British History for Dummies Book

	Introduction	1
	About This Book	1
	Conventions Used in This Book	2
	Foolish Assumptions	3
	How This Book Is Organised	3
	Icons Used in This Book	6
	Where to Go from Here	7
Part I	The British Are Coming!	9
Chapter 1	So Much History, So Little Time	11
	A Historical Tin of Beans--But Not Quite 57 Varieties	12
	How the UK Was Born	15
	You're Not From Round 'Ere--But Then Again, Neither Am I	18
	Whose History Is It Anyway?	20
Chapter 2	Sticks and Stone Age Stuff	23
	What a Load of Rubbish! What Archaeologists Find	24
	Uncovering Prehistoric Man	25
	The Stone Age	26
	Plough the Fields, Don't Scatter--the Neolithic Revolution	30
	Giving It Some Heavy Metal: The Bronze Age	32
Chapter 3	Woad Rage and Chariots: The Iron Age in Britain	35
	The Iron Age: What It Was and How We Know What We Know	35
	Figuring Out Who These People Were	38
	Life in Iron Age Britain	41
	This Is NOT a Hoax: The Belgians Are Coming!	45
	More Blood, Vicar? Religion in the Iron Age	46
Part II	Everyone Else Is Coming! The Invaders	49
Chapter 4	Ruled Britannia	51
	A Far-Away Land of Which We Know Virtually Nothing	51
	They're Back--with Elephants!	54
	Roman in the Gloamin'--Agricola	57
	"And What Have the Romans Ever Given Us in Return?"	57
	Time to Decline and Fall ... and Go	62
Chapter 5	Saxon Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll	67
	They're Coming from All Angles!	68
	Disunited Kingdoms	70
	We're on a Mission from God	74
	Winds of Change	80
Chapter 6	Have Axe, Will Travel: The Vikings	83
	The Fury of the Norsemen	84
	Some Seriously Good Kings	86
	The Vikings Are Gone--Now What?	91
	The Messy Successions Following Cnut	95
Chapter 7	1066 and All That Followed	99
	The King Is Dead, Long Live, er ...	99
	King Harold--One in a Million, One in the Eye	100
	William Duke of Normandy, King of England	104
	William Dies and Things Go Down Hill	111
Part III	Who's in Charge Around Here? The Middle Ages	115
Chapter 8	England Gets an Empire	117
	Meet the Family	117
	Henry II and the Angevin Empire	119
	Murder in the Cathedral	124
	Royal Families and How to Survive Them	126
	Richard I--the Lion King	128
	King John	129
Chapter 9	A Right Royal Time--the Medieval Realms of Britain	133
	Basic Background Info	134
	Simon Says "Make a Parliament, Henry!"	135
	I'm the King of the Castles: Edward I	136
	You Say You Want a (Palace) Revolution: Edward II	139
	Conquering France: The Hundred Years War and Edward III	141
	Lancaster vs. York: The Wars of the Roses--a User's Guide	145
Chapter 10	Plague, Pox, Poll Tax, and Ploughing--and Then You Die	151
	Benefits of the Cloth	151
	The Black Death	159
	The Prince and the Paupers: The Peasants Revolt	160
Part IV	Rights or Royals? The Tudors and Stuarts	165
Chapter 11	Uneasy Lies the Head that Wears the Crown	167
	Princes and Pretenders	167
	And Then Along Came Henry (the VIII, that is)	171
	The Stewarts in a Stew	175
	The First Elizabeth	179
Chapter 12	A Burning Issue: The Reformation	185
	Religion in the Middle Ages	185
	Back in England with Henry VIII	191
	God's on Our Side!--The Protestants and Edward VI	195
	We're on God's side!--The Catholics and Queen Mary	196
	Elizabeth Settles It ... or Does She?	197
	Scotland Chooses Its Path	199
Chapter 13	Crown or Commons?	203
	The Stewarts Come South	203
	Charles I	207
	Civil War: Battle Hymns and a Republic	212
	Oliver!	215
	Restoration Tragi-Comedy	217
	So, Who Won--The Crown or Parliament?	218
Chapter 14	Old Problems, New Ideas	221
	The Renaissance: Retro Chic	221
	It's No Fun Being Poor	225
	New Ideas	226
