Im England der Tudorzeit legte das Luxusgesetz fest, welche Farbe und welches Aussehen Kleidung haben durfte, aber auch welche Hunderassen gehalten werden durften. Dies war ein einfacher Weg, Rang und Privilegien zu unterscheiden. Einzelpersonen, die nicht Mitglieder des Königshauses waren, war es unter Androhung der Todesstrafe nicht erlaubt, das „Königliche Purpur“ zu tragen.

Geschichte Großbritanniens/Prähistorische Zeit

Entsprechend wären in Geschichte der Britischen Inseln die jeweiligen (noch zu schaffenden) Artikel für den jeweiligen Zeitraum als Hauptartikel einzutragen. (Das Schaffen der Artikel wäre einfach, weil nur die entsprechenden Abschnitte der gegenwärtigen Geschichte Englands ab 1707 in die betreffenden Artikel zu verlagern wäre.) --Cethegus 16:50, 29. Okt 2005 (CEST)

(gedacht als Verbesserung der Seite: Geschichte der Britischen Inseln)

Von Alfred bis Wilhelm I. . (für Geschichte Englands und Brit. Inseln)

The Act of Union is a name given to several acts passed by the English, Scottish and British Parliaments from 1536 onwards. Among those:

   * Acts of Union 1536-1543 joining England and Wales (as the Kingdom of England)
   * Act of Union 1707 joining the Kingdoms of Scotland and England (to form the Kingdom of Great Britain)
   * Act of Union 1800 joining Ireland to Great Britain (to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland)
   * Act of Union 1840 joining Upper Canada and Lower Canada (to form the Province of Canada).


The Acts of Union 1536–1543 were a series of parliamentary measures by which Wales was annexed to England and the norms of English administration introduced in order to create a single state. They refer in particular to two acts of parliament passed in 1536 and 1543 during the reign of King Henry VIII of England.

Background

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Flag of England
 
Flag of Wales

From the time Wales had been conquered in 1282-1283 until the passing of the Acts of Union 1536-1543, the administrative system of Wales had been the same. By the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284 the territory of the native Welsh rulers had been broken up into the five counties of Anglesey, Caernarfon, Cardigan, Carmarthen, and Merioneth. Even though the five counties were subject to English criminal law, the 'principality' was the king of England's own personal fief. The rest of Wales, except for the county of Flint which was part of the principality, and the royal lordships of Glamorgan and Pembroke, was made up of numerous small marcher lordships, each with its own courts, laws, and other customs.

When Henry VII came to the throne in 1485 no change was made to the system of governing the country. But he remained concerned about the power of the Marcher lords and the lawlessness and disorder in the marcher country of Wales. To deal with this there was a revival of the Council of Wales and the Marches which had been established in the reign of Edward IV. In fact, after the death of many of the marcher lords during the Wars of the Roses many of the lordships had passed into the hands of the crown.

Henry VIII did not see the need to reform the government of Wales at the beginning of his reign, but gradually he perceived a threat from some of the remaining marcher lords and therefore instructed his chief administrator, Thomas Cromwell, to seek a solution. His solution was the annexation or incorporation of Wales which, along with other significant changes at the same time, led to the creation of England as a modern sovereign state.

The acts

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This was done by passing a series of measures between 1536 and 1543, now termed the 'Acts of Union'. These included:

  • An act for laws and justice to be ministered in Wales in like form as it is in this realm (27 Henry VIII c. 26) in 1536, and,
  • An act for certain ordinances in the king's dominion and principality of Wales (34 and 35 Henry VIII c. 26) in 1543.

The first of these acts was passed by the English parliament which had no representatives from Wales in it at all and its effect was to make Wales an integral part of the kingdom of England: Wales ... is and ever hath bene incorporated, annexed, united and subiecte to and under the imperialle Crown of the Realme as a verry membre ... of the same.

Effects of the acts

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These acts also had the following effects on the administration of Wales:

  • the marcher lordships were abolished as political units and five new counties established thus creating a Wales of thirteen counties;
  • the borders of Wales were established and have remained the same since (although it should be noted that the status of Monmouthshire was ambiguous until 1974);
  • courts of the marcher lordships lost the power to try serious criminal cases;
  • the office of justice of the peace was introduced;
  • Wales elected members to the Westminster parliament;
  • the Council of Wales and the Marches was established on a legal basis;
  • the Court of Great Sessions were established, a system peculiar to Wales;
  • a sheriff was appointed in every county, and other county officers as in England.

