Kingdom of England - wikipedia Kingdom of England This article is about the state that existed from the 10th century to 1707. For the country in its current form, see England. Kingdom of England 10th century -- 1707 1649 -- 1660 : Commonwealth Flag ( after 13th cent. ) Royal Arms ( 1399 -- 1603 ) Royal Banner ( 1406 -- 1603 ) Location of the Kingdom of England in 1700 Capital Winchester ( until 1066 ) London ( 1066 -- 1707 ) ∟ Westminster ( administrative ) ∟ City of London ( commercial ) Languages English Old Norse ( until 11th century ) Welsh Cornish Cumbric ( until 11th century ) Anglo - Norman ( 11th -- 15th century ) Medieval Latin ( until 15th century ) Religion Christianity Demonym English Government Absolute monarchy ( 10th century -- 1215 ) Unitary parliamentary monarchy ( 1215 -- 1707 ) Monarch 927 -- 939 Æthelstan ( first ) 1702 -- 1707 Anne ( last ) Legislature Parliament Upper house House of Lords Lower house House of Commons History Unification 10th century Battle of Hastings 14 October 1066 Conquered Wales 1277 -- 1283 Incorporated Wales 1535 -- 1542 Union of the Crowns 24 March 1603 Glorious Revolution 11 December 1688 Union with Scotland 1 May 1707 Area 1283 -- 1542 est. 145,000 km ( 56,000 sq mi ) 1542 -- 1707 est. 151,000 km ( 58,000 sq mi ) Population 1283 est. 2,600,000 Density 18 / km ( 46 / sq mi ) 1542 est. 3,000,000 Density 21 / km ( 54 / sq mi ) 1707 est. 5,750,000 Density 38 / km ( 99 / sq mi ) Currency Pound sterling Preceded by Succeeded by Wessex Sussex Essex Kent Dumnonia Mercia East Anglia Northumbria Welsh Marches Principality of Wales Great Britain Today part of United Kingdom ∟ England ∟ Wales a. ^ Monarch of Wessex from 925. b. ^ Continued as monarch of Great Britain until her death in 1714. Part of a series on the History of England Timeline Prehistoric Britain Roman Britain Sub-Roman Britain Medieval period Economy in the Middle Ages Anglo - Saxon period English unification High Middle Ages Norman conquest Norman period Late Middle Ages Black Death in England Tudor period Tudor dynasty Elizabethan period English Renaissance Stuart period English Civil War Commonwealth Protectorate Restoration Glorious Revolution Georgian period Regency period Victorian period Edwardian period First World War Interwar period Second World War Social history of the United Kingdom ( 1945 -- present ) Political history of the United Kingdom ( 1945 -- present ) Topics Social history of England History of education in England History of the economy of England History of the politics of England English overseas possessions History of the English language Polities Kingdom of England Kingdom of Great Britain United Kingdom By county Bedfordshire Berkshire City of Bristol Buckinghamshire Cambridgeshire Cheshire Cornwall Cumbria Derbyshire Devon Dorset Durham East Riding of Yorkshire East Sussex Essex Gloucestershire Greater London Greater Manchester Hampshire Herefordshire Hertfordshire Isle of Wight Kent Lancashire Leicestershire Lincolnshire City of London Merseyside Norfolk Northamptonshire Northumberland North Yorkshire Nottinghamshire Oxfordshire Rutland Shropshire Somerset South Yorkshire Staffordshire Suffolk Surrey Tyne and Wear Warwickshire West Midlands West Sussex West Yorkshire Wiltshire Worcestershire By city or town Birmingham Bournemouth Brighton Bristol Chester Christchurch Colchester Coventry Dover Folkestone Leeds Liverpool London Maidstone Manchester Milton Keynes Newcastle Nottingham Plymouth Poole Portsmouth Reading Rochester Sheffield Shrewsbury Southampton St Albans Torquay Wetherby Worthing York England portal The Kingdom of England was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from the 10th century -- when it emerged from various Anglo - Saxon kingdoms -- until 1707, when it united with Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. In the early 10th century the Anglo - Saxon kingdoms, united by Æthelstan ( r. 927 -- 939 ), 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 the Anglo - Saxon one at Winchester to Westminster, and the City of London quickly established itself as England 's largest and principal commercial centre. Histories of the kingdom of England from the Norman conquest of 1066 conventionally distinguish periods named after successive ruling dynasties : Norman 1066 -- 1154, Plantagenet 1154 -- 1485, Tudor 1485 -- 1603 and Stuart 1603 -- 1714 ( interrupted by the Interregnum ( England ) of 1649 -- 1660 ). Dynastically, all English monarchs after 1066 ultimately claim descent from the Normans ; the distinction of the Plantagenets is merely conventional, beginning with Henry II ( reigned 1154 -- 1189 ) as from that time, the Angevin kings became `` more English in nature '' ; the houses of Lancaster and York are both Plantagenet cadet branches, the Tudor dynasty claimed descent from Edward III via John Beaufort and James VI and I of the House of Stuart claimed descent from Henry VII via Margaret Tudor. The completion of the conquest of Wales by Edward I in 1284 put Wales under the control of the