Part V	On the Up: The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries	233
Chapter 15	Let's Make a Country	235
	No Popery! No Wooden Shoes!	235
	1688: Glorious (?) Revolution (?)	236
	Ireland: King Billy of the Boyne	238
	Making Great Britain: Making Britain Great?	241
	George, George, George and, er, George	248
	Whigs and Tories	250
	Fighting the French: A National Sport	251
Chapter 16	Survival of the Richest: The Industrial Revolution	255
	Food or Famine?	255
	Getting Things Moving: Road Work	258
	Trouble Over: Bridged Water	259
	Revolutionising the Cloth Trade	259
	It's (Not So) Fine Work, If You Can Get It: Life in the Factories	261
	All Steamed Up	263
	Do the Locomotion	264
	Any Old Iron?	264
	Tea, Sympathy, and the Slave Trade	265
	Why Britain?	267
Chapter 17	Children of the Revolutions	269
	Revolutions: Turning Full Circle or Half?	269
	A British Civil War in America	270
	The French Revolution	275
	A British Revolution?	281
Chapter 18	Putting on My Top Hat--The Victorians	287
	Queen Victoria	288
	Prime Ministers and MPs of the Age	289
	Troubles at Home and Abroad	293
	How Victorian Were the Victorians?	297
	Things Can Only Get Better	300
Chapter 19	The Sun Never Sets--But It Don't Shine Either	303
	New World Order	304
	India Taken Away	306
	Cook's Tour: Australia and New Zealand	309
	Opium? Just Say Yes: China	310
	Wider Still and Wider: Scrambling for Africa	311
	The Colonies Grow Up--As Long As They're White	316
	Lion Tamers	316
Part VI	Don't Look Down: The Twentieth Century	319
Chapter 20	The Great War: The End of Innocence--and Everything Else?	321
	Indian Summer	321
	Alliance Building	324
	The Great War	327
Chapter 21	Radio Times	333
	Big Troubles	333
	The Years That Roared	338
	How Goes the Empire?	340
	The Road to Munich	342
	World War Two	343
Chapter 22	TV Times	349
	We Are the Masters Now	349
	End of Empire	353
	Losing an Empire, Finding a Role	356
	Disunited Kingdom?	362
Part VII	The Part of Tens	365
Chapter 23	Ten Top Turning Points	367
	End of the Ice Age, c.7,500 BC	367
	The Romans Invade Britain, 43 AD	367
	The Synod of Whitby, 664	368
	The Norman Invasion of England, 1066	368
	The English Invade Ireland, 1170	368
	The Battle of Bannockburn, 1314	369
	Henry VIII Breaks with Rome, 1532	369
	Charles I Tries to Arrest Five MPs, 1642	369
	The Great Reform Act, 1832	370
	The Fall of Singapore, 1942	370
Chapter 24	Ten Major Documents	371
	Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731)	371
	The Book of Kells (800)	371
	Magna Carta (1215)	372
	The Declaration of Arbroath (1320)	372
	The Authorised "King James" Version of the Bible (1611)	372
	The Petition of Right (1628)	373
	Habeas Corpus (1679)	373
	Lord Mansfield's Judgement (1772)	373
	The People's Charter (1838)	374
	Darwin's Origin of Species (1859)	374
Chapter 25	Ten Things the British Have Given the World (Whether the World Wanted Them or Not)	375
	Parliamentary Government	375
	The English Common Law	376
	Organised Sport	376
	The Novel	376
	DNA	377
	The BBC	377
	The Beatles	377
	Tea with Milk	378
	Penicillin	378
	Gilbert and Sullivan	378
Chapter 26	Ten Great British Places to Visit	379
	Skara Brae	379
	Iona	379
	Hadrian's Wall	380
	Durham	380
	Stirling Castle	380
	Beaumaris	381
	Armagh	381
	Chatsworth House	381
	Ironbridge	382
	Coventry Cathedral	382
Chapter 27	Ten Britons Who Should Be Better Known	383
	King Oswald of Northumbria	383
	Robert Grosseteste	384
	Nicholas Owen	384
	John Lilburne	384
	Olaudah Equiano	385
	John Snow	385
	Sophia Jex-Blake	386
	Emily Hobhouse	386
	Dr Cecil Paine	387
	Chad Varah	387
	Index	389