England Historical Overview

England History

Please note: In a February, 1984 Ensign article entitled, "I’ve heard that some people have extended their ancestral lines back to Adam. Is this possible? If so, is it necessary for all of us to extend our pedigrees back to Adam "Robert C. Gunderson stated, in part, "In my opinion it is not even possible to verify historically a connected European pedigree earlier than the time of the Merovingian Kings (c. A.D. 450 – A.D. 752). Every pedigree I have seen which attempts to bridge the gap between that time and the biblical pedigree appears to be based on questionable tradition, or at worst, plain fabrication. Generally these pedigrees offer no evidence as to the origin of the information, or they cite a vague source". Another expression of concern can be found at Genealogy's Star, in "Back to Adam" by James Tanner.

1300 BC the Druid Kings of Britain
The genealogy of the Kings of Britain begins with Aedd Mawr (also here) and his son Brydain in 1300 BC. Brydain named the Islands after himself-Britain. Britain means "Covenant Race". The complete genealogy is printed out on the chart "One Royal Line" by Albert F. Schmuhl. Another source about the Druid Kings in Wikipedia.



1113 BC Brutus of Troy
Brutus of Troy conquered King Pandrasus of Greece, married his daughter and took a group of Trojans and Greeks to Gaul. Brutus conquered the King of Gaul and founded Tours. Brutus then brought his group of Trojans, Greeks and Celts to Britain. He conquered the indigenous race of giants who lived on the Islands. In this record Brutus claims naming the Islands Britain."Victoria County History of Lancashire pp. 1-20".

In Camden's History of England, Britain was settled by the descendants of Japeth who went into Europe, Gaul and into Britain. Camden wrote his history 450 years after Jeffery of Monmouth, Archdeacon of Monmouth. By the time Camden wrote his history, the records from which Jeffery of Monmouth quoted were destroyed. However, Jeffery's written history of England survived and is quoted in Victoria County History for Lancashire pp 1-20.

750 BC The tribe of Judah
The tribe of Judah invaded Ireland and the British Isles. They established their Kings and people in Ireland and Britain. The tribe of Judah is represented in the Royal Coat of Arms of England by the rampant lion. The Irish Kings descending from Judah through Ireland are printed out on the chart "One Royal Line" by Albert F. Schmuhl. They appear in Ireland about 750 BC.

700-600 BC Celts from Gaul
Celts from Gaul invaded Britain and took control of the country. The Druid priests presided in their culture, but were not warriors. The Druid priests educated their people and officiated in the religious practices. The Druid priests were the ruling community officials and religious leaders. The commanding warriors were a part of the community council. The Celts were of the tribe of Ephraim and are represented in the Royal Coat of Arms of England by the white unicorn.

37 AD Joseph of Arimathea
Joseph of Arimathea and his group of 11 other adults landed at Glastonbury. They built the first Christian Church in the world named St. Mary. King Avairgas gave 12 hides of land to the Church of St. Mary at Glastonbury to be held tax free forever. These 12 hides and Church of Glastonbury were listed in the Doomesday Book of William the Conqueror. Joseph's daughter Anna married Bran the Blessed and they became the progenitors of the royal lineage of Wales. In 1954, the government authorized an archeological excavation of the site. The foundations of the original Church of St. Mary were found to measure 37' X 50' long. A stone was found with the inscription of Jesus/Maria, the Challess Well, and six wattle homes all dating to the time period. The tomb of Joseph of Arimathea was also found with the body placed in a silver casket in the Church of St. John the Baptist. The tomb of King Arthur was previously found and his body returned to London at St. Dunstans. Despite the archeological evidence, modern day historians call this story a myth. I have included this history because Lawrence Gardner, the Royal Genealogist of England includes the genealogy of Joseph of Arimathea as one of the Royal ancestors of England and Wales. These genealogies are printed out in his book,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodline_of_the_Holy_Grail "Bloodline of the Holy Grail"].

43 AD Rome invaded Britain
Rome invaded Britain and conquered the southern part of Britain before their army was recalled to Gaul. The Celts of Gaul were such fierce fighters that it took the who army of Rome to finally conqueror the blue painted warriors. After the war was ended in 44 AD, Mary Magdalene went to Gaul to live where her descendants became the Fisher Kings of Gaul.

65-68 AD Rome invaded Britain but were repulsed
Rome invaded Britain but were repulsed by the fighting Islanders. Battle of Watling Street took place in Roman-occupied Britain in AD 60 or 61 between an alliance of indigenous British peoples led by Boudica and a Roman army led by Gaius Suetonius Paulinus. Although heavily outnumbered, the Romans decisively defeated the allied tribes, inflicting heavy losses on them. The battle marked the end of resistance to Roman rule in Britain in the southern half of the island, a period that lasted until 410 AD.

