[Misc] Most important people, concepts and events in English history?

[Swansman]

I'm studying English at Lund University because a) I'm lazy (and education is free over here), and b) I want to improve my grammar.

However the course started with a two week thing about English history and I've not exactly done what I should be doing (reading) and the exam is tomorrow.

Apparently the exam is quite small and a bit different - (somewhat random) English people and events will be listed and we're going to describe them with a few sentences. On the exam from last year, these were the things on the list:

The Roman Period
William the Conquerer
Education in the Middle Ages
Henry VIII
The Puritans
Robert Walpole
The Victorian Period
The Suffragettes
The Auld Alliance

I would'nt have passed that as I could only describe three or four of those. This year it will obviously be different ones and as I'm unlikely to read the 400 pages that I should be reading... so if you could just bombard me with stuff that I should Wikipedia the shit out of, I probably have a better chance (5 percent?) of making it.

Regards, ze Swanmeister.

 

[AZ Gull]

I'm studying English at Lund University because a) I'm lazy (and education is free over here), and b) I want to improve my grammar.

However the course started with a two week thing about English history and I've not exactly done what I should be doing (reading) and the exam is tomorrow.

Apparently the exam is quite small and a bit different - English people and events will be listed and we're going to describe them with a few sentences. On the exam from last year, these were the things on the list:

The Roman Period
William the Conquerer
Education in the Middle Ages
Henry VIII
The Puritans
Robert Walpole
The Victorian Period
The Suffragettes
The Auld Alliance

I would'nt have passed that as I could only describe three or four of those. This year it will obviously be different ones and as I'm unlikely to read the 400 pages that I should be reading... so if you could just bombard me with stuff that I should Wikipedia the shit out of, I probably have a better chance (5 percent?) of making it.

Regards, ze Swanmeister.

You seem about as committed to your studies, Swanny, as Aaron Connolly is to being a Premier League footballer.

You've disappointed me.

 

[Bansko Seagull]

If you are studying English then presumably your answer has to be grammatically correct (plenty of advice on here about grammar) rather than historically correct. Perhaps you could prepare an answer along the following lines:

Although the examples given in the question were significant events in the history of England, I think the most important event occurred in 1901 ………

Stick to something you know about.

 

[Swansman]

You seem about as committed to your studies, Swanny, as Aaron Connolly is to being a Premier League footballer.

You've disappointed me.

I'm very committed to Connolly being a Premier League footballer though. Maybe he is reading a shitload of English history?

 

[sparkie]

Oliver Cromwell

Trafalgar

Waterloo

Plague and Fire of London

 

[Gwylan]

The Roman Period
William the Conquerer
Education in the Middle Ages
Henry VIII
The Puritans
Robert Walpole
The Victorian Period
The Suffragettes
The Auld Alliance

The Auld Alliance has nothing to do with England - it's a treaty made between Scotland and France. It's totally weird that's on the list

And Education in the Middle Ages and The Puritans look a strange addition.

It's missing the Civil War and England's short-lived republic and the subsequent Glorious Revolution and Bill of Right (it's also missing the Wars of the Roses)

There are also no Acts of Union and, while it mentions the Suffragettes, there's no mention of the Chartists and the Reform Acts)

I don't think you'll learn a huge amount of English history from that list

 

[Goldstone1976]

If one of the subjects last year was ‘Education in the Middle Ages’, to which the answer is ‘issit’, then this year’s exam could contain anything.

The only trend I can see is that there are two questions on monarchs; look up John (Magna Carta is guaranteed this year), Richard I and III, Henry V, Charles I, Elizabeth I (& Mary, Queen of Scots)…

There’s a politician - so maybe Churchill?

Honestly, though, if the answers to every conceivable question covered by that list of subjects are contained in only 400 pages, that’s by far your most efficient source. Get reading…

 

[beorhthelm]

you cant study a 400 summary of English history, but can shit post on foreign football forum? beyond lazy.

 

[The Clamp]

Magna Carta
Industrial revolution
Mrs Browns Boys
Alfred The Great
Farming
BBC

Though I wouldn’t bother. You’ve not done the work and you deserve to fail. It’s a shame you’ve not lost money.

 

[schmunk]

Spangles, clackers, white dog poo.

There, that's 1970s Britain covered for you.

If university doesn't work out, throw in some pakis and your mother-in-law, and you've got a comedy act to tour around Britain's old people's homes for the next 30 years.

 

[Swansman]

Magna Carta
Industrial revolution
Mrs Browns Boys
Alfred The Great
Farming
BBC

Though I wouldn’t bother. You’ve not done the work and you deserve to fail. It’s a shame you’ve not lost money.

Its a shite piece of the course

I doubt anyone studying to become a nurse will be supposed to sit around and read about what nurses did a 1000 years ago.

 

[The Clamp]

Its a shite piece of the course

I doubt anyone studying to become a nurse will be supposed to sit around and read about what nurses did a 1000 years ago.

Context is everything.

 

[studio150]

Depression and the Jarrow March
Suez
Class structure as illustrated by Gentleman v Players
Miners strike and the Thatcher attack on Unions
Hereford away and the subsequent rise

 

[Yes Chef]

The Storegga slide

 

[Comrade Sam]

Peasants Revolt (1st Poll Tax)
Ketts' Rebellion
The Levellers and the Putney debates
London Correspondence Society and the Combination acts.
Tolpuddle
Peterloo
The Chartists
The Great Dock Strike and the Match girls
1919
The General Strike
Battle of Cable Street
The creation of the Welfare State
The Miners Strikes '72, '74, '84/85
The Poll Tax Revolt
Don't forget the history of those at the bottom of British society. Whilst the winners write the history, it doesn't mean it's true!

 

[Comrade Sam]

Sorry, yes and Hereford away!

 

[Curious Orange]

There was no England in the Roman period.

 

[Insel affe]

I'm studying English at Lund University because a) I'm lazy (and education is free over here).

It’s somewhat comforting knowing other countries waste tax payers money on lazy, spongers like yourself.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

Knowledge of weather.

1976 heatwave

1987 great storm

Always rains in Manchester

 

[Comrade Sam]

There was no England in the Roman period.

But there were many Africans, Eastern Europeans and people from the Middle East centuries before the Anglo-Saxons, thanks to the Roman Conquest. It's why Pritti Patel hates the Romans.