English crown. Edward III ( reigned 1327 -- 1377 ) transformed the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe ; his reign also saw vital developments in legislation and government -- in particular the evolution of the English parliament. From the 1340s the kings of England also laid claim to the crown of France, but after the Hundred Years ' War and the outbreak of the Wars of the Roses in 1455, the English were no longer in any position to pursue their French claims and lost all their land on the continent, except for Calais. After the turmoils of the Wars of the Roses, the Tudor dynasty ruled during the English Renaissance and again extended English monarchical power beyond England proper, achieving the full union of England and the Principality of Wales in 1542. Henry VIII oversaw the English Reformation, and his daughter Elizabeth I ( reigned 1558 -- 1603 ) the Elizabethan Religious Settlement, meanwhile establishing England as a great power and laying the foundations of the British Empire by claiming possessions in the New World. From the accession of James VI and I in 1603, the Stuart dynasty ruled England in personal union with Scotland and Ireland. Under the Stuarts, the kingdom plunged into civil war, which culminated in the execution of Charles I in 1649. The monarchy returned in 1660, but the Civil War had established the precedent that an English monarch can not govern without the consent of Parliament. This concept became legally established as part of the Glorious Revolution of 1688. From this time the kingdom of England, as well as its successor state the United Kingdom, functioned in effect as a constitutional monarchy. On 1 May 1707, under the terms of the Acts of Union 1707, the kingdoms of England and Scotland united to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. Contents 1 Name 2 History 2.1 Anglo - Saxon England 2.2 Norman conquest 2.3 High Middle Ages 2.4 Late Middle Ages 2.5 Tudor period 2.6 Early Modern history 2.6. 1 Civil War and Interregnum 2.6. 2 Restoration and Glorious Revolution 2.6. 3 Union with Scotland 3 Territorial divisions 4 See also 5 Notes 6 References 7 Bibliography Name Main article : Name of England The Anglo - Saxons referred to themselves as the Engle or the Angelcynn, originally names of the Angles. They called their land Engla land, meaning `` land of the English '', by Æthelweard Latinized Anglia, from an original Anglia vetus, the purported homeland of the Angles ( called Angulus by Bede ). The name Engla land became England by haplology during the Middle English period ( Engle - land, Engelond ). The Latin name was Anglia or Anglorum terra, the Old French and Anglo - Norman one Angleterre. By the 14th century, England was also used in reference to the entire island of Great Britain. The standard title for monarchs from Æthelstan until John was Rex Anglorum ( `` King of the English '' ). Canute the Great, a Dane, was the first to call himself `` King of England ''. In the Norman period Rex Anglorum remained standard, with occasional use of Rex Anglie ( `` King of England '' ). From John 's reign onwards all other titles were eschewed in favour of Rex or Regina Anglie. In 1604 James I, who had inherited the English throne the previous year, adopted the title ( now usually rendered in English rather than Latin ) King of Great Britain. The English and Scottish parliaments, however, did not recognise this title until the Acts of Union of 1707. History Anglo - Saxon England Main article : Anglo - Saxon England The kingdom of England emerged from the gradual unification of the early medieval Anglo - Saxon kingdoms known as the Heptarchy : East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria, Kent, Essex, Sussex, and Wessex. The Viking invasions of the 9th century upset the balance of power between the English kingdoms, and native Anglo - Saxon life in general. The English lands were unified in the 10th century in a reconquest completed by King Æthelstan in 927 CE. During the Heptarchy, the most powerful king among the Anglo - Saxon kingdoms might become acknowledged as Bretwalda, a high king over the other kings. The decline of Mercia allowed Wessex to become more powerful. It absorbed the kingdoms of Kent and Sussex in 825. The kings of Wessex became increasingly dominant over the other kingdoms of England during the 9th century. In 827, Northumbria submitted to Egbert of Wessex at Dore, briefly making Egbert the first king to reign over a united England. In 886, Alfred the Great retook London, which he apparently regarded as a turning point in his reign. The Anglo - Saxon Chronicle says that `` all of the English people ( all Angelcyn ) not subject to the Danes submitted themselves to King Alfred. '' Asser added that `` Alfred, king of the Anglo - Saxons, restored the city of London splendidly... and made it habitable once more. '' Alfred 's `` restoration '' entailed reoccupying and refurbishing the nearly deserted Roman walled city, building quays along the Thames, and laying a new city street