Great Britain

      When Henry died in 1189 he was succeeded as King by his son Richard, called Richard the Lion-Hearted. One of the historians [his`to:riзnz] says: He played a small part in the affairs of England and a large part in the affairs of Europe. Richard spent only two short spells in the country, one of three months and one of two months. Richard was famous for his good education and courage. He was a man of excellent manners, kind to his friends and cruel to his enemies. He spent most of his time taking part in crusades [kru`seidz] in Palestine [`pælistain]. Richard the Lion-Hearted was killed in one of the battles in France in 1199, and the English throne passed to his brother John.

Vocabulary

Rufus – Рыжий

arrow – стрела

succeed – наследовать

to be drowned – утонуть

Matilda – Матильда

prominent – выдающийся

the Holy Roman Emperor– император Священной Римской империи

Geoffrey Plantagenet – Джеффри Плантагенет

Stephen – Стефан

Adela – Адела

oppose – противостоять

Civil War – гражданская война

Count of Anjou, Tourain and Maine – Граф Анжу, Турени и Мена

Eleanor of Aquitaine – Алиенора Аквитанская

restore – восстанавливать, возврвщать

Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury – Томас Бекет, архиепископ Кентерберийский

reduce – уменьшать

saint – святой

Richard the Lion-Hearted – Ричард Львиное Сердце

crusade – крестовый поход

Palestine – Палестина 

3. King John and Magna Carta

      John was unpopular because of his history of plotting against family members: he killed his 16-year-old nephew Arthur, who had the best claim to the throne, being the son of John’s elder brother Jeffrey.

      John was faced with three main problems. The power of the English nobility [nou`biliti] was increasing; the possessions [pз`ze∫зnz] of the English kings in France were daily becoming more difficult to defend; and the Church was eager to gather into its hands as much power as possible.  John attempted to maintain [men`tein] his positions. But he was unlucky in war and lost most of England’s land, so he lived up to his nickname, ‘Lackland’.

      In 1215 the richest and most powerful sections of English society – the aristocracy [,æris`tokrзsi], the Church and the merchants [`mз:t∫зnts] – formed a coalition [,kouз`li∫n] against the King. At Runnymede [`rΛni,mi:d], an island in the Thames John’s opponents [з`pounзnts] made him sign a document called the Great Charter [`t∫a:tз] (‘Magna Carta’ [,mægnз`ka:tз] in Latin), in which the king agreed to follow certain rules of government. The document officially stated certain rights and liberties [`libзtiz] of the people, which the king had to respect. And it defined and limited royal rights. Magna Carta was a long list of everything that was wrong with government as John applied it. Baronial [bз`rouniзl] liberties were protected and freemen were provided with some guaranties [`gærзntiz] against arbitrary [`a:bitзrзri] royal actions. The crown alone would not be able to determine its rights. So Magna Carta could be called ‘The cornerstone of English liberties’.

      John had no intention of agreeing Magna Carta without a fight. The war with the barons continued. In 1216 King John died of a fever. His son Henry became the King Henry III.  England was deep in war.

Vocabulary

nobility – дворянство, знать

increase – увеличиваться, нарастать

possession – владение

maintain – укреплять

merchant – купец

coalition – коалиция

Runnymede – Раннимид

opponent – противник

Great Charter (‘Magna Carta’) – ‘Великая Хартия Вольностей’

liberties – свободы

apply – зд. применять, употреблять

baronial – баронский

guaranty – гарантия

arbitrary – произвольный

determine – определять, устанавливать  

4. The birth of the British Parliament

      Henry was only nine years old when he became king. So William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke [`pembruk], acted as a Regent [`ri:d3зnt]. He ruled the country for the young king. Marshal was famed throughout the Christian world for his courage, physical power and skill in fighting, and also for his honourable nature. He served Henry II, Richard I and John with utter loyalty [`loiзlti]. Peers [piзz] and churchmen respected his wisdom and asked his advice.

      Henry III was a weak king, foolish and dishonourable. Unlucky in war he failed to regain [ri`gein] England’s territories in France, lost by King John. Henry’s wife, Eleanor, was French. She brought French nobles to the English court. Henry showed special favour to these Frenchmen, often giving them English land. This made him hated by the English barons. The high taxes Henry demanded, and his wasting money on useless wars, made him very unpopular.

      At Easter 1258 a group of barons rebelled [ri`beld]. Civil war broke out. Henry and his son, Prince Edward, commanded the royalist forces, and Simon de Montfort [`saimзn dз `montfзt || Fr. mo:n`fo:r], Earl of Leicester [`lestз], Henry’s brother-in-law (he was married to King’s sister Eleanor), led the barons. In April 1264 the King and Edward were badly defeated, and they were taken prisoner by the barons. Simon became ruler of England.

