Fort Lee Historic Park
Fort Lee Historic Park is located atop a bluff of the Hudson Palisades overlooking Burdett's Landing, known as Mount Constitution, in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Native Americans appear to have lived in the area for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans. Site of George Washington's 1776 encampment opposite Fort Washington at the northern end of Manhattan. Fort Lee is named for General Charles Lee; the site is a reconstruction of the encampment including the blockhouse, quarters as well as a visitors center. It is part of Palisades Interstate Park. At the north end of the park there are two overlooks with views of the George Washington Bridge, the Hudson River, the skyline of upper Manhattan. There is metered parking. Fort Lee Fort Constitution, was an American Revolutionary War fort located on the crest of the Hudson Palisades in what was Hackensack Township, New Jersey opposite Fort Washington at the northern end of Manhattan Island. General George Washington issued orders to General Mercer to summon all available troops and erect a fort on the west side of the Hudson River.
Construction commenced in July 1776 on the new fort. It was located on the western side of the road. Concurrently, Fort Washington was being built directly across the North River in New York. Chevaux-de-frise, south of the Hudson River Chain, were laid between them; these twin forts were intended to protect the lower Hudson from British warships. At first efforts were concentrated close to the water level near Burdett's Landing. Fortifications were added atop the bluff under the supervision of Joseph Philips, Battalion Commander of the New Jersey State Militia; the Bourdette's ferry service was taken over by the Army, Peter Bourdette was forced to vacate his house. At the end of September 1776, Fort Constitution was renamed Fort Lee, for General Charles Lee of the Continental Army. George Washington used the stone Bourdette house for his headquarters when he passed time at Fort Lee. At this stage of the war the ferry operated as a supply line and the only link between Forts Lee and Washington; the Battle of Fort Lee on November 20, 1776 marked the successful invasion of New Jersey by British and Hessian forces and the subsequent general retreat of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.
Peter Bourdette's sixteen-year-old son named Peter, provided assistance by direct use of the landing. During the week leading up to the evacuation of Fort Lee he rowed back and forth across the river gathering information for General Washington on the anticipated movements of the British forces. Well after dark on the night before the battle for New York at Fort Washington, George Washington was rowed from Burdett's Landing to the middle of the Hudson River for a strategy session with his senior officers in charge of New York, who rowed to meet him. On November 16, 1776 George Washington witnessed the battle for New York from across the river on the bluff of Fort Lee, above Burdett's Landing. Fort Lee was rendered defenseless after Continental Army troops holding Fort Washington were defeated and captured on November 16, 1776; the Royal Navy controlled the Hudson River. General William Howe ordered Charles Cornwallis to "clear the rebel troops from New Jersey without a major engagement, to do it before the weather changed."
The force included. The invasion of New Jersey began the night of November 19–20, when 5,000 British troops ferried across the Hudson on barges and began landing near New Dock Landing. George Washington and Nathanael Greene ordered the evacuation of the fort on the morning of November 20, 1776; the soldiers began a hasty retreat west, crossing the Hackensack River at New Bridge Landing and the Passaic River at Acquackanonk Bridge It was during Washington's retreat that Thomas Paine composed his pamphlet, "The American Crisis", which began with the recognized phrase, "These are the times that try men's souls". Fort Lee Museum is located in Monument Park. Which was created by the Daughters of the American Revolution and dedicated in 1908 at ceremony attended by General John "Black Jack" Pershing; the park was part of the original Fort Constitution of the Continental Army under the leadership of General George Washington. Over 2,600 troops were stationed around the Monument Park area. In 2004, the park was reconstructed for the Fort Lee Centennial Celebration.
A time capsule was placed at the foot of the monument, to be opened at the Bicentennial Celebration in the year 2104. Monument Park and Continental Army Plaza in Williamsburg, Brooklyn are the only parks in the United States dedicated to the soldiers of the American Revolution. New Jersey during the American Revolution Battle of Fort Washington Hudson River Chain New Bridge Landing Palisades Interstate Park Adams, Arthur G.. The Hudson River Guidebook. New York: Fordham University Press. ISBN 978-0-8232-1679-6. Fischer, David Hackett. "The Retreat. Cornwallis and the Conquest of New Jersey". Washington's Crossing. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-517034-2. Hall, Edward Hagaman. "Fort Lee, New Jersey. A Sketch of its Revolutionary History". Fourteenth Annual Report. New York: The American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society. Lefkowitz, Arthur S.. The Long Retreat: The Calamitous American Defense of New Jersey, 1776. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-08135-2759-8.
