ENGLAND 



2044 



ENGLAND 



During the reign of Anne, in 1707, the two 

 countries of England and Scotland were united 

 constitutionally, and the title of the sovereign 

 became officially not King oj England but King 

 of Great Britain and Ireland. The remaining 

 rulers of this list, therefore, bear that longer 

 title: 



George I 1714-1727 



George II 1727-1760 



George III 1760-1820 



George IV 1820-1830 



William IV 1830-1837 



Victoria 1837-1901 



Edward VII 1901-1910 



George V 1910- 



Medieval England. Of that great system of 

 society, feudalism, so characteristic of the Mid- 

 dle Ages, England had had more than a touch 

 before the coming of William the Conqueror, 

 but it was he who organized society systemat- 

 ically upon that basis; and throughout the 

 centuries which followed the nobles in their 

 controversies with the king were constantly 

 striving to rid themselves of the obligations 

 which feudalism forced upon them. The kings, 

 on the other hand, made constant efforts to 

 strengthen the power of the crown at the ex- 

 pense of the nobility. Much was gained by 

 Henry I, the second ruler after the Conqueror, 

 but during the war for the throne which fol- 

 lowed his death the nobles and the clergy made 

 themselves practically independent of the royal 

 authority. See FEUDAL SYSTEM. 



But in 1154, with the accession to the throne 

 of Henry II, one of the strongest of English 

 kings, the power of the great barons began to 

 wane. Henry found time to establish a just 

 and orderly government and to force the kings 

 of Ireland and Scotland to acknowledge him as 

 their overlord, despite the fact that he spent 

 less of his time in England than he did in 

 France, for his continental territories were 

 more extensive than his island possessibns. An 

 outstanding event of his reign was the contest 

 with the Church which ended tragically for 

 Thomas a Becket (which see). Under Richard 

 I much of the sovereign power was again lost, 

 for Richard was interested only in the Cru- 

 sades and spent less than a year of his reign 

 in his kingdom. He was only too willing, also, 

 to grant privileges to the barons in return for 

 funds to equip his crusading expeditions. He 

 managed to hold on to most of his possessions 

 in France, but these were almost entirely lost 

 during the reign of his brother, the untrust- 

 worthy, tyrannical John. Out of the very weak- 

 ness of this king, however, came good to the 



country, for the barons were able in June, 1215, 

 to wrest from him that famous document 

 known as the Magna Charta, that "foundation 

 stone of English liberties," as it is called. Un- 

 der Henry III this "Great Charter" was con- 



Co, a) Alfred's territory at its greatest extent. 



firmed, and a further step in the direction of 

 constitutional liberty was taken by the assem- 

 bling of the first House of Commons, in 1265. 



Wars with Scotland and France. These two 

 kings had been compelled in spite of their 

 wishes to grant to the country certain liberties, 

 but Edward I, who came to the throne in 1272, 

 showed himself quite willing to rule in accord- 

 ance with Magna Charta. His love for law, 

 indeed, won him the title of "The English 

 Justinian," an honorable recognition of the 

 great Roman law-giver. It was during his 

 reign that Wales was united with England and 

 that the title of Prince of Wales was first be- 

 stowed on the heir to the throne. In his 

 reign, too, began a fierce struggle with Scot- 

 land which raged at intervals for centuries and 

 involved the famous patriots William Wallace 

 and Robert Bruce. Edward I gained certain 

 advantages, but these were all lost by his weak 

 successor, Edward II, who after the disastrous 

 Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 was compelled 

 to acknowledge the independence of Scotland. 



Partly because France had aided Scotland 

 in this contest and partly because of certain 

 claims which he held to territory in that 