      The great act of Simon, while he ruled, was to summon [`sΛmзn] a Parliament in June 1264. Parliament was established as a regular form of government. Parliaments were meetings of the most important men in the country to exchange views and offer advice. Parliament’s origins are unclear but the calling together of barons and prelates [`prelits] to exchange views and give advice to the monarch [`monзk] was not a great departure from the King’s traditional practice of consulting the great men of the kingdom. The great barons, out of whom the House of Lords was formed, came in person, and as the small freeholders [`fri:,hoзldзz] were too many to do the same, a few of their number came to act for them. Simon brought the towns in by having each city send two of its citizens. Simon’s Parliament was not full and free. The number of earls and barons was small, only those being called who were friends of his. On the other hand, there was a large body of clergy [`klз:d3i], as among them his friends were many.

      The barons disliked the great power Simon wielded [wi:ldid]. He was killed in 1265. Henry III spent his last years enjoying his happy and long marriage, and encouraging the arts. He was a lover of architecture and many beautiful cathedrals were built or improved during his reign. Henry rebuilt Westminster Abbey, where he was buried when he died in 1272.

Vocabulary

William Marshal,Earl of Pembroke – Уильям Маршал, граф Пембрук

regent – регент

loyalty – верность

Peer – пэр

churchman – священнослужитель

regain – возвращать, снова приобретать

demand – требовать

rebel – восставать

command – командовать

Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester – Симон де Монфор, граф Лестер

defeat – побеждать, разбивать

summon – созывать

prelate – прелат

monarch – монарх

freeholder – фригольдер, свободный землевладелец

clergy – духовенство

wielded – владеть, обладать

encourage – поощрять

architecture – архитектура

cathedral – собор 

5. The struggle of Scotland for its independence

      Edward I, the son and successor of King Henry III, might be taken as a pattern of the medieval [,medi`i:vзl] King. He was strong and tall, a fine soldier, a good horseman, and fond of hunt. He ruled the realm [relm] well and wisely. He was a determined monarch, firm in the defence of his rights.

      Edward devoted his first years as King to Wales. The Prince of Wales, Llywelyn [lз`welin], was called on to do homage [`homidg]. But the prince didn’t come. He and his people still hoped to win their freedom. In 1282 Edward defeated Llywelyn’s army and killed him and his brother, the last of the Welsh royal line. As a recompense [`rekзmpens] Edward offered his baby son to the Welsh people to be their prince. It is said that Edward promised the Welsh ‘a prince who speaks no English’; the baby prince couldn’t speak at all. In 1301 the young prince was officially created Prince of Wales and this title has been held by successive [sзk`sesiv] heirs to the throne ever since.

      Edward was determined to conquer Scotland as well as Wales.

      The feudal [fju:dl] system did not develop in the Highlands where the tribal ‘clan’ system continued. Although Scottish kings had sometimes accepted the English king as their ‘overlord’, they were strong enough to defend their country. But in 1290 a crisis [`kraisis] took place over the succession to the Scottish throne. On a stormy night in 1286 Alexander III King of Scotland was riding home along a path by the sea in the dark. His horse took a false step, and the king was thrown from the top of the cliff. He left no heir, but there was a crowed of men who had any claim to the Scottish throne. Of these, the best known are John de Balliol [`beiljзl] and Robert Bruce [bru:s], both of Norman blood, who held lands in England and Scotland. Edward was called on to say who should be king, and he settled on Balliol, but made him acknowledge him as head king.

      There was a fight between France and England, and the Scots sided with France. But they were defeated and Balliol was forced to give up the crown to Edward, who brought away the Scottish crown jewels and with them a relic [`relik] whose loss was deeply felt. At Scone Abbey [sku:n || skoun]  there was a piece of rock, called Stone of Destiny [`destini], on which the Scottish king stood when he was crowned. It was said where that stone was the Scottish king should reign. Edward placed it on a throne in Westminster Abbey, where the stone and chair still are seen and on them all the Kings of England have since been crowned.

      Edward’s treatment of the Scots led to the creation a popular resistance [ri`zistзns] movement. At first it was led by William Wallace [`wolis], a Norman-Scottish knight. But after one victory against English army, Wallace’s ‘people’s army’ was destroyed by Edward in 1297. Wallace was captured [`kæpt∫зd], brought to London and executed. He gained by his death the martyr’s [`ma:tзz] crown.

      Edward tried to make Scotland a part of England, as he had done with Wales. Soon Scottish nobles accepted him, but the people refused to be ruled by the English king. A new leader took up the struggle. This was Robert Bruce. He was able to raise an army and defeat the English army in Scotland. Edward I gathered another great army and marched against Robert Bruce, but he died on the way north in 1307. On Edward’s grave were written the words “Edward, the Hammer of the Scots”. One historian said that Edward had intended to hammer the Scots into the ground and destroy them, but in fact he had hammered them into a nation.