plan. It is probably at this point that Alfred assumed the new royal style ' King of the Anglo - Saxons. ' During the following years Northumbria repeatedly changed hands between the English kings and the Norwegian invaders, but was definitively brought under English control by Eadred in 954, completing the unification of England. At about this time, Lothian, the northern part of Northumbria ( Roman Bernicia ), was ceded to the Kingdom of Scotland. On 12 July 927 the monarchs of Britain gathered at Eamont in Cumbria to recognise Æthelstan as king of the English. This can be considered England 's ' foundation date ', although the process of unification had taken almost 100 years. The dominions of Cnut the Great ( 1014 -- 1035 ) England has remained in political unity ever since. During the reign of Æthelred the Unready ( 978 -- 1016 ), a new wave of Danish invasions was orchestrated by Sweyn I of Denmark, culminating after a quarter - century of warfare in the Danish conquest of England in 1013. But Sweyn died on 2 February 1014, and Æthelred was restored to the throne. In 1015, Sweyn 's son Cnut the Great ( commonly known as Canute ) launched a new invasion. The ensuing war ended with an agreement in 1016 between Canute and Æthelred 's successor, Edmund Ironside, to divide England between them, but Edmund 's death on 30 November of that year left England united under Danish rule. This continued for 26 years until the death of Harthacnut in June 1042. He was the son of Canute and Emma of Normandy ( the widow of Æthelred the Unready ) and had no heirs of his own ; he was succeeded by his half - brother, Æthelred 's son, Edward the Confessor. The Kingdom of England was once again independent. Norman conquest Main article : Norman conquest of England The peace lasted until the death of the childless Edward in January 1066. His brother - in - law was crowned King Harold, but his cousin William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, immediately claimed the throne for himself. William launched an invasion of England and landed in Sussex on 28 September 1066. Harold and his army were in York following their victory against the Norwegians at the Battle of Stamford Bridge ( 25 September 1066 ) when the news reached him. He decided to set out without delay and confront the Norman army in Sussex so marched southwards at once, despite the army not being properly rested following the battle with the Norwegians. The armies of Harold and William faced each other at the Battle of Hastings ( 14 October 1066 ), in which the English army, or Fyrd, was defeated, Harold and his two brothers were slain, and William emerged as victor. William was then able to conquer England with little further opposition. He was not, however, planning to absorb the Kingdom into the Duchy of Normandy. As a mere duke, William owed allegiance to Philip I of France, whereas in the independent Kingdom of England he could rule without interference. He was crowned on 25 December 1066 in Westminster Abbey, London. High Middle ages Main article : England in the High Middle Ages Further information : Angevin Empire, Norman invasion of Wales, and Conquest of Wales by Edward I In 1092, William II led an invasion of Strathclyde, a Celtic kingdom in what is now southwest Scotland and Cumbria. In doing so, he annexed what is now the county of Cumbria to England. In 1124, Henry I ceded what is now southeast Scotland ( called Lothian ) to the Kingdom of Scotland, in return for the King of Scotland 's loyalty. This final cession established what would become the traditional borders of England which have remained largely unchanged since then ( except for occasional and temporary changes ). This area of land had previously been a part of the Anglian Kingdom of Northumbria. Lothian contained what later became the Scottish capital, Edinburgh. This arrangement was later finalised in 1237 by the Treaty of York. King John signs Magna Carta at Runnymede in 1215, surrounded by his baronage. Illustration from Cassell 's History of England, 1902. The Duchy of Aquitaine came into personal union with the Kingdom of England upon the accession of Henry II, who had married Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine. The Kingdom of England and the Duchy of Normandy remained in personal union until John Lackland, Henry II 's son and fifth - generation descendant of William I, lost the continental possessions of the Duchy to Philip II of France in 1204. A few remnants of Normandy, including the Channel Islands, remained in John 's possession, together with most of the Duchy of Aquitaine. Up until the Norman conquest of England, Wales had remained for the most part independent of the Anglo - Saxon kingdoms, although some Welsh kings did sometimes acknowledge the Bretwalda. Soon after the Norman conquest of England, however, some Norman lords began to attack Wales. They conquered and ruled parts of it, acknowledging the overlordship of the Norman kings of England but with considerable local independence. Over many years