The oldest human footprints ever discovered outside Africa were found in the mud of Happisburgh, Norfolk, dating back more than 800,000 years. These impressions, preserved in ancient riverbed sediments, reveal that early hominids walked across what is now England long before the rest of the British Isles were habitable. For much of this deep past, the land was not an island but a peninsula attached to the European continent, allowing hunter-gatherers to roam freely across a landscape that was warmer and more hospitable than the frozen tundra of the Ice Age. As the climate shifted and sea levels rose, Britain became isolated around 6500 BC, cutting off the earliest inhabitants from the mainland and setting the stage for a unique evolutionary path. By the end of the Last Glacial Period, around 13,000 years ago, continuous human habitation began, leaving behind stone tools and evidence of societies that manipulated their environment through selective burning of woodlands to create hunting grounds. The Mesolithic era saw the introduction of the bow and arrow, a technology that revolutionized hunting and allowed populations to grow as the climate warmed. Monumental structures like Silbury Hill and the early phases of Stonehenge emerged during the Neolithic, signaling a shift from nomadic life to settled farming communities that arrived from the Middle East around 4000 BC. These early farmers built chambered cairns and long barrows for their dead, creating a landscape of collective memory that still dominates the English countryside today. The construction of the Sweet Track, a timber walkway in the Somerset Levels dated to the winter of 3807, 3806 BC, demonstrates the sophistication of these early societies, serving as both a practical road and a religious structure that connected communities across the marshes. The Bronze Age brought a dramatic transformation with the arrival of the Bell Beaker culture around 2500 BC, a migration that genetically replaced much of the existing Neolithic population with people related to the Corded Ware culture of central Europe. This new group introduced bronze metallurgy, shifting power from communal groups to individual elites who controlled the flow of tin and copper to create high-status weapons and tools. The Iron Age saw the rise of the Celtic Britons, who spoke the Brittonic language and established hillforts like Maiden Castle, which were constructed in huge numbers between 600 and 400 BC. These fortifications suggest a period of regional centralization and social complexity, even as the Atlantic trade system collapsed and contact with the continent became less frequent. The earliest historical mentions of Britain appear in the annals of the Massaliote Periplus and the voyage of Pytheas of Massilia around 325 BC, though these texts are now lost. By the time Julius Caesar invaded in 55 BC, the Britons had developed proto-urban settlements known as oppida, where elites based their power on battle prowess and resource manipulation. Caesar's expeditions marked a turning point, as Rome became the dominant player in trade and prestige, making a full-scale invasion inevitable.
In AD 43, Emperor Claudius launched a serious and sustained invasion of Britain with four legions, landing in Kent and defeating the armies of the Catuvellauni tribe led by Caratacus and Togodumnus. The Roman force, commanded by Aulus Plautius, marched on the Catuvellauni capital at Camulodunum, modern-day Colchester, before Claudius returned to Rome for his triumph. Over the next four years, the future emperor Vespasian led campaigns into the Southwest, subjugating two more tribes and pushing the border back to the Severn and the Trent by AD 54. The province of Britannia was consolidated, and the Romans maintained control for 350 years, leaving traces of their presence ubiquitous throughout England. In AD 60, the warrior-queen Boudicca led a massive rebellion against Roman rule, burning Camulodunum, Londinium, and Verulamium to the ground. The fire at Londinium was so intense that a ten-inch layer of melted red clay remains fifteen feet below London's streets today. Archaeological evidence suggests that similar destruction occurred at Winchester, and the Second Legion Augusta, stationed at Exeter, refused to move for fear of local revolt. The Roman governor Suetonius Paulinus evacuated the city before the rebels sacked it, and in the decisive battle along Watling Street, 10,000 Romans faced nearly 100,000 warriors. While the rebels killed 70,000 Romans and Roman sympathizers, the Roman army retaliated with such ferocity that 80,000 rebels were killed, with only 400 Roman casualties. Over the next 20 years, the borders expanded slightly, and the governor Agricola incorporated the last pockets of independence in Wales and Northern England, leading a campaign into Scotland that was recalled by Emperor Domitian. The border gradually formed along the Stanegate road in Northern England, solidified by Hadrian's Wall built in AD 138. The Romans and their culture stayed in charge, establishing a province that stretched from the Firth of Forth to the southern coast, creating a cultural continuum that linked England to the wider Roman Empire. The breakdown of Roman rule from the middle of the fourth century left present-day England progressively settled by Germanic groups, collectively known as