History of Yorkshire
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yorkshire is an historic county of England, centred on the county town of York. The region was first occupied after the retreat of the ice age around 8000 BC. During the first millennium AD it was occupied by Romans, Angles and Vikings. The name, Yorkshire, first appeared in writing in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1065. It was originally composed of three sections called Thrydings, subsequently referred to as Ridings.
Following the Norman Invasion, Yorkshire was subject to the punitive harrying of the North, which caused great hardship. The area proved to be notable for uprisings and rebellions through to the Tudor period. During the industrial revolution, the West Riding became the second most important manufacturing area in the United Kingdom, while the predominant industries of the East and North Ridings remained fishing and agriculture. In modern times, the Yorkshire economy has suffered from a decline in manufacturing which has affected its traditional coal, steel, wool and shipping industries.
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[edit] Prehistoric settlement
Evidence of human activity in Yorkshire revolving around a hunter gatherer lifestyle has been found dating from around 8000/7000 BC. For example, in Victoria Cave, Settle, late upper palaeolithic projectile points have been found that include the bone head of a harpoon which has been dated to within 110 years of 8270 BC.[1]
[edit] Roman
Prior to their invasion the Romans identified three different tribes that people living in Yorkshire belonged to. The area now covered by Yorkshire was mostly in the territory of the Brigantes, a Celtic tribe which lived between Tyne and Humber. Another tribe the Parisii, inhabited what would become the East Riding. The Carvetii occupied what is now called Cumbria, but was at the time of the Domesday Book, still part of Yorkshire. Life was centred around agriculture, wheat and barley being the staple foods. The Brigantes lived in small villages, and raised cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and horses.
Fortifications were constructed in Brigantia and notable forts can still be descerned on Ingleborough and at Wincobank, amongst other places. Stanwick seems to have been the tribal capital of the Brigantes up until the Roman conquest.
Initially, Roman advances stopped at the River Don, the southern boundary of the territory. Queen Cartimandua, the last ruler of the Brigantes, depended on Roman support to withstand the forces of her estranged husband, Venutius. The territory remained independent until AD 69, when the Ninth Legion under Quintus Petillius Cerialis moved in to quell civil war between Cartimandua and Venutius, bringing to an end British rule in England. York was founded in AD 71 as Eboracum, the Roman capital of Northern Britain. In the early 3rd century York was granted the honorary rank of a Roman colony.
Around this time York became the Roman capital of northern Britain, Britannia Inferior, following the province being split. When Britannia was further divided in 296, York remained the administrative centre of Britannia Secunda. Constantine the Great was crowned Roman Emperor here in 306 and it would be he who would institute Roman Christendom. With the break up of Roman Britain, York became the capital of the British kingdom of Ebrauc. At the end of Roman rule in the 5th century, Northern Britain may have come under the rule of Romano-British Coel Hen, the last of the Roman-style Duces Brittanniarum (Dukes of the Britons).
[edit] Sub-Roman and early Middle Ages
However, this kingdom rapidly broke up into smaller kingdoms. Most of what is now Yorkshire fell under the rule of the kingdom of Ebruac but Yorkshire also includes territory from the kingdoms of Dunoting and Elmet, which formed at around this time. Cravenshire's formation was also from this time. The emigration of Britons to Brittany left Britain open to settlement by the Anglo-Saxons in the Great Conspiracy. These people are now represented by the Principality of Wales, but provided basis for Celtic Christianity in the area.
In the late 5th century and early 6th century Angles colonised the North Sea and Humber coastal areas, particularly around Holderness. This was followed by the subjugation of the whole of east Yorkshire and the British kingdom of Ebruac in about 560. The name the Angles gave to the territory was Dewyr, or Deira, with its capital at Eoforwic, modern day York. Early rulers of Deira extended the territory north to the River Wear and about 600, Aethelfrith was able to unite Deira with the northern kingdom of Bernicia, forming the kingdom of Northumbria. Edwin of Northumbria completed the conquest of the area to be known as Yorkshire by his conquest of the kingdom of Elmet, including Hallamshire and Loidis, in 617.