      After Edward’s death Bruce had enough time to defeat his Scottish enemies, and make himself accepted as king of the Scots. He then began to win back the castles still held by the English. When the son of his old enemy Edward II invaded Scotland in 1314 Bruce destroyed his army near Stirling Castle. This battle assured Scottish independence for a further three centuries.

Vocabulary

medieval – средневековый

realm – королевство

Llywelyn – Ллиуэлин

homage – принесение феодальной присяги

recompense – компенсация

successive – следующий один за другим

feudal – феодальный

crisis – кризис

John de Balliol – Джон де Бейллиол

Robert Bruce – Роберт Брюс

relic – реликвия

Scone Abbey – аббатство Скун

Stone of Destiny – камень Судьбы

resistance movement – сопротивление

William Wallace – Уильям Уоллес

capture – захватить

execute – казнить

martyr – мученик

Stirling Castle – замок Стирлинг 
 

6. The Hundred Years’  War

In the first half of the 14^th century the king of England was Edward III (1327–1377). He was a powerful king. And he was wise, courageous and ruthless [`ru:θlis].

   Edward III possessed the ability and determination to restore royal authority [o:`θoriti] in England. His reign was a long and great one. He reformed the law, improving justice for ordinary people. He made English, not French the official language of law and Parliament. He was successful in his dealings with the barons; he had no favourites, and he brought many of the leading barons into the royal circle as Knights of the Order of the Garter [`ga:tз], which he established in 1348.

      Edward III was a great and popular soldier. His war was wholly [`houli] with France. Through his mother Isabella [,izз`belз], the only surviving child of the French king Philip IV [`filip], he had a claim to the throne of France. This claim was not allowed by the French, who claimed that women by the ‘Salic law’ [`sælik] were shut out from the throne. So in 1337 Edwart III claimed the right to the French Crown and declared war on France. Thus began the war, later called the Hundred Years’ War, which did not finally end until 1453, with the English Crown losing all its possessions in France except for Calais [`kælei], a northern French port.

      In 1346 Edward invaded France. At first the English were far more successful than the French on the battlefield. The English army was experienced through its wars in Wales and Scotland. It had learnt the value of being lightly armed, and rapid [`ræpid] in movement. Its most important weapon was the Welsh longbow [`loŋbou]. It was very effective on the battlefield because of its quick rate of fire. Such arrows could go through most armours. The value of the longbow was proved in two victories, at Crecy [`kresi] in 1346 and at Poitiers [`pwa:tjei] in 1356, where the French king himself was taken prisoner. The English captured [`kæpt∫зd] a huge quantity of treasure, and it was said that after the battle of Poitiers every woman in England  had a French bracelet [`breislit] on her arm. The French king bought his freedom for 500 000 pounds, an e`normous amount of money in those days.

      By the treaty [`tri:ti], in 1360, Edward III gave up his claim to the French throne because he had re-established control over areas previously held by the English Crown. The French recognized his ownership of all Aquitaine [,ækwi`tein], including Gascony [`gæskзni]; parts of Normandy [`no:mзndi] and Brittany [`britзni], and newly captured [`kæpt∫зd] port of Calais [`kælei].

      But the war did not end, the fighting soon began again. Most of this land, except for the port of Calais [`kælei], was taken back by French forces during the next fifteen years.

      Henry V (1413–1422), the second king from the House of Lancaster [`læŋkзstз], reopened war with France. In 1415, Henry and his army sailed to France. Henry V was a brilliant leader. he arranged his army so intelligently, and inspired them so powerfully, that at the battle of Agincourt [`æd3inko:], they defeated a mounted [`mauntid] French army three to five times the size of the English force. Only about 500 English soldiers were killed, compared with about 7 000 French soldiers. More brilliant victories followed, until in 1419 the French king made peace. The two kings signed a treaty, which allowed Henry to keep all the land he conquered. It also gave him the French king’s daughter, Catherine, in marriage, and made him heir to the French throne. But Henry died before he could be crowned King of France.

      In 1428 the English laid siege [si:d3] to Orleans [`o:rli:зnz], and its fall seemed at hand, when France was saved as if by miracle [`mirзkl]. From the town of Domremy [do:nrз`mi:] came a girl of sixteen years, Joan of Arc [,d3oun зv `a:k], who claimed she had been sent by God. She led a force to Orleans, and with but a few men reached the city and defeated the English. Later she was captured [`kæpt∫зd] and burnt after being found guilty of witch-craft and heresy [`herзsi]. She was made a saint in 1920.