English History Bookshop: England, Late Medieval to 19th Century.

From Feudalism to Constitutional Monarchy

The feudal structures that were imported into Britain with the Norman Conquest — allegiance and services in exchange for land tenure and security, all stemming from the crown — contained the seeds of their own deterioration. Throughout the feudal world the more ambitious barons sought new territories as an escape from their feudal obligations. In a European context the continental possessions of the Norman-English monarchs created strange anomalies: English sovereigns as nominal vassals of French kings seeking territorial expansion. This was not a happy circumstance, and centuries of intermittent warfare were the result. Within Britain, as less and less land was available to sustain the feudal system, the nobility created networks of patronage by replacing awards of tenure with payments and other incentives. This ‘bastard feudalism’ led to the abuses of livery and maintenance and created localised loyalties that were isolated from allegiance to the Crown. As the great magnates increased in power their clashes with the monarchy frequently erupted into civil conflict; but this power had already, with Magna Carta, begun the imposition of reforms that were to set England on the path towards a constitutional monarchy. This page gives comprehensive coverage of the long period between the Late Medieval and the 19th Century, both in the general and in some particulars. The development of the English language cannot be divorced from the history of England, and we begin here and with a number of general works.

The Cambridge History of the English Language / Various Authors

This monumental six volume set ranges from the chronological organisation of the early periods to the geographical distribution of more recent centuries. The comprehensive coverage includes lithe linguistic analysis of syntax, morphology, semantics and dialect together with a number of specialist areas — place names and personal names, literature and slang. The journey takes us from Anglo–Saxon England, through survival in the face of the Norman imposition of French as the language of government, to Chaucer, Shakespeare and the evolution of the language and its variations down to the present day.

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The Adventure of English / Melvyn Bragg
A more concise (and more affordable) biography of the language! Melvyn Bragg traces the development of English and identifies the factors and influences that have given the language its subtlety of expression and its current global status as a medium of communication.

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Literary Terms and Criticism / John Peck and Martin Coyle

The essential introduction to the study of English literature at undergraduate level, much revised and extended since its first publication in 1984. Beginning with an historical overview of English, American and postcolonial writing, Peck and Coyle go on to deal with the main literary genres, poetry, drama and the novel, with commonly used literary terms explained throughout. In the process, the authors scrutinize the various perspectives employed in the discussion of literature and its attempts at reconciliation with the complexity or chaos of the real world. All of this serves as background to sections on critical concepts and schools of criticism, where Peck and Coyle examine the more technical aspects of literary study. The authors’ declared intent is to provide both a handbook to and a dictionary of literary criticism, never departing too far from the fundamental question, “What is literature?”

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From Memory to the Written Record / M T Clanchy
How literacy paralleled the growth of Norman bureaucracy, from Domesday on.

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Dr Johnson's Dictionary / Samuel Johnson

Selections from the ground-breaking work of lexicography that was used by many literary figures down to the 20th Century. Johnson’s intention was to set standards and preserve proper usage in a language that he saw as in decay. The 1755 Dictionary was remarkable for its inclusion of so many commonplace words, for the thoroughness of its definitions and for its use of quotations to provide examples of good practice. The entries are liberally salted with the author’s wit and prejudices, and many thousands were retained in subsequent works, including the current Oxford English Dictionary.

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Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland / Raphael Holinshed

The Chronicles were compiled from a variety of sources, of varying degrees of trustworthiness. Beginning with the Japhet of Noah’s Flood and ending with the contemporary reign of Elizabeth I, Holinshed provided the source material for many Elizabethan playwrights, and notably William Shakespeare, who drew heavily on the Chronicles.

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A History of the English Speaking Peoples / Winston S Churchill
1. The Birth of Britain
2. The New World
3. The Age of Revolution
4. The Great Democracies
A good introduction to the span of English history, and to the English-speaking diaspora, up to the Second World War and beyond.

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Kings, Queens, Bones & Bastards / David Hilliam
Who they were, who they bred and where they were buried. An alternative perspective on the monarchy, especially useful as a quick and easy work of reference.

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Crown of a Thousand Years / M E Hudson & Mary Clark
Potted biographies of the occupants of the English throne, from Ethelred to Elizabeth II. Another useful reference work.