these `` Marcher Lords '' conquered more and more of Wales, against considerable resistance led by various Welsh princes, who also often acknowledged the overlordship of the Norman kings of England. Edward I defeated Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, and so effectively conquered Wales, in 1282. He created the title Prince of Wales for his heir, the future Edward II, in 1301. Edward I 's conquest was brutal and the subsequent repression considerable, as the magnificent Welsh castles such as Conwy, Harlech, and Caernarfon attest ; but this event re-united under a single ruler the lands of Roman Britain for the first time since the establishment of the Kingdom of the Jutes in Kent in the 5th century, some 700 years before. Accordingly, this was a highly significant moment in the history of medieval England, as it re-established links with the pre-Saxon past. These links were exploited for political purposes to unite the peoples of the kingdom, including the Anglo - Normans, by popularising Welsh legends. The Welsh language -- derived from the British language, with significant Latin influences -- continued to be spoken by the majority of the population of Wales for at least another 500 years, and is still a majority language in parts of the country. Late Middle ages Main article : England in the Late Middle Ages Further information : Wars of the Roses and Hundred Years ' War Fifteenth - century miniature depicting the English victory over France at the Battle of Agincourt. Edward III was the first English king to have a claim to the throne of France. His pursuit of the claim resulted in the Hundred Years ' War ( 1337 -- 1453 ), which pitted five kings of England of the House of Plantagenet against five kings of France of the Capetian House of Valois. Though the English won numerous victories, they were unable to overcome the numerical superiority of the French and their strategic use of gunpowder weapons. England was defeated at the Battle of Formigny in 1450 and finally at the Battle of Castillon in 1453, retaining only a single town in France, Calais. During the Hundred Years ' War an English identity began to develop in place of the previous division between the Norman lords and their Anglo - Saxon subjects. This was a consequence of sustained hostility to the increasingly nationalist French, whose kings and other leaders ( notably the charismatic Joan of Arc ) used a developing sense of French identity to help draw people to their cause. The Anglo - Normans became separate from their cousins who held lands mainly in France and mocked the former for their archaic and bastardised spoken French. English also became the language of the law courts during this period. The kingdom had little time to recover before entering the Wars of the Roses ( 1455 -- 1487 ), a series of civil wars over possession of the throne between the House of Lancaster ( whose heraldic symbol was the red rose ) and the House of York ( whose symbol was the white rose ), each led by different branches of the descendants of Edward III. The end of these wars found the throne held by the descendant of an initially illegitimate member of the House of Lancaster, married to the eldest daughter of the House of York : Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. They were the founders of the Tudor dynasty, which ruled the kingdom from 1485 to 1603. Tudor period Main articles : Tudor period, Elizabethan era, Stuart period, and English Renaissance Wales had retained a separate legal and administrative system, which had been established by Edward I in the late 13th century. The country was divided between the Marcher Lords, who gave feudal allegiance to the crown, and the Principality of Wales. Under the Tudor monarchy, Henry VIII replaced the laws of Wales with those of England ( under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 -- 1542 ). Wales now was incorporated into the Kingdom of England, and henceforth was represented in the Parliament of England. Portrait of Elizabeth I made to commemorate the defeat of the Spanish Armada ( 1588 ), depicted in the background. Elizabeth 's international power is symbolised by the hand resting on the globe. During the 1530s, Henry VIII overthrew the power of the Roman Catholic Church within the kingdom, replacing the pope as head of the English Church and seizing the Church 's lands, thereby facilitating the creation of a variation of Catholicism that became more Protestant over time. This had the effect of aligning England with Scotland, which also gradually adopted a Protestant religion, whereas the most important continental powers, France and Spain, remained Roman Catholic. In 1541, during Henry VIII 's reign, the Parliament of Ireland proclaimed him king of Ireland, thereby bringing the Kingdom of Ireland into personal union with the Kingdom of England. Calais, the last remaining continental possession of the Kingdom, was lost in 1558, during the reign of Philip and Mary I. Their successor, Elizabeth I, consolidated the new and