Mack, Arthur C.. "Historic Old Fort Lee". The Palisades of The H
Throggs Neck
Throggs Neck is a neighborhood and peninsula in the southeastern portion of the borough of the Bronx in New York City. It is bounded by the East River and Long Island Sound to the south and east, Westchester Creek on the west, Baisley Avenue and the Bruckner Expressway on the north; the neighborhood is part of Bronx Community District 10, its ZIP Code is 10465. Throggs Neck is patrolled by the 45th Precinct of the New York City Police Department. Throggs Neck is a narrow spit of land in the southeastern portion of the borough of the Bronx in New York City, it demarcates the passage between the East Long Island Sound. "Throggs Neck" is the name of the neighborhood of the peninsula, bounded on the north by Baisley Avenue and the Bruckner Expressway, on the west by Westchester Creek, on the other sides by the River and the Sound. Throggs Neck is at the northern approach to the Throgs Neck Bridge, which connects the Bronx with the neighborhood of Bay Terrace in the borough of Queens on Long Island.
The Throgs Neck Lighthouse stood at its southern tip. The spelling of the area has been disputed; the traditionally correct spelling is with two Gs, while NYC Parks Commissioner and Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority Chairman Robert Moses shortened it to one G after deciding that two would not fit on many of the street signs, long-time residents continue to recognize the traditional spelling. The peninsula was called "Land of Peace", by the New Netherlanders; the current name comes from John Throckmorton, English immigrant and associate of Roger Williams in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The Dutch allowed Throckmorton to settle in this peripheral area of New Amsterdam in 1642, with thirty-five others. At this time, the peninsula was known as Maxson's point as the Maxson family lived there. Many of the settlers, including Anne Hutchinson and her family, were murdered in a 1643 uprising of Native Americans. Throckmorton returned to Rhode Island. In 1668, the peninsula appeared on maps as "Frockes Neck".
The peninsula was an island at high tide. In 1776, George Washington's headquarters wrote of a potential British landing at "Frogs Neck". At the bridge over Westchester Creek, now represented by an unobtrusive steel and concrete span at East Tremont Avenue near Westchester Avenue, General Howe did make an unsuccessful effort to cut off Washington's troops in October 1776. A farm in the area owned by the Stephenson family was sold in 1795 to Abijah Hammond, who built a large mansion. In the 19th century, the area remained the site of large farms, converted into estates. About 1848 members of the Morris family purchased a large parcel of land and built two mansions and many cottages and service buildings, reached by a private dock in Morris Cove at the end of what is now Emerson Avenue, where they had nearly a mile of shoreline. After the Civil War, Collis P. Huntington, the railroad builder, owned an extensive parcel, which his heirs held until they were the last estate on Throggs Neck. Huntington's property was owned by Frederick C.
Havemeyer Jr. the sugar magnate, the Havemeyer-Huntington mansion is now home to Preston High School, New York. Throgs Neck Park, a 0.44-acre public park that faces Throggs Neck from the opposite shore at the end of Myers Street, was acquired as a public place in 1836. From 1833 to 1856, the construction of Fort Schuyler brought in laborers and craftsmen, many of whom were immigrants from Ireland, to settle in the area with their families. By the late 19th century, the area had developed into a fashionable but more public summer resort, which contained large German beer gardens, to which the residents of Yorkville arrived by steamboat service up the East River; the 19th-century steamboat landing at Ferris Dock on Westchester Creek stood at present-day Brush Avenue north of Wenner Place. The Ferris family were 18th-century residents, whose Ferris Point at the southeast corner of the Throggs Neck neighborhood now supports the Hutchinson River Parkway overhead ramp to the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge and Ferry Point Park.
In the decades after the incorporation of the Bronx into the City of Greater New York in 1898, transit lines were extended to the neighborhood, bringing in many Italian farmers and tradesmen. In the 1920s the large estates became converted into smaller row homes and densely built bungalow lots; the Peters and Sorgenfrel families formed Silver Beach Garden, a summer colony of bungalows that were adapted for year-round use. Residents rented the land when they joined together to buy it. Nearby to the north, a campsite for church youth transformed into a bungalow colony named Edgewater Park. In 1932, Fort Schuyler closed as an active military installation and became the campus for cadets of the State University of New York Maritime College. A 1929–39 pair of plans to expand the subway system with a Second Avenue Subway branch to Throggs Neck did not come to pass. By 1961, with the construction of the Throggs Neck Bridge, as well as the adjacent parkways, the neighborhood lost its comparative isolation.
