The Leading Facts of English History | Page 2

it occur? 3. How did it occur? 4. What caused it? 5. What came of it? It will soon be seen that these five questions call attention first to the chronology of he event, secondly to its geography, thirdly to the narrative describing it, fourthly to its relations to preceding events, and fifthly to its relations to subsequent events.
The pupil will find that while in some instances he can readily obtain answers for all of these inquiries,--for example, in the case of the Great Charter,--in other instances he will have to content himself with the answer to only a part of the questions, perhaps, in fact, to only a single one; nevertheless the search will always prove instructive and stimulating. Such a method of study, or one akin to it, will teach the pupil to think and to examine for himself. It will lead him to see the inevitable limitations and the apparent contradictions of history. It will make him realize, as pehaps nothing else can, that the testimony of different writers must be taken like that of witnesses in a court of justice. He will see that while authorities seldem entirely agree respecting details, they will generally agree in regard to the main features of important events. Last of all, and best as well as last, these five questions will be found to open up new and broader fields of inquiry, and they may perhaps encourage the pupil to continue his work on some subject in which he becomes interested, beyond the limits of the textbook and the classroom.
Pursued in this way, the study of history will cease to be a dry delving for dead facts in the dust of a dead past. It will rouse thought, it will quicken the pulse of an intellectual life, and it will end by making the pupil feel the full force of the great truth: that the present is an outgrowth of the past, and that it is only when we know what men have done, that we can hope to understnad what they are now doing. D. H. M.
Leading Dates
(The most important constitutional dates are marked by an asterisk)
55. B.C. Caesar lands in Britain (S18) 449. A.D. Coming of the Saxons (S36) 878. Alfred's Treaty of Wedmore (S56) 1066. Battle of Hastings (S74) *1100. Henry I's Charter of Liberties (S135) *1164. Constitutions of Clarendon (S165) *1190. Rise of Free Towns (S183) 1204. John's Loss of Normandy (S191) *1215. John grants Magna Carta (SS198, 199) *1265. De Montfort's Parliament (S213) *1279. Statute of Mortmain (S226) 1282. Conquest of Wales (S218) *1295. First Complete Parliament (S217) *1297. Confirmation of the Charters (S220) 1336. Rise of Wool Manufacture (S236) 1338. The Hundred Years' War (S237) 1346. Batty of Cr'ecy; Cannon (S238) *1350. Origin of Trial by Jury (S176) 1378. Wycliffe's Bible; Lollards (S254) 1381. Revolt of the Labor Class (S251) 1390. Chaucer writes (S253) *1393. Great Act of Praemunire (S243) 1455. Wars of the Roses (SS299, 316) 1477. Caxton introduces Printing (S306) 1485. Battle of Bosworth Field (S315) 1497. Cabot discovers America (S335) 1509. The New Learning (S339) *1534. The Act of Supremacy (S349) 1536. The Monasteries destroyed (S352) *1549. Protestantism established (S362) *1554. Mary restores Catholicism (S370) 1558. Rise of the Puritans (S378) 1559. Act of Uniformity (S382) 1582, 1605. Bacon's New Philosophy (S393) 1587. Mary Queen of Scots executed (S397) 1588. Destruction of the Armada (S400) 1588. Rise of the English Navy (SS401, 408) 1589(?). Shakespeare's First Play (S392) 1601. The First Poor Law (SS403, 607) 1604. The "Divine Right of Kings" (S419) 1607. Virginia permanently settled (S421) 1611. The "King James Bible" (S418) 1622. First Regular Newspaper (S422) *1628. The Petition of Right (S433) 1642. The Great Civil War (S441) *1649. Charles I beheaded; the Commonwealth established (SS448, 450) 1651. Navigation Act (S459) 1660. Restoration of Monarchy (S467) *1660. Abolition of Feudal Dues (S482) 1665. The Plague in London (S474) 1666. Great Fire in London (S474) 1670. Secret Treaty of Dover (S476) 1673. The Test Act (S477) 1678. The Disabling Act (S478) *1678. Rise of Political Parties (S479) *1679. Habeas Corpus Act (S482) 1684. Newton's Law of Gravitation (S481) 1685. Monmouth's Rebellion (S486) 1687. Declaration of Indulgence (S488) 1688. The Great Revolution (S491) *1689. The Bill of Rights (S497) *1689. Mutiny Act, Toleration Act (S496) 1690. Battle of the Boyne (S500) 1694. National Debt; Bank of England (S503) *1695. Liberty of the Press (SS498, 556) 1697. Peace of Ryswick (S502) *1701. Act of Settlement (S497) *1707. England and Scotland united (S513) 1713. Peace of Utrecht (S512) 1720. The South Sea Bubble (S536) *1721. Rise of Cabinet Government (S534) 1738. Rise of the Methodists (S546) 1748. Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (S542) 1751-1757. English Conquests in India (S544) *1759. The English take Quebec (S545) *1776. American Independence (S552) *1782. American Independence acknowledged (S553) 1784.