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This article is about the state that existed from the 10th century to 1707. For the country in its current form, see .
Location of the Kingdom of England in 1700
(until 12th century)
(12th century–1707)
    (administrative)
    (commercial)
(until 11th century)
(until 11th century)
(11th–15th century)
(until 15th century)
Government
 o 
 o 
Legislature
 o 
Upper house
 o 
Lower house
 o 
10th century
 o 
14 October 1066
 o 
 o 
 o 
24 March 1603
 o 
11 December 1688
 o 
1 May 1707
 o 
145,000 km? (55,985 sq mi)
 o 
151,000 km? (58,301 sq mi)
 o 
500,000 
     Density
3.4 /km?  (8.9 /sq mi)
 o 
3,000,000 
     Density
20.7 /km?  (53.6 /sq mi)
 o 
5,750,000 
     Density
38.1 /km?  (98.6 /sq mi)
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Today part of
 ∟  
 ∟  
Monarch of Wessex from 925.
Continued as monarch of Great Britain until her death in 1714.
The Kingdom of England
from the 10th century—when it emerged from various
kingdoms—until 1707—when it was united with
to form the .
In the early 11th century the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, united by
(r. 927–939), became part of the
of , a personal union between England,
in 1066 led to the transfer of the English
and chief royal residence from the Anglo-Saxon one at
to , and the
quickly established itself as England's largest and principal commercial centre.
Histories of the kingdom of England from the
of 1066 conventionally distinguish periods named after successive ruling dynasties:
(interrupted by the
of ). Dynastically, all
after 1066 ultimately claim descent from the N the distinction of the
is merely conventional, beginning with
(reigned ) as from that time, the
became "more English in nature"; the houses of
are both Plantagenet cadet branches, the
claimed descent from
claimed descent from
The completion of the
in 1284 put Wales under the control of the English crown.
(reigned ) transformed the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in E his reign also saw vital developments in legislation and government—in particular the evolution of the . From the 1340s the kings of England also
to the crown of , but after the
and the outbreak of the
in 1455, the English were no longer in any position to pursue their French claims and lost all their land on the continent, except for . After the turmoils of the Wars of the Roses, the
ruled during the
and again extended English monarchical power beyond England proper, achieving the full union of England and the
oversaw the , and his daughter
(reigned ) the , meanwhile establishing England as a
and laying the foundations of the
by claiming possessions in the .
From the accession of
in 1603, the
ruled England in
and . Under the Stuarts, the kingdom plunged into , which culminated in the
in 1649. The monarchy returned in 1660, but the Civil War established the precedent that an English monarch cannot govern without the consent of Parliament, although this concept became legally established only as part of the
of 1688. From this time the kingdom of England, as well as its successor state the , functioned in effect as a . On 1 May 1707, under the terms of the , the kingdoms of England and Scotland
to form the .
Main article:
The Anglo-Saxons referred to themselves as the Engle or the Angelcynn, originally names of the . They called their land Engla land, meaning "land of the English", by
Latinized Anglia, from an original , the purported homeland of the Angles (called Angulus by ). The name Engla land became England by
during the
period (Engle-land, Engelond). The
name was Anglia or Anglorum terra, the
one Angleterre. By the 14th century, England was also used in reference to the entire island of .
The standard title for all monarchs from
until the time of
was Rex Anglorum ("King of the English"). , a Dane, was the first king to call himself "King of England". In the
Rex Anglorum remained standard, with occasional use of Rex Anglie ("King of England"). The
styled herself Domina Anglorum ("Lady of the English"). From the time of
onwards all other titles were eschewed in favour of Rex or Regina Anglie. In 1604 , who had inherited the English throne the previous year, adopted the title (now usually rendered in English rather than Latin) King of Great Britain. The English and Scottish parliaments, however, did not recognise this title until the Acts of Union of 1707.
