Episodes In The History Of England

New from Richard Tames, the well-known popularizer of English history, comes this entertaining exploration of the bits of English history that have been sidelined, lost or somehow overlooked.Written in an engaging, easy-toread and often humorous style, he brings to life the various colourful characters, famous in their day, who have now sunk into obscurity, from St Cuthbert and Nicholas Breakspear (the only English pope) to Octavia Hill and the Marquis of Granby. Tames also covers such diverse areas as sports, lost villages, forgotten war heroes and inventors. Did you know, for example, that Barking was once home to the largest fishing fleet in the world? Or that coffee houses were once known as 'penny universities'? Peppered with quotes and anecdotes, and arranged into concise sections, this book is ideal for dipping into or reading from cover to cover.

A history of the English language traces its evolution from a Germanic dialect around 500 A.D. to its modern form, noting the influence of such groups and individuals as early Anglo-Saxon tribes, Alfred the Great, and William Shakespeare.

A VILLAGE AND ITS PEOPLE THROUGH THE WHOLE OF ENGLISH HISTORY The village of Kibworth in Leicestershire lies at the very centre of England. It has a church, some pubs, the Grand Union Canal, a First World War Memorial - and many centuries of recorded history. Bought in the thirteenth century by William de Merton, who founded Merton College, Oxford, it also lodges 750 years of village history. Michael Wood tells the extraordinary story of one English community over fifteen centuries - from the moment that the Roman Emperor Honorius sent his famous letter in 410 advising the English to look to their own defences to the village as it is today. He builds on this unique archive, enlisting the help of Kibworth's inhabitants in a village-wide archaeological dig and the first complete DNA profile of an English village. The story of Kibworth is the story of England itself, a Who Do You Think You Are? for the entire nation. 'Better than any historian for decades, Wood brings home not just the ways in which buildings, landscapes and written texts may be read, but the sensual beauty of encounters with them' TLS

This account of artisan and working-class society in its formative years, 1780 to 1832, adds an important dimension to our understanding of the nineteenth century. E.P. Thompson shows how the working class took part in its own making and re-creates the whole life experience of people who suffered loss of status and freedom, who underwent degradation and who yet created a culture and political consciousness of great vitality.

The paperback edition, in four volumes, of this standard work will make it readily available to students. The scope of the work makes it valuable as a work of reference, connecting one period with another and placing each author clearly in the setting of his time. Reviewing the first edition, The Times Literary Supplement commented: ‘in inclusiveness and in judgment it has few rivals of its kind’. This first volume covers The Middle Ages (to 1500) in two sections: The Old English Period (to 1100) by Kemp Malone (John Hopkins University), and The Middle English Period (1100-1500) by Albert C. Baugh (University of Pennsylvania).

This festschrift commemorates the seventy-fifth birthday in 1989 of F.W. Sternfeld, Emeritus Reader in the History of Music at the University of Oxford. The contributors discuss topics in music, theatre, and text in the Italian Renaissance; music and the theatre in seventeenth-century England; and the relation of English music to English poetry.

The War of the Roses - Fascinating History of the Fall of Plantagenet and Rise of Tudors The Wars of the Roses were a complex set of battles, skirmishes, and kidnappings during the 15th century in England. They had their roots in the nearby Civil War of France, which greatly influenced English politics for years to come. Though there is no one universally accepted start or end date for these wars, the major events throughout the wars occurred between 1455 and 1485. The central reason for the Wars of the Roses, otherwise referred to as the 15th century English Civil War, was a tug-of-war between two families for the throne of England. Though both families were in fact closely related, they had split half a century earlier. Instead of one unified Plantagenet family, the cousins became Lancasters and Yorks. While the Lancasters remained on the throne, the Yorks were overlooked in the succession of kings. The Yorks became jealous, given their equal relation to England’s ancient monarchy, and when the Plantagenet-Lancaster dynasty appeared tragically weakened by the succession of Henry VI, the royal cousins took the opportunity to demand a new ruler. Henry VI took over the rule of England upon the death of his father when he was not yet one year old. A scramble over leadership in the boy’s appointed Regency Council led to the prominence first of Henry’s Lancaster uncles, then Richard of... To be continued... Here is a Preview of What You Will Get: ⁃ A Full Book Summary ⁃ An Analysis ⁃ Fun quizzes ⁃ Quiz Answers ⁃ Etc. Get a copy of this summary and learn about the book.