"the grandest churches in Europe. Winchester had previously been the capital of Anglo-Saxon England, but from this time on, London became the main forum for foreign traders and the base for defence in time of war. In the view of Frank Stenton: ""It had the resources, and it was rapidly developing the dignity and the political self-consciousness appropriate to a national capital."" The size and importance of London led to the redevelopment of the city's defences. During the early medieval period – following the Norman Conquest of England – the walls underwent substantial work that included crenellations, additional gates and"
"Kingdom of England The Kingdom of England (Anglo-Norman and French: Royaume d'Angleterre) was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from 927, when it emerged from various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms until 1707, when it united with Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. In 927, the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were united by Æthelstan (r. 927–939). In 1016, the kingdom became part of the North Sea Empire of Cnut the Great, a personal union between England, Denmark and Norway. The Norman conquest of England in 1066 led to the transfer of the English capital city and chief royal residence from"
"himself ""King of England"" in 886; but Athelstan of Wessex did not officially control the whole of England until 927. By the Norman conquest, London had overtaken Winchester as the largest city in England and after the Norman Conquest, King William I made London his capital. While the centre of political power moved away from Hampshire, Winchester remained an important city; the proximity of the New Forest to Winchester made it a prized royal hunting forest; King William Rufus was killed while hunting there in 1100. The county was recorded in the Domesday Book divided into 44 hundreds. From the"
"London London ( ) is the capital and largest city of the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in southeastern England, upstream from its estuary with the North Sea, London has been a major settlement for two millennia. ""Londinium"" was founded by the Romans. The City of London, London's ancient core − an area of just and colloquially known as the Square Mile − retains its medieval boundaries. The City of Westminster is also an Inner London borough holding city status. Greater London is governed by the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. London is often considered as"
"London London ( ) is the capital and largest city of the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in southeastern England, upstream from its estuary with the North Sea, London has been a major settlement for two millennia. ""Londinium"" was founded by the Romans. The City of London, London's ancient core − an area of just and colloquially known as the Square Mile − retains its medieval boundaries. The City of Westminster is also an Inner London borough holding city status. Greater London is governed by the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. London is often considered as"
"parliamentary system of government has been widely adopted by other nations. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the world's first industrialised nation. England's terrain is chiefly low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there is upland and mountainous terrain in the north (for example, the Lake District and Pennines) and in the west (for example, Dartmoor and the Shropshire Hills). The capital is London, which has the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. England's population of over 55 million comprises 84% of the population of"
"History of Colchester Colchester is a historic town located in Essex, England. It served as the first capital of Roman Britain and is oldest recorded town in Britain. The gravel hill upon which Colchester is built was formed in the Middle Pleistocene period, and was shaped into a terrace between the Anglian glaciation and the Ipswichian glaciation by an ancient precursor to the River Colne. From these deposits beneath the town have been found Palaeolithic flint tools, including at least six Acheulian handaxes. Further flint tools made by hunter gatherers living in the Colne Valley during the Mesolithic have been"