increasingly Protestant Church of England. She also began to build up the kingdom 's naval strength, on the foundations Henry VIII had laid down. By 1588, her new navy was strong enough to defeat the Spanish Armada, which had sought to invade England to put a Catholic monarch on the throne in her place. Early modern History Main articles : Early modern Britain and Stuart period The House of Tudor ended with the death of Elizabeth I on 24 March 1603. James I ascended the throne of England and brought it into personal union with the Kingdom of Scotland. Despite the Union of the Crowns, the kingdoms remained separate and independent states : a state of affairs which lasted for more than a century. Civil War and interregnum Main articles : English Civil War, English Interregnum, English Commonwealth, and English Protectorate Cromwell at Dunbar. Oliver Cromwell united the whole of the British Isles by force and created the Commonwealth of England. The Stuart kings overestimated the power of the English monarchy, and were cast down by Parliament in 1645 and 1688. In the first instance, Charles I 's introduction of new forms of taxation in defiance of Parliament led to the English Civil War ( 1641 -- 45 ), in which the king was defeated, and to the abolition of the monarchy under Oliver Cromwell during the interregnum of 1649 -- 1660. Henceforth, the monarch could reign only at the will of Parliament. After the trial and execution of Charles I in January 1649, the Rump Parliament passed an act declaring England to be a Commonwealth on 19 May 1649. The monarchy and the House of Lords were abolished, and so the House of Commons became a unitary legislative chamber with a new body, the Council of State becoming the executive. However the Army remain the dominant institution in the new republic and the most prominent general was Oliver Cromwell. The Commonwealth fought wars in Ireland and Scotland which were subdued and placed under Commonwealth military occupation. In April 1653 Cromwell and the other Grandees of the New Model Army, frustrated with the members of the Rump Parliament who would not pass legislation to dissolve the Rump and to allow a new more representative parliament to be elected, stopped the Rumps session by force of arms and declared the Rump dissolved. After an experiment with a Nominated Assembly ( Barebone 's Parliament ), the Grandees in the Army, through the Council of State imposed a new constitutional arrangement under a written constitution called the Instrument of Government. Under the Instrument of Government executive power lay with a Lord Protector ( an office be held for life of the incumbent ) and there were to be triennial Parliaments, with each sitting for at least five months. Article 23 of the Instrument of Government stated that Oliver Cromwell was to be the first Lord Protector. The Instrument of Government was replaced by a second constitution ( the Humble Petition and Advice ) under which the Lord Protector could nominate his successor. Cromwell nominated his son Richard who became Lord Protector on the death of Oliver on 3 September 1658. Restoration and Glorious Revolution Main articles : Restoration ( England ) and Glorious Revolution Richard proved to be ineffectual and was unable to maintain his rule. He resigned his title and retired into obscurity. The Rump Parliament was recalled and there was a second period where the executive power lay with the Council of state. But this restoration of Commonwealth rule similar to that before the Protectorate, proved to be unstable, and the exiled claimant, Charles II, was restored to the throne in 1660. Following the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, an attempt by James II to reintroduce Roman Catholicism -- a century after its suppression by the Tudors -- led to the Glorious Revolution of 1688, in which he was deposed by Parliament. The Crown was then offered by Parliament to James II 's Protestant daughter and son - in - law / nephew, William III and Mary II. Union with Scotland In the Scottish case, the attractions were partly financial and partly to do with removing English trade sanctions put in place through the Alien Act 1705. The English were more anxious about the royal succession. The death of William III in 1702 had led to the accession of his sister - in - law Anne to the thrones of England and Scotland, but her only surviving child had died in 1700, and the English Act of Settlement 1701 had given the succession to the English crown to the Protestant House of Hanover. Securing the same succession in Scotland became the primary object of English strategic thinking towards Scotland. By 1704, the Union of the Crowns was in crisis, with the Scottish Act of Security allowing for the Scottish Parliament to choose a different monarch, which could in turn lead to an independent foreign policy during a major European war. The English establishment did not wish to risk a Stuart on the Scottish throne, nor the possibility of a Scottish military alliance with another power. A