slipped-笨狗
The Norman Conquest
and its consequences
The Norman Conquest of 1066 is perhaps
the best-known event in English history. William
the
Conqueror confiscated almost all
the land and gave it to his Norman followers. He
replaced the
weak
Saxon
rule
with
a
strong
Norman
government.
He
replaced
the
weak
Saxon
rule
with
a
strong Norman government.
So the feudal system was
completely established in England. Relations with
the Continent were
opened,
and
the
civilization
and
commerce
were
extended.
Norman-French
culture,
language,
manners and architecture were
introduced. The Church was brought into closer
connection with
Rome, and the church
courts were separated from the civil courts.
Contents and the
significance of the Great
Charter
大宪章？
KingJohns reign caused much discontent
among the barons. In 1215, he was forced to sign a
docu
ment, known as Mangna Cara, or the
Great Charter. It has 63 clauses. Though it has
long been reg
arded as the foundation of
English liberities, its spirit was the limitation
of the king
’
s powers,
keeping them within the bounds of the feudal law
of the land.
Its important provisions are as
follows: (1) no tax should be made without the
approval of the
Grand Council; (2) no
freemen should be arrested, imprisoned or deprived
of their property; (3)
the Church
should possess all its rights, together with
freedom of elections; (4) London and other
towns should retain their traditional
rights and privileges, and (5) there should be the
same weights
and measures throughout
the country.
Although
The
Great
Charter
has
long
been
popularly
regarded
as
the
foundation
of
English
liberties, it was a statement of the
feudal and legal relationships between the Crown
and the barons,
a guarantee of the
freedom of the Church and a limitation of the
powers of the king. The spirit of
the
Great Charter was the limitation of the powers of
the king, keeping them within the bounds of
the feudal law of the land.
The hundred
Year
’
s War with France
It referred to the intermittent war
between France and England that last from 1337 to
1453. The ca
uses were partly
territorial and partly economic. When Edward III
claimed the French Crown but t
he French
refused to recognize, the war broke out. At first
the English were successful, but in the
e
nd, they were defeated and lost almost
all their possessions in France. The expelling of
the English
was a blessing for both
countries.
The Wars of Rose
The name Wars of the Roses was refer to
the battles between the House of Lancaster,
symbolized
by the read rose, and that
of York, symbolized by the white, from 1455 to
1485. Henry Tudor, desc
endant of Duke
of Lancaster won victory at Bosworth Fireld in
1485 and put ht country under the
rule
of the Tudors. From these Wars, English feudalism
received its death blow. The great
medieva
l nobility was much weakened.
？圈地运动
圈地运动大约始于
15
世纪后期，
至
19
世纪上半
期，
是贵族用暴力大规模剥夺农民的一种方
式，英国最为典型。
它是资本主义性质的土地关系变革，
是资本原始积累的重要手段
，
它加
速了英国资本主义的发展。
?The English Reformation
Henry VIII wanted to divorce Catherine
of Aragon but the Pope refused. Henry's reforms
were to
get rid of the English Church's
connection with the Pope, and to make an
independent Church of
England. He made
this break with Rome gradually between 1529 and
1534. He dissolved all of
England's
monasteries
and
nunneries
because
they
were
more
loyal
to
the
Pope
than
to
their
English kings. The
laws such as the Act of succession of 1534 and the
Act of Supremacy of 1535
made
his
reform
possible.
He
established
the
Church
of
England
as
the
national
church
of
the
country, and he made himself the
supreme head of the Church of England
The Civil Wars
Because of the absolute rule of
Charles, the confrontation between Charles I and
the parliament de
veloped into the civil
war. The war began on August 22,1642 and ended in
1651. Charles I was co
ndemned to death
The Restoration
When Oliver Cromwell died in 1658 and
was succeeded by his son, Richard, the regime
began to
collapse. One of Cromwell's
generals George Monck, occupied London and
arranged for new parli
amentary
elections. The Parliament thus was elected in 1660
resolved the crisis by asking the late
King's son to return from his exile in
France as King Charles II. It was called the
Restoration.
The Glorious
Revolution of 1688
光荣革命
In 1685 Charles II died and was
succeeded by his brother James II. James was
brought up in exile
in Europe, was a
Catholic. He hoped to rule without giving up his
personal religious vies. But Eng
land
was no more tolerant of a Catholic king in 1688
than 40 years ago. So the English politicians
rejected James II, and appealed to a
Protestant king, William of Orange, to invade and
take the En
glish throne. William landed
in England in 1688. The takeover was relatively
smooth, with no blo
odshed, nor any
execution of the king. This was known as the
Glorious Revolution.
the
Bill of Rights
权利法案
In 1689, William and Mary accepted the
Bill of Rights to be crowned jointly. The bill
excluded an
y Roman Catholic from the
succession, confirmed the principle of
parliamentary supremacy and g
uaranteed
free speech within both the two Houses. Thus the
age of constitutional monarchy began.
Thatcherism
referred to the
policies put forward by Margaret Thatcher, the
first woman prime minister in Engla