161-636: The Georgian era was a period in British history from 1714 to c. 1830–1837 , named after the Hanoverian kings George I , George II , George III and George IV . The definition of the Georgian era is also often extended to include the relatively short reign of William IV , which ended with his death in 1837. The subperiod that is the Regency era is defined by the regency of George IV as Prince of Wales during
322-404: A "vivid historical narrative, ranging widely over period and place and enriched by analysis and reflection." Unusually for the 18th century, Gibbon was never content with secondhand accounts when the primary sources were accessible (though most of these were drawn from well-known printed editions). "I have always endeavoured," he says, "to draw from the fountain-head; that my curiosity, as well as
483-634: A catastrophe. Cottiers (or farm labourers) were largely wiped out during what is known in Ireland as the " Great Hunger ". A significant minority elected Unionists , who championed the Union. A Church of Ireland former Tory barrister turned nationalist campaigner, Isaac Butt , established a new moderate nationalist movement, the Home Rule League , in the 1870s. After Butt's death the Home Rule Movement, or
644-491: A chronic and disfiguring inflammation that left Gibbon a lonely figure. As his condition worsened, he underwent numerous procedures to alleviate the condition, but with no enduring success. In early January, the last of a series of three operations caused an unremitting peritonitis to set in and spread, from which he died. The "English giant of the Enlightenment" finally succumbed at 12:45 pm, 16 January 1794 at age 56. He
805-460: A constitutional government there and recognising the independence of Spain's American colonies in 1824. British merchants and financiers, and later railway builders, played major roles in the economies of most Latin American nations. The Whig Party recovered its strength and unity by supporting moral reforms, especially the reform of the electoral system, the abolition of slavery and emancipation of
966-459: A far lesser role than his father, George III. His governments, with little help from the king, presided over victory in the Napoleonic Wars, negotiated the peace settlement, and attempted to deal with the social and economic malaise that followed. His brother William IV ruled (1830–37), but was little involved in politics. His reign saw several reforms: the poor law was updated, child labour
1127-732: A formal Empire based on British rule as well as an informal one based on the British pound. One nagging fear was the possible collapse of the Ottoman Empire. It was well understood that a collapse of that country would set off a scramble for its territory and possibly plunge Britain into war. To head that off Britain sought to keep the Russians from occupying Constantinople and taking over the Bosporous Strait , as well as from threatening India via Afghanistan . In 1853, Britain and France intervened in
1288-807: A great victory over the British at the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815 (news took several weeks to cross the Atlantic before the advent of steam ships). The Treaty of Ghent subsequently ended the war with no territorial changes. It was the last war between Britain and the United States. Britain emerged from the Napoleonic Wars a very different country than it had been in 1793. As industrialisation progressed, society changed, becoming more urban and less rural. The postwar period saw an economic slump, and poor harvests and inflation caused widespread social unrest. Europe after 1815
1449-528: A grieving but composed Sheffield. His health began to fail critically in December, and at the turn of the new year, he was on his last legs. Among Edward Gibbon's maladies was gout. Gibbon is also believed to have suffered from an extreme case of scrotal swelling, probably a hydrocele testis , a condition that causes the scrotum to swell with fluid in a compartment overlying either testicle. In an age when close-fitting clothes were fashionable, his condition led to
1610-461: A growing evangelical, revivalist faction, the "Low Church". Its leaders included William Wilberforce and Hannah More . It reached the upper class through the Clapham Sect . It did not seek political reform, but rather the opportunity to save souls through political action by freeing slaves, abolishing the duel, prohibiting cruelty to children and animals, stopping gambling, and avoiding frivolity on
1771-484: A large and powerful Royal Navy, which not only protected the British colonies but threatened the colonies of the other empires, and sometimes seized them. The colonies were captive markets for British industry, and the goal was to enrich the mother country. Most of the companies earned good profits, and enormous personal fortunes were created in India, but there was one major fiasco that caused heavy losses. The South Sea Bubble
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#17328523146191932-511: A lover, I obeyed as a son." He proceeded to cut off all contact with Curchod, even as she vowed to wait for him. Their final emotional break apparently came at Ferney , France, in early 1764, though they did see each other at least one more time a year later. Upon his return to England, Gibbon published his first book, Essai sur l'Étude de la Littérature in 1761, which produced an initial taste of celebrity and distinguished him, in Paris at least, as
2093-542: A man of letters. From 1759 to 1770, Gibbon served on active duty and in reserve with the South Hampshire Militia , his deactivation in December 1762 coinciding with the militia's dispersal at the end of the Seven Years' War . The following year, he returned, via Paris, to Lausanne, where he made the acquaintance of a "prudent worthy young man" William Guise. On 18 April 1764, he and Guise set off for Italy, crossed
2254-399: A model for Isaac Asimov in his writing of The Foundation Trilogy , which he said involved "a little bit of cribbin' from the works of Edward Gibbon". Evelyn Waugh admired Gibbon's style, but not his secular viewpoint. In Waugh's 1950 novel Helena , the early Christian author Lactantius worries about the possibility of "'a false historian, with the mind of Cicero or Tacitus and
2415-496: A moment he described later as his "Capitoline vision": It was at Rome, on the fifteenth of October 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol , while the barefooted fryars were singing vespers in the temple of Jupiter , that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the City first started to my mind. Womersley ( Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , p. 12) notes
2576-667: A navy to rival Britain's. Ever since Britain had wrested control of the Cape Colony from the Netherlands during the Napoleonic Wars , it had co-existed with Dutch settlers who had migrated further away from the Cape and created two republics of their own. The British imperial vision called for control over these new countries, and the Dutch-speaking "Boers" (or "Afrikaners") fought back in
2737-554: A new era of poetry, characterised by vivid and colourful language, evocative of elevating ideas and themes. The paintings of Thomas Gainsborough , Sir Joshua Reynolds and the young J. M. W. Turner and John Constable illustrated the changing world of the Georgian period – as did the work of designers like Capability Brown , the landscape designer . Fine examples of distinctive Georgian architecture are Edinburgh's New Town , Georgian Dublin , Grainger Town in Newcastle upon Tyne ,
2898-619: A new stage in demands for democracy in an industrial society. In 1832 Parliament abolished slavery in the Empire with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 . The government purchased the slaves for £20,000,000 (the money went to rich plantation owners who mostly lived in England), and freed the slaves, especially those in the Caribbean sugar islands. Prime Ministers of the period included: William Pitt
3059-536: A penchant from his aunt for "theological controversy" bloomed under the influence of the deist or rationalist theologian Conyers Middleton (1683–1750), the author of Free Inquiry into the Miraculous Powers (1749). In that tract, Middleton denied the validity of such powers; Gibbon promptly objected, or so the argument used to run. The product of that disagreement, with some assistance from the work of Catholic Bishop Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (1627–1704), and that of
3220-581: A reading of Middleton is very unlikely, and was introduced only into the final draft of the "Memoirs" in 1792–93. Within weeks of his conversion, he was removed from Oxford and sent to live under the care and tutelage of Daniel Pavillard, Reformed pastor of Lausanne , Switzerland . There, he made one of his life's two great friendships, that of Jacques Georges Deyverdun (the French-language translator of Goethe 's The Sorrows of Young Werther ), and that of John Baker Holroyd (later Lord Sheffield) . Just
