major figures

Abraham Darby inventor in the iron industry

Agricola governor of Roman Britain, consolidated the early conquests, doubled the size of the provinces

Alfred the Great king of Wessex, organized resistance against Vikings, 1st national defense system, promoted education

Anne Queen 1702-1714; principally interested in church affairs

Anthony Ashley Cooper 1st Earl of Shaftesbury; served the Commonwealth, then James II; leader of the whigs, backed the Test Act of 1673; exploited the Popish Plot; managed the Exclusion Crisis

Arthur Wellesley 1st Duke of Wellington; soldier and statesman; military campaigns, invaded southern France

Arthur Young writer on agriculture and rural life; advocate of agricultural improvement

Arthur Romano-British general, fought against Anglo-Saxon conquest 5-6th cc., famous hero and legend

Baron Sidney Godolphin treasury commissioner; later Lord Treasurer; aided the victories of Marlborough

Black Prince nickname of Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales; hero of the Hundred Years' War; victory at Poitiers, sacked Limoges

Charles I king 1625-1649; fastidious, dignified, pious and cultured; alienated the political nation

Charles II king 1660-1685; limited by the 1641 reforms of the Restoration settlement; subservience to France

Charles James Fox leader of the whigs; principal opponent of William Pitt the Younger

Charles Townshend leading whig politician; secretary of state under Walpole

Duke of Monmouth illegitimate son of Charles II, claimant to the throne; fought James II, was defeated and executed

Edmond Cartwright Oxford scholar and Anglican clergyman; invented the power-loom

Edmund Burke philosopher, politician and orator; Member of Parliament, whig party

Edward Hyde 1st Earl of Clarendon; royalist leader in the Long Parl.; Charles I' adviser; chief minister to Charles II

Edward I king 1272-1307; 'Hammer of the Scots'; conquest of Wales; pursuit of law and order; legalitas - pursuit of legal rectitude

Edward III king 1327-1377; warrior king; Treaty of Bénigny

Edward the Confessor king 1042-1066; Norman origin, enemy of Cnut's Anglo-Danish aristocracy, strengthened Norman elements in the church and state, succeeded by William the Conqueror

Elizabeth I Queen 1558-1603; daughter of Henry VIII and Boleyn Anne

Geoffrey Chaucer most important figure of English literature before Shakespeare; narrative poet and metrist

George I king 1714-1727; succeeded after the Act of Settlement; loyal to whigs; Hanoverian interests

George II king 1727-1760; preoccupied with Hanoverian interests

George IV king 1820-1830; before that Prince Regent

George Stephenson invented the steam locomotive

George Villiers 1st Duke of Buckingham; favourite of James I and Charles I; near monopoly of royal favor and patronage; corrupt and grossly incompetent, assassinated

Gerrard Winstanley leader of the Diggers; favoring something near egalitarian communism

Guy Fawkes leader of the Gunpowder Plot, executed

Henry Cort industrial inventor

Henry I king 1100-1135; conquest of Normandy, battle of Tenchebrai; nominated Matilda as successor; maintains firm peace; 'Lyon of Justice'

Henry II king 1154-1189; maintaining and strengthening his Angevin empire

Henry Pelham leader of whigs after Walpole's resignation; statesman of integrity and financial ability; supported by both the king and the Parl.; concluded the Spanish war of Succession; policy of retrenchment and mild reform

Henry Purcell composer, organist at Westminster Abbey

Henry VII king 1485-1509; defensive but pacific foreign policy, attention to financial affairs, built on the foundations of a medieval monarchy

Henry VIII king 1509-1547; gave power to favourites Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell; six wives, no worthy successor

Horatio Nelson admiral; commander of the army during the French Revolutionary Wars and the early Napoleonic wars; killed in action

James Hargreaves inventor of the spinning-jenny

James I king 1603-1625; king of Scotland; popular in Scotland, disliked in England

James II king 1685-1688; efforts to re-Catholicize England; provoked the Glorious Revolution

James MacAdam revolutionaized roads

James Stanhope 1st Earl of Stanhope; secretary of state; successful military career; Prime Minister; leading whig figure

James Watt invented an improved steam engine and produced engines

Jethro Tull invented the machine-drill

John Ball egalitarian teacher during Peasant's Rising of 1381; deduced the equality of men from their common descent from Adam

John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough; general and statesman, military commander; crushed Monmouth's rebellion, victorious during the war of the Spanish Succession; influence over Anne; raised Britain to a leading European power

John Duns Scotus Franciscan scholastic philosopher, called the Subtle Doctor; Founder of Scotism in Roman Catholicism; argued that knowledge of finite truths rests on the ultimate Truth, God

John Lilburne passionate writer against all arbitrary government; leader of the Levellers; imprisoned

John Locke philosopher; justified constitutional monarchy; empirism; forerunner of English Enlightenment

John Milton poet, pamphleter on church governement; wrote Paradise Lost and Regained; freedom of the press

John of Gaunt leader in the Hundred Years' War and unpopular home government

John Pym Member of Parliament; joined the opposition; leader of the Commons; organized Parliament's wartime finance and engineered the Scottish alliance

John Wesley founder of Methodism; tireless evangelist; stressed the redeeming love of Christ and the necessity of personal faith and preaching in the open air

