Sourcebook for British History I:

From the Age of the Celts to the Napoleonic Wars

Erzsbet Strbl
2015.

Contents
1. Course Description ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 3
2. Celtic and Roman ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 4
A.

Julius Caesar: The Gallic Wars ............................................................................................................................................................. 4

B.

Tacitus The Rebellion of Boudicca (AD 60-61) ...................................................................................................................................... 5

C.

Desborough Mirror, The Leadenhall Street Mosaic ................................................................................................................................. 7

3. Anglo-Saxon England ................................................................................................................................................................................. 9

A.

Excerpts from Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation (731)................................................................................................... 9

B.

King Alfred's Preface to Pastoral Care, (late 9th century) .................................................................................................................... 13

C.

An stel, a book pointer .................................................................................................................................................................. 14

4. The Norman Conquest .............................................................................................................................................................................. 16

A.

The Bayeux Tapestry ........................................................................................................................................................................ 16

B.

The Anglo Saxon Chronicle on William the Conqueror.......................................................................................................................... 17

C.

Instructions for Collection of the Domesday Return.......18

D.

Ground plan of the White Tower, Tower of London .............................................................................................................................. 18

5. The Middle Ages: Common Law and the Magna Carta.............................................................................................................................. 20

A.

The Murder of Thomas Beckett, .......................................................................................................................................................... 20

B.

Three Summonses to the Parliament of 1295 ........................................................................................................................................ 21

C.

Harlech Castle, Wales........................................................................................................................................................................ 22

6. The Late Middle Ages: War and Crisis...................................................................................................................................................... 23

A.

Excerpts from Knighton's Chronicle 1337-1396 .................................................................................................................................... 23

B.

The Dance and Song of Death............................................................................................................................................................. 24

C.

Excerpts from the Crowland Chronicle about the Death of Richard III, 1486 ........................................................................................... 25

7. Re formation ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 26
A.

Letters of the Visitors Sent to Examine the Abbot of Glastonbury........................................................................................................... 26

B.

The title page of the Great Bible, 1540................................................................................................................................................. 27

C.

King Edward VI and the Pope............................................................................................................................................................. 28

D.

The Burning of Thomas Cranmer ........................................................................................................................................................ 29

8. Elizabethan England................................................................................................................................................................................. 30
A.

The Allegory of the T udor Succession ................................................................................................................................................. 30

B.

Queen Elizabeths Armada Speech to the Troops at Tilbury ................................................................................................................... 31

C.

Charter to Sir Walter Raleigh, March 25, 1584.......32

9. Crown and Parliament: Civil War............................................................................................................................................................. 33

A.

James I, Speech to Parliament, 21 March, 1610 .................................................................................................................................... 33

B.

House of Commons, Journal, 5 January 1642 ....................................................................................................................................... 34

C.

Extracts from the Writings and Words of Levellers ............................................................................................................................... 35

D.

Decisions of the Rump Parliament....................................................................................................................................................... 36

10. Restoration Britain ................................................................................................................................................................................. 38

A.

English Bill of Rights, 1689................................................................................................................................................................ 38

B.

John Locke: T wo Treatises of Government, 1690.................................................................................................................................. 39

C.

Samuel Pepys: Diary Entry for 2 September, 1666 ................................................................................................................................ 40

11. British Expansion in the Eighteenth Century ........................................................................................................................................... 41

A.

Excerpts from Daniel Defoes The Complete English Tradesman (1724) ................................................................................................. 41

B.

"The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbour, 1773" ............................................................................................................................... 42

C.

From the Speech of William Pitt, Delivered on 20 January, 1775 in the House of Lords. ........................................................................... 42

D. From the United States Declaration of Independence, 1776 July 4 ............................................................................................................ 43

12. The Economic, Social and Cultural Scene in the Eighteenth Century....................................................................................................... 45
A.

From Observations on the Loss of Woollen Spinning (c. 1794)............................................................................................................... 45

B.

Illustrations of the Cottage Industry and the Spinning Jenny................................................................................................................... 46

C.

T urnpikes in Great Britain .................................................................................................................................................................. 47

D.

Enclosures in Britain in the 18th and 19th Centuries, Enclosure Map of Upton, Hurstbourne Tarrant, 1735 ................................................ 47

1. Course Description
British History I: From the Age of the Celts to the Napoleonic Wars, BAN/TNA 2210
Erzsbet Strbl
erzsebet.strobl@gmail.com
Course Schedule
1.
2.
3.
4.

Welcome Back!
Celts and Romans
The Anglo-Saxons and Vikings
The Norman Conquest Assignment 1
5. The Middle Ages: Common Law and the Magna Carta - Assignment 2
6. The Late Middle Ages: War and Crisis
7. The English Reformation
8. Elizabethan England
9. Crown and Parliament: Civil War
10. Restoration and the Glorious Revolution
11. British Expansion in the Eighteenth Century
12. The Economic, Social and Cultural Scene of the Eighteenth Century
Attendance register will be taken at the lectures marked by bold characters
Course Manual: Erzsbet Strbl. Sourcebook for British History I. 2015.
Compulsory Reading: D. David MacDowall. An Illustrated History of Britain.
London: Longman, 1989. 1-130.
The Final Exam will consist of:

a test on major concepts, names, dates, events (marked in bold on the hand-outs for the lectures)
less than 50% at this part will automatically mean the failure of the exam
an analysis of two primary sources (content description, context, evaluation )
an essay on a chosen topic
Recommended Reading:
Blair, John, The Anglo-Saxon Age. Oxford University Press, 2000.
Gillingham, John and Ralph A. Griffiths, Medieval Britain. Oxford University Press, 2000
Guy, John, The Tudors. Oxford University Press, 2000.
Morrill, John, Stuart Britain. Oxford University Press, 2000
Langford, Paul, Eighteenth-Century Britain. Oxford University Press, 2000.

Optional Assignments for extra credit:

Assignments 1. , 2. (separate hand-outs)
to be handed in at the lecture indicated
Assignments 3.: an analysis of a chosen source from the Sourcebook
register for a topic at the first lecture, prepare a ten line answer to the question of the Course
Manual, hand in your work on the assigned class
The completion of the three assignments and attendance at the lectures marked in bold (4, 5, 7, 8,
10) will add an extra 10% to the result achieved at the final exam.
3

2. Celtic and Roman

A. Julius Caesar: The Gallic Wars
translated by W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn. The Internet Classics Archive
http://classics.mit.edu//Caesar/gallic.html
Book 5 Chapter 12

The interior portion of Britain is inhabited by those of whom they say that it is handed down by
tradition that they were born in the island itself: the maritime portion by those who had passed over
from the country of the Belgae for the purpose of plunder and making war; almost all of whom are
called by the names of those states from which being sprung they went thither, and having waged
war, continued there and began to cultivate the lands. The number of the people is countless, and
their buildings exceedingly numerous, for the most part very like those of the Gauls: the number of
cattle is great. They use either brass or iron rings, determined at a certain weight, as their money. Tin
is produced in the midland regions; in the maritime, iron; but the quantity of it is small: they employ
brass, which is imported. There, as in Gaul, is timber of every description, except beech and fir. They
do not regard it lawful to eat the hare, and the cock, and the goose; they, however, breed them for
amusement and pleasure. The climate is more temperate than in
Gaul, the colds being less severe.

Chapter

14

The most civilized of all these nations are they who inhabit Kent,
which is entirely a maritime district, nor do they differ much from
the Gallic customs. () All the Britains, indeed, dye themselves
with wood, which occasions a bluish colour, and thereby have a
more terrible appearance in fight. They wear their hair long, and
have every part of their body shaved except their head and upper
lip. Ten and even twelve have wives common to them, and
particularly brothers among brothers, and parents among their
children; but if there be any issue by these wives, they are reputed
to be the children of those by whom respectively each was first
espoused when a virgin.

2/A Comment on Julius Caesars distinction of the various British tribes and his view about
their customs!

B. Tacitus The Rebellion of Boudicca (AD 60-61) from The Annals of Tacitus (AD 110-120),
The translation from Latin is adapted from Arthur Murphy Works of Tacitus, 1794.
http://www.athenapub.com/tacitus1.htm
Book XIV, Chapter 31. [Causes o f Boudicca's revolt.]

Prasutagus, the late king of the Icenians, in the course of a long reign had amassed considerable
wealth. By his will he left the whole to his two daughters and the emperor in equal shares,
conceiving, by that stroke of policy, that he should provide at once for the tranquility of his kingdom
and his family.
The event was otherwise. His dominions were ravaged by the centurions; the slaves pillaged his
house, and his effects were seized as lawful plunder. His wife, Boudicca, was disgraced with cruel
stripes [whipped]; her daughters were ravished, and the most illustrious of the Icenians were, by
force, deprived of the positions which had been transmitted to them by their ancestors. The whole
country was considered as a legacy bequeathed to the plunderers. The relations of the deceased king
were reduced to slavery.
Exasperated by their acts of violence, and dreading worse calamities, the Icenians had recourse
to arms. The Trinobantians joined in the revolt. The neighbouring states, not as yet taught to crouch
in bondage, pledged themselves, in secret councils, to stand forth in the cause of liberty. ()
To over-run a colony, which lay quite naked and exposed, without a single fortification to defend
it, did not appear to the incensed and angry Britons an enterprise that threatened either danger or
difficulty. The fact was, the Roman generals attended to improvements to taste and elegance, but
neglected the useful. They embellished the province, and took no care to defend it.
Chapter 33. [Suetonius abandons London to the Boudiccan forces.]

Suetonius, undismayed by this disaster, marched through the heart of the country as far as
London; a place not dignified with the name of a colony, but the chief residence of merchants, and
the great mart of trade and commerce. At that place he meant to fix the feat of war; but reflecting on
the scanty numbers of his little army, and the fatal rashness of Cerealis, he resolved to quit the
station, and, by giving up one post, secure the rest of the province. Neither supplications, nor the
tears of the inhabitants could induce him to change his plan. The signal for the march was given. All
who chose to follow his banners were taken under his protection. Of all who, on account of their
advanced age, the weakness of their sex, of the attractions of the situation, thought proper to remain
behind, not one escaped the rage of the Barbarians. The inhabitants of Verulamium , a municipal
town, were in like manner put to the sword.
2.B/1 Describe the policy of the Icenian Celtic tribe towards the Romans and the cause of the
change of their attitude!