3381-495: A second Lausanne sojourn (September 1783 to August 1787) where Gibbon reunited with his friend Deyverdun in leisurely comfort. By early 1787, he was "straining for the goal" and with great relief the project was finished in June. Gibbon later wrote: It was on the day, or rather the night, of 27 June 1787, between the hours of eleven and twelve, that I wrote the last lines of the last page in a summer-house in my garden...I will not dissemble
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#17328523146193542-416: A sense of duty, has always urged me to study the originals; and that, if they have sometimes eluded my search, I have carefully marked the secondary evidence, on whose faith a passage or a fact were reduced to depend." In this insistence upon the importance of primary sources, Gibbon is considered by many to be one of the first modern historians: In accuracy, thoroughness, lucidity, and comprehensive grasp of
3703-488: A share to £1,000, with insiders making huge paper profits. The Bubble collapsed overnight, ruining many speculators. Investigations showed bribes had reached into high places—even to the king. The future prime minister Robert Walpole managed to wind it down with minimal political and economic damage, although some suffering extreme loss fled to exile or committed suicide. The beginning of the Georgian era witnessed rioting by Jacobite and High Church mobs in protest against
3864-472: A sharp decline. The new Labour party , whose leader Ramsay MacDonald led two minority governments, swiftly became the Conservatives ' main opposition, and Britain's largest party of the left. King Edward VIII succeeded his father George V in January 1936, but was not allowed by the government to marry Wallis Simpson , a divorcee. In December, he abdicated in order to marry Simpson. His brother George VI
4025-452: A sleepless night, I trod, with a lofty step the ruins of the Forum; each memorable spot where Romulus stood , or Tully spoke, or Caesar fell, was at once present to my eye; and several days of intoxication were lost or enjoyed before I could descend to a cool and minute investigation. Here, Gibbon first conceived the idea of composing a history of the city, later extended to the entire empire ,
4186-532: A time "when elaborate ceremonial practices emerged among some communities of subsistence agriculturalists of western Europe". As its name suggests, the British Iron Age is also characterised by the adoption of iron , a metal which was used to produce a variety of different tools, ornaments and weapons. In the course of the first millennium BC, and possibly earlier, some combination of trans-cultural diffusion and immigration from continental Europe resulted in
4347-401: A vast subject, the 'History' is unsurpassable. It is the one English history which may be regarded as definitive...Whatever its shortcomings the book is artistically imposing as well as historically unimpeachable as a vast panorama of a great period. The subject of Gibbon's writing, as well as his ideas and style, have influenced other writers. Besides his influence on Churchill, Gibbon was also
4508-884: A volunteer army, the only great power in Europe to have no conscription. Some questioned whether the country was overstretched. The rise of the German Empire since its creation in 1871 posed a new challenge, for it (along with the United States), threatened to usurp Britain's place as the world's foremost industrial power. Germany acquired a number of colonies in Africa and the Pacific, but Chancellor Otto von Bismarck succeeded in achieving general peace through his balance of power strategy. When William II became emperor in 1888, he discarded Bismarck, began using bellicose language, and planned to build
4669-578: A wide variety of monuments in the landscape, many of which were megalithic in nature. The earliest of these are the chambered tombs of the Early Neolithic, although in the Late Neolithic this form of monumentalisation was replaced by the construction of stone circles , a trend that would continue into the following Bronze Age . These constructions are taken to reflect ideological changes, with new ideas about religion, ritual and social hierarchy. In
4830-469: A year and a half later, after his father threatened to disinherit him, on Christmas Day, 1754, he reconverted to Protestantism. "The various articles of the Romish creed," he wrote, "disappeared like a dream". He also met the one romance in his life: the daughter of the pastor of Crassy, a young woman named Suzanne Curchod , who was later to become the wife of Louis XVI's finance minister Jacques Necker , and
4991-527: Is sometimes still referred to as such; see Georgian Poetry . British history The history of the British Isles began with its sporadic human habitation during the Palaeolithic from around 900,000 years ago. The British Isles has been continually occupied since the early Holocene , the current geological epoch , which started around 11,700 years ago. Mesolithic hunter-gatherers migrated from
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5152-465: Is unclear whether or not the change of religion increased the amount of resources the empire spent on religion. Gibbon further argued that new attitudes in Christianity caused many Christians of wealth to renounce their lifestyles and enter a monastic lifestyle, and so stop participating in the support of the empire. However, while many Christians of wealth did become monastics, this paled in comparison to
5313-616: The Allied forces in opposition to the Axis forces of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy . For the first time, civilians were not exempt from the war, as London suffered nightly bombings during the Blitz . Much of London was destroyed, with 1,400,245 buildings destroyed or damaged. The only part of the British Isles to be occupied by enemy forces were the Channel Islands. At the war's end in 1945, however,
5474-685: The Anglican Church . A campaign by the lawyer Daniel O'Connell , and the death of George III, led to the concession of Catholic Emancipation in 1829, allowing Roman Catholics to sit in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. But Catholic Emancipation was not O'Connell's ultimate goal, which was Repeal of the Act of Union with Great Britain. On 1 January 1843 O'Connell confidently, but wrongly, declared that Repeal would be achieved that year. When potato blight hit
5635-560: The Auld Alliance with France. In 1296, England invaded Scotland, but in the following year William Wallace defeated the English army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge . However, King Edward I of England came north to defeat Wallace himself at the Battle of Falkirk . In 1320, the Declaration of Arbroath , seen as an important document in the development of Scottish national identity, led to
5796-530: The Church of England gained strength in the late 18th and early 19th century. The movement challenged the traditional religious sensibility that emphasised a code of honour for the upper class, and suitable behaviour for everyone else, together with faithful observances of rituals. John Wesley (1703–1791) and his followers preached revivalist religion, trying to convert individuals to a personal relationship with Christ through Bible reading, regular prayer, and especially
5957-943: The Continent soon afterwards at a time when there was no sea barrier between Britain and Europe, but there was between Britain and Ireland. There were almost complete population replacements by migrations from the Continent at the start of the Neolithic around 4,100 BC and the Bronze Age around 2,500 BC. Later migrations contributed to the political and cultural fabric of the islands and the transition from tribal societies to feudal ones at different times in different regions. England and Scotland were sovereign kingdoms until 1603, and then legally separate under one monarch until 1707, when they united as one kingdom. Wales and Ireland were composed of several independent kingdoms with shifting boundaries until
6118-548: The Crimean War against Russia. Despite mediocre generalship, they managed to capture the Russian port of Sevastopol , compelling Tsar Nicholas I to ask for peace. It was a frustrating war with very high casualty rates—the iconic hero was Florence Nightingale . The next Russo-Ottoman war in 1877 led to another European intervention, although this time at the negotiating table. The Congress of Berlin blocked Russia from imposing
6279-585: The First World War by declaring war on Germany . Nearly a million Britons were killed in the war, which lasted until Germany's surrender on 11 November 1918. Home Rule in Ireland, which had been a major political issue since the late 19th century but put on hold by the war, was somewhat resolved after the Irish War of Independence brought the British Government to a stalemate in 1922. Negotiations led to
6440-620: The Irish Parliamentary Party as it had become known, was turned into a major political force under the guidance of William Shaw and a radical young Protestant landowner, Charles Stewart Parnell . Parnell's movement campaigned for "Home Rule", by which they meant that Ireland would govern itself as a region within Great Britain. Two Home Rule Bills (1886 and 1893) were introduced by Liberal Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone , but neither became law, mainly due to opposition from
