Читать книгу Bible of the Time. …from the Big Bang to the present day… - Rem Word - Страница 18

…After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the Germanic tribes of the Angles and Saxons, under the leadership of the chiefs – kings, landed in England. The base of the conquerors is the southwestern part of England, almost the Wessex Peninsula. Local Britons, who had forgotten how to fight during the Roman rule, moved to the north of France. Or, having received the derogatory name «Curls», they remain in order to faithfully serve the foreign lords – the «bread lords».

…The Wessex dynasty ruled the kingdoms of foggy Albion from the eighth to the middle of the tenth centuries. The ceremonial alternation of local kings is interrupted by William the Conqueror, a native of continental Normandy. He breathes new life into the Norman dynasty. It was founded in 911 by the Norwegian Viking Rollon.

After a century, the Saxons lose their original extensive liberties and turn into villans performing unlimited duties. However, thanks to military service, some of them become free people, «Freemen» and «freeholders» – «free farmers».

In 1100, elected king with violations of the right of inheritance, to attract the sympathies of the feudal lords, the church and all how much influential free people, Henry the First presents the first edition of the Charter of Liberties. The obligations of the state and the individual, legal proceedings, taxes are streamlined. This proclamation is successful, overgrown with additions, up to the appearance on the throne of John Lackland (1199). The reforms of this monarch boil down to the establishment of royal tyranny, extortion for wars, sometimes not even begun, mind-boggling fines, and restricting the movement of the country’s inhabitants. In 1207, the monarch expelled the head of the Church of England, appointed by the Pope, and received personal excommunication. Unbaptized children, illegitimate marriages, have the right effect on the British. The top authorities are losing the fight against the Roman Church and the people. Thanks to this confrontation, by 1215, England becomes the first country of law and law on the planet.

The basis of English legislation to this day is the principle of the subordination of power to law under the threat of a legitimate armed rebuff from the people.

…Plantagenets. They have ruled since 1154. The most famous representative of the dynasty is Richard the Lionheart. In the third crusade, King Richard approaches Jerusalem, already determined to surrender. But, concerned about the internal political problems of his country, the king misses his chance.

About the Crusades themselves, we can say that for many reasons, their meaning and significance are denigrated. Before Catholic Europe reacts, the Arabs take over the originally Christian, Syria, Palestine and Egypt. Asia Minor and Spain fall into the shadow of the Islamic conquest. Units of knights and people’s militia stop this pressure.

Tombstone of Richard the Lionheart (1157—1119). «There are no knights. There is a trace of rust on the weapon. The souls of these warriors left the light»

The dynasties of England and France are mixed. To say: «In such and such a period England is ruled by the Plantagenet dynasty» is not entirely correct. Thus, the Hundred Years War, lasting one hundred and sixteen years, was started by the English king Edward III (1312—1377), due to its belonging to the more French Capetian.

The nodal battles of the war, the battles of Crécy, Poitiers and Agincourt, are similar. French troops overtake the small English invading army. The weary knights, urged on by the orders of the impatient king, enter the battle from the march. They are shot from two-meter bows and finished off by British riflemen.

After ten years of this carnage, a plague epidemic breaks out (peak of the epidemic in 1348). Residents are cramped in the besieged cities. They don’t care about hygiene in principle. The streets are full of filth. «Black Death» takes up to half of Europeans, undermining its social hierarchy and even religious foundations.

After such a terrible respite, hostilities are resumed.

Many people in northern France already consider themselves British. French nobles introduce additional taxes. This move leads to Jacquerie, the uprising of «Jacques-simpletons», much more powerless than the English farmers. In the first half of the fourteenth century, the fighting spirit of the French, their national identity was revived by Jeanne d’Arc. England is deprived of all possessions on the continent. The last of her hands is the port de Calais, at the narrowest part of the Channel.

But, the British, whose country, in contrast to the loss of two-thirds of the inhabitants of France, is in perfect order, want the continuation of the lists. A branch of the Plantagenet dynasty, the Yorkies, vie for the crown at the House of Lancaster. A thirty-year rivalry between the red (Lancaster) and white (Yorkie) emblematic roses begins.

In the middle of the fourteenth century, after the death in battle of the last king from the Lancaster, Richard III, and the announcement of the heir to the House of York illegitimate, the war-weary English society crowns Henry the Seventh Tudor.

Henry the Seventh Tudor, King of England and Sovereign of Ireland, founder of the dynasty (1457 – 1509).

Lancaster blood flows in his veins. He marries Elizabeth of York (of course, York), and thus unites the warring dynasties. The new Tudor emblem combines red and white in a single rose. The next twenty-four years of his reign are celebrated in the history of England as a general idyll. The peasants are becoming free en masse. Serf dependence is replaced by land dependence. The amount of government duties is strictly fixed. Estates find a common language on the basis of religion and financial success. However, the era of Good Old England ends with the ascension to the throne of Henry VIII. For the sake of marriage with Anne Boleyn and an easy divorce from the annoying former wife, the king issues a law to change the state religion. The principle begins to work: whose power, that is the faith.

Henry VIII, third child of Henry VIII, head of the Church of England (1491 – 1547). He divorces two wives out of six, and executes two on charges of treason. One dies by itself. The last of the halves of the monarch shows remarkable diplomatic talent, remains a widow and even gets married a second time. By the end of his life, due to obesity, the king is able to move only with the help of special mechanisms.

