1.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
2.
House of Hanover
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Upon Victorias death, the British throne passed to her eldest son Edward VII, a member of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha through his father. The House of Hanover was formally named the House of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Hanover line, the senior branch became extinct in 1884, and the House of Hanover is now the only surviving branch of the House of Welf, which is the senior branch of the House of Este. The current head of the House of Hanover is Ernst August, George, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, is considered the first member of the House of Hanover. When the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg was divided in 1635, George inherited the Principality of Calenberg and his son, Christian Louis inherited the Principality of Lüneburg from Georges brother. Calenberg and Lüneburg were then shared between Georges sons until united in 1705 under his grandson, also called George, who subsequently became George I of Great Britain, all held the title Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. George died in 1641 and was succeeded by, Christian Louis, 1st son of Duke George, Prince of Calenberg and he relinquished Calenburg when he became Prince of Lüneburg. George William, 2nd son of Duke George, Prince of Calenberg and he relinquished Calenburg when he became Prince of Lüneburg on the death of his brother, Christian Louis. John Frederick, 3rd son of Duke George, Prince of Calenberg, Ernest Augustus, 4th son of Duke George, Prince of Calenberg. He became Prince of Calenberg on the death of his brother John Frederick and he was elevated to prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire in 1692. Ernest Augustuss wife, Sophia of the Palatinate, was declared heiress of the throne of England by the Act of Settlement of 1701, Sophia was at that time the senior eligible Protestant descendant of James I of England. George Louis, son of Duke Ernest Augustus and Sophia, became Elector and Prince of Calenberg in 1698 and he inherited his mothers claim to the throne of Great Britain when she died in 1714. George Louis became the first British monarch of the House of Hanover as George I in 1714, George I, George II, and George III also served as electors and dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg, informally, Electors of Hanover. From 1814, when Hanover became a kingdom, the British monarch was also King of Hanover, in 1837, however, the personal union of the thrones of the United Kingdom and Hanover ended. After the death of William IV in 1837, the kings of Hanover continued the dynasty. The 1866 rift between the House of Hanover and the House of Hohenzollern was settled only by the 1913 marriage of Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia to Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick. At the end of the Thirty Years War, the Peace of Westphalia awarded the Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück alternately to a Catholic bishop, since the treaty gave cadets priority over heirs and reigning princes, Osnabrück became a form of appanage of the House of Hanover. In 1884, the branch of the House of Welf became extinct. By a law of 1879, the Duchy of Brunswick established a council of regency to take over at the Dukes death
3.
Kingdom of Great Britain
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The Kingdom of Great Britain, officially Great Britain, was a sovereign state in western Europe from 1 May 1707 to 31 December 1800. It did not include Ireland, which remained a separate realm, the unitary state was governed by a single parliament and government that was based in Westminster. Also after the accession of George I to the throne of Great Britain in 1714, the early years of the unified kingdom were marked by Jacobite risings which ended in defeat for the Stuart cause at Culloden in 1746. On 1 January 1801, the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland were merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922, five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom, 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 officially in 1474, in the instrument drawing up the proposal for a marriage between Edward IV of Englands daughter Cecily and James III of Scotlands son James. 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. However, both the Acts and the Treaty also refer numerous times to the United Kingdom and the longer form, other publications refer to the country as the United Kingdom after 1707 as well. The websites of the UK parliament, the Scottish Parliament, the BBC, additionally, the term United Kingdom was found in informal use during the 18th century to describe the state. The new state created in 1707 included the island of Great Britain, the kingdoms of England and Scotland, both in existence from the 9th century, were separate states until 1707. However, they had come into a union in 1603. Each of the three kingdoms maintained its own parliament and laws and this disposition changed dramatically 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, 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 location in Westminster. Newly created peers in the Peerage of Great Britain were given the right to sit in the Lords. Despite the end of a parliament for Scotland, it retained its own laws. As a result of Poynings Law of 1495, the Parliament of Ireland was subordinate to the Parliament of England, the Act was repealed by the Repeal of Act for Securing Dependence of Ireland Act 1782. The same year, the Irish constitution of 1782 produced a period of legislative freedom, the 18th century saw England, and after 1707 Great Britain, rise to become the worlds dominant colonial power, with France its main rival on the imperial stage
4.