Chapter 34. [Suetonius prepares to counterattack .]

The fourteenth legion, with the veterans of the twentieth, and the auxiliaries from the adjacent
stations, having joined Suetonius, his army amounted to little less than ten thousand men. Thus
reinforced, he resolved, without loss of time, to bring on a decisive action. For this purpose he chose
a spot encircled with woods, narrow at the entrance, and sheltered in the rear by a thick forest. In that
situation he had no fear of an ambush. The enemy, he knew, had no approach but in front. An open
5

plain lay before him. He drew up his men in the following order: the legions in close array formed
the centre; the light armed troops were stationed at hand to serve as occasion might require: the
cavalry took post in the wings. The Britons brought into the field an incredible multitude. They
formed no regular line of battle. Detached parties and loose battalions displayed their numbers, in
frantic transport bounding with exultation, and so sure of victory, that they placed their wives in
wagons at the extremity of the plain, where they might survey the scene of action, and behold the
wonders of British valour.
Chapter 35. [Boudicca addresses her army.]

Boudicca, in a [chariot], with her two daughters before her, drove through the ranks. She
harangued the different nations in their turn: "This," she said, "is not the first time that the Britons
have been led to battle by a woman. But now she did not come to boast the pride of a long line of
ancestry, nor even to recover her kingdom and the plundered wealth of her family. She took the field,
like the meanest among them, to assert the cause of public liberty, and to seek revenge for her body
seamed with ignominious stripes, and her two daughters infamously ravished. From the pride and
arrogance of the Romans nothing is sacred; all are subject to violation; the old endure the scourge,
and the virgins are deflowered. But the vindictive gods are now
at hand. A Roman legion dared to face the warlike Britons: with
their lives they paid for their rashness; those who survived the
carnage of that day, lie poorly hid behind their entrenchments,
meditating nothing but how to save themselves by an
ignominious flight. From the din of preparation, and the shouts
of the British army, the Romans, even now, shrink back with
terror. What will be their case when the assault begins? Look
round, and view your numbers. Behold the proud display of
warlike spirits, and consider the motives for which we draw the
avenging sword. On this spot we must either conquer, or die
with glory. There is no alternative. Though a woman, my
resolution is fixed: the men, if they please, may survive with
infamy, and live in bondage."
Chapter 37. [The decisive battle.]

The engagement began. The Roman legion presented a

close embodied line. The narrow defile gave them the shelter of
a rampart. The Britons advanced with ferocity, and discharged
their darts at random. In that instant, the Romans rushed
forward in the form of a wedge. The auxiliaries followed with equal ardour. The cavalry, at the same
time, bore down upon the enemy, and, with their pikes, overpowered all who dared to make a stand.
The Britons betook themselves to flight, but their waggons in the rear obstructed their passage. A
dreadful slaughter followed. Neither sex nor age was spared. The cattle, falling in one promiscuous
carnage, added to the heaps of slain. The glory of the day was equal to the most splendid victory of
ancient times. According to some writers, not less than eighty thousand Britons were put to the
sword. The Romans lost about four hundred men, and the wounded did not exceed that number.
Boudicca, by a dose of poison, [ended] her life.
2.B/2 Compare the war tactics, the equipment and the soldiers of the Icenians and the Romans
at the final battle of Boudicca as described by Tacitus!

C. Desborough Mirror
bronze, ca. 50 BC - AD 50 (La Tne Celtic art)
(British Museum)

The Leadenhall Street Mosaic (London)

1st C-2nd C AD
(British Museum)

2.C Compare the artistic style of the Celtic people with that of the Romans through the
examples of the Desborough Mirror and the Leadenhall Street Mosaic!

http://mapsof.net/map/roman-britain-410

3. Anglo-Saxon England
A. Excerpts from Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation (731)
From Medieval Sourcebook, Fordham University, http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/bede-book1.asp
Book I Chapter 23
In [592 A.D.]

Gregory, a man eminent in learning and the conduct of affairs, was promoted to
the Apostolic see of Rome, and presided over it thirteen years, six months and ten days. He, being
moved by Divine inspiration, in [596 A.D.] sent the servant of God, Augustine, and with him
divers other monks, who feared the Lord, to preach the Word of God to the English nation. They
having, in obedience to the pope's commands, undertaken that work, when they had gone but a
little way on their journey, were seized with craven terror, and began to think of returning home,
rather than proceed to a barbarous, fierce, and unbelieving nation, to whose very language they
were strangers; and by common consent they decided that this was the safer course. At once
Augustine, who had been appointed to be consecrated bishop, if they should be received by the
English, was sent back, that he might, by humble entreaty, obtain of the blessed Gregory, that
they should not be compelled to undertake so dangerous, toilsome, and uncertain a journey. The
pope, in reply, sent them a letter of exhortation, persuading them to set forth to the work of the
Divine Word, and rely on the help of God. The purport of which letter was as follows:
"Gregory, the servant of the servants of God, to the servants of our Lord. Forasmuch as it had
been better not to begin a good work, than to think of desisting from one which has been
begun, it behoves you, my beloved sons, to fulfil with all diligence the good work, which, by
the help of the Lord, you have undertaken. Let not, therefore, the toil of the journey, nor the
tongues of evil-speaking men, discourage you; but with all earnestness and zeal perform, by
God's guidance, that which you have set about; being assured, that great labour is followed by
the greater glory of an eternal reward. When Augustine, your Superior, returns, whom we
also constitute your abbot, humbly obey him in all things; knowing, that whatsoever you shall
do by his direction, will, in all respects, be profitable to your souls. Almighty God protect you
with His grace, and grant that I may, in the heavenly country, see the fruits of your labour,
inasmuch as, though I cannot labour with you, I shall partake in the joy of the reward,
because I am willing to labour. God keep you in safety, my most beloved sons..."
Chapter 25

AUGUSTINE, thus strengthened by the confirmation of the blessed Father Gregory, returned to the
work of the word of God, with the servants of Christ, and arrived in Britain. The powerful Ethelbert
was at that time king of Kent... On the east of Kent is the large Isle of Thanet containing according to
the English way of reckoning, 600 families, divided from the other land by the river Wantsum... In
this island landed the servant of our Lord, Augustine, and his companions, being, as is reported,
nearly forty men. They had, by order of the blessed Pope Gregory, taken interpreters of the nation of
the Franks, and sending to Ethelbert, signified that they were come from Rome, and brought a joyful
message, which most undoubtedly assured to all that took advantage of it everlasting joys in heaven
and a kingdom that would never end with the living and true God. The king having heard this,
ordered them to stay in that island where they had landed, and that they should be furnished with all
necessaries, till he should consider what to do with them. For he had before heard of the Christian
religion, having a Christian wife of the royal family of the Franks, called Bertha; whom he had
received from her parents, upon condition that she should be permitted to practice her religion with
the Bishop Luidhard, who was sent with her to preserve her faith. Some days after, the king came
into the island, and sitting in the open air, ordered Augustine and his companions to be brought into
his presence. When he had sat down, pursuant to the king's commands, and preached to him and
his attendants there present, the word of life, the king answered thus: "Your words and promises are
9

very fair, but as they are new to us, and of uncertain import, I cannot approve of them so far as to
forsake that which I have so long followed with the whole English nation. But because you are come
from far into my kingdom, and, as I conceive, are desirous to impart to us those things which you
believe to be true, and most beneficial, we will not molest you, but give you favourable
entertainment, and take care to supply you with your necessary sustenance; nor do we forbid you to
preach and gain as many as you can to your religion." Accordingly he permitted them to reside in the
city of Canterbury, which was the metropolis of all his dominions, and, pursuant to his promise,
besides allowing them sustenance, did not refuse them liberty to preach.
3.A/1 Describe the mission of Augustine to Britain according to Bedes Ecclesiastical
History!

Book III Chapter 23

At this time [A.D. 664.], a great and frequent controversy happened about the observance of Easter;
those that came from Kent or France affirming, that the Scots kept Easter Sunday contrary to the
custom of the universal church. Among them was a most zealous defender of the true Easter, whose
name was Ronan, a Scot by nation, but instructed in ecclesiastical truth, either in France or Italy, who
convinced many, or at least induced them to make a more strict inquiry after the truth; Queen
Eanfleda and her followers also observed the same as she had seen practiced in Kent, having with her
a Kentish priest that followed the Catholic mode, whose name was Romanus. Thus it is said to have
happened in those times that Easter was twice kept in one year; and that when the king having ended
the time of fasting, kept his Easter, the queen and her followers were still fasting, and celebrating
Palm Sunday
this dispute began naturally to influence the thoughts and hearts of many This reached the ears
of King Oswy and his son Alfrid; for Oswy, having been instructed and baptized by the Scots, and
being very perfectly skilled in their language, thought nothing better than what they taught. But
Alfrid, having been instructed in Christianity by Wilfrid, a most learned man, who had first gone to
Rome to learn the ecclesiastical doctrine, and spent much time at Lyons, rightly thought this man's
doctrine ought to be preferred before all the traditions of the Scots.
The controversy being there started, concerning Easter, or the tonsure, or other ecclesiastical affairs,
it was agreed that a synod should be held in the monastery of Streaneshaich [Whitby] and that
there this controversy should be decided. The kings, both father and son, came thither, Bishop
Colman with his Scottish clerks, and Agilbert with the priests Agatho and Wilfrid ...
King Oswy first observed, that it behooved those who served one God to observe the same rule of
life; he then commanded his bishop, Colman, first to declare what the custom was which he
10