The head of the Church of England, more Protestant than Catholic, becomes the monarch, and this situation continues to this day. Catholic churches, monasteries, including the enchanting ruins of Glastonbury Abbey, were put by the king on the rubble for roads. Agriculture is now focused on wool production, and sheep that have multiplied immensely «eat people.» Where two hundred peasants lived comfortably, drank beer, ate meat, raised children, three or four shepherds remain. The new regime, without trial, sends the unemployed to hard labor or even the gallows. During the years of the reign of Henry VIII, seventy-two thousand people get to the scaffold, this is a considerable three percent of the population of England.

Mary, the daughter of Henry, the first lady to sit on the throne for a long time restores Catholicism, reconciles with the Pope, and for some time receives the support of the people. But rampant executions, including the massacre of the timid «queen of ten days,» 16-year-old Jane Gray, do not increase the popularity of the lady monarch in the least. A dynastic marriage with the Spanish prince Philip causes only bewilderment in society. Mary, now «Bloody» is dying of a fever, leaving no direct heirs.

Mary Tudor (1516 – 1558), she is also Mary the Bloody, daughter of Henry VIII from his first marriage, which was considered invalid. The first crowned Queen of England. In Great Britain there is not a single monument to this monarch, marked by numerous reprisals.

Elizabeth the First is the youngest daughter of Henry VIII from his marriage to Anne Boleyn. This marriage was annulled. But this time too, the child born in him becomes a full-fledged monarch. Elizabeth’s psyche is oppressed by the tyranny of her father, the execution of her mother and the penultimate wife of «Henry VIII, Lady Keith Howard, who became a good friend for an orphan. However, Elizabeth does not forget to monitor her appearance, looks youthful, and in particular, is fond of applying many layers of powder to her face. The reign of the Virgin Queen is considered the golden age of England.

Elizabeth the First (1533 – 1603)

Stewarts.

Mary Stuart, great-granddaughter of Henry the Seventh, Queen of Scots, from the age of sixteen the wife of the King of France, Francis II. The second marriage, after the death of Francis, will take place six years later, with a cousin, Heinrich Stuart. As a result of a series of unsolved events, the monarch dies. A third marriage, to Henry’s most likely murderer, Earl Bothwell, strips Mary Stuart of her credibility. Lords rise in rebellion. The Queen signs a renunciation in favor of her son from her last spouse. Further, Mary gets involved in a confrontation with the Scottish nobles, loses the fight outright and flees to England for patronage to Elizabeth the First. The regal fugitive is held in honor and contentment. However, she gets involved in correspondence with people seeking the physical removal of the Queen of England, Elizabeth. The secret becomes clear…

Mary, who continues to assert her rights to the throne of England, even with tears in her eyes, is sent to the chopping block by the British.

England and Scotland for the first time become a single kingdom under the leadership of James the First, namely, the son of the executed Scottish Queen Mary Stuart.

Mary Stuart (1542—1587)

His son, Charles the First, after the death of the Duke of Buckingham, his father’s advisor and lover, loses control over what is happening. The British Parliament decides to behead the proud king.

The dynasty of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, has only two rulers. A year after the death of his father, Richard Cromwell finds out that he is unable to manage the state that has not yet cooled down after the civil war. Presumably, recalling the very sad story of Karl Stewart, he resigns.

Charles the First, the first king to be executed by the people and parliament (1600 – 1649).

…The son of the king who lost his head, Charles II takes the throne of his father. The classical monarchy of Great Britain is taking revenge.

William III of Orange, ruler of the Netherlands, wins the sympathy of the majority of the people of Great Britain. They offer the object of sympathy the office of king, and Wilhelm agrees. Under him, culture (Swift), science (Newton) and social order (Bill of Rights) are experiencing an unprecedented rise. Among other things, according to a rather confused chronicle, Wilhelm meets the Russian Tsar Peter the Great in both of his dominions, England and the Netherlands.

…Hanoverian House. According to the new Act of Succession to the throne, Catholics who are in any way related to the Stuarts cannot count on the throne. In these conditions, the British call on representatives of the German family of Welfs, who have ruled Braunschweig for a long time and, accordingly, its capital Hanover. The names of the first four kings are «Georg», therefore the time of the dynasty’s reign is called the Georgian era.

Queen Victoria in her youth (1819—1901)

After surviving several assassination attempts, Queen Victoria, the last of the dynasty, has ruled for sixty-four years. The nine children of the «grandmothers of Europe», princes and princesses, seal the agreement between most of the European dynasties. The Victorian era is Britain’s golden age.

During the reign of Queen Victoria, the British Empire reached its heyday. England is at the forefront of the white man’s civilizing attacks, protecting the native population from its even tougher rulers. Victoria voices the passionate aspirations of her subjects as follows: «It is not in our custom to annex countries if we are not obliged and forced to do so.»

A kind of anthem of the colonial and missionary activities of the Anglo-Saxons ("The White Man's Burden") becomes the poem "If", known to us more from "Mowgli", by the British cult writer Rudyard Kipling:

Translation by S. Marshak… English-speaking connoisseurs of literature, please rate the double translation

The son of Victoria and the German Prince Albert, Edward the Seventh, becomes the founder of the Saxe-Coburg-Gothic dynasty. In 1917, during the war with Germany, the foreign name of the dynasty was changed to Windsor, from the name of Windsor Castle. Queen Elizabeth II, daughter of George the Sixth, is in good health as of 2019, married to the Greek prince Philip, and has four children who are located to continue the dynasty.