Proiect la engleza - Anglia

I INTRODUCTION England (Latin Anglia), political division of the island of Great Britain, the principal division of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. England occupies all of the island east of Wales and south of Scotland, other divisions of the island of Great Britain. Established as an independent monarchy many centuries ago, England in time achieved political control over the rest of the island, all the British Isles, and vast sections of the world, becoming the nucleus of one of the greatest empires in history. The capital, largest city, and chief port of England is London, with a population in 1996 of 7 million. It is also the capital of the United Kingdom and the site of the heaof the Commonwealth of Nations.

England is somewhat triangular in shape, with its apex at the mouth of the Tweed River. The eastern leg, bounded by the North Sea, extends generally southeast to the North Foreland, the northern extremity of the region called the Downs. The western leg of the triangle extends generally southwest from the mouth of the Tweed along the boundary with Scotland, the Irish Sea, St. George’s Channel, and the Atlantic Ocean to Land’s End, the westernmost extremity of England and of the island. The northern frontier extends from Solway Firth on the west along the Cheviot Hills to the mouth of the Tweed on the east. The base of the triangle fronts the English Channel and the Strait of Dover. The total area of England is 130,410 sq km (50,350 sq mi), 57 percent of the area of the island. This total, apprthe size of the state of North Carolina, includes the region of the Isles of Scilly, southwest of Land’s End in the Atlantic Ocean; the Isle of Wight, located off the southern coast; and the Isle of Man, located in the Irish Sea.

II THE LAND One of the principal physiographic features of England, as well as of the entire island of Great Britain, is the deeply indented coast. Most of the indentations are excellent natural harbors, easily accessible to deepwater shipping, a factor that has been decisive in the economic development and imperial expansion of England. By virtue of the high tides that prevail along the eastern coast, a number of rivers and their estuaries provide this region with safe anchorages. The most important of these belong to such ports as Newcastle upon Tyne, on the Tyne River; Middlesbrough, on the Tees River; Hull, on the Humber River; Great Yarmouth, on the estuary of the Yare River; and London, on the Thames River. The most important harbors on the southern coast include those of Dover, Hastings, Eastbourne, Brighton, Portsmouth, Bournemouth, and Plymouth. The western coast, considerably more broken than either the eastern or southern coast, also has numerous anchorages. Of outstanding commercial importance are the harbor of Bristol, at the confluence of Bristol Channel and the Severn River; and Liverpool Harbor, at the mouth of the Mersey River.

The terrain of England is diversified. The northern and western portions are generally mountainous. The principal highland region, the Pennine Chain (or Pennines), forms the backbone of northern England. It is composed of several ranges extending south from the Cheviot Hills to the valley of the Trent River and numerous spurs and extensions that radiate in all directions. The extreme elevation of the Pennine Chain and the highest summit in England is Scafell Pike (978 m/3,209 above sea level). A large portion of the area occupied by the Pennine Chain comprises the Lake District, one of the most picturesque regions in England. The terrain east of Wales and between the southern extremities of the Pennine Chain and Bristol Channel is an extension of the rolling plain that occupies most of central and eastern England. Much of the western part of this central region is known as the Midlands; it contains an area that is known as the Black Country because of its intensive industrial development. To the east lies The Fens, a vast drained marsh area. To the south of Bristol Channel an elevated plateau slopes upward, culminating in the barren uplands and moors of Cornwall and Devon. Dartmoor (about 600 m/about 2000 above sea level), one of the wildest tracts in England, is situated in this region. Successive ranges of chalk hills, seen from the English Channel as white cliffs, project eastward from Devon to the Strait of Dover.

A Climate As a result of the relative warmth of the nearby seas, England has a moderate climate, rarely marked by extremes of heat or cold. The mean annual temperature ranges between 11° C (52° F) in the south and 9° C (48° F) in the northeast. Seasonal temperatures vary between a mean of about 16° C (61° F) during July, the hottest month of the year, and 4° C (40° F) during January, the coldest month. The average January and July temperatures for the city of London are 4° C (40° F) and 18° C (64° F), respectively. Fogs, mists, and overcast skies are frequent, particularly in the Pennine and inland regions. Precipitation, heaviest during October, averages about 760 mm (about 30 in) annually in most of England.