These measure were not unpopular with the Welsh, who recognised that they would give them equality under law with English citizens. The reaction of the prominent Welsh of the day and down the centuries were very similar – gratitude that the laws had been introduced and made Wales a peaceful and orderly country. It was only much later that some of the Welsh started to see, in the words of A. O. H. Jarman, "that the privileges of citizenship were only given to the Welsh on condition that they forgot their own particular past and personality, denied their Welshness, and merged with England."

The acts and the Welsh language

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An often quoted example of this is a clause in the 1536 Act (27 Henry VIII c. 26) to outlaw the Welsh language from official use, replacing it with English. It refers in the act to the Welsh language in these terms:

the people of the same dominion have and do daily use a speche nothing like ne consonaut to the naturall mother tonge used within this Realme,

and then declares the intention utterly to extirpe alle and singular sinister usages and customs belonging to Wales.

English was made the only language of the law courts and that those who used Welsh would not be appointed to any public office in Wales. An effect of the language clause was to lay the foundation for creating a thoroughly Anglicised ruling class of landed gentry in Wales which would have many consequences for the future.

The parts of the 1536 Act relating to language were only formally repealed in 1993 by the Welsh Language Act 1993.

Der Weg zum Vereinigten Königreich

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Irland 18 Jh. (zu kürzen)

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1750 und 1797 kam es zu weiteren großen Aufständen. Napoléon I. unterstützte die Iren durch eine Flotte, doch auch diese wurde bald geschlagen. So wurde Irland 1801 dem Königreich Großbritannien angeschlossen, das von nun an Vereinigtes Königreich von Großbritannien und Irland genannt wurde.

Große Hungersnot und Home Rule League

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Kartoffel-Missernten lösten die "Große Hungersnot" (engl. Great Famine) aus, die zwischen 1846 und 1849 zahlreiche Menschenleben forderte und eine große Auswanderungswelle nach sich zog. Insgesamt verringerte sich die Bevölkerung von ehemals 8.5 Millionen Einwohner auf nur noch 6 Millionen Einwohner. Die britische Regierung half praktisch nicht. Dadurch begann in der zweiten Hälfte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts die irische Unabhängigkeitsbewegung zu erstarken. Führend darin waren Patrick Pearse, Michael Collins, Roger Casement und Eamon de Valera. Einige der ersten gravierenderen Proteste wurden von Daniel O'Connell organisiert, der 1828 als erster Katholik seit Beginn der Katholikenemanzipation ins Parlament des Vereinigten Königreichs gewählt worden war. Die britische Regierung benötigte 1843 sogar Truppen und Artillerie, um die bei Clontarf ausgebrochenen Aufstände niederzuschlagen. Eine weitere wichtige Unabhängigkeitsbewegung waren die Fenier. Sie veröffentlichten ihre Forderungen nach politischer Unabhängigkeit in der Zeitung "The Irish People". Sehr bekannt ist auch die "Home Government Association" oder "Home Rule League". Die 1870 von dem Rechtsanwalt Isaac Butt gegründete Organisation hatte das gleiche Ziel wie die Fenierbewegung und mit zeitweise bis zu 60 Abgeordneten im Parlament auch politischen Einfluss.

Im Mai 1914 verabschiedete das britische Unterhaus dann endlich die "Home Rule Bill". Irland sollte eine eigene Verfassung und Selbstverwaltung zugestanden werden. Vorhergehende Versuche zu einer Regelung waren noch 1913 aufgrund von Protesten aus der nordirischen Region Ulster vom House of Lords abgelehnt worden. Aufgrund des Ausbruchs des Ersten Weltkriegs wurde das Gesetz aber nicht vollständig umgesetzt.


Für alle Gebiete ab 1707 nach Geschichte des Vereinigten Königreichs (gekürzt und für Entwicklung des 20. Jh. ergänzt)

Republik Irland ab 1927

Geschichte von Wales und Nordirland einbauen, soweit erforderlich

Die weiteren Inseln Isle of Man, Orkneys etc.

Verfassungsgeschichte Englands von 1066 bis 1603

Geschichte Schottlands#Killing Times

Geschichte Schottlands#Volle Union

Geschichte Irlands#Vom Bürgerkrieg bis zum Vereinigten Königreich

Königserhebung

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