A crash course in the UK history

Noone knows its true purpose but it is believed that

it is a temple for sun worship.

sacrifice people to their gods. But don’t worry – the

Celts will be soon pushed out to Wales, Cornwall, Scotland and Ireland.

them. Those druids meant that the written word meant power.

Eventually the Celts made an alphabet similar to the Vikings. It was made up of straight lines because those letters were carved onto stone or wood. Historians have been able to learn something of Celt life from those carvings.

riding and for pulling carts.They
made fine leather and metal

bridles for their horses and
horses are pictured on much fine Celtic metalwork. In some parts of the Celtic world, herds of horses lived free in the forest. The Celts came every year to catch the best of the foals to break in for riding, pulling carts and breeding.

The name Epona gives rise to modern Welsh ebol 'foal’.

Britain and he went back to Rome.

to stay in the south and east of the country.

led by Queen Boudicca. She burns down the temples and

massacres every Roman she can find. But the Romans win through in the end. Boudicca poisons herself (maybe).

and those Angles who will give the south of Britain

its new name.

get stronger in the south. The Roman forces rush off

home to help defend Rome against barbarians.

a fight against the Angles and Saxons. The story may

be just a legend, but the Britons are certainly fighting among themselves and that lets the Saxons wins. As Arthur probably never existed it’s no surprise he lost. Brits believe he’s sleeping and will be back when Britain is in danger.

soon they will settle too. Where’s Arthur when you need

him? Still sleeping?

back against the Vikings and says: ”You Vikings keep the

north and east – you can call it Danelaw. My Saxons will keep the south and west. We’ll call it Wessex”. And they clinched a deal.

runes on wood or stone. It’s easier to scratch lines

than curves. So runes were made up of straight lines. The Viking stories, sagas, weren’t written in runes – they were memorised and recited by poets. They were finally written down 200 years after the Vikings attacks had finished. They were written in Latin. Thentieth century writers such as J R R Tolkien have used the idea of runes as a secret language. In his book, The Hobbit, the runes are the writing of the dwarves.

France) and still Arthur doesn’t show. That must be one

deep sleep.

ruled by just 20,000 Normans. They rule by terror and

by building castles. The King owns all the land and shares it out among his barons. Only ONE of these barons is English – the rest are Norman French. What happened to the English. They became peasants workers.

the barons, the Pope, the people. In the end they

force him to sign the Great Charter (Magna Carta). It gives some power to the people. John then says: ”I may have signed it but I am going to ignore it!”.

told what to do by the head of the Catholic

Church, the Pope. Henry wants a divorce – Pope says, ”No”. Henry says, ”Right! I’ll make my own Church of England and give myself a divorce. This new Protestant religion will cause untold misery in its struggle against the old Catholic Church. And English will kill and torture English, of course.

its theatre. Great writers like Shakespeare created plays which are

performed all around the world to this day.
Shakespeare didn’t touch upon religion in his plays – doing religion could have got him hanged, burned and chopped !

and revege, witches and ghosts and tales of horror.

Orange. The English don’t want Catholic James II any more

so the English lords have invited William over. It’s called ”The Glorious Revolution” and not-so-glamorous James runs away to France. The English have got rid of the Scottish Stuarts and now the country is run by a Dutchman.

with Wales since 1536 (when a Welsh Tudor was ruling).

Now, a hundred years after having a Scottish king, it finally gets around to sharing its Parliament with the old enemy, Scotland. It was done, but it was not a popular act in Scotland. In fact it was said that the English bribed the Scottish to make a deal.
The Act of Union 1707 created one kingdom of England, Wales and Scotland – at last we have ”Britain”. But Britain won’t be great until 1801 when Ireland joins.

the United Kingdom is created.
KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN +

KINGDOM OF IRELAND = THE UK

machines were invented which changed people’s lives. People migrated from

the countryside to towns.

lived well, but the factory owners were very poor. They

lived in tiny, crowded houses with no bathroom or clean water. Children as young as 5 had to work 12 or more hours each day and life was really hard.

writers of all time. He was a writer in the

Victorian age in England. Dickens wrote about child labour and his books include Oliver Twist and David Copperfield.

time of prosperity for the British people as a result

of profits from overseas colonies and industrial revolution at home.

starve themselves with hunger strikes, set fires to buildings.

as Poppy Day or Armistice Day) is a memorial day

since the end of World War I to remember the members of their armed forces who have died in the line of duty.

Irish became unhappy and they rebelled and fought for their

freedom. After many bloody battles, Ireland finally separated from the UK in 1922. However, Northern Ireland stayed in the union.

ENGLAND + SCOTLAND + WALES + NORTHERN IRELAND = THE UK

By March 1940 Britain is led by the heroic and

loved Winston Churchill who promised the British ”blood, toil, tears and sweat”.