Revision notes

History

Battle of hastings - 1066:
. Edward died with no heir
. Three people claimed they were worthy to be king - Harold Godwinson, Harald Hardrada and William of Normandy
. There was actually a fourth claim - the Earl of Essex - but he was too young to rule
. Only Harold Godwinson was in England at the time of Edward's death, so he was crowned king the very next day
. When William and Harald found out, they were not happy and immediately started planning an attack
. Harold Godwinson set his soldiers marching out - half on the south coast and half on the north
. William was meant to be the first to attack but the wind wasn't strong enough and so, ships wouldn't sail
. Harald Hardrada was first to attack from the north coast
. It was a vicious battle - I'll spare you the details - but Harold Godwinson won
. Then, they celebrated... for a bit too long
. The wind began to pick up again and William set off
. Harold Godwinson and his exhausted men marched 2000 miles to the battlefield
. The battle only lasted for a day, but here are some of the highlights:1.When William's army thought he was dead, he rode out, waving a flag and shouting that "god was on his side".
2. The battle ended when Harold Godwinson was shot in the eye - ouch!
.Did I mention that William was already king of France? Anyway, after that, William became king. Some people didn't like it but they couldn't really do anything without getting their heads chopped off! He also kept a doomsday book. And that kids, is how taxes were invented!
The Spanish armada - 1588:
. England and Spain were the most powerful countries in Europe at the time - keep this in mind
. Elizabeth I was queen at the time
. She refused to marry King Phillip of Spain (cos she don't need no man)
. This made him angry because if he married her, he would be the most powerful person in Europe. However, he didn't do anything... yet
. Then some guy traveled round the world in 80ish days and in the process of doing so, did an oopsie in Spain
. Instead of beheading or at least punishing him, Elizabeth I rewarded him. This was unfortunately the last straw for Phillp, and he started planning an attack
. Elizabeth I also got her 'troops' ready and they were soon sailing on the sea
. Something to keep in mind at this point was that Spain had way more ships and soldiers than Britain, so they would've probably succeeded if what happened hadn't happened.
. So it took about five days to get to where the Spanish were, and then the battle began
. The battle took about 5ish days. The English were doing quite well, as the Spanish had terrible weapons - the cannons were really slow, which gave the English tons of time to get away
. On day five, the Spanish were running low on soldiers, so they decided to pick up some more (spoiler: here's where it gets interesting!)
. The Spanish couldn't go back the mai route - the English were there and they might try to attack again
. So instead, they went a different way (foreshadowing: this was a BIG mistake)
. What they didn't know was that there was a HUGE storm coming. That storm wiped them out. (Dumb ways to die theme tune plays)
Charles I - 1548:
. This is only the trial & execution bit so if you don't know what happened beforehand, he basically rebelled against his own country but because he was a king, there was a problem with deciding his punishment
. Oliver Cromwell took over parliament and kicked out all the MPs who didn't want to put him on trial
. They did give him a second chance but he started another war so, yeah
. At the trial, he refused to speak, saying they had no right to do this
. The judge sent him out and they continued the trial without him.
They then listened to evidence for four days and decided he was guilty
. The execution date was set for January 30th, 1549. (What a lovely day to die!)
. In the days leading up to the execution, Charles tried to make a new law that meant you couldn't kill your king. Parliament stopped him though
. Execution day dawned, bright and early. He was to be beheaded
. Thousands of people attended the execution, partly because it was a popular form of entertainment, and partly because a monarch (or any type of leader) had never been executed before
. As the axe struck through his head, someone groaned