odriscoll james britain for learners of english students boo

But m ost people in Ireland and some people in Britain regard this name as outd a te d because it calls to mind the tim e when Ireland was p o litic a lly d om inated by Britain.. It

James O ’ Driscoll

BRITAIN FOR L E ARNE RS OF E N G L I S H

O X FO R D

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Introduction

01 Country and people

Geographically speaking • P olitically speaking

The fo u r nations • The dom inance o f England

N a tio n al loyalties

Prehistory • The Roman period (4 3 -4 1 0 ) •

The Germanic invasions (4 1 0 -1 0 6 6 ) • The medieval

period (1 0 6 6 -1 4 5 8 ) • The sixteenth century •

The seventeenth century • The eighteenth century -

The nineteenth century • The tw entieth century

The public a ttitu d e to politics • The style o f democracy • The constitution • The style o f politics • The p a rty system • The m odern situation

The appearance • The reality • The role o f the monarch • The value o f the m onarchy • The future

o f the m onarchy

08 The governm ent

The cabinet • The Prime M in iste r service • Local governm ent

85 The civil

C lim ate • Land and settlem ent • The environm ent

and p o llu tio n • London • Southern England •

The M idlands o f England • N orth e rn England •

Scotland • Wales • N orth e rn Ireland

Ethnic identity: the fo u r nations • O th e r ethnic

identities • The fa m ily • Geographical id e n tity •

Class • Men and women • Social and everyday

contacts • Religion and po litics • Id entity in

N o rth e rn Ireland • Being British • Personal identity:

a sense o f h u m o u r

Stereotypes and change • English versus British •

A m u ltic u ltu ra l society • Conservatism • Being

d iffe re n t • Love o f nature • Love o f animals •

Public-spiritedness and am ateurism • F orm ality and

in fo rm a lity • Privacy and sex

The system • Formal arrangements • The campaign • Polling day and election n ig h t • Recent results and the future • M odern issues

The police and the public • Crime and crim inal procedure • The system o f justice • The legal profession

12 International relations 113 British people and the rest o f the w o rld • The British state and the rest o f the w o rld • T ransatlantic relations • European relations • Relations inside

G reat B ritain • Great B ritain and N o rth e rn Ireland

CONTENTS 5

Politics ■ Anglicanism • C atholicism • O th e r

conventional C hristian churches • O th e r religions,

churches, and religious movements

H istorical background • M odern times: the education

debates • Style • School life • Public exams •

Education beyond sixteen

15 The econom y and

everyday life

141

Earning money: w o rkin g life • W o rk organizations

Public and private in d u s try • The d is trib u tio n o f

w ealth • Using money: finance and investm ent •

Spending money: shopping • Shop opening hours

The im p o rta n ce o f the national press • The tw o types

o f national newspaper • The characteristics o f the

national press: politics • The characteristics o f the

national press: sex and scandal • The BBC •

Television: organization • Television: style

On the road • Public tra n s p o rt in tow ns and cities

Public tra n s p o rt between tow ns and cities •

The channel tunnel • A ir and w a te r

Houses, n o t flats • Private p ro p e rty and public

p ro p e rty • The im p o rta n ce o f ‘ hom e’ • Individuality and c o n fo rm ity • Interiors: the im p o rta n ce

o f cosiness • O w ning and renting • Homelessness • The future

20 Food and drink

Eating habits and attitudes •

A lcohol • Pubs

Eating o u t

183

21 Sport and com petition 190

A n a tio n a l passion • The social im p o rta n c e

o fs p o r t • C ricket • Football • Rugby •

A nim als in s p o rt • O th e r sports • G am bling

22 The arts

The arts in society • The characteristics

o f British arts and letters < Theatre and cinema • M usic • W ords • The fine arts

2 0 0

23 Holidays and special occasions

207

T ra d itio n a l seaside holidays • M odern holidays • Christm as • New Year • O th e r notable annual occasions

18 Welfare

The benefits system • Social services and charities •

The N ational Health Service • The medical profession

Country and people

W h y is B r ita in ‘ G r e a t?

The o rig in o f the adjective

‘g re a t’ in the name G reat B ritain

was n o t a piece o f advertising

(a lth o u g h m odern p o litic ia n s

som etim es try to use it th a t

w a y!) It was firs t used to

distinguish it fro m the sm aller

area in France w hich is called

‘ B ritta n y ’ in m odern English.

This is a book about Britain But w hat exactly is Britain? And who are the British? The table below illustrates the problem You m ight th in k that,

in in ternational sport, the situation w ould be simple - one country, one team But you can see th a t this is definitely not the case with Britain For each o f the four sports or sporting events listed in the table, there are a different num ber o f national team s which m ight be described as

‘B ritish’ This chapter describes how this situation has come about and explains the m any names th a t are used when people talk ab o u t Britain

G eographically speaking

Lying off the north-west coast o f Europe, there are two large islands and hundreds o f m uch smaller ones The largest island is called Great Britain The other large one is called Ireland (G re a t B rita in a n d Ire la n d ) There is no agreem ent ab o u t w hat to call all o f them together (L o o k in g f o r a n a m e ).

Politically speaking

In this geographical area there are two states One o f these governs

m ost o f the island o f Ireland This state is usually called The Republic

o f Ireland It is also called ‘Eire5 (its Irish language name) Informally,

it is referred to as ju st ‘Ireland’ or ‘the Republic’

The oth er state has au th o rity over the rest o f the area (the whole

o f Great Britain, the north-eastern area o f Ireland and m ost o f the smaller islands) This is the country th a t is the m ain subject o f this book Its official nam e is The U nited Kingdom o f Great Britain and

N o rth ern Ireland, b u t this is too long for practical purposes, so it is usually know n by a shorter name At the Eurovision Song Contest, at the United N ations and in the European parliam ent, for instance, it is referred to as ‘the U nited Kingdom ’ In everyday speech, this is often

N a tio n a l te a m s in s e le c te d s p o r ts

England

POLITICALLY SPEAKING 9

shortened to cthe UK’ and in in tern et and email addresses it is ‘.uk’

In other contexts, it is referred to as ‘Great B ritain’ This, for example,

is the nam e you hear when a m edal w inner steps onto the rostrum at

the Olympic Games The abbreviation ‘GBP’ (Great B ritain Pounds) in

international bank drafts is another example o f the use o f this name

In w riting and speaking th a t is n o t especially form al or inform al, the

nam e ‘B ritain’ is used The norm al everyday adjective, w hen talking

ab o u t som ething to do w ith the UK, is ‘B ritish’ (W h y is B rita in ‘ G r e a t? )

G r e a t B r ita in a n d Ire la n d

L o o k in g f o r a n a m e

I t ’s n o t easy to keep geography and politics apart Geographically speaking, it is clear th a t Great

B ritain, Ireland and all those smaller islands belong together So you w o u ld th in k there w ould be

a (single) name fo r them D uring the nineteenth and tw entieth centuries, they were generally called T h e British Isles' But

m ost people in Ireland and some people in Britain regard this name

as outd a te d because it calls to mind the tim e when Ireland was

p o litic a lly d om inated by Britain.

So w h a t can we call these islands?

A m ong the names which have been used are ‘The north-east A tlantic archipelago’, T h e north-w est European archipelago’, cIO NA’ (Islands o f the N orth A tla n tic) and sim ply T h e Isles’ But none o f these has become widely accepted The m ost com m on term at present is ‘Great B ritain and Ireland’ But even this is n o t strictly correct It is n o t correct geographically because it ignores all the sm aller islands And it is

n o t correct p o litic a lly because there are tw o small parts o f the area on the maps w hich have special p o litica l arrangements These are the Channel Islands and the Isle o f M an, w hich are ‘crown dependencies’ and

n o t o ffic ia lly p a rt o f the UK Each has com plete internal self-government, inclu d in g its own pa rlia m e n t and its own tax system Both are ‘ ru le d ’ by a Lieutenant G overnor appointed

by the British governm ent.

S C O T L A N D

N ORTHERN IRELAND •Belfast

200km

S o m e h is to r ic a l a n d p o e tic

n a m e s

Albion is a w ord used by poets

and songwriters to refer, in

different contexts, to England or

to Scotland o r to Great Britain as

a whole It comes from a Celtic

w ord and was an early Greek

and Roman name fo r Great

Britain The Romans associated

Great Britain w ith the Latin word

‘albus’, meaning w hite The w hite

chalk cliffs around Dover on

the English south coast are the

firs t land form ations one sights

when crossing the sea from the

European mainland.

Britannia is the name th a t the

Romans gave to th e ir southern

B ritish province (w h ich covered,

approxim ately, the area o f

present-day England and W ales)

It is also the name given to the

fem ale e m b o d im e n t o f B rita in ,

always shown w earing a helm et

and h o ld in g a trid e n t (the

symbol o f pow er over the sea),

hence the p a trio tic song w hich

begins ‘ Rule B rita n n ia, B rita n n ia

rule the waves’ The figure o f

B rita n n ia has been on the reverse

side o f m any B ritish coins fo r

m ore than 300 years.

The four n ation s

People often refer to B ritain by a n o th er nam e They call it

‘E ngland5 But this is n o t correct, an d its use can m ake som e people angry England is only one o f ‘the four n a tio n s’ in th is p a rt o f the world The others are Scotland, Wales, and Ireland T heir political unification was a gradual process th a t took several h u n d re d years (see chapter 2) It was com pleted in 1800 w hen the Irish parliam ent was joined w ith the parliam ent for England, Scotland, an d Wales

in W estm inster, so th a t the whole area became a single state - the

U nited K ingdom o f G reat B ritain and Ireland However, in 1922,

m o st o f Ireland became a separate state (see chapter 12)

At one time, culture an d lifestyle varied enorm ously across the

fo u r nations The d o m in a n t culture o f people in Ireland, Wales

an d H ighland Scotland was Celtic; th a t o f people in England and Lowland Scotland was Germ anic This difference was reflected in

th e languages they spoke People in the Celtic areas spoke Celtic languages; people in the G erm anic areas spoke G erm anic dialects (including th e one which has developed into m odern English) The

n atio n s also ten d ed to have different econom ic, social, an d legal systems, an d they were in d ep en d en t o f each other

O t h e r sig n s o f n a tio n a l id e n tity

Briton is a w o rd used in o ffic ia l

contexts and in w ritin g to describe a citizen o f the U nited

K ingdom ‘A n c ie n t B rito n s ’ is the name given to the people

w h o lived in sou th e rn B rita in before and d u rin g the Roman

o c c u p a tio n (A D 4 3 -4 1 0 ) T h e ir heirs are th o u g h t to be the W elsh and th e ir language has developed

in to the m odern W elsh language.

Caledonia, C am bria and H ibernia

were the Roman names fo r

S co tla n d , W ales and Ireland respectively The w o rd s are

c o m m o n ly used to d a y in scholarly cla ssifica tio n s ( fo r example, the type o f English used in Ireland

is som etim es called ‘ H ib e rn o - English’ and there is a division

o f geological tim e know n as

‘the C am b ria n p e rio d ’ ) and fo r the names o f o rg a n iza tio n s (fo r exam ple, ‘Glasgow C a le d o n ia n ’

U niversity).

Erin is a p o e tic name fo r Ireland

The Emerald Isle is a n o th e r way

o f refe rrin g to Ireland, evoking the lush greenery o f its co u n trysid e

John Bull (see below) is a fictional

character w ho is supposed to personify Englishness and certain English virtues (He can be compared to Uncle Sam in the USA.) He appears in hundreds o f nineteenth century cartoons Today, som ebody dressed as him often appears at

fo o tb a ll o r rugby matches when England are playing His appearance is typical o f

an eighteenth century country gentleman, evoking an idyllic rural past (see chapter 5).

