Chapter I: Preface

Will the readers of this little work please bear in mind the difficulties which must attend the painting of a very large picture, with multitudinous characters and details, upon a very small canvas! This book is mainly an attempt to trace to their sources some of the currents which enter into the life of Great Britain to-day, and to indicate the starting-points of some among the various threads--legislative, judicial, social, etc.--which are gathered into the imposing strand of English civilization in this closing nineteenth century.

The reader will please observe that there seem to have been two things most closely interwoven with the life of England--RELIGION and MONEY have been the great evolutionary factors in her development.

It has been, first, the resistance of the people to the extortions of money by the ruling class, and second, the violating of their religious instincts, which has made nearly all that is vital in English history.

The lines upon which the government has developed to its present constitutional form are chiefly lines of resistance to oppressive enactments in these two matters. The dynastic and military history of England, although picturesque and interesting, is really only a narrative of the external causes which have impeded the nation's growth toward its ideal of "the greatest possible good to the greatest possible number."

The historic development of Ireland and Scotland, and the events which have brought these two countries into organic union with England are, of necessity, very briefly related.

M. P. P.

CONTENTS

_HISTORY OF ENGLAND_

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

Ancient Britain--Caesar's Invasion--Britain a Roman
Province--Boadicea--Lyndin or London--Roman Legions
Withdrawn--Angles and Saxons--Cerdic--Teutonic
Invasion--English Kingdoms Consolidated . . . . . . . . . . . 9

CHAPTER II.

Augustine--Edwin--Caedmon--Baeda--Alfred--Canute--Edward
the Confessor--Harold--William the Conqueror . . . . . . . . . 25

CHAPTER III.

"Gilds" and Boroughs--William II.--Crusades--Henry I.--Henry
II.--Becket's Death--Richard I.--John--Magna Charta . . . . . 40

CHAPTER IV.

Henry III.--Roger Bacon--First True Parliament--Edward
I.--Conquest of Wales--of Scotland--Edward II.--Edward
III.--Battle of Crecy--Richard II.--Wickliffe . . . . . . . . 51

CHAPTER V.

House of Lancaster--Henry IV.--Henry V.--Agincourt--Battle of
Orleans--Wars of the Roses--House of York--Edward IV.--Richard
III.--Henry VII.--Printing Introduced. . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

CHAPTER VI.

Henry VIII.--Wolsey--Reformation--Edward VI.--Mary . . . . . . . 73

CHAPTER VII.

Elizabeth--East India Company Chartered--Colonization of
Virginia--Flodden Field--Birth of Mary Stuart--Mary Stuart's
Death--Spanish Armada--Francis Bacon . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

CHAPTER VIII.

James I.--First New England Colony--Gunpowder Plot--Translation
of Bible--Charles I.--Archbishop Laud--John Hampden--_Petition
of Right_--Massachusetts Chartered--Earl Strafford--_Star
Chamber_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

CHAPTER IX.

Long Parliament--Death of Strafford and Laud--Oliver
Cromwell--Death of Charles I.--Long Parliament
Dispersed--Charles II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

CHAPTER X.

Act of Habeas Corpus--Death of Charles II.--Milton--Bunyan--James
II.--William and Mary--Battle of the Boyne . . . . . . . . . . 122

CHAPTER XI.

Anne--Marlborough--Battle of Blenheim--House of Hanover--George
I.--George II.--Walpole--British Dominion in India--Battle
of Quebec--John Wesley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

CHAPTER XII.

George III.--Stamp Act--Tax on Tea--American Independence
Acknowledged--Impeachment of Hastings--War of 1812--First
English Railway--George IV.--William IV.--Reform
Bill--Emancipation of the Slaves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

CHAPTER XIII.

Victoria--Famine in Ireland--War with Russia--Sepoy
Rebellion--Massacre at Cawnpore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

CHAPTER XIV.

Atlantic Cable--Daguerre's Discovery--First World's
Fair--Death of Albert--Suez Canal--Victoria Empress of
India--Disestablishment of Irish Branch of Church of
England--Present Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169