HI 111 - British History to 1688

Fulfills SUNY General Education – Western Civilization.

Course Outcomes
Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• relate the English heritage to the development of North American and global history;
• demonstrate an understanding of the basic geography and topography of Britain;
• describe the prehistory of the British Isles (i.e. the period before 55 B.C.) and analyze the civilization of the Windmill Hill peoples, Peterborough folk, Beaker folk, and Celts;
• summarize and explain Queen Boudicca’s revolt against the Roman occupation under Governor Seutonius Paulinus;
• describe the conquest of Britain by the forces of the Roman Emperor Claudius in A.D. 43, and analyze the impact of a highly civilized empire on a remote island;
• outline the reasons for the collapse of the Roman Empire and relate the consequences for Britain of Germanic barbarian invasions into the empire;
• analyze the displacement of Celtic Britons by Anglo-Saxon invaders;
• explain the impact of both Irish-Celtic by Anglo-Saxon invaders;
• describe the weakness of the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy in confronting Viking invasions;
• summarize King Alfred the Great’s strategy for coping with the Viking threat through a program of military reforms and through trading land (the Danelaw) for time;
• describe the historical factors that precipitated the Norman Invasion of Britain in 1066 by detailing the claims of the three competitors for the British throne upon the death of King Edward the Confessor in 1066: William the Bastard, Harold Godwinson, and Harold Hardrada;
• illustrate the importance of historical perspective by interpreting the record of the Battle of Hastings provided by the Bayeux Tapestry;
• give examples from the Domesday Book that illustrate the lives of ordinary people in the 11th century;
• explain William the Conqueror’s introduction of feudalism and relate its development to the institution of manorialism;
• demonstrate the dysfunctional relationship between William I and his sons, and establish its historical significance;
• relate the phenomenon of Crusades to the political desires of the papacy, and to assess the impact on the reigns of particular kings like Richard I;
• compare the conflict between King Henry II and his Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Beckett, with similar conflicts between church and state in other reigns;
• analyze the reasons for and the historical significance of the Magna Carta in 1215;
• relate the unrest under the reign of King John with the consequences of his feud with Pope Innocent III;
• explain the institutional rise of the English parliament from its inception under Simon de Montfort;
• illustrate the political effectiveness of King Edward I through his use of statutes, such as Statute of Mortmain and the Statute of Maltote;
• explain the causes and consequences of the Hundred Years War between England and France;
• explain the causes and consequences of Bubonic Plague in the British Isles;
• summarize the War of the Roses between the Lancasters and Yorks and explain the rise of the Tudors;
• outline the effectiveness of King Henry VII in rebuilding the monarchy’s finances;
• identify all six wives of Henry VIII, and detail his reasons for his break with the Church of Rome;
• describe the religious policies of Elizabeth I and state how she survived the invasion of the Spanish Armada (1588);
• differentiate between the competing forces in the English Civil War: Cavaliers and Roundheads;
• explain why King Charles I was executed by the will of the Rump Parliament;
• assess the establishment of republican government under Oliver Cromwell;
• conclude why the monarchy was restored in 1660; and
• explain why the Glorious Revolution of1688 was a bloodless revolution.