the Anglo-Saxons. These included Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians, who arrived as Saxon mercenaries before the late Roman period and then in a main influx after the fifth century. The precise nature of these invasions remains debated, with historical accounts like Gildas' De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae suggesting that the indigenous Britons invited the Saxons to repel Picts and Scots, only to be turned against themselves. The traditional view that the Anglo-Saxons drove the Romano-British inhabitants out of what is now England has been subject to reappraisal, with modern genetic studies showing that the English Y DNA data reflects a mass Anglo-Saxon immigration affecting 50% to 100% of the male gene pool in central England. This genetic input, ranging from 20% to 45% in southern England and over 50% in East Anglia, the east Midlands, and Yorkshire, suggests a complex process of migration and acculturation rather than a simple replacement. The seven kingdoms traditionally identified as being established by these migrants were Sussex, Kent, Essex, Mercia, East Anglia, Northumbria, and Wessex, with Northumbria and Mercia dominating the 7th and 8th centuries respectively. The Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England began around 600 AD, influenced by Celtic Christianity from the northwest and the Roman Catholic Church from the southeast. Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, took office in 597 and baptized the first Christian Anglo-Saxon king, Aethelberht of Kent, in 601. The last pagan Anglo-Saxon king, Penda of Mercia, died in 655, and the last pagan Jutish king, Arwald of the Isle of Wight, was killed in 686. The Anglo-Saxon mission on the continent took off in the 8th century, leading to the Christianisation of practically all of the Frankish Empire by 800. Throughout the 7th and 8th centuries, power fluctuated between the larger kingdoms, with Northumbria holding dominance until the Battle of the Trent in 679 and Nechtanesmere in 685. The so-called Mercian Supremacy dominated the 8th century, with Aethelbald and Offa achieving high status, and Offa considered the overlord of south Britain by Charlemagne. His power is illustrated by the fact that he summoned the resources to build Offa's Dyke, a massive earthwork boundary between England and Wales. However, a rising Wessex and challenges from smaller kingdoms kept Mercian power in check, and by the early 9th century the Mercian Supremacy was over.
The Viking Storm
The first recorded landing of Vikings took place in 787 in Dorsetshire, on the south-west coast, but the first major attack in Britain was in 793 at Lindisfarne monastery as given by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. By then, the Vikings were almost certainly well-established in Orkney and Shetland, and many other non-recorded raids probably occurred before this. Records show the first Viking attack on Iona taking place in 794, and the arrival of the Vikings, particularly the Danish Great Heathen Army, upset the political and social geography of Britain and Ireland. In 867, Northumbria fell to the Danes, and East Anglia fell in 869. Though Wessex managed to contain the Vikings by defeating them at Ashdown in 871, a second invading army landed, leaving the Saxons on a defensive footing. At much the same time, Aethelred, king of Wessex, died and was succeeded by his younger brother Alfred. Alfred was immediately confronted with the task of defending Wessex against the Danes, and he spent the first five years of his reign paying the invaders off. In 878, Alfred's forces were overwhelmed at Chippenham in a surprise attack, and it was only now, with the independence of Wessex hanging by a thread, that Alfred emerged as a great king. In May 878, he led a force that defeated the Danes at Edington. The victory was so complete that the Danish leader, Guthrum, was forced to accept Christian baptism and withdraw from Mercia. Alfred then set about strengthening the defences of Wessex, building a new navy of 60 vessels. Alfred's success bought Wessex and Mercia years of peace and sparked economic recovery in previously ravaged areas. His son Edward sustained this success with decisive victories over the Danes in East Anglia in 910 and 911, followed by a crushing victory at Tempsford in 917. These military gains allowed Edward to fully incorporate Mercia into his kingdom and add East Anglia to his conquests. Edward then set about reinforcing his northern borders against the Danish kingdom of Northumbria. Edward's rapid conquest of the English kingdoms meant Wessex received homage from those that remained, including Gwynedd in Wales and Scotland. His dominance was reinforced by his son Aethelstan, who extended the borders of Wessex northward, in 927 conquering the Kingdom of York and leading a land and naval invasion of Scotland. These conquests led to his adopting the title King of the English for the first time. The dominance and independence of England were maintained by the kings that followed, but it was not until 978 and the accession of Aethelred the Unready that the Danish threat resurfaced. Two powerful Danish kings, Harold Bluetooth and later his son Sweyn, both launched devastating invasions of England. Anglo-Saxon forces were resoundingly defeated at Maldon in 991, and more