Notes life in the UK
Name : United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
England, Scotland and Wales Northern Ireland
Crown Dependencies (not included in the UK ):
Channel Islands & the Isle of Man, St Helena &the Falkland Islands
History Early Britain
Stone age
Britain 6,000 years ago farmers
Stonehenge county of Wiltshire: special gathering place for seasonal ceremonies
Stone Age sites: Skara Brae on Orkney (north coast of Scotland, is the best preserved prehistoric village in northern Europe, and has helped archaeologists to understand more about how people lived near the end of the Stone Age)
4000 ago bronze age, metal workers objects tools ornaments weapons made of bronze and gold
Iron Age : tools and weapons, farmers craft workers warriors
Language Celtic family.
Sophisticated culture and economy first coins
Julius Caesar 55BC unsuccessful
AD43 Claudius reinvade and occupied England
Boudicca queen of Iceni fought against the romans there is a statue in westminsterScotland was never conquered by the romans
SPeacial sightseeing Handrians wall Unesco sight
Romans stayed 400years
AD 600
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were established in Britain. These kingdoms were mainly in what is now England
St Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Norman Conquest was the last successful foreign invasion of England
Middle ages
AD 476 up until 1485
Constand war for land
English fought the Welsh and Scottish the Irish. In Wales English established their rule. In 1284 King Edward 1 annexed Wales into the crown of England.
Conwy and Caernarvon Castles build to maintain the power. by the 15th century the last Welsh rebellions had been defeated. English laws and the English language were introduced.
In 1314 the Scottish, led by Robert the Bruce, defeated the English at the Battle of Bannockburn. Scotland remains unconquered.
One of the most famous battles of the Hundred Years War was the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, where King Henry V’s vastly outnumbered English army defeated the French.
The Black Death
Normans brought in uk a system called Feudalism. King give land to lord lord give man for battle.
1348 black deathe killed 13rd of the English population, that meant that jobs were in high demand and people start asking for bigger pay checks. New social classes appeared. People moved in the cities and grew wealth witch established a strong middle class
Legal & Political changes
1215 King John was forced to agree in these laws called magna carta
King is also under the law
King need to involve nobleman to the decisions
This protected nobleman from tax rises
Houses were established
The nobility included big landowners and bishops known as
House of Lords
Knights with smaller land and wealthy people from the cities formed House of Commons
Not everyone had the right to vote who sat at the house of commons.
Legal system was formed and independent of the government “Common Law “
Huge development in national culture. Languages Norman French and English 1400 people chose English as the main language
Geoffry Chaucer 1400 wrote poems about people going to Canterbury. This is the first printed book by the William Caxton using printing press
1455 was the war of Roses King Richard (York) and Henry Tudor (Lancaster) fought
Henry IIV was named King and married King Richards Niece to unite the cities
Life in the UK NOTES FROM IOANNIS
Voting
- women over the age of 30 given the right to vote: 1918, for their contribution during WW1
- women vote at the same age as men (at 21): 1928
- Men & Women vote at 18: 1969
Houses of Parliament:
- House of Commons: 650 seats
- House of Lords: 786 seats
- First prime minister: Sir Robert Walpole
Devolved Parliaments:.
- Scotland: 129 seats - Holyrood
- Wales: 60 seats - Senedd
- N. Ireland: 90 seats - Stormont
Demographics:
- Total population: ~67 million
---- England: 84% (56.5m)
---- Scotland: 8% (5.5m)
---- Wales: 5% (3m)
---- N. Ireland: 3% (2m)
—Victorian area British Empire - 400m
Saints
- Wales: St David - 1 March
- N. Ireland: St Patrick - 17 March
- England: St George - 23 April
- Scotland: St Andrew - 30 Nov
Flowers
- England: Tudor rose
- Scotland: thistle
- Wales: daffodil
- N. Ireland: shamrock
-Act for the government of Wales reign of Henry VIII, Welsh legal system
- Act of Union: England + Wales, 1536
- Political Union: England + Scotland, 1707
-Act of Union 1800, Ireland
Wars
- war of roses: Lancaster + Tudor Vs York 1455, won by Tudor, 30 years
- English Vs Spanish armada: 1588
- English civil war, Cavaliers Vs Roundheads: 1642
- Anglo-Saxon kingdoms Vs Vikings: under king Alfred the Great
- English kings Vs France in the middle ages: 100 years war
- commemorated in the bayeux tapestry: battle of Hastings
- admiral Nelson died in the battle of Trafalgar
- Boer war: 1899, in South Africa
- Battle of Britain 1940: aerial battle
- Boudicca Vs Romans
- Duke of wellington vs Napoleon battle of Waterloo 1815
- Last battle Vs France: battle of Waterloo
-Battle of Agincourt 1415, English defeated French
-Battle of Bannockburn 1314, Robert the Bruce Scotts Vs English
-D-day 6 June 1944
Geographical
- Eden project: in Cornwall
- Swansea: in Wales
- largest National Park: Lake District in England
- Snowdonia: in Wales
- Capitals:
--- Scotland: Edinburgh
--- Wales: Cardiff
--- N. Ireland: Belfast
Other
- Magna Carta restricting the king's power: 1215
- juries have 12 members , except Scotland has 15
- last successful invasion of England: the Norman conquest, 1066
- minor criminal cases: magistrate's court
- joined eu : 1973
- Brexit referendum: 23 June 2016
- left eu: 31st Jan 2020, transition period finished 31 Dec 2020, new rules took effect 1st Jan 2021
- emancipation act, forbid slavery 1833
- The Grand National: horse race
--- Scottish taking place in Ayr, Scotland
--- The plain one in Aintree, Liverpool
- Hogmanay - 31 Dec Scotland
- Huguenots - Protestant refugees from France
- 1947 independence India Pakistan Ceylon
- First farmers 6000 years ago
- Pancake day (before Lent/Ash Wednesday)
- 1929 Great Depression
- 15 national parks in GB
- UN over 190 members
- Bonfire night 6 November 1605
- 870 miles longest distance on mainland
Ιnventions
- TV: John Logie Baird
- Radar: Robert Watson Watt
- World Wide Web: Sir Tim Burners Lee
- jet engine: Sir Frank whittle
- Split the atom: Ernest Rutherford
- structure of the DNA molecule: Francis crick
- Insulin: John MacLeod
- Cloning a mammal (Dolly the sheep): Sir Ian Wilmot and Keith Campbell
- Penicillin: Fleming
- ATM: James Goodfellow
Awards
The Turner Prize - Visual arts, landscape paintings
The Laurence Olivier Awards - Theatre arts
The Man Booker Prize - Best fiction novel
The British Academy Film Awards
The Proms - classical music event
Bevan - NHS
Beveridge Report - Liberal party, social insurance and allied services, 1942
Butler Act - Education Act 1944, free secondary education England and Wales