However, Throggs Neck was exempt from the severe urban decay that affected much of the Bronx in the 1970s. The la
Battle of Harlem Heights
The Battle of Harlem Heights was fought during the New York and New Jersey campaign of the American Revolutionary War. The action took place in what is now the Morningside Heights and east into the future Harlem neighborhoods of northwestern Manhattan Island in what is now New York City on September 16, 1776; the Continental Army, under Commander-in-chief General George Washington, Major General Nathanael Greene, Major General Israel Putnam, totaling around 9,000 men, held a series of high ground positions in upper Manhattan. Opposite was the vanguard of the British Army totaling around 5,000 men under the command of Major General Henry Clinton. An early morning skirmish between a patrol of Knowlton's Rangers and British light infantry piquets developed into a running fight as the British pursued the Americans back through woods towards Washington's position on Harlem Heights; the overconfident British light troops, having advanced too far from their lines without support, had exposed themselves to counter-attack.
Washington, seeing this, ordered a flanking maneuver which failed to cut off the British force but in the face of this attack and pressure from troops arriving from the Harlem Heights position, the outnumbered British retreated. Meeting reinforcements coming from the south and with the added support of a pair of field pieces, the British light infantry turned and made a stand in open fields on Morningside Heights; the Americans reinforced, came on in strength and there followed a lengthy exchange of fire. After two hours, with ammunition running short, the British force began to pull back to their lines. Washington cut short the pursuit, unwilling to risk a general engagement with the British main force, withdrew to his own lines; the battle helped restore the confidence of the Continental Army after suffering several defeats. It was Washington's first battlefield success of the war. After a month without any major fighting between the armies, Washington was forced to withdraw his army north to the town of White Plains in southeastern New York when the British moved north into Westchester County and threatened to trap Washington further south on Manhattan.
After two defeats Washington retreated west across the Hudson River. On August 27, 1776, British troops under the command of General William Howe flanked and defeated the American army at the Battle of Long Island. Howe moved his forces and pinned the Americans down at Brooklyn Heights, with the East River to the American rear. On the night of August 29, General George Washington, Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, evacuated his entire army of 9,000 men and their equipment across the water to Manhattan. On September 15, Howe landed his army in an amphibious operation at Kip's Bay, on the eastern shore of Manhattan, along the East River. After a bombardment of the American positions on the shore, 4,000 British and Hessian troops landed, they fought the Battle of Kip's Bay; the American troops began to flee at the sight of the enemy, after Washington arrived on the scene and took immediate command, demanding that his soldiers fight, they refused to obey orders and continued to flee. After scattering the Americans at Kip's Bay, Howe landed 9,000 more troops, but did not cut off the American retreat from New York Town in the south of the island.
Washington had all of his troops in the city on their way to north along the westside of Manhattan to Harlem Heights by 4:00 pm and they all reached the fortifications on the Heights by nightfall. Early on September 16, Washington received reports, which proved to be unfounded, that the British were advancing. Washington, expecting an attack, had ordered a party of 150 men under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Knowlton to reconnoiter the British lines. At daybreak, Knowlton's troops were spotted by British pickets from Brigadier Alexander Leslie's Light Infantry brigade. Two or three companies of the 2nd Light Infantry Battalion advanced to attack the enemy to their front. For more than half an hour the skirmish continued, in the woods spanning two farm properties, Jones' and Hoaglandt's; when Knowlton realized that the numerically superior British forces were about to turn his flank, he ordered a retreat, conducted "without confusion or loss", although ten men had been lost in the initial skirmish.
