Lewis-Stempel - England: the autobiography: 2,000 years of English history by those who saw it happen

PENGUIN BOOKS
ENGLAND: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY

John Lewis-Stempel is a writer and farmer. He lives in Herefordshire with his wife and two children. He is the editor and author of many previous books, including Fatherhood: An Anthology and Eye-witness D-Day.

2,000 Years of English History By Those Who Saw It Happen

JOHN LEWIS-STEMPEL

PENGUIN BOOKS

PENGUIN BOOKS

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First published by Viking 2005
Published in Penguin Books 2006
6

Copyright John Lewis-Stempel, 2005
All rights reserved

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

ISBN: 978-0-141-92869-2

For an English oak and an English rose, Tristram and Freda

JULIUS CAESAR

JULIUS CAESAR

TACITUS

VARIOUS

BEDE

THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE

ASSER

ANONYMOUS

HENRY OF HUNTINGDON

WILLIAM OF POITIERS

ORDERIC VITALIS

The Harrying of the North, 106970

ORDERIC VITALIS

THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE

ANONYMOUS

THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE

ORDERIC VITALIS

THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE

WALTER MAP

EDWARD GRIM

ROGER OF WENDOVER

BEHA-ED-DIN

KING JOHN ET AL.

MATTHEW PARIS

THOMAS WYKES

ANONYMOUS COURT RECORDER

ANONYMOUS MONK

The Battle of Bannockburn, 24 June 1314

THE CHRONICLE OF LANERCOST

GEOFFREY LE BAKER

GEOFFREY LE BAKER

SIR JOHN FROISSART

HENRY KNIGHTON

ROBERT OF AVESBURY

WILLIAM LANGLAND

THE ANONIMALLE CHRONICLE

ANONYMOUS PRIEST

ANONYMOUS

THE GENERAL COURT OF THE MAYOR OF THE CITY OF LONDON

JOHN WARKWORTH

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE AND SIR THOMAS MORE

POLYDORE VERGIL

A Portrait of Henry VIII, 1519

SEBASTIAN GIUSTINIAN

POLYDORE VERGIL

HENRY VIII

JOHN LONDON, JOHN AP RICE, RICHARD LAYTON, GEOFFREY CHAMBER, ROGER TOWNSEND

A BYSTANDER

FRANCISCO DE ZARATE

R. K. WYNKFIELDE

LORD HOWARD OF EFFINGHAM AND JOHN HAWKINS

ELIZABETH I

FATHER JOHN GERARD

PAUL HENTZNER

THOMAS PLATTER AND SIR HENRY WOTTON

The Death of Elizabeth, 24 March 1603

LADY SOUTHWELL

SIR ANTHONY WELDON

GUY FAWKES

WILLIAM BRADFORD

WILLIAM HARVEY

SIR PHILIP WARWICK

JOHN RUSHWORTH

SIR RICHARD BULSTRODE

OLIVER CROMWELL

PHILIP HENRY

OLIVER CROMWELL

BULSTRODE WHITELOCK

JOHN EVELYN

SAMUEL PEPYS

JOHN EVELYN

SAMUEL PEPYS

SIR ISAAC NEWTON

JOHN EVELYN

JOHN EVELYN

JOHN CHURCHILL, DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH

OLIVER GOLDSMITH

ZACHARIAS VON UFFENBACH

JOHN H. JESSE

C. DE SAUSSURE

JOHN WESLEY

ELIZABETH BYROM

J. Z. HOLWELL

CAPTAIN JOHN KNOX

George II Interred, 13 November 1760

HORACE WALPOLE

JOHN ANDREWS

THOMAS BENTLEY

GEORGE CRABBE

FANNY BURNEY

EDWARD JENNER

JOHN NICHOL

COLONEL WILLIAM STEWART

SIR ARTHUR WELLESLEY

MIDSHIPMAN BADCOCK RN

DR WILLIAM BEATTY

RIFLEMAN HARRIS

