England
England names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.
England including WALES
Described by 3 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
including WALES, the S. and larger portion of the island_of Great Britain, is situated between 50° and 55° 46' N. lat., and 1° 46′ E. and 5° 42′ W. lon. On the N. it is bounded by Scotland; on all other sides it is washed by the sea; on the E. by the North Sea or German Ocean; on the S. the E English Channel; and on the W. George's Channel and the Irish Sea. Its figure is, roughly speaking, triangular, but with many windings and indentations, the coast-line measuring not less than 2,765 miles. The length of the country, measured on a meridian from Berwick nearly to St. Alban's Head, is 365 miles. Its breadth, measured on a parallel of latitude, attains its maximum between St. David's Head, in South Wales, and the Naze, in Essex, where it amounts to 280 miles. Area and Population. - The area of England and Wales is 58,311 square miles and the population (estimated 1919), England, 34,045,290; Wales, 2,- 025,202; or a total of 36,070,492. The population of the principal cities in England in 1919 is estimated as follows: London (Greater), 7,258,263; Birmingham, 861,585; Liverpoo 861,585; Liverpool, 772,665; Man- ; chester, 741,068; Sheffield, Sheffield, 473,695 Leeds, 430,834; Bristol, 361,247; Bradford, 282,714. Physical Features. The chief indentations are: On the E., the Humber, the Wash, and the Thames estuary; on the W., the Solway Firth, Morecambe Bay, Cardigan Bay, and the Bristol Channel; those on the S. are less prominent, though including some useful harbors. The greater part of the coast consists of cliffs, in some places clayey, in others rocky, and sometimes jutting out, as at Whitby and Flamborough Hea Head on the E., Beachy Head, Head, the Isle of Portland, the Lizard and Land's End on the S. and S. W., St. David's Head and St. Bees Head on the W., into bold, lofty, and precipitous headlands. The most extensive stretches of flat coast are on the E., in the county of Lincoln, and from the S. part of Suffolk to South Foreland in Kent, and in Sussex and Hants on the S. coast. The chief islands are: Holy Island, the Farne Islands, Sheppy, and Thanet on the E. coast; the Isle of Wight on the S.; the Scilly Isles at the S. W. extremity; and Lundy Island, Anglesey, Holyhead, and Walney on the W. The loftiest heights of England and Wales are situated at no great distance from its W. shores, and consist of a succession of mountains and hills, stretching, with some interruptions, from N. to S., and throwing out numerous branches on both sides, but particularly to the W., where all the culminating summits are found. The N. portion of this range has received the name of the Pennine chain. It is properly a continuation of the Cheviot Hills, and, commencing at the Scottish border, proceeds S. for about 270 miles, till, in the counties of Derby and Stafford, it assumes the form of an elevated moor moorland plateau. In Derbyshire The Peak rises to the height of 2,080 feet. By far the most important of its offsets are those of the W., more especially if we include in them the lofty mountain masses in northwestern England sometimes classed separately as the Cumbrian range. Amid these mountains lie the celebrated English lakes, of which the most important are Windermere. Derwent Water, Coniston Lake and Ullswater. Here also is the highest summit of northern England, Scawfell (3,210 feet). The Pennine chain, with its appended Cumbrian range, is succeeded by one which surpasses both these in loftiness and extent, but has its great nucleus much farther to the W., where it covers the greater part of Wales, deriving from this its name, the Cambrian range. Its principal ridge stretches through Carnarvonshire from N. N. E. to S. S. W., with Snowdon (3,571 feet) as the culminating point of south Great Britain. Across the Bristol channel from Wales is the Devonian range. It may be considered as commencing in the Mendip Hills of Somerset, and then pursuing a S. W. direction through that county and the counties of Devon and Cornwall to the Land's End, the wild and desolate tract of Dartmoor forming one of its most remarkable features (highest summit, Yes Tor, 2,050 feet). Other ranges are the Cotswold Hills, proceeding in a N. E. direction from near the Mendip Hills; the Chiltern Hills taking a similar direction farther to the E.; and the North and South Downs running E., the latter reaching the S. coast near Beachy Head, the former reaching the S. E. coast at Folkestone. A large part of the surface of England consists of wide valleys and plains. Beginning in the N., the first valleys on the E. side are those of the Soquet, Tyne, and Tees; on the W. the beautiful valley of the Eden, which, at first hemmed in between the Cumbrian range and Pennine chain, gradually widens out into a plain of about 470 square miles, with the town of Carlisle in its center. The most important of the N. plains is the Vale of York, which has an area of nearly 1,000 square miles. Properly speaking, speaking, it is still the same plain which stretches, with scarcely a single interruption, across the counties of Lincoln, Suffolk, and Essex, to the mouth of the Thames, and to a considerable distance inland, comprising the central plain and the region of the fens. On the W. side of the island, in South Lancashire and Cheshire, is the fertile Cheshire plain. In Wales there are no extensive plains, the valleys generally having a narrow, rugged form favorable to romantic beauty, but not compatible with great fertility. Wales, Severn, however, owever, by giving rise to the can justly claim part in the vale, or series of almost unrivaled vales, along which it pursues its romantic course through the counties of Montgomery, Salop, Worcester, and Gloucester. S. E. of the Cotswold Hills is Salisbury plain, a large elevated plateau, of an oval shape, with a thin, chalky soil only suitable for pasture. e. In the S. W. the only vales deserving of notice are those of Taunton in Somerset and Exeter in Devon. A large portion of the S. E. may be regarded as a continuous plain, consisting of the Wealds of Sussex, Surrey, and Kent, between the North and South South Downs, and containing an area of about 1,000 square miles. The S. E. angle of this district is occupied by the Romney marsh, an extensive level tract composed for the most part of a rich marine deposit. Extensive tracts of a similar nature are situated on the E. coast, in Yorkshire and Lincoln, where they are washed by the Humber; and in the counties which either border the Wash, or, like Northampton, Bedford, Huntingdon, and Cambridge, send their drainage into it by the Nen and the Ouse. Many of these lands are naturally the richest in the kingdom; but have only been utilized by means of drainage. England is well supplied with rivers, many of them of great importance to industry and commerce. Most of them carry their waters to the North Sea. If we consider the drainage as a whole, four principal river basins may be distinguished, those of the Thames, Wash, and Humber belonging to the German Ocean; and the Severn belonging to the Atlantic. The basin of the Thames has its greatest length from E. to W., 130 miles, and its average breadth about 50 miles, area 6,160 square miles. The river itself, which is the chief of English rivers, has a length of 215 miles. The basin of the Wash consists of the subordinate basins of the Great Ouse, Nen, Welland, and Witham, which all empty themselves into that estuary, and has an area computed at 5,850 square miles. The basin of the Severn consists of two distinct portions, that on the right bank, of an irregularly oval shape, and having for its principal tributaries the Teme and the Wye; and that on the left, of which the Upper Avon is the principal tributary stream. The area of the whole basin is 8,580 square miles. The next basin, that of the Humber, the largest of all, consists of the three basins of the Humber proper, the Ouse, and the Trent, and its area is 9,550 square miles, being about onesixth of the whole area of England and Wales. Other rivers unconnected with these systems are the Tyne, Wear, and Tees, in the N. E.; the Eden, Ribble, Mersey, and Dee, in the N. W. The S. coast streams are very unimportant except for their estuaries. Civil History. - The history of England proper begins when it ceased to be a Roman possession. On the withdrawal of the Roman forces, about the beginning of the 5th century A. D., the South Britons, or inhabitants of what is now called England, were no longer able to withstand the attacks of their ferocious N. neighbors, the Scots and Picts. They applied for assistance to Aëtius, but the Roman general was too much occupied to attend to their petition. In their distress they appear to have sought the aid of the Saxons; and according to the Anglo-Saxon narratives three ships, containing 1,600 men, were dispatched to their help under the command of the brothers Hengest and Horsa. Marching against the N. foe, they obtained a complete victory. The date assigned to these events is A. D. 449, the narratives asserting further that the Saxons, finding the land desirable, turned their arms against the Britons, and reinforced by new bands, conquered first Kent and ultimately the larger part of the island. It is certain that in the middle of the 5th century the occasional Teutonic incursions gave place to persistent invasion with a view to settlement. These Teutonic invaders were Low German tribes from the country about the mouths of the Elbe and the Weser, the three most prominent being the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes. Of these the Jutes were the first to form a settlement, taking possession of part of Kent, the Isle of Wight, etc., but the larger conquests of the Saxons in the S. and the Angles in the N. gave to these tribes the leading place in the kingdom. The struggle continued 150 years, and at the end of that period the whole S. part of Great Britain, n, with the exception of Strathclyde, Wales, and West Wales (Cornwall), was in the hands of the Teutonic tribes. This conquered territory was divided among a number of small states, seven of the most conspicuous of which are often spoken of as the Heptarchy. These were: (1) The kingdom of Kent; founded by Hengest in 455; ended in 823. (2) Kingdom of South Saxons, containing Sussex and Surrey; founded by Ella in 477; ended in 689. (3) Kingdom of East Angles containing Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, Ely (Isle of); founded by Uffa in 571 or 575; ended in 792. (4) Kingdom of West Saxons, containing Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Wilts, Hants, Berks, and part of Cornfounded by wall; founded by Cerdic 519; swallowed up the rest in 827. (5) Kingdom of Northumbria, containing York, Durham, North Cumberland, Westmoreland, Northumberland, and the E. coast of Scotland to the Firth of Forth; founded by Ida 547; absorbed by Wessex in 827. (6) Kingdom of East Saxons, containing Essex, Middlesex, Hertford (part); founded by Erchew in 527; ended in 823. (7) Kingdom of Mercia, containing Gloucester, Hereford, Worcester, Warwick, Leicester, Rutland, Northampton Lincoln, Huntingdon, Bedford, Buckingham, Oxford, Stafford, Derby, Salop, Nottingham, Chester, Hertford (part); founded by Cridda about 584; absorbed by Wessex in 827. Each state was, in its turn, annexed to more powerful neighbors; and at length, in 827, Egbert, by his valor and superior capacity, united in his own person the sovereignty of what had formerly been seven kingdoms, and the whole came to be called England, that is Angle-land. Meanwhile certain important changes had occurred. The conquest had been the slow expulsion of a Christian race by a purely heathen race, and the country had returned to something of its old isolation with regard to the rest of Europe. But before the close of the 6th century Christianity had secured a footing in the S. E. of the island. Ethelbert, King of Kent and suzerain over the kingdoms S. of the Humber, married a Christian wife, Bertha, daughter of Charibert of Soissons, and this event led indirectly to the coming of St. Augustine. The conversion of Kent, Essex, and East Anglia was followed by that of Northumberland and then by that of Mercia, of Wessex, of Sussex, and lastly of Wight, the contest between the two religions being at its height in the 7th century. The legal and political changes immediately immediately consequent co on the adoption of Christianity were not great, but there resulted a more intimate relation with Europe and the older civilizations, the introduction of new learning and culture, the formation of a written literature, and the fusion of the tribes and petty kingdoms into a closer and more lasting unity than that which could have been otherwise secured. The kingdom, however, was still kept in a state of