The British followed in rapid pursuit. Knowlton's party emerged into the open on the edge of the woods overlooking a wide re-entrant known as the Hollow Way, which marked the forward edge of Washington's position; the rangers crossed into the American lines while the pursuing light infantry, on reaching the tree line, paused to reorganize. The sound of their bugle calls, whether calling the skirmishers to regroup or calling for reinforcements, to Colonel Joseph Reed, Washington's Adjutant General, were reminiscent of a fox hunt, seemed to him to be intended as an insult. About this time, elements of the 2nd and 3rd Light Infantry Battalions, along with the 42nd Highlanders were ordered up as reinforcements. Reed, who had gone forward to confer with Knowlton, rode back to brief Washington and encouraged him to reinforce the rangers. Washington, seeing an opportunity to revive the spirits of his men, devised a plan to entrap the unwary enemy patrol, he ordered troops forward to make a diversionary attack, in order to draw the British down into the Hollow Way, while another detachment moved around the British right flank to cut them off.
The diversionary party, composed of 150 volunteers, ran into the Hollow Way and began to engage the British, who responded by advancing down into the valley to occupy a wooded fenceline and returned fire. The volunteers were reinforced by a further 900 men and a prolonged exchange of fire ensued, although the two sides were too far apart to d
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of 209,331 km2, it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island, the ninth-largest island in the world. In 2011, Great Britain had a population of about 61 million people, making it the world's third-most populous island after Java in Indonesia and Honshu in Japan; the island of Ireland is situated to the west of Great Britain, together these islands, along with over 1,000 smaller surrounding islands, form the British Isles archipelago. The island is dominated by a maritime climate with quite narrow temperature differences between seasons. Politically, Great Britain is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, constitutes most of its territory. Most of England and Wales are on the island; the term "Great Britain" is used to include the whole of England and Wales including their component adjoining islands. A single Kingdom of Great Britain resulted from the union of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland by the 1707 Acts of Union.
In 1801, Great Britain united with the neighbouring Kingdom of Ireland, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, renamed the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" after the Irish Free State seceded in 1922. The archipelago has been referred to by a single name for over 2000 years: the term'British Isles' derives from terms used by classical geographers to describe this island group. By 50 BC Greek geographers were using equivalents of Prettanikē as a collective name for the British Isles. However, with the Roman conquest of Britain the Latin term Britannia was used for the island of Great Britain, Roman-occupied Britain south of Caledonia; the earliest known name for Great Britain is Albion or insula Albionum, from either the Latin albus meaning "white" or the "island of the Albiones". The oldest mention of terms related to Great Britain was by Aristotle, or by Pseudo-Aristotle, in his text On the Universe, Vol. III. To quote his works, "There are two large islands in it, called the British Isles and Ierne".
Pliny the Elder in his Natural History records of Great Britain: "Its former name was Albion. Old French Bretaigne and Middle English Bretayne, Breteyne; the French form replaced the Old English Breoton, Bryten, Breten. Britannia was used by the Romans from the 1st century BC for the British Isles taken together, it is derived from the travel writings of the Pytheas around 320 BC, which described various islands in the North Atlantic as far north as Thule. Marcian of Heraclea, in his Periplus maris exteri, described the island group as αἱ Πρεττανικαὶ νῆσοι; the peoples of these islands of Prettanike were called the Priteni or Pretani. Priteni is the source of the Welsh language term Prydain, which has the same source as the Goidelic term Cruithne used to refer to the early Brythonic-speaking inhabitants of Ireland; the latter were called Picts or Caledonians by the Romans. Greek historians Diodorus of Sicily and Strabo preserved variants of Prettanike from the work of Greek explorer Pytheas of Massalia, who travelled from his home in Hellenistic southern Gaul to Britain in the 4th century BC.
The term used by Pytheas may derive from a Celtic word meaning "the painted ones" or "the tattooed folk" in reference to body decorations. The Greco-Egyptian scientist Ptolemy referred to the larger island as great Britain and to Ireland as little Britain in his work Almagest. In his work, Geography, he gave the islands the names Alwion and Mona, suggesting these may have been the names of the individual islands not known to him at the time of writing Almagest; the name Albion appears to have fallen out of use sometime after the Roman conquest of Britain, after which Britain became the more commonplace name for the island. After the Anglo-Saxon period, Britain was used as a historical term only. Geoffrey of Monmouth in his pseudohistorical Historia Regum Britanniae refers to the island as Britannia major, to distinguish it from Britannia minor, the continental region which approximates to modern Brittany, settled in the fifth and sixth centuries by migrants from Britain; the term Great Britain was first used in 1474, in the instrument drawing up the proposal for a marriage between Cecily the daughter of Edward IV of England, James the son of James III of Scotland, which described it as "this Nobill Isle, callit Gret Britanee".