6601-658: The Menai Strait and massacred the druids and burnt their sacred groves. At the moment of triumph, news came of the Boudican revolt in East Anglia . The suppression of the Boudican revolt was followed by a period of expansion of the Roman province, including the subjugation of south Wales. Between 77 and 83 AD the new governor Gnaeus Julius Agricola led a series of campaigns which enlarged
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6762-734: The Parliament of Ireland . Before the Constitution of 1782 , the Irish parliament was also severely fettered , and decisions in Irish courts could be overturned on appeal to the British House of Lords in London. The Anglo-Irish ruling class gained a degree of independence in the 1780s thanks to Henry Grattan . During this time the effects of the penal laws on the primarily Roman Catholic population were reduced, and some property-owning Catholics were granted
6923-546: The Roman Empire . On Nero 's accession Roman Britain extended as far north as Lindum ( Lincoln ). Gaius Suetonius Paulinus , the conqueror of Mauretania (modern-day Algeria and Morocco ), then became governor of Britain , where he spent most of his governorship campaigning in Wales. Eventually in 60 AD he penned up the last resistance and the last of the druids in the island of Mona ( Anglesey ). Paulinus led his army across
7084-809: The Tower of London and overthrow the government. This too was thwarted, with the conspirators executed or transported to Australia. Historians have long explored the importance of the Scottish Enlightenment, as well as the American Enlightenment, while debating the very existence of the English Enlightenment. English historian Peter Gay argues that the Scottish Enlightenment "was a small and cohesive group of friends – David Hume, Adam Smith, Adam Ferguson, and others – who knew one another intimately and talked to one another incessantly". Education
7245-656: The Treaty of Union , the Scottish Enlightenment and the formation of the First British Empire . The Kingdom of Ireland was a settler state; the monarch was the incumbent monarch of England and later of Great Britain. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland headed the government on behalf of the monarch. He was assisted by the Chief Secretary of Ireland . Both were responsible to the government in London rather than to
7406-595: The War in 1899–1902 . Outgunned by a mighty empire, the Boers waged a guerrilla war (which certain other British territories would later employ to attain independence). This gave the British regulars a difficult fight, but their weight of numbers, superior equipment, and often brutal tactics, eventually brought about a British victory. The war had been costly in human rights and was widely criticised by Liberals in Britain and worldwide. However,
7567-435: The humanist and rationalist outlook of the European Enlightenment of the same time period, the thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment asserted the importance of human reason combined with a rejection of any authority that could not be justified by reason. In Scotland, the Enlightenment was characterised by a thoroughgoing empiricism and practicality where the chief values were improvement, virtue, and practical benefit for
7728-407: The macaroni style that was soon to become fashionable at the time. It was a time of immense social change in Britain, with the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution which began the process of intensifying class divisions , and the emergence of rival political parties like the Whigs and Tories . In rural areas, the Agricultural Revolution saw huge changes to the movement of people and
7889-505: The rights of man . Gibbon's work has been praised for its style, his piquant epigrams and its effective irony. Winston Churchill memorably noted in My Early Life , "I set out upon...Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire [and] was immediately dominated both by the story and the style. ...I devoured Gibbon. I rode triumphantly through it from end to end and enjoyed it all." Churchill modelled much of his own literary style on Gibbon's. Like Gibbon, he dedicated himself to producing
8050-422: The 1640s and 1650s saw a revived economy characterised by growth in manufacturing, the elaboration of financial and credit instruments, and the commercialisation of communication. The gentry found time for leisure activities, such as horse racing and bowling. In the high culture important innovations included the development of a mass market for music, increased scientific research, and an expansion of publishing. All
8211-475: The 1970s. Edward Gibbon Edward Gibbon FRS ( / ˈ ɡ ɪ b ən / ; 8 May 1737 – 16 January 1794) was an English essayist, historian, and politician. His most important work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire , published in six volumes between 1776 and 1789, is known for the quality and irony of its prose, its use of primary sources , and its polemical criticism of organized religion . Edward Gibbon
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#17328523146198372-435: The 5th century. Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were formed and, through wars with British states, gradually came to cover the territory of present-day England. Scotland was divided between the Picts , Dál Riata , the Kingdom of Strathclyde and the Angles. Around 600, seven principal kingdoms had emerged, beginning the so-called period of the Heptarchy . During that period, the Anglo-Saxon states were Christianised (the conversion of
8533-421: The Alps, and after spending the summer in Florence arrived in Rome, via Lucca, Pisa, Livorno and Siena, in early October. In his autobiography, Gibbon vividly records his rapture when he finally neared "the great object of [my] pilgrimage": ...at the distance of twenty-five years I can neither forget nor express the strong emotions which agitated my mind as I first approached and entered the eternal City . After
8694-533: The British Isles saw the region's first known habitation by early hominids, specifically the extinct Homo heidelbergensis . This period saw many changes in the environment, encompassing several glacial and interglacial episodes greatly affecting human settlement in the region. Providing dating for this distant period is difficult and contentious. The inhabitants of the region at this time were bands of hunter-gatherers who roamed Northern Europe following herds of animals, or who supported themselves by fishing. One of
8855-470: The British Isles, the Bronze Age saw the transformation of British and Irish society and landscape. It saw the adoption of agriculture, as communities gave up their hunter-gatherer modes of existence to begin farming. During the British Bronze Age, large megalithic monuments similar to those from the Late Neolithic continued to be constructed or modified, including such sites as Avebury , Stonehenge , Silbury Hill and Must Farm . This has been described as
9016-419: The British navy, which was short on manpower due to the conflict in Europe. The Duke of Wellington argued that an outright victory over the U.S. was impossible because the Americans controlled the western Great Lakes and had destroyed the power of Britain's Indian allies. A full-scale British invasion was defeated in upstate New York. Peace was agreed to at the end of 1814, but unaware of this, Andrew Jackson won
9177-428: The British ones had begun much earlier). In the 9th century, Vikings from Scandinavia conquered most of England and the Scots and Picts were combined to form the Kingdom of Alba . Only the Kingdom of Wessex under Alfred the Great survived and even managed to re-conquer and unify England for much of the 10th century, before a new series of Danish raids in the late 10th century and early 11th century culminated in
9338-528: The Catholics. Catholic emancipation was secured in the Catholic Relief Act of 1829, which removed the most substantial restrictions on Roman Catholics in Great Britain and Ireland. The Whigs became champions of Parliamentary reform. They made Lord Grey prime minister 1830–1834, and the Reform Act of 1832 became their signature measure. It broadened the franchise and ended the system of "rotten borough" and "pocket boroughs" (where elections were controlled by powerful families), and instead redistributed power on
9499-421: The Conservative Party and the House of Lords . The issue was a source of contention throughout Ireland, as a significant majority of Unionists (largely based in Ulster ), opposed Home Rule, fearing that a Catholic Nationalist ("Rome Rule") Parliament in Dublin would discriminate against them, impose Roman Catholic doctrine, and impose tariffs on industry. While most of Ireland was primarily agricultural, six of
9660-438: The Earliest Account of Time (1747–1768). Following a stay at Bath in 1752 to improve his health at the age of 15, Gibbon was sent by his father to Magdalen College, Oxford , where he was enrolled as a gentleman-commoner . He was ill-suited, however, to the college atmosphere, and later rued his 14 months there as the "most idle and unprofitable" of his life. Because he says so in his autobiography, it used to be thought that