Treaty of Union was agreed on 22 July 1706, and following the Acts of Union of 1707, which created the Kingdom of Great Britain, the independence of the kingdoms of England and Scotland came to an end on 1 May 1707. The Acts of Union created a customs union and monetary union and provided that any `` laws and statutes '' that were `` contrary to or inconsistent with the terms '' of the Acts would `` cease and become void ''. The English and Scottish Parliaments were merged into the Parliament of Great Britain, located in Westminster, London. At this point England ceased to exist as a separate political entity, and since then has had no national government. The laws of England were unaffected, with the legal jurisdiction continuing to be that of England and Wales, while Scotland continued to have its own laws and law courts. This continued after the 1801 union between the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Territorial divisions Further information : Historic counties of England, List of earldoms, Domesday Book, County palatine, English county histories, and English feudal barony The counties of England were established for administration by the Normans, in most cases based on earlier shires established by the Anglo - Saxons. They ceased to be used for administration only with the creation of the administrative counties in 1889. Unlike the partly self - governing boroughs that covered urban areas, the counties of medieval England existed primarily as a means of enforcing central government power, enabling monarchs to exercise control over local areas through their chosen representatives -- originally Sheriffs and later the Lord Lieutenants -- and their subordinate Justices of the Peace. Counties were used initially for the administration of justice, collection of taxes and organisation of the military, and later for local government and electing parliamentary representation. Although all of England was divided into shires by the time of the Norman conquest, some counties were formed considerably later, up to the 16th century. Because of their differing origins the counties varied considerably in size. The county boundaries were fairly static between the 16th century Laws in Wales acts and the Local Government Act 1888. Each shire was responsible for gathering taxes for the central government ; for local defence ; and for justice, through assize courts. The power of the feudal barons to control their landholding was considerably weakened in 1290 by the statute of Quia Emptores. Feudal baronies became perhaps obsolete ( but not extinct ) on the abolition of feudal tenure during the Civil War, as confirmed by the Tenures Abolition Act 1660 passed under the Restoration which took away Knights service and other legal rights. Tenure by knight - service was abolished and discharged and the lands covered by such tenures, including once - feudal baronies, were henceforth held by socage ( i.e. in exchange for monetary rents ). The English Fitzwalter Case in 1670 ruled that barony by tenure had been discontinued for many years and any claims to a peerage on such basis, meaning a right to sit in the House of Lords, were not to be revived, nor any right of succession based on them. The Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284 followed the conquest of Wales by Edward I of England. It assumed the lands held by the Princes of Gwynedd under the title `` Prince of Wales '' as legally part of the lands of England, and established shire counties on the English model over those areas. The Marcher Lords were progressively tied to the English kings by the grants of lands and lordships in England. The Council of Wales and the Marches, administered from Ludlow Castle, was initially established in 1472 by Edward IV of England to govern the lands held under the Principality of Wales. Under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 -- 1542 introduced under Henry VIII, the jurisdiction of the marcher lords was abolished in 1536. The Acts had the effect of annexing Wales to England and creating a single state and legal jurisdiction, commonly referred to as England and Wales. See also List of English monarchs English colonial empire English Army Royal Navy Privy Council of England Crown Jewels of England England and Wales Anglo - Norman language Middle English language Notes Jump up ^ Old English ( until 1066 ) Middle English ( 1066 -- 1550 ) Modern English ( 1550 -- 1707 ) Jump up ^ Old Welsh ( until 12th century ) Middle Welsh ( 12th -- 14th century ) Modern Welsh ( 14th century -- 1707 ) Jump up ^ Old Cornish ( until 12th century ) Middle Cornish ( 12th -- 16th century ) Late Cornish ( 16th century -- 1707 ) Jump up ^ Widely used for administrative and liturgical purposes. Jump up ^ The Constitution of the United Kingdom, with the reservation that it is `` uncodified '', is taken to be based in the Bill of Rights 1689. References Jump up ^ London, 800 -- 1216 : The Shaping of a City, ``... rivalry between City and government, between a commercial capital