100 AD Influence of Rome
The Roman invasion began in 43 AD but by 100 AD they had conquered Britain. Roads and Government structures were greatly improved during this period of English history. The influence of Rome left some time in the 4th Century.

325 AD Council of Nicea
Council of Nicea. The British bishops attended the Council of Nicea where they reported that Britain had built the first Christian church, called St. Mary. As a result, the British bishops were given first priority to speak. The British bishops presented their concept of the Godhead, but the Greek concept was accepted by Constantine. The Nicean Creed was developed with the Catholic Religion evolving out of the Roman rule. Catholic Bishops replaced the British ones and taught the country Catholic doctrine. The country gradually converted to the Catholic Religion. However, many Britains held on to their Celtic beliefs.

400 AD "Britain's History Prior to Christianity"
Abbott Bean of Glastonbury wrote five volumes of "Britain's History Prior to Christianity". He had a library of over 200 books. The Glastonbury Church of St. Mary with its library was enlarged to become the largest church in the British Isles. St. Mary's Church trained priests like St. Patrick who took Christianity to Ireland. The church and its vast library was burned in 1184 to destroy the records of the inferior race which William the Conqueror subjugated. King William gave orders that once the Norman Churches were constructed the Saxon churches were to be burnt. Before St. Mary's Church was burnt, William of Malmsbury read the records of the library and recorded the history from Joseph of Arimathea to the 1100's. William of Malmsbury also made a historical summary of Glastonbury. William of Malmesbury's Chronicle of the Kings of England: From the Earliest Period to the Reign of King Stephen.

603 AD King Arthur
King Arthur, his knights, and army had successfully defeated the invasions of the Saxons over the years. A family war between King Arthur and his son near Hadrian's Wall took the British armies to the north. Both were killed in the battle. King Arthur's body was taken back to Glastonbury, Somersetshire to be buried. While their family was embattled in a civil war with armies on both sides fighting each other, the Saxons conquered Britain.



603 AD Saxons conquered Britain
The Saxons set up their own Kings and rulers in Britain. The Saxons named their newly conquered land England. They moved all their people from Germany to England. The Saxons were from the tribe of Ephraim mixed with some of Judah.

740 AD Norwegian Vikings
The Norwegian Vikings invaded England and fought for 40 years before being defeated. Part of the army returned to Norway and part was incorporated in the peoples of England. The fusion of the Vikings into England brought about another infusion of the tribe of Ephraim into England. The history of the Norman conquest of England, causes and its results. (Searchable at FamilySearch)

865 AD Danish Vikings
The Danish Vikings invaded both France and England. They forcibly took one forth of France and set up Normandy as their new conquered kingdom. The Danish kings gave descent to William the Conqueror who ruled one fourth of France with his brothers. In England, the Danish vikings conquered three fourths of England before being defeated in 698 AD. The Danes made York, Yorkshire their headquarters. Their army was incorporated into England giving rise to names with "son" suffixes like Rawson, Dawson, Anderson, and Janson. This incorporation of the Danish army gave England another infusion of the tribe of Ephraim.

1050 AD Hastings
The Danish Vikings invaded and conquered England. King Harold fought off an invasion by his brother in 1066 AD with his army marching to northern England. After defeating his brothers army, King Harold marched his army south to meet the army of William the Conqueror. The two armies met at Hastings and fought a bloody battle in which King Harold was killed and his army defeated. Duke William conquered England in 1066.

1066-1087 William the Conqueror
William the Conqueror, the first Norman king, become England King by defeating King Harold at the Battle of Hastings. William made a survey of the landholding called the Doomsday Book. Free copies of the original pages can be seen at Free pages of Doomsday.Descent of Elizabeth II from William the Conqueror (Wikipedia)