Main article:
The kingdom of England emerged from the gradual unification of the early medieval
known as the : , , , , , , and . The
of the 9th century upset the balance of power between the English kingdoms, and native Anglo-Saxon life in general. The English lands were unified in the 10th century in a reconquest completed by King
During the Heptarchy, the most powerful king among the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms might become acknowledged as , a
over the other kings. The decline of Mercia allowed Wessex to become more powerful. It absorbed the kingdoms of Kent and Sussex in 825. The
became increasingly dominant over the other kingdoms of England during the 9th century. In 827, Northumbria submitted to
briefly became the first king to reign over a united England.
retook London, which he apparently regarded as a turning point in his reign. The
says that "all of the English people (all Angelcyn) not
submitted themselves to King Alfred." Asser added that "Alfred, king of the Anglo-Saxons, restored the
splendidly ... and made it habitable once more." Alfred's "restoration" entailed reoccupying and refurbishing the nearly deserted Roman walled city, building
along the Thames, and laying a new city street plan. It is probably at this point that Alfred assumed the new royal style 'King of the Anglo-Saxons.'
During the following years Northumbria repeatedly changed hands between the English kings and the Norwegian invaders, but was definitively brought under English control by
in 954, completing the unification of England. At about this time, , the northern part of Northumbria (Roman ), was ceded to the . On 12 July 927 the monarchs of Britain gathered at
to recognise
as king of the English. This can be considered England's 'foundation date', although the process of unification had taken almost 100 years.
The dominions of
England has remained in political unity ever since. During the reign of
(978–1016), a new wave of Danish invasions was orchestrated by , culminating after a quarter-century of warfare in the Danish conquest of England in 1013. But Sweyn died on 2 February 1014, and AEthelred was restored to the throne. In 1015, Sweyn's son
launched a new invasion. The ensuing war ended with an agreement in 1016 between Canute and AEthelred's successor, , to divide England between them, but Edmund's death on 30 November of that year left England united under Danish rule. This continued for 26 years until the death of
in June 1042. He was the son of Canute and
(the widow of AEthelred the Unready) and had he was succeeded by his half-brother, AEthelred's son, . The Kingdom of England was once again independent.
Main article:
The peace lasted until the death of the childless Edward in January 1066. His brother-in-law was crowned , but his cousin , Duke of Normandy, immediately claimed the throne for himself. William launched an invasion of England and landed in
on 28 September 1066. Harold and his army were in
following their victory against the Norwegians at the
(25 September 1066) when the news reached him. He decided to set out without delay and confront the Norman army in Sussex so marched southwards at once, despite the army not being properly rested following the battle with the Norwegians. The armies of Harold and William faced each other at the
(14 October 1066), in which the English army, or , was defeated, Harold and his two brothers were slain, and William emerged as victor. William was then able to conquer England with little further opposition. He was not, however, planning to absorb the Kingdom into the . As a mere duke, William owed allegiance to , whereas in the independent Kingdom of England he could rule without interference. He was crowned on 25 December 1066 in , London.
Main article:
Further information: , , and
led an invasion of , a
kingdom in what is now southwest Scotland and Cumbria. In doing so, he annexed what is now the county of
to E this final annexation established what would become the traditional
of England, which have remained largely unchanged since then (except for occasional and temporary changes).
ceded what is now southeast Scotland (called ) to the , in return for the King of Scotland's loyalty. This area of land had been English since its foundation in 927 AD, and before that had been a part of the Anglian .
contained what later became the Scottish capital, . This arrangement was later finalised in 1237 by the .
King John signs
in 1215, surrounded by his baronage. Illustration from Cassell's History of England, 1902.
with the Kingdom of England upon the accession of , who had married . The Kingdom of England and the Duchy of Normandy remained in personal union until , Henry II's son and fifth-generation descendant of William I, lost the continental possessions of the Duchy to
in 1204. A few remnants of , including the , remained in John's possession, together with most of the Duchy of Aquitaine.