in the City and the political capital of quite a different empire in Westminster. '', accessed November 2013. Jump up ^ Acts of Union 1707 parliament.uk, accessed 27 January 2011 Jump up ^ Making the Act of Union 1707 scottish.parliament.uk, accessed 27 January 2011 Archived 11 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Jump up ^ Stephen Harris, Race and Ethnicity in Anglo - Saxon Literature, Studies in Medieval History and Culture, Routledge, 2004, 139f. Jump up ^ A.L. Mayhew and Walter W. Skeat, A Concise Dictionary of Middle English From A.D. 1150 To 1580 ( 1888 ) Jump up ^ `` Anglia '' ( par L. Favre, 1883 -- 1887 ), dans du Cange, et al., Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, éd. augm., Niort : L. Favre, 1883 ‐ 1887, t. 1, col. 251c. http://ducange.enc.sorbonne.fr/ANGLIA Jump up ^ The Anglo - Saxon Chronicle Freely licensed version at Gutenberg Project. Note : This electronic edition is a collation of material from nine diverse extant versions of the Chronicle. It contains primarily the translation of Rev. James Ingram, as published in the Everyman edition. Jump up ^ Asser 's Life of King Alfred, ch. 83, trans. Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge, Alfred the Great : Asser 's Life of King Alfred & Other Contemporary Sources ( Penguin Classics ) ( 1984 ), pp. 97 -- 8. Jump up ^ Vince, Alan, Saxon London : An Archaeological Investigation, The Archaeology of London series ( 1990 ). Jump up ^ Vision of Britain -- Type details for ancient county. Retrieved 19 October 2006. Jump up ^ Youngs, Frederic A, Jr. ( 1979 ). Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol. I : Southern England. London : Royal Historical Society. pp. xii -- xiii. ISBN 0 - 901050 - 67 - 9. Ancient County : Counties are geographic entities whose origins reach back into the pre-Conquest period. They were derived either from Anglo - Saxon kingdoms whose size made them suitable administrative units when England was unified in the tenth century, or as artificial creations formed from larger kingdoms. The number of ' shires ' ( the Anglo - Saxon term ) or ' counties ' ( Norman term ) varied in the medieval period, particularly in the north of England. Jump up ^ Chandler, J.A. ( 2007 ). `` Local government before 1832 ''. Explaining Local Government : Local Government in Britain Since 1800. Manchester : Manchester University Press. p. 2. ISBN 0719067065. Jump up ^ Hackwood, Frederick William ( 1920 ). The Story of the Shire, being the Lore, History and Evolution of English County Institutions ( PDF ). London : Heath Cranton Limited. Jump up ^ Byrne, Tony ( 1994 ). Local Government in Britain. Harmondsworth : Penguin Books. ISBN 0 - 14 - 017663 - 2. Jump up ^ Vision of Britain -- Census Geographies. Retrieved 19 October 2006. Jump up ^ Winchester, Angus JL ( 1990 ). Discovering Parish Boundaries. Oxford : Shire Publications. ISBN 0 - 7478 - 0060 - X. Jump up ^ William Searle Holdsworth, `` A History of English Law, '' Little, Brown, and Company, 1912, pg. 502 Bibliography Bartlett, Robert. England under the Norman and Angevin kings : 1075 - 1225 ( Oxford UP, 2002 ), major scholarly survey. Black, J.R. The Reign of Elizabeth, 1558 - 1603 ( 1959 ), scholarly survey. Borman, Tracy. Thomas Cromwell : The Untold Story of Henry VIII 's Most Faithful Servant ( 2015 ) popular biography. Elton, G.R., England under the Tudors ( London : Methuen, 1955 ), scholarly survey Ellis, Steven G. Ireland in the age of the Tudors, 1447 - 1603 : English expansion and the end of Gaelic rule ( Routledge, 2014 ). Guy, John. The Tudors : a very short introduction ( Oxford UP, 2013 ). Harriss, G.L. Shaping the nation : England 1360 - 1461 ( Oxford UP, 2005 ), scholarly survey. Jacob, E.F. The Fifteenth Century, 1399 - 1485 ( Oxford History of England, 1961 ) ), scholarly survey. Jenkins, Elizabeth. Elizabeth the Great ( Time Incorporated, 1964 ). popular well - illustrated biography. Jones, J. Gwynfor. Wales and the Tudor state : government, religious change and the social order, 1534 - 1603 ( U of Wales Press, 1989 ). Levin, Carole. The heart and stomach of a king : Elizabeth I and the politics of sex and power ( U of Pennsylvania Press, 2013 ). Loades, David Michael. Politics and nation : England 1450 - 1660 ( Wiley - Blackwell, 1999 ). Loades, David Michael. Power in Tudor England ( 1997 ). McCaffrey, Wallace. Elizabeth I, a major scholarly biography McKisack, May. The Fourteenth Century, 1307 - 1399 ( Oxford History of England, 1959 ). Neale, J.E. Queen Elizabeth I : a biography ( 1957 ) old scholarly biography ; very well written. Penn, Thomas. Winter king : Henry VII and the dawn of Tudor England ( 2012 ). Powicke, Maurice. The Thirteenth Century, 1216 - 1307 ( Oxford History of England, 1962 ) scholarly survey Ridley, Jasper G. Henry VIII ( 1985 ), biography. Roberts, Clayton, F. David Roberts, and Douglas Bisson. A History of England, Volume 1 : Prehistory to 1714 ( Routledge, 2016 ). university textbook. Thomson, John A, F. The Transformation of Medieval England 1370 - 