1077 Provost Alwin Child
Provost Alwin Child came from France and set up churches and religious Cluny orders of monks. The Cluny Church in France was the largest church in the world. It was surpassed by St. Peters built in Rome during the 1600's. Alwin Child built the Church of the Savior, the Church of Mary Magdalene and the Palace for William the Conqueror and his son William Ruffus. Alwin Child lived in the palace with the Kings and over saw its operation for the King until his death in 1082. Alwin was the Chancellor of Religion for the new Kings of England. Alwin left his will in 1082, Bermondsay, (London) Surrey, England. Alwin's son Alwin Child brought the Cluny monks from France in 1089 before he died in 1094. Alwin Child's son Roger Infans or Child went on the first crusade to Jerusalem and assisted in its capture from 1096-1098. Roger Infans returned to England to run the Royal Castle of Rockingham in Northamptonshire. He served as commander of the royal guard and was a baron over more than ten manors. More French were brought into England to be Royal Judges or Provosts over cities. Knights presided over 1-9 manors, and Franklins over a manor. The feudal system was instituted upon the English by the French with the gentry and nobility classes as rulers. The English were made serfs or slaves and confined to the manors in which they live. A series of judicial courts were instituted from the manorial, Provost or city and shire level. Royal or country matters were brought before the Royal Court of Judges. Upon his death in 1087 William the Conqueror divided his lands between two of his sons, with Robert receiving Normandy and William Rufus, England.

1100 King William Ruffus
King William Ruffus was murdered and his younger brother Henry had himself crowned a few days later, taking advantage of Robert's absence on crusade. Fights over the throne went on between the two rulers almost to Henry death in 1135. Plantagenet, Henry II, the Grandson of Henry I, was brought from France to be the next King with Eleanor of Aquitaine his wife. Their son was Richard 1 (Richard the Lion Heart). The Knights Templar returned from Jerusalem to England and built castles and churches. They were good businessmen and established businesses in England.

1216 Magna Carta
King John and the Magna Carta King John replaced his brother Richard I and ruled by absolute monarchy. King John retained all the land and power unto himself. The barons, viscounts, and earls who officiated over the shires rebelled against King John. The Lords of the shires all met and wrote up the Magna Carta. By signing the Magna Carta in 1216, King John was force to give up land and power to the Lords of the shires. The Magna Carta gave representation into parliament from each shire.

Parliament
The Lords of the shires established parliament as the House of the Lords. The House of Commons was established giving the gentry class two representatives from each shire. These representatives were usually knights or esquires. Parliament would meet every twenty years or as needed with their elected counterparts. The Parliament building was eventually built from Coteswold stone in Westminster.

1300 Wars
The English invaded Ireland and subjugated the country placing it under the English control. The English also invaded Wales and tricked their leader to give himself up' but killed him instead. After fighting for many years into the 1400's England conquered Wales. On orders from the Pope, the English killed all the Knights templars on their soil and then made war with Scotland to destroy all the Knights Templars. The Scots fought fiercely and defeated the English in the Battle of Bannockburn. The Scots established their own kings and remained a separate country from England until 1603.

1400's Classes of Gentry and Lords
Parliament established classes of Gentry and Lords depending on how much land a person own. Knights who were not actively serving, became esquires.

English wars
The 100 years war with France was fought with battles won by both sides. The War of the Roses was fought from 1458-1487 between the Duke of Lancaster and the Duke of York. The Duke of Lancaster won the war by killing the Duke of York.

1484 Freeman
Parliament declared all men to be freeman! The serfs and common people of England were now free to own land, to come and go, leave at will, but still had to pay taxes and obey the laws of the land. Prior to this time the records were in Latin. English was established as the spoken and written language. Rules of writing and speaking followed as English evolved. The Catholic Church retained their services in Latin.

1538 King Henry VIII
King Henry VIII ordered parishes to begin keeping registers of vital records. Not all the churches started keeping christenings, marriage, and burial records at that time. Some began later.

1542 Church of England
Thomas Cromwell established the Church of England as the state religion by overthrowing the Catholic Church. King Henry VIII had killed any one who opposed him including the Earl of Montgomery and the Abbott of Glastonbury. The king ordered all the statues of saints destroyed, did away with priories, nunneries, monks, nuns, established divorce and created his new church called the Church of England (Anglican Church). King Henry had six wives who mostly bore him daughters. King Henry's only son Edward died in 1553 at the age of 18 leaving his sisters Mary (Catholic) and Elizabeth(Church of England). Mary (known as Bloody Mary because she put to death those who opposed the Catholic Church) was queen until her death in 1558. Elizabeth then became the Queen of England and reigned until her death in 1603. As she never married and had no issue, she was succeeded by James, the son of her hated cousin Mary Queen of Scots. James was James I of England and James VI of Scotland.

1584 Puritan Movement
Puritan Movement:The Puritan Religions flourished and their leaders established Emanuel College in 1584 at Cambridge University. Emanuel College taught Protestant doctrine and men to be ministers like Benjamin Childe.

1588-89 War with Spain
War with Spain. England defeated Spain's naval "Armada" making England the ruling power of the world.

