Kingdom of England

The Kingdom of England was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from 12 July 927, when it emerged from various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, until 1 May 1707, when it united with Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, and England is now part of the United Kingdom. The Kingdom of England was among the most powerful states in Europe during the medieval and early modern colonial periods.

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Kingdom of England
927–1707 (1649–1660: Commonwealth)
Top: Flag of England Bottom: Royal Banner (1406–1603) Royal Arms (1399–1603)
Motto: "Dieu et mon droit" (French) "God and my right"[1]
Location of the Kingdom 1558–1707 (green)
Capital	Winchester (927–c. 1045) London (c. 1045–1707) ∟ Westminster      (administrative) ∟ City of London      (commercial)
Common languages	English[lower-alpha 1] Old Norse (until 11th century) Welsh[lower-alpha 2] Cornish[lower-alpha 3] Cumbric (until 12th century) Anglo-Norman (1066–14th century)[lower-alpha 4] Law French (from 13th century) Medieval Latin (until 14th century)[lower-alpha 5]
Religion	Roman Catholicism (927–1534; 1553–1558) Church of England (1534–1553; 1558–1646; 1660–1707)[3] Puritanism (1646–1660)
Demonym(s)	English
Government	Elective monarchy (927–1066) Hereditary absolute monarchy (1066–1215) Unitary parliamentary semi-constitutional monarchy (1215–1649; 1660–1707)
Monarch
• 927–939 (first)	Æthelstan
• 1702–1707 (last)	Anne
Legislature	Parliament
• Upper house	House of Lords
• Lower house	House of Commons
History
• Unification	12 July 927
• Battle of Hastings	14 October 1066
• Invasion of Ireland	May 1169
• Magna Carta	15 June 1215
• Incorporated Wales	1535–1542
• Union of the Crowns	24 March 1603
• Glorious Revolution	11 December 1688
• Union with Scotland	1 May 1707
Currency	Pound sterling
Preceded by Succeeded by Wessex Dumnonia Mercia East Anglia Northumbria Welsh Marches Principality of Wales Great Britain Principality of Wales
Today part of	United Kingdom England Wales
^ Monarch of Wessex from 925. ^ Continued as monarch of Great Britain until her death in 1714.

Part of a series on the
History of England
Timeline Prehistoric Britain Roman Britain Sub-Roman Britain Medieval period Economy in the Middle Ages Anglo-Saxon period English unification High Middle Ages Norman Conquest Norman period Late Middle Ages Black Death in England Tudor period Elizabethan era English Renaissance Stuart period English Civil War Commonwealth Protectorate Restoration Glorious Revolution Georgian era Regency era Victorian era Edwardian era First World War Interwar period Second World War Postwar Britain Social history Political history of the United Kingdom (1979–present) Social history of the United Kingdom (1979–present)
Topics English overseas possessions English society Government in medieval England History of education in England History of English History of monarchy in the United Kingdom History of the economy of England History of the politics of England
Polities Kingdom of England Kingdom of Great Britain United Kingdom
By county Bedfordshire Berkshire City of Bristol Buckinghamshire Cambridgeshire Cheshire Cornwall Cumbria Derbyshire Devon Dorset Durham East Riding of Yorkshire East Sussex Essex Gloucestershire Greater London Greater Manchester Hampshire Herefordshire Hertfordshire Isle of Wight Kent Lancashire Leicestershire Lincolnshire City of London Merseyside Norfolk Northamptonshire Northumberland North Yorkshire Nottinghamshire Oxfordshire Rutland Shropshire Somerset South Yorkshire Staffordshire Suffolk Surrey Tyne and Wear Warwickshire West Midlands West Sussex West Yorkshire Wiltshire Worcestershire
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On 12 July 927, the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were united by Æthelstan (reigned in 927–939) to form the Kingdom of England. In 1016, the kingdom became part of the North Sea Empire of Cnut the Great, a personal union between England, Denmark and Norway. The Norman conquest of England in 1066 led to the transfer of the English capital city and chief royal residence from the Anglo-Saxon one at Winchester to Westminster, and the City of London quickly established itself as England's largest and principal commercial centre.[4]

Histories of the kingdom of England from the Norman conquest of 1066 conventionally distinguish periods named after successive ruling dynasties: Norman 1066–1154, Plantagenet 1154–1485, Tudor 1485–1603 and Stuart 1603–1707 (interrupted by the Interregnum of 1649–1660). Dynastically, all English monarchs after 1066 ultimately claim descent from the Normans; the distinction of the Plantagenets is merely conventional, beginning with Henry II (reigned 1154–1189) as from that time, the Angevin kings became "more English in nature"; the houses of Lancaster and York are both Plantagenet cadet branches, the Tudor dynasty claimed descent from Edward III via John Beaufort and James VI and I of the House of Stuart claimed descent from Henry VII via Margaret Tudor.

The completion of the conquest of Wales by Edward I in 1284 put Wales under the control of the English crown. Edward III (reigned 1327–1377) transformed the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe; his reign also saw vital developments in legislation and government—in particular the evolution of the English parliament. From the 1340s the kings of England also laid claim to the crown of France, but after the Hundred Years' War and the outbreak of the Wars of the Roses in 1455, the English were no longer in any position to pursue their French claims and lost all their land on the continent, except for Calais. After the turmoils of the Wars of the Roses, the Tudor dynasty ruled during the English Renaissance and again extended English monarchical power beyond England proper, achieving the full union of England and the Principality of Wales in 1542. Henry VIII oversaw the English Reformation, and his daughter Elizabeth I (reigned 1558–1603) the Elizabethan Religious Settlement, meanwhile establishing England as a great power and laying the foundations of the British Empire by claiming possessions in the New World.

From the accession of James VI and I in 1603, the Stuart dynasty ruled England in personal union with Scotland and Ireland. Under the Stuarts, the kingdom plunged into civil war, which culminated in the execution of Charles I in 1649. The monarchy returned in 1660, but the Civil War had established the precedent that an English monarch cannot govern without the consent of Parliament. This concept became legally established as part of the Glorious Revolution of 1688. From this time the kingdom of England, as well as its successor state the United Kingdom, functioned in effect as a constitutional monarchy.[lower-alpha 6] On 1 May 1707, under the terms of the Acts of Union 1707, the kingdoms of England and Scotland united to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.[5][6]