Danish attacks followed, with their victories being frequent. Aethelred's control over his nobles began to falter, and he grew increasingly desperate. His solution was to pay off the Danes, and for almost 20 years he paid increasingly large sums to the Danish nobles to keep them from English coasts. These payments, known as Danegelds, crippled the English economy. Aethelred then made an alliance with Normandy in 1001 through marriage to the Duke's daughter Emma, in the hope of strengthening England. Then he made a great error: in 1002 he ordered the massacre of all the Danes in England. In response, Sweyn began a decade of devastating attacks on England. Northern England, with its sizable Danish population, sided with Sweyn. By 1013, London, Oxford, and Winchester had fallen to the Danes. Aethelred fled to Normandy and Sweyn seized the throne. Sweyn suddenly died in 1014, and Aethelred returned to England, confronted by Sweyn's successor, Cnut. However, in 1016, Aethelred also suddenly died. Cnut swiftly defeated the remaining Saxons, killing Aethelred's son Edmund in the process. Cnut seized the throne, crowning himself King of England. Under his rule, the kingdom became the centre of government for the North Sea empire which included Denmark and Norway. Cnut was succeeded by his sons, but in 1042 the native dynasty was restored with the accession of Edward the Confessor. Edward's failure to produce an heir caused a furious conflict over the succession on his death in 1066. His struggles for power against Godwin, Earl of Wessex, the claims of Cnut's Scandinavian successors, and the ambitions of the Normans whom Edward introduced to English politics to bolster his own position caused each to vie for control of Edward's reign. Harold Godwinson became king, probably appointed by Edward on his deathbed and endorsed by the Witan. But William of Normandy, Harald Hardråde, aided by Harold Godwin's estranged brother Tostig, and Sweyn II of Denmark all asserted claims to the throne. By far the strongest hereditary claim was that of Edgar the Aetheling, but due to his youth and apparent lack of powerful supporters, he did not play a major part in the struggles of 1066, although he was made king for a short time by the Witan after the death of Harold Godwinson. In September 1066, Harald III of Norway and Earl Tostig landed in Northern England with a force of around 15,000 men and 300 longships. Harold Godwinson defeated the invaders and killed Harald III of Norway and Tostig at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. On the 28th of September 1066, William of Normandy invaded England in a campaign called the Norman Conquest. After marching from Yorkshire, Harold's exhausted army was defeated and Harold was killed at the Battle of Hastings on the 14th of October. Further opposition to William in support of Edgar the Aetheling soon collapsed, and William was crowned king on Christmas Day 1066. For five years, he faced a series of rebellions in various parts of England and a half-hearted Danish invasion, but he subdued them and established an enduring regime. The Norman Conquest led to a profound change in the history of the English state. William ordered the compilation of the Domesday Book, a survey of the entire population and their lands and property for tax purposes, which reveals that within 20 years of the conquest the English ruling class had been almost entirely dispossessed and replaced by Norman landholders, who monopolised all senior positions in the government and the Church. William and his nobles spoke and conducted court in Norman French, in both Normandy and England. The use of the Anglo-Norman language by the aristocracy endured for centuries and left an indelible mark in the development of modern English. Upon being crowned, on Christmas Day 1066, William immediately began consolidating his power. By 1067, he faced revolts on all sides and spent four years crushing them. He then imposed his superiority over Scotland and Wales, forcing them to recognise him as overlord. Economic growth and state finances were aided by the beginning of Jewish settlement in London. The English Middle Ages were characterised by civil war, international war, occasional insurrection, and widespread political intrigue among the aristocratic and monarchic elite. England was more than self-sufficient in cereals, dairy products, beef and mutton. Its international economy was based on wool trade, in which wool from the sheepwalks of northern England was exported to the textile cities of Flanders, where it was worked into cloth. Medieval foreign policy was as much shaped by relations with the Flemish textile industry as it was by dynastic adventures in western France. An English textile industry was established in the 15th century, providing the basis for rapid English capital accumulation. Henry I, the fourth son of William I the Conqueror, succeeded his elder brother William II as King of England in 1100. Henry was also known as Henry Beauclerc because he received a formal education, unlike his older brother and heir apparent William who got practical training to be king. Henry worked hard to reform and stabilise the country and smooth the differences between the Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman societies. The loss of his son, William Adelin, in the wreck of the White Ship