Реферат: 4 capitals of Great Britain
In 1762 George
III acquired Buckingham Palace (then known as "house") from the Duke
of Buckingham. It was enlarged over the next 75 years by architects such as
John Nash. It would not be until the 19th century, however, that the palace
would become the principle London royal residence.
A phenomenon
of 18th century London was the coffee house, which became a popular place to
debate ideas. Growing literacy and the development of the printing press meant
that news became widely available. Fleet Street became the centre of the
embryonic British press during the century.
18th century
London was dogged by crime, the Bow Street Runners were established in 1750 as
a professional police force. Penalties for crime were harsh, with the death
penalty being applied for fairly minor crimes. Public hangings were common in
London, and were popular public events.
In 1780 London
was rocked by the Gordon Riots, an uprising by Protestants against Roman
Catholic emancipation led by Lord George Gordon. Severe damage was caused to
Catholic churches and homes, and 285 rioters were killed.
In the year
1787, freed slaves from London, America, and many of Britain's colonies founded
Freetown in modern-day Sierra Leone.
Up until 1750,
London Bridge was the only crossing over the Thames, but in that year
Westminster Bridge was opened and, for the first time in history, London
Bridge, in a sense, had a rival.
The 18th
century saw the breakaway of the American colonies and many other unfortunate
events in London, but also great change and Enlightenment. This all led into
the beginning of modern times, the 19th century.
During the
19th century the number of crimes punishable by death rose to about 200. Some, such as treason or murder, were
serious crimes. The death sentence could be passed for picking pockets,
stealing bread or cutting down a tree. Minor crime was punished by being
sent to prisons, sometimes transported abroad for theft, whipped in public.
And nowadays
there are few places that offer such a variety of sights, entertainments,
educational and business opportunities, world- famous museums and theatres, and
superb shopping. London draws people from all over the world. Some come to
study, to work or on holiday. London is naturally a very English city, yet it
is the least typical of Britain as it is very cosmopolitan, containing goods, food
and entertainment, as well as people, from many countries of the world.
Edinburgh
During its prehistory in the Iron and Bronze Ages, man existed in
the area around Holyrood, Craiglockhart Hill and the Pentlands, leaving traces
of primitive stone settlements. At the time of its actual foundation, it was a
part of the Kingdom of Northumbria, an Anglian kingdom on the east side of
Great Britain, spanning from the River Humber to the Firth of Forth. The area
surrounding Castle Rock, then known as "Lookout Hill" become the
foundation point. On the hill Edwin of Northumbria a powerful Christian king
founded the fortress to secure the northern part of his territory against
invasion. This fortress was known in the Brythonic language as Din Eidyn, which
means "Edwin's fort" after the king. As the fortess grew, many houses
were re-located towards the ridge of castlehill. A layout began to form, when
householders would be given the option to be granted a "toft" or
stretch of garden behind the ridge. The name eventually developed through the
English language into first Edwinesburch and then into Edinburgh, the name it
is known by today. After the murder of St. Oswald King of Northumbria,
Edinburgh fell under the control of the Danelaw.
Battles between the Scots and various invaders for the custody of
Edinburgh Castle are a recurring theme in the history of Edinburgh. Castle
Rock, a volcanic crag now crowned by Edinburgh Castle, was created some 340
millions years ago during the Paleozoic Era. With three vertical sides, the
rock is a natural fortification. It is believed to have been used as a
stronghold as early as the first centuries of the first millennium.
When Agricola, the Roman Governor of Britain, advanced north in AD
79 he encountered the Celtic tribe of Votadinii, who controlled the Forth River
valley and are thought to have based themselves around site of Edinburgh
castle. There is archaeological evidence that the Roman army had a base near
Edinburgh too, and that they mixed with the locals on a daily basis. But the
Romans never really mastered Caledonia and by 211 they had retreated behind
Hadrian's wall, about a hundred miles to the south of the city, and by 410 they
had left Britain for good.
In the 7th century an English King, Edwin of Northumbria, pushed north
and won control of much of lowland Scotland. He built a fort on the strategic
castle rock and called it Dun Eadain meaning 'Fortress-on-a-Hill'. This fort
may have later become known as either Edwin's Burgh or Eadain's Burgh (there
has been much debate as to whether this is actually true) and later, obviously,
Edinburgh.