disturbance by the attacks of the Danes, who had made repeated incursions during the whole of the Saxon period, and about half a century after the unification of the kingdom became for the moment masters of nearly the whole of England. But Alfred the Great, who had ascended the throne in 871, 71, defeated the Danes at Ethandune (887). Guthrum, their king, embraced Christianity, became the vassal of the Saxon king, and retired to a strip of land on the E. coast including Northumbria and called the Danelagh. The two immediate successors of Alfred, Edward (901- 925) and Athelstan (925-940), the son and grandson of Alfred, had each to direct his arms against these settlers of the Danelagh. The reigns of the next five kings, Edmund, Edred, Edwy, Edgar, and Edward the Martyr, are chiefly remarkable on account of the conspicuous place occupied in them by Dunstan, who was counsellor to Edmund, minister of Edred, treasurer under Edwy, and supreme during the reigns of Edgar and his successor. It was possibly due to his policy that from the time of Athelstan till after the death of Edward the Martyr (978 or 979), the country_had comparative rest from the Danes. During the 10th century many changes had taken place in the Teutonic constitution. Feudalism was already taking root; the king's authority had increased; the folkland was being taken over as the king's personal property; the nobles by birth, or earldormen, were becoming of less importance in administration than the nobility of thegns, the officers of the king's court. Ethelred (978-1016), who succeeded Edward, was a minor, the government was feebly conducted, and the incursions of the Danes became more frequent and destructive. A general massacre of them took place in 1002. The following year Sweyn invaded the kingdom with a powerful army and assumed the crown of England. Ethelred was compelled to take refuge in Normandy; and though he afterward returned, he found in Canute an adversary no less formidable than Sweyn. Ethelred left his kingdom in 1016 to his son Edmund, who displayed great valor, but was compelled to divide his kingdom with Canute; when he was assassinated in 1017, the Danes succeeded to the sovereignty of the whole. Canute (Knut), who espoused the widow of Ethelred, obtained the name of Great, not only on account of his personal qualities but from the extent of his dominions, being master of Denmark and Norway as well as England. In 1035 he died, and in England was followed by the other two Danish kings, Harold and Hardicanute, whose joint reigns lasted till 1042, after which the English line was again restored in the person of Edward the Confessor. Edward was a weak prince, and in the latter years of his reign had far less real power than his brother-in-law Harold, son of the great earl Godwin. On Edward's death in 1066 Harold accordingly obtained the crown. He found a formidable opponent in the second cousin of Edward, William of Normandy, who instigated the Danes to invade the N. countries, while he, with 60,000 men, landed in the S. Harold vanquished the Danes, and hastening. southward met the Normans near Hastings, at Senlac, afterward called Battle. Harold and his two brothers fell (Oct. 14, 1066), and William (1066-1087) immediately claimed the government as lawful King of England, being subsequently known as William I., the Conqueror. For some time he conducted the government with great moderation; but being obliged to reward those who had assisted him, he bestowed the chief offices of government on Normans, and divided among them a great part of the country. The revolts of the native English which Eng followed were quickly crushed, continental feudalism in a modified form was established, and the English Church reorganized under Lanfranc as Archbishop of Canterbury. At his death, in 1087, William II., commonly known by the name of Rufus, the conqueror's second son, obtained the crown, Robert, the eldest son, receiving the Duchy of Normandy. In 1100, when William II. was accidentally killed in the New Forest, Robert was again cheated of his throne by his younger brother Henry (Henry I.), who in 1106 even wrested from him the Duchy of Normandy. Henry's power being secured, he entered into a dispute with Anselm the primate, and with the Pope, concerning the right of granting investiture to the clergy. He supported his quarrel with firmness, and brought it to a favorable issue. His reign was also marked by the suppression of the greater Norman nobles in England. In 1135 he died in Normandy, leaving behind him only a daughter, Matilda. By the will of Henry I. his daughter Maud or Matilda, wife of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, who had first been married to Henry V., Emperor of Germany, was declared his successor. But Stephen, son of the Count of Blois, and of Adela, daughter of William the Conqueror, raised an army in Normandy, landed in England, and declared himself king. After years of civil war and bloodshed it was agreed that Stephen should continue to reign during the remainder of his life, but that he should be succeeded by Henry, son of Matilda and the Count of Anjou. Stephen died in 1154, and Henry Plantagenet ascended the throne with the title of Henry II., being the first of the Plantagenet or Angevin kings. A larger dominion was united under his sway than had been held by any previous sovereign of England, for at the time when he became King of England he was already in the possession of Anjou, Normandy, and Aquitaine. Henry II. found far less difficulty in restraining the license of his barons than in abridging the exorbitant privileges of the clergy, who were supported by the primate Becket. The king's wishes were formulated in the Constitutions of Clarendon (1164), which were at first accepted and then repudiated by the primate. The assassination of Becket, however, placed the king at a disadvantage in the struggle, and after his conquest of Ireland (1171) he submitted to the Church and did penance at Becket's tomb. Henry was the first who placed the common people of England in a situation which led to their having a share in the government. The system of frankpledge was revived, trial by jury was instituted by the Assize of Clarendon, and the Eyre courts were made permanent by the Assize of Nottingham. To 7 curb the power of the nobles he granted charters to towns, thus laying the foundation of a new order in society. Richard I., called Cœur de Lion, who in 1189 succeeded his father, Henry_II., spent most of his reign away from England. Having gone to Palestine to join in the third crusade he proved himself an intrepid soldier. Returning homeward in disguise through Germany, he was made prisoner by Leopold, Duke of Austria, but was ransomed by his subjects. In the , his brother, had aspired meantime John, an to the crown, and hoped, by the assistance of the French, to exclude Richard from his right. Richard's presence for a time restored matters to some appearance of order; but having undertaken an expedition against France, he received a mortal wound at the siege of Chalons, in 1199. John was at once recognized as King of England, and secured possession of Normandy; but Anjou, Maine, and Touraine acknowledged the claim of Arthur, son of Geoffrey, second son of Henry II. On the death of Arthur, while in John's power, these four French provinces were at once lost to England. John's opposition to the Pope in electing a successor to the see of Canterbury in 1205 led to the kingdom being placed under an interdict; and the nation being in a disturbed condition, he was at last compelled to receive Stephen Langton as archbishop, and to accept his kingdom as a fief of the papacy (1213). His exactions and misgovernment had equally embroiled him with the nobles. In 1213 they refused to follow him to France, and on his return defeated, they at once took measures to secure their own privileges and abridge the prerogatives of the crown. King and barons met at Runnymede, and on June 15, 1215, the Great gna Charta) was signed. It Charter (Magna was speedily declared null and void by the Pope, and war broke out between John and the barons, who were aided by the French king. In 1216, however, John died, and his turbulent reign was succeeded by the almost equally turbulent reign of Henry III. During the first years of the reign of Henry III. the abilities of the Earl of Pembroke, who was regent until 1219, kept the kingdom in tranquillity; but when, in 1227, Henry assumed the reins of government he showed himself incapable of managing them. The Charter was three times reissued in a modified form, and new privileges were added to it, but the king took no pains to observe its provisions. The struggle, long maintained in the great council (henceforward called Parliament), reached an acute stage in 1263, when civil war broke out. Simon de Montfort, who had laid the foundations of the House of Commons by summoning representatives of the shire communities to the Mad Parliament of 1258, had by this time engrossed the sole power. He defeated the king and his son Edward at Lewes in 1264, and in his famous Parliament of 1265 still further widened the privileges of the people by summoning to it burgesses as well as knights of the shire. The escape of Prince Edward, however, was followed by the battle of Evesham (1265), at which Earl Simon was defeated and slain, and the rest of the reign was undisturbed. On the death of Henry III., in 1272, Edward I. succeeded without opposition. From 1276 to 1284 he was largely occupied in the conquest and annexation of Wales. When, in 1294, war broke out with France, Scotland also declared war. The Scots were defeated at Dunbar (1296), and the country placed under an English regent; but the revolt under Wallace (1297), was followed by that of Bruce (1306), and the Scots remained unsubdued. The reign of Edward was distinguished by many legal and legislative reforms, such as the separation of the old King's Court into the Court of Exchequer, Court of King's Bench, and Court of Common Pleas, the passage of the Statute of Mortmain, etc. In 1295 the first_perfect Parliament was summoned. Two years later the imposition of taxation without consent of Parliament was forbidden by special act. The great aim of Edward, however, to include England, Scotland, and Wales in one kingdom proved a failure, and he died in 1307 marching against Robert Bruce. The reign of his son Edward II. was unfortunate to himself and to his kingdom. At Bannockburn (1314), the English received a defeat from Robert Bruce which insured the independence of Scotland. The king soon proved incapable of regulating the lawless conduct of his barons; and and his his wife, wife, a a woman woman of of bold, bold, intriguing intriguing confederacy against him, which resulted in his imprisonment and death in 1327. The reign of Edward III. was as brilliant as that of his father had been the reverse. The main projects of the third Edward were directed against France, the crown of which he claimed in 1328, in virtue of his mother, the daughter of King Philip. The victory won by the Black Prince at Crécy (1346), the capture of Calais (1347), and the victory of Poitiers (1356), ultimately led to the Peace of Brétigny in 1360, by which Edward III. received all the W. of France on condition of renouncing his claim to the French throne. Before the close of his reign, however, these advantages were all lost again, save a few principal towns on the coast. Edward III. was succeeded in 1377 by his grandson Richard II., son of Edward the Black Prince. In 1380 an unjust and oppressive poll-tax brought their popular grievances to a head, and 100.