"East Anglia, to the south by the River Thames and Kent, to the east lay the North Sea and to the west Mercia. The territory included the remains of two provincial Roman capitals, Colchester and London. The early kingdom included the land of the Middle Saxons, later Middlesex, most if not all of Hertfordshire and may at times have included Surrey. For a brief period in the 8th century, the Kingdom of Essex controlled what is now Kent. The modern English county of Essex maintains the historic northern and the southern borders, but only covers the territory east of the"
"History of London The history of London, the capital city of England and the United Kingdom, extends over 2000 years. In that time, it has become one of the world's most significant financial and cultural capital cities. It has withstood plague, devastating fire, civil war, aerial bombardment, terrorist attacks, and riots. The City of London, often referred to simply as ""the City"", is the historic core of the Greater London area, and is today its primary financial district, though it represents only a small part of the wider metropolis. According to the legendary ""Historia Regum Britanniae"", by Geoffrey of Monmouth,"
"as Roman colonies, such as Cologne, Germany, originally called ""Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium"" by the Romans, and the British capital city of London, which the Romans founded as ""Londinium"". The decline and collapse of the Roman Empire saw (and was partly caused by) the large-scale movement of people in Eastern Europe and Asia. This is largely seen as beginning with nomadic horsemen from Asia (specifically the Huns) moving into the richer pasture land to the west, thus forcing the local peoples there to move further west and so on until eventually the Goths were forced to cross into the Roman"
"Corieltauvi The Corieltauvi (formerly thought to be called the Coritani, and sometimes referred to as the Corieltavi) were a tribe of people living in Britain prior to the Roman conquest, and thereafter a ""civitas"" of Roman Britain. Their territory was in what is now the English East Midlands. They were bordered by the Brigantes to the north, the Cornovii to the west, the Dobunni and Catuvellauni to the south, and the Iceni to the east. Their capital was called ""Ratae Corieltauvorum"", known today as Leicester. The Corieltauvi were a largely agricultural people who had few strongly defended sites or signs"
"as ""Cogidubni regis legati Augusti in Britannia"" (""king and imperial legate in Britain""). It more probably reads ""Cogidubni regis magni Britanniae"" (""great king of Britain"") (Bogaers 1979). Regnenses The Regnenses, Regni or Regini were a British Celtic kingdom and later a ""civitas"" of Roman Britain. Their capital was ""Noviomagus Reginorum"", known today as Chichester in modern West Sussex. Before the Roman conquest their land and capital appear to have been part of the territory of the Atrebates, possibly as part of a confederation of tribes. It has been suggested that, after the first phase of the conquest, the Romans maintained"
"Britain after participating in Vercingetorix's rebellion and either joined or established a British branch of his tribe. Based on the development of imagery on coins, by the time of the Roman conquest, some of the tribes of south-eastern Britain likely were ruled by a Belgic nobility and were culturally influenced by them. The later ""civitas"" (administrative division) of Roman Britain had towns including ""Portus Adurni"" (Portchester), and ""Clausentum"" (Southampton). The ""civitas"" capital was at ""Venta Belgarum"" (Winchester), which was built on top of an Iron Age ""oppidum"" (which was itself built on the site of two earlier abandoned hillforts), which"
"Cantiaci The Cantiaci or Cantii were an Iron Age Celtic people living in Britain before the Roman conquest, and gave their name to a ""civitas"" of Roman Britain. They lived in the area now called Kent, in south-eastern England. Their capital was ""Durovernum Cantiacorum"", now Canterbury. They were bordered by the Regnenses to the west, and the Catuvellauni to the north. Julius Caesar landed in Cantium in 55 and 54 BCE, the first Roman expeditions to Britain. He recounts in his ""De Bello Gallico"" v. 14: Julius Caesar named five Celtic tribes inhabiting the land that would become the ""heartland"
"de facto capital of England, with Parliament being held there in 1298,9 and 1300. The Courts of Justice were also moved to York and did not return to London for seven years. When the attack on the Templars in England began in 1308 Greenfield was favourable to them and so refused to take any part in actions against them within the province of Canterbury; he was however present at the Great Council of Vienne in 1312, when Pope Clement V issued an edict dissolving the Order of the Templars. Greenfield died at his palace of Cawood on 6 December 1315,"