Today, these differences have becom e blurred, b u t they have n o t

com pletely disappeared A lthough there is only one governm ent

for th e whole o f B ritain, an d everybody gets th e sam e p assp o rt

regardless o f where in B ritain they live, m any aspects o f governm ent

are organized separately (and som etim es differently) in th e four

p a rts o f th e U nited Kingdom Moreover, Welsh, Scottish and

Irish people feel th e ir id en tity very strongly T h a t is why they have

separate team s in m any kin d s o f in te rn a tio n a l sport

Id e n tify in g s y m b o ls o f th e f o u r n a tio n s

- H i M i

Ireland

C o lo u r2

1 there is some disagreement among Welsh people as to which is the real national

plant, b u t the leek is the m ost well-known

2 as typically w orn by sports teams o fth e different nations

□

O th e r to k e n s o f n a tio n a l id e n tity The fo llo w in g are also associated

by British people w ith one o r more o fth e fo u r nations.

Surnames

The prefix ‘ M ac’ o r ‘ M e ’ (such as

M cC all, M acC arthy, M a cD o n a ld )

is Scottish o r Irish The prefix

‘O ’ (as in O ’ Brien, O ’C onnor) is Irish A large num ber o f surnames (fo r example, Evans, Jones,

M organ, Price, W illia m s ) suggest Welsh o rig in The m ost com m on surname in both England and Scotland is ‘S m ith ’.

First names fo r men

The Scottish o f ‘John’ is ‘ Ian’ and its Irish fo rm is ‘Sean’, although all three names are com m on

th ro u g h o u t Britain Outside their own countries, there are also nicknames fo r Irish, Scottish and Welsh men For instance, Scottish men are sometimes known and addressed as ‘Jock’, Irishmen are called ‘ Paddy’ o r ‘ M ick’ and Welshmen as ‘ Dai’ o r ‘Taffy’ I f the person using one o f these names is

n o t a friend, and especially i f it is used in the plural (e.g ‘ M icks’), it can sound insulting.

Clothes

The kilt, a s k irt w ith a ta rta n pattern w orn by men, is a very w ell-know n symbol o f Scottishness (th o u g h it is hardly ever w o rn in everyday life).

C h a ra c te r is tic s There are certain stereotypes

o f national character w hich are well know n in B ritain For instance, the Irish are supposed

to be great talkers, the Scots have a re putation fo r being careful w ith money and the Welsh are renowned fo r th e ir singing ability These are, o f course, only caricatures and n o t reliable descriptions o f individual people fro m these countries Nevertheless, they indicate some slight differences in the value attached to certain kinds o f behaviour in these countries.

These figures are estimates

provided by the O ffice fo r

N ational Statistics (England and

Wales), the General Register Office

fo r Scotland and the N orthern

Ireland Statistics and Research

Agency In the tw enty-first century,

the to ta l population o f Britain

has risen by a b o u t a qua rte r o f a

m illion each year.

M u s ic a l in s tr u m e n ts

The h arp is an em blem o f b o th

Wales and Ireland Bagpipes

are regarded as d is tin ctive ly

S co ttish , a lth o u g h a sm aller

type is also used in tra d itio n a l

Irish music.

(Right) A harp.

(Far right) A Scottish bagpipe.

The dom in an ce o f England

There is, perhaps, an excuse for the people who use th e word

‘E ngland’ w hen they m ean ‘B ritain’ It can n o t be denied th a t the

d o m in a n t culture o f B ritain today is specifically English The system

o f politics th a t is used in all four natio n s today is o f English origin,

an d English is the m ain language o f all four nations Many aspects

o f everyday life are organized according to English custom and practice But th e political unification o f B ritain was n o t achieved by

m u tu a l agreem ent O n the contrary, it h appened because England was able to assert her econom ic and m ilitary power over the o th er three natio n s (see chapter 2)

Today, English d o m in a tio n can be detected in the way in which various aspects o f B ritish public life are described For example, the supply o f m oney in B ritain is controlled by th e Bank o f England (there is no such th in g as a ‘Bank o f B ritain ’) A nother example

is the nam e o f the p resen t m onarch She is universally know n as

‘Elizabeth II’, even th o u g h S cotland and N o rth e rn Ireland have never h ad an ‘Elizabeth I’ (E lizabeth I o f England an d Wales ruled from 1553 to 1603) T he com m on use o f th e term ‘A nglo’ is a

fu rth e r indication (The Angles were a G erm anic tribe who settled

in E ngland in the fifth century The w ord ‘E n g lan d ’ is derived from th eir nam e.) W hen new spapers an d the television news talk

a b o u t ‘Anglo-Am erican relatio n s’, they are talk in g a b o u t relations between th e governm ents o f B ritain an d the USA (and n o t ju s t England an d the USA)

In addition, there is a tendency in the nam es o f publications and organizations to portray England as the norm and other parts o f Britain as special cases T hus there is a specialist newspaper called

NATIONAL LOYALTIES 13

the Times Educational Supplement, b u t also a version o f it called the

Times Educational Supplement (Scotland) Similarly, the um brella

o rg an izatio n for employees is called th e ‘Trades U nion C ongress’,

b u t there is also a ‘S cottish Trades U nion C ongress’ W hen

so m eth in g p ertain s to England, this fact is often n o t specified in

its name; w hen it p ertain s to Wales, S cotland or N o rth e rn Ireland,

it always is In th is way, these p arts o f B ritain are presen ted as

so m eth in g ‘o th e r’

N ational loyalties

The dom inance o f England can also be detected in the way th a t many

English people d o n ’t bo th er to distinguish between ‘B ritain’ and

‘England’ They write ‘English’ next to ‘nationality’ on form s when

they are abroad an d talk ab o u t places like E dinburgh as if it was p a rt

o f England

Nevertheless, w hen you are talking to people from Britain, it is safest

to use ‘B ritain’ when talking ab o u t where they live and ‘B ritish’

as the adjective to describe th eir nationality This way you will

be less likely to offend anyone It is, o f course, n o t w rong to talk

a b o u t ‘people in England’ if th a t is w hat you m ean - people who

live w ith in th e geographical boundaries o f England After all, m ost

B ritish people live there ( P o p u la tio n s in 2 0 0 6 ) But it sh ould always

be rem em bered th a t England does n o t make up the whole o f the UK

(C a re fu l w ith t h a t a d d re s s !).

C a re fu l w it h t h a t a d d re s s !

W hen you are addressing a letter

to somewhere in B rita in , d o n o t

w rite anything like ‘ E dinburgh,

E ngland’ o r ‘ C ardiff, E ngland’ You should w rite ‘ Edinburgh,

S co tla n d ’ and ‘ C a rd iff, W ales’

- o r ( i f you feel ‘S co tla n d ’ and

‘ W ales’ are n o t recognizable enough) w rite ‘ G reat B rita in ’ o r

Asian other

One o fth e questions in the 2001 census o fth e UK was ‘W h a t

is your ethnic group?’ and the categories above were offered as

choices Here are some o fth e results, listed in order o f size.

As you can see, a b o u t one in nine people identified themselves

as som ething o th e r than ‘w h ite B ritish ’ The largest category was ‘w h ite o th e r’, b u t these people were fro m a variety o f places and m any were only te m p o ra rily resident in B ritain As

a result, they do n o t fo rm a single identifiable com m unity (For these and o th e r reasons, the same is largely true o f those in the w h ite Irish and black A frican categories.) By fa r the largest recognizable ethnic grou p in g was form ed by people whose ethnic roots are in the Indian sub co n tin e n t (Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi in the ch a rt); together they made up more than tw o m illio n people The o th e r established, recognizable ethnic group in B ritain were black Caribbeans (a little over h a lf

a m illio n people).

W h a t this c h a rt does n o t show are all the people w ho came

to B ritain fro m eastern Europe (especially Poland) in the years 2004-2007 T h e ir numbers, estimated between three quarters

o f a m illio n and one m illio n , represent the largest single wave

o f im m ig ra tio n to B ritain in more than 300 years However, it

is n o t clear a t this tim e how many w ill set up home in Britain.

A n o th e r p o in t a b o u t the people o f Britain is w o rth noting Since the 1980s, more people im m igrate to Britain than emigrate from it every year A quarter o f all babies born in Britain are born to at least one foreign-born parent A t the same tim e,

em igration is also very high The people o f Britain are changing.

There has been a long history o f m igration from Scotland, Wales and Ireland to England As a result, there are m illions o f people who live in England b u t who would never describe themselves as English (or at least n o t as only English) They may have lived in England all their lives, b u t as far as they are concerned they are Scottish or Welsh or Irish - even if, in the last case, they are citizens o f Britain and n o t o f Eire These people su p p o rt the country o f their parents or grandparents rather th an England in sporting contests They would also, given the chance, play for th a t country rather th a n England.The same often holds true for the fu rth er m illions o f British citizens whose family origins lie outside Britain or Ireland People o f Caribbean

or so u th Asian descent, for instance, do n o t m ind being described as

‘B ritish’ (many are proud o f it), b u t many o f them w ould n o t like to be called ‘English’ (or, again, n o t only English) And whenever the West Indian, Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi cricket team plays against England, it is usually n o t England th a t they support!

There is, in fact, a com plicated division o f loyalties am ong many people in Britain, and especially in England A black person whose family are from the Caribbean will passionately su p p o rt the West Indies when they play cricket against England But the same person is quite happy to su p p o rt England ju st as passionately in a sp o rt such as football, which the West Indies do n o t play A person whose family are from Ireland b u t who has always lived in England w ould w ant Ireland

to beat England at football b u t w ould w ant England to beat (for example) Italy ju s t as m uch

This crossover o f loyalties can work the o ther way as well English people do n o t regard the Scottish, the Welsh or the Irish as ‘foreigners’ (or, at least, n o t as the same kind o f foreigner as other foreigners!) An English com m entator o f a sporting event in which a Scottish, Irish

or Welsh team is playing against a team from elsewhere in the world tends to identify w ith th a t team as if it were English

Flag

The U nion flag, often known as

the ‘ U n io n ja c k ’, is the national

flag o fth e UK It is a co m b in a tio n

o fth e cross o f St George, the

cross o f St Andrew and the cross

o fS t Patrick.

QUESTIONS

1 W hich o f the nam es suggested in this chapter for the group o f islands o ff the north-w est coast o f Europe do you th in k would be the best? Can you th in k o f any others?

2 Is there the same kind o f confusion o f and disagreem ent about names in your country as there is in Britain and Ireland? How does this happen?

3 Think o f the well-known symbols and tokens o f nationality in your country Are they the same types o f real-life objects (e.g plants and clothes) th a t are used in Britain?

4 In the British governm ent, there are m inisters w ith special responsibility for Scotland, Wales and N o rth ern Ireland, b u t there is

no m inister for England Why do you th in k this is?

02

Prehistory

Two th o u sa n d years ago there was an Iron Age Celtic culture/ o o>

th ro u g h o u t th e north-w est E uropean islands It seems th a t the

Celts had interm ingled w ith th e peoples who were there already; we

know th a t religious sites th a t h a d been b u ilt long before th e ir arrival

c o n tin u ed to be used in Celtic times

For people in B ritain today, th e chief significance o f th e prehistoric

perio d is its sense o f mystery This sense finds its focus m o st easily

in the a sto n ish in g m o n u m e n ta l architecture o f th is period, the

rem ains o f which exist th ro u g h o u t the country W iltshire, in so u th ­

w estern England, has two spectacular examples: Silbury Hill, the

largest bu rial m o u n d in Europe, and Stonehenge (S to n e h e n g e ) Such

places have a special im portance for some people w ith inclinations

tow ards mysticism and esoteric religion For example, we know th a t

Celtic society h ad a priestly caste called th e D ruids Their nam e

survives today in th e O rder o f Bards, Ovates, and D ruids

History

S to n e h e n g e

Stonehenge was b u ilt on Salisbury Plain some tim e between 5,000 and 4,300 years ago It is one o f the m ost fam ous and mysterious archaeological sites in the w orld One o f its mysteries is how it was ever b u ilt at all w ith the technology o fth e tim e (some o f the stones come from over 200 miles away in Wales) A no th e r is its purpose It appears to function

as a kind o f astronom ical clock and we know it was used by the Druids fo r ceremonies marking the passing o f the seasons It has always exerted a fascination

on the British im agination, and appears in a num ber o f novels,

the D ’Urbervilles.

