KING
BIOGRAPHY
Contributed by: Dennis P. Arntzen
ENGLAND is a part of the United Kingdom - also called Britain - that includes the once seperate border nations of Wales and Scotland on the main island. It also includes part of the seperate island of Ireland called Northern Ireland. England makes up about 54 percent of the United Kingdom. It has 1,150 miles of coastline and is only 360 miles long from north to south and 330 miles wide. It has a relatively low landscape with its highest elevation, Scafell Pike, at 3,210 feet.
RAIN falls year round. Due to the effects of ocean currents, temperatures rarely go below freezing. Nor do temperatures rise much higher than 68 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer. A special feature of the English landscape is its wetlands. These low-lying, swampy areas form peat bogs. The bogs are formed when mires fill in with plants. The plants gradually collapse into a thick layer. As these seasonal plant layers grow every year, they eventually lose contact with the water in the mires and must depend on rainfall for moisture. This causes the plant layers underneath to become acidic, making it impossible for trees to grow. What grows instead is moss. And the peat that is formed in the bog is used as a traditional fuel source.
ABOUT 5,000 years ago, its climate encouraged humans to cross the English Channel from France to farm the island. Starting about 700 B.C., the Celts crossed the Channel and became the ancestors of the Highland Scots, the Irish, and the Welsh. The Celts were also farmers who cleared a great deal of land. Before the arrival of the Romans, the inhabitants of the island called themselves Britons. In 55 B.C., the Roman Empire conquered Pretani (which was pronounced locally as Britannia) and ruled it for 460 years.
DURING the Roman occupation of the island, the Germanic tribes of Angles and Saxons along with the Jutes from Denmark crossed the Channel and settled among the inhabitants. They came to be called by the single name Anglish. The name England, then, came from "Angle-land." The true England did not start until the various Anglo-Saxon tribes began to speak one language and developed one culture from it.
THE term "English" is generally used only for the people who lived on the island after the Roman Empire abandoned it. However, that term cannot be used for all the residents of the British Isles. The people from the nations that border England speak Scottish, Welsh, or Irish. They all have their own elected Parliaments. But the one thing that they have in common is that they are from the mixture of the Anglo-Saxon, Celts, Roman, and Viking cultures from many different European countries.
ABOUT 840 A.D., the Vikings of Norway and Denmark began to capture land and destroy villages and monasteries. They took possession of most of central England. In 1013, the Viking King Canute of Denmark subjugated all of England. That rule ended in 1042, which is considered the end of the Viking period.
THE final time England was invaded was the year 1066, in an event called the Norman Conquest. The Normans (Norsemen) were from Normandy, France. After their triumph over Harold Godwin, Duke William the Conqueror was crowned King of England. William was a direct descendent of the Viking chieftain Rollo.
THE sea played a major role in English life and history. By ship, the English explored the world for its wealth. The mouth of the Thames was, for several centuries, one of the busiest estuaries in the world. Ships by the thousands left the London docks carrying goods to world nations and returning with raw materials for British factories. They inherited their traits from their cultural mixture, their seamanship skills from the Vikings and their recorded history from the Roman Empire. This combined heritage became the path that Englishmen used to sail away from a small island to build their homeland into the wealthiest nation on Earth.
IMMIGRATION to the New World started with the Puritans who were seeking freedom from religious persecution. Religion played an important role in the establishment of early colonial communitites, which were based on the Protestant ethic advocating hard work and the deferment of pleasure. Beyond those freedoms, the search for a good life was a big attraction. The Virginia colony was settled by Englishmen who came to buy land, raise tobacco, and generally lead comfortable lives, something they would find difficult in England. A major difference between the English and the Americans was that in North America, a person's value was measured in terms of what he or she could do. But in England, social rank or position was a major factor in the ways a person's status was judged. For many Englishmen, emigration meant opportunity. A person's past could be forgotten or conveniently rewritten.
JAMES is the first generation of this English family. At the age of 12, he stowed away on a ship bound for Canada. Later, his father, Walter, emigrated to the United States. The rest of this family's stories and lineage will be told by the individual members listed below.
SOURCES:
(1) Jean F. Blashfield. "England - Enchantment of the World". Grolier Publishing. 1997.
(2) Maree Lister and Marti Sevier. "Countries of the World - England". Gareth Stevens Publishing. 1998.
FIRST NAME INDEX
(B) = BIOGRAPHY INCLUDED
(P) = PICTURES INCLUDED
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