The Story of Britain Read online

“Give us your word you will obey the Great Charter!” they ordered.

  “Traitors,” John hissed between his teeth. But he set his seal to it anyway.

  Some of Magna Carta is still law today. And still, eight hundred years later, everyone in Britain expects justice in the courts, and wants the government to be fair to everybody. That is the basis of everything that happens in this country.

  Of course, John tried to go back on his word soon afterwards; the barons had been right not to trust him. He didn’t get far, though, for John Lackland died the next year, unloved and unmourned.

  Simon de Montfort and Parliament

  ONCE people had started thinking about how the country should be run, it was hard for them to stop. Who should make laws? Everyone had to live by them, so why shouldn’t everyone have a say in making them? Should kings ask advice, or make decisions by themselves? Should barons have a say in what happened, or did they have to do as they were told? Of course, kings hated the idea of being given rules. Henry III, John’s son, kept trying to wriggle out of Magna Carta. And that meant he too began arguing with the barons.

  Henry III was not as grasping or cowardly as his father, but he was just as foolish. For example, he decided he wanted to own Sicily, a rich island in the Mediterranean where crusaders often stopped on their way to the Holy Land, so he offered to buy it from the pope. The pope was surprised, as Sicily didn’t belong to him, but he took Henry’s money anyway. Only then did Henry realize what a stupid mistake he had made.

  “You might as well try and buy the moon,” growled his brother, Richard.

  Richard would have made a much better king than Henry, but he was only a younger brother. As time went by, and Henry came up with one pointless scheme after another, the barons became more and more annoyed. Eventually they called a great meeting at Oxford. The country shouldn’t be governed only by the king, they declared, but by a great council. They called their proposals the Provisions of Oxford.

  Some of the barons wanted to go even further, and change the way everything in England was run. That was too much for others, so they began to quarrel. Seeing his enemies argue among themselves, Henry summoned an army and declared war on all of them.

  That was a mistake. At a great battle at Lewes, in Sussex, the king was beaten and taken prisoner along with his son, Prince Edward. Simon de Montfort, the barons’ leader, became the most powerful man in England.

  De Montfort was among the barons who felt Magna Carta hadn’t gone far enough. It was all very well to say the king had to govern by certain laws, he thought, but shouldn’t everyone have a chance to agree to the laws before they were passed? So he summoned all the lords (the earls and barons) to London. He couldn’t summon all the ordinary people (the commons), so he called representatives instead. Two knights from every county and two citizens from every town in England set off for London. The House of Lords and House of Commons met as a parliament for the first time in 1265, and agreed that no law could be passed unless they approved it.

  Unfortunately not all the barons liked what Simon de Montfort had done. They weren’t sure about ordinary knights and townspeople helping to decide laws, and a lot of them were jealous of him.

  “He wants to be king!” they whispered.

  So when King Henry’s son, Prince Edward, escaped from jail, many of them joined him. They fought a battle at Evesham in Worcestershire, killed Simon de Montfort, and put Henry back on the throne.

  All the same, the idea of parliaments didn’t go away. For Prince Edward could see that parliaments might help kings as much as everyone else. If Parliament agreed to the laws the king wanted, then people wouldn’t be able to complain about them. If Parliament agreed to taxes, people would have to pay them.

  And Edward decided that when he became king, he would summon Parliament himself.

  Wool

  TAXES mattered more than ever before, because England was getting richer. Cathedrals and churches were being built everywhere, and architects had come up with a new style of building. Instead of using plain stone, they ordered stonemasons to decorate every surface with carvings of flowers, leaves and animals, and twist the stone around the windows into elaborate patterns. Today we call it the Decorated Style. Meanwhile the towns were becoming more crowded. In those days Britain had fewer people than it has today; but even so, villages were growing, and on almost every hilltop a windmill spun its sails, grinding up the corn to make flour for bread.

  England was getting richer because of wool.

  Wool was almost the only cloth people had in the Middle Ages. All clothes, all sheets, all blankets were made of wool. And the best wool in Europe came from England. If you stood on a hillside in the Cotswolds you could see sheep grazing the fields in every direction. In Norfolk and Suffolk huge flocks surrounded every village. Warehouses in seaports were piled high with bales of wool, and their owners, the wool merchants, became rich. They used their money to build palaces, and competed to see who could construct the most lavish churches.

  Knights and lords hated that. “Some of those merchants are richer than we are,” they muttered.

  In London, they peered through the windows of counting houses and saw rows of men bent over account books. Fighting still mattered more than anything else, and for that you still needed knights. But money was starting to matter too. Hundreds of years before, the Romans had shown how people could get rich by trading instead of fighting. It had almost been forgotten in the centuries after the end of Rome, but during the Middle Ages merchants started to amass wealth again. Their ships sailed to France, to Italy and Spain, carrying wool and bringing back spices and wine.

  In those days, long sea voyages were dangerous. But at around this time a new invention, the compass, made them much safer. It came from the east, and passed quickly from merchant to merchant until it reached England.

  “It’s just a wooden box,” said sea captains, who gathered in harbours to talk about it.

