The History of England

The History of England

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Title: The History of England A Study in Political Evolution
Author: A. F. Pollard

Release Date: August, 2004 [EBook #6358] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on December 1,
2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
HISTORY OF ENGLAND ***

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THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND A STUDY IN POLITICAL
EVOLUTION
BY A. F. POLLARD, M.A., LITT.D.

CONTENTS
CHAP. I THE FOUNDATIONS OF ENGLAND, 55 B.C.-A.D. 1066 II
THE SUBMERGENCE OF ENGLAND, 1066-1272 III EMERGENCE
OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE, 1272-1485 IV THE PROGRESS OF
NATIONALISM, 1485-1603 V THE STRUGGLE FOR
SELF-GOVERNMENT, 1603-1815 VI THE EXPANSION OF
ENGLAND, 1603-1815 VII THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION VIII
A CENTURY OF EMPIRE, 1815-1911 IX ENGLISH DEMOCRACY
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX

CHAPTER I
THE FOUNDATIONS OF ENGLAND
55 B.C.--A.D. 1066
"Ah, well," an American visitor is said to have soliloquized on the site
of the battle of Hastings, "it is but a little island, and it has often been
conquered." We have in these few pages to trace the evolution of a
great empire, which has often conquered others, out of the little island
which was often conquered itself. The mere incidents of this growth,
which satisfied the childlike curiosity of earlier generations, hardly
appeal to a public which is learning to look upon historical narrative
not as a simple story, but as an interpretation of human development,
and upon historical fact as the complex resultant of character and
conditions; and introspective readers will look less for a list of facts and
dates marking the milestones on this national march than for
suggestions to explain the formation of the army, the spirit of its
leaders and its men, the progress made, and the obstacles overcome. No
solution of the problems presented by history will be complete until the
knowledge of man is perfect; but we cannot approach the threshold of
understanding without realizing that our national achievement has been
the outcome of singular powers of assimilation, of adaptation to
changing circumstances, and of elasticity of system. Change has been,
and is, the breath of our existence and the condition of our growth.
Change began with the Creation, and ages of momentous development
are shrouded from our eyes. The land and the people are the two
foundations of English history; but before history began, the land had
received the insular configuration which has largely determined its
fortune; and the various peoples, who were to mould and be moulded
by the land, had differentiated from the other races of the world.
Several of these peoples had occupied the land before its conquest by
the Anglo-Saxons, some before it was even Britain. Whether neolithic
man superseded palaeolithic man in these islands by invasion or by

domestic evolution, we do not know; but centuries before the Christian
era the Britons overran the country and superimposed themselves upon
its swarthy, squat inhabitants. They mounted comparatively high in the
scale of civilization; they tilled the soil, worked mines, cultivated
various forms of art, and even built towns. But their loose tribal
organization left them at the mercy of the Romans; and though Julius
Caesar's two raids in 55 B.C. and 54 B.C. left no permanent results, the
conquest was soon completed when the Romans came in earnest in A.D.
43.
The extent to which the Romans during the three and a half centuries of
their rule in Britain civilized its inhabitants is a matter of doubtful
inference. The remains of Roman roads, Roman walls, and Roman
villas still bear witness to their material activity; and an occupation of
the land by Roman troops and Roman officials, spread over three
hundred and fifty years, must have impressed upon the upper classes of
the