observed, and whence it derived its origin. Then Colman said, "The Easter which I keep, I received
from my elders, who sent me bishop hither; all our forefathers, men beloved of God, are known to
have kept it after the same manner; and that the same may not seem to any contemptible or worthy to
be rejected, it is the same which St. John the Evangelist, the disciple beloved of our Lord, with all the
churches over which he presided, is recorded to have observed."
Having said thus much, and more to the like effect, the king commanded Agilbert to show whence
his custom of keeping Easter was derived, or on what authority it was grounded. Agilbert answered,
"I desire that my disciple, the priest Wufrid, may speak in my stead"
Then Wilfrid, being ordered by the king to speak, delivered himself thus : "The Easter which we
observe, we saw celebrated by all at Rome, where the blessed apostles, Peter and Paul, lived, taught,
suffered, and were buried; we saw the same done in Italy and in France, when we travelled through
those countries for pilgrimage and prayer. We found the same practiced in Africa, Asia, Egypt,
Greece, and all the world, wherever the church of Christ is spread abroad, through several nations
and tongues, at one and the same time; except only these and their accomplices in obstinacy, I mean
the Picts and the Britons, who foolishly, in these two remote islands of the world, and only in part
even of them, oppose all the rest of the universe. "But as for you and your companions, you
certainly sin, if, having heard the decrees of the Apostolic See, and of the universal church, and that
the same is confirmed by holy writ, you refuse to follow them; for, though your fathers were holy, do
you think that their small number, in a corner of the remotest island, is to be preferred before the
universal church of Christ throughout the world? And if that Columba of yours (and, I may say, ours
also, if he was Christ's servant), was a holy man and powerful in miracles, yet could he be preferred
before the most blessed prince of the apostles, to whom our Lord said, 'Thou art Peter, and upon this
rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, and to thee I will give
the keys of the kingdom of heaven?'"
When Wufrid had spoken thus, the king said, "Is it true, Colman, that these words were spoken to
Peter by our Lord?" He answered, "It is true, O king " Then says he, "Can you show any such power
given to your Columba?" Colman answered, "None." Then added the king, "Do you both agree that
these words were principally directed to Peter, and that the keys of heaven were given to him by our
Lord?" They both answered, "We do." Then the king concluded, "And I also say unto you, that he is
the door-keeper, whom I will not contradict, but will, as far as I know and am able, in all things obey
his decrees, lest, when I come to the gates of the kingdom of heaven, there should be none to open
them, he being my adversary who is proved to have the keys." The king having said this, all present,
both great and small, gave their assent, and renouncing the more imperfect institution, resolved to
conform to that which they found to be of better.
3.A/2 Describe the controversy between the Celtic Church and
the Roman Church and the resolution of the Synod of
Whitby according to Bedes Ecclesiastical History!

http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/britain.html

11

Book V Chapter 24

Thus much of the Ecclesiastical History of Britain, and more especially of the English nation, as
far as I could learn either from the writings of the ancients, or the tradition of our ancestors, or of my
own knowledge, has, with the help of God, been digested by me, Bede, the servant of God, and priest
of the monastery of the blessed apostles, Peter and Paul, which is at Wearmouth and Jarrow; who
being born in the territory of that same monastery, was given, at seven years of age, to be educated
by the most reverend Abbot Benedict, and afterwards by Ceolfrid; and spending all the remaining
time of my life in that monastery, I wholly applied myself to the study of Scripture, and amidst the
observance of regular discipline, and the daily care of singing in the church, I always took delight in
learning, teaching, and writing. In the nineteenth year of my age, I received deacon's orders; in the
thirtieth, those of the priesthood, both of them by the ministry of the most reverend Bishop John, and
by the order of the Abbot Ceolfrid. From which time, till the fifty-ninth year of my age, I have made
it my business, for the use of me and mine, to compile out of the works of the venerable Fathers, and
to interpret and explain according to their meaning these following pieces
On the Beginning of Genesis, to the Nativity of Isaac and the Reprobation of Ismaal, three books.
Of the Tabernacle and its Vessels, and of the Priestly Vestments, three books.
On the first Part of Samuel, to the Death of Saul, four books.
Of the Building of the Temple, of Allegorical Exposition, like the rest, two books.
Item, on the Book of Kings, thirty Questions.
On Solomon's Proverbs, three books; On the Canticles, seven books.
On Isaiah, Daniel, the Twelve Prophets, and part of Jeremiah, collected out of St. Jerome's Treatise.
On the Gospel of Mark , four books;On the Gospel of Luke, six books. Of Homilies on the Gospel, two books.
On the Apostle, I have carefully transcribed in order all that I have found in St. Augustine's Works.
On the Acts of the Apostles, two books.
On the Revelation of St. John, three books. Also, Chapters of Readings on all the New Testament, except the
Gospel.
Also A book of Epistles to different Persons, of which one is of the Six ages of the world; one of the Mansions of
the Children of Israel; one on the Words of Isaiah
Also, Of the Histories of Saints. I translated the Book of the Life and Passion of St. Felix, Confessor, from
Paulinus's Work in metre, into prose.
The Book of the Life and Passion of St. Anastasius, which was ill translated from the Greek, and worse amended
by some unskillful person, I have corrected as to the sense.
I have written the Life of the Holy Father Cuthbert, who was both monk and prelate, first in heroic verse, and
then in prose.
The History of the Abbots of this Monastery, in which I rejoice to serve the Divine Goodness, viz. Benedict,
Ceolfrid, and Huetbert, in two books.
The Ecclesiastical History of our Island and Nation in five books.
The Martyrology of the Birthdays of the Holy Martyrs
A Book of Hymns in several sorts of metre, or rhyme. A Book of Epigrams in heroic or elegiac verse.
Of the Nature of Things, and of the Times, one book of each.
Also, Of the Times, one larger book.
A book of Orthography digested in Alphabetical Order.
Also a Book of the Art of Poetry, and to it I have added another little Book of Tropes and Figures; that is, of the
Figures and Manners of Speaking in which the Holy Scriptures are written.

And now, I beseech thee, good Jesus, that to whom thou hast graciously granted sweetly to partake of
the words of thy wisdom and knowledge, thou wilt also vouchsafe that he may some time or other
come to thee, the fountain of all wisdom, and always appear before thy face, who livest and reignest
world without end. Amen!
3.A/3 Describe the details of the life of Bede (place of birth, education, career, works)!

12

B. King Alfred's Preface to Pastoral Care, (late 9th century)

King Alfred bids bishop Wrferth to be greeted with loving and friendly words; and bids you to
know that it very often comes to my mind what wise men there formerly were throughout England,
both of sacred and secular orders; and how happy the times were then throughout England; and how
the kings who then had power over the people obeyed God and his ministers; and they maintained
their peace, their morality and their power within their borders, and also increased their kingdom
without; and how they prospered both with war and with wisdom; and also how eager the sacred
orders were about both teaching and learning, and about all the services that they ought to do for
God; and how men from abroad came to this land in search of wisdom and teaching, and how we
now must get them from abroad if we shall have them. So completely had wisdom fallen off in
England that there were very few on this side of the Humber who could understand their rituals in
English, or indeed could translate a letter from Latin into English; and I believe that there were not
many beyond the Humber. There were so few of them that I indeed cannot think of a single one south
of the Thames when I became king. Thanks be to God almighty that we now have any supply of
teachers. Therefore I command you to do as I believe you are willing to do, that you free yourself
from worldly affairs as often as you can, so that wherever you can establish that wisdom that God
gave you, you establish it. Consider what punishments befell us in this world when we neither loved
wisdom at all ourselves, nor transmitted it to other men; we had the name alone that we were
Christians, and very few had the practices.
Then when I remembered all this, then I also remembered how I saw, before it had all been ravaged
and burnt, how the churches throughout all England stood filled with treasures and books, and there
were also a great many of God's servants. And they had very little benefit from those books, for they
could not understand anything in them, because they were not written in their own language. As if
they had said: 'Our ancestors, who formerly held these places, loved wisdom, and through it they
obtained wealth and left it to us. Here we can still see their footprints, but we cannot track after them.'
And therefore we have now lost both the wealth and the wisdom, because we would not bend down
to their tracks with our minds.
Then when I remembered all this, then I wondered extremely that the good and wise men who were
formerly throughout England, who had completely learned all those books, would not have translated
any of them into their own language. But I immediately answered myself and said: 'They did not
think that men ever would become so careless and learning so decayed: they deliberately refrained,
for they would have it that the more languages we knew, the greater wisdom would be in this land.'
Then I remembered how the law was first composed in the Hebrew language, and afterwards, when
the Greeks learned it, they translated it all into their own language, and also all other books. And
afterwards the Romans in the same way, when they had learned them, translated them all through
wise interpreters into their own language. And also all other Christian peoples translated some part of
them into their own language. Therefore it seems better to me, if it seems so to you, that we also
translate certain books, which are most needful for all men to know, into that language that we all can
understand, and accomplish this, as with God's help we may very easily do if we have peace, so that
all the youth of free men now in England who have the means to apply themselves to it, be set to
learning, while they are not useful for any other occupation, until they know how to read English
writing well. One may then instruct in Latin those whom one wishes to teach further and promote to a
higher rank.
Then when I remembered how knowledge of Latin had formerly decayed throughout England, and
yet many knew how to read English writing, then I began among the other various and manifold
cares of this kingdom to translate into English the book that is called in Latin Pastoralis, and in
English "Shepherd-book," sometimes word for word, and sometimes sense for sense, just as I had
13

learned it from Plegmund my archbishop and from Asser my bishop and from Grimbold my
masspriest and from John my masspriest. When I had learned it I translated it into English, just as I
had understood it, and as I could most meaningfully render it. And I will send one to each bishopric
in my kingdom, and in each will be an stel worth fifty mancuses. And I command in God's name
that no man may take the stel from the book nor the book from the church. It is unknown how long
there may be such learned bishops as, thanks to God, are nearly everywhere. Therefore I would have
them always remain in place, unless the bishop wishes to have the book with him, or it is loaned out
somewhere, or someone is copying it.
3.B Enumerate the reasons for the decline of wisdom in England according to Alfred, and
describe the measures Alfred took to enhance learning!

C. An stel, a book pointer

9th C
Anglo-Saxon workmanship
(Ashmolean Museum)

3.C Describe the stel and its Anglo-Saxon craftsmanship!

