RULERS OF ENGLAND

PERIOD I (55 BC – AD 1066)

 Saxon king who united all Saxons in England during the

EGBERT Heptarchy period.
(802-839)  He suffered the Danish invasion.

 He wanted to wipe the Danes out of England.

 The Danes declared war and he lost.
ALFRED  They reached an agreement: North and East for the Danes and
(871-901) South and West for Alfred.
 Alfred unified the Saxons tribes in a kingdom and retained
London.

 Leader of the Vikings elected King by the Witan.

CANUTE
(1016-1035)

EDWARD THE  Saxon King of Norman blood

CONFESSOR  He had promised his successor would be Norman
(1042-1066)

 When Edward the Confessor died, the Witan elected the Anglo-
HAROLD Saxon Harold to be King.
 William of Normandy challenged him to claim the throne
(1066)
Edward had promised and killed Harold by thrusting an arrow
on his eye.
 RULERS OF ENGLAND
PERIOD II (1066-1216)

 Duke of Normandy who invaded England in 1066

 He installed the Feudal system in England
 He divided the whole country into manors and granted lands to the
WILLIAM I barons all over England
(1066-1087)  He united the kingdom under his own sway
 He did three wise things to keep the kingdom strong: he gave the
barons lands scattered all over England so that they could not gather
armies, the Domesday book and the Oath of Salisbury

WILLIAM II  He succeeded his father William the Conqueror but died in an

accident and his brother Henry became king and Duke of Normandy
(1087-1100)

 He wanted to diminish the power of the barons

 He encouraged the Shire and Hundred courts instead of manorial
courts where the feudal lord presided.
HENRY I  He created the “King’s council” (formed by tenants-in-chief (barons,
(1100-1135) archbishops, officials of the courts)
 His direct heir was his daughter Maud but the barons chose Stephen
to be king.

 His reign was known as “The Nineteen Long Winters”

 The barons rebelled against him and they impoverished the people
STEPHEN to misery
(1135-1154)  He lost the support of the church because he wanted to confiscate
Church lands and imprisoned the priest who refused to do so.

 He triumphed over the barons but not over the Church

 He weaken the barons by imposing a tax called “scutage”
 He also destroyed baron’s castles and recover Royal lands
 He developed the jury system
 He quarrelled with the Church because he wanted the clergymen to
keep themselves in equality with the nobles
HENRY II
 His objections against the church: clergy should be celibate, he
(1154-1189)
rejected simony which was buying places with church money, he
rejected Lay investiture because he wanted to choose the bishops
by himself.
 He quarrelled with Thomas Becket because he wanted him to be
archbishop but he denied and ended up with Becket’s murder
 RULERS OF ENGLAND
PERIOD III (1216-1399)

 He imposed a policy in which he chose his relations and foreign friends to be in the
court and occupy different offices.
HENRY III  Simon de Montfort appeared and he led the national baronial party against the court
(1216-1272) and the foreigners (Simon created the House of Commons in which he summoned 2
knights, 2 citizens and 2 burgesses to represent some cities)
 He went into war with France and he lost

 He developed Parliament to be truly representative of all classes

 He needed money for three wars at the same time; against Wales, Scotland and France
 His legislative measures:
-He divided justice in various courts
-King’s Bench: Politics of the nations
-Common Pleas: Civil Cases
-Exchequer: Money
 Edward’s four great statutes:
-Mortmain: A feudal lord’s power and wealth depended on his sub-tenants; when they
died their heirs paid fines.
EDWARD I
-Quia Emptores: It was designed to check sub-infeudation which was the practice of a
(1272-1307)
feudal tenant granting away part of the land to a sub-tenant.
-Quo Warranto: Edward tries to check the legal power of the feudal lords.
- Donis Contionalibus: The only one who inherited the land was the eldest son.
 He took two commercial measures:
-The guilds didn’t allow foreigner to compete or interfere with the town’s men profits.
-He expelled the Jews from his kingdom. The church forbade usury.
 He tried to create an early Great Britain, so he conquered large portions of lands in
Wales but he failed in Scotland because William Wallace had risen against the English
crown and resisted Edward Struggle when he tried to take Scotland by deposing Balliol.

 He was granted the title of Prince of Wales by his father Edward I

 Weak man. He did not carry on the work that his father had begun in the consolidation
EDWARD II of England.
(1307-1327)  Forced to relinquish his crown in January 1327 in favour of his fourteen-year-old son
and later murdered in Berkeley Castle probably by his wife and her lover.

 The Hundred Year’s War bursted in 1338 due to political and economic reasons.
EDWARD III  In his reign, people were against the Church, Wycliff and the Lollards appeared.
(1327-1377)  While Edward was in war against France, a plague called “The Black Death” appeared
which killed on-third of the whole population.

 He was twelve years when he became King, so the government lay in the hand of his
uncle, John of Gaunt.
 After the Black Death, the “Peasant’s Revolt” started.
RICHARD II  He decided that the King couldn’t be limited, what gave the King the right to rule
(1077-1399) without summoning the Parliament.
 Later, people supported Henry (son of Gaunt) and soldier abandoned the king. Henry
declared he wanted to be king and the Parliament accepted.

Note: During the period IV and under Henry’s VI reign (1455) the Wars of the Roses bursted between the Lancastrians who
remained loyal to Henry VI and the Yorkists who supported the Duke of York. Later on, Lancastrians and Yorkists joined Henry
Tudor who claimed the throne and became King (Henry VII)