B Natural Resources England has some agricultural and mineral resources but must rely on imports of both. Apprtwo-fiof the land area is arable, with the richest soils found in the east. Substantial reserves of iron ore are concentrated in Cumbria, Staffordshire, and Lancashire. Waterpower resources are small and mostly concentrated in the highlands of Cumbria, in northern England.

C Plants and Animals In early times, England, like most of the island of Great Britain, was heavily forested, chiefly with oak and beech in the lowlands and pine and birch in the mountainous areas. Woodlands now constitute about 8 percent of the total land area. Various types of fruit trees are cultivated, including the cherry, apple, and plum. A common shrub is a species of furze known locally as gorse. Numerous varieties of wildflowers are also found.

Among the chief indigenous fauna of England are several species of deer, frabbit, hare, and badger. The most widespread bird is the meadow pipit, and sparrows are abundant. Grouse are found in the northern counties. Other familiar species are the crow, pigeon, rook, starling, and several members of the thrush family. Reptiles, of which only four species occur on the entire island of Great Britain, are rare in England. The most common freshwater fishes found in England are trout and salmon.

III POPULATION The great majority of the people of England, like those of the British Isles in general, are descended from early Celtic and Iberian peoples and later invaders of the islands, including the Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Danes, and Normans. Asubstantial numbers of blacks and Asians immigrated into the country. England, once a nation of small rural villages, has become highly urban since the early 19th century. For information on language and literature, see English Language; English Literature.

A Population Characteristics The population of England (1996) was 49,089,000. The overall population density of about 376 persons per sq km (about 975 per sq mi) was one of the highest in the world.

B Political Divisions For local governmental purposes, England is divided into 34 counties, 46 unitary authorities, and Greater London (established in 1965 as a separate administrative entity). The counties are subdivided into districts, which together are further divided into parishes. Each level of local government is presided over by a council, the members of which are elected to four-year terms. In districts that have the title of city or borough, the chairperson of the council is the mayor. The present counties and former counties of England are described in separate articles.

C Principal Cities ALondon, Birmingham, population (1995) 1,017,500, is the second largest city and is the center of an extensive industrial area that contains major concentrations of the automotive and other industries. Liverpool (470,800) is the second largest port and a major cargo export outlet for Britain; it is also a great commercial and industrial center. Manchester (432,600) is the chief commercial hub of the cotton and synthetic-fiber textile industries, as well as an important financial and commercial center and a major port. Among other important cities are Sheffield (528,500), the heavy engineering center famous for its high-quality steels, cutlery, and tools, and Bristol (400,700), a leading port and commercial center.

D Religion The Church of England, a Protestant Episcopal denomination, is the state church and the nominal church of nearly three-fiof the population. The denomination next in importance is the Roman Catholic church, which has about 6 million members in England. Among the numerous Protestant denominations are the Methodist, Baptist, Congregationalist, Unitarian, and Society of Friends. England also has thousands of Muslims and Jews. Large communities of Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs have immigrated to England since the 1950s.

E Education For the development and administration of the educational system, see United Kingdom. In England and Wales school attendance is compulsory between the ages of 5 and 16. About 90 percent of the elementary and secondary schools are organized and maintained by local education authorities and supported entirely by public funds; the remainder are voluntary schools, provided and maintained by a private body, usually of a religious denomination.

E1 Elementary and Secondary Schools In the mid-1980s about 7.7 million pupils were attending publicly maintained schools in England and Wales. Enrollment in independent schools was about 512,000; these private schools are referred to in England as "public" schools. The transfer from elementary to secondary school generally takes place at the age of 11.

E2 Specialized Schools Children with conditions such as blindness, deafness, mental retardation, or other disabilities are given special aid in ordinary schools or attend one of the day or boarding schools established for such children. In the mid-1980s these special schools numbered nearly 1500 in England alone.

E3 Universities and Colleges In the mid-1980s some 500 institutions provided part-time or full-time education beyond the secondary level (called "further education") for students who do not go to a university. These schools included colleges, polytechnics, and institutes of agriculture, art, commerce, and science. Colleges of education numbered about 60.

Of the 34 traditional degree-granting universities in England, all except and Cambridge (see Cambridge, University of; University of) were founded in the 19th and 20th centuries, many of them since World War II (1939-In the mid-1980s full-time university students totaled more than 290,000 annually.