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England in the Later Middle Ages / M H Keen
From Edward I to the last Yorkist kings. Two hundred years encompassed the conquest of Wales, the attempted conquest of Scotland, the beginning of the Hundred Years War, and the Wars of the Roses. As the monarchy struggled with turmoil, factionalism under powerful magnates increased. Of the ten kings covered in this volume, five met unnatural deaths. Edward II was deposed and murdered by his wife Isabella, the ‘She-wolf of France’, and her paramour Roger Mortimer. Richard II was forced to abdicate in favour of Henry IV and died in captivity from maltreatment. Henry VI was deposed by Edward IV and murdered. The young uncrowned Edward V was displaced by Richard III and disappeared with his brother from the Tower. Richard III was killed at Bosworth, in battle with Henry Tudor. Mortimers, Nevilles, Percys, Beauforts, Stanleys and many others all played their part.

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The Hundred Years War / Alfred H Burne

The Crecy War: From 1337 to the Peace of Bretigny, 1360

The Agincourt War: From 1369 to 1453

A two volume military history of the attempts to regain English territories in France. The Crecy War covers the Brittany campaigns and the key battles of Crecy and Poitiers. The Agincourt War is concerned with the slow decline of English power on the continent, culminating in the loss of the last English possessions under Henry VI. These comprehensive accounts of major encounters and minor skirmishes are brought to life by the author’s careful on-the-ground analyses of the fields of battle. Laurence Olivier’s film version of Shakespeare’s Henry V (1944) is available from our Film Store.

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Richard III / Paul Murray Kendall
The antidote to Tudor propaganda! Was the last Yorkist king the villain that was painted by Thomas More, the court of Henry VII, Shakespeare and subsequent conventional historians, or has he been the subject of concerted character assassination? The debate continues. Compelling reading. For the conventional demonisation of the monarch, Olivier’s iconic film of Richard III (1956) is available from our Film Store.

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The Princes in the Tower / Elizabeth Jenkins

A fairly conventional narrative on the Wars of the Roses and the disappearance of the sons of Edward IV. The author is pretty much uncritical of the account of Richard III by Sir Thomas More, from which stems much of the received wisdom on the last scion of the House of York. (Our DVD edition of Shakespeare’s Richard III (1956) includes The Trial of Richard III, a 225 minute examination of the evidence, first broadcast on television in 1984.)

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Perkin / Ann Wroe
The full story of Perkin Warbeck and his claim to be Richard Duke of York, younger of the Princes in the Tower. Widely accepted in Europe, he became the focus of Yorkist aspirations to reclaim the throne from Henry VII. Although it seems most likely that Richard died in the Tower, Warbeck’s career poses many questions. Very readable, if somewhat marred by the author’s over-use of extended metaphors.

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England Under the Tudors / G R Elton
Henry VII’s claim to the throne had to be constantly defended. Henry VIII had to deal with the problems of succession and the break with Rome. The reigns of Edward VI and Mary brought the monarchy to crisis. And Elisabeth I was enmeshed in European politics and Catholic plots. This the background to a Golden Age!

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Henry VIII / J J Scarisbrick

Seemingly the ideal Renaissance prince on his accession to the throne, the flamboyant monarch introduced many institutional and religious reforms that have survived to the present day. But his conflicts with the church and with many of his ministers, not to mention his marital mishaps, led to his deterioration into an ageing tyrant. A Man For All Seasons, available from our Film Store, covers the period of the break with Rome from the viewpoint of Sir Thomas More.

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The Defeat of the Spanish Armada / Garrett Mattingly

The wider context of the Great Armada, beginning with the execution of Mary Queen of Scots and offering portraits of Elizabeth 1, Philip of Spain, Pope Sixtus V and the Duke of Parma. Land as well as sea campaigns are vividly recreated. A glossy fictionalised account of the first part of the reign of Elizabeth I, Elizabeth (1998) and its sequel, Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), both directed by Shekar Kapur, are available from our Film Store.

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England Under the Stuarts / G M Trevelyan

The unhappy inheritors of the Tudor legacy — Puritan/Catholic conflicts, civil war and regicide, Restoration and the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Stuart reign, under William and Mary and Queen Anne, continued into the 18th Century and through the War of the Spanish Succession.