Up until the Norman conquest of England, Wales had remained for the most part independent of the , although some Welsh kings did sometimes acknowledge the . Soon after the , however, some Norman lords began to attack Wales. They conquered and ruled parts of it, acknowledging the overlordship of the Norman kings of England but with considerable local independence. Over many years these "" conquered more and more of Wales, against considerable resistance led by various Welsh princes, who also often acknowledged the overlordship of the Norman kings of England.
defeated , and so effectively conquered Wales, in 1282. He created the title
for his eldest son, the future , in 1301. Edward I's conquest was brutal and the subsequent repression considerable, as the magnificent Welsh
such as , , but this event re-united under a single ruler the lands of
for the first time since the establishment of the Kingdom of the
in the 5th century, some 700 years before. Accordingly, this was a highly significant moment in the history of medieval England, as it re-established links with the pre-Saxon past. These links were exploited for political purposes to unite the peoples of the kingdom, including the Anglo-Normans, by popularising .
The —derived from the , with significant
influences—continued to be spoken by the majority of the population of Wales for at least another 500 years, and is still a majority language in parts of the country.
Main article:
Further information:
Fifteenth-century miniature depicting the English victory over France at the .
was the first English king to have a . His pursuit of the claim resulted in the
(), which pitted five kings of England of the
against five kings of France of the . Though the English won numerous victories, they were unable to overcome the numerical superiority of the French and their strategic use of gunpowder weapons. England was defeated at the
in 1450 and finally at the
in 1453, retaining only a single town in France, .
During the
began to develop in place of the previous division between the Norman lords and their
subjects. This was a consequence of sustained hostility to the increasingly nationalist French, whose kings and other leaders (notably the charismatic ) used a developing sense of French identity to help draw people to their cause. The
became separate from their cousins who held lands mainly in France, who mocked the former for their archaic and bastardised spoken French.
also became the language of the law courts during this period.
The kingdom had little time to recover before entering the Wars of the Roses (), a series of civil wars over possession of the throne between the
(whose heraldic symbol was the red rose) and the
(whose symbol was the white rose), each led by different branches of the descendants of Edward III. The end of these wars found the throne held by the descendant of an initially illegitimate member of the House of Lancaster, married to the eldest daughter of the House of York:
and . They were the founders of the , which ruled the Kingdom from 1485 to 1603.
Main articles: , , , and
Wales had retained a separate legal and administrative system, which had been established by
in the late 13th century. The country was divided between the
owing feudal allegiance to the crown and the . Under the Tudor monarchy,
replaced the laws of Wales with those of England (under the ). Wales now was incorporated into the Kingdom of England, and henceforth was represented in the .
Portrait of Elizabeth I made to commemorate the defeat of the
(1588), depicted in the background. Elizabeth's international power is symbolised by the hand resting on the globe.
During the 1530s, Henry VIII overthrew the power of the Roman Catholic Church within the kingdom, replacing the pope as head of the English church and seizing the church's lands, thereby facilitating the creation of a new Protestant religion. This had the effect of aligning England with Scotland, which also gradually adopted a Protestant religion, whereas the most important continental powers, France and Spain, remained Roman Catholic.
In 1541, during Henry VIII's reign, the
proclaimed him , thereby bringing the
into personal union with the Kingdom of England.
, the last remaining continental possession of the Kingdom, was lost in 1558, during the reign of
and . Their successor, , consolidated the new Protestant Church of England. She also began to build up the Kingdom's naval strength, on the foundations Henry VIII had laid down. In 1588, her new navy was strong enough to defeat the Spanish Armada, which had sought to invade England in order to put a Catholic monarch on the throne in her place.
Main articles:
The House of Tudor ended with the death of Elizabeth I on 24 March 1603.
ascended the throne of England and brought it into personal union with the Kingdom of Scotland. Despite the , the kingdoms remained separate and independent states: a state of affairs which lasted for more than a century.
Main articles: , , , and
Cromwell at Dunbar.
united the whole of the
by force and created the .
The Stuart kings overestimated the power of the English monarchy, and were cast down by Parliament in 1645 and 1688. In the first instance, 's introduction of new forms of taxation in defiance of Parliament led to the
(1641–45), in which the king was defeated, and to the abolition of the monarchy under
during the
of . Henceforth, the monarch could reign only at the will of Parliament.
in January 1649, the
on 19 May 1649. The monarchy and the House of Lords were abolished, and so the House of Commons became a unitary legislative chamber with a new body, the
becoming the executive. However the Army remain the dominant institution in the new republic and the most prominent general was . The Commonwealth fought
which were subdued and placed under Commonwealth military occupation.