- 000 men under Wat Tyler, marched toward London (1381). Wat Tyler was killed while conferring with the king, and the prudence and courage of Richard appeased the insurgents. In 1398 he banished his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke; and on the death of the latter's father, the Duke of Lancaster, unjustly appropriated his cousin's patrimony. To avenge the injustice Bolingbroke landed in England during the king's absence in Ireland, and at the head of 60,000 malcontents compelled Richard to surrender. He was confined in the Tower, and despite the superior claims of Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, Henry was appointed king (1399), the first of the House of Lancaster. Richard was, in all probability, murdered early in 1400. The manner in which the Duke of Lancaster, now Henry IV., acquired the crown rendered his reign extremely turbulent, but the vigor of his administration quelled every insurrection. The most important that of the Percies of Northumberland, Owen Glendower, and Douglas of Scotland-was crushed by the battle of Shrewsbury (1403). During the reign of Henry IV. the clergy of England first began the practice of burning heretics. The act under which this was done was directed chiefly against the Lollards, as the followers of Wyclif now came to be called. Henry died in 1413, leaving his crown to his son, Henry V., who revived the claim of Edward III. to the throne of France in 1415, and invaded that country at the head of 30,000 men. The disjointed councils of the French rendered their country an easy prey; the victory of Agincourt was gained in 1415; and after a second campaign a peace was concluded at Troyes in 1420, by which Henry received the hand of Catherine, daughter of Charles VI., was appointed regent of France during the reign of his father-in-law, and declared heir to the throne on his death, The two kings, however, died within a few weeks of each other in 1422, and the infant son of Henry thus became King of England (as Henry VI.) and France at the age of nine months. England during the reign of Henry VI., was subjected to all the confusion incident to a long minority, and afterward to a civil war. Henry allowed himself to be managed by anyone who had the courage to assume the conduct of his affairs, and the influence of his wife Margaret of Anjou, A was of no advantage either to himself or the realm. In France (1422-1453) the English forces lost ground, and were finally expelled by the celebrated Joan of Arc, Calais alone being retained. The rebellion of Jack Cade in 1450 was suppressed, only to be succeeded by more serious trouble. In that year Richard, Duke of York, the father of Edward, afterward Edward IV., began to advance his pretensions to the throne. His claim was founded on his descent from the third son of Edward III., who was his great-great-grandfather on the mother's side, while Henry was the great-grandson on the father's side of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the fourth son of Edward III. Richard of York was also grandson on the father's side of Edmund, fifth son of Edward III. The wars which resulted, called the Wars of the Roses, from the fact that a red rose was the badge of the House of Lancaster and a white one that of the House of York, lasted for 30 years, from the first battle of St. Albans, May 22, 1455, to the battle of Bosworth, Aug. 22, 1485. Henry VI. was twice driven from the throne (in 1461 and 1471) by Edward of York, whose father had previously been killed in battle in 1460. Edward of York reigned as Edward IV. from 1461 till his death in 1483, with a brief interval in 1471; and was succeeded by two other sovereigns of the House of York, first his son Edward V., who reigned for 11 weeks in 1483; and then by his brother Richard III., who reigned from 1483 till 1485, when he was defeated and slain on Bosworth field by Henry Tudor, of the House of Lancaster, who then became Henry VII. Henry VII. was at this time the representative of the House of Lancaster, and in order at once to strengthen his own title, and to put an end to the rivalry between the Houses of York and Lancaster, he married in 1486 Elizabeth, the sister of Edward V. and heiress of the House of York. His reign was disturbed by insurrections attending the impostures of Lambert Simnel (1487) and Perkin Warbeck (1488); but neither of these attained any magnitude. The king's worst fault was avarice. His administration throughout did much to increase the royal power and to establish order and prosperity. He died in 1509. The authority of the English crown, which had been so much extended by Henry VII., was by his son Henry VIII. exerted in a tyrannical and capricious manner. The most important event of the reign was undoubtedly the Reformation; though it had its origin rather in Henry's caprice and in the casual situaprivate affairs than in his tion of his his 5 conviction of the necessity of a reformation in religion, or in the solidity of reasoning employed by the reformers. Henry had been espoused to Catherine of Spain, who was first married to his elder brother Arthur, who died young. Henry became enamored of one of her maids of honor, Anne Boleyn. He had recourse to the Pope to dissolve his marriage; but failing in his desires he broke away entirely from the Holy See, and in 1534 got himself recognized by act of Parliament as the head of the English Church. He died in 1547. He was married six times, and left three children, each of whom reigned in turn. These were: Mary, by his first wife, Catherine of Aragon; Elizabeth, by his his second wife, and Edward by his third Anne Boleyn; n; wife, Jane Seymour. Edward, who reigned first with the title of Edward VI., was nine years of age at the time of his succession, and died in 1553, when he was only 16. His short reign, or rather the reign of the Earl of Hertford, afterward Duke of Somerset, who was appointed regent, was distinguished chiefly by the success which attended the measures of the reformers, who acquired great part of the power formerly engrossed by the Catholics. The intrigues of Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, during the reign of Edward, caused Lady Jane Grey to be declared his successor; but her reign, if it could be called such, lasted only a few days. Mary, daughter of Henry VIII. was placed on the throne, and Lady Jane Grey and her husband were both executed. Mary seems to have wished for the crown only for the purpose of reestablishing the Roman Catholic faith. Political motives had induced Philip of Spain to accept of her as a spouse; but she could never prevail on her subjects to allow him any share of power. She died in 1558. Elizabeth, who succeeded her sister Mary, was attached to the Protestant faith, and found little difficulty in establishing it in England. Having concluded peace with France (1559), Elizabeth set herself to promote the confusion which prevailed in Scotland, to which her cousin Mary had returned from France as queen in 1561. In this she was so far successful that Mary placed herself in her power (1568), and after many years' imprisonment was sent to the scaffold (1587). As the most powerful Protestant nation, and as a rival to Spain in the New World, it was natural that England should become involved in difficulties with that country. The dispersion of the Armada by the English fleet under Howard, Drake, and Hawkins was the most brilliant event of a struggle which abounded in feats of valor. In Elizabeth's reign London became the center of the world's trade, the extension of British commercial enterprise being coincident with the ruin of Antwerp in 1585. The Parliament was increased, and its members were exempted from arrest. In literature not less than in politics and in commerce the same full life displayed itself, and England began definitely to assume the characteristics which distinguish her from the other European nations of to-day. To Elizabeth succeeded (in 1603) James VI. of Scotland and I. of England, son of Mary Queen of Scots and Darnley. His accession to the crown of England in addition to that of Scotland did much to unite the two nations, though a certain smoldering animosity still lingered. His dissimulation, however, ended in his satisfying neither of the contending ecclesiastical parties the Puritans or the Catholics; and his absurd insistence on his divine right made his reign a continuous struggle between the prerogative of the crown and the freedom of the people. His extravagance kept him in constant disputes with the Parliament, and compelled him to resort to monopolies, loans, benevolences, and other illegal methods. The nation at large, however, continued to prosper. His son, Charles I., who succeeded him in 1625, inherited the same exalted ideas of royal prerogative, and his marriage with a Catholic, his arbitrary rule, and illegal methods of raising money, provoked bitter hostility. Civil war broke out in 1642, between the king's party and that of the Parliament, and the latter proving victorious, in 1649 the king was beheaded. A commonwealth or republican government was now established, in which the most prominent figure was Oliver Cromwell. Mutinies in the army among Fifth-monarchists and Levellers were subdued by Cromwell and Fairfax, and Cromwell in a series of masterly movements subjugated Ireland and gained the important battles of Dunbar and Worcester. At sea Blake had destroyed the Royalist fleet under Rupert, and was engaged in an honorable struggle with the Dutch under Van Tromp. But within the governing matters had come to a deadlock. A dissolution was necessary, yet Parliament shrank from dissolving itself and in the meantime the reform of the law, a settlement with regard to the Church, and other important matters remained untouched. In April, 1653, Cromwell cut the knot by forcibly ejecting the members and putting the keys in his pocket. From this time he was practically head of the government, which was vested in a council of 13. A Parliament the Little or Barebones Parliamentwas summoned and in December of the same year Cromwell was installed Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland. With more than the power of a king, he succeeded in dominating the confusion at home and made the country feared thoughout the whole of Europe. Cromwell died in 1658, and the brief and feeble protectorate of his son Richard followed. There was now a wide-spread feeling that the country would be better under the old form of government, and Charles II., son of Charles I., was called to the throne by the Restoration of 1660. He took complete advantage of the popular reaction from the narrowness and intolerance of Puritanism, and even latterly endeavored to re-establish the Catholic religion. The promises of religious freedom made by him before the Restoration in the Declaration of Breda were broken by the Test and Corporation Acts, and by the Act of Uniformity, which drove 2,000 clergymen from the Church and created the great dissenting movement of modern times. The Conventicle and Five-Mile Acts followed, and the "Drunken Parliament" restored Episcopacy in Scotland. At one time even civil war seemed again imminent. The abolition of the censorship of the press (1679) and the reaffirmation of the Habeas Corpus principle are the most praiseworthy incidents of the reign. As Charles II. left no legitimate issue, his brother, the Duke of York, succeeded him as James II. (1685-1688). An invasion by an illegitimate son of Charles, the Duke of Monmouth, who claimed the throne, was suppressed, and the king's arbitrary rule was supported by the wholesale butcheries of Kirke and Jeffreys. The king's zealous countenance of Roman Catholicism and his attempts to force the Church and the universities to submission provoked a storm of opposition. The whole nation was prepared to welcome any deliverance, and in 1688 William of Orange, huband of James' daughter Mary, landed in Torbay. James fled to France, and a convention summoned by William settled the crown on him, he thus becoming William III. Annexed to this settlement was a Declaration of Rights, circumscribing the royal prerogative. This placed henceforward the right of the British sovereign to the throne on a purely statutory basis. A toleration act, passed in 1689, released dissent from many penalties. In 1692 originated the national debt, the exchequer having been drained by the heavy military expenditure. A bill for triennial Parliaments was passed in 1694, the year in which Queen Mary died. For a moment after her death William's popularity was in danger, but his successes at Namur and elsewhere, and the obvious exhaustion of France, once more confirmed his power. The treaty of Ryswick followed in 1697, and the death of James II. in exile in 1701 removed a not unimportant source of danger. Early in the following year William also died, and by the act of settlement Anne succeeded him. The closing act of William's reign had been the formation of the grand alliance between England, Holland, and the German Empire, and the new queen's rule opened with the brilliant successes of Marlborough at Blenheim (1704) and Ramillies (1706). Throughout the earlier part of her reign the Marlboroughs practically ruled the kingdom, the duke's wife, Sarah Jennings, being the queen's most intimate friend and adviser. In 1707 the history of England becomes the history of Great Britain, the Act of Union passed in that year binding the Parliaments and realms of England and Scotland into a single and more powerful whole. On the death of Anne, the House of Brunswick came to the throne in the person of George I. (1714-1727). The principal events of the reign were abortive Jacobite risings, the divorce of the queen, and the "South Sea bubble." George II. ascended the throne in 1727. His reign was prosperous, but not very eventful, except for the rebellion under the young pretender. George III. became king in 1760. Under his rule, the British Empire in India was founded, the American colonies established their independence, and the French Revolution burst forth. England was for a time on the verge of ruin. The national debt reached enormous proportions. But the genius of