It was used again in 1604, when King James VI and I styled himself "King of Great Brittaine and Ireland". Great Britain refers geographically to the island of Great Britain, it is often used to refer politically to the whole of England and Wales, including their smaller off shore islands. While it is sometimes used to refer to the whole of the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland, this is not correct. Britain can refer to either all island
Battle of Millstone
The Battle of Millstone known as the Battle of Van Nest's Mill, was a skirmish that occurred near the mill of Abraham Van Nest in Weston, New Jersey on January 20, 1777, during the American Revolutionary War. A British foraging party was flanked and driven off by forces composed of New Jersey militia, depriving the British of their wagons and supplies; this action was one of a series of skirmishes known as the Forage War that persisted in northern New Jersey through the first few months of 1777, it demonstrated that militia companies were capable of putting up a significant fight. After George Washington's successful movements around the army of Charles Cornwallis that culminated in the Battle of Princeton on January 3, 1777, Washington faced the dilemma of being caught between Cornwallis in Trenton, New Jersey and the rest of the British Army at New Brunswick, New Jersey. Rather than make an attempt on the British outpost at New Brunswick with his exhausted troops, Washington moved his army up the Millstone River valley toward Morristown, New Jersey, a place he knew could be fortified and used as winter quarters.
Cornwallis and the remaining British and Hessian troops in and around Trenton and Princeton withdrew to New Brunswick to regroup after the battle at Princeton. On January 13, a significant portion of the British army advanced from New Brunswick west to Somerset Court House, remained there for about a week before retreating back to New Brunswick, destroying houses and plundering supplies. During this time, militia companies mustered to assist the Continental Army; these movements established the area west of New Brunswick up to the Millstone and Raritan rivers as a no man's land between the two forces. Following the British retreat, Somerset Court House became one of several outposts garrisoned by Patriot militia companies, with support from the Continental Army. A British foraging party of 500 men, led by Lieutenant Colonel Robert Abercromby of the 37th Foot, left New Brunswick on January 20, headed west toward the Millstone River, they crossed over the river, leaving a rear guard of Hessians with some field artillery to cover the bridge, reached Van Nest's mill at Weston, New Jersey, a few miles north of Somerset Court House, near the point where the Millstone empties into the Raritan.
There they seized supplies of all varieties, prepared to return to New Brunswick. Militia companies to the north were alerted to the British movement early in the day, some marched for Bound Brook, New Jersey; when reports arrived of the activity at Van Nest's mill, they marched for that place. In all about 400 New Jersey militia and 50 Pennsylvania militia formed under Brigadier General Philemon Dickinson to dispute the British action. While detailed accounts of their movements are sketchy, Dickinson divided his forces, sending one force to meet the front of the British wagon train, while a second moved to flank them. Both of these forces forded one of the rivers, wading in icy water, waist deep. One surprised the British wagon train in the lane near the mill, before it reached the main road and the bridge toward New Brunswick; this stopped the train, scattered the wagon drivers and drove the British to retreat precipitously toward the bridge, leaving their booty behind. When the militiamen reached the bridge, the Hessian rear guard fired grape shot from its artillery to cover the retreat.
After an exchange of fire across the river without apparent consequence, the British withdrew. Dickinson wrote in a letter to Colonel John Nielson on January 23, "I have the pleasure to inform you that on Monday last with about 450 men chiefly our militia I attacked a foraging party near V. Nest Mills consisting of 500 men with 2 field pieces, which we routed after an engagement of 20 minutes and brought off 107 horses, 49 wagons, 115 cattle, 70 sheep, 40 barrels of flour - 106 bags and many other things, 49 prisoners." General Washington, not always happy with the performance of the militias, wrote, "Genl Dickinsons behaviour reflects the highest honour upon him, for tho' his Troops were all raw, he lead them thro' the River, middle deep, gave the Enemy so severe a charge, altho' supported by three field pieces, they gave way and left their Convoy", only reported the taking of nine prisoners. Archibald Robertson, a British officer, not part of the expedition, reported that "Lieutenant Colonel Abercromby with 500 men went on a foraging party towards Hillsborough.