How can it be association with the distribution of knowledge in Anglo-Saxon England
according to King Alfreds Preface to Pastoral Care?

14

Britain AD 500-700
http://www.drshirley.org/geog/geog25.html

http://forum.christogenea.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2238

https://tenthmedieval.wordpress.com
/2008/03/16/pictland-should-be-plural/

15

4. The Norman Conquest

A. The Bayeux Tapestry
Look at further images at Bayeux Tapestry tituli.

King Edward

Where Harold made an oath to Duke William

Here the body of King Edward is carried

to the Church of Saint Peter the Apostle
Here King Harold is slain

Which scene justifies Williams invasion of England and why?

Describe the function of St Peters Church (Westminster Abbey) as represented on the

Tapestry! Argue for a possible second representation of it as the final scene for the missing
end of the Tapestry!

How do the border illustrations contribute to the representation of the battle of Hastings?

16

B. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle on William the Conqueror

Sub anno 1086, as in F. A. Ogg, A Source Book of Medieval History [New York, 1907], 241-44.

If anyone would know what manner of man King William was, the glory that he obtained, and of how
many lands he as lord, then will we describe him as we have known him, we who had looked upon
him and who once lived at his court. This King William...was a very wise and great man, and more
honored and more powerful than any of his predecessors. He was mild to those good men who loved
God, but severe beyond measure to those who withstood his will. He founded a noble monastery
[Battle Abbey] on the spot where God permitted him to conquer England, and he established monks in
it, and he made it very rich. In his days the great monastery at Canterbury was built, and many others
also throughout England; moreover, this land was filled with monks who lived after the rule of St.
Benedict; and such was the state of religion in his days that all who would, might observe that which
was prescribed by their respective orders.
King William was also held in much reverence. He wore his crown three times every year when he
was in England: at Easter he wore it at Winchester, at Pentecost at Westminster, and at Christmas at
Gloucester. And at these times all the men of England were with him, archbishops, bishops, abbots
and earls, thanes and knights. So also was he a very stern and wrathful man, so that none durst do
anything against his will, and he kept in prison those earls who acted against his pleasure. He removed
bishops from their sees and abbots from their offices, and he imprisoned thanes, and at length he
spared not his own [half-]brother Odo. This Odo was a very powerful bishop in Normandy. His see
was that of Bayeux, and he was foremost to serve the king. He had an earldom in England, and when
William was in Normandy he [Odo] was the first man in this country, and him did William cast into
prison.
Amongst other things, the good order that William established is not to be forgotten. It was such that
any man...might travel over the kingdom with a bosom full of gold unmolested; and no man durst kill
another, however great the injury he might have received from him. He reigned over England, and
being sharp-sighted to his own interest, he surveyed the kingdom so thoroughly that there was not a
single hide of land throughout the whole of which he knew not the possessor, and how much it was
worth, and this he afterward entered in his register. ()
Truly there was much trouble in these times, and very great distress. He caused castles to be built and
oppressed the poor. The king was also of great sternness, and he took from his subjects many marks of
gold, and many hundred pounds of silver, and this, either with or without right, and with little need.
He was given to avarice and greedily loved gain. He made large forests for the deer, and enacted laws
therewith, so that whoever killed a hart or a hind should be blinded. As he forbade killing the deer, so
also the boars; and he loved the tall stags as if he were their father. He also commanded concerning the
hares, that they should go free. The rich complained and the poor murmured, but he was so sturdy that
he took no notice of them; they must will all that the king willed, if they would live, or keep their
lands,...or be maintained in their rights. Alas that any man should so exalt himself.... We have written
concerning him these things, both good and bad, that virtuous men may follow after the good, and
wholly avoid the evil, and may go in the way that leadeth to the kingdom of heaven.

4.B Enumerate the changes that were introduced in England after the Norman Conquest
according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle!
monasteries:
royal court/council:
land survey:
architecture:
forest laws:
17

C. Instructions for Collection of the Domesday Returns. From Domesday Book, 1086.
http://medieval.ucdavis.edu/20B/Domesday.html

Here is subscribed the inquisition of lands as the barons of the king have made inquiry into them; that
is to say by the oath of the sheriff of the shire, and of all the barons and their Frenchmen, and the
whole hundred, the priests, reeves, and six villagers of each manor; then, what the manor is called,
who held it in the time of King Edward, who holds now; how many hides, how many plowlands in
demesne, how many belonging to the men, how many villagers, how many cottagers, how many
slaves, how many free-men, how many socmen, how much woods, how much meadow, how many
pastures, how many mills, how many fish-ponds, how much has been added or taken away, how
much it was worth altogether at that time, and how much now, how much each free man or socman
had or has. All this threefold, that is to say in the time of King Edward [the Confessor], and when
King William [the Conqueror] gave it, and as it is now; and whether more can be had than is had.
3/C What did the Domesday Book contain and why was the information collected?

D. Ground plan of the White Tower, Tower of London

built by William the Conqueror, late 11th century.

White Tower, London. Engraving by Hollar, 1647.

4.D Describe the functions of a Norman keep!

18

Posessions of William I, 1087

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks14/1400541h.html

Henry II and the Angevin Empire, 1172

http://skola.amoskadan.cz/s_aj/esc/UK/uk-history.htm

19

5. The Middle Ages: Common Law and the Magna Carta

A.

The Murder of Thomas Beckett,

29 December 1170, from Edward Grims Vita S. Thomae, Cantuariensis Archepiscopi et Martyris
http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/source/Grim-becket.asp

After the monks took [Thomas] through the doors of the church, the four aforementioned knights
followed behind with a rapid pace.
When the holy archbishop entered the cathedral the monks who were glorifying God abandoned vespers
- which they had begun to celebrate for God - and ran to their father whom they had heard was dead but
they saw alive and unharmed. They hastened to close the doors of the church in order to bar the enemies
from slaughtering the bishop, but the wondrous athlete turned toward them and ordered that the doors be
opened. "It is not proper," he said, "that a house of prayer, a church of Christ, be made a fortress since
although it is not shut up, it serves as a fortification for his people; we will triumph over the enemy
through suffering rather than by fighting - and we come to suffer, not to resist."
Without delay the sacrilegious men entered the house of peace and reconciliation with swords drawn;
indeed the sight alone as well as the rattle of arms inflicted not a small amount of horror on those who
watched. And those knights who approached the confused and disordered people who had been
observing vespers but, by now, had run toward the lethal spectacle exclaimed in a rage: "Where is
Thomas Becket, traitor of the king and kingdom?" No one responded and instantly they cried out more
loudly, "Where is the archbishop?" Unshaken he replied to this voice as it is written, "The righteous will
be like a bold lion and free from fear," he descended from the steps to which he had been taken by the
monks who were fearful of the knights and said in an adequately audible voice, "Here I am, not a traitor
of the king but a priest; why do you seek me?" And [Thomas], who had previously told them that he had
no fear of them added, "Here I am ready to suffer in the name of He who redeemed me with His blood;
God forbid that I should flee on account of your swords or that I should depart from righteousness."
With these words - at the foot of a pillar - he turned to the right.
With rapid motion they laid sacrilegious hands on him, handling and dragging him roughly outside of
the walls of the church so that there they would slay him or carry him from there as a prisoner, as they
later confessed. But when it was not possible to easily move him from the column the impious knight
suddenly set upon him and, shaving off the summit of his crown which the sacred chrism consecrated
to God, he wounded the sacrificial lamb of God in the head; the lower arm of the writer was cut by the
same blow. Indeed [the writer] stood firmly with the holy archbishop, holding him in his arms - while
all the clerics and monks fled - until the one he had raised in opposition to the blow was severed.
Then, with another blow received on the head, he remained firm. But with the third the stricken
martyr bent his knees and elbows, offering himself as a living sacrifice But the third knight inflicted
a grave wound on the fallen one; with this blow he shattered the sword on the stone and his crown,
which was large, separated from his head so that the blood turned white from the brain yet no less did
the brain turn red from the blood; it purpled the appearance of the church with the colours of the lily and
the rose, the colours of the Virgin and Mother and the life and death of the confessor and martyr. The
fourth knight drove away those who were gathering so that the others could finish the murder more
freely and boldly. The fifth - not a knight but a cleric who entered with the knights - so that a fifth blow
might not be spared him who had imitated Christ in other things, placed his foot on the neck of the holy
priest and precious martyr and (it is horrible to say) scattered the brains with the blood across the floor,
exclaiming to the rest, "We can leave this place, knights, he will not get up again."

5.A Describe Edward Grims depiction of the personality of Thomas Becket and the language
used to describe his murder!

20

B. Three Summonses to the Parliament of 1295

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/ed1-summons.asp

Summons of a Bishop to Parliament (1295)

The King to the venerable father in Christ Robert, by the same grace archbishop of Canterbury,
primate of all England, greeting.
As a most just law decrees that what affects all, by all should be approved; so also, very evidently
should common danger be met by means provided in common. You know sufficiently well, and it is
now, as we believe, divulged through all regions of the world, how the king of France fraudulently
and craftily deprives us of our land of Gascony, by withholding it unjustly from us. Now, however,
not satisfied with the before-mentioned fraud and injustice, having gathered together for the conquest
of our kingdom a very great fleet, and an abounding multitude of warriors, with which he has made a
hostile attack on our kingdom and the inhabitants of the same kingdom, he now proposes to destroy
the English language altogether from the earth Because your interest especially, as that of the
rest of the citizens of the same realm, is concerned in this affair, we command you, strictly enjoining
you in the fidelity and love in which you are bound to us, that on the Lord's day next after the feast of
St. Martin, in the approaching winter, you be present in person at Westminster; to consider, ordain
and provide, along with us and with the rest of the prelates and principal men and other inhabitants of
our kingdom, how the dangers and threatened evils of this kind are to be met. Witness the king at
Wangham, the thirtieth day of September.
Summons of a Baron to Parliament (1295)
The king to his beloved and faithful relative, Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, greeting.
Because we wish to have a consultation and meeting with you and with the rest of the principal men
of our kingdom, as to provision for remedies against the dangers which in these days are threatening
our whole kingdom; we command you, strictly enjoining you in the fidelity and love in which you
are bound to us, that on the Lord's day next after the feast of St. Martin, in the approaching winter,
you be present in person at Westminster, for considering, ordaining and doing along with us and with
the prelates, and the rest of the principal men and other inhabitants of our kingdom, as may be
necessary for meeting dangers of this kind. Witness the king at Canterbury, the first of October.
Summons of Representatives of Shires and Towns to Parliament (1295)
The king to the sheriff of Northamptonshire.
Since we intend to have a consultation and meeting with the earls, barons and other principal men of
our kingdom with regard to providing remedies against the dangers which are in these days
threatening the same kingdom; and on that account have commanded them to be with us on the
Lord's day next after the feast of St. Martin in the approaching winter, at Westminster, to consider,
ordain, and do as may be necessary for the avoidance of these dangers; we strictly require you to
cause two knights from the aforesaid county, two citizens from each city in the same county, and two
burgesses from each borough, of those who are especially discreet and capable of labouring, to be
elected without delay, and to cause them to come to us at the aforesaid said time and place
Witness the king at Canterbury on the third day of October.
5.B Enumerate and describe the different groups that were summoned to Westminster
by Edward I and explain the reason why a Parliament was necessary in 1295!