Chatham, Pitt, Fox, Nelson, Clive and Wellington rescued the country, after the failure of George III.'s plan of personal government had been demonstrated. During this reign the legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland was effected. The king died in 1820, and was succeeded by George * ENGLAND IV. His reign of 10 years witnessed Roman Catholic emancipation, the first development of England as a colonial power in the sense of to-day, and marked industrial expansion. William IV. ruled seven years (1830-1837). During this period the great Reform Bill, extending the suffrage, marked the dawn of the democratic era in English politics. Victoria became Queen of E of England in 1837, and died Jan. 22, 1901, her reign being the longest in the country's history. Her sway covered the period which embraces the revolutions of 1848 throughout Europe, the wars of Prussia against Austria and France, the Crimean war, the Civil War in the United States, the struggle for Egypt and the control of Afghanistan, the problem of China and the conflict with the Boers which ended with the absorption of the Transvaal and the South African Republic into the British Empire. The matters of purely domestic concern were the corn-law aw agitation, the condition of the working classes, trade-union regulation, free trade and popular education. During these years, the naval supremacy of England was maintained, the colonial empire of Great Britain was cemented and strengthened, and home rule, in the face of persistent agitation, was refused to Ireland. There was a very democratic extension of the suffrage during one of the Gladstone administrations. The Indian Empire did not, on the whole, prosper during the period from 1890 to 1900, but the occupation of Egypt, dating from 1882, was successful. The British North American Act of 1867 and the Commonwealth of Australia Act of 1900 indicated the tendency to imperial federation, of which England's commanding position makes her the center. The royal power meanwhile waned to an extent which, with the extension of suffrage, left the country practically a democracy at the end of the 19th century. Edward VII. became king in 1901. In 1902 the New Education Bill was enacted and in the following year a Land Act for Ireland was passed, which provided for the distribution of £100,- 000,000 to tenants for the purpose of enabling them to acquire ownership of land. The distribution was made in the form of long-term loans. In the same year Joseph Chamberlain introduced a proposal for the modification of the fiscal arangements of the country which was equivalent to the abandonment of free trade. He proposed that the United Kingdom should enforce a duty on food imports from foreign countries and admit products from the colonies free. This question was agitated both within and without Parliament for several years, but with no political results. The Balfour cabinet resigned in 1905. A Liberal Ministry was organized by Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. In foreign politics British prestige following the South African War was greatly increased. An alliance was made with Japan in 1902 and 1905. Trade relations were established with Tibet in 1904. In the same year the position of England in Egypt improved by an agreement with France by which the latter gave her approval to the British acquisition of that country. In 1907 relations which had been growing increasingly strained between the House of Commons and the House of Lords brought about a desire for a modification of the powers of the latter body. This was accomplished in 1911 when a bill was passed depriving the House of Lords of practically all power over money bills and providing other curbs on the power of the Upper House. An old-age pension bill was passed in 1908. In the year following, David Lloyd George became Chancellor of the Exchequer, and he at once began preparations of measures to produce increased revenues. These included a tax on land which met with wide opposition, especially in the House of Lords, which defeated it. The government went twice to the country in 1910 on this issue and was each time sustained. Edward VII. died in 1910 and was succeeded by George V. In 1914 the Home Rule Bill for Ireland was passed, as well as a bill disestablishing the Anglican Church in Wales. The Home Rule Bill was deferred on account of the outbreak of the World War. When the war began in August, 1914, political conditions were most unfavorable. Ireland was on the verge of Civil War. The army was in poor condition and there were disagreements with the colonies in regard to the naval policy, and other matters. In spite of these conditions, however, England went into the war with great enthusiasm. War measures were passed providing for the authorization of war credits, and other legislation aiming at a successful prosecution of the war was put into effect. For an account of the part taken by England and Great Britain in the World War, see that title. See also articles on the separate battles, CANADA, AUS- TRALIA, MESOPOTAMIA, EGYPT, PALES- 'TINE, TURKEY, etc. Although by April, 1915, 750,000 men had been sent to the front it was evident that more man power must be supplied. Conscription was proposed by many prominent men but did not at first meet with favor. A great campaign of recruiting was carried on in 1915 which resulted in the enlistment of about 830,- 000 men. In January, 1916, a militaryservice bill was introduced in Parliament. This provided that all bachelors and widowers between the ages of 18 and 41 were liable for military service. Ireland was excluded from the operation of the bill. The bill was finally passed in May, 1916. One of the chief problems to be met by the government was the question of munitions, which during the first period of the war was entirely inadequate to meet the demands of the rapidly forming new army. The Munitions Act was passed which provided for government supervision of all manufacturing, which made strikes and lockouts illegal. In May, 1915, as a result of the cabinet crisis, a coalition cabinet was formed consisting of 12 Liberals, 8 4 Unionists, and one Labor member. In December, 1915, Parliament introduced a bill prolonging its life for 12 months. By a later compromise this was reduced to 8 months. In April, 1916, a serious outbreak occurred in Ireland under the direction of Sir Roger Casement. (See IRELAND.) In February, 1917, a bill was introduced into Parliament requiring all men between the ages of 18 to 61 to be enrolled. This bill was passed in March. Among other important events of 1917 were the introduction of the new budget which largely increased taxation besides providing for electoral reforms and woman suffrage. In March of that year the First Imperial War Cabinet including representatives from all British dominions was held in London. The Irish question continued to be the most serious domestic problem during this year. During 1918 many stringent measures were passed providing for increased efficiency in war work. A new military-service bill was enacted in April. This provided military service from every British male between the ages of 18 and 51 who had been in England since August, 1915. The second session of the Imperial War Cabinet took place June 10, 1918. The House of Commons in October of this year passed a measure providing for the membership of women in Parliament. A general election was held on December 14, 1918. The Liberal party was divided into two factions, one of which supported Lloyd George and the other Asquith. The Coalition Government was successful in the election, electing almost 5 to 1 of its members as candidates. This marked the complete overthrow of the Asquith Liberals and the Pacifists. During the year an Irish convention was held for the purpose of arriving at ment between the Irish factions however, resulted in no success and the Irish question unsettled at the end of the When Parliament met in traditional party lines were obliterated. Several of the spicuous members, including quith, had lost their seats. George had been Prime December 7, 1916, and from until the end of the war he strongest figure and practically tor of the English government given the fullest possible was in most cases warmly the people. With President was the most conspicuous Peace Conference in 1919. economic conditions in England very unfavorable and there quent strikes in the industrial A threatened strike of the resulted in the formation of a mission, which succeeded in ing conditions which were the miners. The railway strike force during the latter part of but was broken by lack of the people. During 1919 the Wales visited the United States he was received with great In February 10, 1920, Parliament a new session. Herbert former premier, was elected House of Commons from Paisley remaining in session until the October House of Commons adjourned 19. At the beginning session on that date, army ing the estimates total estimates were introduced for about £165,000,000. During 1920 and_1921 tinued in Ireland. In some the country a practical condition war existed. For an account conditions, see IRELAND. The Rule Bill was signed by King in December, 1920, which was effect at the discretion of the In 1921 agreement was France in regard to the control and Palestine, and a practical ate was established over Egypt had already become part of the British Empire. 1921, the Supreme Council of Conference held sessions in decide the question of Germany. For statistical data relating land, see GREAT BRITAIN. For tory embraced in the BRITISH EMPIRE. See also articles
An Encyclopaedia of Occultism (1920)
(For the pre-Saxon inhabitants of England, See Celts .) The Anglo-Saxon system of magic was of course Teutonic. Their pretenders to witchcraft were called wicca, scin-laeca, galdor-craeftig, wiglaer, and morthwyrtha. Wiglaer is a combination from wig, an idol or a temple, and laer, learning. He was the wizard, as wicca was the witch. Scinlaeca was a species of phantom or apparition, and was also used as a name of the person who had the power of producing such things: it is, literally, a shining dead body." Galdor-craeftig implies one skilled in incantations; and morth-wyrtha is, literally, " a worshipper of the dead." 66 66 Another general appellation for such personages was dry, a magician. The laws visited these practices with penal severity. The best account that can be given of them will be found in the passages proscribing them. "If any wicca, or wiglaer, or false swearer, or morthwyrtha, or any foul, contaminated, manifest horcwenan (whore, quean or strumpet), be any where in the land, man shall drive them out." "We teach that every priest shall extinguish all heathendom, and forbid wilweorthunga (fountain-worship), and licwiglunga (incantations of the dead), and hwata (omens), and galdra (magic), and manworship, and the abominations that men exercise in various sorts of witchcraft, and in frithspottum, and with elms and other trees, and with stones, and with many phantoms." From subsequent regulations, we find that these practices were made the instruments of the most fatal mischief; for penitentiary penalties are enjoined if any one should destroy another by wicce craefte; or if any should "drive sickness on a man"; or if death should follow from the attempt. They seem to have used philtres; for it is also made punishable if any should use witchcraft for another's love, or should give him to eat or to drink with magic. They were also forbid to wiglian (or to divine) by the moon. Canute renewed the prohibitions. He enjoined them not to worship the sun or the moon, fire or floods, wells or stones, or any sort of tree; not to love wiccecraeft, or frame death-spells, either by lot or by torch; nor to effect any thing by phantoms. From the Poenitentiale of Theodore we also learn, that the power of letting loose tempests was also pretended to. Another name for magical arts among the Anglo-Saxons was unlybban wyrce, "destructive of life." The penitence is prescribed for a woman who kills a man by unlybban. One instance of philtre using is detailed to us. A woman resolving on the death of her step-son, or to alienate from him his father's affection, sought a witch, who knew how to change minds by arts and enchantments. Addressing such a one with promises and rewards, she enquired how the mind of the father might be turned from the child, and be fixed on herself. The magical medicament was immediately made, and mixed with the husband's meat and drink. The catastrophe of the whole was the murder of the child and the discovery of the crime by the assistant, to revenge the step-mother's ill-treatment. The charms used by the Anglo-Saxons were innumerable. They trusted in their magical incantations for the cure of disease, for the success of their tillage, for the discovery of lost property, and for the prevention of casualties. Specimens of their charms for