9821-412: The Elizabethan Jesuit Robert Parsons (1546–1610), yielded the most memorable event of his time at Oxford: his conversion to Roman Catholicism on 8 June 1753. He was further "corrupted" by the 'free thinking' deism of the playwright and poet David Mallet ; and finally Gibbon's father, already "in despair," had had enough. David Womersley has shown, however, that Gibbon's claim to having been converted by
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#17328523146199982-460: The Georgian Quarter of Liverpool and much of Bristol and Bath . The music of John Field , Handel , Haydn , Clementi , Johann Christian Bach , William Boyce , Mozart , Beethoven and Mendelssohn was some of the most popular in England at that time. The height of the Grand Tour coincided with the 18th century and is associated with Georgian high society. This custom saw young upper-class Englishmen travelling to Italy by way of France and
10143-404: The Gospel History . Gibbon's Memoires Litteraires failed to gain any notoriety and was considered a flop by fellow historians and literary scholars. After he tended to his father's estate—which was in poor condition—enough remained for Gibbon to settle fashionably in London at 7 Bentinck Street free of financial concern. By February 1773, he was writing in earnest, but not without
10304-422: The Government a petition. The Luddites destroyed and damaged machinery in the industrial north-west of England. The Peterloo Massacre in 1819 began as a protest rally which saw 60,000 people gathering to protest about their living standards, but was quelled by military action and saw eleven people killed and 400 wounded. The Cato Street Conspiracy of 1820 sought to blow up the Cabinet and then move on to storm
10465-446: The Hanoverian succession and which included attacks on the Dissenters ' places of worship. These included the 1714 coronation riots , which occurred on the day of George I's coronation, and the riots of 1715 . In response, Parliament passed the Riot Act , which granted the authorities greater powers to put down rioting. Although religious toleration was extensive by the standards of continental Europe, hostility to religious minorities
10626-420: The Napoleonic Wars, trade disputes and British impressment of American sailors led to the War of 1812 with the United States. A central event in American history, it was little noticed in Britain, where all attention was focused on the struggle with France. The British could devote few resources to the conflict until the fall of Napoleon in 1814. American frigates also inflicted a series of embarrassing defeats on
10787-450: The Napoleonic Wars, whereas France's armies exceeded a million men—in addition to the armies of numerous allies and several hundred thousand national guardsmen that Napoleon could draft into the French armies when they were needed. Although the Royal Navy effectively disrupted France's extra-continental trade—both by seizing and threatening French shipping and by seizing French colonial possessions—it could do nothing about France's trade with
10948-410: The Netherlands for intellectual and cultural purposes. Notable historian Edward Gibbon remarked of the Grand Tour as useful for intellectual self-improvement. The journey and stay abroad would usually take a year or more. This would eventually lead to the basis for the acquisition and spread of art collections back to England as well as fashions and paintings from Italy. The custom also helped popularise
11109-466: The Netherlands overwhelmed Britain, which stood alone without allies. The loss of the 13 American Colonies was a national disaster. Commentators at home and abroad speculated on the end of Britain as a great power . In Europe, the wars with France dragged on for nearly a quarter of a century, 1793–1815. Britain organised coalition after coalition, using its superb financial system to subsidise infantry forces, and built up its Navy to maintain control of
11270-501: The Norman elite to many positions of authority, building a system of castles across the country and ordering a census of his new kingdom, the Domesday Book . The Late Medieval period was characterized by many battles between England and France, coming to a head in the Hundred Years' War from which France emerged victorious. The English monarchs throughout the Late Medieval period belonged to the houses of Plantagenet, Lancaster, and York. Under John Balliol, in 1295, Scotland entered into
11431-442: The People's Charter demanding manhood suffrage, equal sized election districts, voting by ballots, payment of Members of Parliament (so that poor men could serve), annual Parliaments, and abolition of property requirements. The ruling class saw the movement as dangerous, so the Chartists were unable to force serious constitutional debate. Historians see Chartism as both a continuation of the 18th century fight against corruption and as
11592-476: The Roman Empire , was published on 17 February 1776. Through 1777, the reading public eagerly consumed three editions, for which Gibbon was rewarded handsomely: two-thirds of the profits, amounting to approximately £1,000. Volumes II and III appeared on 1 March 1781, eventually rising "to a level with the previous volume in general esteem." Volume IV was finished in June 1784; the final two were completed during
11753-467: The Roman Empire fell due to its embrace of Christianity, is not widely accepted by scholars today. Gibbon argued that with the empire's new Christian character, large sums of wealth that would have otherwise been used in the secular affairs in promoting the state were transferred to promoting the activities of the Church. However, the pre-Christian empire also spent large financial sums on religious affairs and it
11914-617: The Sabbath; they read the Bible every day. All souls were equal in God's view, but not all bodies, so evangelicals did not challenge the hierarchical structure of English society. As R. J. Morris noted in his 1983 article "Voluntary Societies and British Urban Elites, 1780-1850," "[m]id-eighteenth-century Britain was a stable society in the sense that those with material and ideological power were able to defend this power in an effective and dynamic manner," but "in
12075-480: The U.K. emerged as one of the victorious nations. Winston Churchill , who had been leader of the wartime coalition government, suffered a surprising landslide defeat to Clement Attlee 's Labour party in 1945 elections. Attlee created a Welfare State in Britain, which most notably provided free healthcare under the National Health Service . On the international stage, the second half of the 20th century
12236-678: The United States gave its support. The Boer republics were merged into the Union of South Africa in 1910; this had internal self-government, but its foreign policy was controlled by London and it was an integral part of the British Empire. Part of the agreement which led to the 1800 Act of Union stipulated that the Penal Laws in Ireland were to be repealed and Catholic emancipation granted. However King George III blocked emancipation, arguing that to grant it would break his coronation oath to defend
12397-622: The Victorian period—as defined by a variety of sensibilities and political concerns that have come to be associated with the Victorians—actually begins with the passage of the Reform Act 1832 . The era was preceded by the Regency era and succeeded by the Edwardian period . Victoria became queen in 1837 at age 18. Her long reign saw Britain reach the zenith of its economic and political power, with
12558-659: The West Indies. China would be next on the agenda. Other powers set up similar monopolies on a much smaller scale; only the Netherlands emphasized trade as much as England. Mercantilism was the basic policy imposed by Britain on its colonies. Mercantilism meant that the government and the merchants became partners with the goal of increasing political power and private wealth, to the exclusion of other empires. The government protected its merchants—and kept others out—by trade barriers, regulations, and subsidies to domestic industries in order to maximise exports from and minimise imports to
12719-590: The Younger , Lord Grenville , Duke of Portland , Spencer Perceval , Lord Liverpool , George Canning , Lord Goderich , Duke of Wellington , Lord Grey , Lord Melbourne , and Sir Robert Peel . The Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's rule between 1837 and 1901 which signified the height of the British Industrial Revolution and the apex of the British Empire . Scholars debate whether
12880-401: The adoption of agriculture and sedentary living . To make room for the new farmland, these early agricultural communities undertook mass deforestation across the islands, dramatically and permanently transforming the landscape. At the same time, new types of stone tools requiring more skill began to be produced; new technologies included polishing. The Neolithic also saw the construction of
13041-559: The architecture of Robert Adam , John Nash and James Wyatt and the emergence of the Gothic Revival style, which hearkened back to a supposed golden age of building design. The flowering of the arts was most vividly shown in the emergence of the Romantic poets, principally through Samuel Taylor Coleridge , William Wordsworth , Percy Bysshe Shelley , William Blake , John Keats , Lord Byron and Robert Burns . Their work ushered in
