Laval University

From the SelectedWorks of Fathi Habashi

April 11, 2021

In Praise and Dispraise of EnglandFathi Habashi

Available at: https://works.bepress.com/fathi_habashi/698/

In Praise and Dispraise of England

Introduction In ancient times, a king was thought to have gained his power to rule from God. For this reason, kings used to do whatever pleased them to do. The bad kings used to put in prison anybody against them, to murder, etc. This usually caused indignation from the side of people. England is praised for introducing trial by jury, evolution of constitution and formation of parliaments, freedom of serfs, abolition of the divine right of kings, production of scientists that changed the world, creation of the Industrial Revolution, creation of railways, etc. On the other hand, England made slavery valid institution before she was the first to eliminate it. She also suppressed many people and cruelly put down revolutions before finally these countries got independence.

Praise Trial by jury To find out whether a person was guilty or not was a difficult job. Torture was one of the procedures which caused so much trouble to the person as well as to the authorities. England was the first country to introduce trial by jury. It was Henry II (1133-1189) who introduced this system in England in 1154. He appointed certain men as judges and sent them to all parts of the country.

Henry II

Magna Carta John (1166 –1216) was the son of Henry II and was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. The baronial revolt at the end of John's reign led to the sealing of Magna Carta in 1215, a document sometimes considered an early step in the evolution of the constitution of the United Kingdom. A king could not rule as he pleased - - he had to observe the law.

King John forced to sign the Magna Carta

Creation of Parliament Henry III (1207-1272) followed King John and agreed to keep the Magna Charta but constantly levied taxes without getting the consent of the Great Council. The barons then drew new rules to which the king agreed but did not follow. By that time the Great Council was called Parliament - - a French word comes from parler means speaking. The barons were determined to put an end to the king’s bad government. In a battle, the king and his son Prince Edward were taken prisoners in 1264 while Earl Simon (ca. 1205-1265) the leader of the barons, became the real ruler of England. During his rule, he stripped the King of unlimited authority, and included in the Parliament ordinary citizens from the towns. For this reason, he is regarded today as one of the originals of modern parliamentary democracy. After a rule of just over a year, he was killed by forces loyal to the King in the Battle of Evesham. Prince Edward escaped from prison and became Edward I after his father’s death.

Henry III

Earl Simon

Edward I

Edward I, ruled wisely and people had justice during his time. In 1295 he called a Parliament in which the church, the nobles, and the common people had someone to represent them. This was the beginning of a representative government in England. The Parliament was able to bring about many necessary reforms. The country and town representatives were called Commons, were not consulted about most of the business but in 1340 they met by themselves. After that, the clergy and the nobility formed the House of Lords and the representatives of the country and towns joined to form the House of Commons. As time passed, the House of Commons grew in importance because all those who were engaged in trade became rich. The taxes they supplied exceeded those of the nobles and clergy. Later, all bills for money must originate from the House of Commons. Study of nature The English philosopher and Franciscan friar Roger Bacon (ca. 1219 –ca. 1292) placed considerable emphasis on the study of nature. His major work was the Opus Majus contained treatments of mathematics, optics, alchemy, and astronomy, including theories on the positions and sizes of the celestial bodies. He was long before Copernicus (1473-1543). Although gunpowder was first invented and described in China, Bacon was the first in Europe to record its formula. Other scientists like Boyle, Newton, Darwin, Davy, Faraday, Jenner, and many others formed the basis of our civilization.

Roger Bacon

John Wyclif

Reform of the Church John Wyclif (ca. 1320 –1384) was a University of Oxford professor who became an influential dissident within the Roman Catholic priesthood and is considered an important predecessor to Protestantism. He questioned the privileged status of the clergy and advocated translation of the Bible into the common vernacular. His writings in Latin greatly influenced the philosophy and teaching of the Czech reformer Jan Hus (ca. 1369–1415), whose execution in 1415 sparked a revolt and led to the Hussite Wars of 1419–1434. In 1415 his body was dug up and burnt as a heretic.

Freedom of the serfs In the spring of 1381, some of the peasants under the leadership of Wat Tyler decided to go to London and put their grievances before the king, Richard II (1367-1399), a boy of fourteen. While Tyler was speaking to the king an attendant killed him by his sword. The revolt failed but fear of further uprising made the nobles grant their workers better conditions. In a short time, freemen working for wages and farmers renting their farms took the place of serfs. England was the first country to abolish the serfs. Thus, during the Middle Ages, the plain people of England slowly gained political liberty and laid the foundation of democracy. It should be noted that serfdom in Russia was abolished in 1861 which was followed in other parts of Europe.

Richard II

Divine right England tried and beheaded her King Charles I (1600 –1649) who claimed that he was sent by God to rule. This was before the French Revolution when Louis XVI was beheaded in 1792.

Charles 1 beheaded

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution took place in England. When mining of coal became safe, England was the first to use coke produced from coal, instead of charcoal, in blast furnaces. This eliminated the cutting of trees in forests and resulted in great production of cast iron. The construction of a bridge made of iron for the first time took place in 1779 on the River Severn in England. The second step took place when a steam engine invented by James Watt (1736-1819) was used to do the work of a man.

Coalbrookdale near Birmingham where blast furnaces using coke instead of coal was first used

The first Iron Bridge on the River Severn near Coalbrookdale

James Watt

Robert Stephenson

Railways was invented in England in1830 by Robert Stephenson (1781-1848). From England it was distributed all over the world. It was possible to transport passengers and bulk material cheaply over long distances. In 1856, Henry Bessemer (1813-1898) invented the steelmaking process which produced steel in a short time that replace the puddling process. The converter was charged with molten iron, then air was blown into the charge to remove carbon, and the charge was then converted to steel.

First passenger railways invented by Stephenson

Henry Bessemer

Bessemer process

Dispraise

Colonization When the Industrial Revolution took place in England and production of goods became available in large quantities, she embarked on an aggressive policy of finding cheap raw material and markets for distribution of products. Colonization in Africa and Asia took place which involved resistance from the natives. As a result, many revolutions in India, South Africa, etc., were crushed and the British Empire was formed.

The British Empire

Slavery Many British members of parliament like Edward Colston (1636-1721) or noted merchants like Sir Thomas Guy (1644-1724), and many others like Robert Milligan (1746-1809) traded in slaves and made huge fortunes. Finally, slave trade was abolished in the British Empire in 1807. The trade involved shipping textiles and manufactured good to Africa, buying slaves from Africa and selling them to America to work in sugar cane, cotton, and other industries, and the sugar, cotton, and tobacco to England and other parts of Europe.

Edward Colston

Sir Thomas Guy

Robert Milligan

The triangle of slave trade