He converted to Christianity, along with his nobles and many of his subjects, in 627. The defeat of Edwin at the Battle of Hatfield Chase by Penda of Mercia in 633 was followed by continuing struggles between Mercia and Northumbria for supremacy over Deira.
After Offa of Mercia, the Kingdom of England began to shift into the classic Anglo-Saxon image of a Mercia and Wessex-based country. Yngling King Ragnar Lodbrok led a Danish Leidang into Northumbria during the mid-9th century, but was captured and executed in a snake pit at the Anglian court. A civil war between the nobles of Bernicia and Deira precipitated the fall of Anglian independence throughout Northumbria because the Danes came on a mission of vengeance, but also part of the greater Scandinavian imperialist movement. In 865 his eldest son Ivar the Boneless led younger sons in control of the army into landing at East Anglia, where they slew King Edmund the Martyr.
Danes headed north and took York in 866, eventually conquering the whole of Northumbria and Kingdom of Strathclyde with every Irish Scandinavian submitting to Ivar as he became "King of all Scandinavians in the British Isles". Colonists changed the Old English name from Eoforwic, to Jorvik. It was under the Danes that ridings and wapentakes of Yorkshire and the Five Burghs were established. The ridings were arranged to meet at Jorvik, which was the administrative and commercial centre of the region. After the Danish subjugation of the region, in 875 Guthrum apportioned lands to his followers; however most of the English population were allowed to retain their lands under the lordship of their Scandinavian conquerors.
The Swedish Munsö dynasty became Kings of Dublin, but was focused on Baltic Sea economy and quarrels with the native Danish Jelling dynasty (which originated in the Danelaw with Guthrum). The Norse-Gaels, Ostmen or Gallgaidhill became Kings of Jorvik after long contests over controlling the Isle of Man, which prompted the Battle of Brunanburh. In 954 King Eric I of Norway of the Fairhair dynasty was slain at Stainmore by Anglo-Saxons and Edred of England began overlordship. Jorvik was the direct predecessor to the shire of York and received further royal aids after the invasion of England, from the Munsö descendants Sweyn II of Denmark down to Canute IV of Denmark's martyrdom. Saint Olave's Church in York is a testament to the Norwegian influence in the area.
[edit] Middle Ages
In 1066, after the death of King Edward the Confessor, Yorkshire became the stage for two major battles that would help decide who would succeed to the throne. Harold Godwinson was declared King by the English but this was disputed by Harold Hardrada King of Norway and William Duke of Normandy. In the late summer of 1066 Harold Hardrada, accompanied by Tostig Godwinson, took a Norwegian large fleet and army up the Humber towards York.[2] They were met by the army of the northern earls Edwin of Mercia and Morcar of Northumbria who they defeated at the Battle of Fulford. Harold Hardrada occupied York[3] and the Norwegian Army encamped at Stamford Bridge. Harold Godwin had to travel from London gathering his army as he went to face the invasion. Within five days, on the 25 September 1066, Harold Godwin had reached Stamford Bridge and defeated the Norwegian Army in a battle in which both Harold Hardrada and Tostig Godwinson were killed.[4] The battle at Stamford Bridge can be seen as one of the pivotal battles in English history, it was the last time a Scandinavian army was able to seriously threatened England.[5] On the 28 September William Duke of Normandy landed on the south coast of England forcing Harold Godwin to rush south from Yorkshire with his army. They met at the Battle of Hastings where the English army was defeated and Harold Godwin killed, allowing William to become King of England.