House of Stuart
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The House of Stuart, originally Stewart and, in Gaelic, Stiùbhart was a European royal house that originated in Scotland. The dynastys patrilineal Breton ancestors had held the office of High Steward of Scotland since the 12th century, the royal Stewart line was founded by Robert II, and they were Kings and Queens of Scots from the late 14th century until the union with England in 1707. Mary I, Queen of Scots was brought up in France and her son, James VI of Scotland, inherited the thrones of England and Ireland upon the death of Elizabeth I in 1603. Except for the period of the Commonwealth, 1649–1660, the Stuarts were monarchs of England, Scotland and Ireland until 1707, then of Great Britain and Ireland, in total, nine Stewart/Stuart monarchs ruled Scotland alone from 1371 until 1603. James VI of Scotland then inherited the realms of Elizabeth I of England, following the Glorious Revolution in 1688, two Stuart queens ruled the isles, Mary II and Anne. Both were the Protestant daughters of James VII and II by his first wife, during the reign of the Stuarts, Scotland developed from a relatively poor and feudal country into a prosperous, modern and centralised state. They ruled during a time in European history of transition from the Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, monarchs such as James IV were known for sponsoring exponents of the Northern Renaissance such as the poet Robert Henryson, and others. The name Stewart derives from the position of office similar to a governor. It was originally adopted as the surname by Walter Stewart, 3rd High Steward of Scotland. Prior to this, family names were not used, but instead they had patronyms defined through the father, the gallicised spelling was first borne by John Stewart of Darnley after his time in the French wars. During the 16th century, the French spelling Stuart was adopted by Mary, Queen of Scots, the FitzAlan family quickly established themselves as a prominent Anglo-Norman noble house, with some of its members serving as High Sheriff of Shropshire. It was the great-grandson of Alan named Walter FitzAlan who became the first hereditary High Steward of Scotland, another supporter of Matilda was her uncle David I of Scotland from the House of Dunkeld. After Matilda was pushed out of England into the County of Anjou, essentially failing in her legitimist attempt for the throne, many of her supporters in England fled also. It was then that Walter followed David up to the Kingdom of Scotland, where he was granted lands in Renfrewshire, the next monarch of Scotland, Malcolm IV, made the High Steward title a hereditary arrangement. While High Stewards, the family were based at Dundonald, South Ayrshire between the 12th and 13th centuries. The sixth High Steward of Scotland, Walter Stewart, married Marjorie, daughter of Robert the Bruce, in 1503, James IV attempted to secure peace with England by marrying King Henry VIIs daughter, Margaret Tudor. The birth of their son, later James V, brought the House of Stewart into the line of descent of the House of Tudor, and the English throne. Margaret Tudor later married Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus, and their daughter, Margaret Douglas, was the mother of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley
5.