These days, it is n o t only o f interest to tourists b u t is also held in special esteem by certain

m inority groups It is now fenced

o ff to p rotect it from damage.

H a d r ia n ’ s W a ll

H ad ria n ’s W all was b u ilt by the

Romans in the second century

across the northern border o f

their province o f Britannia (which

is nearly the same as the present

English-Scottish border) in order

to protect it from attacks by the

Scots and the Piets.

The R om an period (4 3 -4 1 0 )

The Rom an province o f B ritannia covered m ost o f present-day England and Wales, where the Rom ans im posed their own way o f life and culture, m aking use o f the existing Celtic aristocracy to govern and encouraging them to adopt Rom an dress and the Latin language They never w ent to Ireland and exerted an influence, w ith o u t actually governing there, over only the so u th ern p a rt o f Scotland It was

d u rin g this tim e th a t a Celtic tribe called the Scots m igrated from Ireland to Scotland, where, along w ith an o th er tribe, the Piets, they became opponents o f the Romans This division o f the Celts into those who experienced Rom an rule (the Britons in England and Wales)

an d those who did n o t (the Gaels in Ireland and Scotland) may help

to explain the emergence o f two distinct branches o f the Celtic group

Almost the only lasting rem inders o f their presence are place names like Chester, Lancaster and Gloucester, which include variants o f the

Latin word castra (a m ilitary camp).

The Germ anic invasions (4 1 0 -1 0 6 6 )

The Rom an occupation had been a m atter o f colonial control rather

th a n large-scale settlem ent But d u rin g the fifth century, a num ber

o f tribes from the European m ainland invaded and settled in large num bers Two o f these tribes were the Angles and the Saxons These Anglo-Saxons soon had the south-east o f the country in their grasp In the west, their advance was tem porarily halted by an army o f (Celtic) Britons u nder the com m and o f the legendary King A rth u r (K in g

S o m e im p o r t a n t d a te s in B r itis h h is to r y

Julius Caesar lands

in B ritain w ith an expeditionary force,

wins a battle and leaves The firs t ‘d a te ’

in p o p u la r British history.

to stay.

v/ JL o fth e Iceni tribe leads a bloody revolt against the Roman occupation It is suppressed There

is a statue o f Boadicea, made in the nineteenth century, outside the Houses

o f Parliament, which has helped to keep her m em ory alive.

410 432

The Romans leave B ritain

St Patrick converts Ireland to Christianity.

St Augustine arrives in

headquarters a t C anterbury.

THE GERMANIC INVASIONS (410-1066) 17

way o f life predom inated in nearly all o f present-day England Celtic

culture an d language survived only in present-day Scotland, Wales

and Cornwall

The Anglo-Saxons had little use for towns and cities But they had a

great effect on the countryside, where they introduced new farm ing

m ethods and founded the thousands o f self-sufficient villages which

form ed the basis o f English society for the next th o u san d or so years

W hen they came to Britain, the Anglo-Saxons were pagan D uring

the sixth and seventh centuries, C hristianity spread th ro u g h o u t

B ritain from two different directions By the tim e it was in tro d u ced

in to the so u th o f England by the R om an m issionary St A ugustine,

it h ad already been in tro d u ced in to Scotland and n o rth e rn

England from Ireland, which h ad becom e C hristian m ore th a n 150

years earlier A lthough Rom an C hristianity eventually to o k over

everywhere, th e Celtic m odel persisted in Scotland an d Ireland for

several h u n d re d years It was less centrally organized an d had less

need for a stro n g m onarchy to s u p p o rt it This partly explains why

b o th secular an d religious power in these two co u n tries co n tin u ed

to be b o th m ore locally based an d less secure th ro u g h o u t the

medieval period

B ritain experienced a n o th er wave o f G erm anic invasions in the

eighth century These invaders, know n as Vikings, N orsem en or

Danes, came from Scandinavia In th e n in th century they conquered

an d settled th e islands a ro u n d Scotland and som e coastal regions

o f Ireland Their conquest o f England was h alted w hen they were

defeated by King Alfred o f the Saxon kingdom o f Wessex (K in g A lfre d )

As a result, th e ir settlem en t was confined m ostly to the n o rth and

east o f th e country

However, th e cultural differences between Anglo-Saxons an d D anes

were com paratively small They led roughly the same way o f life and

spoke different varieties o f th e sam e G erm anic tongue Moreover,

the D anes soon converted to Christianity These sim ilarities m ade

political unification easier, a n d by the end o f the te n th century,

E ngland was a un ited kingdom w ith a G erm anic culture th ro u g h o u t

M ost o f Scotland was also u n ite d by th is tim e, at least in nam e, in a

(Celtic) Gaelic kingdom

K in g A r t h u r King A rth u r is a w onderful example o fth e distortions o f

p o p u la r history In folklore and myth (and on film ), he is a great English hero, and he and his Knights o fth e Round Table are regarded as the perfect example o f medieval n o b ility and chivalry In fact, he lived long before medieval times and was a Romanized Celt tryin g to hold back the advances

o fth e Anglo-Saxons - the very people w ho became ‘the English’ !

^ Q k ^ 2 The great m onastery o f

/ \ J Lindisfarne on the east

coast o f B ritain is destroyed by

Vikings and its monks killed.

0 ^ 7 0 The Peace o f Edington

O / O p a rtitio n s the

G erm anic terrto rie s between King

A lfre d ’s Saxons and the Danes.

/ k J becomes king o f nearly all o f

present-day England and fo r the firs t tim e the name ‘ England1 is used.

* BC means ‘ before C h ris t’ All the o th e r dates

are A D (in Latin anno dotnini), w hich signifies ‘year

o f O u r L o rd ’ Some m odern h istoria n s use the

n o ta tio n BCE ( ‘ Before C om m o n Era’ ) and CE ( ‘ C o m m o n Era’ ) instead.

K in g A lfre d

King Alfred was n o t only an able

w a rrio r b u t also a dedicated

scholar (the only English monarch

fo r a long tim e afterw ards w ho

was able to read and w rite) and a

wise ruler He is known as ‘Alfred

the G reat’ - the only monarch in

English history to be given this title

He is also popularly known fo r the

sto ry o fth e burn in g o fth e cakes.

W hile he was w andering around

his c o u n try organizing resistance

to the Danish invaders, Alfred

travelled in disguise On one

occasion, he stopped a t a

w o m a n ’s house The wom an

asked him to w atch some cakes

th a t were cooking to see th a t they

did n o t burn, w hile she w ent o f f

to get fo o d A lfred became lost

in th o u g h t and the cakes burned

W hen the w om an returned, she

shouted angrily a t Alfred and sent

him away Alfred never to ld her

th a t he was her king.

1066

This is the m ost fam ous date in

English history On 14 O ctober o f

th a t year, an invading arm y from

N orm andy defeated the English at

the Battle o f Hastings The battle

was close and extremely bloody.

A t the end o f it, m ost o fth e best

w arriors in England were dead,

including their leader, King Harold

On Christmas day th a t year, the

N orm an leader, Duke W illia m o f

N orm andy, was crowned king o f

England He is known in popular

history as ‘W illia m the C onqueror’

and the date is remembered as

the last tim e th a t England was

successfully invaded.

The m edieval period (1 0 6 6 -1 4 5 8 )

The successful N o rm an invasion o f England (1066) b ro u g h t B ritain

in to the m ainstream o f w estern E uropean culture Previously, m ost links h ad been w ith Scandinavia Only in S cotland d id th is link survive, the w estern isles (u n til the 13th century) an d the n o rth e rn islands (u n til th e fifteenth century) rem aining u n d e r the co n tro l o f Scandinavian kings T h ro u g h o u t th is period, th e English kings also owned lan d on th e c o n tin e n t an d were o ften a t war w ith the French kings

Unlike the Germ anic invasions, the N orm an invasion was small-scale There was no such th in g as a N orm an area o f settlem ent Instead, the

N orm an soldiers who had invaded were given the ownership o f land - and o f the people living on it A strict feudal system was imposed Great nobles, or barons, were responsible directly to the king; lesser lords, each owning a village, were directly responsible to a baron

U nder them were the peasants, tied by a strict system o f m u tu al duties and obligations to the local lord, and forbidden to travel w ith o u t his perm ission The peasants were the English-speaking Saxons The lords and the barons were the French-speaking N orm ans This was the start

o f the English class system (L a n g u a g e a n d so c ia l class).

The system o f strong governm ent which the N orm ans in tro d u ced made the A nglo-N orm an kingdom the m ost pow erful political force

in B ritain an d Ireland N ot surprisingly therefore, the a u th o rity

o f the English m onarch gradually extended to o th er p arts o f these islands in the next 250 years By the end o f the th irte e n th century,

a large p a rt o f eastern Ireland was controlled by A nglo-N orm an lords in the nam e o f th eir king an d the whole o f Wales was u n d er his direct rule (at which tim e, the custom o f nam in g the m onarch's eldest son the 'Prince o f Wales’ began) Scotland m anaged to rem ain politically in d ep en d en t in the medieval period, b u t was obliged to fight occasional wars to do so

The cultural story o f this period is different In the 250 years after the N orm an Conquest, it was a Germ anic language, M iddle English, and n o t the N orm an (French) language, which had become the

d o m in an t one in all classes o f society in England Furtherm ore, it was the Anglo-Saxon concept o f com m on law, and n o t Rom an law, which form ed the basis o f the legal system

the Dom esday B ook, a very

d e ta iled , village-by-village record

o ft h e people and th e ir possessions

o f years The Canterbury Tales, w ritte n by

Geoffrey Chaucer in the fo u rte e n th century, recounts the stories to ld by a fic tio n a l group

o f pilgrim s on th e ir way to Canterbury.

known as S trongbow and his follow ers settle in Ireland.

THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD (1066-1458) 19

Despite English rule, n o rth e rn and central Wales was never settled in

great num bers by Saxons or N orm ans As a result, the (Celtic) Welsh

language and culture rem ained strong Eisteddfods, national festivals

o f Welsh song and poetry, continued th ro u g h o u t the medieval period

and still continue today The A nglo-Norm an lords o f Ireland rem ained

loyal to the English king but, despite laws to the contrary, mostly

adopted the Gaelic language and customs

The political independence o f Scotland did n o t prevent a gradual

switch to English language an d custom s in th e low land (southern)

p a rt o f th e country Many Anglo-Saxon aristocrats had fled there

after the N o rm an conquest In addition, the Celtic kings saw th a t the

ad o p tio n o f an A nglo-N orm an style o f governm ent w ould stren g th en

royal power By the end o f this period, a cultural split had developed

between the lowlands, where the way o f life an d language was sim ilar

to th a t in England, and the highlands, where Gaelic culture and

language prevailed - and where, due to th e m o u n tain o u s terrain, the

a u th o rity o f th e Scottish king was hard to enforce

It was in this period th a t Parliam ent began its gradual evolution

into the democratic body which it is today The word ‘parliam ent’,

which comes from the French word parler (to speak), was first used in

England in the th irteen th century to describe an assembly o f nobles

called together by the king

R o b in H o o d

Robin H o o d is a legendary fo lk hero

King Richard I (1 1 8 9 -9 9 ) spent m ost

o f his reign fig h tin g in the ‘crusades’

(the wars between C hristians and M uslim s in the M id d le East)

M eanw hile, England was governed

by his b ro th e rjo h n , w h o was

u n p o p u la r because o f all the taxes

he im posed A c co rd in g to legend, Robin H ood lived w ith his band o f

‘ m erry m en’ in S herw ood Forest outside N o ttin g h a m , stealing from the rich and giving to the poor He was c o n sta n tly hunted by th e local

s h e riff (th e royal representative) b u t was never captured.