13202-512: The basis of population. It added 217,000 voters to an electorate of 435,000 in England and Wales. The main effect of the act was to weaken the power of the landed gentry, and enlarge the power of the professional and business middle-class, which now for the first time had a significant voice in Parliament. However, the great majority of manual workers, clerks, and farmers did not have enough property to qualify to vote. The aristocracy continued to dominate
13363-463: The chapters excoriated the church for "supplanting in an unnecessarily destructive way the great culture that preceded it" and for "the outrage of [practising] religious intolerance and warfare". Gibbon, in letters to Holroyd and others, expected some type of church-inspired backlash, but the harshness of the ensuing torrents exceeded anything he or his friends had anticipated. Contemporary detractors such as Joseph Priestley and Richard Watson stoked
13524-668: The colonies temporarily refused to join the Dominion despite pressure from both Canada and Britain; the last one, Newfoundland , held out until 1949. The second half of the 19th century saw a huge expansion of Britain's colonial empire, mostly in Africa . A talk of the Union Jack flying "from Cairo to Cape Town" only became a reality at the end of the Great War . Having possessions on six continents, Britain had to defend all of its empire and did so with
13685-586: The consequent erosion of its martial character. Such a view echoes the outlook of the Greek historian Polybius, who similarly explained the decadent Greek world's eclipse by the ascendant Roman Republic in Mediterranean affairs. In this understanding of Gibbon, the process of Rome's decay was well underway before Christian adherents numbered a large proportion of the empire. Hence, although Gibbon might have seen Christianity as hastening Rome's fall, he did not consider it as
13846-519: The counties in Ulster were the location of heavy industry and would be affected by any tariff barriers imposed. Queen Victoria , who had reigned since 1837, died in 1901 and was succeeded by her son, Edward VII , who, in turn, was succeeded by his son, George V , when he died in 1910. The British Empire flourished but there was a bitterly fought Second Boer War in South Africa . In 1914, Britain entered
14007-483: The culture had accepted political liberalism, philosophical empiricism and religious toleration of the sort that intellectuals on the continent had to fight for against powerful odds. The coffee-house culture provided an ideal venue for enlightened conversation. Furthermore, England rejected the collectivism of the continent, and emphasized the improvement of individuals as the main goal of enlightenment. The British sponsored numerous scientists who made major discoveries in
14168-486: The decline of small communities, the growth of the cities and the beginnings of an integrated transportation system but, nevertheless, as rural towns and villages declined and work became scarce there was a huge increase in emigration to Canada, the North American colonies (which became the United States during the period) and other parts of the British Empire . In England, the evangelical movement inside and outside
14329-526: The demise of classical architecture. Victorians typically were disapproving of the times of the previous era. By the late 19th century, the "Georgian era" was a byword for a degenerate culture. Charles Abbey in 1878 argued that the Church of England: Note: In the twentieth century, the period 1910–1936 was informally called the Georgian Era during the reign of George V (following the Edwardian Era ), and
14490-572: The earliest indisputably acknowledged languages spoken in the British Isles belonged to the Celtic branch of the Indo-European family it is not known what language these early farming people spoke. These migrants brought new ideas, leading to a radical transformation of society and landscape that has been called the Neolithic Revolution . The Neolithic period in the British Isles was characterised by
14651-508: The establishment of Celtic languages in the islands, eventually giving rise to the Insular Celtic group. What languages were spoken in the islands before is unknown, though they are assumed to have been Pre-Indo-European . In 55 and 54 BC, the Roman general Gaius Julius Caesar launched two separate invasions of the British Isles, though neither resulted in a full Roman occupation of the island. In 43 AD, southern Britain became part of
14812-471: The exact ending, with the deaths of George IV in 1830 or William IV in 1837 as the usual marker. In most social and cultural trends, the timing varied. The emergence of Romanticism and literature began as early as the 1780s, but religious changes took much longer and were incomplete until around a century later. The 1830s saw important developments such as the emergence of the Oxford Movement in religion and
14973-408: The existence of "good reasons" to doubt the statement's accuracy. Elaborating, Pocock ("Classical History," ¶ #2) refers to it as a likely "creation of memory" or a "literary invention", given that Gibbon, in his autobiography, claimed that his journal dated the reminiscence to 15 October, when in fact the journal gives no date. In June 1765, Gibbon returned to his father's house, remaining there until
15134-418: The first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and perhaps the establishment of my fame. But my pride was soon humbled, and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind by the idea that I had taken my everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion, and that, whatsoever might be the future fate of my history, the life of the historian must be short and precarious. Volumes IV, V, and VI finally reached
15295-484: The first exercise of reason, and a taste for books which is still the pleasure and glory of my life". From 1747 Gibbon spent time at the family home in Buriton . By 1751, Gibbon's reading was already extensive and pointed toward his future pursuits: Laurence Echard 's Roman History (1713), William Howel(l)'s An Institution of General History (1680–85), and several of the 65 volumes of the acclaimed Universal History from
15456-559: The formation of the Irish Free State . However, in order to appease Unionists in the north, the north-eastern six counties remained as part of the U.K., forming Northern Ireland with its own Parliament at Stormont in Belfast. Liberals were in power for much of the early 20th century under Prime Ministers Campbell-Bannerman , Asquith and Lloyd George . After 1914, the Liberal party suffered
15617-561: The franchise in 1794; however, they were still excluded from becoming members of the Irish House of Commons . This brief period of limited independence came to an end following the Irish Rebellion of 1798 , which occurred during the British war with revolutionary France . The British government's fear of an independent Ireland siding against them with the French resulted in the decision to unite
15778-480: The government, the Army and Royal Navy, and high society. After parliamentary investigations demonstrated the horrors of child labour, limited reforms were passed in 1833. Chartism emerged after the 1832 Reform Bill failed to give the vote to the working class. Activists denounced the "betrayal" of the working classes and the "sacrificing" of their "interests" by the "misconduct" of the government. In 1838, Chartists issued
15939-671: The harsh Treaty of San Stefano on the Ottoman Empire. Despite its alliance with the French in the Crimean War, Britain viewed the Second Empire of Napoleon III with some distrust, especially as the emperor constructed ironclad warships and began returning France to a more active foreign policy. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), British leaders favoured the Confederacy, a major source of cotton for textile mills. Prince Albert
16100-472: The homeland from invasion) was building a worldwide trading network for its merchants, manufacturers, shippers and financiers. This required a hegemonic Royal Navy so powerful that no rival could sweep its ships from the world's trading routes, or invade the British Isles. The London government enhanced the private sector by incorporating numerous privately financed London-based companies for establishing trading posts and opening import-export businesses across
16261-486: The illness of his father George III. The transition to the Victorian era was characterized in religion, social values, and the arts by a shift in tone away from rationalism and toward romanticism and mysticism. The term Georgian is typically used in the contexts of social and political history and architecture . The term Augustan literature is often used for Augustan drama , Augustan poetry and Augustan prose in
16422-605: The implacable enemies not only of the Roman government, but also of mankind. Gibbon is considered to be a son of the Enlightenment and this is reflected in his famous verdict on the history of the Middle Ages : "I have described the triumph of barbarism and religion." Politically, he rejected the radical egalitarian movements of the time, notably the American and French Revolutions , and dismissed overly rationalistic applications of