Anne, Queen of Great Britain
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Anne became Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702. On 1 May 1707, under the Acts of Union, two of her realms, the kingdoms of England and Scotland, united as a sovereign state known as Great Britain. She continued to reign as Queen of Great Britain and Ireland until her death, Anne was born in the reign of her uncle Charles II, who had no legitimate children. Her father, James, was first in line to the throne and his suspected Roman Catholicism was unpopular in England, and on Charless instructions Anne was raised as an Anglican. Three years after he succeeded Charles, James was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, Annes Dutch Protestant brother-in-law and cousin William III became joint monarch with his wife, Annes elder sister Mary II. Although the sisters had been close, disagreements over Annes finances, status and choice of acquaintances arose shortly after Marys accession, William and Mary had no children. After Marys death in 1694, William continued as sole monarch until he was succeeded by Anne upon his death in 1702, as queen, Anne favoured moderate Tory politicians, who were more likely to share her Anglican religious views than their opponents, the Whigs. The Whigs grew more powerful during the course of the War of the Spanish Succession and her close friendship with Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, turned sour as the result of political differences. Anne was plagued by ill health throughout her life, from her thirties onwards, she grew increasingly lame and obese. Despite seventeen pregnancies by her husband, Prince George of Denmark, she died without any surviving children and was the last monarch of the House of Stuart. Anne was born at 11,39 p. m. on 6 February 1665 at St Jamess Palace, London, the child and second daughter of James, Duke of York. At her Anglican baptism in the Chapel Royal at St Jamess, her sister, Mary, was one of her godparents, along with the Duchess of Monmouth. The Duke and Duchess of York had eight children, but Anne, as a child, Anne suffered from an eye condition, which manifested as excessive watering known as defluxion. For medical treatment, she was sent to France, where she lived with her grandmother, Queen Henrietta Maria. Following her grandmothers death in 1669, Anne lived with an aunt, Henrietta Anne, on the sudden death of her aunt in 1670, Anne returned to England. Her mother died the following year, as was traditional in the royal family, Anne and her sister were brought up separated from their father in their own establishment at Richmond, London. On the instructions of Charles II, they were raised as Protestants, placed in the care of Colonel Edward and Lady Frances Villiers, their education was focused on the teachings of the Anglican church. Henry Compton, Bishop of London, was appointed as Annes preceptor, around 1671, Anne first made the acquaintance of Sarah Jennings, who later became her close friend and one of her most influential advisors
6.
James Francis Edward Stuart
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James Francis Edward, Prince of Wales, nicknamed the Old Pretender, was the son of the deposed James II of England and Ireland, VII of Scotland. As such, he claimed the English, Scottish and Irish thrones from the death of his father in 1701, following his death in 1766, he was succeeded by his son Charles Edward Stuart in the Jacobite Succession. Had his father not been deposed, Great Britain might have had two monarchs during his lifetime, his father and himself. Instead there were seven, his father, William III, Mary II, Anne, George I, George II and their attempts are remembered in history as Jacobitism. Prince James Francis Edward was born 10 June 1688, at St. Jamess Palace. He was the son of King James II of England and Ireland, and his Roman Catholic second wife, Mary of Modena, Mary and her younger sister Princess Anne, had been raised as Protestants. As long as there was a possibility of one of them succeeding him, in an attempt to scotch this myth, James published the testimonies of over seventy witnesses to the birth. On 9 December, in the midst of the Glorious Revolution, Mary of Modena disguised herself as a laundress, young James was brought up at the château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, which Louis XIV had turned over to the exiled James II. Both the ex-king and his family were held in consideration by the French king and they were frequent visitors at Versailles where Louis XIV. On his fathers death in 1701, James was recognised by King Louis XIV of France, spain, the Papal States and Modena also recognized him as King James III of England and VIII of Scotland and refused to recognise William III, Mary II or Anne as legitimate sovereigns. As a result of his claiming his fathers lost thrones, James was attainted for treason in London on 2 March 1702, though delayed in France by an attack of measles, James attempted invasion, trying to land at the Firth of Forth on 23 March 1708. The fleet of Admiral Sir George Byng intercepted the French ships, James served for a time in the French army, as his father had done during the inter-regnum. A year later however the British government pushed for Jamess expulsion from France as a precondition for a treaty with France. In accordance with the Treaty of Utrecht, Harley and Lord Bolingbroke, Queen Anne became severely ill at Christmas 1713, and seemed close to death. In January 1714, she recovered but clearly had not much longer to live, through de Torcy and his London agent, Abbé François Gaultier, Harley kept up the correspondence with James, and Bolingbroke had also entered into a separate correspondence with him. They both stated to James that his conversion to Protestantism would facilitate his restoration, however James, a devout Catholic, replied to Torcy, I have chosen my own course, therefore it is for others to change their sentiments. In March, came Jamess refusal to convert, following which Harley and Bolingbroke reached the opinion that Jamess restoration was not feasible, though they maintained their correspondence with him. As a result, in August 1714, Jamess second cousin, the Elector of Hanover, George of Hanover, in the following year Scottish Jacobites started The Fifteen Jacobite rising in Scotland, aimed at putting James III and VIII on the throne
7.
