeenth century onwards, the English began to extend their language over the world. It is due to so important factors as the power of the British Empire, the importance in the Industrial revolution taking place in England for the first time or the supremacy of America in all over the world.

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British Colonialism and Its Linguistic Consequences

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