ROMAN LONDON

The original village, called Lhyn-Din was founded by the Celts. Then the Romans, under Emperor Claudius conquered current England and founded Londinium. There were 45000 inhabitants and this little village was smaller than London today ( the same size as the City today ). This place was chosen by the Romans because it was possible to build a bridge onto the Thames, which allows ships to easily trade with London’s harbour. In 50 c.e, the Romans built the first which connect London with Southwark.

In 200 before J.C., the Roman build a wall around Londinium because barbarians were spreading to Europe and the borders of the Romans empire. The wall was about 2 miles ( 3 km ), 20 feet and 9 feet think. It was a safe way to protect the City. Today, we can see remains of this wall in Coopers Row. In 61, Queen Boudicca of East Anglica put fire to the City. It was the first fire in London.

In 410, the Romans empire couldn’t resist to the Barbarian attacks consequently some people left Londinium because a few were from Rome, Italy or even the continent. The City became less prosperous and much smaller, but it has survived.

The trade was less important because a lot of the trade routes were no longer safe, because of the barbarian attacks. The absents of administrative, military and bureaucracy to run the City, force many people, who were out of jobs, to comeback to the country side.

Between the declining of the roman Empire to the 9^th century, we haven’t got any precise information of London. Towards the end of the 8^th century, the Vikings came into England because of her wealth. As they are not Christian, they burnt all the churches and monasteries.

In 865, the Vikings invaded Britain again, because at this time the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms was quarrelling so Britain’s force was failing. But this time, the invaders didn’t raided : they conquer and settlers and also accepted Christianity quickly.

Between 875 and 878, Alfred the great, king of Wessex, contract for helding out the invaders and in 878, he won a decisive battle, and rescue London 8 years later. Then in 886, Wessex’s king made a peace treaty with the Vikings. After Viking’s occupation, Alfred was recognised as a king of England.

A few years later the Danish invade the England and Cnut ( or Canute ) Danish’s king became England’s king.

His successor, after his death, was Edward, known as "the Confessor" in 1042. As he was interested by the Christianise, he built a lot of churches among which is Westminster Abbey.

William against Harold

Before his death Edward appointed William as a king because they had a family tie. But the Anglo-Saxons nobles didn’t want him for sovereign and elected a man, who had shown his bravery and his ability : Harold. Although he had no royal blood, it was a good choice for the throne of England.

William wasn’t agree, claimed the throne then he decided to invade the England : it was the second Norman invasion.

Harold, England’s King, was faced two dangers, one in the south, William, and one in the north, the Norwegians. When he had defeated the Norwegians, he learnt that William had landed with his army in England. His own army was tired, but they marched to the south very fast.

Harold did an enormous error : he didn’t wait the Saxon army and took only the men who had won the Norwegians, because William’s army was very small. However the Norman soldier were better armed, better organised, were mounted on horses and were in perfect conditions, they inflict on Harold a terrible defeat. England’s king was killed in Hastings’s battle, the eye pierced by an arrow.

Then William marched to London and was crowned king of England in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day in 1066. A new period had began.

William’s work

After being crowned he built a great castle : the Tower of London and the White Tower which was a fortress and a prison.

Tired, William died in 1087 in Rouen.

Then, in the 12^th century, the city wanted to have her politic independence, so at the end of this century, it elected its own major ( Lord Major ).

Henry VI, who became king when he was a baby, grew up to be simple-minded. He hated the warlike noble, and the violent society that’s why he was a gentle man and a civilised. as he loved learning a founded two places to learn : Eton College and King’s college in Cambridge. At this time England was controlling by sixty noble families and most of them had relation ship through marriage. Some of these nobles were very powerful and some of them had their own private armies and used them to frighten local population into obeying them. Some private armies were very large and powerful like the Duke of Buckingham’s army, which counted 2000 men.

These noble were divided in two groups : those who remained loyal to Henry VI, the "Lancastrians" and those who supported the Duke of York, the "Yorkists". In 1460, the Duke of York claimed the throne for himself and finally died in battle, his son Edward took up the struggle and won the throne in 1461.

Edward IV put Henry VI into the Tower of London, but nine years later a new Lancastrian’s army rescued Henry and chased Edward out of the country. But he came back England in 1471, defeated the Lancastrians with his new army and returned on the throne. Soon after, Henry died in the Tower of London, almost certainly murdered.

This war would probably have stopped if Edward’s son was enough old to rule and if Edward’s brother, Richard of Gloucester hadn’t been so ambitious. When in 1483, Edward IV died, his two son were too young : Edward V was 12 and his brother was younger than him so their uncle, Richard of Gloucester, put them in the Tower of London and cruelly killed them.

After this horrible murdered, Richard crowned himself and became King Richard III..

Lancastrians and Yorkists both disliked him so they united against him. As they were powerful half of Richard’s army changed their minds and came into Lancastrians and Yorkists’s army which explained why the battle quickly ended. In the battle Richard died and Henry Tudor was crowned king immediately, on the battlefield.

This war was calling "the Wars of the Roses" in the 18^th century, by Walter Scott because York’s symbol was a white rose, and Lancaster’s a red one.

Between William the Conqueror and the Tudors

In the years between 1077 and 1132, there were seven big fires in London because many buildings were made from wood. But in the 12^th century, London grew in inhabitants ( between 20000 and 25000 ), became richer and more influential.

Half a century later, in 1348/49, the Black Death killed about 30000 inhabitants in London. It was the first wave of the plague. In 1356, 1362 and in 1369, there were three other outbreaks. To make the things worst, there were a peasant’s revolt in 1381, and the farmers went through the City, killed and pillaged, to protest against their exploitation by the taxes.

In spite of all these, London became in the same century the real Britain’s capital under Edward III.