these purposes still remain to us. Bede tells us, that many, in times of disease (neglecting the sacraments) went to the erring medicaments of idolatry, as if to restrain God's chastisements by incantations, phylacteries, or any other secret of the demoniacal arts." Their prognostications, from the sun, from thunder, and from dreams, were so numerous, as to display and to perpetuate superstition. Every day of every month was catalogued as a propitious or unpropitious season for certain transactions. We have Anglo-Saxon treatises which contain rules for discovering the future and disposition of a child, from the day of its nativity. One day was useful for all things; another, though good to tame animals was baleful to sow seeds. One day was favourable to the commencement of business; another to let blood; and others wore a forbidding aspect to these and other things. On this day one must buy, on a second sell, on a third hunt, on a fourth do nothing. If a child was born on such a day, it would live; if on another, its life would be sickly; if on another, he would perish early. In a word, the most alarming fears, and the most extravagant hopes, were perpetually raised by these foolish superstitions, which tended to keep the mind in the dreary bondage of ignorance and absurdity, which prevented the growth of knowledge, by the incessant war of prejudice, and the slavish effects of the most imbecile apprehensions. The same anticipations of futurity were made by noticing on what day of the week or month it first thundered, or the new moon appeared, or the new-year's day occurred. Dreams likewise had regular interpretations and applications; and thus life, instead of being governed by counsels of wisdom, was directed by those solemn lessons of gross superstition, which the most ignorant peasant of our days would be ashamed to avow. Although witchcraft was of early origin in England, we do not find many notices of it in the literature of the country, nor does it seem to have been systematically punished until past Reformation times. That is not to say, that no prosecution ever took place against witchcraft in Plantagenet and early Tudor times, but that in all probability the vogue of sorcery was so widespread, and so powerful was supposed to be the protection of a Church that nothing like a crusade was directed against it. Again it was regarded as a political offence to employ sorcery against the ruling powers, and as such it was punished severely enough, as is witnessed by the execution of the Duchess of Gloucester in Henry VI .'s reign, and the Duke of Buckingham in 1521. In Henry VI.'s time Lord Hungerford was beheaded for consulting certain soothsayers concerning the duration of the King's life. L. S. According to Sir William Blackstone, "To deny the possibility, nay, the actual existence of witchcraft and sorcery is at once flatly to contradict the revealed Word of God in various passages of the Old and New Testaments, and the thing itself is a truth to which every nation in the world hath in its turn borne testimony." At very early periods the Church fulminated against those who practised it. In 696 a Canon of Council held at Berkhampstead condemned to corporal punishment those who made sacrifices to evil spirits, and at subsequent dates Statutes against Witchcraft were enacted by the Parliaments of Henry VIII., Elizabeth and James I. Mr. Inderwick says, "For centuries in this country strange as it may now appear, a denial of the existence of such demoniacal agency was deemed equal to a confession of Atheism and to a disbelief in the Holy Scriptures themselves. But not only did Lord Chancellors, Lord Keepers, benches of Bishops and Parliament attest the truth and the existence of witchcraft, but Addison writing as late as 1711, in the pages of the Spectator, after describing himself as hardly pressed by the arguments on both sides of England this question expresses his own belief that there is and has been, witchcraft in the land." It is in the twelfth Century that a first distinct glimpse is obtained of the bond between the Evil One and his victim. The tale of the old woman of Berkeley which Southey's Ballad has familiarised, is related by William of Malmesbury on the authority of a professed eye-witness. When the devil informed the witch of the near expiry of her contract, she summoned the neighbouring monks and her children, and after confessing her criminal compact displayed great anxiety lest Satan should secure her body as well as her soul. She gave directions to be sewn in a stag's hide and placed in a stone coffin, shut in with lead and iron, to be loaded with heavy stones and the whole fastened down with three iron chains. In order to baffle the power of the demons, she further directed fifty psalms to be sung by night, and fifty masses to be sung by day, and that at the end of three nights, if her body was still secure, she said that it might be buried with safety. All these precautions however, proved of no avail. The monks bravely resisted the efforts of the fiends on the first and second nights, but on the third night in the middle of a terrific uproar an immense demon burst into the monastery and in a voice of thunder commanded the dead witch to rise. She replied that she was bound with chains, which however the demon snapped like thread, the coffin lid fell aside, and on the witch arising the demon bore her off on a huge black horse and galloped into the darkness, while her shrieks resounded through the air. The first trial for witchcraft in England occurred during the tenth year of the reign of King John, when according to the Abbreviato- Placitorum, the wife of Ado the merchant, accused one Gideon of the crime. He proved his innocence however, by the ordeal of the red-hot iron. A trial was reported with more detail in the year 1324. Certain citizens of Coventry had suffered at the hands of the prior whose extortions were approved of and supported by two of Edward II.'s favourites. By way of revenge they plotted the death of the prior, the favourites, and the King. In order to carry this into effect they consulted John of Nottingham , a famous Magician of the time, and his servant Robert Marshall of Leicester. Marshall however, betrayed the plot and stated that together with his master they fashioned images of wax to represent the King, his two favourites, the prior, his caterer and steward, and one Richard de Lowe-the latter being brought in merely as an experimental lay-figure in which to test the effect of the charm. At an old ruined house near Coventry, on the Friday following Holy Cross Day, John gave his man a sharp pointed leaden branch and commanded him to plunge it into the forehead of the figure representing Richard de Lowe. This being done John dispatched his servant to Lowe's house to find out the result of the experiment. Lowe it seems had lost his senses and went about screaming "Harrow." On the Sunday before Ascension John withdrew the branch from the image's forehead, and thrust it into the heart, where it remained till the following Wednesday when the unfortunate victim died. Such was the evidence of Marshall, but the judges gave it little belief, and after several adjournments the trial was abandoned. The first enactment against witchcraft in England was by the Parliament of 1541. In 1551 further enactments were levelled at it, but it was not until 1562 that Parliament defined witchcraft as a Capital Crime. Thenceforth followed the regular persecutionn of Witches. Many burnings occurred during the latter years of Elizabeth's reign. At the village of Worboise, (q.v.) in the County of Huntingdon in 1589 dwelt two country gentlemen, Robert Throgmorton and Sir Samuel Cromwell. Mr. Throgmorton's family consisted of his wife and five daughters of whom the eldest Joan, a girl of fifteen was possessed with a mind and imagination well stocked with ghostand witchand witch-lore. On one occasion she had to pass the cotof a labouring family of the name of Samuel. This family consisted of a man, his wife, and their grown-up daughter. Mother Samuel was sitting at the door wearing a black cap, and busily engaged in knitting. Joan declared that she was a witch, ran home and fell into strange convulsive fits, stating that Mother Samuel had bewitched her. In due course the other daughters respectively were attacked with similar fits, and attributed the blame to Mother Samuel. The parents now began to suspect that their children were really bewitched and reported the matter to Lady Cromwell, who, as an intimate friend of the family took the matter up and along with Sir Samuel ordered that the alleged witch should be put to ordeal. Meanwhile the children let loose their imagination and invented all sorts of weird and grotesque tales about the old woman. Eventually Throgmorton had the poor old woman dragged to his grounds where she was subjected to torture, pins being thrust into her body to see if blood could be drawn. Lady Cromwell tore out a handful of the old crone's hair which she gave to Mrs. Throgmorton requesting her to burn it as an antidote against witchcraft. Suffering under these injuries the old woman invoked a curse against her torturers which was afterwards remembered , though she was allowed her liberty. She thereafter suffered much persecution at the hands of the two families, all ills and misfortunes occurring amongst their cattle and stock being laid to her charge. Eventually Lady Cromwell was seized with an illness that caused her death, and upon old Mother Samuel was laid the responsibility. Repeated efforts were made to persuade her to confess and amend what she had done. At last, tormented beyond endurance , she let herself be persuaded to pronounce an exorcism against the spirits and confessed that her husband and daughter were also associates with her and had sold themselves to the devil. On the strength of this confession the whole family were imprisoned in Huntingdon Gaol. At the following Session the three Samuels were put upon trial indicted with various offences and "bewitching unto death" the Lady Cromwell. In the agony of torture the old woman confessed all that was required, but her husband and daughter strongly asserted their innocence. All were sentenced to be hanged and burned. The executions were carried out in April 1595. It is related that in 1594 the Earl of Derby attributed the cause of his death to witchery, though he had no idea of the person who had bewitched him. The Accession of James I. himself a great expert in witchcraft and the author of the famous treatise on demonology (q.v.) gave a great impetus to the persecution of witches in England. "Poor old women and girls of tender age were walked, sworn, shaved, and tortured, the gallows creaked and the fires blazed." In 1606 there were tried at King's Lynn the wife of one Henry Smith a grocer, for cursing a sailor who had struck a boy, and for cursing her neighbours because they were more prosperous in their trades than she was. After hearing the most absurd evidence she was convicted and sentenced to death. Upon the scaffold she confessed to various acts of witchcraft. In 1633 arose the famous case of the Lancashire Witches (q.v.). On the assertion of a boy called Robinson, that he had been carried off and witnessed a witches' Sabbath at the Hoare Stones, some eighteen women were brought to trial at Lancaster Assizes. As the result of the severe legislation against witchcraft, England there arose a class of self-constituted impugners or witchfinders who to their personal advantage were the means of the sacrifice of many innocent lives. The most famous of these witch-finders was Matthew Hopkins of Manningtree, in Essex. He assumed the title of "Witch-finder General," and with an assistant, and a woman whose duty was to examine female suspects for devil's marks, he travelled about the Counties of Essex, Sussex, Huntingdon, and Norfolk. In one year this murdererfor want of a better name-caused the death of sixty people. His general test was that of swimming. The hands and feet of accused were tied together crosswise. She was wrapped in a sheet and thrown into a pond. If she sank as frequently happened, she was deemed innocent, but at the cost of her life, if she floated she was pronounced guilty and forthwith executed. Another test was to repeat the Lord's Prayer without a single falter or stumble, a thing accredited impossible of a witch. On one occasion she was weighed against the Church Bible, obtaining her freedom if she outweighed it. It is alleged but without certainty, that on his impostures being found out an angry crowd subjected him to his own test by swimming, but whether he was drowned or executed authorities fail to agree. In his Witch, Warlock and Magician Mr. Adams says, "I think there can be little doubt that many evil-disposed persons availed themselves to the prevalent belief in witchcraft as a cover for their depredations on the property