L a n g u a g e a n d s o c ia l class

As an example o f the class

d is tin c tio n s in tro d u ce d in to society a fte r the N orm an invasion, people o fte n p o in t to the fa c t th a t m odern English has tw o w ords fo r the larger

fa rm anim als: one fo r th e living anim al (cow , pig, sheep) and

a n o th e r fo r th e anim al you eat (beef, p o rk, m u tto n ) The fo rm e r set come fro m A nglo-Saxon, the

la tte r fro m the French th a t the

N orm ans b ro u g h t to England

O n ly th e N orm ans n o rm a lly ate

m eat; the p o o r Anglo-Saxon peasants did n o t!

■i -i £ An alliance o f aristocracy, church

agree to the Magna Carta (Latin meaning ‘Great

C harter’ ), a docum ent in w hich the king agrees

to fo llo w certain rules o f government In fact,

n e ith e rjo h n n o r his successors entirely followed

them , b u t the Magna C arta is remembered as

the firs t time a m onarch agreed in w ritin g to

abide by form al procedures.

whole o f th a t country under the control o fth e English monarch.

the pattern fo r the future

by including elected representatives from urban and rural areas.

■1 ■ I ^ Q A fte r several years o f w ar

English kingdoms, Scotland is recognized

as an independent kingdom.

T h e W a rs o f t h e Roses

D uring the fifteenth century, the

power o fth e greatest nobles, who

had their own private armies,

meant th a t constant challenges to

the position o fth e monarch were

possible These power struggles

came to a head in the Wars o f

the Roses, in which the nobles

were divided into tw o groups,

one supporting the House o f

Lancaster, whose symbol was a red

rose, the other the House o f York,

whose symbol was a white rose

Three decades o f alm ost continual

w a r ended in 1485, when Henry

T udor (Lancastrian) defeated and

killed Richard III (Yorkist) at the

Battle o f Bosworth Field.

O f f w it h his h e a d !

Being an im p o rta n t person in the

sixteenth century was n o t a safe

p o sitio n The T u d o r monarchs

were disloyal to th e ir officials

and merciless to any nobles w ho

opposed them M ore than h a lf

o fth e m ost fam ous names o fth e

p eriod finished th e ir lives by being

executed Few people w ho were

taken through T ra ito r’s Gate (see

below ) in the T ow er o f London

came o u t again alive.

In its first ou tb reak in the m iddle o f th e fo u rtee n th century, bubonic plague (know n in England as the Black D eath) killed a b o u t a th ird

o f the p o p u latio n o f G reat Britain It periodically reappeared for

a n o th er 300 years The shortage o f lab o u r which it caused, an d the increasing im portance o f trade an d towns, weakened th e trad itio n al ties between lord an d peasant At a higher level o f feudal structure, the power o f the great barons was greatly weakened by in-fighting

(T h e W a rs o f t h e R oses).

Both these developm ents allowed English m onarchs to increase their power The Tudor dynasty (1485-1603) established a system o f governm ent departm ents staffed by professionals who depended for their position on the m onarch The feudal aristocracy was no longer needed for im plem enting governm ent policy It was needed less for

making it too O f the traditional two 'H ouses’ o f Parliam ent, the Lords

and the C om m ons, it was now more im p o rtan t for m onarchs to get the agreem ent o f the Com m ons for their policies because th a t was where the newly powerful m erchants and landowners were represented.Unlike in m uch o f the rest o f Europe, the im m ediate cause o f the rise

o f Protestantism in England was political and personal rather th an doctrinal The King (H e n ry V III) w anted a divorce, which the Pope

w ould n o t give him Also, by m aking him self head o f the 'C hurch

o f England’, independent o f Rome, all church lands came un d er his control and gave him a large new source o f income

This rejection o f the Rom an C hurch also accorded w ith a new spirit

o f patriotic confidence in England The country had finally lost any realistic claim to lands in France, th u s becom ing m ore consciously

a distinct 'island n atio n ’ At the same time, increasing European exploration o f the Americas m eant th a t England was closer to the geographical centre o f western civilization instead o f being,

as previously, on the edge o f it It was in the last quarter o f this adventurous and optim istic century th a t Shakespeare began w riting his fam ous plays, giving voice to the m odern form o f English

It was therefore patriotism as m uch as religious conviction th a t had caused Protestantism to become the m ajority religion in England by the end o f the century It took a form know n as Anglicanism, n o t so very different from Catholicism in its organization and ritual But in

T h e s ix te e n th c e n t u r y

• i J T A The A c t o f Suprem acy

■" declares H enry VIII to

be the suprem e head o ft h e church

in England.

governm ent and law in Wales is reform ed so th a t it is exactly

the same as it is in England.

1 C ^ Q An English

the Bible replaces Latin bibles in every church in the land.

*t £ The Scottish p a rlia m e n t

JL \ J abolishes the a u th o rity o f

the Pope and fo rb id s the Latin mass.

Sir Francis Drake completes the firs t voyage

1580

round the w orld by an Englishman.

THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 21

the lowlands o f Scotland, it took a m ore idealistic form Calvinism,

w ith its strict insistence on simplicity and its dislike o f ritu al and

celebration became the d o m in an t religion It is from this date th a t the

stereotype image o f the dour, th rifty Scottish developed However, the

highlands rem ained Catholic and so fu rth er widened the g u lf between

the two parts o f the nation Ireland also rem ained Catholic There,

Protestantism was identified w ith the English, who at th a t tim e were

m aking fu rth er attem pts to control the whole o f the country

H e n ry V III

H enry VIII is one o f the m ost w ell- know n m onarchs in English history, chiefly because he to o k six wives d u rin g his life He has the p o p u la r image

o f a bon viveur There is much tru th

in this re p u ta tio n He was a natural leader b u t n o t really interested in the

d a y-to -d a y ru n n in g o f governm ent and this encouraged the beginnings

o f a professional bureaucracy It was

d u rin g his reign th a t the re fo rm a tio n

to o k place In the 1 530s, H enry used

P arliam ent to pass laws w hich swept away the pow er o f th e Roman Church

in England However, his quarrel w ith Rome was n o th in g to do w ith d o ctrin e

It was because he w anted to be free

to m a rry again and to a p p o in t w h o

he wished as leaders o fth e church in England Earlier in the same decade, he had had a law passed w hich dem anded

c om plete adherence to C a th o lic

b e lie f and practice He had also previously w ritte n a polem ic against

P rotestantism , fo r w hich the pope gave him the title Fidei Defensor (defender o f

the fa ith ) The in itia ls F.D still appear

on British coins today.

E liz a b e th I

Elizabeth I, daughter o f Henry VIII, was

the firs t o f three long-reigning queens

in British history (the o th e r tw o are

Queen V ic to ria and Queen Elizabeth II)

D uring her long reign she established,

by skilful diplom acy, a reasonable

degree o f internal s ta b ility in a firm ly

P rotestant England, allow ing the grow th

o f a s p irit o f p a trio tis m and general

confidence She never m arried, b u t used

its possibility as a d ip lo m a tic to o l She

became known as ‘ the virgin queen’ The

area w hich later became the state o f

V irg in ia in the USA was named a fte r her

by one o fth e many English explorers o f

the tim e (S ir W a lte r Raleigh).

-1 r Q Q The Spanish Arm ada

the C a th o lic King Philip o f Spain to

help invade England, is defeated by

the English navy (w ith the help o f a

v io le n t s to rm !).

1603 James VI o f Scotland

becom esjam es I o f England as well.

A group o f C atholics fail in th e ir a tte m p t to blow up the king in Parliam ent (see chapter 23).

T h e C iv il W a r

T h is is rem em bered as a co n te st

between a ris to c ra tic , ro ya list

‘ C avaliers’ and p u rita n ic a l

p a rlia m e n ta ria n ‘ R oundheads’

1642 The Civil W ar begins.

W hen Jam es I became the first English king o f the S tu art dynasty,

he was already Jam es VI o f Scotland, so th a t the crowns o f these two countries were united A lthough their governm ents continued to be separate, their linguistic differences were lessened in this century The

k ind o f M iddle English spoken in lowland Scotland had developed into a w ritten language know n as ‘Scots’ However, the Scottish

P rotestant church adopted English rather than Scots bibles This and the glam our o f the English co u rt where the king now sat caused

m odern English to become the w ritten standard in Scotland as well (Scots gradually became ju st ca dialect’.)

In the seventeenth century, the link between religion an d politics becam e intense At the sta rt o f th e century, som e people tried to kill the king because he w asn’t C atholic enough By th e end o f the century, a n o th e r king had been killed, partly because he seem ed too C atholic, an d yet a n o th er had been forced in to exile for the sam e reason

This was the context in which, d u rin g the century, Parliam ent established its suprem acy over the monarchy Anger grew in the country at the way the S tu art m onarchs raised money w ithout, as tradition prescribed, getting the agreem ent o f the House o f C om m ons first In addition, ideological Protestantism , especially Puritanism , had grown in England Puritans regarded the luxurious lifestyle o f the king and his followers as immoral They were also anti-C atholic and suspicious o f the apparent sympathy towards Catholicism o f the

S tu art monarchs

T his conflict led to th e Civil War (The Civil War), w hich ended

w ith com plete victory for th e p arliam en tary forces Jam es’s son, Charles I, becam e th e first m on arch in Europe to be executed after a form al trial for crim es against his people The leader o f the parliam en tary army, Oliver Cromwell, becam e ‘Lord P ro tecto r’ o f

a republic w ith a m ilitary governm ent which, after he had b rutally crushed resistance in Ireland, effectively encom passed all o f B ritain

and is called ‘the C om m onw ealth’.

THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 2 3

However, the conflict between m onarch and Parliam ent soon re-emerged

in the reign o f Charles IPs brother, Jam es II Again, religion was its

focus James tried to give full rights to Catholics, and to prom ote them

in his government The ‘G lorious Revolution’ (‘glorious’ because it was

bloodless) followed, in which Prince William o f Orange, ruler o f the

Netherlands, and his Stuart wife Mary accepted Parliament’s invitation to

become king and queen Parliament immediately drew up a Bill o f Rights,

which limited some o f the m onarch’s powers It also allowed Dissenters

(those Protestants who did n o t agree with the practices o f Anglicanism)

to practise their religion freely This m eant th a t the Presbyterian Church,

to which the majority o f the lowland Scottish belonged, was guaranteed

its legality However, Dissenters were n o t allowed to hold governm ent

posts or become M embers o f Parliam ent (MPs)

We all fall down.

This is a w ell-known children’s nursery rhyme today It is believed

to come from the tim e o fth e Great Plague o f 1665, w hich was the last outbreak o f bubonic plague in Britain The ring o f roses refers to the pattern o f red spots

on a sufferer’s body The posies,

a bag o f herbs, were th o u g h t to give protection from the disease

‘A tish o o ’ represents the sound

o f sneezing, one o f the signs o f the disease, a fte r which a person could sometimes ‘fall d o w n ’ dead

in a few hours.

T h e B a ttle o f t h e B o y n e

A fte r he was deposed from the English and Scottish thrones, James II fled to Ireland B ut the

C atholic Irish army he gathered there was defeated at the Battle o f the Boyne in 1690 and laws were then passed fo rb id d in g Catholics

to vote o r even own land In Ulster,

in the north o f the country, large numbers o f fiercely anti-C atholic Scottish Presbyterians settled (in possession o f all the land) The descendants o f these people are still known to d a y as Orangemen (a fte r th e ir patron W illia m o f Orange) They fo rm one h a lf

o f the tragic s p lit in society in

m odern N orthern Ireland, the

o th e r h a lf being the ‘ native’ Irish C a th o lic (see page 29 The creation o f N o rth e rn Ireland).

London destroys m ost

o fth e city’s old wooden buildings It

also destroys bubonic plague, which

never reappears M o st o fth e city’s

finest churches, including St Paul’s

Cathedral, date from the period o f

rebuilding w hich followed.

Church becomes the official ‘Church o fS c o tla n d ’.