in November 1120, undermined his reforms. This problem regarding succession cast a long shadow over English history. Henry I had required the leading barons, ecclesiastics and officials in Normandy and England, to take an oath to accept Matilda as his heir. England was far less than enthusiastic to accept an outsider, and a woman, as their ruler. There is some evidence that Henry was unsure of his own hopes and the oath to make Matilda his heir. Probably Henry hoped Matilda would have a son and step aside as Queen Mother. Upon Henry's death, the Norman and English barons ignored Matilda's claim to the throne, and thus through a series of decisions, Stephen, Henry's favourite nephew, was welcomed by many in England and Normandy as their new king. On the 22nd of December 1135, Stephen was anointed king with implicit support by the church and nation. Matilda and her own son waited in France until she sparked the civil war from 1139 to 1153 known as the Anarchy. In the autumn of 1139, she invaded England with her illegitimate half-brother Robert of Gloucester. Her husband, Geoffroy V of Anjou, conquered Normandy but did not cross the channel to help his wife. During this breakdown of central authority, nobles built adulterine castles, i.e. castles erected without government permission, which were hated by the peasants, who were forced to build and maintain them. Stephen was captured, and his government fell. Matilda was proclaimed queen but was soon at odds with her subjects and was expelled from London. The war continued until 1148, when Matilda returned to France. Stephen reigned unopposed until his death in 1154, although his hold on the throne was uneasy. As soon as he regained power, he began to demolish the adulterine castles, but kept a few castles standing, which put him at odds with his heir. His contested reign, civil war, and lawlessness saw a major swing in power towards feudal barons. In trying to appease Scottish and Welsh raiders, he handed over large tracts of land. The first Angevins, Empress Matilda and Geoffrey's son, Henry, resumed the invasion; he was already Count of Anjou, Duke of Normandy and Duke of Aquitaine when he landed in England. When Stephen's son and heir apparent Eustace died in 1153, Stephen made an agreement with Henry of Anjou, who became Henry II, to succeed Stephen and guarantee peace between them. The union was retrospectively named the Angevin Empire. Henry II destroyed the remaining adulterine castles and expanded his power through various means and to different levels into Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Flanders, Nantes, Brittany, Quercy, Toulouse, Bourges and Auvergne. The reign of Henry II represents a reversion in power from the barony to the monarchical state in England; it also saw a similar redistribution of legislative power from the Church, again to the monarchical state. This period also presaged a properly constituted legislation and a radical shift away from feudalism. In his reign, new Anglo-Angevin and Anglo-Aquitanian aristocracies developed, though not to the same degree as the Anglo-Norman once did, and the Norman nobles interacted with their French peers. Henry's successor, Richard I the Lion Heart, also known as the absent king, was preoccupied with foreign wars, taking part in the Third Crusade, being captured while returning and pledging fealty to the Holy Roman Empire as part of his ransom, and defending his French territories against Philip II of France. His successor, his younger brother John, lost much of those territories including Normandy following the disastrous Battle of Bouvines in 1214, despite having made the Kingdom of England a tribute-paying vassal of the Holy See in 1212, which it remained until the 14th century when the Kingdom rejected the overlordship of the Holy See and re-established its sovereignty. The first anti-Semitic pogroms occurred in the wake of Richard's crusades, in 1189, 90, in York and elsewhere. In York, 150 Jews died. From 1212 onwards, John had a constant policy of maintaining close relations with the Pope, which partially explains how he persuaded the Pope to reject the legitimacy of Magna Carta. Over the course of his reign, a combination of higher taxes, unsuccessful wars and conflict with the Pope made King John unpopular with his barons. In 1215, some of the most important barons rebelled against him. He met their leaders along with their French and Scot allies at Runnymede, near London on the 15th of June 1215 to seal the Great Charter, Magna Carta in Latin, which imposed legal limits on the king's personal powers. But as soon as hostilities ceased, John received approval from the Pope to break his word because he had made it under duress. This provoked the First Barons' War and a French invasion by Prince Louis of France invited by a majority of the English barons to replace John as king in London in May 1216. John travelled around the country to oppose the rebel forces, directing, among other operations, a two-month siege of the rebel-held Rochester Castle. John's son, Henry III, was only 9 years old when he became king, reigning from 1216 to 1272. He spent much of his reign fighting the barons over Magna Carta and the royal rights, and was eventually forced to call the first parliament in 1264. He was also unsuccessful on the continent, where he endeavoured to