History of England
1.Facts, terms and concepts:
PEACE OF UTRECHT- the agreement in March and April 1713 which marked the end of the War of Spanish Succession. As part of the agreement, France gave Britain various parts of Canada and accepted Queen Anna rather than James Stuart as the British monarch. Britain also received possession of Gibraltar and Minorca from Spain.
THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS- the idea that kings and queens are given their right to rule by God and that therefore nobody should question that right. The last king in Britain to rule completely according to this belief was Charles I. After the English Civil War the idea was gradually replaced by constitutional monarchy.
The 'Divine Right of Kings- the doctrine broadly holds that a monarch derives his or her right to rule from the will of God, and not from any temporal authority, including the will of his subjects, the aristocracy, or any other estate of the realm. Chosen by God, a monarch is accountable only to Him, and need answer only before God for his actions. The doctrine implies that the deposition of the king or the restriction of the prerogative power of the crown runs contrary to the will of God.
TREATY OF PARIS- often called the Peace of Paris was signed on February 10, 1763, by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement. Together with the Treaty of Hubertusburg, it ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War. Through the Treaty of Paris, Great Britain emerged as the world's chief colonial empire, which was its primary goal in the war, and France lost most of its overseas possessions.
HAMPTON COURT CONFERENCE- was a meeting in January 1604, convened at Hampton Court Palace between King James I of England and representatives of the English Puritans. The conference was called in response to a series of requests for reform set down in the Millenary Petition by the Puritans, a document which supposedly contained the signatures of 1000 puritan ministers. There were three meetings over a period of three days.
THE BATTLE OF THE NILE- (August 1-2, 1798) a sea battle fought in 1798 between the British and the French near Alexandria in Egypt. The British under Nelson won an important victory, trapping the army of Napoleon in Egypt and gaining control of the Mediterranean for Britain.
THE BISHOPS' WARS- refers to two armed encounters between Charles I and the Scottish Covenanters in 1638 and 1640, which helped to set the stage for the English Civil War and the subsequent Wars of the Three Kingdoms. First Bishops' War (1639),Second Bishops' War (1640).
THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR- (21 October 1805) an important sea battle near Cape Trafalgar, in southwest Spain, during the Napoleonic Wars, in which the English, commanded by Lord Nelson, defeated both the French and the Spanish. The British commander Nelson died late in the battle. The victory established Britain as the world's leading power at the sea for many years.
2. Names:
HORATIO NELSON- was a British admiral famous for his participation in the Napoleonic Wars, most notably in the Battle of Trafalgar, a decisive British victory in the war, during which he lost his life. He became famous for winning a number of sea battles against the French in the 1790s. These victories strengthened British military power at sea, and prevented Napoleon's forces attacking Britain. He was made a viscount (wicehrabia) in 1801.
THOMAS WOLSEY- an English cardinal (very senior Roman Catholic priest), who was Henry VIII's most important political adviser in the first half of his reign. Wolsey became very powerful within the Church. The highest political position he attained was Lord Chancellor, the King's chief advisor, enjoying great freedom and often depicted as an alter rex (other king). Within the Church he became archbishop of York, the second most important see in England, and then was made a Cardinal in 1515, giving him precedence over even the Archbishop of Canterbury. His main legacy is from his interest in architecture, his Hampton Court Palace, which stands today. He was dismissed by Henry when he failed to get the Pope's permission for the king to divorce Catherine of Aragon.
ARTHUR WELLESLEY- 1st Duke of Wellington, was a British soldier and statesman, one of the leading military and political figures of the nineteenth century. His military career culminated at Waterloo, where he defeated the French Emperor, Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo. The Duke of Wellington was a member of the Ascendancy, the powerful Protestant landed gentry who ruled Ireland from the Norman invasions onwards.
ST. THOMAS MORE- an English politician, author of `Utopia' and scholar. He became a friend of king Henry VIII, who first employed him as a representative in foreign countries. In 1518 More became a member of the Privy Council, in 1521 he was made a knight, and in 1529 he became Lord Chancellor after Cardinal Wolsey. However, when the king decided that he and not the Pope, was the head of the Church in England, More refused to accept this decision. For this he was put in prison and then executed. He was made a saint in 1935.
More general issues:
3 SELECTED FIGURES OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION:
ABRAHAM DARBY I- was the first, and most famous, of three generations with that name in an English Quaker family that played an important role in the Industrial Revolution. He developed a method of producing high-grade iron in a blast furnace fuelled by coke rather than charcoal.
HENRY CORT- was an English ironmaster. During the Industrial Revolution in England, Cort began refining iron from pig iron to wrought iron (or bar iron) using innovative production systems. In 1783 he patented the puddling process for refining iron ore.
THOMAS SAVERY- was an English inventor, military engineer who in 1698 patented the first crude steam engine, based on Denis Papin's Digester or pressure cooker of 1679.
JAMES WATT- was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to the steam engine were fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution.
JOHN KAY- was the inventor of the flying shuttle that increased the Speer of handloom weaving , which was a key contribution to the Industrial Revolution.
JAMES HARGREAVES- was a weaver, carpenter and an inventor in Lancashire, England. He is credited with inventing the Spinning Jennifer (shortened to spinning Jenny in 1768) in 1764.
RICHARD AKWRIGHT- an inventor of the Water Frame.
SAMUEL CROMPTON- was an English inventor and pioneer of the spinning industry. In 1775 he produced his spinning mule, so called because it was a hybrid that combined features of the Spinning Jenny and Water Frame.