Our British Heritage - Volume I

About the Book

ENGLAND, SCOTLAND AND WALES 1200 - 1337 England, Scotland and Wales (The British Isles) was amongst a Europe in crisis because the Holy Roman Empire was in decline. The power of the church had been depleted by the very long struggles with the papacy and the city-states. There was trouble in Kiev in 1240 when the Mongols destroyed it and the overlords took over. It then developed in isolation until the 15th century. German colonization in the northeast brought about political and economic changes. Social unrest really set in through out Europe that was compounded by famines, dynastic wars, economic decline and then the Black Death of 1347 caused devastation all over. The Hohenstaufen dynasty was the aspirations of the Holy Roman Emperors to have complete universal authority was blocked by the papacy in central Italy, and also in the city-based communes of northern Italy. The Emperor Frederick II had a clash with Rome in 1211 to 1250. This was a time when popes exercised strong political power and they wanted nothing to get in their way. Under Innocent III from 1198 to 1216 the medieval papacy was at its very height of spiritual authority and also civil or secular rather than ecclesiastical power and it wanted no interference in its power. After his death, the papacy gave the Kingdom of Sicily to Charles of Anjou, and so this meant that Frederick’s heirs were eliminated. With the growing power of France and England the Roman Empire lost any justification for political supremacy in Europe. Also in Germany a mosaic of small parts clerical state were making changes to undermine the imperial authority of the Roman Empire. Now after one hundred years of peace all along the Anglo-Scottish border, Edward I from 1272 to 1307 was determined to assert his over lordship over the British Isles. So in 1284 in 1284 he annexed Wales, giving the title of Prince of Wales on his son. However Scotland proved to be more intractable as Edward attempted to subdue the Scots he was met by resistance that was led by Robert Bruce who was the victor at Bannockburn in 1314. Bruce, wanting to extend his domains, sent an expedition to Ireland in 1315. His brother Edward continued to fight there until his death in 1318. So in 1328 England acknowledged Scottish independence after a devastating period of guerrilla warfare and a destructive border raiding.

About the Author

Merlene received her education in Accounting and Journalism. She is known through Marquis Whose Who in the World, and through the pages of various Who’s Who publications by the International Biographical Centre where she is Deputy Director to its Director General from the Headquarters in Cambridge, in England. She exhibited her artwork, history books and genealogy at Oxford University and Cambridge University, England, New Orleans, La, and Lisbon, Portugal, in addition to South Carolina. She has traced her genealogy to Adam and Eve through royal families from the heritage of both her mother and father. Kiwanis International selected her as a distinguised member for the 2004-2005.