21

C. Harlech Castle, Wales, (1282-89)

http://www.rcahmw.gov.uk/HI/ENG/About+Us/Press+and+N
ews/Instant+Images/?image=4

The Castle-Building Campaign of Edward I.

http://wanderlust-tours.com/portfolio-items/iron-ring-tour-great-castles-wales/

5.C Comment on the differences of architecture between the White Tower of London
(see Chapter 3) and Edward Is Harlech Castle and its military importance!

22

6. The Late Middle Ages: War and Crisis

A. Excerpts from Knighton's Chronicle 1337-1396.
Edited and translated by G. H. Martin. Great Britain: Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1995. pp. 95 -105.

A universal mortality. In this year [1348] and the next there was a general plague upon mankind
throughout the world. It began in India, then spread to Tartary, and then to the Saracens, and finally
to the Christians and Jews, so that in the space of a single year, from one Easter to the next, as the
report ran in the papal court, some 8,000 legions of people died suddenly in those distant parts,
besides Christians.
Then a lamentable plague travelled by sea to Southampton and on to Bristol, where almost the whole
population of the town perished, snatched away, as it were, by sudden death, for there were few who
kept their beds for more than two or three days, or even half a day. And thence cruel death spread
everywhere with the passage of the sun. There died in Leicester, in the little parish of St. Leonard's,
more than nineteen score [380], 400 in the parish of Holy Cross, and in St. Margaret's parish 700, and
so on in every parish, in great numbers.
Disease amongst sheep. In the same year there was a great plague amongst sheep everywhere in the
realm, so that in one place more than 5,000 died in one pasture, and they so rotted that neither beast
not bird would touch them.
A fall in the price of goods. The fear of death caused the price of everything to fall, for there were
very few who cared either for wealth or for possessions. And sheep and cattle wandered through
the fields and amongst the crops, and there was no one to seek them, or round them up, and they
perished in out-of-the-way places amongst the furrows and under hedges, for want of a keeper, in
numbers beyond reckoning throughout the land, for there was such a shortage of hands and servants
that no one knew what ought to be done.
In the following autumn no one could hire a mower for less than 8d. with his keep, or a reaper for
less than 12d. with his keep. So many crops rotted in the fields for want of harvesting, but in the year
of the plague, as has been said already, in another connection, there was such an abundance of grain
that almost no one cared for it
In the meantime the king sent word into every shire that mowers and other workmen should take
no more than they had before, under the penalties laid down in the order, and thereupon made a
statute. Nevertheless the workmen were so puffed up and contrary-minded that they did not heed the
king's decree, and if anyone wanted to hire them he had to pay what they asked: either his fruit and
crops rotted, or he had to give in to the workmen's arrogant and greedy demands. When it came to the
king's notice that they had not obeyed his order, and had given their employees higher wages, he
inflicted heavy fines upon abbots and priors, and upon greater and lesser knights, and upon the
others, great and small Then the king caused many labourers to be arrested, and put them in prison.
Many ran away, and took to the woods and forests for a time, but those who were caught were
grievously fined. And most were sworn that they would not take more than the old established daily
rate, and so were freed from prison. And artisans in the boroughs and townships were treated in the
same way.
6.A Comment on the economic consequences of the Black Death as described by
Knightons Chronicle!

23

B. The Dance and Song of Death, by Anon.

(London : J. Awdely, 1569.) http://eebo.chadwyck.com/

6.B Enumerate the typical elements of a dance macabre (Dance of Death)!

Comment on the four corner illustrations too!

C. Excerpts from the Crowland Chronicle about the Death of Richard III, 1486

From Historiae Croylandensis, (1486) in W. Fulman (ed.) Rerum Anglicarum Scriptorum Veterum, Vol. I (Oxford, 1684), pp. 573-5.
http://www.r3.org/richard-iii/the-battle-of-bosworth/bosworth-contemporary-tudor-accounts/

to move the army, though

its numbers were not yet fully made up, from Nottingham, and to come to Leicester. Here was found
ready to fight for the king a greater number of soldiers than had ever been seen before in England
assembled on one side. On the Sunday before the feast of Bartholomew the Apostle [August 24], the
king proceeded on his way, amid the greatest pomp, and wearing the crown on his head; On leaving
Leicester, he was informed by scouts where the enemy most probably intended to spend the next
night; upon which, he encamped near the abbey of Merevale, at a distance of about eight miles from
town.
[With Henry Tudor and his men advancing towards him, King Richard felt it necessary]

At day-break on Monday morning there were no chaplains on King Richards side ready to celebrate
mass, nor any breakfast prepared to restore his flagging spirits. For he had seen dreadful visions in
the night, in which he was surrounded by a multitude of demons, as he himself testified in the
morning. He consequently presented a countenance which, always drawn, was on this occasion more
livid and ghastly than usual, and asserted that the issue of this days battle, to whichever side the
victory was granted, would be the utter destruction of the kingdom of England.
At length with the enemy commander and his soldiers approaching at a fair pace, the king ordered
that Lord Strange should be instantly beheaded. The persons to whom this duty was entrusted,
however, seeing that the issue was doubtful in the extreme, and that a matter of more weight than the
destruction of one man was in hand, deferred performance of the kings cruel order, left the man to
his own disposal and returned to the thickest of the fight.
A most fierce battle thus began between the two sides. The earl of Richmond with his men proceeded
directly against King Richard. For his part, the earl of Oxford, the next in rank in the army and a most
valiant soldier, drew up his forces, consisting of a large body of French and English troops In the
end a glorious victory was given by heaven to the earl of Richmond, now sole king, along with a
most precious crown, which King Richard had previously worn on his head. For in the thick of the
fight, and not in the act of flight, King Richard fell in the field, struck by many mortal wounds, as a
bold and most valiant prince ... and many others were slain in this fierce battle, and many, especially
northerners, in whom the king so greatly trusted, took flight without engaging; and there was left no
part of the opposing army of sufficient significance or substance for the glorious victor Henry VII to
engage, and so add to his experience in battle.
Thus through this battle peace was obtained for the whole of the realm. King Richards body was
found among the other slain. Many other insults were heaped on it, and not very humanely, a halter
was thrown around the neck, and it was carried to Leicester. The new king, graced with the crown he
won with such distinction, proceeded to the same place. He began to receive the praises of all, as
if he were an angel sent from heaven, through whom God had deigned to visit His people, and to
deliver them from the evils with which it had been previously and immoderately afflicted. And thus
concluding this history [we] have brought the narrative down to this battle, which was fought near
Merevale, and which took place on 22 August, 1485.
6.C Describe the Battle of Bosworth (1485) and the personality of Richard III
according to the Crowland Chronicle!

25

7. Reformation
A. Letters of the Visitors Sent to Examine the Abbot of Glastonbury
From T . Wright, ed. Letters Relating to the Suppression of Monasteries, (London: Camden Society, 1843), Reprinted in Leon Bernard and
T heodore B. Hodges, eds. Readings in European History, (New York: Macmillan, 1958), 241-42. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/h8glastonbury.asp

To Thomas Cromwell, September 22, 1539

Please it your lordship to be advertised, that we came to Glastonbury on Friday last past, about ten
o'clock in the forenoon; and [because]the abbot was then at Sharpham, a place of his, a mile and
somewhat more form the abbey, we, without any delay, went into the same place, and
thereexamined him upon certain articles. And [because]his answer was not then to our purpose,
we advised him to call to his remembrance that which he had as then forgotten, and so declare the
truth, and then came to him the same day to the abbey; and there of new proceeded that night to
search his study for letters and books; and found in his studya written book of arguments against
the divorce of his king's majesty and the lady dowager, as also divers pardons, copies of bulls, and
the counterfeit life of Thomas Becket in print; but we could not find any letter that was material.
And so we proceeded again to his examination in the answers whereof shall appear his
cankered and traitorous heart and mind against the king's majesty and his succession; as by the same
answers, signed with his hand, and sent to your lordship by this bearer, more plainly shall appear.
And so, with as fair words as we could, we have conveyed from him hence into the tower, being but a
very weak man and sickly
We have in the money 300l. and above
This is also to advertise your lordship that we have found a fair chalice of gold, and divers other
parcels of plat, which the abbot had secretly hid from all such commissioners as have been there in
times past We assure your lordship it is the goodliest house of that sort that we have ever see. We
would that your lordship did know it as we do; then we doubt your lordship would judge it a house
meet for the king's majesty, and for no man else: which is to our great comfort; and we trust verily
that there shall never come any double hood within that house again
To Thomas Cromwell, November 16, 1539 by Visitors, Richard Pollard
Pleaseth it your Lordship to be advertised that..[On November 15] the late abbot of Glastonbury went
from Wells to Glastonbury, and there was drawn through the town upon a hurdle to the hill called the
Torre, where he was put to execution; at which time he asked
God for mercy and the king for his great offences towards his
highness
Afore his execution [he] was examined upon divers articles and
interrogatories to him ministered by me, but he could accuse no
man of himself of any offence against the king's highness, nor
would he confess no more gold nor silver nor any other thing
more than he did before your Lordship in the Tower
I suppose it will be near Christmas before I shall have surveyed
the lands at Glastonbury, and take the audit there.
Glastonbury (in the Middle Ages it was
one of the richest monasteries )
http://www.knightsofavalon.com/glastonbury.htm

7.A Give a report about what happened to the Abbot of Glastonbury and enumerate the reasons
(both stated and implied) for dissolving the monastery in 1539!

