| Where We Come From... The Battle of Hastings, 1066 In the Battle of Hastings in the year 1066 the Norman cavalry under William the Conqueror defeated an army of Anglo-Saxons fighting on foot. The English king Harold II was killed in the battle and the crown was awarded to William. In British history the battle is seen as the last successful conquest of Britain. In the 19th century the year 1066 (together with the Magna Charta) marks the beginning of British national history. The emphasis lay not primarily on the loss of Anglo-Saxon pre-eminence, but rather on a continuity in the historical development of England. Alongside depictions of the Battle of Hastings, the coronation of William I was a popular motif in the history painting of the 19th century. Benjamin West shows the scene in which the citizens of London offered the crown to William. They were thus expressing their acceptance of a ruler who had conquered their country in war, but had nonetheless respected the institutions of the land.
Freedom The Magna Charta of 1215 The Landing of William III of Orange at Torbay in 1688 The years 1215 and 1688/89 are two key dates in British history. They stand for the English liberties that became proverbial in the 18th century and for the parliamentary system. In tough negotiations the barons and bishops extorted the Magna Charta from King John I, a charter that curtailed the royal privileges. As the great English historian Thomas Babington Macaulay phrased it, »Here commences the history of the English nation"; it was then that the »national character began to exhibit those peculiarities which it has ever since retained«, and »then first appeared with distinctness that constitution which has ever since, through all changes, preserved its identity.« In this sense the Magna Charta was celebrated in 19th century England (and beyond that time) as the starting point of civil liberties. Like the Magna Charta, the landing of William of Orange at Torbay on 5th November 1688 was remembered as a further milestone in English history. Crowned William III at the beginning of 1689, the monarch was styled the saviour of England, the protector of the faith and the generator of British fame. For when the Protestant stadholder and captain general of the Dutch United Provinces was called to England by influential Whig and Tory leaders of the Upper House, it brought the despotic rule of the Catholic king James II to an end and at the same time ended the decades-old struggle between the crown and Parliament. The Glorious Revolution, as the conflict was called, increased the powers of Parliament. The Bill of Rights of 1689 limited the powers of the king in favour of Parliament and established the constitutional monarchy, which brought to a conclusion, as was written in a patriotic Victorian textbook, what »the Magna Charta had begun«. Joseph Mallord William Turner's painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1832. It shows the future king, William III, immediately prior to his triumphant arrival in Torbay. The painting has been accused of containing a number of historical inconsistencies. Contrary to Turner's depiction, the landing went smoothly, for example. But the "stormy crossing" portrayed by the artist fulfils the function of a political allegory. William of Orange, summoned from Holland, appears here as the ruler of the seas who braves the strom. Turner thus refers to the role in which England saw itself after defeating the Spanish Armada in 1588 and which was summed up in the motto "Britannia Rules the Waves".
Faith and War The Battle of Trafalgar and the Death of Lord Nelson, 1805 In the naval battle of Trafalgar on 21st October 1805 the united forces of France and Spain were destroyed almost piecemeal. This was a monumental victory for the British fleet under Admiral Horatio Nelson. The triumph assured British supremacy on the seas up until the 20th century and was therefore celebrated in England as the greatest naval victory since the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC. It was also considered a decisive contribution to the European struggle for independence against Napoleon, who was described in the British press as a tyrannical aggressor. In the person of Horatio Nelson, finally, who was fatally wounded in the battle, British historians found a hero who stood equally for the successful conduct of war and the patriotic fulfilment of duty. His words »England expects every man to do his duty« were handed down from generation to generation in all English schoolbooks.
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One of the most famous artists to paint the Battle of Trafalgar was the
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