This article is about the historical state known as the "Kingdom of England" (927-1707). For the modern country, see
England.
The
Kingdom of England was a
state located in
western Europe, in the southern part of the island of
Great Britain, consisting of the modern day
constituent countries of
England and
Wales and the modern legal entity of
England and Wales.
The chief royal residence was originally located at
Winchester, in
Hampshire, but
London and
Gloucester were accorded almost equal status—especially London, which had become the
de facto capital by the beginning of the 12th century. London served as the capital of the kingdom until its merger with the
Kingdom of Scotland in 1707 (see
Acts of Union 1707) and continues to remain the chief city of
England. The city has also served as the capital of both the
Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1801) and the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801–1922). Today it remains the capital of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the "United Kingdom").
The present monarch of the
United Kingdom,
Queen Elizabeth II, is the modern successor to the Kings and Queens of England. The title of Queen (and King) of England has been legally incorrect since 1707, although it is still in common use. Elizabeth can trace
her descent from the Kings of Wessex from the
1st millennium.
History
The Kingdom of England has no specific founding date. The Kingdom can trace its origins to the
Heptarchy, the rule of what would later become England by seven minor Kingdoms:
East Anglia,
Essex,
Kent,
Mercia,
Northumbria,
Sussex, and
Wessex.
The
Kings of Wessex became increasingly dominant over the other kingdoms of England during the 9th century. The conquest of Northumbria, East Anglia and half of Mercia by the
Danes left
Alfred the Great (reigned 871–899) of Wessex as the only surviving English king. He successfully resisted a series of Danish invasions and brought the remaining half of Mercia under the sovereignty of Wessex. His son
Edward the Elder (reigned 899–924) completed the absorption of English Mercia and conquered the rest of Mercia and East Anglia from their Danish occupiers, uniting England south of the Humber. In 927 Northumbria, whose Danish kings had recently been displaced by Norwegians, fell to the King of Wessex
Athelstan, a son of Edward the Elder. Athelstan was the first to reign over a united England. He was not the first
de jure King of England, but certainly the first
de facto one. Over the following years Northumbria repeatedly changed hands between the English kings and Norwegian invaders, but was definitively brought under English control by King
Edred in 954, completing the unification of England.
England has remained in political unity ever since. During the reign of
Ethelred II (reigned 978–1016) a new wave of Danish invasions orchestrated by
Sweyn I of Denmark culminated, after a quarter of a century of warfare, in the conquest of England in 1013. Sweyn died on
February 2,
1014 and Ethelred was restored to the throne, but in 1015 Sweyn's son
Canute the Great launched a new invasion. The ensuing war ended in 1016 with an agreement between him and Ethelred's successor
Edmund Ironside to divide England between them, but Edmund's death on
November 30,
1016 left England united under Danish rule. Danish rule continued until the death of
Harthacanute on
June 8,
1042. He was a son of Canute and
Emma of Normandy,
widow of Ethelred II. Harthacanute had no heirs of his own and was succeeded by his half-brother
Edward the Confessor. The Kingdom of England was independent again.
Norman conquest
Peace only lasted until the death of childless Edward on January 4/5, 1066. His brother-in-law was crowned
Harold II of England. His cousin
William the Bastard,
Duke of Normandy, immediately claimed the throne for himself. William launched an invasion of England and landed in
Sussex on
September 28,
1066. Harold II and his army were in
York following their victory in the
Battle of Stamford Bridge (
September 25,
1066). They had to march across England to reach their new opponents. The armies of Harold II and William finally faced each other in the
Battle of Hastings (
October 14,
1066). Harold fell and William remained the victor. William was then able to conquer England with little further opposition. He was not however planning to absorb the Kingdom to the
Duchy of Normandy. As a Duke, William still owed allegiance to
Philip I of France. The independent Kingdom of England would allow him to rule without interference. He was crowned King of England on
December 25,
1066.
The Kingdom of England and the Duchy of Normandy would remain in personal union until 1204. King
John of England, a fourth-generation descendant of William I, lost the continental area of the Duchy to
Philip II of France during that year. The remnants of the Duchy remained in the rule of John and his descendants. They are known as the
Channel Islands.
John still held both the titles and land of the
Duke of Aquitaine. His grandson
Edward I of England defeated
Llywelyn the Last and effectively conquered
Wales in 1282. He created the title
Prince of Wales for his eldest son
Edward II in 1301.
Edward II was father to
Edward III of England, whose
claim to the throne of France resulted in the
Hundred Years' War (1337–1453). The end of the war found England defeated and retaining only a single city of France:
Calais.