In April 1653 Cromwell and the other
of the , frustrated with the members of the
who would not pass legislation to dissolve the Rump and to allow a new more representative parliament to be elected, stopped the Rumps session by force of arms and declared the Rump dissolved.
After an experiment with a Nominated Assembly (), the Grandees in the Army, through the Council of State imposed a new constitutional arrangement under a written constitution called the . Under the Instrument of Government executive power lay with a
(an office be held for life of the incumbent) and there were to be triennial Parliaments, with each sitting for at least five months. Article 23 of the Instrument of Government stated that Oliver Cromwell was to be the first Lord Protector. The
was replaced by a second constitution (the ) under which the Lord Protector could nominate his successor. Cromwell nominated his son
who became Lord Protector on the death of Oliver on 3 September 1658.
Main articles:
Richard proved to ineffectual and unable to maintain his rule. He resigned his title and retired into obscurity. The Rump Parliament was recalled and there was a second period where the executive power lay with the Council of state. But this restoration of Commonwealth rule similar to that before the Protectorate, proved to be unstable, and the exiled claimant, , was
to the throne in 1660.
Following the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, an attempt by
to reintroduce Roman Catholicism—a century after its suppression by the Tudors—led to the
of 1688, in which he was deposed by Parliament. The Crown was then offered by Parliament to James II's Protestant daughter and son-in-law/nephew,
In the Scottish case, the attractions were partly financial and partly to do with removing English trade sanctions put in place through the . The English were more anxious about the royal succession. The death of
in 1702 had led to the accession of his sister-in-law
to the thrones of England and Scotland, but her only surviving child had died in 1700, and the English
had given the succession to the English crown to the Protestant . Securing the same succession in Scotland became the primary object of English strategic thinking towards Scotland. By 1704, the
was in crisis, with the Scottish
allowing for the Scottish Parliament to choose a different monarch, which could in turn lead to an independent foreign policy during a major European war. The English establishment did not wish to risk a
on the Scottish throne, nor the possibility of a Scottish military alliance with another power.
was agreed on 22 July 1706, and following the
of 1707, which created the , the independence of the kingdoms of England and Scotland came to an end on 1 May 1707. The Acts of Union created a
and provided that any "laws and statutes" that were "contrary to or inconsistent with the terms" of the Acts would "cease and become void."
The English and Scottish Parliaments were merged into the , located in , London. At this point England ceased to exist as a separate political entity, and since then has had no national . The laws of England were unaffected, with the legal jurisdiction continuing to be that of , while
continued to have its own laws and law courts. This continued after the
between the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, forming the . In 1922 the
seceded from the , leading to the latter being
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Further information: , , , , , and
were established for administration by the , in most cases based on earlier
established by the . They ceased to be used for administration only with the creation of the
Unlike the partly self-governing
that covered urban areas, the counties of medieval England existed primarily as a means of enforcing central government power, enabling monarchs to exercise control over local areas through their chosen representatives – originally
and later the
– and their subordinate . Counties were used initially for the , collection of taxes and organisation of the military, and later for local government and electing parliamentary representation.
Although all of England was divided into shires by the time of the Norman conquest, some counties were formed considerably later, up to the 16th century. Because of their differing origins the counties . The county boundaries were fairly static between the 16th century
and the . Each shire was responsible for gathering taxes for th and for justice, through .