re-establish English control over Normandy, Anjou, and Aquitaine. His reign was punctuated by many rebellions and civil wars, often provoked by incompetence and mismanagement in government and Henry's perceived over-reliance on French courtiers, thus restricting the influence of the English nobility. One of these rebellions, led by a disaffected courtier, Simon de Montfort, was notable for its assembly of one of the earliest precursors to Parliament. In addition to fighting the Second Barons' War, Henry III made war against Louis IX and was defeated during the Saintonge War, yet Louis did not capitalise on his victory, respecting his opponent's rights. Henry III's policies towards Jews began with relative tolerance, but became gradually more restrictive. In 1253 the Statute of Jewry reinforced physical segregation and demanded a previously notional requirement to wear square white badges. Henry III also backed an accusation of child murder in Lincoln, ordering a Jew Copin to be executed and 91 Jews to be arrested for trial; 18 were killed. Popular superstitious fears were fuelled, and Catholic theological hostility combined with Baronial abuse of loan arrangements, resulting in Simon de Montfort's supporters targeting of Jewish communities in their revolt. This hostility, violence and controversy was the background to the increasingly oppressive measures that followed under Edward I. The reign of Edward I, reigning from 1272 to 1307, was rather more successful. Edward enacted numerous laws strengthening the powers of his government, and he summoned the first officially sanctioned Parliaments of England, such as his Model Parliament. He conquered Wales and attempted to use a succession dispute to gain control of the Kingdom of Scotland, though this developed into a costly and drawn-out military campaign. Edward I is also known for his policies first persecuting Jews, particularly the 1275 Statute of the Jewry. This banned Jews from their previous role in making loans, and demanded that they work as merchants, farmers, craftsmen or soldiers. This was unrealistic, and failed. Edward's solution was to expel Jews from England. This was the first statewide, permanent expulsion in Europe. His son, Edward II, was considered a disaster by other nobles. A man who preferred to engage in activities like thatching and ditch-digging and associating with the lower class rather than the activities considered appropriate for the upper class such as jousting, hunting, or the usual entertainments of kings, he spent most of his reign trying in vain to control the nobility, who in return showed continual hostility to him. Meanwhile, the Scottish leader Robert Bruce began retaking all the territory conquered by Edward I. In 1314, the English army was disastrously defeated by the Scots at the Battle of Bannockburn. Edward also showered favours on his companion Piers Gaveston, a knight of humble birth. While it has been widely believed that Edward was homosexual because of his closeness to Gaveston, there is no concrete evidence of this. The king's enemies, including his cousin Thomas of Lancaster, captured and murdered Gaveston in 1312. The Great Famine of 1315, 1317 may have resulted in half a million deaths in England due to hunger and disease, more than 10 per cent of the population. Edward's downfall came in 1326 when his wife, Queen Isabella, travelled to her native France and, with her lover Roger Mortimer, invaded England. Despite their tiny force, they quickly rallied support for their cause. The king fled London, and his companion since Piers Gaveston's death, Hugh Despenser, was publicly tried and executed. Edward was captured, charged with breaking his coronation oath, deposed and imprisoned in Gloucestershire until he was murdered some time in the autumn of 1327, presumably by agents of Isabella and Mortimer. Edward III, son of Edward II, was crowned at age 14 after his father was deposed by his mother and Roger Mortimer. At age 17, he led a successful coup against Mortimer, the de facto ruler of the country, and began his personal reign. Edward III reigned from 1327 to 1377, restored royal authority and went on to transform England into the most efficient military power in Europe. His reign saw vital developments in legislature and government, in particular the evolution of the English parliament, as well as the ravages of the Black Death. After defeating, but not subjugating, the Kingdom of Scotland, he declared himself rightful heir to the French throne in 1338, but his claim was denied due to the Salic law. This started what would become known as the Hundred Years' War. Edward first styled himself King of France in 1337, though he did not officially assume the title until 1340. Following some initial setbacks, the war went exceptionally well for England; victories at Crécy and Poitiers led to the highly favourable Treaty of Brétigny. Edward's later years were marked by international failure and domestic strife, largely as a result of his inactivity and poor health. For many years, trouble had been brewing with Castile, a Spanish kingdom whose navy had taken to raiding English merchant ships in the Channel. Edward won a major naval victory against a Castilian fleet off Winchelsea in 1350. Although the Castilian crossbowmen killed many of the enemy, the English gradually got the better of the