F Culture Little is known of the earliest inhabitants of England. The megaliths at Stonehenge and a prehistoric temple found at Stanton Drew in 1997 attest to the early presence of an able people, as do early historical and archaeological reports, but the first lasting influence on English culture was contributed by the Celts. Roads and ruins bear witness to the Roman occupation, which began with the invasion of Julius Caesar in 55 BC and extended until the 5th century AD. Christianity was introduced by Roman soldiers but made little headway with the populace, and its spread awaited the arrival of Saint Augustine, first archbishop of Canterbury, in the 6th century.

Following the Roman departure, the Saxons became dominant. A record of their era is provided by the annals known as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and by the writings of Saint Bede the Venerable, the theologian and historian. The Norman Conquest in 1066 overthrew the Saxon dominance and, in its mixing of elements from the Saxon and Celtic past with the Norman, created a new culture. The Normans introduced feudalism and the French language to the upper classes. From the 11th to the 14th century French was used at court and in vernacular literature; Latin was used in scholarly literature.

A major task for William the Conqueror and his successors was the amalgamation of Norman and Saxon and their common defense against warlike factions in Scotland, Wales, and Scandinavia. A stable social order directed toward these goals evolved slowly; elements of it still persist today. For example, both the strong class system of the English and their hereditary peerage have their roots in the Norman period.

The decline of feudalism, starting late in the 14th century, led in England as elsewhere to the rise of cities and the development of a middle class. By the 14th century a national secular culture was beginning to emerge, and the English language (an amalgam of Anglo-Saxon and Norman-French elements) was being adopted by the educated. The English, however, had unique limitations caused by the size of their island and the limited type and amount of resources found there. To fill their needs they developed into a nation of traders and mariners. The exploits of Sir Francis Drake and the defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588) led to commercial advantage as much as to naval victories. Supremacy at sea not only gained England an empire but put the English in touch with peoples the world over. Wealth flowed back to the island in consequence, and so did ideas that enriched the traditions of England. Limited local workforces contributed to the invention of machines and to the earliest manifestations of what became known as the Industrial Revolution.

Among the prime traditions of the English are a fierce pride in their freedom, a unity against adversity, and an ability to bring differing factions together in compromise. Pride in being English is also a national trait, although the English show considerable diversity in habits, manners, and even in speech. Queen's Birthday, observed on the second Saturday in June, is an important day of celebration in England. The sports most favored are cricket, rugby football, association football (soccer), and tennis. Both dog and horse racing are also popular.

F1 Libraries and Museums More than 500 public library authorities administer some 40,000 branch libraries throughout Britain. Among the libraries in London are the British Library, the various divisions of which constitute the largest library in Britain; the University of London Central Library; the Science Museum Library; and the Public Record Office Library, which contains the National Archives. Many cities and towns have museums of art, natural history, and archaeology. The best-known and largest museum is the British Museum in London, which contains collections of art and archaeological specimens from all over the world. Other outstanding museums in London are the Tate Gallery, the National Gallery, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

F2 Art and Archaeology See United Kingdom

F3 Music See Music, Western.

F4 Literature See English Literature.

G English Law English law originated in the customs of the Anglo-Saxons and of the Normans who conquered England in 1066. The Norman kings established a strong, centralized system for the administration of justice, and the royal courts developed a complex system of rules based on custom. Clashes between the power of the monarch and competing interests, the feudal barons in early times and later Parliament, produced basic legal documents that have had tremendous influence on the whole English-speaking world. The most famous of these documents is the Magna Carta, signed in 1215; scarcely less important is the Bill of Rights of 1689. The principles that an individual should be convicted only by judgment of that individual's peers, that personal liberty should not be infringed or personal property taken without due process of law, and that a citizen should be guarded against unreasonable searches and seizures were all first articulated in these fundamental pronouncements of English law and in their elaboration in decisions by English judges. In this sense English law is judge-made law and, although statutes are continually passed by Parliament, the general principles of the law are still found in the decisions of the courts rather than the statutes. Such a system is made possible by the doctrine of binding precedent, by which a lower court must follow the rules and principles articulated by the superior, appellate courts. See also Common Law; English Constitution.

H Economy and Government See United Kingdom.

IV HISTORY The history of England begins with the Anglo-Saxons, who invaded Great Britain about AD 449. They displaced the previous occupants from the southeastern part of the island and called it Angle-land, or England. Previously, the island, like Europe, was home for a succession of peoples dating from the beginnings of the Old Stone Age.

