How has Britain been affected by...Religion and Ideas

?

Conquered and Conquerors

The Anglo-Saxons became Christians when they settled in England in the Middle Ages. By the time the Vikings started raiding the country, there were renowned centres of the faith, like Lindisfarne where the famous gospel manuscript was produced. The Vikings raided the Lindisfarne monastery in 793 and this began the Viking attacks on England. As a result of the conflict between the Danes and the Saxons under Alfred, the Danish leader Guthrum became a Christian. The Danes in England then began to follow the Christian religion.

After Emma of Normandy married King Ethelred, she was involved in building up English churches. Her son, Edward the Confessor, shared her faith and continued this work when he became King in 1042.

William the Conqueror appointed Lanfranc as the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1070. He removed corruption from the Church of England and brought England in line with European churches.

1 of 5

Looking West

England's religion was unstable during the Tudor period because of the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation. This turmoil was eventually settled by Queen Elizabeth I after she came to the throne in 1558. She established England as permanently Protestant. 

Elizabeth I and her successor James I wanted to reform Ireland into a protestant country. The Irish had resisted any kind of Protestant Reformation, and there were a number of Irish lords who fought any connection to England. They organised a mass migration of mostly Scottish Protestants to Ulster. Ulster became predominantly Protestant, but there were still some Catholics living there, which caused violence in the 19th and 20th centuries.

2 of 5

Expansion and Empire

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries the Highland Clearances caused Scottish farmers to migrate to Canada. This was because many had supported a Catholic uprising against the Crown in 1745, and later due to the creation of large sheep farms.

The Glengarry Fencibles were also evicted from their lands in the Highlands and moved to CanadaThey still spoke Gaelic and many of them remained Catholic. Similar things happened later in the 19th century when many Scots migrated to New Zealand.

At the end of the 19th century, Jewish people fled persecution in Eastern Europe and migrated to Britain. They maintained their religious practice but aimed to assimilate into the British culture. 

3 of 5

Britain in the 20th Century

Immigration brought cultural diversity to Britain in the 20th century. There was also greater appreciation of the history and philosophy of other countries.

The idea of being black British and Asian British developed in the 20th century. However, during the period there had also been racism in society that led to opposition to immigration and discrimination against black and Asian people.

This was gradually brought under the control of the 1965 Race Relations Act which made racial discrimination illegal. Yet, the acheivement of racial equality is still a struggle in the 21st century.

4 of 5

Britain in the 20th Century

The Notting Hill riots of 1958 driven by gangs of white youths, targeted black men who were in relationships with white women. The murder in 1959 of Kelso Cochrane, a West Indian, also in the Notting Hill area, was the first clear example of a racially motivated killing in London. Kelso’s murder provoked an outcry from thousands of local people, black and white.

In the 1960s, the politician Enoch Powell claimed that non-white immigration would cause racial violence in Britain. Some activistism took place to protect the immigrants, notably by Claudia Jones a Caribbean immigrant. During this time Britain became more tolerant of different religions and there is now diverse religious practice amongst society.

5 of 5

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar History resources:

See all History resources »See all Migration, Empires and the People resources »