Whigs (British political party)
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The Whigs were a political faction and then a political party in the parliaments of England, Scotland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom. Between the 1680s and 1850s, they contested power with their rivals, the Whigs origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute monarchy. The Whigs played a role in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and were the standing enemies of the Stuart kings and pretenders. The Whigs took full control of the government in 1715, and remained dominant until King George III, coming to the throne in 1760. The Whig Supremacy was enabled by the Hanoverian succession of George I in 1714, the Whigs thoroughly purged the Tories from all major positions in government, the army, the Church of England, the legal profession, and local offices. The Partys hold on power was so strong and durable, historians call the period from roughly 1714 to 1783 the age of the Whig Oligarchy. The first great leader of the Whigs was Robert Walpole, who maintained control of the government through the period 1721–1742, his protégé was Henry Pelham, who led from 1743 to 1754. Both parties were founded on rich politicians, more than on votes, there were elections to the House of Commons. The Whig Party slowly evolved during the 18th century, later on, the Whigs drew support from the emerging industrial interests and wealthy merchants, while the Tories drew support from the landed interests and the royal family. The term Whig was originally short for whiggamor, a term meaning cattle driver used to describe western Scots who came to Leith for corn. In the reign of Charles I the term was used during Wars of the Three Kingdoms to refer derisively to a faction of the Scottish Covenanters who called themselves the Kirk Party. It was then applied to Scottish Presbyterian rebels who were against the Kings Episcopalian order in Scotland, Whig was a term of abuse applied to those who wanted to exclude James on the grounds that he was a Roman Catholic. The fervent Tory Samuel Johnson often joked that the first Whig was the Devil, the Whigs, under Lord Shaftesburys leadership, wished to exclude the Duke of York from the throne due to his Catholicism, his favouring of monarchical absolutism and his connections to France. They believed the Duke, if allowed to inherit the throne, would endanger the Protestant religion, liberty, the first Exclusion Bill was supported by a substantial majority on its second reading in May 1679. In response, King Charles prorogued Parliament and then dissolved it and this new parliament did not meet for thirteen months, because Charles wanted to give passions a chance to die down. When it met in October 1680, an Exclusion Bill was introduced and passed in the Commons without major resistance, Charles dissolved Parliament in January 1681, but the Whigs did not suffer serious losses in the ensuing election. The next Parliament first met in March, at Oxford, but Charles dissolved it only after a few days, when he made an appeal to the country against the Whigs, and determined to rule without Parliament. In February, Charles had made a deal with the French King Louis XIV, without Parliament, the Whigs gradually crumbled, mainly due to the Rye House Plot
8.
