Publisher's Synopsis
Explore the wars, love affairs, religious crusades and family drama that animate English history in James Mackintosh's The History of England, From the Earliest Times to the Final Establishment, Volume I. Mackintosh was a Whig member of Parliament as well as a barrister, writer, historian and philosopher. His book begins at the dawn of the Common Era, with Romans and Celts in the British Isles. Although there had been people living in the land now known as England for hundreds of thousands of years, the end of Roman Rule in Britain generally marks the beginning of what we now think of as England. Mackintosh describes the entry of the Anglo-Saxons, and follows the story through to 1066, when William the Conqueror invaded England. The book covers Norman Rule including the ascensions of William's sons and the civil wars that followed.
Then England saw the rise of the House of Plantagenet. Mackintosh describes King Richard the Lionheart's rule as more of a Crusade than a reign. Religious developments which affected England are considered. For example, Mackintosh titles one chapter "Were the Crusades Just?" History judges Richard's brother John's reign far more harshly, since it was marked by the loss of Normandy and other disputed French territories. When the barons revolted against John, the result of these struggles was the Magna Carta, which limited the powers of the King.