ROBERT BLAKENEY

ENSIGN EDMUND WHEATLEY

CAPTAIN J. KINCAID, RIFLE BRIGADE

ELIZABETH BENTLEY

JOHN COOK

SAMUEL BAMFORD

JAMES NASMYTH

FANNY KEMBLE

THOMAS MACAULAY

CHARLES DARWIN

CHARLES GREVILLE

FLORA TRISTAN

FRIEDRICH ENGELS

CHARLES GREVILLE

CHARLES GREVILLE

CHARLOTTE BRONTE

E. A. COOK

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE

RICHARD BARTER

SAMUEL WHITE BAKER

SIR HENRY MORTON STANLEY

JOSEPH ARCH

HENRY HOOK

THE BLACKBURN TIMES

QUEEN VICTORIA

SIEGFRIED SASSOON

WINSTON CHURCHILL

J. E. NEILLY

THE COUNTESS OF DENBIGH

LADY CONSTANCE LYTTON

CAPTAIN H. G. KENDALL

CAPTAIN R. F. SCOTT RN

HAROLD BRIDE

HERBERT ASQUITH, PRIME MINISTER

CAPTAIN SIR EDWARD HAMILTON WESTROW HULSE

LEONARD THOMPSON

SIEGFRIED SASSOON

VERA BRITTAIN

BERT STEWARD

T. E. LAWRENCE

WINSTON CHURCHILL

ARNOLD BENNETT

W. H. FERGUSON

GEORGE ORWELL

PHIL PIRATIN

ROY CHADWICK

SIR HENRY CHANNON

HILDE MARCHANT

CAPTAIN RICHARD AUSTIN, BEF

WINSTON CHURCHILL, PRIME MINISTER

RICHARD HILLARY RAF

DESMOND FLOWER

CECIL BROWN

GENERAL FRITZ BAYERLEIN, AFRIKA KORPS

WING COMMANDER GUY GIBSON RAF

AGNES NEWTON KEITH

JAMES BYROM, PARACHUTE MEDICAL SERVICE

SERGEANT G. E. HUGHES, ROYAL HAMPSHIRE REGIMENT

LIONEL KING

MOLLIE PANTER-DOWNES

VINCE REID

ANTHONY FARRAR-HOCKLEY

EDMUND HILLARY

JOAN REEDER

ANONYMOUS

KENNETH TYNAN

BRIAN EPSTEIN

RONNIE KRAY

DAVID MILLER

DICK POUNTAIN AND MICK FARREN

JOHN LYDON AND PAUL COOK

FRANK KEATING

MARGARET THATCHER

ANONYMOUS SAS TROOPER

MAX HASTINGS

NORMAN TEBBIT

PETER JENKINS, THE GUARDIAN

ALAN CLARK MP

JOHN NICHOL RAF

JONATHAN FREEDLAND

JONNY WILKINSON

ALICE OKEEFE, LIAM VAUGHAN

ED SMITH

Spellings in the quoted extracts are reproduced as in the original texts.

This is a history of England by her subjects. Her autobiography.

There is something about England. The verdant southern part of a small island off the coast of Europe, England was with apologies to the essentially colonized Wales, Scotland and Ireland the birthplace of parliamentary democracy, the engine of the Industrial Revolution, the hub of the greatest empire the world has seen, and the last-ditch stand against an expansionist Germany in two world wars. England, to put it plainly, was the making of the modern world.

The Victorian adventurer and statesman Cecil Rhodes once informed an audience of schoolboys, Remember that you are Englishmen, and have therefore won first prize in the lottery of life. Hyperbole, yes but also a truism: to have been born and lived in England, not just in times modern but in times medieval and even times Dark, has invariably been a better lot freer, more stable, more plentiful than to have been the subject of another realm.

Certainly, a more colourful lot: Henry VIIIs six wives (and their fates), Oates at the South Pole, the Dambusters, the Armada, the Peasants Revolt, the Battle of Agincourt, the Great Fire of London, the Gunpowder Plot, the Sex Pistols