of their neighbours, diverting suspicion from themselves to the poor witches, who through accidental circumstances had acquired notoriety as the devil's accomplices. It would also seem probable that not a few of the reputed witches similarly turned to account their bad reputation . " It was not till the close of the seventeenth Century that convictions began to be discouraged by the Courts. But an old superstition dies hard, and in the early part of the eighteenth Century witchcraft was generally believed in, in England, even among the educated classes. Probably the revolution of opinion was effected between the Restoration and the Revolution. According to Dr. Parr, the last execution of witches in England took place at Northampton where two were hung in 1705, and at the same place five others suffered a like fate in 1712. Hutchison commenting on this in his Historical Essay says, "This is the more shameful as I shall hereafter prove from the literature of that time, a disbelief in the existence of witches had become almost universal among educated men, though the old superstition was still defended in the Judgment Seat, and in the pulpit." Wesley who had more influence than all the Bishops put together says, "It is true likewise that the English in general, and, indeed, most of the men of learning in Europe, have given up all accounts of witches and apparitions as mere old wives' fables. I am sorry for it. The giving up of witchcraft, is in effect giving up the Bible. But I cannot give up to all the Deists in Great Britain the existence of witchcraft, till I give up the credit of all history sacred and profane." Every year however, diminished the old belief, and in 1736, a generation before Wesley stated the above opinions, the laws against witchcraft were repeated, but as illustrative of the long lived prevalence of the superstition in 1759 Susannah Hannaker of Wengrove, in Wiltshire, was put to the ordeal of weighing, but she fortunately outweighed the Bible. Cases of ducking supposed witches occurred in 1760 at Leicester, in 1785 at Northampton, and in 1829 at Monmouth, while as recently as 1863 a Frenchman died as the result of an illness caused by his having been ducked as a Wizard, at Castle Hedingham in Essex, and on September 17th, 1875, an old woman named Ann Turner, a reputed witch, was killed by a feebleminded man at Long Compton in Warwickshire A. J. B. G. See Wright. Narrative of Sorcery and Magic; and Mackay. Extraordinary Popular Delusions. Magic. Magic in England in early times is of course one with witchcraft, and it is only when we discern the stupendous figure of Roger Bacon (q.v.) that we find any thing like separation between the two. Of course, the popular traditions concerning Bacon are merely legendary , but they assist to crystallise for us the idea of an English magician of medieval times. The Elizabethan History of Friar Bacon was probably the first which placed these traditions on record. Here we have no concern with the Bacon of science, for the Bacon of magic is a magician who cheated the Devil, who made a brazen head that spoke, and who engaged in all manner of black magic. 6 In England the popular belief in magic was strengthened by the extraordinary effects of natural processes then known only to a small number of individuals who concealed their knowledge with the most profound secrecy. In England, as we approach the age of the Reformation, we find that the study of magic and alchemy have become extremely common among the Romish clergy. The rapid rise to power of men like Wolsey and Cromwell led people to think that they had gained their high positions through diabolical assistance. The number of Magicians in the reign of Henry VIII. was exceedingly great, as is witnessed by documents in the Record Office. At the height of Wolsey's greatness, a magician who is described as "one Wood, gent." was dragged before the Privy-council, charged with some misdemeanour which was connected with the intrigues of the day. In a paper addressed to the lords of the council, Wood states that William Nevill had sent for him to his house at Oxford, it being the first communication he had ever had with that "person." After he had been at Weke a short time, Neville took him by the arm and led him privately into the garden, and, to use the quaint language of the original, "ther demawndyd of me many questyons, amowng all other askyd (if it) were not possible to have a rynge made that should brynge man in favor with hys prynce, saying my lord cardinale had suche a rynge that whatsomevere he askyd of the kynges grace that he hadd yt, ' and master Cromwell, when he and I were servauntys in my lord cardynales housse, dyd hawnt to the company of one that was seyne in your faculté, and shortly after no man so grett with my lord cardynale as master Cromwell was.'" Neville added, that he had spoken "with all those who have any name in this realm, " who had assured him that in the same way he might become great with his prince," and he ended by asking of the reputed magician what books he had studied on the subject. The latter continued, "and I, at the harté desire of hym showyd that I had rede many bokes, and specyally the boke of Salamon, and how his rynges be made and what mettell, and what vertues they had after the canon of Salamon." He added, that he had also studied the magical work of Hermes. William Neville then requested him to undertake the making of a ring, which he says that he declined, and so went away for that time. But Neville sent for him again, and entered into further communication with him on the old subject, telling him that he had with him another conjurer, named Wade, who could show him more than he should; and, among other things, had showed him that "he should be a great lord," This was an effective attempt to move Wood's jealousy; and it appears that Neville now prevailed upon him to make moldes," probably images, vailed upon him to make "to the entent that he showld wed mastres Elezebeth Gare," on whom he seemed to have set his love. Perhaps 66 England she was a rich heiress. Wood then enters into excuses for himself, declaring that, although at the desire of "some of his friends," he had "called to a stone for things stolen," he had not undertaken to find treasures, and he concluded with the naive boast, "but to make the phylosofer's stone, I will chebard (i.e, jeopard) my lyffe to do hyt, yf hyt plesse the kynges good grace to command me do hyt." This was the pride of science above the low practitioner's. He even offered to remain in prison until he had performed his boast, and only asked "twelve months upon silver, and twelve and a half upon gold." The search for treasures, which the conjurer Wood so earnestly disclaims, was, however, one of the most usual occupations of our magicians of this period. The frequent discoveries of Roman or Saxon, or medieval deposits , in the course of accidental digging-then probably more common than at present-was enough to whet the appetite of the needy or the miserly, and the belief that the sepulchral barrow, or the long deserted ruin, or even the wild and haunted glen, concealed treasures of gold and silver of great amount has been carried down to our own days in a variety of local legends. Hidden treasures were under the particular charge of some of the spirits who obeyed the magician's call, and we still trace his operations in many a barrow that has been disturbed, and ruined floor that has been broken up. That these searches were not always successful will be evident from the following narrative:- In the reign of Henry VIII. a priest named William Stapleton was placed under arrest as a conjurer, and as having been mixed up in some court intrigues, and at the request of Cardinal Wolsey he wrote an account of his adventures, still preserved in the Roll's House records (for it is certainly addressed to Wolsey, and not, as has been supposed, to Cromwell). Stapleton says that he had been a monk of the mitred abbey of St. Benet in the Holm, in Norfolk, where he was resident in the nineteenth year of Henry VIII. i.e. in 1527 or 1528, at which time he borrowed of one Dennys, of Hofton, who had procured them of the vicar of Watton, a book called Thesaurus Spirituum, and after that another, called Secreta Secretorum, a little ring, a plate, a circle, and also a sword for the art of digging, in studying the use of which he spent six months. Now it appears that Stapleton had small taste for early rising, and after having been frequently punished for being absent from matins and negligent of his duty in church he obtained a licence of six months from the abbot to go into the world, and try and raise money to buy a dispensation from an order which seemed so little agreeable to his taste. The first person he consulted with was his friend Dennys, who recommended him to try his skill in finding treasure, and introduced him to two "knowing men, who had "placards" or licences from the king to search for treasure trove, which were not unfrequently bought from the crown at this period. These men lent him other books and instruments belonging to the "art of digging," and they went together to a place named Sidestrand in Norfolk, to search and mark out the ground where they thought treasure should lie. It happened, however, that the lady Tyrry, to whom the estate belonged, received intelligence of their movements, and after sending for them and subjecting them to a close examination, ordered them to leave her grounds. After this rebuff, the treasure-seekers went to Norwich, where they became acquainted with another conjurer named Godfrey, who had a shower" of spirit, which , "which spirit," Stapleton says, "I had after myself," and they went together to Felmingham, and there Godfrey's boy did "scry unto the spirit, but after opening the ground they found nothing there. There are Roman barrows " at Felmingham, which, when examined recently, appeared to have been opened at a former period in search of treasure. The disappointed conjurers returned to Norwich, and there met with a stranger, who brought them to a house in which it was supposed that treasure lay concealed, and Stapleton again applied himself to his incantations, and called the spirit of the treasure to appear, but he turned a deaf ear to their charms, "for I suppose of a truth," is the pithy observation of the operator, "that there was none." Disappointed and disgusted, Stapleton now gave up the pursuit. In Norfolk, however, he soon met with some of his old treasure-seeking acquaintances, who urged him to go to work again, which he refused to do unless his books were better. They told him of a man of the name of Leech, who had a book, to which the parson of Lesingham had bound a spirit called "Andrea Malchus;" and to this man he went. Leech let him have all his instruments, and told him further that the parson of Lesingham and Sir John of Leiston (another ecclesiastic) with others, had called up of late by the means of the book in question three spirits, Andrea Malchus (before mentioned), Oberion and Inchubus. When these spirits," he said, were all raised, Oberion would in nowise speak. And then the parson of Lesingham did demand of Andrea Malchus, and so did Sir John of Leiston also, why Oberion would not speak to them. And Andrea Malchus made answer, For because he was bound unto the lord cardinal." And that also they did entreat the said parson of Lesingham, and the said Sir John of Leiston, that they might depart as at that time; and whensoever it might please them to call them up again, they would gladly do them any service they could." 