User Reviews

For Professor Schama, the Magna Carta and events in Britain in the thirteenth century presage the modern notion of nationalism. In its embryonic form, rule by force was no longer acceptable. The order of the day is rule by consent. The birth of Parliament occurred in this century.

The Welsh, Scots, and Irish battle the English for the opportunity to become sovereign nations. But that battle is not only for territory, but for ideas about what an independent nation should be. Should it be an extension of a single ruler, or should it entail the will of the people as well as the prince? The language used in the age included the objective of "a community and a realm."

The son of Henry III, Edward I (Longshanks) was responsible for the strong reaction to peoples within his kingdom against his attempt to style himself as a new Augustus Caesar. Edward was the first truly English king. Westminster Abbey was the symbolic heart of the kingdom.

The Magna Carta placed real limitations on a king who had to defer to a council of the barons. The year 1258 marked the first convocation that shaped Parliament. At Oxford, the barons were led by Simon de Montfort, who was a man on a mission. There was conceived at Oxford the document that emasculated the concept of a monarchy that had been the dream of Henry III. The council at Runnymede was now expanded into a ruling force.

Longshanks (or "The Leopard King") now went to war with Simon de Montfort, who had previously engaged with both Henry III. At Kenilworth, Simon is killed in battle. Now, Edward I's coronation occurs, and he seeks the revival of Roman Britannia.

Edward launches an expedition of Wales to subdue a noble people and destroy its cultural identity. In 1290, Edward I oversees the expulsion of the Jews from England, the first instance of a European nation engaging in ethnic cleansing. It is now on to Scotland for Edward I. At the Battle of Stanford Bridge, William Wallace wins a stunning victory.

You can just smell tragedy in the stonework at Dunfermline Abbey. Robert the Bruce and the Scots make a strong stand. The new king Edward II flees the field, leaving his shield and his honor behind. His queen Isabella has sweet revenge with Edward's deposition.

The Declaration at Aroath Abbey is high water mark. Robert the Bruce is Scotland's Simon de Montfort. The Battle of Bannockburn in June 1314 is a triumph of the army of King of Scots, Robert the Bruce over the army of King Edward II of England in the First War of Scottish Independence. But in 1318, Bruce is killed. The Scots now engage in adventurism in Ireland, leaving widows and tragic ballads...and much more when it comes to the fierce spirit of nationalism.