26

B. The title page of the Great Bible, 1540

http://eebo.chadwyck.com/

7.B Comment on the Reformation context of the title page illustration of the Great Bible!
27

C. King Edward VI and the Pope

(National Portrait Gallery, 1570) http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw00459/King-Edward-VI-and-the-Pope

7.C Explain the political and theological message of the propaganda painting of King
Edward VI and the Pope!

28

D. The Burning of Thomas Cranmer

from John Foxe Actes and Monuments (London, J. Day, 1563)
http://www.johnfoxe.org/index.php?realm=more&gototype=modern&type=image&book=11

7.D Describe the significance of the image from Foxes Actes and Monuments (also called the
Book of Martyrs) in the history of the English Reformation!

29

8. Elizabethan England
A. The Allegory of the Tudor Succession, c. 1572
attributed to Lucas de Heere (National Museum Cardiff)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Family_of_Henry_VIII,_an_Allegory_of_the_T udor_Succession.png

8.A Comment on and describe the attributes and arrangement of the four Tudor monarchs on
the propaganda piece The Allegory of the Tudor Succession!
Henry VIII:
Edward VI:
Mary I:
Elizabeth I:
30

B. Queen Elizabeths Armada Speech to the Troops at Tilbury, August 9, 1588

From Elizabeth I Collected Works (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2000), pp. 325 -26

My loving people,
I have been persuaded by some that are careful of my safety, to take heed how I committed myself to
armed multitudes, for fear of treachery. But I tell you that I would not desire to live to distrust my
faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear: I have so behaved myself that under God I have placed
my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and goodwill of my subjects. Wherefore I am
come among you at this time, not for my recreation and pleasure, but being resolved in the midst and
heat of the battle to live and die amongst you all; to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and
my people, mine honour and my blood even in the dust.
I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and
of a king of England tooand take foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe should
dare to invade the borders of my realm. To the which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I
myself will take up arms; I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of your virtue in the
field. ()
Not doubting but by your concord in the camp and valour in the field and your obedience to myself
and my general, we shall shortly have a famous victory over those enemies of my God and of my
kingdom.
8.B Describe the occasion of delivering the Armada speech
and the public image Queen Elizabeth paints of
herself!

http://www.emersonkent.com/map_archive/spanish_armada.htm

31

C. Charter to Sir Walter Raleigh, March 25 1584

http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/before-1600/charter-to-sir-walter-raleigh-march-25-1584.php

ELIZABETH, by the Grace of God of England, Fraunce and Ireland Queene,

defender of the faith, &c. To all people to whome these presents shall come,
greeting.
Knowe yee that of our especial grace, certaine science, and meere motion
we give and graunt to our trustie and welbeloved servant Walter Ralegh,
Esquire, and to his heires assignes for ever, free libertie and licence from time
to time, and at all times for ever hereafter, to discover, search, finde out, and view such remote,
heathen and barbarous lands, countries, and territories, not actually possessed of any Christian Prince,
nor inhabited by Christian People, as to him shall seeme good, and the same to have, holde occupie
and enjoy to him for ever, with all prerogatives, thereto or thereabouts both by sea and land,
whatsoever we by our letters patent may graunt and the said Walter Ralegh, his heires and
assignes shall goe or travaile thither to inhabite or remaine, there to build and fortifie, at the
discretion of the said Walter Ralegh
And we do likewise give and graunt full authoritie, libertie and power to the said Walter Ralegh
that he shall have, take, and leade in the saide voyage, and travaile thitherward, or to inhabit
there with him, or them, and every or any of them, such and so many of our subjects as shall
willingly accompanie him or them
And further that the said Walter Ralegh, shall have all the soile of all such lands, territories,
and Countreis, so to bee discovered and possessed as aforesaide to be had, or used, with full
power to dispose thereof according to the order of the lawes of England: reserving always to us
our heires, and successors, for all services, duties, and demaundes, the fift part of all the oare of golde
and silver, that from time to time, and at all times shal be there gotten and obtained
And moreover, we doe ... give and graunt licence to the said Walter Ralegh, that he ... shall and
may for his and their defence, encounter and expulse, repell and resist ... all [who] shall attempt
to inhabite within the said Countreis... And for uniting in more perfect league and amitie, of such
Countreis, landes, and territories so to bee possessed and inhabited as aforesaide with our Realmes of
Englande, and Ireland, and the better incouragement of men to these enterprises: we do ... declare that
all such Countreis from thencefoorth shall bee of the allegiance of us, our heires and successours.
And wee doe graunt to the saide Walter Ralegh, ... and to all and every of them, that they shall
and may have all the priviledges of free Denizens [residents], and persons native of England
And we ... do give and graunt to the said Walter Ralegh, that hee shall, within the said
mentioned remote landes have full and meere power and authoritie to correct, punish, pardon,
governe, and rule by their and every or any of their good discretions and pollicies, as well in causes
capital, or criminall, as civil according to such statutes, lawes and ordinances, as shall bee by him
the saide Walter Ralegh devised, or established, for the better government of the said people as
aforesaid. So always as the said statutes, lawes, and ordinances may be as neere as conveniently may
be, agreeable to the forme of the lawes, statutes, governement, or pollicie of England
8.C Enumerate the rights granted by the royal charter of 1584 to Sir Walter Raleigh!
land:
other settlers:
duty to monarch:
citizenship:
laws:
32

9. Crown and Parliament: Civil War

A. James I, Speech to Parliament, 21 March, 1610

From Harvey Robinson, Readings in European History, 2 vols (Boston: Ginn & Company, 1906), 2: 219 -220.
http://www.historyguide.org/earlymod/james1609.html

The state of monarchy is the supremest thing upon earth; for kings are not only God's lieutenants
upon earth, and sit upon God's throne, but even by God himself they are called gods. There be three
principal similitudes that illustrate the state of monarchy: one taken out of the word of God; and the
two other out of the grounds of policy and philosophy. In the Scriptures kings are called the gods,
and so their power after a certain relation compared to the divine power. Kings are also compared to
fathers of families; for a king is truly parens patriae, the politic father of his people. And lastly, kings
are compared to the head of this microcosm of the body of man.
Kings are justly calls gods, for that they exercise a manner or resemblance of divine power upon
earth; for if you will consider the attributes to God, you shall see how they agree in the person of a
king. God hath power to create or destroy, make war or unmake at his pleasure, to give life or send
death, to judge all and to be judged nor accountable to none, to raise low things and to make high
things low at his pleasure, and to God are both soul and body due.
And the like power have kings: they make and unmake their subjects, they have power of raising and
casting down, of life and of death, judges over all their subjects and in all causes and yet accountable
to none but God only. They have power to exalt low things and abase high things, and make of their
subjects, like men at the chess, a pawn to take a bishop or a knight and to cry up or down any of
their subjects, as they do their money. And to the King is due both the affection of the soul and the
service of the body of his subjects.
9.A Expound upon James Is assessment of the nature of royal power according to his speech to
Parliament in 1610!

33

B. House of Commons, Journal, 5 January 1642

from: Journal of the House of Commons:1640-1643
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=10109

PRAYERS. Door locked, &c.

ORDERED, That the Door be locked, and the Key brought up; and the outward Doors cleared of all
Persons but Servants to Members of the House; and that no Member do offer to go out without
Leave: And also, that some Members do send forth their Servants, to see what Numbers of People are
repairing towards Westminster; and to bring notice to this House. ()
Vindicating Privilege Committee to meet at Guildhall.
Whereas his Majesty, in his Royal Person, Yesterday, being the Fourth Day of January, 1641,1 did
come to the House of Commons, attended with a great Multitude of Men, armed in a warlike Manner
with Halberds, Swords, and Pistols; who came up to the very Door of this House, and placed
themselves there, and in other Places and Passages near to the House, to the great Terror and
Disturbance of the Members thereof, then sitting, and, according to their Duty, in a peaceable and
orderly Manner, treating of the great Affairs of both the Kingdoms of England and Ireland. And his
Majesty having placed himself in the Speaker's Chair, did demand the Persons of divers Members of
That House to be delivered unto him.
It is this Day declared by the House of Commons, that the same is a high Breach of the Rights and
Privilege of Parliament, and inconsistent with the Liberties and Freedom thereof. And therefore this
House doth conceive, they cannot, with the Safety of their own Persons or the Indemnity of the
Rights and Privilege of Parliament, sit here any longer without a full Vindication of so high a Breach,
and a sufficient Guard wherein they may confide; for which both Houses jointly, and this House by
itself, have been humble Suitors to his Majesty, and cannot as yet obtain.
Notwithstanding which, this House being very sensible of the great Trust reposed in them, and
especially at this Time, of the manifold Distractions of this Kingdom, doth Order, that this House
shall be adjourned until Tuesday next, at One of the Clock in the Afternoon. And that a Committee,
to be named by this House (and all, that will come, to have Voices) shall sit at the Guildhall in the
City of London, To-morrow Morning at Nine of Clock. And shall have Power to consider and resolve
of all Things that may concern the Good and Safety of the City and Kingdom; and particularly, how
our Privileges may be vindicated and our Persons secured.
9.B Give an account of the events of 4 January, 1642 according to the Journal of the House of
Commons and the resolutions passed on 5 January as a result of it!

The Legal or Civil English year began on 25 March between the years 1155 and 1751. In 1752 it was moved back to 1
January. Thus 4 January 1641 in an official document means 4 January 1642.