1529 ( Routledge, 2014 ). Williams, Penry. The Later Tudors : England, 1547 - 1603 ( Oxford UP, 1995 ), major scholarly survey... Preceded by The Heptarchy c. 500 -- c. 927 Kingdom of England c. 927 -- 1649 Succeeded by English Interregnum 1649 -- 1660 Preceded by English Interregnum 1649 -- 1660 Kingdom of England 1660 -- 1707 Succeeded by Kingdom of Great Britain 1707 -- 1800 Kingdom of England History Timeline Anglo - Saxon England Heptarchy Kingdom of England Norman conquest Anglo - Normans Angevin Empire England in the Late Middle Ages Wars of the Roses Tudor period Stuart period English Renaissance English Reformation Elizabethan era Union of the Crowns Overseas possessions Gunpowder Plot Jacobean era Civil War Interregnum Commonwealth of England The Protectorate Restoration Popish Plot Glorious Revolution Maritime history Economy in the Middle Ages Union with Scotland Royal Houses Wessex Knýtlinga Normandy Angevin Plantagenet Lancaster York Tudor Stuart Orange - Nassau Politics Law Witenagemot Curia regis Parliament House of Lords House of Commons Monarchy Council of State Lord Protector Peerage Privy Council Ministries Secretary of State Governance Elizabethan Star Chamber Whigs Tories Acts of Parliament : to 1483 1485 -- 1601 1603 -- 1641 1642 -- 1660 1660 -- 1699 1700 -- 1706 Military Anglo - Saxon military Warfare English Army New Model Army Royal Navy Ships History Geography Counties Islands Places Towns Castles Palaces Demographics English language English people list Culture Religion Church of England Cuisine Folklore Morris dance Country dance Architecture Anglo - Saxon English Gothic Tudor Elizabethan Jacobean Queen Anne Georgian Symbols National flag ( list ) Heraldry Coat of arms College of Arms Royal Badges Royal Supporters Royal Standard Crown Jewels Tudor rose Oak tree St George St George 's Day Articles on the history of England British Isles Terminology Alba Albion Prydain Britain Éire Hibernia Naming dispute Politics Sovereign states Ireland United Kingdom ( England Northern Ireland Scotland Wales ) Crown dependencies Guernsey Jersey Isle of Man Sark Political cooperation Ireland -- United Kingdom relations British -- Irish Council British -- Irish Intergovernmental Conference British -- Irish Parliamentary Assembly Common Travel Area Geography Island groups Channel Islands Islands of the Clyde Great Britain Hebrides Inner Outer Ireland Isle of Man Northern Isles Orkney Shetland Isles of Scilly Lists of islands of Bailiwick of Guernsey Ireland Bailiwick of Jersey Isle of Man United Kingdom England Scotland Wales History Island groups Ireland Current states Ireland United Kingdom England Northern Ireland Scotland Wales Guernsey Jersey Isle of Man Former states Irish Free State Kingdom of England Principality of Wales Kingdom of Great Britain Kingdom of Ireland Kingdom of Scotland United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Society Modern languages Germanic English Scots Celtic Cornish Scottish Gaelic Irish Manx Welsh Romance Auregnais French Guernésiais Jèrriais Sercquiais Other British Sign Language Irish Sign Language Northern Ireland Sign Language Shelta People British Cornish English English Gypsies Irish Irish Travellers Kale Manx Northern Irish Scottish Ulster - Scots Welsh Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kingdom_of_England&oldid=820932495 '' Categories : Former countries in the British Isles Former state unions States and territories established in the 10th century States and territories disestablished in 1707 Kingdom of England 1707 disestablishments in Great Britain Former kingdoms Former monarchies of Europe 10th - century establishments in England Anglo - Saxon England States and territories established in the 920s 927 establishments Hidden categories : Articles with specifically marked weasel - worded phrases from November 2015 Webarchive template wayback links EngvarB from May 2017 Use dmy dates from May 2017 Former country articles requiring maintenance Pages using infobox country or infobox former country with the flag caption or type parameters Pages using infobox country or infobox former country with the symbol caption or type parameters Articles containing Latin - language text Talk Contents About Wikipedia Languages Afrikaans Alemannisch Azərbaycanca تۆرکجه Bân - lâm - gú Беларуская Български Català Čeština Cymraeg Dansk Deutsch Eesti Ελληνικά Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Français Frysk Gaeilge Gaelg Galego 한국어 Հայերեն हिन्दी Bahasa Indonesia Íslenska Italiano עברית ქართული Қазақша Latviešu Magyar Македонски Bahasa Melayu Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Norsk nynorsk ਪੰਜਾਬੀ پنجابی Polski Português Română Русский Scots Simple English Slovenčina Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska தமிழ் ไทย Türkçe Українська اردو Tiếng Việt Yorùbá 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 17 January 2018, at 13 : 11. 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Question: what was the capital of uk before london
Answer: Winchester