66 ८८ were When Stapleton had made this important acquisition, he repaired again to Norwich, where he had not long been, when he was found by a messenger from the personage whom he calls the lord Leonard Marquees, who lived at "Calkett Hall," and who wanted a person expert in the art of digging. He met lord Leonard at Walsingham, who promised him that if he would take pains in exercising the said art he would sue out a dispensation for him to be a secular priest, and to make him his chaplain. The lord Leonard proceeded rather shrewdly to make trial of the searcher's talents; for he directed one of his servants to hide a sum of money in the garden, and Stapleton" hewed" for it, and one, Jackson "scryed," but he was unable to find the money. Yet, without being daunted at this slip Stapleton went directly with two other priests, Sir John Shepe and Sir Robert Porter, to a place beside Creke Abbey, where treasure was supposed to be, and Sir John Shepe called the spirit of the treasure, and I shewed to him, but all came to no purpose." دو Stapleton now went to hide his disappointment in London, and remained there some weeks, till the lord Leonard, who had sued out his dispensation as he promised, sent for him to pass the winter with him in Leicestershire, and towards spring he returned to Norfolk. And there he was informed that there was "much money hidden in the neighbourhood of Calkett Hall, and especially in the Bell Hill (probably an ancient tumulus or barrow), and after some delay, he obtained his instruments, and went to work with the parish priest of Gorleston, but " of truth we could bring nothing to effect." On this he again repaired to London, carrying his instruments with him, and on his arrival he was thrown into prison at the suit of the lord Leonard, who accused him of leaving his service without permission, and all his instruments were seized. These he never recovered, but he was soon liberated from prison, and obtained temporary employment in the church. But his conjuring propensities seem still to have lingered دو England about him, and we find this ex-monk and hermit, and now secular priest, soon afterwards engaged in an intrigue which led him eventually into a much more serious danger. It appears by Stapleton's statements, that one Wright, a servant of the Duke of Norfolk, came to him, and "at a certain season shewed me that the duke's grace, his master was soore vexed with a spyrytt by the enchantment of your grace (he is addressing Wolsey). Stapleton says, that he refused to interfere, but that Wright went to the duke and told him that he, Stapleton, knew of his being enchanted by Cardinal Wolsey, and that he could help him; upon which the duke sent for Stapleton, and had an interview with him. It had previously been arranged by Wright and Stapleton (who says that he had been urged into the plot by the persuasion of Wright, and by the hope of gain and prospect of obtaining the duke's favour) that he should say he knew that the duke was persecuted by a spirit, and that he had "forged" an image of wax in his similitude, which he had enchanted, in order to relieve him. The Duke of Norfolk appears at first to have placed implicit belief in all that Stapleton told him; he inquired of him if he had certain knowledge that the Lord Cardinal had a spirit at his command, to which he replied in the negative. He then questioned him as to his having heard anyone assert that the cardinal had a spirit; on which Stapleton told him of the raising of Oberion by the parson of Lesingham and Sir John of Leiston, and how Oberion refused to speak, because he was the lord cardinal's spirit. The duke, however, soon after this, became either suspicious or fearful, and he eventually sent Stapleton to the cardinal himself, who appears to have committed him to prison, and at whose order he drew up the account here abridged. The foregoing is the history of a man who, after having been a victim to his implicit belief in the efficiency of magical operations was himself driven at last to have recourse to intentional deception. The number of such treasurehunters appears to have been far greater among his contemporaries, of almost all the classes of society, than we should at first glance be led to suppose. A few years before the date of these events, in the 12th year of Henry VIII., or A.D. 1521, the king had granted to Robert, Lord Curzon, the monopoly of treasure-seeking in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, and Lord Curzon immediately delegated to a man, named William Smith, of Clopton, and a servant or retainer of his own, named Amylyon, not only the right of search thus given to him, but the power to arrest and proceed against any other person they found seeking treasures within the two counties. It appears that Smith and Amylyon had in some cases used this delegated authority for purposes of extortion; and in the summer of the same year, Smith was brought up before the court of the city of Norwich, at the suit of William Goodred, of Great Melton, the minutes of the proceedings against him still remaining on the records. We here again find priests concerned in these singular operations. It appears that the treasure-diggers, who had received their "placard" of Lord Curzon in March, went to Norwich about Easter, and paid a visit to the schoolmaster, named George Dowsing, dwelling in the parish of St. Faith, who, they had heard, was "seen in astronymye." They shewed him their license for treasure-seeking, which authorised him to press into their service any persons they might find who had skill in the science; so that it would appear that they were not capable of raising spirits themselves, without the assistance of "scholars." The schoolmaster entered willingly into their project, and they went, about two or three o'clock in the morning, with one or two other persons who were admitted into their confidence, and dug in ground beside "Butter Hilles," within the walls of the city, but "found nothing there." These "hilles,” also, were probably tumuli. They next proceeded to a place called "Seynt William in the Wood by Norwich," where they excavated two days (or rather two nights), but with no better success. 66 a They now held a meeting at the house of one Saunders, in the market of Norwich, and called to their assistance two ecclesiastics, one named Sir William, the other Sir Robert Cromer, the former being the parish priest of St. Gregory's. At this meeting, George Dowsing raised spirit or two," in a glass; but one of the priests, Sir Robert Cromer, "began and raised a spirit first." This spirit, according to the depositions, was seen by two or three persons. Amylyon deposed that "he was at Saunders's where Sir Robert Cromer held up a stone, but he could not perceive anything in it; but that George Dowsing caused to rise in a glass a little thing of the length of an inch or thereabout, but whether it was a spirit or a shadow he cannot tell, but the said George said it was a spirit." However, spirit or no spirit, they seem to have had as little success as ever in discovering the treasure. 66 Unable after so many attempts, to find the treasure themselves, they seem now to have resolved on laying a general contribution on everybody who followed the same equivocal calling. They went first and accused a person of the name of Wikman, of Morley Swanton, in the county of Norfolk, of digging of hilles," and, by threatening to take him before Lord Curzon, they obtained from him ten shillings. Under the same pretext, they took from "christala lime-burner of Norwich, named White, a stone," and twelvepence in money in order that he " should not be put to further trouble." They took both books (probably conjuring books) and money from John Wellys, of Hunworth, near Holt Market, whom, similarly, they accused of digging of hilles." And of another person, labouring under the same charge, they took "a christal stone and certain money." 66 With the era of Dr. Dee (q.v.) Edward Kelly, (q.v.) their school, a much more definite system of magicoastrology was evolved on English soil. Although Dee was credulous and Kelly was a rogue of the first water, there is little doubt that the former possessed psychic gifts of no mean character. His most celebrated followers were William Lilly (q.v) and Elias Ashmole (q.v) not to speak of Simon Forman (q.v.) and Evans (q.v.). Lilly gathered about him quite a band of magicians, Ramsey, Scott, Hodges, and others, not to speak of his "skryers" Sarah Skelhorm and Ellen Evans. But these may be said to be the last of the practical magicians of England. Their methods were those of divination by crystal-gazing and evocation of spirits, combined with practical astrology. Spiritualism. For the beginnings of spiritualism in England we must go back to the middle of the seventeenth century when Maxwell and Robert Fludd (q.v.) flourished and wrote concerning the secrets of mysticism and magnetism. Fludd was a Paracelsian pure and simple and regarded man as the microcosm of the universe in miniature. He was an ardent defender of the Rosicrucians, concerning whom he wrote two spirited works, as well as his great Tractatus Apologeticus and many other alchemical and philosophical treatises. The part of the Tractatus which deals with natural magic is one of the most authoritative ever penned on the subject, and divides the subject most minutely into its several parts. Thomas Vaughan (q.v.) is likewise a figure of intense interest about this period. He was a supreme adept of spiritual alchemy and his many works written under the Pseudonym of Eugenius Philalethes show him to have possessed an exalted mind. It is to men of this type, magi, perhaps, but / Enoch, Book of none the less spiritualists, that the whole superstructure of English spiritualism is indebted. ( See further Spiritualism in England under article Spiritualism.)
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
ing'gland, the southern part of the island of Great Britain . Its general outline is triangular. If we exclude Wales, the area of England is about 50,216 square miles. With the exception of the Welsh and Scottish frontiers, the entire border is a seacoast, cut by bays and estuaries, forming the best harborage in the world. The western border is on the whole, rough. A mountainous region extends from the Cheviot Hills southward to the plateau of Dartmoor. The peaks seldom rise, however, above 3,000 feet. The largest body of inland water in England is Lake Windermere, in the so-called lake region of Westmoreland County. It, however, covers an area of less than three square miles. The western shore is for the most part of hard rock. The eastern and southern coasts consist of limestone and chalk cliffs. The waves are eating away portions of the coast of Yorkshire and Kent at the rate of four or five feet a year, amounting to a mile in four centuries. Of the Dover and eastern coast it may be said: "The materials which fall from the wasting cliff are sorted by the tide; the whole shore is in motion; every cliff is hastening to its fall; the parishes are contracted, the churches wasted away." CLIMATE. England lies within the influence of the Gulf Stream . This ocean current brings with it winds of very nearly the same temperature the year around. The summers of England are prevented from becoming hot; the winters are never very cold. All parts of the country have abundant rain. An annual rainfall of fifteen inches may be regarded as a minimum. There are localities where the total rainfall for the year is over 100 inches. In consequence, the rivers are very large in proportion to their length. The Thames, the Humber, the Severn, and the Mersey are the principal streams. Nearly all empty into estuaries of the ocean, which, by the aid of high tides, enable ships to ascend for a considerable distance. Newcastle, Hull, London, Southampton, Plymouth, Bristol, and Liverpool are all situated on tidal rivers of this sort at or near the head of navigation. AGRICULTURE. The soil of England is exceedingly rich. Grasses grow luxuriantly. The country is clothed almost the year around with a carpet of living green. Although the climate is too cool to permit the raising of Indian corn, England is one of the finest stock-raising countries in the world. Our domestic animals are descended chiefly from those of England. The Berkshire, the Essex, and the ancestors of the Chester-white hogs; the Devon, the Hereford, the Durham, and the Shorthorn cattle; the black-faced Shropshire, the long-wooled Cotswold, the Lincoln, the Leicester, the Cheviot, and the Southdown breeds of sheep are all from England. Aside from melons, Indian corn, and tropical productions, almost every field crop, vegetable, and fruit produced in the United States is raised in England. The chief field crops are wheat, barley, oats, beans, peas, potatoes, and turnips. Peas are an important fodder crop. Turnips take the place largely of corn. MINERALS. The mineral wealth is very great. The ancient navigators of Tyre visited the shores of Britain for the sake of obtaining tin. Enormous measures of coal underly a large part of the country. Iron ore of excellent quality is found in abundance. Lead, copper, and zinc are obtained also. Sandstone, slate, limestone, and granite are the chief building stones. There are large beds of excellent potter's clay. POPULATION. The natural productions of England are so varied and abundant, the soil is so fertile, and the climate so healthful, that it is safe to say no other portion of the globe is better adapted to maintain a dense population in comfort. The number of inhabitants at the beginning of the twentieth century was not far from 30,000,000. With London, the largest city in the world, at the head of the list, there are thirty towns having a population of over 100,000 people each. Birmingham leads in the manufacture of steel; Manchester, in cotton; Bradford, in woolens; and Leeds, in linen. Productive as the country is, however, it would be impossible to maintain this enormous population without outside help. The area of England is somewhat less than that of Alabama. The population exceeds by a third that of our Atlantic States from Maine to Florida inclusive. The average population is 440 to the square