Part of this Corps was attacked by the Rebels, which occasion'd such disorder Amongst the Waggon Drivers that 42 Waggons were left behind." One British witness was "absolutely certain the attackers were not militia, they were sure that no militia would fight in that way."Casualty figures were variable, but British casualties appear to have been in the low 30s according to press accounts, while militia casualties were small in number. Skirmishing continued between American and British forces throughout the winter in a period that historian David Hackett Fischer dubbed the Forage War, since it revolved around the British need for forage for its horses; the American tactics driven by New Jersey militia commanders but supported by Washington and the Continentals, were so successful that British foraging parties of 2,000 men came under attack at the Battle of Quibbletown on February 8. Fischer, David Hackett. Washington's Crossing. Oxford Universit
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years War against the Kingdom of France; the modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century. From the middle decades of the 17th century, through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century, it was the world's most powerful navy until surpassed by the United States Navy during the Second World War; the Royal Navy played a key part in establishing the British Empire as the unmatched world power during the 19th and first part of the 20th centuries. Due to this historical prominence, it is common among non-Britons, to refer to it as "the Royal Navy" without qualification. Following World War I, the Royal Navy was reduced in size, although at the onset of World War II it was still the world's largest.
By the end of the war, the United States Navy had emerged as the world's largest. During the Cold War, the Royal Navy transformed into a anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines and active in the GIUK gap. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, its focus has returned to expeditionary operations around the world and remains one of the world's foremost blue-water navies. However, 21st century reductions in naval spending have led to a personnel shortage and a reduction in the number of warships; the Royal Navy maintains a fleet of technologically sophisticated ships and submarines including two aircraft carriers, two amphibious transport docks, four ballistic missile submarines, six nuclear fleet submarines, six guided missile destroyers, 13 frigates, 13 mine-countermeasure vessels and 22 patrol vessels. As of November 2018, there are 74 commissioned ships in the Royal Navy, plus 12 ships of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary; the RFA replenishes Royal Navy warships at sea, augments the Royal Navy's amphibious warfare capabilities through its three Bay-class landing ship vessels.
It works as a force multiplier for the Royal Navy doing patrols that frigates used to do. The total displacement of the Royal Navy is 408,750 tonnes; the Royal Navy is part of Her Majesty's Naval Service, which includes the Royal Marines. The professional head of the Naval Service is the First Sea Lord, an admiral and member of the Defence Council of the United Kingdom; the Defence Council delegates management of the Naval Service to the Admiralty Board, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The Royal Navy operates three bases in the United Kingdom; as the seaborne branch of HM Armed Forces, the RN has various roles. As it stands today, the RN has stated its 6 major roles as detailed below in umbrella terms. Preventing Conflict – On a global and regional level Providing Security At Sea – To ensure the stability of international trade at sea International Partnerships – To help cement the relationship with the United Kingdom's allies Maintaining a Readiness To Fight – To protect the United Kingdom's interests across the globe Protecting the Economy – To safe guard vital trade routes to guarantee the United Kingdom's and its allies' economic prosperity at sea Providing Humanitarian Aid – To deliver a fast and effective response to global catastrophes The strength of the fleet of the Kingdom of England was an important element in the kingdom's power in the 10th century.
At one point Aethelred II had an large fleet built by a national levy of one ship for every 310 hides of land, but it is uncertain whether this was a standard or exceptional model for raising fleets. During the period of Danish rule in the 11th century, the authorities maintained a standing fleet by taxation, this continued for a time under the restored English regime of Edward the Confessor, who commanded fleets in person. English naval power declined as a result of the Norman conquest. Following the Battle of Hastings, the Norman navy that brought over William the Conqueror disappeared from records due to William receiving all of those ships from feudal obligations or because of some sort of leasing agreement which lasted only for the duration of the enterprise. More troubling, is the fact that there is no evidence that William adopted or kept the Anglo-Saxon ship mustering system, known as the scipfryd. Hardly noted after 1066, it appears that the Normans let the scipfryd languish so that by 1086, when the Doomsday Book was completed, it had ceased to exist.