16583-588: The increase in crime at the time. With the ending of the War with France in 1815, Great Britain entered a period of greater economic depression and political uncertainty, characterised by social discontent and unrest. The Radical political party published a leaflet called The Political Register , also known as "The Two Penny Trash" to its rivals. The so-called March of the Blanketeers saw 400 spinners and weavers march from Manchester to London in March 1817 to hand
16744-773: The individual and society as a whole. Among the fields that rapidly advanced were philosophy, economics, history, architecture, and medicine. Leaders included Francis Hutcheson , David Hume , Adam Smith , Dugald Stewart , Thomas Reid , William Robertson , Henry Home, Lord Kames , Adam Ferguson , John Playfair , Joseph Black and James Hutton . The very existence of an English Enlightenment has been debated by scholars. The majority of textbooks and standard surveys make no room for an English Enlightenment. Some European surveys include England, others ignore it but do include coverage of such major intellectuals as Joseph Addison , Edward Gibbon , John Locke , Isaac Newton , Alexander Pope and Joshua Reynolds . According to Derek Hirst ,
16905-702: The institution of slavery, there was no possibility of European intervention. The British sold arms to both sides, built blockade runners for a lucrative trade with the Confederacy, and surreptitiously allowed warships to be built for the Confederacy. The warships caused a major diplomatic row that was resolved in the Alabama Claims in 1872, in the Americans' favour. In 1867, Britain united most of its North American colonies as Canada , giving it self-government and responsibility for its own defence, but Canada did not have an independent foreign policy until 1931. Several of
17066-619: The introduction of steam ships, railroads, photography, and the telegraph. Britain again remained mostly inactive in Continental politics. The Great London Exhibition of 1851 clearly demonstrated Britain's dominance in engineering and industry; that lasted until the rise of the United States and Germany in the 1890s. Using the imperial tools of free trade and financial investment, it exerted major influence on many countries outside Europe, especially in Latin America and Asia. Thus Britain had both
17227-480: The island in 1846, much of the rural population was left without food, because cash crops were being exported to pay rents. British politicians such as the Prime Minister Robert Peel were at this time wedded to the economic policy of laissez-faire , which argued against state intervention. While funds were raised by private individuals and charities, lack of adequate action let the problem become
17388-485: The latter's death in 1770. These five years were considered by Gibbon as the worst of his life, but he tried to remain busy by making early attempts at full histories. His first historical narrative, known as the History of Switzerland , representing Gibbon's love for Switzerland, was never finished nor published. Even under the guidance of Deyverdun, his German translator, Gibbon became too self-critical and completely abandoned
17549-538: The major continental economies and posed little threat to French territory in Europe. France's population and agricultural capacity far outstripped that of Britain. In 1806, Napoleon set up the Continental System to end British trade with French-controlled territories. However Britain had great industrial capacity and mastery of the seas. It built up economic strength through trade and the Continental System
17710-616: The many explorers and geographers using the resources of the Royal Navy to develop the Empire and make many scientific discoveries, especially in Australia and the Pacific. Instead of trying to recover the lost colonies in North America, the British built up in Asia a largely new Second British Empire. That new empire flourished during the Victorian and Edwardian eras which were to follow. The era
17871-568: The medieval period. The British monarch was head of state of all of the countries of the British Isles from the Union of the Crowns in 1603 until the enactment of the Republic of Ireland Act in 1949. The Palaeolithic and Mesolithic , also known as the Old and Middle Stone Ages, were characterised by a hunter-gatherer society and a reliance on stone tool technologies. The Lower Palaeolithic period in
18032-686: The mob targeted Dissenters, including the prominent Radical Joseph Priestley . The Black Act of 1723 , sponsored by Robert Walpole, strengthened the criminal code for the benefit of the upper class. It specified over 200 capital crimes, many with intensified punishment. The crime of arson, for example, was expanded to include of burning or the threat of burning haystacks. The legal rights of defendants were something different from today. For example, suspects who refused to surrender within 40 days could be summarily judged guilty and sentenced to execution if apprehended. Local villages were punished if they failed to find, prosecute and convict alleged criminals, due to
18193-435: The most furious massacres and insurrections. Humanity is shocked at the recital of the horrid cruelties which they committed in the cities of Egypt, of Cyprus, and of Cyrene , where they dwelt in treacherous friendship with the unsuspecting natives; and we are tempted to applaud the severe retaliation which was exercised by the arms of legions against a race of fanatics, whose dire and credulous superstition seemed to render them
18354-735: The most prominent archaeological sites dating to this period is that of Boxgrove Quarry in West Sussex, southern England . By the Mesolithic, Homo sapiens , or modern humans, were the only hominid species to still survive in the British Isles. There was then limited occupation by Ahrensburgian hunter gatherers, but this came to an end when there was a final downturn in temperature which lasted from around 9,400 to 9,200 BC. Mesolithic people occupied Britain by around 9,000 BC, and it has been occupied ever since. By 8000 BC temperatures were higher than today, and birch woodlands spread rapidly, but there
18515-462: The mother of Madame de Staël . The two developed a warm affinity; Gibbon proceeded to propose marriage, but ultimately this was out of the question, blocked both by his father's staunch disapproval and Curchod's equally staunch reluctance to leave Switzerland. Gibbon returned to England in August 1758 to face his father. No refusal of the elder's wishes could be allowed. Gibbon put it this way: "I sighed as
18676-518: The nascent fire, but the most severe of these attacks was an "acrimonious" piece by the young cleric, Henry Edwards Davis. Gibbon's apparent antagonism to Christian doctrine spilled over into the Jewish faith, leading to charges of anti-Semitism . For example, he wrote: From the reign of Nero to that of Antoninus Pius, the Jews discovered a fierce impatience of the dominion of Rome, which repeatedly broke out in
18837-608: The occasional self-imposed distraction. He took to London society quite easily, joined the better social clubs (including Dr. Johnson 's Literary Club ), and looked in from time to time on his friend Holroyd in Sussex. He succeeded Oliver Goldsmith at the Royal Academy as 'professor in ancient history', an honorary but prestigious position. In late 1774, he was initiated as a Freemason of the Premier Grand Lodge of England . He
18998-423: The participants in the imperial bureaucracy. Although Gibbon further pointed out that the importance Christianity placed on peace caused a decline in the number of people serving the military, the decline was so small as to be negligible for the army's effectiveness. Many scholars argue that Gibbon did not in fact blame Christianity for the empire's fall, rather attributing its decline to the effects of luxury and
19159-567: The period 1700–1740s. The term Augustan refers to the acknowledgement of the influence of Latin literature from the ancient Roman Republic . The term Georgian era is not applied to the time of the two 20th-century British kings of this name, George V and George VI . Those periods are simply referred to as Georgian . Georgian society and its preoccupations were well portrayed in the novels of writers such as Daniel Defoe , Jonathan Swift , Samuel Richardson , Henry Fielding , Laurence Sterne , Mary Shelley and Jane Austen , characterised by
19320-502: The presence of the Duchess of Devonshire at Lausanne. Gibbon's wish that his 6,000-book library would not be locked up 'under the key of a jealous master' was effectively denied by Beckford who retained it in Lausanne until 1801 before inspecting it, then locking it up again until at least as late as 1818 before giving most of the books back to Gibbon's physician Dr Scholl who had helped negotiate
