|
The Palace of Westminster,
residence of English kings throughout the Middle Ages
Photo Credit: Dave Morris, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License
The history of London can be trace back to Roman times. There was a Roman settlement that existed here since AD 43 called Londinium which took place after the Romans conquered Britain. This did not last. It was burned to the ground by the Iceni tribe in AD 61. The settlement was revived and replaced Colchester, the oldest Roman town in Britain, as capital of the Roman province of Britannia. That took place around AD 100. That incarnation of London declined with turbulence within the Roman Empire in the 3rd century and by the 5th, it had been largely abandoned.
 Sir Christopher Wren, England's most famous architect
by Godfrey Kneller
The next settlement in the London area was established by the Anglo-Saxons, a people living in the south and east of Great Britain in the 5th century. This settlement was called Lundenwic. It is located about one kilometer upstream from Londinium and is traced to be around present-day Covent Garden. The site was beside the River Fleet, and thrived on fishing and trading. Vikings from Denmark invaded and destroyed Lundenwic, forcing its inhabitants to flee to Roman Londinium, where they used its city walls to protect themselves. Troubles with the Vikings continued until 886, when the Anglo-Saxon king Alfred the Great managed to capture London and established a peace treaty with the Vikings. The original Saxon city of Lundenwic became Ealdwic, meaning "old settlement". It survived to this day as Aldwych, the place and road within the City of Westminster in London.
Under various English kings, London once again thrived and prospered until the late 10th century, when Viking raids began again. In 1013, the Vikings under Danish King Canute besieged London, forcing the English King Ethelred to flee. However King Ethelred managed to launch a counter attack and successfully vanquished the Danes. But not permanently. King Canute launched a new invasion in 1015, weakening Ethelred's grasp to power. After Ethelred died on 23 April 1016, King Canute won a decisive victory over England. Ethelred's sons Edward the Confessor and Alfred Atheling were exiled to Normandy. In July 1017, he married Ethelred's widow, Emma of Normandy. When King Canute died in 1042, control over England returned to the Anglo Saxons under Edward the Confessor.
 Spanish Armada in the attempt to invade England, 1588
Source: National Maritime Museum, London
During the time of Edward the Confessor, London was the largest and wealthiest city in England. The capital at that time, however, was Winchester. Edward re-founded Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster. During Edward's time, the built-up area of London closely corresponds to presently City of London and City of Westminster.
In 1066, William the Conquerer, then Duke of Normandy, made himself the King of England with a victory in the Battle of Hastings. He built a castle on the southeast corner of the city to keep his domain in check. That castle, through expansions by later kings, becomes present-day Tower of London.
Westminster Hall, close to the abbey of the same name, was built by King William II in 1097. Westminster Hall is an early incarnation that evolved to present-day Palace of Westminster. Throughout the Middle Ages, the Palace of Westminster was the main residence of the king, the seat of the royal court, and continuing till today, the seat of government. Next to Westminster is the City of London, which prospered as a trading and commercial base. Westminster and London grew to become one, forming the core of Central London. It replaces Winchester as the capital in the 12th century.
London experienced a population boom in the Middle Ages with its population increasing from a mere 18,000 in AD 1100 to nearly 100,000 in AD 1300. That growth was checked in the mid-14th century, when London lost nearly a third of its population to Black Death.
The defeat of the Spanish Armada, which sailed to invade England in 1588, propelled London to further growth. 1603 saw the ascension of King James VI of Scotland to the English throne, uniting England with Scotland. His reign brought forth harsh anti-Catholic laws culminating in the assassination attempt on his life on 5 November 1605 - the so-called Gunpowder Plot.
 Painting of the Great Fire of London
Source: Unknown Dutch Artist, public domain
London suffered a plague outbreak in the early 17th century which culminated with the Great Plague of 1665-1666 that killed between 75,000 to 100,000 people, or about one fifth of London's population. The Great Fire of London, which broke out on Sunday, 2 September, 1666, and burned till 5 September, destroyed whole sections of London, is said to be instrumental in ending the plague.
Following the Great Fire, King Charles II appointed a Commission to rebuild London. It was chaired by Sir Christopher Wren, the famous English architect who was responsible for designing many of the most important buildings in London, including St Paul's Cathedral and over 50 other London churches.
Coinciding with the rise of the British Empire, London became the biggest city in the world from 1831, surpassed only in 1925 by New York City. Urbanization of the 19th century gave London the world's first underground train system, the London Underground, which helped to drive further urbanization of the city.
Over 30,000 Londoners were killed by German bombing in World War II. The Blitz carried out by the German Luftwaffe destroyed large sections of London, forcing the city to rebuild itself through the 1950's to the 70's. In 1965, the political boundaries of London was expanded to include the urban areas outside the borders of the County of London. This created what is called Greater London, an administrative area comprising 32 administrative districts called boroughs. Of these 32 boroughs, the City of London and 12 other boroughs form Inner London while the remainder constitute Outer London.
In the decades following World War II, the characteristic of London has been transformed by large-scale immigration of peoples from Commonwealth countries, making London one of the most racially and culturally diverse cities in Europe. A global city of commerce and finance, London is one of the most important cities of the world today.
National Gallery, Trafalgar Square
Photo Credit: Thomas Bredøl, Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Denmark
|