John Wyclif leading Oxford scholar; questioned the whole structure of the Church and its teachings; inspired the first English Bible; basis of the Lollard movement

John king 1199-1216; resented by the barons; signed the Magna Charta; nickname the Lackland

Josiah Wedgwood opened a china factory and revolutionized the making of chine; successful entrepreneur

Mary, Queen of Scots Scottish Queen 1542-1567

Napoleon Bonaparte French military hero and later emperor; quarrles with England, defeated at Waterloo

Old Pretender son of James II; claimant to the throne

Oliver Cromwell former Member of Parliament; army career; protagonist in the execution of the king; became Lord Protector of the Commonwealth

Richard I king 1189-1199; reputed as a soldier and crusader; spent only 6 months of his reign in England

Richard II king 1377-1399; personal tyranny - deposed, imprisoned, probably murdered

Robert Bakewell important breeder of sheep and horses

Robert Cecil principal secretary attempted as lord treasurer to tackle the king's financial problems

Robert Curthose Duke of Normandy; eldest son of William the Conqueror; took part in the first Crusade; lost Normandy to Henry I at Tenchebrai

Robert Devereux 2nd Earl of Essex; favourite of Queen Elizabeth, failure as a politician

Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester; lover of Elizabeth; leading councillor to the Queen

Robert Grosseteste English prelate, founded Oxford Franciscan school; studied Aristotle; basis for scholastic thought of Thomas Aquinas

Robert Harley 1st Earl of Oxford; Tory leader under William and Anne; brought down the Whigs; principal minister

Robert of Belleme Earl of Shrewsbury; most powerful Anglo-Norman opponent of Henry I; expelled in 1102

Roger Bacon English scholastic Oxford philosopher; called the Admirable Doctor; active interest in natural science, experiments and direct observation; considered science as complementary to and not opposed to faith

Samuel Crompton inventor of the 'mule'

Simon de Monfort promoter of the provisions of Oxford, led the movement to enforce them; popular hero

Sir Christopher Wren outstanding architect; reconstruction of London after the Great Fire; St. Paul's Cathedral

Sir Francis Bacon philosopher of science, essayist, historian and lawyer; Lord Chancellor under James I

Sir Francis Drake greatest explorer of Elizabethan times; circumnavigation of the world

Sir Francis Walsingham sternly Puritan organizer of Elizabeth I's intelligence service and secretary of state

Sir Richard Arkwright invented the water-frame

Sir Robert Walpole 1st Earl of Orford; leading whig politician; multiple military and political titles; master of parliamentary tactics; secured peace, stability and low taxes; shaped the office of Prime Minister

Sir Thomas More lawyer and scholar, known for Utopia; Lord Chancellor - pursued heretics and opposed Henry's divorce; arrested, tried and executed

St. Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury; theological treatise on existence of God and incarnation; dispute over episcopal investitures

St. Thomas Becket first chancellor, Archbishop of Canterbury; martyr, later canonized

Stephen Langton Archbishop of Canterbury; influential figure of King John's opposition; supported Henry III

Tacitus Roman historian, wrote Germania about Germanic tribes

Thomas Bradwardine Archbishop, scholastic philosopher

Thomas Coke Earl of Leicester; Member of Parliament; advocate of enclosure

Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury; 'Architect' of the Church of England; moderate Protestant, burned

Thomas Cromwell principal minister of Henry VIII; responsible for the Henrician Reformation, dissolution of monasteries and the Tudor revolution in government

Thomas Hobbes philosopher; first great English political theorist; rationalist materialism; citizens should revolt in the case of a monarch's failure in his duties

Thomas Osborne 1st Earl of Danby; chief minister to Charles II; stabilized royal finances and gained support for the crown

Thomas Paine libertarian pamphleteer and revolutionary

Thomas Pelham-Holmes Duke of Newcastle; agent of government patronage for Walpole and Pelham; presided over the greatest electoral empire of the period

Thomas Wentworth 1st Earl of Strafford; president of the Council of the North; Lord Deputy of Ireland; policy of ruthlessly efficient government; executed

Thomas Wolsey Archbishop of York; Lord Chancellor; Cardinal; dominated secular and regular government; courts of chancery and Star Chamber; diplomat

Titus Oates invented and led the Popish Plot

Wat Tyler chief spokesman of the rebellion during the Peasant's Rising in 1381; killed by the lord mayor of London

William Caxton English printer, issued first dated book in England; translated works, wrote prologues, epilogues and additions

William Cecil Lord Burghley; principal secretary to Elizabeth I; Lord Treasurer; indispensable partner of the Queen's during her reign

William II Rufus king 1087-1100; hated tyrant, despolier of Church; killed, probably by Henry I

William Langland author of Piers Plowman

William Laud extreme Arminian thoughts; power in church and state under Charles I; High Church uniformity and supported arbitrary measures; executed

William of Normandy nickname Bastard or the Conqueror; king 1066-1087; fought against native rebellions, strong head of state, fought French over Normandy

William of Ockham English Franciscan scholastic philosopher; argued that reality exists solely in individual things and universals are merely abstract signs

William Pitt the Elder 1st Earl of Chatham; major architect of the British empire; wartime genius

William Pitt the Younger Prime Minister; war leader, negotiated three European coalitions against France

Young Pretender son of the Old Pretender; claimant to the British throne; headed the unsuccessful Jacobite rising