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Our English Heritage
 A two-year course, each split into four terms, following English history from Alfred the Great to World War II.
In the First year themes such as English common law, Parliament, the Exchequer, local government and justice, the struggle for freedom of conscience and civil liberties are just some of the issues covered. The military glories, but ultimate futility of the Hundred Years’ War consolidated England as an island alone. After the upheaval of the Reformation England becomes a Protestant nation, while Mary Tudor stands as the last mediaeval monarch and brings to and end the transitional period from Mediaeval to Modern.
In the Second year the story will pick up from the accession of Elizabeth I and explore her troubled but glorious reign, the struggles of the Puritans against the Stuarts, the Glorious Revolution and the beginnings of Empire until the loss of America. The era of reform, the second British Empire and the Victorian age dominate the nineteenth century, until the outbreak of World War I, with the end of the British Empire in the aftermath of World War II.
In outline, the eight terms are as follows:
Year 1
Term 1: Beginnings
1. The Saxon Period I: Alfred the Great, Edgar the Peaceful
2. The Saxon Period II: Ethelred’s misrule, Cnut the Dane
3. The Saxon Period III: Edward the Confessor and Harold
4. The Norman Conquest: William the Conqueror, Domesday Book
5. Henry I and the Anarchy: Marriage to Edith, the White Ship, Matilda vs. Stephen
6. Henry II: the Angevin Empire, Judicial reforms
7. Henry II: Struggles between Church and State; Murder of Becket
8. Richard I: The Third Crusade, and Richard’s capture in Austria
9. John: Conflict with Pope Innocent III, loss of Empire, Magna Carta
 Term 2: Foundations of England
1. Henry III: Minority and early years, 1216 – 1255
2. Henry III: The Origins of Parliament, 1255 – 1265
3. Edward I: The English Justinian
4. Edward I: The Hammer of the Scots
5. Edward II: The homosexual king? Deposition and Mystery
6. Edward III: The Hundred Years’ War
7. Edward III: The Black Death, John Wycliffe
8. Richard II: The Peasants’ Revolt
9. Richard II: Overthrow and Murder
Term 3: Triumph and Humiliation
1. Henry IV: Consolidation of Power
2. Henry V: Triumph in France
3. Henry VI: Minority: rule of the Beauforts
4. Henry VI: Marriage and Misrule
5. Henry VI: Wars of the Roses
6. Edward IV: The Kingmaker
7. Edward IV: Tewkesbury and Aftermath. .
8. Richard III: Usurpation, the Two Princes, and Bosworth
9. Henry VII: A New Autocracy
 Term 4: Revolt and Reformation
1. Henry VII: The Age of Discovery
2. Henry VIII: The Flamboyant Prince
3. Henry VIII: Revolt against Rome
4. Henry VIII: The Six Wives
5.Edward VI: Boy King and Ardent Protestant
6. Mary Tudor: Bigoted Catholic and Last Mediaeval Monarch
7. Overview and Summary
Year 2
Term 1: Good Queen Bess and Struggles with the Stuarts
1. Elizabeth I: A New Beginning – the Early Year
2. Elizabeth I: Consolidation – the Middle Years.
3. Elizabeth I: Sea Dogs, Colonial Experiments, and Defeat of the Armada
4. Elizabeth I: Gloriana – the Last Fifteen Years
5. James I: Until 1612
6. James I: 1613 to 1625
7. Charles I: With, then without Parliament
8. Charles I: King without Parliament; King against Parliament
9. Charles I: Civil War and Commonwealth
Term 2: Restoration, Revolution, and Limited Monarchy
1. Charles II: Restoration, eviction of Puritanism, and Debauchery
2.Charles II: Disasters, and the “Popish Plot”
3. James II: Sedgemoor, the “Bloody Assize”, and the Seven Bishops
4. James II: The Glorious Revolution
5. William III: The Settlement, Siege of Londonderry, and the Glencoe Massacre
6. William III: Foreign Wars; rise of the Churchill family
7. Anne: Occasional Conformity; Marlborough’s brilliant victories
8. George I: Hanoverian Succession, The Old Pretender
9. George II: The Walpole Era: Bonny Prince Charlie
Term 3: The British Empire
1. George III: Loss of America
2. George III: Clive of India; Colonising the South Seas
3.George III: Industrial Revolution, Religious Revival, Wilberforce
4. Regency: Defeat of Napoleon
5. George IV: Peterloo, Democratic Radicalism, and Reform
6. William IV: Reform Act and Chartism
7. Victoria: The Early Years: the Corn Laws; The Great Exhibition
8. Victoria: The Middle Years: Crimean War; Death of Albert
9. Victoria: Summit of Britain’s Empire
Term 4: Britain’s Empire Crumbles
1. Victoria: Jubilee and Death; the South African War
2. Edward VII: The Peacemaker
3. George V: World War I
4. George V: Twilight of Empire, and the Lost Peace
5. Edward VIII: The Abdication, and a Missed Opportunity
6. George VI: The Shadow of War
7. George VI: World War II, and the Loss of Empire
8. Overview and Summary
For preliminary information the Kings and Queens of England, see:http://www.royal.gov.uk and follow the prompts. See also:
http://www.royalty.nu/Europe/England
See also: http://www.royalty.nu/Europe/England
The Second year course will be run during 2008 at:
University of the Third Age, Nunawading.
Visit their premises at:
Nunawading Community Centre,
16-20 Silver Grove,
Nunawading,
Victoria, 3131
Ph. (03) 9878.3898
Website: (http://www.u3anunawading.com.au))
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