For My Country's Freedom

Prehistoric Britain (5000 BC - c. 100 BC)
Britain before the Romans came: stone, bronze, iron ages, construction of stonehenge, earthworks, Druids, the Celts.

Roman Britain (55 BC - 410 AD)
From Julius Caesar's first attempt at conquest to the final days of Roman administration in Britain: rebellion, subjugation, advent of Christianity, barbarian invasions, withdrawal.

Early British Kingdoms (410 - 598)
After the Roman influence ceased, the activities of the British people: westward movement, intrigues & alliances, power struggles, explosion of missionary activities, plague, Saxon invasions.

Early British Kingdoms (599 - 937)
Continuing activities of the British people: further westward movement, more intrigues & alliances, more power struggles, more Saxon invasions, religious strife with Roman Catholicism.

Anglo Saxon England (597 - 687)
The coming of St. Augustine, triumph of Rome-oriented Christianity, Saxon control of island, rise of Mercia, Offa's Dyke.

Anglo Saxon England (688 - 801)
Rise of Wessex, King Ine establishes his law, Venerable Bede, Viking invasions.

Anglo Saxon England (802 - 898)
Triumph of Egbert, development of Wessex dynasty, Viking wars, Alfred the Great, St. Swithun, Peace of Wedmore, the Danelaw.

Anglo Saxon England (899 - 977)
Athelstan, St. Dunstan, growth of monasteries, more Viking wars, Battle of Brunanburh

Anglo Saxon England (978 - 1066)
Aethelred the Unready, Danegeld, Danes gain English crown, Edward the Confessor, rise of the Godwins, Westminster Abbey, Harold and William at Hastings.

Medieval Britain (1066 - 1487)
Conquest, consolidation, feudal system, Magna Carta, codification of laws, individual rights, Welsh & Scottish wars, murder of a king, Black Plague, Hundred Years War, Peasant's Revolt, religious unrest, Princes in the Tower, Wars of the Roses.




Early in the fifthteenth century. England, her ally Burgundy and vassal Brittany found themselves at war with the powerful confederacy of France, her vassals Orleans, Provence, Auvergne, Bourbonnais and ally Scotland. King Henry’s policy and vision was one of total absorption of all French speaking peoples into the expanding English dominion, nothing short of it would do.
This was not considered an easy task, so Henry quickly persuaded Aragon, Navarra and Savoy to join his alliance with the promise of much spoils and glory on the battlefield. He then wasted no time in engaging the enemy. His tactics were simple, a shock and awe campaign, that would overawe the enemy armies, which were made up primarily of peasant riff raff. Henry led England’s main army which annihilated the 18000 strong French army outside Paris then moved south and decimated Frances second major army before it had time to regroup with militia forces springing up all over France. Smaller English forces quickly began besieging or covering all of Frances territories, while the Royal Navy battered the French Navy in the English Channel.


During this period the English treasury was overflowing with plunder looted from the mainland provinces and Henry turned his attention to the East where English traders had heard stories of great wealth in the lands East of Egypt, so Henry sent large gifts of gold, silver and fine stones of great value to the Mameluks, The Kaliphate, Ak Koyunlu and Gujarat, these formalities included the exchange of maps and military access for English surveyors. In 1421 an assassination plot on the kings life was uncovered, having originated in Novogrod with Denmark and Castile being found co-conspiritators, Henry flew into a rage and formally warned the three countries from interfering in English affairs, while promising revenge to his courtesans. With France all but secured, England focused all of its attention on subjecating her vassals and it was at this time that news reached England that Denmark had declared war on the small German state of Holstein. Henrys cousin Beatrice was married to the Duke of Holstein and soon pleaded with Henry to make intersession on Holsteins behalf (for Henrys diplomacy was famous) to persuade Denmark that peace was a more profitable option, with his anger still fuming against Denmark, Henry agreed...thus England declared war and Burgundy, whose relations with England had soured badly after England’s refusal to punish English pirates which preyed on Burgundies cargo shipping, dishonoured our alliance.
Only a year latter Castile declared war on Granada. Henry was a greedy sod and he coveted the small colony on the Canary Islands, for Henry loved his porridge covered with sugar and was determined that sugar would be much cheaper and more widely available if England produced its own, so England holding high its objections to Castiles war with Granada, declared war on the Iberian. Shortly after this Henry the fifth died not seeing his dream of the unification of France and England. He was succeeded by his son of the same name, who did not possess his father’s fine skills, though perhaps possessed a greater passion for war and conquest.


During the early years of his reign, the new Henry saw all of Frances provinces, except the capital (Ile de France) succeeded to England in the great peace treaty of September 1423, also Maine from Provence, Limousin from Bourbonnais and Cevennes from Auvergne during earlier discussions. Furthermore peace was signed with Castile and Portugal in return for the Canary Islands, sugar in abundance was secured for the Isles.