King William I and the Normans did not have control over the whole of the country and rebellions in the north of England, including Yorkshire led to the Harrying of the North. During the winter of 1069-70 the Normans conducted a scorched earth campaign. Those who escaped initially hid in Yorkshire's woodland but many then died of famine or exposure.[6] The severity of the Norman campaign is shown by the fall of land values in Yorkshire by two-thirds between 1069 and 1086.[7] After the harrying the Normans constructed a number of motte and bailey castes in Yorkshire to enforce their control on the area. These included castles in Skipsea,[8] Pontefract,[9] Richmond[10]and two in York.[11]
Widespread discontent created a class of Border Reivers who contributed to many centuries of violence, but named such places as Kirkcudbright, Wigtown and Roxburgh. The Battle of the Standard was fought by Scoto-Normans to retain their dominance against the French of Blois and later of Anjou. Fountains Abbey and Rievaulx Abbey, along with other religious institutions flourished under the Angevins.
On the Anglo-Scottish borders, there was much violence and participation in the Wars of Scottish Independence. John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster had senior influence over many people in the North of England and consequently, Englishmen fought under his command in the Hundred Years' War. The last vestiges of feudal order remain to-date in the Duchy of Lancaster, founded by the House of Lancaster. Its former counterpart was the Duchy of York, which itself formerly was an office filled by an Earl of York. The Wars of the Roses and Percy-Neville feud caused much of the fighting to take place in Yorkshire, where their estates were interlocked and woven together.
The leading families in the East and West Ridings supported the House of Lancaster overwhelmingly, but in the North Riding loyalty was divided. The Nevilles of Sheriff Hutton and Middleham, the Scropes of Bolton, the Latimers of Danby and Snape, and the Mowbrays of Thirsk and Burton in Lonsdale supported the House of York. The Nevilles’ great rivals, the Percies, together with the Cliffords of Skipton, Ros of Helmsley, Greystock of Hinderskelfe, Stafford of Holderness and Talbot of Sheffield fought for the Lancastrians.
King Richard III of England in the House of York held early office in the Council of the North, at Middleham Castle where Edward of Middleham, Prince of Wales was born.
When the Earl of Richmond became King of England, his dynasty began to systematically destroy or remove local resistance to their rule by confiscating their religious rights and economic livelihood. Unpopularity of the Welsh royals resonated in the Pilgrimage of Grace and Rising of the North. Both Yorkshire and Richmondshire have had significant connections with Scotland and France through personal connections of their feudal and titular Peers (usually held by royal dynasties); this may have been connected to the Auld Alliance. One must consider the historically Norse origins of Yorkshire's population, the local ties of Balliol, Bruce and Stewart monarchs of Scotland, including Scottish royal fiefdom of Northumbria at several times.(See Earl of Huntingdon)
[edit] Early Modern
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley was one of the first outsiders to remark upon life in the Border country. At Union of the Crowns, a large minority of locals were granted lands within the Plantation of Ulster. Newfoundland and Labrador and Maryland colonies were refounded and founded by an Anglo-Irish Baron Baltimore. Most locals were Cavaliers in the English Civil War and some fled to American colonies during the usurping Commonwealth of England or The Protectorate. King James II of England was owner of colonial New York as the Duke of York, as well as governor of the Hudson's Bay Company and Royal African Company.
Most locals were closet Recusant, Tory or Jacobite in orientation, not happy being used against their Gaelic neighbours. National government only began to be friendly to their tenants with a Council of the North and appointment of a Secretary of State for the Northern Department, but these were abolished upon Southerners detecting its link with independent Northern(Norse-Gael) influence on national affairs, especially in connection to the American War of Independence. Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond was Governor General of British North America, after his father had pioneered the peace settlement with the Americans and pressed for a "Union of Hearts" with the Irish. Irish Catholics dispossessed of their lands and experiencing discrimination at home, found a warm welcome from Yorkshiremen in the cities of the West Riding. Although Yorkshire was traditionally almost ultraconservative by English standards, most of the people became liberal in dissent from the heirs to Sophia of Hanover because of their stance on the Americans and Irish.
