Downhill in Gautefall

Tomorrow

Fancy dress service

Today was fancy dress service in church. Rabakoret sang, and we had a lot of fun. A very good day :)

Surprise party

Happy birthday to Ingrid!

British History #2

The Civil War to the First World War

The Civil War was a result of King Charles' decision to dismiss parliament and rule alone by "divine right" (absolute power to the monarch). It was also a result of two issues: catholicicm vs Protestantism, and Parliament vs monarch. In 1642 the country divided into Royalists (those who supported the king) and Roundheads (those who supported parliament). Eventually the Royalists were defeated, and in 1649 Charles I was beheaded. His last word before his execution was "Remember". Charles I had seen London recover from the Plague (1665) and the Great Fire (1666). 

For a short time England (1649-53) was a republic called The Commonwealth ruled by Parliament. But as it proved impossible to create a stable government, General Oliver Cromwell (a religious puritan) dissolved parliament (he was frustrated with members of parliament), took power by force and established The Protectorate in 1653. He remained "Lord Protector" (like a dictator…) until his death in 1658. He didn't want the title 'king'. 1649-51: led the invasions of Ireland and Scotland.

Consequences: Parliament had learned that is could not rule without a king, but the king had learned that Parliament was the more powerful of the two. The Civil war proved that the monarch could not rule alone, and helped to set the foundation of a "constitutional monarchy" in which the king was given limited power by Parliament. The outlines of modern British democracy can clearly be seen peeking through. The Protectorate strengthened the belief that Parliament is a good idea. Constitutional monarchy: parliament is good, and a monarch is useful as long as his/her powers were limited.

The Bill of Rights is an Act passed by Parliament in 1689. It said that the monarch had to ask Parliament before he did anything. Mary II, the daughter of James II (who abdicated the throne), had married the protestant Prince William of Orange (from Holland). William of Orange was handpicked by Parliament to be the new king as the Stuarts continued to produce Catholic heirs, something that caused opposition from both English and Scottish Protestants. But first William had to sign a very important document: The Bill of Rights. As a result, they never got an absolute monarch – the king never got absolute powers. Had to ask to pass laws, levy taxes, go to war, and there was to be freedom of speech no matter what.
However when the couple died childless, the throne again reverted to a Stuart – Queen Anne, Mary II's sister.

"The Act of Settlement" was passed by Parliament in 1701. This act laid down that that future monarchs had to be Protestants. Queen Anne had no children (all of her 18 died either in infancy or she miscarried), so after her death the house of Stuart had come to an end. The crown passed to George I of the Protestant house of Hanover.

The accession of the House of Hanover marked the end of the period of intense religious and political conflicts. The questions that had driven the conflicts were resolved: The Protestant reform was to go within the church only as far as each individual group wished as long as it was not at the expense of other groups, and the monarchy was to have very little power independent of Parliament. The age of the constitutional monarchy had begun.

"The Act of Union of England and Scotland" in 1707 formed Great Britain – making England and Scotland one country. Scottish Protestants accepted the union in order to avoid any claims by the House of Stuart (Catholics) to an independent Scottish throne. The Scottish parliament was dissolved, but the Scots kept their own legal and religious system.
Wales became part of a Union with England in 1536 (no wars, they grew together – but kept their own language).

Ireland had a big Catholic population. The country rebelled twice (1649 and 1798) as a result of England's attempt to subdue the island and turn it Protestant. They first revolted in 1649, during the Civil War. Oliver Cromwell and his New Model Army massacred large numbers of the Irish. The king invited Protestants in England to settle in Ireland (area of Ulster) where they became land owners and the people already living there became land workers (slaves if you like) à The conflict in Northern Ireland goes back to the 18^th century.
Naturally the Accession of Catholic King James II in 1685 was welcomed with joy by the Irish, but when he was defeated in 1690 and William of Orange took over, all hope of tolerance of Catholicism in Ireland ended. For the next century they were excluded from public and economic life by the brutal rule of the Protestant Ascendancy.  In despair the Irish once again rebelled in 1798, but they were met with torture, suppression and massacres. In 1801 Ireland was forced to join the Union of England, Scotland and Wales – which became The United Kingdom of GB and Ireland. Although the conflict was not ended…

The industrial revolution began in Britain in the 1700s. During industrialisation there was a remarkable population growth caused by the development of modern scientific practises during the Enlightenment. Inventions like the spinning jenny and the steam engine increased efficiency and improved transportation. Science also led to better health care, which in turn was a major factor leading to population growth, which then created expanding markets, which subsequently encouraged new inventions and so on. The free-market economy was created. A consequence was that landowners threw peasants of their land in order to grow cash crops for profits, so the poor and homeless wandered the countryside or made their way to the growing cities.

The forces that were let loose by the industrial revolution also drove the expansion of the British Empire. Countries like America, India, Australia and New Zealand were brought under British rule. The darkest aspect of British economic expansion was the slave trade between Africa and America. (The British government outlawed slave trade in 1807). The imperial expansion cause international conflicts, primarily with France. A series of wars were fought and won against the French in North America in the 1700s.