The power of the
to control their landholding was considerably weakened in 1290 by the statute of . Feudal baronies became perhaps obsolete (but not extinct) on the abolition of feudal tenure during the , as confirmed by the
passed under the
which took away Knights service and other legal rights. Tenure by
was abolished and discharged and the lands covered by such tenures, including once-feudal baronies, were henceforth held by
(i.e. in exchange for monetary rents). The English Fitzwalter Case in 1670 ruled that barony by tenure had been discontinued for many years and any claims to a
on such basis, meaning a right to sit in the , were not to be revived, nor any right of succession based on them.
in 1284 followed the
by . It assumed the lands held by the Princes of Gwynedd under the title "" as legally part of the lands of England, and established shire counties on the English model over those areas. The
were progressively tied to the English kings by the grants of lands and lordships in England. The , administered from , was initially established in 1472 by
to govern the lands held under the Principality of Wales. Under the
introduced under , the jurisdiction of the marcher lords was abolished in 1536. The Acts had the effect of annexing Wales to England and creating a single state and legal jurisdiction, commonly referred to as .
(until 1066)
(until 12th century)
(12th–14th century)
(14th century–1707)
(until 12th century)
(12th–16th century)
(16th century–1707)
Widely used for administrative and liturgical purposes.
The , with the reservation that it is "", is taken[] to be based in the .
, "...rivalry between City and government, between a commercial capital in the City and the political capital of quite a different empire in Westminster.", accessed November 2013.
parliament.uk, accessed 27 January 2011
scottish.parliament.uk, accessed 27 January 2011
11 May 2011 at the .
Stephen Harris, Race and Ethnicity in Anglo-Saxon Literature, Studies in Medieval History and Culture, Routledge, f.
A. L. Mayhew and Walter W. Skeat, A Concise Dictionary of Middle English From A.D. 1150 To 1580 (1888)
<> (par L. Favre, ), dans du Cange, et al., Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, éd. augm., Niort&#160;: L. Favre, , t. 1, col. 251c.
Freely licensed version at Gutenberg Project. Note: This electronic edition is a collation of material from nine diverse extant versions of the Chronicle. It contains primarily the translation of Rev. James Ingram, as published in the Everyman edition.
Asser's Life of King Alfred, ch. 83, trans. Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge, Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred & Other Contemporary Sources (Penguin Classics) (1984), pp. 97–8.
, Saxon London: An Archaeological Investigation, The Archaeology of London series (1990).
— Type details for ancient county. Retrieved 19 October 2006.
Youngs, Frederic A, Jr. (1979). Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol.I: Southern England. London: . pp.&#160;xii–xiii. &#160;. Ancient County: Counties are geographic entities whose origins reach back into the pre-Conquest period. They were derived either from Anglo-Saxon kingdoms whose size made them suitable administrative units when England was unified in the tenth century, or as artificial creations formed from larger kingdoms. The number of 'shires' (the Anglo-Saxon term) or 'counties' (Norman term) varied in the medieval period, particularly in the north of England.
Chandler, J. A. (2007). . . Manchester: Manchester University Press. p.&#160;2. &#160;.
Hackwood, Frederick William (1920).
(PDF). : Heath Cranton Limited.
Byrne, Tony (1994). Local Government in Britain. : . &#160;.
— Census Geographies. Retrieved 19 October 2006.
Winchester, Angus J L (1990). Discovering Parish Boundaries. : . &#160;.
William Searle Holdsworth, "A History of English Law," Little, Brown, and Company, 1912, pg. 502
, England under the Tudors (London: Methuen, 1955)
Elton, G. R., The Tudor Revolution in Government: Administrative Changes in the Reign of Henry VIII (Cambridge University Press, 1953)
Elton, G. R., The Reformation (Cambridge University Press, 1958)
Elton, G. R., The Tudor Constitution: Documents and Commentary (Cambridge University Press, 1960), &#160;
Elton, G. R., ed., England, : Sources of History. (Ithaca, NY: Cornell Press, 1969)
Elton, G. R. Studies in Tudor and Stuart Politics and Government: Papers and Reviews. 4 volumes (Cambridge University Press, ) (—)
, In Search of the Dark Ages (London: BBC Books, 1981)
Preceded&#160;by
500&#160;– c. 927
Kingdom of England
c. 927&#160;– 1649
Succeeded&#160;by
Preceded&#160;by
Kingdom of England
Succeeded&#160;by
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