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The English Civil War / C V Wedgwood
1. The King’s Peace
2. The King’s War
3. The Trial of Charles I
A masterly treatment of the Civil War, from its origins in the Establishment’s dealings with Scotland and Ireland to the execution of Charles I and the creation of the short-lived Commonwealth by Cromwell and the Parliamentary Party.

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The Great Plague in London in 1665 / Walter George Bell

The last great outbreak of bubonic plague in England, which took a heavy toll on the population of a capital that was to some extent sanitised by the Great Fire of the following year.

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The Great Fire of London in 1666 / Walter George Bell

The Fire of London swept away much of the old City of London and left the way clear for redevelopment by such architects as Christopher Wren.

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Intermission — Some English Diarists

England has produced some notable diarists and lettrists, invaluable primary sources for subsequent historians. This short selection spans the Wars of the Roses to the early 20th Century, and ranges from coverage of great historical events to records of the lives of ordinary people.

The Paston Letters / Ed Norman Davis

The correspondence between three generations of a Norfolk family is an invaluable primary source for historians of the 15th Century. Beginning in the reign of Henry V and continuing through to the reign of Henry VII, eyewitness accounts of the turbulent strife between Lancaster and York are mixed with more local material of political and social interest. This selection is published in modern English.

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Brief Lives / John Aubrey
Pen portraits of leading personalities of the 16th and 17th centuries compiled from notes, facts and gossip. A strange and virtually unique melange.

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The Concise Pepys / Samuel Pepys

At various times Pepys served as Clerk to the Council, MP, Secretary to the Admiralty and President of the Royal Society, with an interlude in the Tower of London. The most famous of all English diarists had a notorious penchant for young servant girls and a love of good living, all of which mingle with his record of great events. The diary was begun in the year of the Restoration of the monarchy and covers the first decade of the reign of Charles II, which included the Great Plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of London in 1666.

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A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain / Daniel Defoe

Best known as the author of Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders, Defoe was also a truculent journalist and pamphleteer (and an occasional spy!). He was involved in the Monmouth Rebellion against James II and in the Glorious Revolution that deposed James in 1688. The Tour was published in three volumes between 1724 and 1727. Defoe offers a fascinating description of large swathes of a mainland Britain on the verge of the Industrial Revolution.

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Rural Rides / William Cobbett

Newly elected to the House of Commons in the early 1820s, William Cobbett embarked on a series of tours through southern England. His enthusiasm for the countryside and its workers is contrasted with his contempt for the political class, the exploitation of the poor and his anger at encroaching urban sprawl. Keen observation of rural life is coloured by a political vision founded on radical reform.

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Diary 1847-1889 / William Allingham

A snapshot of Victorian literary life in the latter part of the 19th Century. Allingham was a friend of Alfred Lord Tennyson and was drawn into the ambit of the giants of the day — Browning, Carlyle, William Morris and members of the Arts and Crafts Movement, Thackeray, Emerson and Turgenev.

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Small Talk at Wreyland / Cecil Torr
A delightfully rambling ‘commonplace book’, compiled from notes, reminiscences, snatches of autobiography and observations on local dialect and customs. Begun during the early years of the First World War and centred on the hamlet of Yonder Wreyland, on south east Dartmoor. A gentle counterpoint to the escalating horrors of the conflict and a memento mori for a way of life that was diminished by the loss of a generation.

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Enlightenment, Improvement and Democracy

The beginning of the 18th Century saw Britain embroiled with France in the War of the Spanish Succession, fought to curtail French ambitions in Europe. Friction between England and France continued through the War of the Austrian Succession, the Seven Years War and the American War of Independence. After the latter, Britain was well placed to take advantage of new ideas and a period of comparative stability, before the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars of a republican France revived the imperial aspirations of its monarchist predecessor. Britain was rich in the resources required to fuel the new technologies of the Industrial Revolution; trade was increasing with the expansion of the second empire; visionary landowners brought about a revolution in agriculture; all of this laying the ground for a Victorian prosperity that was scarcely disturbed by colonial wars, occasional adjustments to the balance of power in Europe and worries over Russian intentions in Turkey, Afghanistan and India. But this prosperity did not come without a price, and the price was paid by the labouring masses, in factories and disease-ridden slums. Through this period of change the franchise was extended, and by the end of the 19th Century universal suffrage was almost (but not quite) in sight.