"possibly reaching the Irish Sea and including the lands of the Iceni. Its capital is sometimes placed at Lindum Colonia (Lincoln). Following the Roman conquest of Britain, it was administered as a single province from Camulodunum (Colchester) and then Londinium (London) until the Severan Reforms following the revolt of its governor Clodius Albinus. These divided the territory into Upper and Lower Britain (""Britannia Superior"" and ""Inferior""), whose respective capitals were at Londinium and Eboracum (York). During the first phases of the Diocletian Reforms, Britain was under the control of the Allectus's Britannic Empire as part of the Carausian Revolt. At"
"there were around 500 towns in England. Many of these new towns were centrally planned: Richard I created Portsmouth, John founded Liverpool, and successive monarchs followed with Harwich, Stony Stratford, Dunstable, Royston, Baldock, Wokingham, Maidenhead and Reigate. The new towns were usually located with access to trade routes in mind, rather than defence, and the streets were laid out to make access to the town's market convenient. A growing percentage of England's population lived in urban areas; estimates suggest that this rose from around 5.5% in 1086 to up to 10% in 1377. London held a special status within the"
"later captured and kept for five years in the Tower of London. London was eventually captured by the Yorkist Edward IV in 1471, and Henry executed. This established the Yorkist claim on the throne and ended the first phase of the Wars of the Roses. In the early Middle Ages, England had no fixed capital per se; Kings moved from place to place taking their court with them. The closest thing to a capital was Winchester where the royal treasury and financial records were stored. This changed from about 1200 when these were moved to Westminster. From this point on,"
"King Lud Lud (), according to Geoffrey of Monmouth's legendary ""History of the Kings of Britain"" and related medieval texts, was a king of Britain in pre-Roman times who founded London and was buried at Ludgate. He was the eldest son of Geoffrey's King Heli, and succeeded his father to the throne. He was succeeded, in turn, by his brother Cassibelanus. Lud may be connected with the Welsh mythological figure Lludd Llaw Eraint, earlier Nudd Llaw Eraint, cognate with the Irish Nuada Airgetlám, a king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and the Brittonic god Nodens. However, he was a separate"
"King Lud Lud (), according to Geoffrey of Monmouth's legendary ""History of the Kings of Britain"" and related medieval texts, was a king of Britain in pre-Roman times who founded London and was buried at Ludgate. He was the eldest son of Geoffrey's King Heli, and succeeded his father to the throne. He was succeeded, in turn, by his brother Cassibelanus. Lud may be connected with the Welsh mythological figure Lludd Llaw Eraint, earlier Nudd Llaw Eraint, cognate with the Irish Nuada Airgetlám, a king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and the Brittonic god Nodens. However, he was a separate"
"Camulodunum Camulodunum (; ), the Ancient Roman name for what is now Colchester in Essex, was an important town in Roman Britain, and the first capital of the province. It is claimed to be the oldest town in Britain. Originally the site of the Brythonic-Celtic oppidum of Camulodunon (meaning ""stronghold of Camulos""), capital of the Trinovantes and later the Catuvellauni tribes, it was first mentioned by name on coinage minted by the chieftain Tasciovanus sometime between 20 and 10 BC. The Roman town began life as a Roman Legionary base constructed in the AD 40s on the site of the"
"royal treasury, having been moved from Winchester, came to rest in the Tower. While the City of Westminster developed into a true capital in governmental terms, its distinct neighbour, the City of London, remained England's largest city and principal commercial centre, and it flourished under its own unique administration, the Corporation of London. In 1100, its population was around 18,000; by 1300 it had grown to nearly 100,000. Disaster struck in the form of the Black Death in the mid-14th century, when London lost nearly a third of its population. London was the focus of the Peasants' Revolt in 1381."