  But inside the box was a tiny metal needle, and whichever way they turned it, the needle kept pointing in the same direction.

  “North,” said the captains.

  A captain with a compass always knew which way north was, so he could find his way home – even if he sailed as far as China. Sea voyages were still dangerous. Ships were small, with only sails or oars to drive them, and out on the empty sea it was easy to get lost. That was why nobody in Europe ever ventured far from the shore. They’d never heard of America or Australia, and sailing to Africa would have been like going to the moon. But from now on, people could sail further round the world than ever before, carrying wool, and bringing back goods from far away.

  Edward Longshanks

  WHEN Henry III died, his son, Prince Edward, became king. Edward I was a soldier, grim-faced, unsmiling, and so tall he was known as Longshanks. When he was young he went on crusade and made a name for himself as a fighter. None of the barons dared quarrel with him. The only soft thing in Edward was his love for his queen, Eleanor. She was a Spanish princess, whose title was Infanta of Castile. When she arrived in London, Londoners tied their tongues in knots trying to say it right.

  “The Fantastic Cattle.”

  “The Elephant and Castle.”

  There is still a place in London called Elephant and Castle where they put up a sign to greet her.

  Edward adored his queen. When she died, much later, he ordered stonemasons to carve crosses to his chère reine or “dear queen” wherever her funeral procession stopped. Many people think that Charing Cross, in London, is named after a Chère Reine Cross.

  However Edward planned to spend most of his reign leading his army. He knew whom to fight: the Welsh and the Scots – for he had decided to make the whole island of Britain obey England.

  Because wars are expensive, Edward knew he would need a lot of money, and that was when he remembered the idea of calling Parliament. If Parliament agreed to the taxes he asked for, then no one could complain about paying them. So he summoned Parliament to Lond
on to discuss his laws and vote for his taxes. Then, when Edward had enough money, he was ready to start fighting.

  He began by attacking Wales.

  The English had never managed to conquer the Welsh. Harold Godwinson defeated them, but they didn’t become Saxon. The Normans conquered them, but Owain of Gwynedd drove the Normans out. Henry II subdued them, but not for long. King John tried to overcome them, but while he was quarrelling with his barons over Magna Carta, Llywelyn ap Iorwerth won back what John had taken. His grandson, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, did the same while Henry III was quarrelling with Simon de Montfort. For hundreds of years, then, the Welsh stayed free – until King Edward came.

  Edward built castles all round Wales – at Harlech, Caernarvon and Conwy – to keep the Welsh under control. They were enormous, with towering battlements and walls several metres thick. The Welsh had never even heard of castles like that.

  “How could anyone attack such a thing?” they gasped as they peered up at the battlements.

  Nor had the Welsh seen an army like Edward’s. His columns of soldiers seemed to march by for ever. And even in stories they had never heard of a fleet as powerful as the one that sailed up the coast of Wales, landing wherever its captains pleased.

  “This time the English are coming to stay,” said Llywelyn ap Gruffudd’s brother Dafydd gloomily.

  “Nonsense!” shouted Llywelyn. “We’ll fight them, and when they’ve gone, we’ll win back what we’ve lost!”

  But in his heart of hearts even Llywelyn knew this time was different. He was still fighting bravely when the English killed him in battle.

  “From now on,” Edward announced, “Wales will be part of my kingdom.”

  He passed a law, the Statute of Rhuddlan, to say so, and made his eldest son prince of Wales. Since then, the eldest son of the king or queen of England has always been called prince of Wales, and Wales has always been ruled as one country with England.

  Edward wanted to do the same to Scotland. But first he turned his attention to another people, a race inside England itself. He made his decision just after Queen Eleanor died, when everyone said he was becoming harsher than ever.

  Edward decided to drive out the English Jews.

  The Expulsion of the Jews

  JEWS had lived in England for centuries. There weren’t many of them, and they mostly lived in a few towns so as to be near each other. Usually they were forced to live in special parts of towns, called ghettos. One of the most important was the ghetto in York.

  Jews weren’t allowed to own land; most were poor tailors and craftsmen. A few grew rich, though, by lending money to Christians and charging them interest. Christians weren’t allowed to do this, because the Bible said it was wrong. The Christians didn’t have to borrow money, of course, but it didn’t stop them hating the Jews they paid interest to.

  Today we hardly see the difference between British Jews and British Christians, but in those days Jews stood out because of their different language and dress.

  “They can’t be trusted,” English Christians said. “They’re not like us.”

  “They care more about their religion than this country.”

  People often fear anyone who isn’t like them, and fear often turns into hatred. On the Sabbath, Jews went to their synagogues to follow the rituals they had practised for thousands of years, but Christians started a rumour that their Sabbath ritual was to steal Christian babies and drink their blood.

  The Jews in York knew that people outside the ghetto hated them. Often, when they went into town, people spat at them or trod on their cloaks. Jewish children were told terrible stories about what had happened in the past.

  “When Richard the Lionheart was crowned, two Jews went to London to give him presents from the Jews of York. But people turned on them in the street, and when news got back to York, the Christians attacked Jews here as well. They drove them into the castle and burned it down. Every Jew in York was killed.”