A Ancient Britain The Ice Age, during which Neandertals and then Cro-Magnons inhabited Great Britain, ended about 8000 BC. The rising sea level produced the English Channel and made Great Britain an island. In the new environment of forest and swamp the Middle Stone Age came and passed, followed by the New Stone Age, during which the practice of agriculture was begun. This period brought a stream of new people to Britain. By 3000 BC the Iberians, or Long Skulls, were farming the chalk soil of southern England, and by 2500 BC the pastoral Beaker folk had established themselves. The latter, named for their characteristic pottery, are noted for their bronze tools and their huge stone monuments, especially Stonehenge. These monuments attest to their social and economic organization as well as their technical skill and intellectual ability.

In the 1st millennium BC the Celts overran the British Isles, as they did virtually all of western Europe. With iron plows they cultivated the heavy soil of the river valleys; with iron weapons and two-wheeled, horse-drawn chariots, they subdued and absorbed the indigenous inhabitants of the islands. Their priests, the Druids, dominated their society.

A1 Roman Rule Although it had long been known to the Mediterranean peoples as a source of tin, Britain did not enter the Roman world until Julius Caesar's arrival in 55 BC—a sort of ato his conquest of Gaul. Caesar's contact, however, was temporary; permanent occupation had to wait until Rome had solved more pressing problems at home.

Emperor Claudius I invaded Britain in force in AD 43, but nearly two decades passed before the Romans had captured Anglesey, heaof the feared Druids (see Druidism), and put down the revolt of Boudicca, queen of the Iceni. The Roman governor Gnaeus Julius Agricola won the Battle of Mons Graupius (AD 84), somewhere in Scotland, but the northern tribes proved hard to subdue. In 123, Hadrian's Wall, stretching 117 km (73 mi) from Solway Firth to the Tyne River, became the northern frontier.

Britain was a military outpost, taking a tenth of the Roman army to hold it. Several towns attained a degree of Roman urban civilization, boasting baths and amphitheaters. Numerous villas—vast estates worked by slaves and featuring sumptuous noble dwellings—were also established. Beyond these, the countryside remained Celtic. See also Britons.

A2 Roman Withdrawal Britain in the 3rd and 4th centuries felt the decline of the Roman Empire. An official known as the count of the Saxon Shore oversaw defenses against raids by Saxons and others along the North Sea coast. Would-be emperors stripped Britain of its occupying forces, moving the legions elsewhere to serve their own political ambitions. In 410 Rome abandoned Britain. Anearly four centuries of occupation, it lelittle that was permanent: a superb network of roads, the best Britain would have for 1400 years; the sites of a number of towns—London, York, and others bearing names that end in the suffix -cester and -caster; and Christianity. The Anglo-Saxons, who occupied the country athe Romans leignored the towns, chased Christianity into Wales, and gave their own names, such as Watling Street, to the Roman roads.

B Anglo-Saxon England Fragmentary knowledge of England in the 5th and 6th centuries comes from the British writer Gildas (6th century), the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (a history of the English people begun in the 9th century), saints' lives, poetry, archaeological findings, and place-name studies. In the absence of Roman administrators, British warlords, nominally Christian, ruled small, unstable kingdoms and continued some Roman traditions of governance. In the mid-5th century, they revived the Roman policy of hiring Germanic mercenaries to help defend them against warlike peoples of the north (Picts and Scots). The Saxon mercenaries revolted against their British chiefs and began the process of invasion and settlement that destroyed the native ruling class and established Germanic kingdoms throughout the island by the 7th century. Later legends about a hero named Arthur were placed in this period of violence. The invaders were variously Angles, Saxons, Frisians, Jutes, and Franks in origin, but were similar in culture and eventually identified themselves indifferently as Angles or Saxons. Any man of noble birth and success in war could organize an army of warriors loyal to him personally and attempt to conquer and establish a kingdom.

By the 7th century the Germanic kingdoms included Northumbria, Bernicia, Deira, Lindsay, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Wessex, Sussex, and Kent. They were turbulent states, but all Anglo-Saxon societies were characterized by strong kinship groups, feuds, customary law, and a system of money compensations (wergeld) for death, personal injury, and theThey practiced their traditional polytheistic religions, lacked written language, and depended on mixed economies of agriculture, hunting, and animal husbandry.