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in 1068, Harold Godwinson's sons Godwine and Edmund conducted a ‘raiding-ship army’ which came from Ireland, raiding across the region and to the townships of Bristol and Somerset. In the following year of 1069, they returned with a bigger fleet which they sailed up the River Taw before being beaten back by a local earl near Devon. However, this made explicitly clear that the newly conquered England under Norman rule, in effect, ceded the Irish Sea to the Irish, the Vikings of Dublin, other Norwegians. Besides ceding away the Irish Sea, the Normans ceded the North Sea, a major area where Nordic peoples traveled. In 1069, this lack of naval presence in the North Sea allowed for the invasion an
Kingdom of Great Britain
The Kingdom of Great Britain called Great Britain, was a sovereign state in western Europe from 1 May 1707 to 31 December 1800. The state came into being following the Treaty of Union in 1706, ratified by the Acts of Union 1707, which united the kingdoms of England and Scotland to form a single kingdom encompassing the whole island of Great Britain and its outlying islands, with the exception of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands; the unitary state was governed by a single parliament and government, based in Westminster. The former kingdoms had been in personal union since James VI of Scotland became King of England and King of Ireland in 1603 following the death of Elizabeth I, bringing about the "Union of the Crowns". After the accession of George I to the throne of Great Britain in 1714, the kingdom was in a personal union with the Electorate of Hanover; the early years of the unified kingdom were marked by Jacobite risings which ended in defeat for the Stuart cause at Culloden in 1746.
In 1763, victory in the Seven Years' War led to the dominance of the British Empire, to become the foremost global power for over a century and grew to become the largest empire in history. The Kingdom of Great Britain was replaced by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 January 1801 with the Acts of Union 1800; the name Britain descends from the Latin name for the island of Great Britain, Britannia or Brittānia, the land of the Britons via the Old French Bretaigne and Middle English Bretayne, Breteyne. The term Great Britain was first used in 1474; the use of the word "Great" before "Britain" originates in the French language, which uses Bretagne for both Britain and Brittany. French therefore distinguishes between the two by calling Britain la Grande Bretagne, a distinction, transferred into English; the Treaty of Union and the subsequent Acts of Union state that England and Scotland were to be "United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain", as such "Great Britain" was the official name of the state, as well as being used in titles such as "Parliament of Great Britain".
Both the Acts and the Treaty describe the country as "One Kingdom" and a "United Kingdom", which has led some much publications into the error of treating the "United Kingdom" as a name before it came into being in 1801. The websites of the Scottish Parliament, the BBC, others, including the Historical Association, refer to the state created on 1 May 1707 as the United Kingdom of Great Britain; the term United Kingdom was sometimes used during the 18th century to describe the state, but was not its name. The kingdoms of England and Scotland, both in existence from the 9th century, were separate states until 1707. However, they had come into a personal union in 1603, when James VI of Scotland became king of England under the name of James I; this Union of the Crowns under the House of Stuart meant that the whole of the island of Great Britain was now ruled by a single monarch, who by virtue of holding the English crown ruled over the Kingdom of Ireland. Each of the three kingdoms maintained laws.
Various smaller islands were in the king's domain, including the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. This disposition changed when the Acts of Union 1707 came into force, with a single unified Crown of Great Britain and a single unified parliament. Ireland remained formally separate, with its own parliament, until the Acts of Union 1800; the Union of 1707 provided for a Protestant-only succession to the throne in accordance with the English Act of Settlement of 1701. The Act of Settlement required that the heir to the English throne be a descendant of the Electress Sophia of Hanover and not be a Catholic. Legislative power was vested in the Parliament of Great Britain, which replaced both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. In practice it was a continuation of the English parliament, sitting at the same location in Westminster, expanded to include representation from Scotland; as with the former Parliament of England and the modern Parliament of the United Kingdom, the Parliament of Great Britain was formally constituted of three elements: the House of Commons, the House of Lords, the Crown.
The right of the English peerage to sit in the House of Lords remained unchanged, while the disproportionately large Scottish peerage was permitted to send only 16 representative peers, elected from amongst their number for the life of each parliament. The members of the former English House of Commons continued as members of the British House of Commons, but as a reflection of the relative tax bases of the two countries the number of Scottish representatives was reduced to 45. Newly created peers in the Peerage of Great Britain were given the automatic right to sit in the Lords. Despite the end of a separate parliament for Scotland, it retained its own laws and system of courts, As its own established Presbyterian Church, control over its own schools; the social structure was hierarchical, the same elite remain in control after 1707. Scotland continued to have its own excellent universities, with the strong intellectual community in Edinburgh, The Scottish Enlightenment had a major impact on British and European thinking.
As a result of Poynings' Law of 1495, the Parliament of Ireland was subordinate to the Parliament of England, after 1707 to the Parliament of Great Britain. The Westminster parliament's Declaratory Act 1719 (also called the Dependency of Ireland
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