19481-528: The press in May 1788, their publication having been delayed since March so it could coincide with a dinner party celebrating Gibbon's 51st birthday (the 8th). Mounting a bandwagon of praise for the later volumes were such contemporary luminaries as Adam Smith , William Robertson , Adam Ferguson , Lord Camden , and Horace Walpole . Adam Smith told Gibbon that "by the universal assent of every man of taste and learning, whom I either know or correspond with, it sets you at
19642-720: The primary enemy. Major episodes included the Seven Years' War , known in America as the French and Indian War (1754–1763), the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), the French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802), the Irish Rebellion of 1798 , and the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815). The British won most of the wars except for the American Revolution, where the combined weight of the United States, France, Spain and
19803-413: The project after writing only 60 pages of text. Soon after abandoning his History of Switzerland , Gibbon made another attempt towards completing a full history. His second work, Memoires Litteraires de la Grande Bretagne , was a two-volume set describing the literary and social conditions of England at the time, such as Lord Lyttelton 's history of Henry II and Nathaniel Lardner 's The Credibility of
19964-461: The province significantly, taking in north Wales, northern Britain, and most of Caledonia (Scotland). The Celts fought with determination and resilience, but faced a superior, professional army, and it is likely that between 100,000 and 250,000 may have perished in the conquest period. The Early medieval period saw a series of invasions of Britain by the Germanic -speaking Saxons , beginning in
20125-552: The publication process alongside Lord Sheffield . With that accomplished, in 1789 it was back to Lausanne only to learn of and be "deeply affected" by the death of Deyverdun, who had willed Gibbon his home, La Grotte. He resided there with little commotion, took in the local society, received a visit from Sheffield in 1791, and "shared the common abhorrence" of the French Revolution . In 1793, word came of Lady Sheffield's death; Gibbon immediately left Lausanne and set sail to comfort
20286-441: The realm. The government had to fight smuggling, which became a favourite American technique in the 18th century to circumvent the restrictions on trading with the French, Spanish or Dutch. The goal of mercantilism was to run trade surpluses, so that gold and silver would pour into London. The government took its share through duties and taxes, with the remainder going to merchants in Britain. The government spent much of its revenue on
20447-761: The recognition of Scottish independence by major European dynasties. In 1328, the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton with England recognised Scottish independence under Robert the Bruce . Major historical events in the early modern period include the English Renaissance , the English Reformation and Scottish Reformation , the English Civil War , the Restoration of Charles II , the Glorious Revolution ,
20608-604: The revival experience. Wesley himself preached 52,000 times, calling on men and women to "redeem the time" and save their souls. Wesley always operated inside the Church of England, but at his death, his followers set up outside institutions that became the Methodist Church . It stood alongside the traditional Nonconformist churches, Presbyterians, Congregationalist, Baptists, Unitarians, and Quakers. The Nonconformist churches, however, were less influenced by revivalism. The Church of England remained dominant in England but it had
20769-550: The root cause. Gibbon's work has been criticised for its scathing view of the Christian church as laid down in chapters XV and XVI, a situation that resulted in the banning of the book in several countries. Gibbon was accused of disrespecting, and none too lightly, the character of Christian doctrine, by "treat[ing] the Christian church as a phenomenon of general history, not a special case admitting supernatural explanations and disallowing criticism of its adherents". More specifically,
20930-499: The sale in the first place. Beckford's annotated copy of the Decline and Fall turned up in Christie's in 1953, complete with his critique of what he considered the author's 'ludicrous self-complacency ... your frequent distortion of historical Truth to provoke a gibe, or excite a sneer ... your ignorance of oriental languages [etc.]'. Defunct A view frequently attributed to Gibbon, that
21091-471: The same opinion as Mr. El[l]iot." (Murray, p. 322.) The following year, owing to the good grace of Prime Minister Lord North , he was again returned to Parliament, this time for Lymington on a by-election. After several rewrites, with Gibbon "often tempted to throw away the labours of seven years," the first volume of what was to become his life's major achievement, The History of the Decline and Fall of
21252-587: The seas. Victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Trafalgar (1805) and the Battle of Waterloo (1815) under Admiral Lord Nelson and the Duke of Wellington brought a sense of triumphalism and political reaction. The expansion of empire in Asia was primarily the work of the British East India Company , especially under the leadership of Robert Clive . Captain James Cook was perhaps the most prominent of
21413-417: The small laboratories. Joseph Priestley investigated electricity. Chemist Henry Cavendish identified hydrogen in 1772. Daniel Rutherford isolated nitrogen in 1774, while Priestley discovered oxygen and ammonia. Antiquarians and archaeologists mapped the past. In medicine, in 1717 Lady Mary Wortley Montagu introduced inoculation against smallpox to Britain, and by 1740 it was in wide usage. Guy's Hospital
21574-400: The trends were discussed in depth at the newly established coffee houses . Education was also a priority in England. English institutions expanded rapdly, including the formation of the Royal Society , which is the oldest national scientific institution in the world. Roy Porter argues that the reason for the neglect was the assumption that the movement was primarily French-inspired, that it
21735-499: The twenty years after 1780, this consensus structure was broken." Anglican Evangelicalism thus, as historian Lisa Wood has argued in her book Modes of Discipline: Women, Conservatism, and the Novel After the French Revolution , functioned as a tool of ruling-class social control, buffering the discontent that in France had inaugurated a revolution; yet it contained within itself the seeds for challenge to gender and class hierarchies. The Georgian period saw continual warfare, with France
21896-414: The two countries. This was brought about by legislation in the parliaments of both kingdoms and came into effect on 1 January 1801. The Irish had been led to believe by the British that their loss of legislative independence would be compensated for with Catholic Emancipation , i.e. by the removal of civil disabilities placed upon Roman Catholics in both Great Britain and Ireland. However, King George III
22057-412: The very head of the whole literary tribe at present existing in Europe." In November 1788, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society , the main proposer being his good friend Lord Sheffield. In 1783 Gibbon had been intrigued by the cleverness of Sheffield's 12-year-old eldest daughter, Maria , and he proposed to teach her himself. Over the following years he continued, creating a girl of sixteen who
22218-500: The wholesale subjugation of England to Denmark under Sweyn Forkbeard and Canute the Great . Danish rule was overthrown and the local House of Wessex was restored to power under Edward the Confessor for about two decades until his death in 1066. In 1066, William, Duke of Normandy claimed the English throne and invaded England. He defeated King Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings . Proclaiming himself to be King William I, he strengthened his regime by appointing loyal members of
22379-400: The world. Each was given a monopoly of trade to the specified geographical region. The first enterprise was the Muscovy Company set up in 1555 to trade with Russia. Other prominent enterprises included the East India Company , and the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada. The Company of Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa had been set up in 1662 to trade in gold, ivory and slaves in Africa; it
22540-444: Was a cold spell around 6,200 BC which lasted about 150 years. The British Isles were linked to continental Europe by a territory named Doggerland . The plains of Doggerland were thought to have finally been submerged around 6500 to 6000 BC, but recent evidence suggests that the bridge may have lasted until between 5800 and 5400 BC, and possibly as late as 3800 BC. Around 4000 BC migrants began arriving from central Europe. Although
22701-465: Was a business enterprise that exploded in scandal. The South Sea Company was a private business corporation supposedly set up much like the other trading companies, with a focus on South America. Its actual purpose was to renegotiate previous high-interest government loans amounting to £31 million through market manipulation and speculation. It issued stock four times in 1720 that reached about 8,000 investors. Prices kept soaring every day, from £130