B1 Reintroduction of Christianity The dominant themes of the next two centuries were the success of Christianity and the political unification of England. Christianity came from two directions—Rome and Ireland. In 596 Pope Gregory I sent a group of missionaries under a monk named Augustine to Kent, where King Ethelbert had married Bertha, a Christian Frankish princess. Soon aEthelbert was baptized, Augustine became the first archbishop of Canterbury, and the southern kingdoms became Christian.

In Northumbria the Christianity from Rome met Celtic Christianity, which had been brought from Ireland to Scotland by Saint Columba and then to Northumbria by Saint Aidan, who founded the monastery of Lindisfarne in 635. Although not heretical, the Celtic church differed from Rome in the way the monks tonsured their heads, in its reckoning of the date of Easter, and, most important, in its organization, which reflected the clans of Ireland rather than the highly centralized Roman Empire. At the Synod of Whitby in 664, Northumbria's King Oswy chose to go with Rome, giving England a common religion and a vivid example of unification. Theodore of Tarsus, who became archbishop of Canterbury in 668, created dioceses and gave the English church its basic structure.

The meeting in Northumbria of Celtic and Mediterranean scholarship produced a flowering of letters unequaled in western Europe. The Venerable Bede, a Northumbrian monk, was the outstanding European scholar of his age. His Ecclesiastical History of the English People made popular the use of BC and AD to date historical events. It also treated England as a unit, even while it was still divided among several kingdoms. Charlemagne chose Alcuin of York, another Northumbrian, to head his palace school.

B2 The Process of Unification The Germanic kingdoms tended to coalesce by means of warfare. As early as the time of Ethelbert of Kent, one king could be recognized as Bretwalda, or ruler of Britain. Generally speaking, the title fell in the 7th century to the kings of Northumbria, in the 8th to those of Mercia, and finally, in the 9th, to Egbert of Wessex, who in 825 defeated the Mercians at Ellendun. In the next century his family came to rule all England.

B2a King Alfred and the Danes Egbert's grandson, Alfred, became king of Wessex in one of England's darkest hours. The Danes, part of the Viking forces that had begun to raid the English coasts in the late 8th century, had given up their primary goal of plunder and were now set on conquering England. Wessex and Alfred were all that stood in their way. Alfred at first had to buy a respite, but ahis victory at Edington in 878 he forced the Danish king Guthrum to accept baptism and a division of England into two parts, Wessex and what historians later called the Danelaw (Essex, East Anglia, and Northumbria). By creating an English navy, by reorganizing the Anglo-Saxon fyrd, or militia, allowing his warriors to alternate between farming and fighting, and by building strategic forts, Alfred captured London and began to roll back the Danish tide.

B2b Alfred's Legacy Alfred also gave his attention to good government, issuing a set of dooms, or laws, and to scholarship, which had declined in the years since Bede and Alcuin. He promoted, and assisted in, the translation of Latin works into Old English and encouraged the compilation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. For his many accomplishments, Alfred was called The Great, the only English king so acclaimed.

The conquest of the Danelaw was completed by Alfred's son, Edward the Elder, and by his grandson Athelstan, who won a great victory at Brunanburh in 937. Most of the remainder of the century was peaceful. In this atmosphere, Saint Dunstan, archbishop of Canterbury from 960 to 988, was able to restore the English church to health and prosperity.

B3 The United Kingdom The conquest of the Danelaw meant the creation of a unified government for all England and the evolution of the territorial state, which was replacing the kinship structure of earlier times. The king ruled with the assistance of the witenagemot, a council of wise men who participated in the issuing of dooms and oversaw the selection of kings. About 40 shires (counties) were created out of former kingdoms or from significant military or administrative units. Each had a shiremoot, or court, consisting of all free males and meeting twice a year, at first presided over by a royal official called an alderman (later an earl) and then by a shire reeve, or sheriff. Smaller administrative, tax, and military units, called hundreds, had courts roughly parallel to the older folk moots, which met every four weeks, handling most of the ordinary judicial business. England had the most advanced government in western Europe, especially at the local level and in the office of sheriff, the key link between the king and local administration. A991 this government proved capable of collecting the Danegeld, a tax on land, initially used as tribute to the Danes but later as an ordinary source of royal revenue. No other country in western Europe had the ability to assess and collect such a tax.