34

C. Extracts from the Writings and Words of Levellers

Richard Overton An Arrow Against All Tyrants (1646)
http://www.libertarianism.org/publications/essays/excursions/freedom-rights-political-philosophy-part-4

For by natural birth all men are equally and alike born to like propriety, liberty and freedom; and
as we are delivered of God by the hand of nature into this world, every one with a natural, innate
freedom and proprietyas it were writ in the table of every mans heart, never to be obliterated
even so are we to live, everyone equally and alike to enjoy his birthright and privilege; even all
whereof God by nature has made him free.
From the Large Petition of the Levellers (March 1947)
http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=2183&chapter=201113&layout=html&Itemid=27

But such is our misery, that after the expense of so much precious time, blood, and treasure, and the
ruin of so many thousands of honest families, in recovering our liberty, we still find the nation
oppressed with grievances of the same destructive nature as formerly, though under other notions,
and which are so much the more grievous unto us because they are inflicted in the very time of this
present Parliament, under God the hope of the oppressed. And therefore we do most
earnestly entreat that no man for preaching or publishing his opinion in religion in a peaceable
way, may be punished or persecuted as heretical, by judges that are not infallible but may be
mistaken as well as other men in their judgments
Debates at the General Council of the Army, Putney, 29 October 1647
http://www.constitution.org/lev/eng_lev_08.htm

Colonel Thomas Rainborough: I desired that those that had engaged in it might be included. For
really I think that the poorest he that is in England has a life to live as the greatest he; and therefore
truly, sir, I think it's clear that every man that is to live under a government ought first by his own
consent to put himself under that government; and I do think that the poorest man in England is not at
all bound in a strict sense to that government that he has not had a voice to put himself under.
9.C Enumerate the ideas of the Levellers and discuss their political radicalism!

35

D. Decisions of the Rump Parliament

http://www.archontology.org/nations/uk/england/commonwealth/01_parl_1640.php

4 Jan 1649
Resolved, &c. That the Commons of England, in Parliament assembled, do Declare, That the People
are, under God, the Original of all just Power:
And do also Declare, that the Commons of England, in Parliament assembled, being chosen by, and
representing the People, have the Supreme Power in this Nation:
And do also Declare, That whatsoever is enacted, or declared for Law, by the Commons, in
Parliament assembled, hath the Force of Law; and all the People of this Nation are concluded
thereby, although the Consent and Concurrence of King, or House of Peers, be not had thereunto.
17 Mar 1649
"An Act for the Abolishing the Kingly Office in England, Ireland, and the Dominions thereunto
belonging"
And whereas it is and hath been found by experience, that the Office of a King in this nation and
Ireland, and to have the power thereof in any single person, is unnecessary, burdensome and
dangerous to the liberty, safety and public interest of the people, and that for the most part, use hath
been made of the Regal power and prerogative, to oppress, and impoverish and enslave the Subject;
and that usually and naturally any one person in such power, makes it his interest to encroach upon
the just freedom and liberty of the people, and to promote the setting up of their own will and power
above the Laws, that so they might enslave these Kingdoms to their own Lust;
Be it therefore Enacted and Ordained by this present Parliament, and by Authority of the same, that
the Office of a King in this nation, shall not henceforth reside in, or be exercised by any one single
person;
and that no one person whatsoever, shall or may have, or hold the Office, Stile, Dignity, Power or
Authority of King of the said Kingdoms and Dominions, or any of them, or of the Prince of Wales,
any Law, Statute, Usage or Custom to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding.
9.D Describe the resolutions of the Rump Parliament and evaluate the importance of
the decisions!

36

The English Civil War

http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kishlansky_cw_5/0,6472,268318 -,00

Land Ownership in Ireland 1641-1703

http://www.wvc.edu/library/Research/Gen/Internat/RBGenMil_ulsterscots.html

37

10. Restoration Britain

A. English Bill of Rights 1689
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/england.asp

Whereas the late King James the Second, by the assistance of divers evil counsellors, judges and
ministers employed by him, did endeavour to subvert and extirpate the Protestant religion and the
laws and liberties of this kingdom;
By assuming and exercising a power of dispensing with and suspending of laws and the
execution of laws without consent of Parliament;
By levying money for and to the use of the Crown by pretence of prerogative for other time and
in other manner than the same was granted by Parliament;
By raising and keeping a standing army within this kingdom in time of peace without consent
of Parliament, and quartering soldiers contrary to law;
By causing several good subjects being Protestants to be disarmed at the same time when
papists were both armed and employed contrary to law;
By violating the freedom of election of members to serve in Parliament;
And whereas of late years partial corrupt and unqualified persons have been returned and
served on juries in trials,
All which are utterly and directly contrary to the known laws and statutes and freedom of this realm;
And whereas the said late King James the Second having abdicated the government and the throne
being thereby vacant
And thereupon the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons, being now assembled in a
full and free representative of this nation, declare
That the pretended power of suspending the laws or the execution of laws by regal authority
without consent of Parliament is illegal;
That levying money for or to the use of the Crown by pretence of prerogative, without grant of
Parliament, for longer time, or in other manner than the same is or shall be granted, is illegal;
That it is the right of the subjects to petition the king, and prosecutions for such petitioning
are illegal;
That the raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be
with consent of Parliament, is against law;
That election of members of Parliament ought to be free;
That the freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in Parliament ought not to be
impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Parliament;
And that for redress of all grievances, and for the amending, strengthening and preserving of
the laws, Parliaments ought to be held frequently. ()
And whereas it hath been found by experience that it is inconsistent with the safety and welfare of
this Protestant kingdom to be governed by a popish prince, or by any king or queen marrying a
papist, it may be enacted, that all and every person and persons that shall profess the popish
religion, or shall marry a papist, shall be excluded and be for ever incapable to inherit, possess or
enjoy the crown and government of this realm and Ireland and the dominio ns thereunto belonging.
10.A Summarize how the Bill of Rights restricted the power of the monarch!

38

B. John Locke: Two Treatises of Government, 1690

http://www.constitution.org/jl/2ndtr02.htm

Chap. II. Sect. 4. To understand political power right, and derive it from its original, we must
consider, what state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their
actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law
of nature
Sect. 6. But though this be a state of liberty, yet it is not a state of licence: though man in that state
have an uncontrollable liberty to dispose of his person or possessions, yet he has not liberty to
destroy himself, or so much as any creature in his possession, but where some nobler use than its bare
preservation calls for it. The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one:
and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and
independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions ()
Sect. 8. And thus, in the state of nature, one man comes by a power over another; but yet no absolute
or arbitrary power, to use a criminal, when he has got him in his hands, according to the passionate
heats, or boundless extravagancy of his own will; but only to retribute to him, so far as calm reason
and conscience dictate what is proportionate to his transgression. EVERY MAN HATH A
RIGHT TO PUNISH THE OFFENDER, AND BE EXECUTIONER OF THE LAW OF NATURE.
Sect. 13. To this strange doctrine, viz. That in the state of nature every one has the executive power
of the law of nature, I doubt not but it will be objected, that it is unreasonable for men to be judges in
their own cases, that self- love will make men partial to themselves and their friends: and on the other
side, that ill nature, passion and revenge will carry them too far in punishing others; and hence
nothing but confusion and disorder will follow
Civil government is the proper remedy for the inconveniencies of the state of nature.
Sec. 87. Man being born, as has been proved, with a title to perfect freedom, and an uncontrolled
enjoyment of all the rights and privileges of the law of nature, equally with any other man, or number
of men in the world, hath by nature a power, not only to preserve his property, that is, his life, liberty
and estate, against the injuries and attempts of other men; but to judge of, and punish the breaches of
that law in others, as he is persuaded the offence deserves, even with death itself, in crimes where the
heinousness of the fact, in his opinion, requires it.
There, and there only is political society, where every one of the members hath quitted this natural
power, resigned it up into the hands of the community in all cases that exclude him not from
appealing for protection to the law established by it. And thus all private judgment of every particular
member being excluded, the community comes to be umpire, by settled standing rules, indifferent,
and the same to all parties; and by men having authority from the community, for the execution of
those rules, decides all the differences that may happen between any members of that society
concerning any matter of right; and punishes those offences which any member hath committed
against the society, with such penalties as the law has established
10.B Underline the inalienable rights of man in the text of John Locke!
Explain Lockes distinction between the state of nature and civil society!

39

C. Samuel Pepys: Diary Entry for 2 September, 1666

http://www.pepys.info/fire.html

Some of our maids sitting up late last night to get things ready against our feast today, Jane called up
about three in the morning, to tell us of a great fire they saw in the City. So I rose, and slipped on my
night-gown and went to her window, and thought it to be on the back side of Mark Lane at the
farthest; but, being unused to such fires as followed, I thought it far enough off, and so went to bed
again, and to sleep. . . . By and by Jane comes and tells me that she hears that above 300 houses have
been burned down tonight by the fire we saw, and that it is now burning down all Fish Street, by
London Bridge. So I made myself ready presently, and walked to the Tower; and there got up upon
one of the high places, . . .and there I did see the houses at the end of the bridge all on fire
So down [I went], with my heart full of trouble, to the Lieutenant of the Tower, who tells me that it
began this morning in the King's baker's house in Pudding Lane, and that it hath burned St. Magnus's
Church and most part of Fish Street already. So I rode down to the waterside, and there saw a
lamentable fire. Everybody endeavouring to remove their goods, and flinging into the river or
bringing them into lighters that lay off; poor people staying in their houses as long as till the very fire
touched them, and then running into boats, or clambering from one pair of stairs by the waterside to
another.
Having stayed, and in an hour's time seen the fire rage every way, and nobody to my sight
endeavouring to quench it, . . . I [went next] to Whitehall (with a gentleman with me, who desired to
go off from the Tower to see the fire in my boat); and there up to the King's closet in the Chapel,
where people came about me, and I did give them an account [that]dismayed them all, and the word
was carried into the King. So I was called for, and did tell the King and Duke of York what I saw;
and that unless His Majesty did command houses to be pulled down, nothing could stop the fire.
They seemed much troubled, and the King commanded me to go to my Lord Mayor from him, and
command him to spare no houses. . . .
[I hurried] to [St.] Paul's; and there walked along Watling Street, as well as I could, every creature
coming away laden with goods to save and, here and there, sick people carried away in beds.
Extraordinary goods carried in carts and on backs. At last [I] met my Lord Mayor... To the King's
message he cried, like a fainting woman, 'Lord, what can I do? I am spent: people will not obey me. I
have been pulling down houses, but the fire overtakes us faster than we can do it.' So he left me,
and I him, and walked home; seeing people all distracted, and no manner of means used to quench
the fire. The houses, too, so very thick thereabouts, and full of matter for burning, as pitch and tar, in
Thames Street; and warehouses of oil and
wines and brandy and other things.
10.C Describe the Fire of London
according to Samuel Pepys!
Looking at the engraving
determine which part of London
was destroyed!

