Contents
Introduction.
London
Roman London (Londinium)
Saxon London ( Lundenwick)
London in the Middle Age
London in the 16th and 17th centuries
The 18th century London
The Clock Tower of Wrens St.Paul’s Cathedral
Edinburgh
Hereford Mappa Mundi, featuring Edinburgh in 1300
An 1802 illustration of Edinburgh from the West
Cardiff
Origins of the Name
Medieval Cardiff
Owain Glyndŵr
Black Gold Trsansforms Cardiff
Double Birtday
Home of the Daleks
World’s First Fair Trade Capital
Famous Sons and Daughters
Sporting History
Belfast
Belfast in the 17th century
Belfast in the 18th century
Samson and Goliath
The City Hall During Construction
Recent history
Conclusion
Introduction
Great Britain or United Kingdom, officially United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a parliamentary monarchy in northwestern Europe. The kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, comprising England, Scotland, and Wales; and Northern Ireland, an integral component of the kingdom, occupying part of the island of Ireland. The Isle of Man and the Channel Islands in the English Channel are not part of the United Kingdom; they are direct dependencies of the British crown and have substantial internal self-governing powers. The United Kingdom lies entirely within the British Isles. The total area of the kingdom is 244,111 sq km (94,252 sq mi).
From 1801, when Great Britain and Ireland were united, to 1922, when the Irish Free State was established, the kingdom was officially designated the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Great Britain, along with other independent countries and their dependencies and several associated states, is part of the Commonwealth of Nations. The capital and largest city of Great Britain is London.
So, the history of 4 capitals situated in Great Britain can tell us a lot about the country itself.
LONDON
London is the capital of the United Kingdom, its economic, political and cultural center. It is one of the world's most important ports and one of the largest cities in the world. London with its suburbs has a population of about 11 million people. London has been a capital for nearly a thousand years. Many of its ancient buildings still stand. But once London was a small Roman town of the north bank of the Thames.
ROMAN LONDON (LONDINIUM)
The Romans founded London about 50 AD. Its name is derived from the Celtic word Londinios, which means the place of the bold one. After they invaded Britain in 43 AD the Romans built a bridge across the Thames. They later decided it was an excellent place to build a port. The water was deep enough for ocean going ships but it was far enough inland to be safe from Germanic raiders. Around 50 AD Roman merchants built a town by the bridge. So London was born.
The early settlement at London did not have stone walls but there may have been a ditch and an earth rampart with a wooden palisade on top. Then in 61 AD Queen Boudicca led a rebellion against the Romans. Her army marched on London. No attempt was made to defend London. Boudicca burned London but after her rebellion was crushed it was rebuilt. Rich people built houses of stone or brick with tiled roofs but most people lived in wooden houses.
By the end of the 2nd century stonewall was erected around London. The wall was 20 feet high. Outside the wall was a ditch. In the middle of the 3rd century 20 bastions were added to the walls (a bastion was a semi-circular tower projecting from the wall).
The population of Roman London rose to perhaps 45,000, which seems small to us but it was the largest town in Britain.
In the centre of London was the forum. This was a square with shops and public buildings arranged around it. The most important building in the forum was the basilica or 'town hall’, which was 500 feet long and 70 feet high. In London there were brickworks, potteries and glassworks. There were also donkey powered mills for grinding grain to flour and bakeries.
London was also an important port with wooden wharves and jetties. Grain and metal were exported and luxury goods were imported. (Things like wine, olive oil, glass, fine pottery, silk and ivory).
Rich citizens had baths in their homes but there were several public baths near the city gates. (Romans went to the baths to socialise not just to keep clean). Most people in the town got their water from wells and used cess pools but there were underground drains to remove rainwater. London also had an amphitheatre, which could hold 8,000 people. Here gladiators fought to the death. Cockfighting was also a popular sport.
SAXON LONDON (LUNDENWIC)
The last Roman soldier left Britain in 407 AD. London was probably abandoned. There may have been a few people living inside the walls by fishing or farming but London ceased to be a town. But soon it rose again. A new town appeared outside the walls on the site of Covent Garden. It was much smaller than Roman London with perhaps 10,000 inhabitants.
In 597 monks from Rome began the task of converting the Saxons to Christianity. In 604 a bishop was appointed for London.
By the 640's there was a mint in London making silver coins. In the 670's a Royal document called London 'the place where the ships land'. Early in the 8th century a writer called London 'a trading centre for many nations who visit by land and sea'. Saxon London consisted of many wooden huts with thatched roofs. Slag from metal forges have been found proving there were many blacksmiths at work in the town. Archaeologists have also found large numbers of loom weights (used in weaving wool) Saxon craftsmen also worked with animal bones making things like combs. The main export from Saxon London was wool, either raw of woven. Imports included wine and luxury foods like grapes and figs. Pottery and millstones were also imported. Slaves were also bought and sold in London.