B4 The End of Anglo-Saxon Rule A new round of Danish invasions came in the reign of Ethelred II. Ocalled the Redeless (meaning "unready," or "without counsel" or "unwise"), the Danegeld was his idea, as was the attempt to kill all the Danes from previous invasions, who were by this time becoming assimilated. In 1014 he was driven from the throne by King Sweyn I of Denmark, only to return a few months later when Sweyn died. When Ethelred died in 1016, Sweyn's son Canute II won out over Edmund II, called Ironside, the son of Ethelred. Under Canute, England was part of an empire that also included Denmark and Norway.

Following the short and unpopular reigns of Canute's sons, Harold I (Harefoot) and Hardecanute, Edward the Confessor, another son of Ethelred, was recalled from Normandy (Normandie), where he had lived in exile. Edward's reign is noted for its dominance by the powerful earls of Wessex—Godwin, and then his son, Harold (subsequently Harold II)—and for the first influx of Norman-French influence. Edward was most interested in the building of Westminster Abbey, which was completed just in time for his burial in January 1066.

Edward's death without an heir lethe succession in doubt. The witenagemot chose Harold, Earl of Wessex, although his only claim to the throne was his availability. Other aspirants were King Harold III (the Hard Ruler) of Norway and Duke William of Normandy. Harold II defeated the former at Stamford Bridge on September 25, 1066, but lost to William at Hastings on October 14. William was crowned in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day.

C England Under the Norman and Plantagenet Kings The year 1066 was a turning point in English history. William I, the Conqueror, and his sons gave England vigorous new leadership. Norman feudalism became the basis for redistributing the land among the conquerors, giving England a new French aristocracy and a new social and political structure. England turned away from Scandinavia toward France, an orientation that was to last for 400 years.

William was a hard ruler, punishing England, especially the north, when it disputed his authority. His power and efficiency can be seen in the Domesday Survey, a census for tax purposes, and in the Salisbury Oath of allegiance, which he demanded of all tenants. He appointed Lanfranc, an Italian clergyman, as archbishop of Canterbury. He also promoted church reform, especially by the creation of separate church courts, but retained royal control.

When William died in 1087, he gave England to his second son, William II (Rufus), and Normandy to his eldest son, Robert. Henry, his third son, in due time got both—England in 1100, when William II died in a hunting accident, and Normandy in 1106 by conquest. Henry I used his feudal court and household to organize the government. The exchequer (the royal treasury) was established at this time.

Henry wanted his daughter, Matilda, to succeed him, but in 1135 his nephew, Stephen of Blois, seized the throne. The years from 1135 to 1154 were marked by civil war and strife. The royal government Henry had built fell apart, and the feudal barons asserted their independence. The church, playing one side against the other, extended its authority.

C1 Henry II Matilda's son, Henry Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, succeeded, as Henry II, in 1154 (see Plantagenet). The Angevins, especially Henry II and his sons, Richard and John, expanded royal authority. Henry ended the anarchy of Stephen's reign, banishing mercenaries and destroying private castles. He strengthened the government created by Henry I. Most important, he developed the common law, administered by royal courts and applicable to all of England. It encroached on the feudal courts' jurisdiction over land and created the grand jury. Its success demonstrated its efficiency and the growing power of the king.

Henry attempted to reduce the jurisdiction of church courts, especially over clergy accused of crimes, but was opposed by Thomas r Becket, his former chancellor, whom he had made archbishop of Canterbury. His anger at Becket's intransigence led ultimately to Becket's martyrdom in 1170.

Henry's empire included more than half of France and lordship over Ireland and Scotland. His skill at governing, however, did not include the ability to placate his sons, who rebelled against him several times, backed by the kings of France and by their mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine.

C2 Richard and John Richard I, the Lion-Hearted, was in England only briefly. He was busy fighting in the Crusades and later for the land lost in France during his absence, especially while he was a captive in Germany. Even during Richard's absence, however, the government built by Henry II continued to function, collecting taxes to support his wars and to pay his ransom.

John, who inherited the resentment against Angevin rule aroused by his father and brother, added to his troubles by his own excesses. In 1204 he lost Normandy. In 1213, aa long fight with Pope Innocent III over the naming of Stephen Langton as archbishop of Canterbury, John capitulated and acknowledged England to be a papal fief. All this precipitated a quarrel with his barons over his general highhandedness and their refusal to follow him into war in Normandy. The barons, led by Lang