G
The Great Fire by Matthaus Merian the Younger (1670)
http://archive.museumoflondon.org.uk/LondonsBurning/objects/record.htm?type=object&id=99848

40

11. British Expansion in the Eighteenth Century

A. Excerpts from Daniel Defoes The Complete English Tradesman (1724)
From: Daniel Defoe, The Complete English Tradesman (London, 1724), Chap. XXV
http://www.thenagain.info/Classes/Sources/Defoe.html

it is very well known that, besides the benefit which we reap by being a trading nation, which is
our principal glory, trade is a very different thing in England than it is in many other countries and is
carried on by persons who, both in their education and descent, are far from being the dregs of the
people.
As so many of our noble and wealthy families, as we have shown, are raised by and derived from
trade, so it is true, and indeed it cannot well be otherwise, that many of the younger branches of our
gentry, and even of the nobility itself, have descended again into the spring from whence they flowed
and have become tradesmen; and thence it is that, as I said above, our tradesmen in England are not,
as it generally is in other countries, always of the meanest of our people. Nor is trade itself in
England, as it generally is in other countries, the meanest thing the men can turn their hand to; but, on
the contrary, trade is the readiest way for men to raise their fortunes and families; and therefore it is a
field for men of figure and of good families to enter upon.
These things prove abundantly that the greatness of the British nation is not owing to war and
conquests, to enlarging its dominions by the sword, or subjecting the people of other countries to our
power; but it is allowing to trade, to the increase of our commerce at home, and the extending it
abroad.
It is owing to trade that new discoveries have been made in lands unknown, and new settlements and
plantations made, new colonies planted, and new governments formed in the uninhabited islands and
the uncultivated continent of America; and those plantings and settlements have again enlarged and
increased the trade, and thereby the wealth and power of the nation by whom they were discovered
and planted. We have not increased our power, or the number of our subjects, by subduing the
nations which possess those countries, and incorporating them into our own, but have entirely planted
our colonies, and peopled the countries with our own subjects. Excepting the Negroes, which we
transport from Africa to America as slaves to work in the sugar and tobacco plantations, all our
colonies, as well in the islands as on the continent of America, are entirely peopled from Great
Britain and Ireland, and chiefly the former; the natives having either removed further up into the
country, or, by their own folly and treachery raising war against us, been destroyed and cut off.
11.A Comment on Defoes view on the role of trade and colonial expansion in the
early eighteenth!

http://www.import -export-made-easy.com/T riangle-T rade.html

41

B. "The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbour, 1773"

lithograph, 1846
http://bostonharbourtea.com/history/

11.B Describe what happened at the Boston Tea Party with the help of the engraving!

C. From the Speech of William Pitt, Delivered on 20 January, 1775 in the House of Lords .
http://www.classicpersuasion.org/cbo/chatham/chat13.htm

The measures of last year, my Lords, which have produced the present alarming state of America,
were founded upon misrepresentation. They were violent, precipitate, and vindictive. The nation was
told that it was only a faction in Boston which opposed all lawful government; that an unwarrantable
injury had been done to private property, for which the justice of Parliament was called upon to order
reparation; that the least appearance of firmness would awe the Americans into submission, and upon
only passing the Rubicon we should be "sine clade victor."
42

But now, my Lords, we find that, instead of suppressing the opposition of the faction at Boston, these
measures have spread it over the whole continent. They have united that whole people
When I state the importance of the colonies to this country, and the magnitude of danger hanging
over this country from the present plan of misadministration practiced against them When I urge
this measure of recalling the troops from Boston, I urge it on this pressing principle, that it is
necessarily preparatory to the restoration of your peace and the establishment of your prosperity.
This resistance to your arbitrary system of taxation might have been foreseen. It was obvious from
the nature of things, and of mankind; and, above all, from the Whiggish spirit flourishing in that
country. The spirit which now resists your taxation in America is the same which formerly opposed
loans, benevolences, and ship-money in England; the same spirit which called all England "on its
legs," and by the Bill of Rights vindicated the English Constitution; the same spirit which established
the great fundamental, essential maxim of your liberties, that no subject of England shall be taxed but
by his own consent.
This glorious spirit of Whiggism animates three millions in America, who prefer poverty with liberty
to gilded chains and sordid affluence, and who will die in the defence of their rights as men, as free
men.
11.C Comment on the arguments of William Pitt for defending the American resistance
to British taxation!

D. From the United States Declaration of Independence, 1776 July 4

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new
Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to
them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
11.D Compare the Declaration of Independence with the ideas of John Locke about the
inalienable rights and the role of government in a civil society! (for Locke see Chapter 10)

43

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/22588435604059248/

http://www.bbc.co
.uk/history/british/
empire_seapower/
britain_empire_01
.shtml

44

12. The Economic, Social and Cultural Scene in the Eighteenth

Century
A. From Observations on the Loss of Woollen Spinning (c. 1794)
http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/mod/1794woolens.asp

The Combers being men and boys may possibly turn to some other work, but it is not so with the
wife and daughters of the day-labourers, whose occupation in a country parish where no particular
manufactory is carried on, must be within their own dwelling; who deprived of Woollen Spinning
have no other employment, (except when they can go into the fields) to bring in any money towards
the support of the Family. To tell a poor woman with three, four or five children, all under the age at
which farmers will employ them to set her children to work, where no Wool is to be had is a mockery
of misery, and if it is in a neighbourhood distant from Machines, where some hand-work is still put
out, the low price that is paid for her unwearied labour, of running with her children all day at the
Wheel, disheartens her.
Many things combine to make the Hand Spinning of Wool, the most desirable work for the cottager's
wife and children. - A Wooden Wheel costing 2s. for each person, with one Reel costing 3s. set up
the family. The Wool-man either supplies them with Wool by the pound or more at a time, as he can
depend on their care, or they take it on his account from the chandler's shop, where they buy their
food and raiment. No stock is required, and when they carry back their pound of Wool spun, they
have no further concern in it. Children from five years old can run at the Wheel, it is a very
wholesome employment for them, keeps them in constant exercise, and upright: persons can work at
it till a very advanced age.
But from the establishment of the Spinning Machines in many Counties where I was last Summer, no
Hand Work could be had, the consequence of which is the whole maintenance of the family devolves
on the father, and instead of six or seven shillings a week, which a wife and four children could add
by their wheels, his weekly pay is all they have to depend upon
another advantage of this work was, that until these Machines were introduced, it was equally to
be obtained in every County, unlike every manufactory, a child with a Wheel was never thrown
absolutely out of bread, by change of place when grown up. - But all this is altered ()
I then walked to the Machines, and with some difficulty gained admittance: there I saw both the
Combing Machine and Spinning Jenny. The Combing Machine was put in motion by a Wheel turned
by four men, but which I am sure could be turned either by water or steam. The frames were supplied
by a child with Wool, and as the wheel turned, flakes of ready combed Wool dropped off a cylinder
into a trough, these were taken up by a girl of about fourteen years old, who placed them on the
Spinning Jenny, which has a number of horizontal beams of wood, on each of which may be fifty
bobbins. One such girl sets these bobbins all in motion by turning a wheel at the end of the beam, a
wire then catches up a flake of Wool, spins it, and gathers it upon each bobbin. The girl again turns
the wheel, and another fifty flakes are taken up and Spun. This is done every minute without
intermission, so that probably one girl turning that wheel, may do the work of One Hundred Hand
Wheels at the least. About twenty of these sets of bobbins were, I judge, at work in one room. Most
of these Manufactories are many stories high, and the rooms much larger than this I was in.
These Machines then once set up, and the expence of them does not appear very great, 20 Girls do
the work of 2,000 Women and Children, and when these Girls are of age to go into a Farmer's
Service, how can they endure the fatigue and exposure to weather, necessary to their situation.
Numbers confined together in one room cannot make them so hardy and strong, as running at the
wheel in a cold cottage, and frequently at the outside of their door in the open air. - If they marry,
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they can neither teach their children to work, or spin, or bring in any earnings to maintain them. Who
then shall patch the clothes, mend the shoes, and economize their little store?
Shut up from morning till night, except when they are sent home for their meals, these girls are
ignorant of, and unhandy at every domestic employment, whereas if at her wheel in her mother's
cottage, the girl assists in every occupation of the family. She lights the faggot, nurses the young
children, gleans in the harvest, takes charge of the house in her mother's necessary absence to the
shop, or when she can get work at neighbouring houses, becoming an assistant to her parents in
sickness and old age, and in her turn a good wife to a day labourer, a fit mother for his family she
lives with those to whom she ought to be attached, and therefore will feel an affection towards them:
but a girl taken from six years old to sixteen, and employed at the machines, can know none of these
habits.
12.A Discuss the economic, social and moral consequences of the introduction of spinning
machines according to the author of the Loss of Woollen Spinning.

B. Illustrations of the Cottage Industry and the Spinning Jenny

From http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/domestic_system.htm , http://saswesternciv3a.pbworks.com/w/page/8242264

12.B Describe the old and new process of spinning according to the illustrations about the
cottage industry and the Spinning Jenny and the text of Loss of Woollen Spinning.

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C. Turnpikes in Great Britain

http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch2en/conc2en/ukturnpike.html

D.

E. Enclosure Map of Upton, Hurstbourne Tarrant, 1735

http://www3.hants.gov.uk/heritage100/item.htm?itemid=50

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Enclosures in Britain in the

18th and 19th Centuries