T h e o r ig in s o f m o d e r n

g o v e rn m e n t

The monarchs o fth e eighteenth

century were Hanoverian

Germans w ith interests on the

European continent The firs t

o f them , George I, could n o t

even speak English Perhaps this

situ a tio n encouraged the h a b it

whereby the m onarch appointed

one principal, o r ‘ p rim e ’, m inister

fro m the ranks o f Parliam ent

to head his governm ent It was

also d u rin g this century th a t

the system o f an annual budget

draw n up by the m on a rch ’s

Treasury officials fo r the approval

o f Parliam ent was established.

In 1707, the Act o f U nion was passed U nder this agreement, the Scottish parliam ent was dissolved and some o f its members joined the English and Welsh parliam ent in London and the form er two kingdom s became one ‘U nited Kingdom o f Great B ritain’ However, Scotland retained its own system o f law, m ore similar to continental European systems th a n th a t o f England’s It does so to this day

Politically, the eighteenth century was stable M onarch and Parliam ent got on quite well together One reason for this was th a t the m onarch’s favourite politicians, th ro u g h the royal power o f patronage (the ability

to give people jobs), were able to control the election and voting habits

o f a large num ber o f MPs in the House o f Commons

W ithin Parliam ent, the b itter divisions o f the previous century were echoed in the form ation o f w o vaguely opposed, loose collections o f allies O ne group, the Whigs, were the political ‘descendants’ o f the parliam entarians They sup p o rted the P rotestant values o f hard work and th rift, were sym pathetic to dissenters and believed in governm ent

by m onarch and aristocracy together The other group, the Tories, had a greater respect for the idea o f the monarchy and the im portance o f the Anglican Church (and sometimes even a little sympathy for Catholics and the Stuarts) This was the beginning o f the party system in Britain.The only p a rt o f Britain to change radically as a result o f political forces in this century was the highlands o f Scotland This area twice sup p o rted failed attem pts to p u t a (Catholic) S tu art m onarch back

on the throne After the second attem pt, many in habitants o f the highlands were killed or sent away from Britain and the wearing o f highland dress (the tartan kilt) was banned The Celtic way o f life was effectively destroyed

It was cultural change th a t was m ost marked in this century Britain gradually acquired an empire in the Americas, along the west African coast and in India The greatly increased trade th a t this allowed was one factor which led to the Industrial Revolution O ther factors were the many technical innovations in m anufacture and transport

T h e e i g h t e e n t h c e n t u r y

The last occasion on which

a British monarch refuses

1708

to accept a bill passed by Parliament.

o f C ulloden, a governm ent arm y o f English and low land Scots defeat the highland arm y o f Charles Edward, w ho, as grandson o fth e last S tu a rt king, claimed the British throne A lthough

he made no a tte m p t to p ro te ct his supporters from revenge attacks afterw ards, he is still a p o p u la r

ro m a n tic legend in the highlands, and

is known as ‘ Bonnie Prince C harlie’.

1-7 S ' The English w rite r

the fam ous phrase, ‘When a man is tired o f London, he is tired o f life’.

P arliam ent allow s

w ritte n records o f its debates to be published freely.

1782 James W a tt invents the

firs t steam engine.

In England, the grow th o f th e in d u strial m ode o f pro d u ctio n ,

together w ith advances in agriculture, caused the greatest upheaval

in th e p a tte rn o f everyday life since th e G erm anic invasions Areas o f

com m on land, which had been used by everybody in a village for the

grazing o f anim als, disappeared as landow ners in co rp o rated th em

in to their increasingly large and m ore efficient farms (There rem ain

som e pieces o f com m on la n d in B ritain today, used m ainly as parks

They are o ften called ‘the com m on’.) M illions moved from rural

areas in to new tow ns and cities M ost o f these were in th e n o rth

o f England, where th e raw m aterials for in d u stry were available

In this way, th e n o rth , which h ad previously been econom ically

backward, becam e th e in d u strial h e artlan d o f th e country The rig h t

conditions also existed in low land Scotland an d so u th Wales, which

fu rth e r accentuated th e differences between these p arts o f those

countries an d th eir o th e r regions In the so u th o f England, London

came to dom inate, n o t as an in d u stria l centre, b u t as a business and

ow nership o f a ‘c o u n try seat’ -

a gracious c o u n try mansion

w ith land attached M o re than

a th o u sa n d such m ansions were b u ilt in this century.

' t A fte r a war, B ritain

o f its N o rth Am erican colonies (giving

b irth to the USA).

1788

arrive in Australia.

The firs t British settlers (convicts and soldiers)

■A Q r v r v The separate Irish

- L C J \ J \ J p arliam ent is closed

and the United Kingdom o f Great Britain and Ireland is form ed.

the com m and o f

A d m ira l H o ra tio Nelson defeats

N a p o le o n ’s French fle e t at the Battle o fT ra fa lg a r N e lso n ’s C olum n

in T ra fa lg a r Square in London com m em orates this n a tio n a l hero,

w h o died d u rin g the b a ttle

governm ent minister, organizes the firs t m odern police force The police are still sometimes known today as ‘ bobbies’ ( ‘ Bobby’ is

a s h o rt fo rm o fth e name ‘ R o b e rt’) Catholics and non-Anglican Protestants are given the rig h t to hold governm ent posts and become MPs.

Q u e e n V ic t o r ia

Queen V ic to ria reigned

from 1837-1901 D uring her

reign, although the m odern

powerlessness o fth e m onarch

was confirm ed (she was

sometimes forced to accept as

Prime M in iste r people w hom she

personally disliked), she herself

became an increasingly p o p u la r

symbol o f B rita in ’s success in

the w o rld As a hard-w orking,

religious m o th e r o fte n children,

devoted to her husband, Prince

A lb e rt, she was regarded as the

personification o f co n te m p o ra ry

morals The idea th a t the

m onarch should set an example

to the people in such m atters was

unknown before this tim e and has

created problems fo r the monarchy

since then (see chapter 7).

conditions lim its the num ber o f hours

th a t children are allowed to work.

Slavery is made illegal th ro u g h o u t the

One section o f this empire was Ireland D uring this century, it was

in fact p a rt o f the UK itself, and it was d u rin g this century th a t British culture and way o f life came to predom inate in Ireland In the 1840s, the potato crop failed two years in a row and there was a terrible famine M illions o f peasants, those w ith Gaelic language and custom s, either died or emigrated By the end o f the century, alm ost the whole o f the rem aining p opulation had switched to English as their first language

A nother p a rt o f the empire was m ade up o f Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, where British settlers had become the m ajority population A nother was India, an enorm ous country w ith a culture more ancient th an B ritain’s Tens o f thousands o f British civil servants

an d troops were used to govern it At the head o f this adm inistration was a viceroy (governor) whose position w ithin the country was similar

to the m onarch’s in B ritain itself Because India was so far away, and the journey from Britain took so long, these British officials spent

m ost o f their working lives there and so developed a distinct way

o f life The majority, however, rem ained self-consciously ‘British’ as they im posed British in stitu tio n s and m ethods o f governm ent on the country Large parts o f Africa also belonged to the empire Except for South Africa, where there was some British settlem ent, m ost o f

B ritain’s African colonies started as trading bases on the coast, and were only incorporated into the empire at the end o f the century As well as these areas, the empire included num erous smaller areas and islands Some, such as those in the Caribbean, were the result o f earlier British settlem ent, b u t m ost were included because o f th eir strategic position along trading routes

The growth o f the empire was encouraged by a change in attitu d e

d u rin g the century Previously, colonization had been a m atter o f settlem ent, commerce, or m ilitary strategy The aim was simply to

T h e n i n e t e e n t h c e n t u r y

Congress) is formed.

1 Q Q / * A fte r much debate, an

in the House o f Commons.

Parliament He enters the House o f Com m ons fo r the firs t tim e w earing a cloth cap (which remained a symbol o f the British w orking man until the 1960s).

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 2 7

possess territory, b u t n o t necessarily to govern it By the end o f the

century, colonization was seen as a m atter o f destiny D u rin g the

century, Britain became the world’s forem ost economic power This,

together w ith long years o f political stability unequalled anywhere

else in Europe, gave the British a sense o f suprem e confidence, even

arrogance, ab o u t their culture and civilization The B ritish came to

see themselves as having a duty to spread this culture and civilization

aro u n d the world Being th e rulers o f an empire was therefore a

m atter o f m oral obligation (T h e W h ite Man’s B u rd e n ).

There were great changes in social structure M ost people now lived

in towns and cities They no longer depended on country landowners

for their living b u t rather on th e owners o f industries These ownersO

and the growing m iddle class o f tradespeople and professionals held

the real power in the c o u n try Along w ith their power w ent a set o f

values which emphasized hard work, thrift, religious observance, the

family, an awareness o f one’s duty, absolute honesty in public life, and

extreme respectability in sexual m atters This is the set o f values which

are now called Victorian

Middle-class religious conviction, together w ith a belief th a t

reform was better th an revolution, allowed reform s in public life

These included n o t only political reforms, b u t also reform s which

recognized some h um an rights (as we now call them ) Slavery and the

laws against people on the basis o f religion were abolished, and laws

were made to protect workers from some o f the worst excesses o f the

industrial m ode o f production Public services such as the post and

the police were begun

D espite reform , the n atu re o f th e new in d u stria l society forced

m any people to live an d work in very u n p leasan t surroundings

W riters and intellectuals o f this perio d either pro tested against

the horrors o f this new style o f life (for example, Dickens) or

simply ignored it Many, especially the R om antic poets, praised the

beauties o f th e countryside and th e virtues o f cou n try life This was

a new developm ent In previous centuries, th e countryside w asn’t

som ething to be discussed o r adm ired B ut from this tim e on, m o st

B ritish people developed a sentim ental a tta ch m e n t to th e idea o f the

countryside (see chapter 5)

1902

introduced.

1908

N ationwide selective secondary education is

The firs t old-age pensions are introduced.

o f Lords is severely reduced and sick pay fo r m ost w orkers

is in tro d u ce d

T h e W h ite M a n ’ s B u rd e n Here are some lines from the poem o f this title by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1 936), w ho is sometimes referred to (perhaps unfairly) as ‘the poet o f

im perialism ’.

Take up the White Man’s burden — Send forth the best ye breed -

Go, bind your sons to exile

To serve tour captives’ need;

To wait in heavy harness

On fluttered folk and wild - Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half-devil and half-child.

O ther races, the poem says, are

‘w ild ’ and have a ‘need’ to be civilized The w hite m an’s noble

d u ty is to ‘serve’ in this role This

is n o t a quest fo r mere power The

d u ty is bestowed by God, w hom Kipling invokes in another poem

(Recessional) in a reference to the

British empire in tropical lands:

Cod o f our fathers, known o f old, Lord o f our far-flung battle-line, Beneath whose awful hand we hold Dominion over palm and pine.

1 Q "1 / I G reat B rita in

Germany, U n til the 1940s, the First

W o rld W a r was know n in B rita in as

‘The G reat W a r’.

j L J - L 1 3 Ireland.

T h e B ritis h e m p ire a t its p e a k (1 9 1 9 )

Cyprus

r Palestine Kuwait

< ( / * /L -'

Egypt

Burm a H ong Kong

8 V / !&

Malava British Borneo

Gold : Cam eroon Somaliland

C oast Uganda \ { ^ t f H c a Maldives Singapore Ascension Island i a n d w 'Seychelles

Tanganyika

St Helena- Rhodesia Nvasaland

Papua Solomon Islands New'Guinea ' -

1921 T reaty between B rita in

and the Irish p a rlia m e n t

in D u b lin

1928 The right to vote is

extended again All adults can now vote.

1 C l Q Britain declares w ar on

• i Q / i O ”^ ie Beveridge report is

published, which leads

to the eventual creation o fth e NHS (see chapter 18).

age o f 15) is established.

Service is established see c h a p te r 18).

Coal mines and railways are nationalized O th e r industries fo llo w (see c h a p te r 15).

republic.

THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 29

A round the beginning o f the tw entieth century, Britain ceased to

be the world’s richest country Perhaps this caused a failure o f the

V ictorian confidence in gradual reform W hatever the reason, the

first 20 years o f the century were a period o f extremism in Britain

The Suffragettes, women dem anding the rig h t to vote, were prepared

to damage property and even die for their beliefs; some sections o f

the arm y appeared ready to disobey the governm ent over its policies

concerning Ulster in Ireland; and th e governm ent’s in tro d u ctio n o f

new taxation was opposed so absolutely by the House o f Lords th a t

even Parliam ent, the fou n d atio n o f the political system, seemed to

have an uncertain future But by the 1920s, these issues had been

resolved (although only tem porarily in the case o f Ulster) and the

rather un-B ritish climate o f extrem ism died out

The British empire reached its greatest extent in 1919 By this time,

however, it was already becom ing less o f an empire and m ore o f a

confederation At the same in tern atio n al conference a t which Britain

acquired new possessions under the Treaty o f Versailles, Australia,

Canada, New Zealand and South Africa were all represented separately

from Britain A couple o f years later, Britain lost m ost o f its oldest

colony (T h e c re a tio n o f N o r th e r n Ire la n d ).

The real dism antling o f the empire took place in the 25 years following

the Second World War In the same period, it gradually became

clear th a t B ritain was no longer a ‘superpow er’ in the world and its

forces were no longer able to act unilaterally In 1956, for instance,

British and French m ilitary action to stop the Egyptian governm ent

taking over th e Suez canal failed because it did n o t receive American

support D uring the 1950s, it had been generally understood th a t a

conference o f the w orld’s great powers involved th e USA, th e Soviet

U nion and Britain But in 1962, the C uban missile crisis, one o f the

greatest threats to global peace in the tw entieth century, was resolved

w ith o u t reference to Britain And when, in 1974, the island o f Cyprus,

a form er British colony, was invaded by Turkey, British m ilitary

activity was restricted to airlifting the personnel o f its m ilitary base

Liberal governments in Britain had attem pted a t various times to make this idea a reality However, the one m illion Protestants in the province o f Ulster in the n orth

o f the country were violently opposed to it They did n o t w a n t

to belong to a country dom inated

by Catholics They form ed less than a q u a rte r o f the to ta l Irish

po p u la tio n , b u t in six o fth e nine counties o f Ulster they were in a 65% majority.

In 1 920, the British governm ent

p a rtitio n e d the co u n try between the (C a th o lic) south and the (P rotestant) six counties, giving each p a rt some co n tro l o f its internal affairs B ut this was no longer enough fo r the south There, s u p p o rt fo r com plete independence had grown as a result o fth e British governm ent’s savage repression o fth e ‘ Easter Rising’ in 1916 W a r follow ed The eventual result was th a t

in 1922, the south became independent from B ritain.

The six counties, however, remained w ith in the United Kingdom They became the British province o f ‘ N orth e rn Ireland’ (see chapter 12).

Life Peerage A ct (see chapter 9).

1963 The school leaving age

is raised to 16.

f Q T h e ‘age o f m a jo rity’

somebody legally becomes an a d u lt) is reduced from 21 to 18.

■i S ' British troops are sent

there to safety - even tho u g h it was one o f the guarantors o f Cypriot independence At the end o f the century, in 1997, Britain handed

H ong Kong back to China, th u s losing its last im perial possession o f any significant size

It was from the start o f the tw entieth century th a t the urban working class (the m ajority o f the population) finally began to make its

voice heard In Parliam ent, the Labour party gradually replaced the Liberals (the 'descendants5 o f the Whigs) as the m ain opposition to the Conservatives (the 'descendants5 o f the Tories) In addition, trade unions m anaged to organize themselves In 1926, they were powerful enough to hold a General Strike, and from the 1930s u n til the 1980s the Trades U nion Congress (see chapter 15) was probably the single

m ost powerful political force outside the in stitu tio n s o f governm ent and Parliament

Since then, th e w orking class has faded as a political force They say history moves in cycles At th e sta rt o f the tw enty-first century,

a h isto rian p o in ted o u t th a t B ritain in som e ways h ad m ore in com m on w ith th e start o f the tw entieth century th a n w ith its

m iddle In 1900, a general sense o f prosperity was com bined w ith

a rath er high long-term unem ploym ent rate and concerns a b o u t

an 'underclass5 This is exactly where B ritain stood in 2000, b u t clearly different from 1950, w hen a sense o f austerity was com bined

w ith a very low rate o f unem ploym ent In 1900, dom estic servants com prised a full 10% o f th e workforce In 1950 this figure was

B r ita in ( r e ) jo in s 'E u r o p e ’

W hen the European Coal and Steel C o m m u n ity was form ed in

1951, the British governm ent th o u g h t it was an excellent idea -

b u t n o th in g to do w ith B ritain! Long years o f an empire based

on sea pow er m eant th a t the tra d itio n a l a ttitu d e to m ainland

Europe had been to encourage s ta b ility there, to discourage any

expansionist powers there, b u t otherwise to leave it well alone.

But as the empire disappeared, and the role o f ‘the w o rld ’s

policem an’ was taken over by the USA, the British governm ent

decided to ask fo r mem bership o fth e new ly-form ed European

C om m unities There was o p p o sitio n to the idea from those

(b o th inside and outside the co u n try ) w ho argued th a t B ritain

was an ‘ island n a tio n ’ and thus essentially d iffe re n t in o u tlo o k

from nations in m ainland Europe Finally, ten years a fte r its firs t

ap p lica tio n , B ritain jo in e d in 1973.

opens (see chapter 17).

severely restricted (see chapter 9).

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 31

dow n to 3% a n d still falling B ut by 2000, w ith so m any professional

w om en w ith no tim e to look after the house o r th e children, it was

back up to 8% a n d increasing every year Even the average speed o f

traffic through London was the same in 1900 and 2000, while in 1950

it was m uch faster!

Q UESTIONS

1 In Britain, as in m o st countries, history and popular m yth are mixed

up together How many cases can you find in this chapter o f stories

which are o f doubtful historical tru th ?

2 At present there is discussion in Britain ab o u t the idea o f

establishing a ‘national day* (which Britain has never had) N ational

days usually com m em orate some im p o rtan t event in a country’s

history W hich event in British history do you th in k is m ost worthy

o f such com m em oration?

3 How would you describe the changing relations between religion

and politics in British history? Are the changes th a t have taken place

sim ilar to those in your country?

4 Britain is unusual am ong European countries in th at, for more th a n

300 years now, there has n o t been a single revolution or civil war

Why do you th in k this is?

SUG GESTIONS

Understanding Britain by Jo h n Randle (Blackwell, Oxford) is a readable

history o f Britain, w ritten w ith the stu d en t in m ind

The Story o f English was a BBC series o f program m es which is now

available on DVD Episodes two to four are largely historical in content

an d very interesting The series was also made into a book

There is a strong trad itio n o f historical novels in English (set at various

times in British history) The writings o f Georgette Heyer, N orah Lofts,

Jean Plaidy, Rosemary Sutcliffe, and Henry and Geoffrey Treece are

good examples

For the real history enthusiast, you cannot do better th a n read The Isles

by N orm an Davies (Papermac) I t’s 1,000 pages long and very scholarly

B ut it ’s also very readable

A Passage to India by E M Forster is set in India at the height o f the

British Empire and is an exam ination o f colonial attitudes (There

is also a film o f the book.) The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott is also set in

India, this time in the final years o f British rule there

W h a t h a p p e n e d in th e

tw e n tie th c e n tu ry ? There are many opinions a b o u t

w hether the events o f the

tw entieth century and B rita in ’s role in it were good o r bad Here

is one view:

W hat an enigma Britain will seem to historians when they look back on the second h a lf o f the twentieth century Here is a country that fought and won a noble war, dismantled a mighty empire in a generally benign and enlightened way, a'eated afar-seeing welfare state - in short, did nearly everything right - and then spent the rest o f the century looking on itself as a chronic failure.

Bill B ryso n, Notes from a Small Island

It has been claimed th a t the British love o f com prom ise is the result o f the country's physical geography This may or may n o t be true, b u t it is certainly tru e th a t the land and climate in Britain have a notable lack

o f extremes Britain has m ountains, b u t none o f them are very high;

it also has flat land, b u t you cannot travel far w ith o u t encountering hills; it has no really big rivers; it doesn’t usually get very cold in the

w inter or very h o t in the sum m er; it has no active volcanoes, and an earth trem or which does no m ore th an rattle teacups in a few houses is reported in th e national news media

In fact, London gets no more rain in a year th an m ost other m ajor European cities, and less th an some (How wet is B rita in ? ).

The a m o u n t o f rain th a t falls on a town in Britain depends on where

it is Generally speaking, the fu rth er west you go, the more rain you get The m ild winters m ean th a t snow is a regular feature o f the higher areas only Occasionally, a whole w inter goes by in lower-lying parts

w ith o u t any snow at all The winters are in general slightly colder in the east o f the country th a n they are in the west, while in sum m er the

so u th is w arm er and sunnier th a n the north

H o w w e t is B rita in ?

Annual to ta l precipitation (rainfall

o r snow) in some European cities

CLIMATE 33

T h e B r itis h la n d s c a p e

Shetland Islands

Orkney Islands

100 miles

B r ita in a n d Ire la n d : w h e re p e o p le live

PER SO N S P ER SQUARE K ILOM ETRE

LAND AND SETTLEMENT 35

Why has B ritain’s climate got such a bad reputation? Perhaps it is for

the same reason th a t British people always seem to be talking about

the weather This is its changeability There is a saying th a t Britain

doesn’t have a climate, it only has weather It may n o t rain very m uch

altogether, b u t you can never be sure o f a dry day; there can be cool

(even cold) days in July and some quite warm days in January

The lack o f extremes is the reason why, on the few occasions when it

gets genuinely h o t or freezing cold, the country seems to be totally

unprepared for it A bit o f snow or a few days o f frost and the trains stop

working and the roads are blocked; if the therm om eter goes above 80° FO J O

(27° C ) ( H o w h o t o r c o ld is B rita in ? ), people behave as if they were in the

Sahara and the tem perature makes front-page headlines These things

happen so rarely th a t it is n o t worth organizing life to be ready for them

Land and settlem en t

B ritain has neither towering m o u n tain ranges n o r impressively large

rivers, plains or forests But this does n o t m ean th a t its landscape

is boring W hat it lacks in grandeur it m akes up for in variety The

scenery changes noticeably over quite sh o rt distances It has often

been rem arked th a t a journey o f 100 miles (160 kilometres) can, as

a result, seem twice as far Overall, the so u th and east o f th e country

are comparatively low-lying, consisting o f either flat plains or gently

rolling hills M ountainous areas are found only in the n o rth and west,

although these regions also have flat areas (The B ritis h L a n d s c a p e ).

H u m an influence has been extensive The forests th a t once covered

th e la n d have largely disappeared B ritain has a greater p ro p o rtio n

C lim a te change

On 10 August 2003, a

m om entous event occurred at

H eathrow a irp o rt ju s t outside

London There, a tem perature o f

37.9°C was recorded This may

n o t lo o k an especially significant

figure to you, b u t to the British it

had great psychological im pact

This is because many o f them still

th in k in the old Fahrenheit scale -

and 37.9°C is 100.2°F It was the

firs t tim e in British h isto ry th a t

the tem perature had passed the

100°F mark.

Since th a t day, tem peratures

o f m ore than 100°Fhave been

recorded several times in several

d iffe re n t places in B ritain People

have become generally aware o f

clim ate change In B ritain, there

seem to be three trends: (1 ) like

the rest o f Europe, tem peratures

are generally rising; (2 ) the

difference between the warmer,

d rie r south-east and the cooler,

w e tte r n o rth-w est is becom ing

more pronounced; (3 ) extreme

w eather co n d ition s are becom ing

more frequent - so perhaps

the British w ill s ta rt to be more

prepared fo r them !

