The Making Of Britain
Hi, I'm Chris Green, telling stories about the Making Of Britain from pre-history right up to the Industrial Revolution and the Victorian era.
You might know me from my other channel, The History Chap, but on this new channel I will going back further into British history, sharing the exciting events and fascinating people that have made Britain the country it is today.
It's not just the story of kings and queens but of our ancestors too.
Stories from Roman Britain, the Anglo-Saxons, medieval England, the Tudors, Stuarts and early Georgians.
And not just the history of England, I will be looking at Scottish and Welsh history too.
Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss all the stories I have planned for you.
The Making Of Britain
Today in British History - 22 September 1761
Coronation of King George III
George reigned for 59 years (1760–1820), the longest of any king of Great Britian (although beaten by two queens - Victoria and Elizabeth II)
His reign spanned the Seven Years' War victories, the loss of the American colonies, the Union with Ireland (1801) and the wars against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France.
His recurring illness led to the Regency of 1811.
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The Making Of Britain
Today in British History - 21st September 1327
The Death of Edward II of England
Edward II reigned from 7 July 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327.
His reign was marked by defeat at Bannockburn (1314) and his dependence on hated favourites, first Piers Gaveston and later Hugh Despenser the Younger and his father.
His estranged queen, Isabella of France, and her lover Roger Mortimer invaded in September 1326.
The Despensers were executed, and Parliament forced Edward to abdicate in favour of his fourteen-year-old son, Edward III.
Held at Berkeley Castle, Edward was announced dead on 21 September 1327.
The famous story that he was killed with a red-hot poker appears only in later chroniclers.
He was buried at Gloucester, where his tomb became a popular shrine.
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The Making Of Britain
Today in British History - 20th September 1586
The Babington plotters were executed.
Catholic conspirators led by Antony Babington (pictured) planned to assasinate Queen Elizabeth I and replace her with Mary Queen of Scots.
Apprehended, they were put on trial and sentenced to execution by being hanged, drawn and quartered.
On the 20th September 1586, Anthony Babington , John Ballard and five others were dragged to St Giles in the Fields (London) and exceuted by being hanged, drawn and quartered.
Thousands turned up to watch the grisly spectacle but it was so harrowing that the mood of the crowd turned, resulting in Queen Elizabeth ordering that the remaining seven plotters who were executed the following day, should be hanged until they were dead, before the rest of the macabre mutilation took place.
The plot's real significance was elsewhere: Elizabeth's spy-master, Walsingham's interception of the correspondence gave him what he needed to bring Mary, Queen of Scots to trial.
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The Making Of Britain
Today in British History - 19th September 1356
English Defeated French at the Battle of Poitiers.
Edward the Black Prince, trying to withdraw a raiding force towards Bordeaux, was brought to battle by a much larger French army under King John II and fought it from a strong defensive position among hedges and vines.
The French attack was broken by devastating English archery.
It is estimated that the French lost roughly 2,500 French men-at-arms killed and up to 3,000 taken prisoner, plus maybe 2,000 common infantry also killed or captured.
King John of France was captured, as was his fourteen-year-old son Philip, seventeen great lords, thirteen counts, five viscounts and around a hundred notable knights.
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The Making Of Britain
Today in British History - 16th September 1400
Owain Glyndŵr proclaimed Prince of Wales.
A small gathering of kinsmen and tenants at Glyndyfrdwy in the Dee valley declared Owain Prince of Wales, the title's first Welsh claimant in over a century.
The immediate cause was a land dispute with his neighbour Reginald de Grey of Ruthin, which Parliament had declined to hear.
Two days later Owain sacked Ruthin.
What began as a local quarrel became a national revolt that lasted for the better part of a decade.
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The Making Of Britain
Today in British History - 14th September 1402
English Defeated Scots - Battle of Homildon Hill
Archibald, 4th Earl of Douglas raided into England with a Scottish army numbering around 10,000 men.
Having reached all the way to Newscatle Upon Tyne, they turned and headed for home.
Enroute, they were intercepted at Homildon Hill by the Earl of Northumberland and his son, Harry "Hotspur" Percy.
Murderous English archery forced the Scots into a suicidal charge off the hill where they were destroyed.
Casualty figures are, as ever with medieval sources, highly unreliable.
Maybe the best indication of the Scottish defeat is that Douglas himself was captured, along with 3 earls, the son of a Duke and around 80 knights.
I intend to cover the many wars between England and Scotland in future videos.
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The Making Of Britain
Today in British History
12th September 1878 — Cleopatra's Needle raised on the Victoria Embankment, London.
The obelisk was carved for Thutmose III around 1450 BC and given to Britain in 1819, at which point it lay in the sand at Alexandria for nearly sixty years because nobody could work out how to move 200 tons of granite.
Named Cleopatra's Needle, it was eventually sealed inside a purpose-built iron cylinder, and towed to Britain behind a steamer.
In a Bay of Biscay storm the tow was cut, six men drowned trying to reach her crew, and she was given up for lost — then found still afloat days later by Spanish trawlermen.
When it was finally raised on the Embankment, a time capsule went in beneath it: coins, a razor, a Bradshaw's railway guide, and photographs of twelve of the best-looking women in England!
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The Making Of Britain
Today in British History
9th September 1543 — Mary, Queen of Scots crowned.
Mary was nine months old, and had to be carried through her own coronation in the Chapel Royal at Stirling while the earls held the crown, sceptre and sword around her.
She had been queen since she was six days old.
The English ambassador reported the ceremony as poor and thinly attended, which suited Henry VIII's view that Scotland was a country to be bullied rather than treated with.
Her betrothal to his son Edward had already collapsed, and Henry's response was the campaign of burning and invasion the Scots called the Rough Wooing.
Within 5 years she had been taken to safety in France.
She wouldn't return for over a decade.
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The Making Of Britain
Today in British History
8th September 1831 - Coronation of King William IV.
The uncle of Queen Victoria, William did not want a coronation at all and had to be talked into one, on the grounds that the country expected it.
What he agreed to cost around £30,000 against the £240,000 his brother George IV had spent a decade earlier, and the press nicknamed it the "Half-Crownation".
The banquet was cancelled, the procession trimmed, the peers told to wear their existing robes.
Tory grandees were appalled and some boycotted it.
The king, a former naval officer of blunt tastes, appears to have thought the whole business faintly ridiculous.
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The Making Of Britain
Today in British History - 7th September 1191.
Richard I of England (Lionheart) defeated Saladin at the battle of Arsuf, during the Third Crusade.
Richard became King of England in 1189 and left for the crusade in 1190 to recapture Jerusalem.
Having captured Cyprus and the port of Acre, he defeated Saladin at Arsuf.
The victory, however, did not lead to the capture of Jerusalem.
Having negotiated a favourable treaty with Saladin, Richard began his journey hom the following year.
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