encounter. In spite of Edward's success, however, Winchelsea was only a flash in a conflict that raged between the English and the Spanish for over 200 years, coming to a head with the defeats of the Spanish Armada and the English Armada in 1588 and 1589. In 1373, England signed an alliance with the Kingdom of Portugal, which is claimed to be the oldest alliance in the world still in force. Edward III died of a stroke on the 21st of June 1377, and was succeeded by his ten-year-old grandson, Richard II. He married Anne of Bohemia, daughter of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor in 1382, and ruled until he was deposed by his first cousin Henry IV in 1399. In 1381, a Peasants' Revolt led by Wat Tyler spread across large parts of England. It was suppressed by Richard II, with the death of 1500 rebels. The Black Death, an epidemic of bubonic plague that spread all over Europe, arrived in England in 1348 and killed as much as a third to half the population. Military conflicts during this period were usually with domestic neighbours such as the Welsh, Irish, and Scots, and included the Hundred Years' War against the French and their Scottish allies. Notable English victories in the Hundred Years' War included Crécy and Agincourt. The final defeat of the uprising led by the Welsh prince, Owain Glyndwr, in 1412 by Prince Henry, who later became Henry V, represents the last major armed attempt by the Welsh to throw off English rule. Edward III gave land to powerful noble families, including many people of royal lineage. Because land was equivalent to power, these powerful men could try to claim the crown. When Edward III died in 1377, he was succeeded by his grandson, Richard II. Richard's autocratic and arrogant methods only served to alienate the nobility more, and his forceful dispossession in 1399 by Henry IV increased the turmoil. Henry spent much of his reign defending himself against plots, rebellions and assassination attempts. Rebellions continued throughout the first ten years of Henry's reign, including the revolt of Owain Glyndwr, who declared himself Prince of Wales in 1400, and the rebellion of Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland. The king's success in putting down these rebellions was due partly to the military ability of his eldest son, Henry of Monmouth, who later became king, though the son managed to seize much effective power from his father in 1410. Henry V succeeded to the throne in 1413. He renewed hostilities with France and began a set of military campaigns which are considered a new phase of the Hundred Years' War, referred to as the Lancastrian War. He won several notable victories over the French, including the Battle of Agincourt. In the Treaty of Troyes, Henry V was given the power to succeed the current ruler of France, Charles VI of France. The Treaty also provided that he would marry Charles VI's daughter, Catherine of Valois. They married in 1421. Henry died of dysentery in 1422, leaving a number of unfulfilled plans, including his plan to take over as King of France and to lead a crusade to retake Jerusalem from the Muslims. Henry V's son, Henry VI, became king in 1422 as an infant. His reign was marked by constant turmoil due to his political weaknesses. While he was growing up, England was ruled by the Regency government. The Regency Council tried to install Henry VI as the King of France, as provided by the Treaty of Troyes signed by his father, and led English forces to take over areas of France. It appeared they might succeed due to the poor political position of the son of Charles VI, who had claimed to be the rightful king as Charles VII of France. However, in 1429, Joan of Arc began a military effort to prevent the English from gaining control of France. The French forces regained control of French territory. In 1437, Henry VI came of age and began to actively rule as king. To forge peace, he married French noblewoman Margaret of Anjou in 1445, as provided in the Treaty of Tours. Hostilities with France resumed in 1449. When England lost the Hundred Years' War in August 1453, Henry fell into mental breakdown until Christmas 1454. Henry could not control the feuding nobles, and a series of civil wars known as the Wars of the Roses began, lasting from 1455 to 1485. Although the fighting was very sporadic and small, there was a general breakdown in the power of the Crown. The royal court and Parliament moved to Coventry, in the Lancastrian heartlands, which thus became the capital of England until 1461. Henry's cousin Edward, Duke of York, deposed Henry in 1461 to become Edward IV following a Lancastrian defeat at the Battle of Mortimer's Cross. Edward was later briefly expelled from the throne in 1470, 1471 when Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, brought Henry back to power. Six months later, Edward defeated and killed Warwick in battle and reclaimed the throne. Henry was imprisoned in the Tower of London and died there. Edward died in 1483, only 40 years old, his reign having gone a little way to restoring the power of the Crown. His eldest son and heir Edward V, aged 12, could not succeed him because the king's brother, Richard III, Duke of Gloucester, declared Edward IV's marriage bigamous, making all his children illegitimate. Richard III was then declared king, and Edward V and his 10-year-old