Henry VII

The Tudor’s age was probably the most glorious period in English history. It began in 1485, with Henry VII’s coronation and finished in 1603. Henry VII is less popular than his son Henry VIII but he was a good king and built the foundation of wealthy nation and a powerful monarchy. He thought that war and glory were bad for business and that business was good for the state. As a consequence, he avoided quarrels with Scotland and France.

Then he died in 1509 and left behind his a total of ₤ 2000000 (₤ two million ), which had won with his commercial’s sense.

His successor, his son was Henry VIII.

Henry VIII

Henry VIII wasn’t as peaceful as his father : he was cruel, wasteful with money and interested of pleasing himself.

At this time, France and Spain were more powerful than England, Henry wanted his state to become as powerful as these opponents.

He tried to ally himself with France and Spain, but it brought him anything.

He spent a lot of money to maintain magnificent court and in useless wars.

Henry disliked the power of church in England, because he couldn’t completely control it. He married Catherine of Aragon in 1510 because he wanted a son to success him to the throne but as in 1526 his wife hadn’t give him one, he tried to persuade the Pope to allow his divorce. As the Pope was controlled by Charles V, the king of Spain, the holy roman emperor and also Catherine’s nephew that’s why he told the Supreme pontiff to refuse.

In 1531, Henry persuaded the bishops to give him the power of the Church in England. He was now able to divorce Catherine and to marry his new love, Anne Boleyn, to have the son he expected. A few years later to have a whole control of England’s Church, he broke with Rome and used the Parliament to make the break legal.

Henry chose also a new assistant : Thomas Cromwell. In the years between 1536 and 1539, they closed 560 monasteries to make money and to become more popular with the Landowners and merchants. Then he sold much of the monasteries’ lands to them, and it made them fortune : they used the ancient monasteries’ stone to create beautiful houses for themselves.

After that, he made an alliance with Charles V of Spain against France, because they both wanted to forget the quarrel of Catherine and also England’s break with Rome.

Henry died in 1547, leaving behind six wives and three children : Mary, Catherine’s daughter, Elisabeth, Anne Boleyn’s daughter and Edward, Jane Seymour’s son.

Mary

As Edward VI, Henry VIII’s son, died in 1553 when he was sixteen, Mary the Catholic, Catherine of Aragon’s daughter, became queen. Mary chose to marry with Philip of Spain, which was a unfortunate choice : the people didn’t accept him to the throne and there were a rebellion in Kent. Mary won against this rebel, and she asked the parliament to give their judgement about her marriage. The parliament accepted Philip as king of England for Mary’s lifetime. It was the first mistake of her unsuccessful life. She is now known as "Bloody Mary" because she tried to reintroduce Catholicism in England and killed hundreds of protestants.

She died in 1558 and it was the other daughter of Henry VIII became queen, this time it was Elizabeth I.

Elizabethan Age

She governed with success until 1603. The period after 1603 is called Elizabethan Age. The population grew from 50.000 to 200.000, and Culture prospered too-a lot of great poets (Shakespeare, Marlowe) lived during this time.

The civil war

From 1642 and 1649, there were a civil war between the Puritan troops of Oliver Cromwell and the king’s troops. In 1649, Charles I was defeated and beheaded in London. Oliver Cromwell took over the power, and the Jewish families were allowed to come back to the town.

As he was a puritan, during the years he governed England from 1649 to 1658, he closed all theatres. After his death, Charles II, the next king, who loved art and made cultural life came back to London. But he wasn’t a good king and London’s people known the worst period of London’s story.

The disasters

In 1665, the Great Plague came back and killed more than 100000 people which represents about one third of the ( City ) town’s population.

In the next year, in 1666, there were a huge fire, the biggest that inhabitants of London had never seen. This catastrophe, called the "the Great Fire", destroyed 80% of the City, about 13200 houses, 687 churches and quite all of the medieval London.

As a consequence, during the reconstruction realised by Sir Christopher Wren, a well-known architect, most of houses were made from stone to minimise risks of an other fire. After the reconstruction, they built a huge monument( 60 meters high ) to do not forget this terrible fire.

 During the 18^th, the trade increased and London became the world’s biggest port. As a result, the dockhands developed their activity and that’s why there were more jobs.

In 1750, one of the tenth of England’s population lived in London. As the life was very hard for the poor, there were "The Garden Riots" of 1780 when troops required to restore order in the City.

The Industrial Revolution

When the Industrial Revolution began, the population was approximately three millions inhabitants, which is six times higher than before the Industrial Revolution.

This population explosion was caused by the immigration of people coming from English colonies or other countries and as a consequence there weren’t enough jobs for all the population. The social situation for many people was very ( bad ) : in Eastend’s slums, people lived under the worst conditions and in the 19^th century, the cholera’s outbreaks came and killed people.

To describe life into slums, Dickens wrote novels and that’s why the wealthy part of London’s population was shocked. Until 1900 some actions took place to help poor people and to lighten up the townscape. For example, the sewage was no longer drained into the Thames directly but has been filtered since 1875.

In 1829, the first public buses were made and citizens could used it and in 1838, the first train from " London and Greenwich " arrived in the city. The world’s first subway was opened in 1868 in London but it was driven by steam. And between 1890 and 1908, the tube was built, driven by electricity.

The World War One

During the WW1, London survived without bigger consequences : "Only 670 people were killed, whereas in the WW2, the destruction were much more important caused by the blitz ( raids of Hitler ) in 1940-41 : 30000 people were killed, and one third of the City was destroyed, including Westminster Palace.

Conclusion

We can see that the history of London was very rich in kings and wars, and that London always was a rich and prosper city, in spite of all the problems it had. Today the population of London is about 6.7 millions of people, 46% of the inhabitants belong to ethnical minorities : we can say that London is multi-cultural city.