However as a contrast to the economic growth and military victory abroad, the reality at home was more sombre. There were high unemployment, bad working conditions, no health-, welfare- or unemployment benefits, and children had to work adult hours. In the 1800s a series of social reforms were put into action.

The Victorian Age (during Queen Victoria's reign, 1837-1901) is looked back upon as the time of Pax Britannia – a general peace kept by Britain. This was also a period of economic growth, imperial expansion, new inventions… Countries looked to Britain and copied their infrastructure of roads, canals and railways. The parliamentarian government had helped Britain escape the revolutions that shook governments all over Europe in 1848. The principles of individual freedom and natural rights were beginning to be firmly fixed. The growing middle class became more influential, and the working class was organising. The Victorian age is also known for its puritanical attitudes (respectable, god-fearing, serious behaviour) and also for its hypocrisy and double morals (prostitution, alcoholism and drug abuse).

British History #1

First settlements to Queen Elizabeth I

The very earliest Britons were hunters and gatherers who left no written records. We know them only from the artefacts they left behind, e.g. Stonehenge. The earliest Celtic inhabitants we know primarily through archaeology and the written records of the first literate people to settle in Britain – the Romans.

Roman period: 55 (BC) - 401. They built towns, and "chesters"/castles were established. They also organised areas/lands and administration. The Hadrian Wall (by Newcastle, in Yorkshire) was built and  showed how far north the romans got as part of keeping the barbarians out out Scotland. The Romans also introduced central governments, good roads, laws, Christianity…

The Anglo-Saxons were Germanic tribes from the continent who replaced the Roman-Celtic Britons during the 4^th and 5^th century. Their language, Anglo-Saxon, is the foundation of modern English. The Old Norse spoken by the Vikings was very closely related to it.

The Vikings were another group of Germanic invaders who hit the coast. The Vikings settled in the north, and many became farmers. In 1066 the Anglo-Saxon king Harold II defeated the king of Norway, Harald Hardrada, at the Battle of Stamford Bridge.
Year 793: Lindisfarne, Holy Island. Viking heritage: York and other cities, and the language (words).

In 1066 the Normans invaded the north eastern England and claimed the English throne. King of Norway, Harald Hardråde, led the army. The Anglo-Saxon king, Harold II, rushed north to meet him and battle, and he defeated and killed Hardrada at the Battle of Stamford Bridge (outside York). The same year William, Duke of Normandy, claimed the throne, and at the Battle of Hastings he defeated and killed King Harold. This was the last invasion of the British isles in history. Spain, Napoleon and Hitler tried later, but they all failed.
Consequences: The Normans spoke French, so French is the new language in England. They got a French-speaking upper class. 1066-1085: Domesday book – a cencus (folketelling) and a register of property (showed the Normans as being fantastic organisers).

The Magna Carta (Great Charter) was a charter of liberties granted by King John in 1215. This was a result of the idea of checking the powers on the king. To raise funds for armies and campaigns King John had to turn to the strongest barons in the land. They were willing to finance the king's activities so long as he accepted a limitation on his powers. Gradually an institution developed which eventually became the House of Lords. A similar institution developed from the towns and cities. The met in what would come to be called "Commons", granting taxes to the crown and offering advice on policy. The British parliament is called the "Mother of Parliaments".

The Renaissance: 1500s

King Henry VIII married six times, and beheaded two of his wives because they failed to give him a son. When he tried to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, the pope denied him permission. In response King Henry broke with the Roman Catholic Church and made himself head of a new Church of England (Anglican Church). 

Elizabeth I was King Henry's daughter (her mother was Anne Boleyn). When she succeeded the throne she treaded carefully between the various religious convictions in her realm. She was intelligent, and skilfully played off the powers within her kingdom against one another, maintaining peace at home and strength abroad.  Although, one fight she could not avoid was with Spain, a conflict she had inherited from her father. He sent a fleet of 130 ships – the Spanish Armada – to invade England, dethrone Elizabeth and re-establish the Roman Catholic faith. The attack was a failure. The defeat of the Spanish Armada (the Spanish fleet) marked the beginning of England as a great power and the start of what would eventually become the British Empire. She also re-established the English protestant church (after her sister Mary I). Her reign witnessed a flowering of arts and literatures. It was an era of Sir Walter Raleigh, Christopher Marlow (playwright), Sir Philip Sidney (poet) and William Shakespeare. Her reign was a period of economic and cultural growth, and was also the start of the empire.

Mary Queen of Scots (not to be confused with Mary I) was Elizabeth's rival. She married Henry Stuart, and had a son who would become James I of England. She had many enemies and fled to England to get help from Elizabeth I. There she was taken into custody by Elizabeth. After 18-19 years in custody Mary was found guilty of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth and subsequently she was beheaded for treason. She was also a catholic.

The Spanish Armada: The Spanish king wanted to punish Elizabeth for what she did to Mary Queen of Scots, and also for supporting the Dutch. At the time Spain was the number one power at sea. Its failure led to Britain becoming the number one power at sea.

Winter wonderland