[edit] Modern
The Nineteenth Century was a time of rapid urbanisation and industrialisation in Yorkshire. Yorkshire was already a centre of industry in textiles, concentrated in the West Riding, Steel, concentrated around Sheffield, and the production of coal. The worsted sector of the textile industry was the first to adapt the machinery developed by the Lancashire cotton industry and had become completely factory based by the 1860s including large horizontally integrated mills.[13]
William Wilberforce, Member of Parliament for Hull, was a prominent abolitionist in the slave trade. The Edwardian period in Yorkshire brought the Labour Party (UK) into focus, as it tried to mobilise further reform. Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell commanded the Northern Territorial Army at Richmond Castle until 1910.
John Sentamu is currently Archbishop of York, the first non-European to hold that position. Prince Andrew, Duke of York from the House of Windsor is presently one of the most active royals in the realm of international business affairs. Sarah, Duchess of York is somewhat popular with media outlets, although often poked fun of by them. Charles Gordon-Lennox, 10th Duke of Richmond, has been on the World Council of Churches and his son Charles Gordon-Lennox, Earl of March and Kinrara, holds several racing activities at Goodwood House as an enthusiastic participant.
The perpetrators of the 7 July 2005 London bombings were all at one time from Yorkshire: Mohammad Sidique Khan was from Dewsbury, Hasib Hussain and Shehzad Tanweer were from Leeds and Germaine Lindsay was from Huddersfield.
[edit] History of local government in Yorkshire
- Further information: History of local government in Yorkshire
[edit] References
- ^ Late Upper Palaeolithic (8,000 BC): Victoria Cave Harpoon, Yorkshire Archaeological Society, 2008, <http://www.prehistory.yas.org.uk/content/victoria.html>. Retrieved on 2 May 2008
- ^ Churchill, Winston S. (1999), A History of the English-Speaking Peoples: A new one-volume abridgement by Christopher Lee, London: Cassell, pp. 65-66, ISBN 0-304-35133-4,
- ^ Morgan, Kenneth O. (Ed.) (1984), The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 102, ISBN 0-19-289326-2,
- ^ Churchill, Winston S. (1999), A History of the English-Speaking Peoples: A new one-volume abridgement by Christopher Lee, London: Cassell, p. 66, ISBN 0-304-35133-4,
- ^ Churchill, Winston S. (1999), A History of the English-Speaking Peoples: A new one-volume abridgement by Christopher Lee, London: Cassell, p. 66, ISBN 0-304-35133-4,
- ^ Churchill, Winston S. (1999), A History of the English-Speaking Peoples: A new one-volume abridgement by Christopher Lee, London: Cassell, p. 70, ISBN 0-304-35133-4,
- ^ Morgan, Kenneth O. (Ed.) (1984), The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 105, ISBN 0-19-289326-2
- ^ SKIPSEA CASTLE, English Heritage, Pastscape, <http://pastscape.english-heritage.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=80781>. Retrieved on 3 May 2008
- ^ Pontefract Castle, English Heritage, Pastscape, <http://pastscape.english-heritage.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=54370>. Retrieved on 3 May 2008
- ^ Richmond Castle, English Heritage, Pastscape
- ^ York Castle, English Heritage, Pastscape, <http://pastscape.english-heritage.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=58151>. Retrieved on 3 May 2008
- ^ Hey, David (2005). A History of Yorkshire. Lancaster: Carnegie Publishing, 180. ISBN ISBN 1859361226.
- ^ Hudson, Pat (1986), The Genesis of Industrial Capital: A Study of West Riding Wool Textile Industry, c. 1750-1850, Cambridge University Press, p. 71, ISBN 0521890896
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- History of York: From Prehistory to modern day
- Yorkshire History at the North East England History Pages
- A mixed bag of information related to Yorkshire History
- Regia's Clan Ivarr
[edit] Further reading
- A history of Yorkshire, 'County of the Broad Acres' by David Hey, Carnegie Publishing, 2005 ISBN 1-85936-122-6
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