A w in d fa rm

o f grassland th a n any o th e r c o u n try in E urope except Ireland

O ne distinctive h u m a n influence, especially com m on in so u th ern England, is th e enclosure o f fields w ith hedgerows T his feature increases th e im pression o f variety A lthough m any hedgerows disappeared in the second h a lf o f th e tw en tieth cen tu ry (farm ers dug th em up to increase th e size o f th e ir fields an d becom e m ore efficient), there are still enough o f them to su p p o rt a variety o f

b ird life

M uch o f the.land is used for h u m an habitation This is n o t ju st because Britain is densely populated in m ost areas (B r ita in a n d Ire la n d :

and their love o f the countryside (see chapter 5), the English and the Welsh d o n ’t like living in blocks o f flats in city centres and the

p ro p o rtio n o f people who do so is lower th an in continental European countries As a result, cities in England and Wales have, wherever possible, been bu ilt outw ards rather th an upwards (although this is

n o t so m uch the case w ith Scottish cities) For example, the London area has ab o u t three tim es the p o pulation o f the A thens area b u t it occupies ab o u t ten tim es the a m o u n t o f land

However, because m ost people (alm ost 80%) live in towns or cities rather th an in villages or in the countryside, this h ab it o f building outw ards does n o t m ean th a t you see buildings wherever you go in Britain There are areas o f completely open countryside everywhere

an d some o f the m ountainous areas rem ain virtually untouched

The environm ent and p o llu tio n

It was in B ritain th a t th e word 'sm o g 5 (a m ixture o f smoke an d fog) was first used As th e w orld's first industrialized country, its cities were the first to suffer this atm ospheric condition In the n in eteen th century, London's cpea-soupers' (thick fogs) became fam ous th ro u g h descriptions o f them in the works o f Charles Dickens an d in the Sherlock Holm es stories The situ atio n in London reached its w orst

p o in t in 1952 At th e end o f th a t year a particularly b ad smog, which lasted for several days, was estim ated to have caused between 4,000

an d 8,000 deaths

W ater pollution was also a problem In the nineteenth century it was once suggested th a t the Houses o f Parliam ent should be wrapped in enorm ous wet sheets to protect those inside from the awful smell o f the River Thames U ntil the 1960s, the first th in g th a t happened to people who fell into the Tham es in London was th a t they were rushed

to hospital to have th eir stom achs pumped!

Then, d u rin g the 1960s and 1970s, laws were passed which forbade

th e heating o f hom es w ith open coal fires an d which stopped m uch

o f the p o llu tio n from factories At one time, a scene o f fog in a Hollywood film was all th a t was necessary to symbolize London This image is now o u t o f date, an d by the end o f th e 1970s it was said to

be possible to catch fish in the Tham es outside Parliam ent

THE ENVIRONMENT AND POLLUTION 3 7

However, as in rhe rest o f Europe, the great increase in the use o f

the m o to r car in the last q uarter o f the tw entieth century caused an

increase in a different kin d o f air pollution This problem is serious

enough for weather forecasts to have an ‘air quality5 section and on

some occasions for official advice to be given th a t certain people (such

as asthm a sufferers) should n o t even leave th eir houses, and th at

nobody should take any vigorous exercise

N ow th a t th e red u ctio n o f greenhouse gases has becom e a pressing

global need, how to provide for B ritain’s energy needs a n d /

or reduce its energy co n su m p tio n has becom e a n atio n al issue,

especially as th e co u n try ’s oil reserves in th e N o rth Sea will n o t

last m uch longer There is a possibility th a t new nuclear power

statio n s will be b u ilt because they do n o t em it greenhouse gases

B ut they are politically u n p o p u la r and there is d o u b t a b o u t th eir

environm ental friendliness (they do cause som e greenhouse gases

to be em itted, b o th in th e ir c o n stru ctio n a n d in th e disposal o f

th e waste they create) Various attem p ts at usin g ‘green’ energy

sources are being made O ne o f these is solar power, b u t for obvious

reasons there is a lim it to its possibilities in Britain O thers are tidal

power an d even wave power The one w hich has really developed

is w ind power W ind farm s are now quite a com m on feature o f

th e B ritish landscape B ut they are n o t universally p o p u la r either

Some local people an d n a tu re lovers feel strongly th a t they ru in the

countryside - an d so local to u rist boards are often op p o sed to th em

too O ne way a ro u n d this problem is to c o n stru c t th e m offshore in

th e sea, and th is to o has been done

B r ita in u n d e r a tt a c k

Some people w o rry th a t B rita in ’s p o litica l sovereignty is in

danger from the European U nion and fro m Scottish and

Welsh independence movements (see chapter 12) This may

o r may n o t be true But whac is certainly true is th a t B ritain

its e lf - the island - is in very real danger fro m the sea For one

thing, global w a rm in g means rising sea levels everywhere,

so th a t low -lying coastal areas are threatened For another,

the A tla n tic waves w hich h it B rita in ’s n o rth , west and south

coasts are g etting taller This means they have more energy

than before - energy w ith w hich to strip sand fro m beaches,

underm ine cliffs and damage coastal defences Finally, the

east coast, although safe fro m those A tla n tic waves, is actually

sinking anyway (as the south-east corner o f B ritain tilts

d ow nw ards) Every year, little bits o f it vanish in to the N o rth

Sea Sometimes the land slips away slowly B ut a t o th e r times

it slips away very d ra m a tica lly (as when in 1992 the guests o f

the H olbeck hotel, b u ilt on a clifFtop near Scarborough, had

to leave th e ir room s in a hurry; the clifFwas collapsing in to the

sea - and so was th e ir hotel).

London is in special danger because it is also vulnerable to

flo o d in g through tid a l surges along the RiverThames One flo o d

in the seventeenth century le ft the W e stm in ste r area under

nearly tw o metres o f water In 1953 a tidal surge killed 300 people in theTham es Estuary to the east o f London Realization

o fth e scale o fth e disaster th a t w ould have been caused i f this surge had reached London provoked the co n stru ctio n o fth e Thames Barrier, com pleted in 1 983 Since then, it has been used to protect London from flo o d in g an average o f three times every year It is widely th o u g h t th a t the Barrier w ill soon be inadequate New defences are being considered.

T h e b e tt e r s id e o f to w n

In the industrial age, the air in

B ritain’s towns and cities used

to be very polluted And the

prevailing winds th ro u g h o u t

Britain are from the west For

these tw o reasons, the more

desirable areas o fth e average

British tow n o r city were to the

west o f its centre This probably

explains why, even now, when

industrial pollu tio n is no longer a

problem , it is the western suburbs

o f m ost towns and cities in Britain

w hich are the richest.

L ondon

London (the largest city in western Europe) dom inates Britain It is hom e to the headquarters o f all governm ent departm ents, the country’s parliam ent, its m ajor legal institutions, and the m onarch It is the country’s business and banking centre and the centre o f its tran sp o rt network It contains the headquarters o f the national television networks and all the national newspapers It is ab o u t seven tim es larger

th an any o ther city in the country A bout a fifth o f the total population

o f the UK lives in the wider London area

The original walled city o f London was quite small (It is know n colloquially today as cthe square m ile’.) It did n o t contain Parliam ent

or the royal court, since this w ould have interfered w ith the autonom y

o f the m erchants and traders who lived and worked there It was in

W estminster, another 'city’ outside London’s walls, th a t these national

in stitu tio n s met Today, b o th 'cities’ are ju st two areas o f central London The square mile (also know n simply as 'the City’) is hom e to the country’s m ain financial organizations D uring the daytime, more

th a n a quarter o f a m illion people work there, b u t fewer th an 10,000 people actually live there

Two other well-known areas o f London are the West End and the East End The form er is know n for its many theatres, cinemas and expensive shops The latter is know n as the poorer residential area o f central London It is the traditional hom e o f the Cockney (see chapter 4) and for centuries it has been hom e to successive waves o f im m igrant groups.There are m any o ther parts o f central London, some o f them quite distinctive in character, and central London itself makes up only a very small p art o f Greater London In com m on w ith many o ther European cities, the p opulation in the central area decreased in the second

h a lf o f the tw entieth century The m ajority o f'L o n d o n ers’ live in its suburbs, m illions o f them travelling in to the centre each day to work These suburbs cover a vast area o f land stretching in all directions The

m ost recent trend has been an expansion o f London to the east, down towards the Tham es Estuary

Like m any large cities, London is in some ways untypical o f the rest

o f the country in th a t it is so cosm opolitan A lthough all o f B ritain’s cities have some degree o f cultural and racial variety, the variety is by far the greatest in London More th a n 300 languages are spoken there; its restaurants offer cuisine from m ore th en 70 different countries In fact, nearly a th ird o f the people in London were bo rn outside Britain

The variety does not stop there London has m ost o f both the richest and the poorest areas in Britain Despite this, you have less chance o f being the victim o f a crime there than you have in many other British cities In late

2007, it was voted the m ost popular city in the world in an on-line poll

o f international tourists It is also the m ost frequent choice for Chinese companies expanding into Europe This popularity is probably the result

o f its combination o f apparently infinite cultural variety and a long history which has left intact many visible signs o f its richness and drama

THE MIDLANDS OF ENGLAND 39

S ou th ern England

The area surrounding the outer suburbs o f London has the rep u tatio n

o f being 'com m uter land’ This is the m ost densely populated area

in the UK which does n o t include a large city, and m illions o f its

in h ab itan ts travel into London to work every day.J J

F u rth er o u t from London the region has m ore o f its own distinctive

character The county o f Kent, which you pass th ro u g h when travelling

from Dover or the channel tu n n el to London, is know n as ‘the garden

o f England’ because o f the many kinds o f fru it and vegetables grown

there The Downs, a series o f hills in a horseshoe shape to the so u th

o f London, are used for sheep farm ing (though n o t as intensively as

they used to be) The so u th ern side o f the Downs reaches the sea in

m any places and form the white cliffs o f the so u th coast Many retired

people live along this coast Em ploym ent in the south-east o f England

has always been mainly in trade, the provision o f services and light

m anufacturing There was never m uch heavy industry It therefore did

n o t suffer the slow economic decline th a t m any other parts o f England

experienced du rin g the tw entieth century

The region know n as ‘the West C ountry’ has an attractive image o f

rural beauty in British people’s m inds - notice th e use o f th e word

‘country’ in its name There is some industry and one large city (Bristol

was once B ritain’s m ost im p o rtan t p o rt after London), b u t farm ing

is m ore widespread than it is in m ost other regions Some parts o f

the West C ountry are well-known for their dairy produce, such as

Devonshire cream, and fruit The south-w est peninsula, w ith its rocky

coast, num erous small bays (once noted for sm uggling activities) and

wild m oorlands such as Exm oor and D artm oor, is the m ost popular

holiday area in Britain The winters are so m ild in some low-lying parts

o f Cornwall th a t it is even possible to grow palm trees, and the to u rist

industry has coined the phrase ‘the C ornish Riviera’

East Anglia, to the north-east o f London, is also comparatively rural

It is the only region in Britain where there are large expanses o f

uniform ly flat land This flatness, together w ith the comparatively dry

climate, has made it the m ain area in the country for the growing o f

w heat and oth er arable crops Part o f this region, the area know n as

the Fens, has been reclaimed from the sea, and m uch o f it still has a

very watery, m isty feeling to it F u rth er east, the N orfolk Broads are

criss-crossed by hundreds o f waterways, b u t there are no towns here, so

it is a popular area for boating holidays

The M idlands o f England

Birm ingham is B ritain’s second largest city D uring the Industrial

Revolution (see chapter 2), B irm ingham and the area to its n o rth

an d west (sometimes know n as the Black Country) developed into

the country’s m ajor engineering centre D espite the decline o f heavy

industry in the tw entieth century, factories in the B irm ingham area

still convert iron and steel into a vast variety o f goods

T h e g r e a t w ild life in v a s io n

In the last 50 years, a com bination

o fth e British preference fo r building outwards and intensive farm ing in the countryside has had a curious effect In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, m illions o f people migrated to B rita in ’s towns and cities The British changed

in to a n a tio n o f urban dwellers More recently, British animals have been doing the same th in g ! And

fo r much the same reason I t ’s all about where you can make a living

In the countryside, decades o f intensive farm ing and m onoculture (the c u ltiva tio n o f a single crop over a large area) have led to food shortages fo r many species But all those back gardens, lanes and parks

in B rita in ’s tow ns and suburbs are

n o t farm ed this way There, a wide and te m p tin g variety o f flo ra and fauna is to be found For all those starving rural animals, it ’s to o good

an o p p o rtu n ity to miss.