brother Richard were imprisoned in the Tower of London. The two were never seen again. It was widely believed that Richard III had them murdered and he was reviled as a treacherous fiend, which limited his ability to govern during his brief reign. In summer 1485, Henry Tudor, the last Lancastrian male, returned from exile in France and landed in Wales. Henry then defeated and killed Richard III at Bosworth Field on the 22nd of August, and was crowned Henry VII. The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in England that began with the reign of Henry VII. Henry engaged in a number of administrative, economic and diplomatic initiatives. He paid very close attention to detail and, instead of spending lavishly, concentrated on raising new revenues. Henry was successful in restoring power and stability to the nation's monarchy following the civil war. His supportive policy toward England's wool industry and his standoff with the Low Countries had long-lasting benefit to the economy of England. He restored the nation's finances and strengthened its judicial system. The Renaissance reached England through Italian courtiers, who reintroduced artistic, educational and scholarly debate from classical antiquity. England began to develop naval skills, and exploration intensified in the Age of Discovery. With Henry VII's accession to the throne in 1485, the Wars of the Roses came to an end, and Tudors would continue to rule England for 118 years. Traditionally, the Battle of Bosworth Field is considered to mark the end of the Middle Ages in England, although Henry did not introduce any new concept of monarchy, and for most of his reign his hold on power was tenuous. He claimed the throne by conquest and God's judgement in battle. Parliament quickly recognised him as king, but the Yorkists were far from defeated. Nonetheless, he married Edward IV's eldest daughter Elizabeth in January 1486, thereby uniting the houses of York and Lancaster. Most of the European rulers did not believe Henry would survive long, and were thus willing to shelter claimants against him. The first plot against him was the Stafford and Lovell rebellion of 1486, which presented no serious threat. But Richard III's nephew John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, hatched another attempt the following year. Using a peasant boy named Lambert Simnel, who posed as Edward, Earl of Warwick, the real Warwick was locked up in the Tower of London, he led an army of 2,000 German mercenaries paid for by Margaret of Burgundy into England. They were defeated and de la Pole was killed at the difficult Battle of Stoke, where the loyalty of some of the royal troops to Henry was questionable. The king, realizing that Simnel was a dupe, employed him in the royal kitchen. A more serious threat was Perkin Warbeck, a Flemish youth who posed as Edward IV's son Richard. Again with support from Margaret of Burgundy, he invaded England four times from 1495 to 1497 before he was captured and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Both Warbeck and the Earl of Warwick were dangerous even in captivity, and Henry executed them in 1499 before Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain would allow their daughter Catherine to come to England and marry his son Arthur. In 1497, Henry defeated Cornish rebels marching on London. The rest of his reign was relatively peaceful, despite worries about succession after the death of his wife Elizabeth of York in 1503. Henry VII's foreign policy was peaceful. He had made an alliance with Spain and the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, but in 1493, when they went to war with France, England was dragged into the conflict. Impoverished and his hold on power insecure, Henry had no desire for war. He quickly reached an understanding with the French and renounced all claims to their territory except the port of Calais, realizing also that he could not stop them from incorporating the Duchy of Brittany. In return, the French agreed to recognize him as king and stop sheltering pretenders. Shortly afterwards, they became preoccupied with adventures in Italy. Henry also reached an understanding with Scotland, agreeing to marry his daughter Margaret to that country's king James IV. Upon becoming king, Henry inherited a government severely weakened and degraded by the Wars of the Roses. The treasury was empty, having been drained by Edward IV's Woodville in-laws after his death. Through a tight fiscal policy and sometimes ruthless tax collection and confiscations, Henry refilled the treasury by the time of his death. He also effectively rebuilt the machinery of government. In 1501, the king's son Arthur, having married Catherine of Aragon, died of illness at age 15, leaving his younger brother Henry, Duke of York as heir. When the king himself died in 1509, the position of the Tudors was secure at last, and his son succeeded him unopposed. Henry VIII began his reign with much optimism. The handsome, athletic young king stood in sharp contrast to his wary, miserly father. Henry's lavish court quickly drained the treasury of the fortune he inherited. He married the widowed Catherine of Aragon, and they had several children, but none survived infancy except a daughter, Mary. In 1512, the young king started a war in France. Although England was an ally of Spain, one