Westminster Abbey
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It is one of the United Kingdoms most notable religious buildings and the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English and, later, British monarchs. Between 1540 and 1556, the abbey had the status of a cathedral, since 1560, however, the building is no longer an abbey nor a cathedral, having instead the status of a Church of England Royal Peculiar—a church responsible directly to the sovereign. The building itself is the abbey church. According to a tradition first reported by Sulcard in about 1080, a church was founded at the site in the 7th century, at the time of Mellitus, construction of the present church began in 1245, on the orders of King Henry III. Since the coronation of William the Conqueror in 1066, all coronations of English and British monarchs have held in Westminster Abbey. There have been at least 16 royal weddings at the abbey since 1100, two were of reigning monarchs, although, before 1919, there had been none for some 500 years. The first reports of the abbey are based on a tradition claiming that a young fisherman called Aldrich on the River Thames saw a vision of Saint Peter near the site. This seems to be quoted to justify the gifts of salmon from Thames fishermen that the abbey received in later years, in the present was, the Fishmongers Company still gives a salmon every year. The proven origins are that in the 960s or early 970s, Saint Dunstan, assisted by King Edgar, between 1042 and 1052, King Edward the Confessor began rebuilding St Peters Abbey to provide himself with a royal burial church. It was the first church in England built in the Romanesque style, the building was completed around 1090 and was consecrated on 28 December 1065, only a week before Edwards death on 5 January 1066. A week later, he was buried in the church, and, nine years later and his successor, Harold II, was probably crowned in the abbey, although the first documented coronation is that of William the Conqueror later the same year. The only extant depiction of Edwards abbey, together with the adjacent Palace of Westminster, is in the Bayeux Tapestry, construction of the present church was begun in 1245 by Henry III who selected the site for his burial. The abbot and monks, in proximity to the royal Palace of Westminster, the abbot often was employed on royal service and in due course took his place in the House of Lords as of right. The abbey built shops and dwellings on the west side, encroaching upon the sanctuary, the abbey became the coronation site of Norman kings. The Confessors shrine subsequently played a part in his canonisation. The work continued between 1245 and 1517 and was finished by the architect Henry Yevele in the reign of Richard II. Henry III also commissioned the unique Cosmati pavement in front of the High Altar, Henry VII added a Perpendicular style chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1503. Much of the came from Caen, in France, the Isle of Portland
9.
Henry Sacheverell
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Henry Sacheverell /sæˈʃɛvərəl/ was an English High Church Anglican clergyman who achieved nationwide fame in 1709 after preaching an incendiary 5 November sermon. The son of Joshua Sacheverell, rector of St Peters, Marlborough, he was adopted by his godfather, Edward Hearst, and his wife after Joshuas death in 1684. His maternal grandfather, Henry Smith, after whom he was possibly named and his relations included what he labelled his fanatic kindred, his great-grandfather John was a rector, three of whose sons were Presbyterians. One of these sons, John, was ejected from his vicarage at the Restoration and he was more proud of distant relatives who were Midlands landed gentry that had supported the Royalist cause during the Civil War. The Hearsts were pious High Anglicans and were pleased with Sacheverell and he was educated at Marlborough Grammar School from 1684 to 1689. He was sent to Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1689, where he was a student until 1701, joseph Addison, another native of Wiltshire, had entered the same college two years earlier. It was at Sacheverells instigation that Addison wrote his ‘Account of the Greatest English Poets’, Sacheverell took his degree of B. A. on 30 June 1693, and became M. A. on 16 May 1695. The Bishop of Oxford, John Hough, ordained him deacon on 18 May 1695, however, when in 1697 he presented himself to the Bishop of Lichfield, William Lloyd, with a reference from the dean of Lichfield, Lloyd complained of his grammatically incorrect Latin. Sacheverell, who had published several Latin poems, quoted Latin grammars to verify his Latin, Lloyd sent his secretary to his library to prove Sacheverell wrong but failed to do so. In 1696 he was appointed chaplain to Sir Charles Holt and curate for Aston parish church, however, when the Aston living fell vacant, Holt refused to appoint Sacheverell. Sacheverell was threatened with prosecution for libel after preaching a fiery sermon but was dropped due to Sacheverells unimportance. In July 1701 he was elected Fellow of Magdalen College but his overbearing, in 1709 before his two famous sermons, Thomas Hearne dismissed him as a loud-mouthed wine-soaker. However he was a worker and an active teacher, being promoted to a variety of offices. In June 1703 he was appointed to a lectureship, in 1703 he was appointed College Librarian, in 1708 was appointed Senior Dean of Arts. His peroration included an appeal to Anglicans not to sail to a party which is an open and avowed enemy to our communion but instead to hang out the bloody flag. John Dennis also replied to Sacheverell in The Danger of Priestcraft to Religion, in support of the Tory candidate at the general election of 1702, Sir John Pakington, Sacheverell published The Character of a Low-Church-Man. This attacked William Lloyd and advised the clergy to be on the look out against false brethren within the Church, Pakington was grateful and recommended Sacheverell to Robert Harley as the Speakers chaplain. Harley, a moderate Tory with a Dissenting background, declined, only two other sermons in this period were printed, The Nature and Mischief of Prejudice and Partiality and The Nature, Guilt and Danger of Presumptuous Sins
10.