  Now Jews were attacked again. First King Edward made them wear yellow badges on their clothes; then he decided to get rid of them altogether. He had orders pinned up in every marketplace saying that Jews had to leave England immediately, and if they stayed they would be put to death.

  Jews gathered anxiously in their homes in the ghetto.

  “The king can’t throw us out! We’re English! We’ve been here for centuries.”

  But their leaders only shook their heads. “He can do what he likes,” they growled. “He’s the king.”

  The Jews weren’t even allowed to take all their possessions with them – Edward kept any money that was owed to them. They sold what they could, but their Christian neighbours laughed and paid almost nothing for linen, tables and chairs. From every ghetto, columns of Jews set out, with children perched on the tops of wagons, chair legs poking out from under blankets, and chickens squawking as they tried to balance on chests of clothes. Behind them soldiers scoured the empty ghettos to make sure every Jew was gone. The candles went out in the synagogues, and boys broke in and played on the platforms where prayers had once been said. It would be hundreds of years before Jewish prayers were heard in England again.

  There are many different faiths in the world. Today we know that the only way to live in peace is to respect those who think differently. The suffering of the Jews showed how cruel people can be when they use religion as an excuse to persecute others.

  Meanwhile, Edward turned to his next enemy: the Scots.

  Braveheart

  FROM Edward’s point of view, it was lucky that just then the Scots had troubles of their own and were in no state to fight back. Scotland’s king had died without a son, and the next ruler was a little girl called the Maid of Norway. When she died as well, aged only seven, thirteen different people claimed the throne, and everyone in Scotland began arguing about who had the best right to be king. To avoid a civil war, the thirteen claimants agreed that Edward should choose between them, for by now it was quite usual for Scottish kings to recognize the king of England as their overlord.

  Edward chose a nobleman called John Balliol, but, after choosing him, behaved as if he had become master of Scotland himself. Every week he sent orders from London, until John Balliol felt more like a servant than a king. Eventually he declared he wouldn’t obey Edward any more, so Edward invaded Scotland, beat John Balliol in a battle at Dunbar, and locked him in the Tower of London.

  “He planned it all along,” growled William Wallace, a Scottish lord. “He wants Scotland for himself, just as he conquered Wales.”

  Edward’s army was the most powerful in Scotland. Scottish lords had no choice but to bow down and promise to obey him. Only William Wallace refused. Wallace was a stubborn man, and a brave one. He didn’t want an English king. He knew his men were proud, and would fight alongside him.

  He gathered a little army of Scottish fighters from the hills who knew how to hide in the heather, march along glens, and set traps at river crossings. Wallace’s army ambushed the English while they were crossing Stirling Bridge. When half of the English were across the river, they heard shouts and looked up to see figures in plaid hurtling down the hillside like demons. Before they could form themselves into line, the Scots were upon them and the English were beaten. William Wallace became the hero of Scotland.

  But maybe that victory went to Wallace’s head. He started to think he could beat any army the English sent.

  “English knights are riding north,” his advisers warned him. “They have archers as well, hundreds of them.”

  “We’re Scots!” Wallace shouted. “We’ll beat them just as we did at Stirling Bridge!”

  Even Wallace hesitated, however, when he saw the size of the English army drawn up against him at Falkirk. Banners waved above massed lines of horsemen, while to either side, troops of archers grimly prepared their bows. Someone shouted an order and the sky turned dark with arrows, which fell as thickly as a storm of rain. The Scottish spearmen could only cower under them as the English
knights began their charge.

  This time, the English army was too much for the Scots. They were defeated and Wallace taken prisoner. Edward had him carried to London, tortured and put to death.

  But William Wallace never gave in, and never accepted Edward as king. Although the Scots had lost their leader, they would always remember his courage and defiance.

  Robert Bruce, King of Scotland

  ONCE William Wallace was dead, it seemed as if Scotland was bound to become part of England. The new Scottish king, Robert Bruce, tried fighting Edward, but was defeated and became an outlaw. English soldiers searched castles and farms while the king of Scotland lurked in the hills in disguise.

  Many of the Scots said there was no point fighting any longer. Every time they fought the English they were beaten. The English king would simply take over the country, they said, as he had taken over Wales. Maybe he would call his eldest daughter princess of Scotland.

  Meanwhile, Robert Bruce hid in a cave. People brought him news of his supporters being arrested and his family sent to jail. Robert Bruce stared out of his cave and wondered whether it was worth fighting on. Then something caught his eye. A spider was weaving its web in a corner. Back and forth it went, unfurling its silken thread behind it. Just one vein of thread crossed the cave to start with, but the spider wove patiently until it had made a perfect web. Then it settled down to wait for flies to fall into the trap.

  I must be as patient as that spider, Robert Bruce thought. If I take on the English in a pitched battle, they will always win. I must be more patient.

  So he collected a small force of men, and captured the smallest English castle he could find.

  “Tear it down,” Bruce ordered.

  His soldiers looked startled. “But we’ve only just captured it!”

  “And the English will capture it back. Tear it down and they will have nowhere to defend.”