Fifteenth-century miniature depicting the English victory over France at the
Battle of Agincourt.
The Kingdom had little time to recover before entering the
Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), a series of civil wars over possession of the throne between the
House of Lancaster and the
House of York, different branches of the descendants of Edward III. The end of the wars found the throne held by a female line descendant of the House of Lancaster married to the eldest daughter of the House of York.
Henry VII of England and his
Queen consort Elizabeth of York were the founders of the
Tudor dynasty which ruled the Kingdom from 1485 to 1603.
Tudors and Stuarts
Meanwhile, Wales retained the distinct legal and administrative system that had been established by
Edward I in the late 13th century. The second Tudor monarch,
Henry VIII of England, merged Wales into England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542. Wales ceased to be a personal
fiefdom of the King of England but was annexed to the Kingdom of England and was represented in the
Parliament of England.
During Henry VIII's reign in 1541 the
Parliament of Ireland proclaimed him
King of Ireland, thus bringing the
Kingdom of Ireland into personal union with the Kingdom of England.
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Portrait of Elizabeth made to commemorate the defeat of the
Spanish Armada (1588), depicted in the background. Elizabeth's international power is symbolized by the hand resting on the globe.
During the reign of
Mary I of England, eldest daughter of
Henry VIII, Calais was captured by
Francis, Duke of Guise on
January 7,
1558.
The House of Tudor ended with the death of its last monarch,
Elizabeth I of England, on
March 24,
1603. Without any direct heir to her throne,
James VI,
King of Scots, a distant
Protestant relative of Elizabeth from Scotland's
Stuart dynasty, acceded to the throne of England as
King James I of England. Despite this
Union of the Crowns, the Kingdom of England and
Kingdom of Scotland remained separate and independent states under this
personal union, until 1707.
In 1707, the
Acts of Union ratified by both the
Parliament of Scotland and Parliament of England created the
Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1801).
Queen Anne, the last monarch from the House of Stuart, became the first monarch of the new kingdom. Both the English and Scottish
Parliaments were merged into the
Parliament of Great Britain, located in
Westminster,
London. At this point, England ceased to exist as a separate political entity and has since had no national
government. Legally, however, the jurisdiction continued to operate as
England and Wales (just as
Scotland continued to have its own laws and law courts) and this continued also after the
Act of Union of 1800 between the Kingdom of Great Britain and Kingdom of Ireland which created the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. (Later going on to become the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland).
Commonwealth and Protectorate
England was a
monarchy for the entirety of its political existence since its creation about 927 up to the 1707 Act of Union, except for the eleven years of
English Interregnum (1649 to 1660) that followed the
English Civil War.
The rule of executed King
Charles I of England was replaced by that of a
republic known as
Commonwealth of England (1649–1653). The most prominent general of the republic,
Oliver Cromwell, managed to extend its rule to
Ireland and
Scotland.
The victorious general eventually turned against the republic, and established a new form of government known as
The Protectorate, with himself as
Lord Protector until his death on
September 3,
1658. He was succeeded by his son
Richard Cromwell. However, anarchy eventually developed, as Richard proved unable to maintain his rule. He resigned his title and retired into obscurity. The Commonwealth was re-established but proved unstable. The exiled claimant
Charles II of England was recalled to the throne in 1660 in the
English Restoration.
References
See also
Motto
Dieu et mon droit (French)
"God and my right"
Anthem
No official anthem specific to England — the anthem of the United Kingdom is "God Save the Queen".
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Heptarchy (Greek: ἑπτά + ἀρχή seven + realm) is a collective name applied to the Anglo-Saxon ancient kingdoms of south, east, and central Great Britain during late antiquity
..... Click the link for more information.
The Commonwealth of England was the republican government which ruled first England (including Wales) and then Ireland and Scotland from 1649 to 1660. After the regicide of Charles I on January 30, 1649, its existence was initially declared () by the Rump Parliament on May
..... Click the link for more information.
The Commonwealth of England was the republican government which ruled first England (including Wales) and then Ireland and Scotland from 1649 to 1660. After the regicide of Charles I on January 30, 1649, its existence was initially declared () by the Rump Parliament on May
..... Click the link for more information.
Kingdom of Great Britain, also known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain, was a state in Western Europe, in existence from 1707 to 1800. It was created by the merger of the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England, under the Acts of Union 1707, to create a single
..... Click the link for more information.