22862-421: Was a priority in Scotland, both at the local level and especially in four universities. The Enlightenment culture was based on close readings of new books, and intense discussions that took place daily at such intellectual gathering places in Edinburgh as The Select Society and, later, The Poker Club as well as within Scotland's ancient universities ( St Andrews , Glasgow , Edinburgh and Aberdeen ). Sharing
23023-451: Was also, perhaps least productively in that same year, returned to the House of Commons for Liskeard , Cornwall through the intervention of his relative and patron, Edward Eliot . He became the archetypal back-bencher, benignly "mute" and "indifferent," his support of the Whig ministry invariably automatic. Gibbon lost the Liskeard seat in 1780 when Eliot joined the opposition, taking with him "the Electors of Leskeard [who] are commonly of
23184-410: Was being driven back in the east by the Prussians, Austrians, and Russians, Wellington invaded southern France. After Napoleon's surrender and exile to the island of Elba, peace appeared to have returned, but when he escaped back into France in 1815, the British and their allies had to fight him again. The armies of Wellington and Blucher defeated Napoleon once and for all at Waterloo. Simultaneous with
23345-423: Was bitterly opposed to any such Emancipation and succeeded in defeating his government's attempts to introduce it. During the War of the Second Coalition (1799–1801), William Pitt the Younger (1759–1806) provided strong leadership in London. Britain occupied most of the French and Dutch overseas possessions, the Netherlands having become a satellite state of France in 1796. After a short peace, in May 1803, war
23506-436: Was born in 1737, the son of Edward and Judith Gibbon, at Lime Grove in the town of Putney , Surrey . He had five brothers and one sister, all of whom died in infancy. His grandfather, also named Edward, had lost his assets as a result of the South Sea bubble stock-market collapse in 1720 but eventually regained much of his wealth. Gibbon's father thus inherited a substantial estate. His paternal grandmother, Catherine Acton,
23667-401: Was both well educated, confident and determined to choose her own husband. Gibbon described her as a "mixture of just observation and lively imagery, the strong sense of a man expressed with the easy elegance of a female". The years following Gibbon's completion of The History were filled largely with sorrow and increasing physical discomfort. He had returned to London in late 1787 to oversee
23828-549: Was buried in the Sheffield Mausoleum attached to the north transept of the Church of St Mary and St Andrew, Fletching, East Sussex , having died in Fletching while staying with his great friend, Lord Sheffield . Gibbon's estate was valued at approximately £26,000. He left most of his property to cousins. As stipulated in his will, Sheffield oversaw the sale of his library at auction to William Beckford for £950. What happened next suggests that Beckford may have known of Gibbon's moralistic, 'impertinent animadversion' at his expense in
23989-414: Was crowned king. In order to avoid another European conflict, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain attempted to appease German Chancellor Adolf Hitler , who was expanding his country's territory across Central Europe. Despite proclaiming that he has achieved "peace for our time", Britain declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, following Hitler's invasion of Poland two days earlier. The U.K. thus joined
24150-408: Was declared again. Napoleon's plans to invade Britain failed, chiefly due to the inferiority of his navy. In 1805 Lord Nelson's fleet decisively defeated the French and Spanish at Trafalgar , ending any hopes Napoleon had to wrest control of the oceans away from the British. The British Army remained a minimal threat to France; it maintained a standing strength of just 220,000 men at the height of
24311-529: Was dominated by the Cold War between the Soviet Union and its socialist allies and the United States and its capitalist allies; the U.K. was a key supporter of the latter, joining the anti-Soviet military alliance NATO in 1949. During this period, the U.K. fought in the Korean War (1950–1953). The Cold War shaped world affairs until victory was achieved in 1989. The major parties largely agreed on foreign and domestic policy—except nationalization of some industries—in an era of Post-war consensus that lasted into
24472-423: Was effective in defusing a war scare in late 1861 . The British people, however, who depended heavily on American food imports, generally favoured the Union. What little cotton was available came from New York, as the blockade by the US Navy shut down 95% of Southern exports to Britain. In September 1862, Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation . Since support of the Confederacy now meant supporting
24633-420: Was founded in 1721; the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in 1729; Queen Charlotte's maternity hospital in 1739 and the Middlesex Hospital in 1745. Asylums for the mentally ill were established, notably Bethel Hospital in Norwich (1713); a ward for incurable lunatics at Guy's Hospital (1728); and lunatic hospitals in Manchester (1766) and York in (1777)—York was the first to be called an asylum. Historians debate
24794-605: Was granddaughter of Sir Walter Acton, 2nd Baronet . As a youth, Gibbon's health was under constant threat. He described himself as "a puny child, neglected by my Mother, starved by my nurse". At age nine, he was sent to Dr. Woddeson's school at Kingston upon Thames (now Kingston Grammar School ), shortly after which his mother died. He then took up residence in the Westminster School boarding house, owned by his adored "Aunt Kitty", Catherine Porten. Soon after she died in 1786, he remembered her as rescuing him from his mother's disdain, and imparting "the first rudiments of knowledge,
24955-465: Was largely a-religious or anti-clerical, and it stood in outspoken defiance to the established order. Porter admits that after the 1720s, England could claim thinkers to equal Diderot, Voltaire or Rousseau. Indeed, its leading intellectuals, such as Edward Gibbon , Edmund Burke and Samuel Johnson were all quite conservative and supported the standing order. Porter says the reason was that Enlightenment had come early to England, and had succeeded so that
25116-435: Was largely ineffective. As Napoleon realized that extensive trade was going through Spain and Russia, he invaded those two countries. He tied down his forces in Spain, and lost very badly in Russia in 1812. The Spanish uprising in 1808 at last permitted Britain to gain a foothold on the Continent. The Duke of Wellington and his army of British and Portuguese gradually pushed the French out of Spain, and in early 1814, as Napoleon
25277-474: Was on guard against a return of Jacobinism, and even liberal Britain saw the passage of the Six Acts in 1819, which proscribed radical activities. By the end of the 1820s, along with a general economic recovery, many of these repressive laws were repealed and in 1828 new legislation guaranteed the civil rights of religious dissenters. A weak ruler as regent (1811–1820) and king (1820–1830), George IV let his ministers take full charge of government affairs, playing
25438-482: Was prosperous as entrepreneurs extended the range of their business around the globe. By the 1720s Britain was one of the most prosperous countries in the world, and Daniel Defoe boasted: While the other major powers were primarily motivated towards territorial gains, and protection of their dynasties (such as the Habsburg and Bourbon dynasties, and the House of Hohenzollern ), Britain had a different set of primary interests. Its main diplomatic goal (besides protecting
25599-482: Was re-established as the Royal African Company in 1672 and focused on the slave trade. British involvement in each of the four major wars, 1740 to 1783, paid off handsomely in terms of trade. Even the loss of the 13 colonies was made up by a very favourable trading relationship with the new United States of America. British gained dominance in the trade with India, and largely dominated the highly lucrative slave, sugar, and commercial trades originating in West Africa and
25760-431: Was restricted, slavery was abolished in nearly all the British Empire , and, most important, the Reform Act 1832 refashioned the British electoral system. There were no major wars until the Crimean War (1853–1856). While Prussia, Austria, and Russia, as absolute monarchies, tried to suppress liberalism wherever it might occur, the British came to terms with new ideas. Britain intervened in Portugal in 1826 to defend
25921-403: Was widespread in Britain during the eighteenth century and sometimes expressed itself in rioting. The Jewish Naturalisation Act 1753 was repealed a year after it had been passed because of widespread opposition and the 1780 Gordon Riots in London were directed against Catholics after the Papists Act 1778 removed some of their legal disabilities. During the 1791 Priestley Riots in Birmingham,
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