The pioneers were the foxes They started in the 1950s and have become m ainly urban animals

M any o th e r species have follow ed Shrews, squirrels, roe deer and brown hares have all been spotted

in cities and many more have colonized suburban back gardens

As more species take this route, more ‘em ploym ent’ becomes available fo r o th e r species there It’s a mass m igration Some wildlife experts believe suburban gardens are now so im p o rta n t to w ild life they should be classified as a special type o f habitat.

T h e n o r t h - s o u th d iv id e

and South appeared It tells the

s to ry o f a w om an fro m the south

o f England w h o finds herself

living in the h o rro rs o fth e grim

n o rth o f England Since around

th a t tim e, the 'n o rth -s o u th

d ivid e ’ has been p a rt o f English

fo lk lo re It denotes a supposed

big difference between the

p o o r n o rth and the rich south

(a lth o u g h there is no recognized

geographical b o u n d a ry between

the tw o ) H isto rica lly, there is

much tru th in this generalization

The south has a lm o st always had

low er rates o f unem p lo ym e n t

and m ore expensive houses.

This is especially tru e o f

the south-eastern area

s u rro u n d in g London (This

area is som etim es referred to

as ‘the Hom e C o u n ties’, an

in d ic a tio n , perhaps, o f L o n d o n ’s

d o m in a tio n o f p u b lic life.)

So well-known are these

stereotypes th a t statisticians and

economists sometimes a tte m p t to

draw the boundary between north

and south based purely on wealth,

so th a t a relatively p o o r place is

designated ‘ n o rth ’ (and vice versa)

because o f this fact alone.

In the last q u a rte r o fth e

tw e n tie th century, the decline

o f heavy industry, w hich was

m ostly confined to the n o rth ,

caused large-scale m ig ra tio n

o f w e ll-q u a lifie d w orkers fro m

n o rth to south, so th a t the

n o rth -s o u th divide seemed to be

g e ttin g even wider.

However, the p ictu re now is n o t

th a t sim ple N et m ig ra tio n in this

c e n tu ry has been the o th e r way

a round - to w a rd s the n o rth -

and some o fth e po o re st areas

in the c o u n try are actu a lly in

London Indeed, one w ell-know n

(n o rth e rn ) jo u rn a lis t has claim ed

th a t i f the same kind o f novel

were w ritte n to d a y the big divide

w o u ld be between London and

the rest o f England - and London

w o u ld be the aw ful h a lf!

There are o ther industrial areas in the M idlands, notably the towns between the Black C ountry a n d M anchester know n as The Potteries (famous for producing china such as th a t m ade at the factories o f Wedgwood, Spode and M inton) and several towns fu rth er east such as Derby, Leicester, and N ottingham O n the east coast, Grimsby, once one

o f the world’s greatest fishing ports, has become the country’s m ajor fish processing centre

A lthough the M idlands do n o t have m any positive associations in the m inds o f British people, tourism has flourished in 'Shakespeare country5 (centred on Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare’s birthplace), and N ottingham has successfully capitalized on the legend o f Robin

H ood (see chapter 2)

N orth ern England

The Pennine m ountains ru n up the m iddle o f n o rth e rn England like a spine O n either side, the large deposits o f coal (used to provide power) and iron ore (used to make machinery) enabled these areas to lead the Industrial Revolution O n the western side, the M anchester area (connected to the p o rt o f Liverpool by canal) became, in the nineteenth century, the world’s leading producer o f cotton goods; on the eastern side, towns such as Bradford and Leeds became the world’s leading producers o f woollen goods Many other towns sprang up on b o th sides o f the Pennines at this time, concentrating o n certain auxiliary industries or on coal m ining F u rth er south, Sheffield became a centre for the production o f steel goods F u rther n o rth , aro u n d Newcastle, shipbuilding was the m ajor industry

In the minds o f British people, the prototype o f the noisy, dirty factories

th a t symbolize the Industrial Revolution is found in the once-industrial

n o rth o f England But the achievements o f these new industrial towns also induced a feeling o f civic pride in their inhabitants and an energetic realism, epitomized by the cliched saying 'where there’s muck there’s brass’ (wherever there is dirt, there is money to be made) The decline in heavy industry in Europe in the second h alf o f the twentieth century h it the industrial n o rth o f England hard For a long time, the region as a whole had a level o f unem ploym ent significantly above the national average.The towns on either side o f the Pennines are flanked by steep slopes on which it is difficult to build and are su rrounded by land, m ost o f which

is unsuitable for any agriculture other th a n sheep farming Therefore, the p attern o f settlem ent in the n o rth o f England is often different from

th a t in the south O pen and u n in h ab ited countryside is never far away from its cities and towns The typically industrial landscape and the very rural landscape interlock The wild, windswept m oors which are the

setting for Emily B ronte’s fam ous nineteenth century novel Wuthering

Heights seem a world away from the smoke and grim e o f urban life - in

fact, they are ju st up the road (about 15 kilometres) from Bradford!

F urther away from the m ain industrial areas, the n o rth o f England

is sparsely populated In the north-w estern corner o f the country is

WALES 41

the Lake District The Rom antic poets W ordsworth, Coleridge and

Southey (the ‘Lake Poets’) lived here an d wrote ab o u t its beauty It is

the favourite destination o f people who enjoy walking holidays and the

whole area is classified as a N ational Park (the largest in England)

Scotland

Scotland has three fairly clearly m arked regions Ju st n o rth o f the

border w ith England are th e so u th ern uplands, which consists o f small

towns, quite far ap art from each other, whose economy depends to a

large extent on sheep farming F u rth er n o rth , there is the central plain

Finally, there are the highlands, consisting o f m ountains an d deep

valleys and including num erous small islands o ff the west coast An

area o f spectacular natural beauty, it occupies the same land area as

so u th ern England b u t fewer th an a m illion people live there Tourism

is im p o rtan t in the local economy, and so is th e production o f whisky

It is in the central plain and the strip o f east coast extending

northw ards from it th a t m ore th an 80% o f the pop u latio n o f Scotland

lives In the late tw entieth century, this region h ad many o f the same

difficulties as the in du strial n o rth o f England, although the N o rth sea

oil industry helped to keep unem ploym ent down

Scotland’s two major cities have very different reputations Glasgow, the

larger o f the two, is associated with heavy industry and some o f the worst

housing conditions in Britain (the district called the Gorbals, although

now rebuilt, was famous in this respect) However, this image is one-sided

Glasgow has a strong artistic heritage At the tu rn o f the last century

the work o f the Glasgow School (led by Charles Rennie M ackintosh)

p u t th e city at the forefront o f European design an d architecture In

1990, it was the European City o f Culture Over the centuries, Glasgow

has received many im m igrants from Ireland and in it there is an echo

o f the same divisions in the com m unity th a t exist in N o rth ern Ireland

(see chapter 4) For example, o f its two fam ous rival football teams,

one is Catholic (Celtic) an d the other is P ro testan t (Rangers)

Edinburgh, which is smaller th a n Glasgow, has a comparatively middle-

class image (although class differences between the two cities are

not really very great) It is the capital o f Scotland and the seat o f its

parliament It is associated with scholarship, the law, and administration

This reputation, together with its many fine historic buildings, and also

perhaps its topography (a rock in the middle o f the city on which stands

the castle) has led to its being called ‘the Athens o f the n o rth ’ The annual

Edinburgh Festival o f the Arts is internationally famous (see chapter 22)

Wales

As in Scotland, m o st people in Wales live in one small p a rt o f it In

the Welsh case, it is the south-east o f the country th a t is m o st heavily

populated As we have seen, coal has been m ined in many parts o f

Britain, b u t ju st as British people would locate the prototype factory o f

T h e Lake D is t r ic t

A view overlooking Thirlmere Valley in the Lake District, Cumbria.

S A D Aberdeen, on the east coast o f Scotland, has done well o u t o f

N o rth Sea oil But its people have

a problem in the winter They are nearly 60 degrees n orth and on

to p o f th a t, alm ost the w hole city

is b u ilt in granite, a grey stone which ju s t soaks up the little light available And it is this lack o f lig h t (n o t the cold w in d ) which researchers blame fo r depression

in the city They estimate th a t as many as 20% o fth e people there suffer from a co n d ition known as SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), some o f them so seriously th a t they become suicidal.

In fact, SAD has increased all over Britain in the past tw o decades Changed living and w orking patterns mean th a t people spend

fa r less time outdoors than they used to , and so experience less daylight than they used tS.

r

U gly Bug Ball

One small in d ica tio n o fth e

generally benign nature o f British

geography is the fa ct th a t even

the m osquitoes are relatively

harmless - alm ost nobody

bothers to take precautions

against th e ir bites.

There is, however, a notable

exception in one p a rt o f B ritain -

the Scottish Highlands This is

the te rrito ry o f a cousin o f the

m o sq u ito , the midgie (some

people s a y ‘ m idge’ ) Midgies

are m uch, much sm aller than

mosquitoes But they are fiercer

and there are many, many more

o f them , usually in ‘clouds’

around y o u r head!

Midgies make picnics in the

highlands a gamble, camping

uncom fortable and o u td o o r

cocktails impossible You know

the image o fth e British always

moaning a bout the weather Well,

Highlanders are always moaning

ab out the midgies Recently, one

group o f Highlanders decided

to abandon the struggle and

celebrate instead They held

the w o rld ’s first midgie festival,

including an Ugly Bug Ball, a

‘midge-summer night’s party’

featuring a mardi-gras style

procession w ith midgie masks.

The organizers claimed that, in

their tenacious single-mindedness

(when they go after you, they get

you), midgies were ‘ a brillia n t

symbol fo r o u r country [S cotland]’.

the industrial revolution in the n o rth o f England, so they w ould locate its prototype coal m ine in so u th Wales Despite its industry, no really large cities have emerged in this area (Cardiff, the capital o f Wales, has a population o f ab o u t a th ird o f a million) It is the only p a rt o f

Britain w ith a high pro p o rtio n o f industrial villages Coal m ining in

so uth Wales has now alm ost entirely ceased and, as elsewhere, the transition to other form s o f em ploym ent has been slow and painful

M ost o f th e rest o f Wales is m ountainous Because o f this, travel between so u th and n o rth is very difficult As a result, each p a rt o f Wales has closer contact w ith its neighbouring p art o f England th an

it does w ith other parts o f Wales: the n o rth w ith Liverpool, and mid-Wales w ith the English West M idlands The area around M ount Snowdon in the north-w est o f the country is very beautiful and is the largest N ational Park in Britain

N orth ern Ireland

W ith the exception o f Belfast, which is famous for the m anufacture

o f linen (and is still a shipbuilding city), this region is, like the rest o f Ireland, largely agricultural It has several areas o f spectacular natural beauty One o f these is the G iant’s Causeway on its n o rth coast, so-called because the rocks in the area look like enorm ous stepping stones

The ongoing BBC series Coast has lots o f fascinating inform ation You

can see parts o f it on the in tern et and there are DVDs

If you enjoy travel writing, there are several books which offer accounts

o f journeys through or around Britain The Kingdom by the Sea by

the respected novelist Paul Theroux is an example An am using and

inform ative journey th ro u g h n o rth e rn England is Pies and Prejudice:

In Search ofthe North by S tu art Maconie It says a lot a b o u t how

northerners feel ab o u t themselves - and ab o u t the south

Some novels evoke a sense o f place N ineteenth century examples are the works o f T hom as Hardy, who set his stories in the south-w est

o f England (in an area which he called Wessex - see chapter 2), and

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, set in the Yorkshire moors More

recently, G raham Swift’s novel Waterland takes account o f the effect o f

the landscape o f the Fens on the actions o f the people who live there