mile,--far more than the land can employ or feed. The surplus population is employed in manufacturing and in commerce. England buys immense quantities of wool, cotton, and silk in all parts of the globe where these articles are produced. COMMERCE. According to the Statesman's Year Book, England with the other countries that make up the United Kingdom , buys abroad and imports the incredible amount of 2,000,000,000 pounds of cotton and about half as much wool every year; 227,000,000 tons of coal and 13,000,000 tons of iron are mined annually. About 9,000,000 people work for wages, turning the iron, cotton, and wool into utensils, tools, machinery, cloth, and clothing. Immense quantities of wheat, corn, flour, meat, coffee, sugar, tea, rice, butter, cheese, and eggs are bought in foreign countries and brought home to supply this industrial population with food. Nearly 2,000,000 people are engaged in commerce. The English are the great carriers of the world. In 1908 there were over 5,000 sailing vessels and nearly as many steam vessels doing business at English ports. About one-fourth of the food supply and raw materials needed is purchased in the United States; about one-seventh of the British goods sent abroad is sold in the United States. England with the rest of the United Kingdom is what is called a free trading country. The ships of all nations are permitted to land their cargoes without paying duties. Goods shipped out of the country also go free. In order to raise money for the expenses of the government certain exceptions are made. Chicory, cocoa, coffee, dried fruits, spirits, tea, sugar, tobacco, and wine pay a duty on entering the country. One of the reasons why manufacturing is carried on to such an advantage in England is the abundant supply of cheap coal. The rate at which it is being mined and consumed, however, has caused a fear lest the supply be exhausted. In order to discourage the shipment of coal abroad an export duty has been placed on it. FISHERIES. The fisheries are also an important industry. Over 100,000 people are employed in them. Over half a million tons of fresh fish are landed, chiefly along the eastern coast, annually. The total catch is worth about $30,000,000 a year. RURAL ENGLAND. Although land is valuable for agricultural purposes, about one acre out of twenty is covered with timber. A large part of the country is owned by the nobility and others of large income who do not feel the necessity of close tillage. Footpaths through magnificent wooded parks, through meadows, and along streams make England one of the most delightful countries in the world for excursions on foot. The roads are well kept; the hedges are neatly trimmed; the front dooryards of the peasantry are full of flowers. The villages are neat and picturesque. Comfortable inns are found everywhere. The large manufacturing towns have, of course, squalid, untidy quarters, but it is hard to imagine a country more attractive and delightfully picturesque than rural England. PUBLIC UTILITIES. As might be expected in an old country, the roads are excellent. Free rural delivery is quite complete. A system of parcels post managed by the government takes the place of our express companies. Packages are carried by the mail carts at a ridiculously low price. In 1903 the post office department delivered 74,000,000 parcels in England and Wales. Railroads are built much more substantially than in this country. In fact, the English locomotive could not operate on our irregular road beds. The passenger cars are divided into compartments entered from the side. These compartments are furnished in different styles called first, second, and third class. A ticket for a first class compartment costs twice as much as one for a third. An overhead foot bridge is to be found at every country station. People are not allowed to cross on the tracks, even though no trains are in sight. In addition to roads and railways, the country is provided with a network of canals, having a total length of over 3,000 miles. The largest is the Manchester ship canal. It is 25 miles in length, 26 feet in depth, and 120 feet wide at the bottom. England is known by many names. Albion, from the Latin albus, has reference to the whiteness of the chalk cliffs. England is held to mean angle land, though some claim that the first syllable means meadow. STATISTICS. The following are the latest to be had from trustworthy sources: Area, square miles 50,222 Population (1908) 33,600,000 London 7,323,327 Birmingham 558,357 Bradford 292,136 Bristol 372,785 Leeds 477,107 Leicester 240,172 Liverpool 753,203 Manchester 649,251 Newcastle 277,257 Sheffield 463,222 Number counties 42 Members House of Lords 500 Members House of Commons 465 Salary of King George. $2,350,000 Acres of improved land. 10,500,000 Forests, acres 1,715,000 Productions- Wheat, bushels 52,000,000 Oats, bushels 82,470,000 Barley, bushels 48,000,000 Rye, bushels 2,000,000 Potatoes, bushels 80,000,000 Wool, pounds 85,000,000 Domestic Animals- Horses 1,200,000 Cattle 4,500,000 Sheep 18,000,000 Goats 200,000 Swine 2,225,000 Cotton factories 2,200 Coal mined, tons 90,000,000 Mineral products . $448,000,000 THE RULERS OF ENGLAND. THE SAXON LINE. Egbert, (King of the West Saxons, commonly called the first king of England, A. D. 827-836. Ethelwolf, 836-857. Ethelred, 857-871. Alfred the Great, 871-901. Edward, 901-925. Athelstan, 925-941. Edmund, 941-948. Edred, 948-955. Edwy, 955-959. Edgar the Peaceable, 959-975. Edward II, 975-979. Ethelred the Unready, 979-1016. Edmund Ironsides, 1016-1017. THE DANISH LINE. Canute the Great, 1017-1035. Harold, 1035-1039. Hardicanute, 1039-1041. THE SAXON LINE RESTORED. Edward the Confessor, 1041-1066. Harold, 1066. THE NORMAN LINE. William the Conqueror, 1066-1087. William II (Rufus), 1087-1100. Henry I, 1100-1135. Stephen of Blois, 1135-1154. THE PLANTAGENETS. Henry II, 1154-1189. Richard I, 1189-1199. John, 1199-1216. Henry III, 1216-1272. Edward I, 1272-1307. Edward II, 1307-1327. Edward III, 1327-1377. Richard II, 1377-1399. Henry IV, 1399-1413. Henry V, 1413-1422. Henry VI, 1422-1461. Edward V, 1461-1483. Edward V, 1483. Richard III, 1483-1485. THE TUDORS. Henry VII, 1485-1509. Henry VIII, 1509-1547. Edward VI, 1547-1553. Mary, 1553-1558. Elizabeth, 1558-1603. THE STUARTS. James I, 1603-1625. Charles I, 1625-1649. THE COMMONWEALTH, 1649-1660. THE STUARTS AFTER THE RESTORATION. Charles II, 1660-1685. James II, 1685-1688. THE HOUSE OF NASSAU. William III, 1688-1702. and Mary, (died 1694). THE LAST OF THE STUARTS. Anne, 1702-1714. THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. George I, 1714-1727. George II, 1727-1760. George III, 1760-1820. George IV, 1820-1830. William IV, 1830-1837. Victoria, 1837-1901. Edward VII, 1901-1910. George V, 1910- See UNITED KINGDOM; WESTMINSTER; EDWARD; PARLIAMENT; YORK; LIVERPOOL; LONDON; BIRMINGHAM; MANCHESTER; DOVER; BRISTOL; CANTER-BURY; LINCOLN; SHEFFIELD; ALFRED; SHAKESPEARE; ANGLO-SAXON.
England CHURCH OF, the official August 16
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
CHURCH OF, the official August 16, name of until have a formal head in the person of the that body of Christians who of the hereditary ruler of England. This dessupplementary ementary ignation is used in two senses: first, a bringgeneral one signifying the Church rethe year to garded as continuous, which, from the first triumph of Christianity till now, disorder conhas been that of the English people; portions of secondly, in a more s specific ific sense, the of civil Protestant Church now established in of these England as distinguished from the Irish Home Church of Rome. George The evangelistic zeal of Whitfield, to go into Wesley, and various other clergymen, in king. the 18th century, awoke the Church to made with new life, which did not pass away even of Syria when the followers of these two great protectorpreachers ceased to belong to the Eng Mesopotamia. lish Church. The evangelical party, still an integral the most numerous in the Establishment, In March, is, in large measure, the fruit of 18th the Peace century revival effort. In the 19th, the London to movement was in other directions. With reparations by 1833, just after the passing of the first Reform Bill, the first of a series of to Eng- "Tracts for the Times" came forth, and the terri- 90 in all were issued within the next Empire, see eight years. The ritualistic party, at a on the later date, carried on the work which the tractarians had begun. In 1860 the "Essays and Reviews," and in 1862 a work by Bishop Colenso on the Pentateuch, gave prominence to the opposite pole of thought, being what theologians call strongly rationalistic. Church congresses, bringing the representatives of these three parties face to face, softened their antagonisms, and fear of common danger renders them more united than they otherwise would be. In the English Church there are 3 archbishops (Canterbury, York, and Wales) and 143 bishops, and 39 suffragan and assistant bishops, 2 of the archbishops and 24 of the bishops having seats in the House of Lords; subordinate to these are 30 deans, 100 archdeacons, 613 rural deans, and about 13,500 beneficed clergy, the whole clerical staff of all grades being about 23,000. The total membership throughout the world in 1919 was estimated at over 6,000,000, of whom about 2,400,000 were in England and Wales, about 576,000 in Ireland, about 56,000 in Scotland, and about 3,000,000 in other parts of the world. Previous to 1871, the English Church and the Established Church of Ireland, constituted but a single body, called the United Church of England and Ireland. It is powerful also in the colonies, and by means of its two great societies, the Propagation and the Church ch Missio Missionary Societies, acts powerfully on nearly every part of the heathen world. The Church in Wales and Monmouthshire was disestablished and disendowed by an act passed in 1914 which came into force in 1920. Under the National Assembly of the Church of England (Powers) Act of 1919 there is, in England, a National Assembly, consisting of a House of Bishops, a House of Clergy, and a House of Laymen, and having power to legislate regarding Church matters.
England CHURCH OF some agreevarious subdivisions of the Empire
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
CHURCH OF some agreevarious subdivisions of the Empire, as . This, AUSTRALIA, CANADA, NEW ZEALAND, substantial INDIA, etc. was still year. Began to Began to 1919 the reign. reign. ANGLO SAXON more or less LINE- Edward II....1307 Egbert Edward III...1327 800 most con- Ethelwulf Richard II....1377 836 Mr. As- Ethelbald 857 HOUSE OF LANCASTER-- Ethelbert David Lloyd Henry IV.....1399 860 Ethelred Henry V.....1413 866 Minister since Alfred 871 Henry VI.....1422 that period Edward the Eld- HOUSE OF YORKwas the 901 Edward IV....1461 er Athelstan 925 Edward V.. .1483 a dicta- Edmund 940 Richard III...1483 . He was Edred HOUSE OF TUDOR- 946 Edwy powers and 955 Henry VII....1485 Edgar 957 Henry VIII...1509 supported by Edward the Mar- Edward VI....1547 Wilson, he tyr 975 Mary .1553 Ethelred the Unfigure at the Elizabeth.....1558 ready 978 STUART LINE- During 1919 Edmund Iron- James I... 1603 were side .1016 Charles I.....1625 DANISH LINEwere fre- COMMONWEALTH. 1649 Canute .1017 STUART LINEcenters. Harold I......1036 Charles II....1660 coal miners Hardicanute ..1039 James II.....1685 SAXON LINEcoal com- HOUSE OF ORANGE- Edward the Conrecommend- William and fessor 1041 Mary 1688 accepted by Harold II.....1066 STUART LINE- NORMAN LINEwas in Anne William I.....1066 ...1702 the year, William II....1087 BRUNSWICK LINEsupport by Henry I......1100 George I.....1714 HOUSE OF BLOIS- Prince of George II.....1727 Stephen 1135 George III....1760 , where PLANTAGENET LINE- George IV....1820 enthusiasm. Henry II......1154 William IV...1830 Richard I.. began 1189 Victoria 1837 John 1199 Edward VII...1901 Asquith, the Henry III....1216 WINDSOR LINEto the Edward I.....1272 George V......1910 . After
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's put the 1919 population of England and Wales at 36,070,492; the 2021 census counted about 56.5 million in England and 3.1 million in Wales, close to 60 million together. The geography is as described, though the names have shifted: the "North Sea or German Ocean" is now simply the North Sea, and Snowdon, given here as the 3,571-foot summit of south Great Britain, was officially renamed Yr Wyddfa by the Eryri (Snowdonia) national park authority in 2022. The industrial cities Collier's listed have not all grown with the country: Liverpool and Manchester, each put near 750,000-870,000 in 1919, have city populations roughly half that today, while Greater London has passed 8.8 million. Politically the biggest break is that Wales, treated here as an appendage of England, has had its own devolved legislature since 1999, now the Senedd.
Written for this edition, 2026.