Disaster struck London in 842 when the Danes looted London. They returned in 851 and this time they burned a large part of the town (an easy task when all buildings were of wood). Then the Danes gave up just raiding and turned to conquest. They conquered northern and Eastern England including London.
King Alfred the Great totally defeated the Danes in 878 and they split the country between them. The Danes took eastern England including London while Alfred took the South and West. Despite the peace treaty Alfred's men took London in 886. Alfred repaired the walls of the old Roman town. Until then Londoners lived outside the Roman walls but during Alfred's reign they moved inside the walls for protection. Soon foreign merchants came to live in London. By the 10th century there were wine merchants from France at Vintners Place and German merchants at Dowgate.
The Danes returned in 994 but this time the Londoners fought them off. A writer said ' they proceeded to attack the city stoutly and wished to set it on fire but here they suffered more harm and injury than they ever thought any citizen could do them'.
'London Bridge is falling down'...so says the nursery rhyme. This is believed to be derived from an event that took place in the early 11th century. King Olaf of Norway attacked England but he was unable to sails up the Thames past London Bridge. So he ordered his men to erect wood and wicker canopies over their boats. They then approached London Bridge. Londoners on the bridge threw down missiles but they were unable to stop the Vikings. At that time London Bridge was made of wood. Olaf and his men tied ropes to the wooden struts supporting it. They then rowed away and London Bridge collapsed. Some historians question whether this event really happened or whether it was just a legend that grew up around King (later Saint) Olaf.
Edward the Confessor (1042-1066) built a wooden palace at Westminster. Later Parliament met here. Because of this Westminster became the seat of government not the city of London itself. Edward also built Westminster Abbey, which was consecrated a few weeks before his death.
After the battle of Hastings an advance guard of Normans approached London Bridge from the South but were beaten off. The Norman army then marched in a loop to the west of London to cut it off from the rest of the country. William occupied the royal palace at Westminster and the won over the Londoners by making various promises. William was crowned king of England at Westminster on 25 December 1066. William gave London a charter, a document confirming certain rights. Nevertheless he built a wooden tower to stand guard over London. It was replaced by a stone tower in 1078-1100. That was the beginning of the Tower of London.
The population of London at this time was perhaps 18,000, which seems very small to us but was very large by the standards of the time. London grew in size through the 12th century and some people began to build housed outside the walls. In 1176 the wooden bridge across the Thames was replaced with a stone one.
A writer described London about the year 1180:
London is happy in its clean air, in the Christian religion, in the strength of its fortifications, in its natural situation, in the honor of its citizens. The Cathedral is St Pauls but there is also in London and its suburbs 13 large monasteries, beside 126 parish churches. On the east side lies the tower, very large and strong with 4 gates and turrets at intervals and runs around the northern side of the city. To the north lie fields and meadows with small rivers flowing through them, by these water mills are driven with a pleasant murmur. To this city come merchants from every nation under heaven rejoicing to bring merchandise in their ships'.
Someone else wrote:
'Amongst the noble and celebrated cities of the world, that of London, the Capital of the Kingdom of England is one of the most renowned, possessing above others, abundant wealth, extensive commerce, great grandeur and significance'.
London was a lively place. There was a horse market at Smithfield (originally smooth field) where horse racing took place. Smithfield was also the site of public executions, which always attracted large crowds. Londoners also loved dancing on the open spaces that surrounded the town. They liked archery and wrestling and men fought mock battles with wooden swords and shields. In Winter people went ice skating on frozen marshes at Moorfield using skates made of animal bones.
In the 12th or 13th century London was often spelt Lunden or Lundon. By the time of Chaucer in the late 14th century it was spelt London.
In the 13th century the friars came to London. Friars were like monks but instead of living lives separate from the world they went out to preach. There were different orders of friars each with a different colour of costume. Dominican friars were called black friars because of their black costumes and the place where they lived in London is still called Blackfriars. There were also grey friars (Franciscans), white friars and crutched friars. (The word crutched is a corruption of cruxed. Crux is Latin for cross and the cruxed friars had a cross stitched onto their cloaks).
The Jews suffered from persecution during the Middle Ages. The first Jews came to London in 1096 as refugees from Rouen after a massacre occurred there. Jews in London lived in a ghetto in old Jewry. They were some of the first people since Roman times to live in stone houses. They had to as wooden houses were not safe enough! In 1189 a wave of persecution resulted in the deaths of about 30 Jews. In 1264 rioters killed about 500 Jews in London. In 1290 all Jews were expelled from England.