1611 King James I
King James had the biblical scholars of the world translate the manuscripts of the Greek Bible into the King James Version of the Bible.

1641 Irish rebellion
Oliver Cromwell invaded Ireland and put down the Irish rebellion and re-established the Scottish and English rule in Ireland.

King Charles I was king of England, Scotland and Ireland, whose conflicts with parliament led to civil war and his eventual execution.

1642-1651 England's Civil War
England's Civil War(Wikipedia). The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of armed conflicts and political problems between Parliamentarians (Roundheads) and Royalists (Cavaliers). The first (1642–46) and second (1648–49) civil wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third war (1649–51) saw fighting between supporters of King Charles II and supporters of the Rump Parliament. The Civil War ended with the Parliamentary victory at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651. The English Civil War led to the trial and execution of Charles I, the exile of his son, Charles II, and replacement of English monarchy with, first, the Commonwealth of England (1649–53), and then with a Protectorate (1653–59), under Oliver Cromwell's personal rule. The monopoly of the Church of England on Christian worship in England ended with the victors consolidating the established Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. Constitutionally, the wars established the precedent that an English monarch cannot govern without Parliament's consent, although this concept was legally established only with the Glorious Revolution later in the century. See an excellent website at: https://www.civilwarpetitions.ac.uk/

1661 King Charles II
King Charles II persecuted the Protestants by arresting them and sentencing them to prison on trumped up charges. To avoid being arrested, over twenty thousand Protestants fled England for the New England Colonies and Canada. After filling the prisons, the prisoners were transported to Canada, the Colonies, Islands, Africa, and Australia.

1688 Glorious Revolution
James II the brother of Charles the II lost the throne to William the III.

1688–1689 William of Orange
William of Orange from Holland crowned King of England.

1707 United Kingdom
England and Wales united with Scotland to form the United Kingdom.

1733 English
English replaced Latin in official records.

1752 Gregorian calendar
England adopted the new Gregorian calendar. The first day of the year started on 1 January instead of March 25th.

1756–1765 Industrial Revolution
The first English navigation canals appeared. The Industrial Revolution began and cities grew with the invention of the steam engine and the spinning jenny. French and Indian Wars in Canada and the Colonies.

1775-1783 American Revolutionary War
The American Colonies fought the English for eight years they defeated the English on American soil. The Colonists won their independence from England in 1783 and formed their own country with a Republic and a constitutional form of government. They became the United States of America, the land of the free.

1800 Parliament
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was created in 1801 by the merger of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland under the Act of Union..

1804-1815 Napoleonic Wars
We could call it "The War with Napoleon". The Napoleonic Wars were between France and the United Kingdom. After 9 years the United Kingdom was victorious.

War of 1812
War with the United States in which the United States were victorious.

1830 First railways
First railways appeared in England.

1834 Workhouses
Poor law unions took poor relief responsibilities away from parishes. Workhouses thus established.

1837 United Kingdom Civil registration
Civil registration began on 1 July. Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901.

1841 United Kingdom Census
One of the first modern genealogically useful census taken in England and was held 6th of June 1841 in each location.

1858 Probate Registry
Principal Probate Registry began handling all English probates.

1882 Married women property rights
Married women were given the right to use and dispose of their own property.

1914-1918 World War I
World War I with Germany, Russia.

1940-1945 World War II
World War II with Germany, Japan, Italy, Russia

FamilySearch.org Royal Line Sources

 * Handbook to the Maude Roll
 * A genealogical history of the kings of England, and monarchs of Great Britain
 * House of Hanover
 * Pedigrees of the ancient kings of Britain, and princes of Wales
 * A catalogue of the kings of England : a genealogical history of the monarchs of Great Britain from Egbert in the year 800 A.D. to James I in 1603, originally published in the catalogue of honour in 1610
 * The mammoth book of British kings and queens
 * Britain's kings and queens
 * The kings and queens of England and Scotland
 * A genealogical chart of the Kings and Queens of England from the reign of William the Conqueror to that of His Most Gracious Majesty William the fourth
 * Early British history
 * A help to English history (kings)
 * History of the Stewart or Stuart family
 * The royal line
 * The ancestry of Charles II King of England : a medieval heritage (twelve generations)

Websites

 * BBC Historic figures Very good site on history.
 * History_of_England(Wikipedia)
 * English History(Wikipedia)
 * Directory of Royal Genealogical Data
 * Genealogy of the British Royal Family
 * English Genealogical Tables
 * Royal genealogies, mythology and legend
 * Child Labour History