The Flag of England is the St George's Cross. The red cross appeared in as an emblem of England during the Middle Ages and the Crusades and is one of the earliest known emblems representing England. It achieved status as the national flag of England during the 16th century.
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The Royal Coat of Arms of England was the official coat of arms of the Monarchs of England, and were used as the official coat of arms of the Kingdom of England until the Union of the Crowns in 1603.
..... Click the link for more information.
Coat of arms elements A
motto (from Italian) is a phrase or a short list of words meant formally to describe the general motivation or intention of an entity, social group, or organization.
..... Click the link for more information. Dieu et mon droit (French for God and my right, referring to the monarch's divine right to govern) has generally been used as the motto of the British monarch since it was adopted by the English king Henry V (1413-1422).
..... Click the link for more information.
French (français, pronounced [fʁɑ̃ˈsɛ]) is a Romance language originally spoken in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, and today by about 300 million people around the world as either
..... Click the link for more information.
Throughout the world there are many cities that were once national capitals but no longer have that status because the country ceased to exist, the capital was moved, or the capital city was renamed. This is a list of such cities, sorted by country and then by date.
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|240px|Winchester (
..... Click the link for more information. London
Canary Wharf is the centre of London's modern office towers
London shown within England
Coordinates:
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Constituent country England
..... Click the link for more information.
Old English/Anglo-Saxon}}}
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: ang
ISO 639-3: ang Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon[1], Englisc
..... Click the link for more information.
The Anglo-Norman language is an extinct variety of the Norman language used in England following the Norman conquest in 1066.
When William the Conqueror invaded England, he, his nobles and many of his followers from Normandy spoke an Oïl language called Norman.
..... Click the link for more information.
English}}}
Writing system: Latin (English variant)
Official status
Official language of: 53 countries
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: en
ISO 639-2: eng
ISO 639-3: eng
..... Click the link for more information.
government is a body that has the power to make and the authority to enforce rules and laws within a civil, corporate, religious, academic, or other organization or group.[1]
..... Click the link for more information.
This article is written like a personal reflection or and may require .
Please [ improve this article] by rewriting this article in an . (, talk)
List of forms of government
- Anarchism
- Aristocracy
- Authoritarianism
- Autocracy
..... Click the link for more information. monarchs of England. Traditionally, the first monarch of England is listed as Egbert, Bretwalda from 829, though the kingdom was not permanently unified until 927, under Athelstan. Union with Wales was enacted in 1536, and with Scotland in 1707 to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.
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Athelstan
King of the English
Reign August 2,924 – October 27,939
Born 895
Wessex, England
Died September 27 939
Buried Malmesbury Abbey
Predecessor Ælfweard
Successor Edmund
Father
..... Click the link for more information.
Anne (6 February 1665 – 1 August 1714) became Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702, succeeding William III and II. Her Roman Catholic father, James II and VII, was forcibly deposed in 1688; her brother-in-law and her sister then became joint monarchs as
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A legislature is a type of representative deliberative assembly with the power to adopt laws.
Legislatures are known by many names, the most common being parliament and congress, although these terms also have more specific meanings.
..... Click the link for more information.
Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. Its roots can be traced back to the early medieval period. In a series of developments, it came increasingly to constrain the power of the monarch, and went on after the Act of Union 1707 to form the main basis of
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The Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled
Type Upper House
Lord Speaker
Hélène Hayman, Baroness Hayman, PC, (Non-affiliated)
since July 4, 2006
..... Click the link for more information.
The Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled
Type Lower House
Speaker Michael Martin, (Non-affiliated)
since October 23, 2000
Leader Harriet Harman, (Labour)
since June 28, 2007
..... Click the link for more information.
Athelstan
King of the English
Reign August 2,924 – October 27,939
Born 895
Wessex, England
Died September 27 939
Buried Malmesbury Abbey
Predecessor Ælfweard
Successor Edmund
Father
..... Click the link for more information.
Norman conquest of England began in 1066 with the invasion of the Kingdom of England by William the Conqueror (Duke of Normandy), and his success at the Battle of Hastings resulted in Norman control of England.
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11st century - 12nd century
1030s 1040s 1050s - 1060s - 1070s 1080s 1090s
1063 1064 1065 - 1066 - 1067 1068 1069
Lists of leaders
State leaders - Sovereign states
Birth and death categories
-
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The English Interregnum was the period of parliamentary and military rule in the land occupied by modern-day England and Wales after the English Civil War. It began with the regicide of Charles I in 1649 and ended with the restoration of Charles II in 1660.
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January 30 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.
Events
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