It was the war with the Scandinavians were England was finding it most difficult, the combined fleets of Denmark, Sweden and Norway were mauling the Royal navy. Though actual losses of ships were kept to a minimum (due to naval policy of "fight in might or flight when light" - in fighting odds), loses of battles were massive and landing an army on enemy soil proved difficult. Until late in 1424, Bedford landed in Oslo, quickly captured the Norwegian capital and everything changed. Bedford headed for the Swedish capital, when news of Burgundy annexing France was received, this was intolerable to Henry so he promptly declared war on his once ally. Burgundy’s armies proved no match for England’s superior knights and the valuable Ile de France and Flanders were gained. Bedford meanwhile had captured Stockholm and the colony of Lappland and it was seeded to England, as Sweden sued for peace. Bedford made for Sjelland and made light work of their defences before signing a separate peace for a king’s ransom in gold. Norway proved quite stubborn and it was not until the entire country was under England’s authority, that she made peace for all of her colonies and trading posts.




The other notable changes of this period, was the re-emergence of France, the nation was thus named after Bourbonnais rebels declared independence from Burgundy during her period of disintegration, were Burgundy found herself at war with half of Europe. Provence had declared war on England’s ally Savoy, Scotland joined Provence in the war and subsequently was vassalized by England. Iceland, a poor backward island, was released as a vassal from England.


War weary England was at peace just long enough to pacify the discontented citizens, when she declared war. After satisfyingly punishing two of the three countries that had attempted to assassinate his father, Henry the sixth turned on the last, Novogrod. This Russian state had won a stunning war against Muscovy - Suzdal and recently had declared war on the Teutonic Knights. Fortunately Bedford was still in Scandinavia at the time and sent a scouting army to quickly occupy the Northern colonies as Bedford himself headed straight for the city of Novogrod. The Teutonic Knights kept Novogrod forces busy in Pskov while English forces breached the city walls and on fear of a bloody slaughter the terrified Russian royalty made peace for all of her Northern colonies.


The common adventuring Englishman was reluctant to move to the poor and freezing provinces of Scandinavia, so the dregs of society were forced there. Murderers, extortionists and thieves made up the bulk of the population of these colonies. Freedom was promised to all at the end of 15 years hard labour developing the land.


By this time Henry was satisfied with England’s borders in Europe, so he turned his sights towards the Middle East. 40,000 cavalry, lead by Talbot and Gloucestor were ferried to Samaria, where the king of the Mameluks welcomed them with open arms and blessed their mission against his hated enemy, the Timurid Empire. Some years earlier, Timurid forces captured a small contingent of English traders with a huge cache of opium, it was claimed it was smuggled through the empire without paying the exorbitant import taxes which the Timurids had put on the drug, the opium was confiscated and the traders were flayed alive before being beheaded. England demanded compensation and warned the empire that this situation was not acceptable, which they did not heed, thus war had become inevitable. At the same time in England and Europe sugar prices were soaring, the people could not get enough of it, the sugar riots of 1437 in southern England had to be put down by the army were 500 people were killed in London alone. King Henry eventually bowed to public pressure and promised to increase sugar imports. The only way this was possible was conquest of more sugar producing regions. So war was declared on Eire, who allies Castile and more importantly Portugal joined against England.





After Talbot’s great successes against the Timurids, England’s foreign policy on the Middle East was cemented. All trading centres of any wealth were considered the property of the English crown and these centres should be put under England’s control by any means necessary. As a result all nations in possession of an accessible COT were warned by order of the imperial authority. So when the Golden Horde declared war on Genoa, England on the false pretence of defending the fellow Christian state from the infidel, declared war once again.




With thousands upon thousands of reinforcements, the tide had turned in England’s favour against Ak Koyunlu and the Golden Horde, Astrakhan entered into the English fold. However the capacity of England’s armed forces during this period were perhaps at their lowest ebb it had been for a long time when Denmark allied by Sweden had declared war, quickly followed by Novogrod. The Northern colonies over the years had been successfully developed into provinces of some stature, however they were desperately poor and in the end Henry considered it wiser to give all England’s past gains in Northern Europe and the provinces of Eiriksfjord and Vestbygden back to their former owners, by doing this England’s reputation rose (bad boy decreased) and was considered much less of a warmongering bastard than was first thought, Henry was delighted at this diplomatic coup.

Years of peace were broken when Savoy declared war on Genoa in 1454 and England gained Corsica, and then released it as a vassal. It was broken again in 1462. English soldiers brimming with plunder time and time again were attacked in Syria and Samaria while returning home from Astrakhan and Isfahan. The Mameluks lukewarm response to the matter was too much to bear.


And the newly crowned Edward the fourth took immense pride in entering England’s newest addition as the Mameluks were put in their place. These few years between 1419 - 1463 saw England’s meteoritic rise to Empire and commander of the known world.