The Reformation begun under Henry VIII., completed under Elizabeth— The monarchy firmly and finally established on the ruins of Feudalism-Parliament, the only check on the Crown, maintains its rights with some fluctuations, but makes little progress―The Epoch of maritime discovery, of commercial enterprise, and of the Sovereigns.-(Tudors)-Henry VIII., 1509-1547. Edward VI., 1547-1553. The Dynasty of the Stuarts (1603-1688) was marked by the long struggle of the people against arbitrary power, and for the legiti- mate influence of Parliament. During this struggle the Govern- ment of England assumed for a time, under the Protectorship of Oliver Cromwell, the form of a Republic; returned subsequently to monarchy through the restoration of Charles II.; sank again into despotism under James II., and was delivered and finally established on a true Constitutional and Parliamentary basis by [During this Epoch flourished Newton, Locke, Milton, Bunyan, Sovereigns. (The Stuarts)-James I., 1603-1625. Charles I., 1625-1649. The [During this Epoch Addison, Steele, and Pope flourished.] Sovereigns.-William III. and Mary, 1689-1702. Anne, 1702-1714. Extension and settlement of British imperial power in India and the New World under the House of Hanover. During this period, from George 1. to George II., England won most of her colonies, laid [Samuel Johnson, Hume, Gibbon, Robertson, Cowper, Burns, Sovereigns.-(The Brunswick Dynasty)-George I., 1714-1727. George II. The French Revolution led to the great struggle with Napoleon Buonaparte, ending in 1815, forming an Epoch which deserves to be called that of Nelson and Wellington, [Byron, Shelley, Wordsworth, and Sir Walter Scott flourished.] Reforms embracing every branch of British institutions and of law, pro- secuted so steadily from the Peace of 1815 to the present time, that this deserves to be called the Epoch of Social Reforms, [Macaulay, Thomas Carlyle, Tennyson, and many others dis- tinguished in literature and science, adorn this Epoch.] Sovereigns-George Iv., 1820-1830. William Iv., 1830-1837. Victoria, 1837. HISTORY OF ENGLAND IN EPOCHS. INTRODUCTION. ROMAN INVASION AND OCCUPATION OF BRITAIN, EMBRACING A PERIOD THE Britons were a portion of that great Celtic race which formed the first stratum of European population. Centuries before the Christian era, Phoenician navigators traded with the inhabitants of Britain, giving such commodities as salt, earthenware, and copper, in exchange for the produce of the tin-mines of Cornwall. Fifty-five years B.C., Julius Cæsar, the great Roman general, landed on the coast of Britain, in the neighbourhood of Deal. The natives offered a vigorous resistance, and the galleys bearing the Roman cavalry having been scattered by a tempest, Cæsar deemed it wise to postpone further attempts till the next spring, when he again made a descent at the same spot. On this occasion he was encountered by the valour and rude skill of Cassibelanus, at the head of the warlike tribe of the Cassii. Cæsar, although he penetrated a considerable way into the interior, made no permanent conquest of the island. During 97 years the Britons were left undisturbed, till A.D. 43, when Claudius (fourth Roman emperor) sent Aulus Plautius to conquer the island. He was succeeded by Ostorius Scapula, who found a resolute antagonist in Caractacus, king or chief of the warlike tribe of the Silures. Caractacus was defeated, and sent captive to Rome, but was afterwards liberated by Claudius. A.D. 57.—Suetonius Paulinus, sent by Nero (sixth Roman emperor) to take the command, discovered that a spirit of resistance and independence was kept alive by the Celtic priests, A |