Taunton
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Taunton /ˈtɔːntən/ is the county town of Somerset, England. The built up area of the town had a population of 64,621 in 2011, the Normans then built a stone structured castle, which belonged to the Bishops of Winchester. The current heavily reconstructed buildings are the inner ward, which now houses the Museum of Somerset, the town is undergoing a regeneration project with redevelopment of the town centre. It has various transport links which support its role in economy. These have included the Grand Western Canal which reached Taunton in 1839, Taunton is the site of Musgrove Park Hospital and Somerset County Cricket Clubs County Ground and is home to 40 Commando, Royal Marines. Central Taunton is part of the annual West Country Carnival circuit and it hosts the Taunton flower show, which has been held in Vivary Park since 1866. The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office is located on Admiralty Way, the town name derives from Town on the River Tone — or Tone Town. Cambria Farm which is now the site of a Park and ride close to Junction 25 of the M5 motorway was the site of a Bronze and Iron Age settlement and Roman farm. There was a Romano-British village near the suburb of Holway, the Saxon town was a burh with its own mint. King Ine of Wessex threw up a castle here about 700. A monastery was founded before 904, the bishops of Winchester owned the manor, and obtained the first charter for their men of Taunton from King Edward in 904, freeing them from all royal and county tribute. Somerton took over from Ilchester as the county town in the thirteenth century, but it declined in importance. Between 1209 and 1311 the manor of Taunton, which was owned by the Bishop of Winchester, the parishes of Staplegrove, Wilton and Taunton itself were part of the Taunton Deane Hundred. In 1451 during the Wars of the Roses Taunton was the scene of a skirmish between Thomas de Courtenay, 13th Earl of Devon, and Baron Bonville, queen Margaret and her troops passed through in 1471 to defeat at the Battle of Tewkesbury. In the Second Cornish Uprising of 1497 most of the Cornish gentry supported Perkin Warbecks cause, Henry VII sent his chief general, Giles, Lord Daubeney, to attack the Cornish and when Warbeck heard that the Kings scouts were at Glastonbury he panicked and deserted his army. Henry VII reached Taunton on 4 October 1497 where he received the surrender of the remaining Cornish army, the ringleaders were executed and others fined a total of £13,000. Taunton Castle changed hands several times during the Civil War of 1642–45, during the Siege of Taunton it was defended by Robert Blake, from July 1644 to July 1645, with the town suffering destruction of many of the medieval and Tudor buildings. After the war, in 1662, the keep was demolished, the town did not obtain a charter of incorporation until 1627, which was renewed in 1677
11.