The Hanoverians / Jeremy Black

The rules of Protestant succession based on the tenuous bloodline of the Tudors and Stuarts resulted in the accession of George, Elector of Hanover, to the English throne after the death of Queen Anne. Through the reigns of the first two Georges, British foreign policy was in great part subverted to the European interests and conflicts of Hanover — the invasion of Charles Stuart, Bonnie Prince Charlie, in 1745 might be usefully viewed in this context. Under George III Britain was to gain Canada and India, but lose her American colonies. His debilitating illness created a climate of political intrigue; and the Regency of the later George IV during his father’s madness brought scandal to the monarchy. The dynasty lasted for more than a hundred years, ending with the death of William IV and the accession of the young Victoria. Alan Bennett scripted The Madness of King George (1994) which covers George III’s descent into dementia. Available from our Film Store.

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English Society in the Eighteenth Century / Roy Porter
England on the cusp of the Industrial Revolution. The energy that drove the new age of machines was found in water power and the coalfields. The raw materials for a new iron age were readily to hand. Global markets for cotton were satisfied by increased mechanisation. As wealth shifted from the land to industry and trade, so power and influence shifted from the landowner to the entrepreneur; a middle class was born; and there was time and opportunity for leisure, at least for some.

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The Age of Improvement 1783-1867 / Asa Briggs
More on the transformation of English society, from a highly respected historian. Industry, art politics and a change in the focus of Empire.

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The Making of the English Landscape / WG Hoskins

Hoskins brought new dimensions and new ideas to the understanding of the English landscape when this volume was first published in 1955. The author cut through the conventional wisdom of his day that saw the countryside as formed in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Instead, he demonstrated that landscape was a more multi-layered thing, retaining elements that could be traced to pre-Roman times. His perspective was sharpened by elegiac regret for an environment that was being vandalised by post-war development.

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The English Model Farm / Susanna Wade Martins

Building the Agricultural Ideal: 1700-1914. Susanna Wade Martins takes as her starting point the recent English Heritage national survey of model farms. The Enlightenment ideals of utility and beauty were merged with revolutionary methods of land management as architects collaborated with landowners (sometimes the two were the same) to create farmsteads that were unique to Britain. This attractive volume contains plans, drawings and photographs of an often ignored part of the rural tradition, and includes county-by-county listings.

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History of the English People in the Nineteenth Century / Elie Halevy
A different version from our own, which is a compilation of a number of volumes dealing with the subject matter. Technological progress, a burgeoning empire and the height of Victorian self-confidence.

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Queen Victoria / Elizabeth Longford

The standard biography of Britain’s longest ruling monarch whose descendents were to people the thrones of Europe. Succeeding to the throne at the age of eighteen, Victoria was to see some twenty British governments come and go, be crowned as Empress of India and watch major events unfold on the world stage. At the same time the role of the monarch was being questioned, not least because of her withdrawal from public life after the death of Prince Albert and her own view of her constitutional position.

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Queen Victoria: A Personal History / Christopher Hibbert

The popular historian bases his biography of Queen Victoria on his previously published selection of her journals and letters. As a result, and as is explicit in the title, the bias is towards Victoria’s attitudes and relationships, with less space devoted to events beyond court and family. A useful companion and counterpoint to Elizabeth Longford’s Queen Victoria (qv).

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Eminent Victorians / Lytton Strachey

Strachey caused outrage with his iconoclastic biographies of four public figures who had contributed to the Victorians’ perceptions of themselves. His sceptical essays on Cardinal Manning, Thomas Arnold and General Gordon attack the Church, the public school system and the myth of Empire; and his analysis of Florence Nightingale’s activities in the Crimea suggests an authoritarian on the edge of psychosis. A blast against vice, corruption and hypocrisy.

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London Labour & the London Poor / Henry Mayhew
The London Underworld in the Victorian Period / Henry Mayhew
Mayhew’s expose of conditions in the poorer parts of London at the height of Victorian prosperity was an immediate influence on the work of Charles Dickens and was, eventually, to contribute to the social reforms and slum clearances of the later 19th century.

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