Hereford Mappa
Mundi, featuring Edinburgh in 1300
In the 10th century, with
the collapse of the Danelaw the Scots captured the position. Then in the 12th
century a small town flourished at the base of the castle known as Edinburgh,
along side which another community rose up to the East around the Abbey of
Holyrood, known as Holyrood, together in the 13th century these became Royal
Burghs. In consequence to Edinburgh's earlier Anglo-Saxon rule, Edinburgh and
the Border counties lay in a disputed zone between England and Scotland,
England claiming all Anglo-Saxon Domains as English territory, and Scotland
claiming all territory as far south as Hadrians Wall, the result being a long
series of border wars and clashes, which often left Edinburgh Castle under
English control. It was not until the 15th century when Edinburgh remained for the most
firmly under Scottish control, that King James IV of Scotland undertook, to
move the Royal Court from Stirling to Holyrood, making Edinburgh by proxy
Scotland's capital.
As Edinburgh
remained under Scottish Rule, with the nearby port and Royal Burgh of Leith,
Edinburgh flourished both economically and culturally. In 1603, following King James VI's
accession to the English and Irish Thrones, James VI instituted the first
executive Parliament of Scotland which met in the Great Hall of Edinburgh
Castle, later finding a home in the Tolbooth, before moving to purpose-built
Parliament House, Edinburgh, which is now home to the Supreme Courts of
Scotland[citation needed]. In 1639 disputes over the planned merger, between
the Presbyterian Church and the Anglican Church, and the demands by Charles I,
to reunify the divided St. Giles' Cathedral, led to the Bishops Wars, which in
turn led to the English Civil War, and the eventual the occupation of Edinburgh
by Commonwealth forces of Oliver Cromwell. In the 1670s King Charles II
commissioned the rebuilding of Holyrood Palace.
An 1802 illustration of Edinburgh from the West
During the last Jacobite rebellion Edinburgh was occupied by
Jacobite forces, after the retreat of Jacobite forces from Derby it was
re-occupied by British forces under the command of the Prince William, Duke of
Cumberland. Following the defeat of Jacobites there was a long period of
reprisals and pacification. At this time, the Hanoverian Monarch wished to
stamp his identity on Edinburgh and new developments to the North of the castle
were named in honour of the King and his Family; George Street, Frederick
Street, Hanover Street, Queen Street, Prince’s Street, Castle Street and with
control of the ‘Rose’ of England and the ‘Thistle’ of Scotland these names were
also allocated to Streets. The original plan for this build was to be
constructed in the form of King James VI’s Union Flag and this shape can be
detected when viewing the layout of the aforementioned streets from above.
Out of the mess left behind by the consequences of the Jacobite
rebellion came a number of Scottish Intellectuals, many from Edinburgh,
including Adam Smith, who felt it was time to put the history of the Clans of
Scotland behind them and that this was a time for Scotland to modernise. They
promoted the idea of Britishness, and led Great Britain and the British Empire
into a golden age of economic and social reform and prosperity. It was during
this period, that Edinburgh expanded beyond the limits of its city walls, with
the creation of the New Town, following the draining of the Nor Loch, which has
since become Princes Street Gardens. Edinburgh became a major cultural centre,
earning it the nickname Athens of the North because of the Greco-Roman style of
the New Towns' architecture, as well as the rise of the Scottish/British
intellectual elite in the city, who were increasingly leading both British and
European intellectual thought. Edinburgh is particularly noted for its fine
architecture, especially from the Georgian period. In 17th-century Edinburgh, a
defensive city wall defined the boundaries of the city. Due to the restricted
land area available for development, the houses increased in height instead.
Buildings of 11 stories were common, and there are records of buildings as high
as 14 stories,[citation needed] and thus are thought to be the pioneers for the
modern-day skyscraper. Many of the stone-built structures can still be seen
today in the old town of Edinburgh.
In the 19th century Edinburgh like many cities industrialised, but
most of this was undertaken in Leith, which meant that Edinburgh as a whole did
not grow greatly in size. Glasgow soon replaced it as the largest and most
prosperous city in Scotland, becoming the industrial, commercial and trade
centre, while Edinburgh remained almost purely Scotland's intellectual and
cultural centre, which it remains to this day as one of the greatest cultural
centres of the UK.
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