Birmingham
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Birmingham is a major city and metropolitan borough of West Midlands, England lying on the River Rea, a small river that runs through Birmingham. It is the largest and most populous British city outside London, the city is in the West Midlands Built-up Area, the third most populous urban area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2,440,986 at the 2011 census. Birminghams metropolitan area is the second most populous in the UK with a population of 3.8 million and this also makes Birmingham the 8th most populous metropolitan area in Europe. By 1791 it was being hailed as the first manufacturing town in the world, perhaps the most important invention in British history, the industrial steam engine, was invented in Birmingham. From the summer of 1940 to the spring of 1943, Birmingham was bombed heavily by the German Luftwaffe in what is known as the Birmingham Blitz. The damage done to the infrastructure, in addition to a deliberate policy of demolition and new building by planners, led to extensive demolition. Today Birminghams economy is dominated by the service sector and its metropolitan economy is the second largest in the United Kingdom with a GDP of $121. 1bn, and its six universities make it the largest centre of higher education in the country outside London. Birmingham is the fourth-most visited city in the UK by foreign visitors, Birminghams sporting heritage can be felt worldwide, with the concept of the Football League and lawn tennis both originating from the city. Its most successful football club Aston Villa has won seven league titles, people from Birmingham are called Brummies, a term derived from the citys nickname of Brum. This originates from the citys name, Brummagem, which may in turn have been derived from one of the citys earlier names. There is a distinctive Brummie accent and dialect, Birminghams early history is that of a remote and marginal area. The main centres of population, power and wealth in the pre-industrial English Midlands lay in the fertile and accessible river valleys of the Trent, the Severn and the Avon. The area of modern Birmingham lay in between, on the upland Birmingham Plateau and within the wooded and sparsely populated Forest of Arden. Birmingham as a settlement dates from the Anglo-Saxon era, within a century of the charter Birmingham had grown into a prosperous urban centre of merchants and craftsmen. By 1327 it was the third-largest town in Warwickshire, a position it would retain for the next 200 years, by 1700 Birminghams population had increased fifteenfold and the town was the fifth-largest in England and Wales. The importance of the manufacture of goods to Birminghams economy was recognised as early as 1538. Equally significant was the emerging role as a centre for the iron merchants who organised finance, supplied raw materials. The 18th century saw this tradition of free-thinking and collaboration blossom into the phenomenon now known as the Midlands Enlightenment
12.
Tewkesbury
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Tewkesbury is a town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It stands at the confluence of the River Severn and the River Avon and it gives its name to the Borough of Tewkesbury, of which the town is the second largest settlement. The name Tewkesbury comes from Theoc, the name of a Saxon who founded a hermitage there in the 7th century, an erroneous derivation from Theotokos enjoyed currency in the monastic period of the towns history. The Battle of Tewkesbury, which place on 4 May 1471, was one of the decisive battles of the Wars of the Roses. If the neighbouring parishes of Wheatpieces, Northway and Ashchurch Rural are added, the Tewkesbury urban area is divided in two by the north-south running M5 motorway, opened in February 1971. However, the town is considered as the built-up area to the immediate east and west of the M5 at junction 9, with the town centre, abbey. The close proximity of large areas of land that are prone to flooding, as evidenced by the floods that struck the region in July 2007. Most of the buildings, as well as the vineyards, were destroyed during this time. The Abbey Mill however still remains, resting upon the Mill Avon and this channel represents one of the biggest projects in Tewkesburys history, though the present weir dates only from the 1990s, replacing two sluice gates installed in the 1930s. The Abbey Mill is also known as Abel Fletchers Mill. The abbey is thought to be the site of the place where the hermit Theoc once lived, the great Romanesque arch on the west front is particularly striking, and the stained glass window at that end has been restored. The monastery was founded by the Despensers as a mausoleum. The tower is believed to be the largest Norman tower still in existence, the height to the top of the pinnacles is 148 feet. The abbey is thought to be the third largest church in Britain that is not a cathedral, from end to end it measures 331 feet, though prior to the destruction of the original Lady Chapel, the total length was 375 feet. The abbey is a church, still used for daily services. Tewkesbury claims Gloucestershires oldest public house, the Black Bear, dating from 1308, the Abbey Cottages, adjacent to Tewkesbury Abbey, were built between 1410 and 1412. They were restored 1967 to 1972 by the Abbey Lawn Trust and they house the John Moore Museum, residential homes and commercial offices. The John Moore Museum was established in 1980 in memory of the writer and naturalist, John Moore
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