In 1381 the peasant revolt broke out. On 13 July the rebels marched on London and sympathizers opened the gates to them. The king and his ministers took refuge in the Tower of London while the rebels opened the prisons and looted the house of John of Gaunt, an unpopular noble. On 14 July the king met the rebels at Moorfield and made them various promises, none of which he kept.
The next day the king went to mass at Westminster while he was away the rebels broke into the Tower of London and killed the Archbishop of Canterbury and several royal officials who had taken refuge there. They confronted the king on his way back from mass. The mayor of London stabbed the leader of the rebels, fearing he was going to attack the king. Afterwards the king managed to calm the rebels and persuaded them to go home.
The population of London may have reached 50,000 by the middle of the 14th century. At least a third of the population died when the Black Death struck in 1348-49 but London soon recovered. Its population may have reached 70,000 by the end of the Middle Ages.
The population of London may have reached 120,000 by the middle of the 16th century and about 250,000 by 1600. In the Middle Ages the church owned about 1/4 of the land in London. When Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries it released a great deal of land for new buildings.
Nevertheless the suburbs outside London continued to grow. In the late 16th century rich men began to build houses along the Strand and by 1600 London was linked to Westminster by a strip of houses.
Banqueting House was built in 1622. In 1635 the king opened Hyde Park to the public. In 1637 Charles I created Richmond Park for hunting. Also in 1637 Queens House was completed in nearby Greenwich.
Wool was still the main export from London but there were also exports of 'Excellent saffron in small quantities, a great quantity of lead and tin, sheep and rabbit skins without number, with various other sorts of fine peltry (skins) and leather, beer, cheese and other sorts of provisions'. The Royal Exchange where merchants could buy and sell goods opened in 1571.
In the early 17th century rich men continued to build houses west of London. The Earl of Bedford built houses at Covent Garden, on the Strand and at Long Acre. He also obtained permission to hold a fruit and vegetable market at Covent Garden. Other rich people build houses at Lincoln Inn Fields and at St Martins in the Fields.
On the other side of London hovels were built. The village of Whitechapel was 'swallowed up' by the expanding city. The village of Clerkenwell also became a suburb of London. Southwark also grew rapidly.
All this happened despite outbreaks of bubonic plague. It broke out in 1603, 1633 and 1665 but each time the population of London quickly recovered.
In 1642 civil war began between king and parliament. The royalists made one attempt to capture London in 1643 but their army was met 6 miles west of St Pauls by a much larger parliamentary army. The royalists withdrew. However the Puritan government of 1646-1660 was hated by many ordinary people and when Charles II came to London from France in 1660 an estimated 20,000 people gathered in the streets to meet him. All the churches in London rang their bells.
The last outbreak of plague in London was in 1665. But this was the last outbreak. In 1666 came the great fire of London. It began on 2 September in a baker's house in Pudding Lane. At first it did not cause undue alarm. The Lord Mayor was awoken and said "Pish! A woman might piss it out!". But the wind caused the flames to spread rapidly. People formed chains with leather buckets and worked hand operated pumps all to no avail. The mayor was advised to use gunpowder to create fire breaks but he was reluctant, fearing the owners of destroyed buildings would sue for compensation. The fire continued to spread until the king took charge. He ordered sailors to make fire breaks. At the same time the wind dropped.
About 13,200 houses had been destroyed and 70-80,000 people had been made homeless. The king ordered the navy to make tents and canvas available from their stores to help the homeless who camped on open spaces around the city. Temporary markets were set up so the homeless could buy food. but the crowds of homeless soon dispersed. Most of the houses in London were still standing and many of the homeless found accommodation in them or in nearby villages. Others built wooden huts on the charred ruins.
To prevent such a disaster happening again the king commanded that all new houses in London should be of stone and brick not wood. Citizens were responsible for rebuilding their own houses but a tax was charged on coal brought by ship into London to finance the rebuilding of churches and other public buildings. Work began on rebuilding St Pauls in 1675 but it was not finished till 1711.
In the late 17th century fashionable houses were built at Bloomsbury and on the road to the village of Knightsbridge. Elegant houses in squares and broad straight streets were also built north of St James palace. Soho also became built up. As well as building attractive suburbs the rich began to live in attractive villages near London such as Hackney, Clapham, Camberwell and Streatham. In the east the poor continued to build houses and Bethnal Green was 'swallowed up' by the growing city.
French Protestants fleeing religious persecution arrived in London. Many of them were silk weavers who lived in Spitalfields which also became a suburb of London.
In the 17th century wealthy Londoners obtained piped water for the first time. It was brought by canal from the countryside then was carried by hollow tree trunks under the streets. You had to pay to have your house connected. After 1685 oil lamps lighted the streets. Hackney carriages became common in the streets of London.