"River Thames, London is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the Europe by most measures. London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its founding by the Romans, who named it ""Londinium"". Wembley Conference Centre, which opened in 1977, was the first purpose-built conference centre in the United Kingdom. The centre was chosen as host venue for the song contest, which was presented by Angela Rippon. The language rule was brought back in this contest, four years"
"capital was Camulodunum (modern Colchester), one proposed site of the legendary Camelot. Shortly before Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain in 55 and 54 BC, the Trinovantes were considered the most powerful tribe in Britain. At this time their capital was probably at Braughing (in modern-day Hertfordshire). In some manuscripts of Caesar's ""Gallic War"" their king is referred to as Imanuentius, although in other manuscripts no name is given. Some time before Caesar's second expedition this king was overthrown by Cassivellaunus, who is usually assumed to have belonged to the Catuvellauni. His son, Mandubracius, fled to the protection of Caesar in"
"alternative solution: a decentralized state where the governmental functions never ended up in just one place until the late modern period. England was very different in this respect. Central ""political"" power was permanently established in London approximately in the middle of the fourteenth century, but London's outstanding position as a ""financial"" center was firmly established many centuries earlier. A monarch like King Henry II of England (1133-1189) was evidently attracted by its great wealth, but he was hesitant about taking up residence there. During his reign, London was becoming as near to an economic capital as the conditions of the"
"prior to the Roman conquest. A Roman road from Clausentum (a fortified harbour in what is now Bitterne, Southampton) passed through the area on route to Portus Adurni (Portchester Castle) and Noviomagus Reginorum (Chichester). The crossing of the River Itchen at Mansbridge and the crossing of the River Hamble at Botley date to AD932. The road that linked those two river crossings would have followed the approximate route of the modern Grange Road. From Mansbridge, it is to the port of Southampton and to Winchester, which was for a period the capital of England. Kings of England owned hunting land"
"Royal government became increasingly centered upon Westminster, which steadily became the de facto capital. In the Middle Ages, Westminster was a small town up river from the City of London. From the 13th century onwards London grew up in two different parts. Westminster became the Royal capital and centre of government, whereas the City of London became the centre of commerce and trade, a distinction which is still evident to this day. The area between them became entirely urbanised by 1600. Trade and commerce grew steadily during the Middle Ages, and London grew rapidly as a result. In 1100 London's"
"prime trading position in the center of the medieval world. This privileged position continued even as the capital of the Ottoman Empire. The city was also the center of half of the Christian world as the seat of the Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox church. Napoleon Bonaparte is quoted as saying, ""If the Earth were a single state, Constantinople would be its capital."" Today, the city's name is Istanbul. The capital of the British Empire was London - though the empire has since passed, London is one of the world's leading business, financial, and cultural centres, and its influence in"
"higher end, and an estimate of around 6 million inhabitants seems likely. Earlier demographic crises − in particular the Great Famine of 1315–1317 − had resulted in great numbers of deaths, but there is no evidence of any significant decrease in the population prior to 1348. England was still a predominantly rural and agrarian society; close to 90 percent of the population lived on the countryside. Of the major cities, London was in a class of its own, with perhaps as many as 70,000 inhabitants. Further down the scale were Norwich, with around 12,000 people, and York with around 10,000."
"the kingdom of England in the 11th century is estimated at between one and two million, with Lincolnshire, East Anglia, and East Kent the most densely populated areas. Population density in these areas was greater than in other areas of the country where many villages had been razed by the conquest armies. Instead of exercising jurisdiction over definite areas, many of the bishops were bishops of tribes or peoples, as the bishops of the South Saxons, the West Saxons, the Somersætas, etc. The ""cathedra"" of such a bishop was often migratory. In 1075 a council was held in London, under"
"and their other territories, ending the short-lived rebellion. This also marked the beginning of direct British Rule in India. In 1911, the capital of British India was shifted from Calcutta to New Delhi, the last inner city of Delhi designed by Edwin Lutyens. After India's Independence from the British, New Delhi became the capital of the newly formed Republic of India. It is popularly said that Delhi was the site for a total of seven different cities between 3000 BCE and the 17th century BCE, although taking smaller towns and strongholds into account, as many as 15 settlements can be"
"it was transferred to Wessex, preceding the absorption of the rest of Mercia in 918. Although it faced competition for political pre-eminence in the united Kingdom of England from the traditional West Saxon centre of Winchester, London's size and commercial wealth brought it a steadily increasing importance as a focus of governmental activity. King Athelstan held many meetings of the ""witan"" in London and issued laws from there, while King Æthelred the Unready issued the Laws of London there in 978. Following the resumption of Viking attacks in the reign of Ethelred, London was unsuccessfully attacked in 994 by an"
"England. Its origins are unclear, but by the reign of King Æthelstan (924–939) the city was a major trading centre and one of the most important boroughs in England. The Anglo-Saxon settlement was centred around Tombland, a large open space at the point where the roads into Norwich converged. The plain of Tombland was the site of Norwich's market. Following the Norman conquest of England (1066–1071), Norwich was radically redesigned. Norwich Cathedral was built immediately to the east of Tombland and much of the old town to the southwest of Tombland was cleared for the motte of Norwich Castle. A"