England: Angles and Saxons During the 400s and 500s Germanic tribes called Angles and Saxons took over what used to be Roman colony of Britain. The country of England formed under a monarchy and held up to the attacks of the Vikings. In1066, King Edward of England died without an heir, causing a power vacuum (a vacancy or weakness in the power structure of a country or region).

England: The Battle of Hastings (1066) After Edward’s death, a council of nobles picked Edward’s brother-in-law, Harold, to be king. A relative, William of Normandy, a Frenchman claimed he should be king. Harold and William went to war over who would be king. This is known as the Battle of Hastings (1066). William won and is given the name “William the Conqueror”, becoming the new King of England and uniting the country.

England: Common Law Years later, King Henry II came up with Common Law, by taking customs and rules that had always been followed and made them official. Common Law applied to everyone and people brought disputes to the government instead of church to be solved. The Jury System was also created – twelve people locally picked to decide if someone should go to trial.

England: Richard I After Henry II died, his son Richard became king. Richard I was also known as Richard the Lionheart, a hero of the Crusades. Richard died without an heir, so the throne passed to his brother, John.

England: King John and the Magna Carta The reign of King John was not a very successful one and he was well known for abusing his powers:  He lost the majority of English land in France as a result of unsuccessful battles  Made all the landowners of England pay extra taxes in order to fund his unsuccessful military ventures and for his own financial gain  Feuds with Pope Innocent III regarding who would control the Catholic Church in England Incidents like these caused the people to take action against him. In order to stop John and future kings of England from abusing their power, the wealthy men of England (barons) decided to try and make the king relinquish a certain amount of his power to them by making him sign the Magna Carta. This was to guarantee that the power of the government was not in the hands of one individual. With the threat of a civil war, King John I was forced to sign the document at Runneymede, England.

England: King John and the The Magna Carta (cont’d) What the Magna Carta said and/or did… Transformed England into a constitutional monarchy, a form of government where the monarch’s powers are limited because they must follow a constitution, which guides them on how the government is to be run Established England’s first Parliament, a legislative or law-making governmental body by establishing a council of twenty-five barons to see that John and future kings of England were kept from abusing their powers and the keeping the law, such as the implementation of fair taxes Other reforms included habeas corpus or the right of people to be safe from unfair imprisonment, as well the right to a quick and speedy trial by a jury Stated that every citizen in England would have certain rights that the King could not take away. Proclaimed that even the king had to obey the law

France: Hugh Capet After the last Frankish (Germanic Tribe – The Franks)and Carolingian (Charles Martel, Charlemagne) dynasties died out, a new dynasty was started by a noble named Hugh Capet. Capet moved the French capital to Paris and his family (the Capetian Dynasty) eventually extended control over most of what is modern day France.

France: Expansion of France Much of the French expansion was done by a king named Philip II. At first, Philip II lost several battles and land to the English kings, Henry II and Richard I (Lionheart), but when John (Richard’s little brother and heir), became king, Phillip II was able regain much of the lost territory due to John’s horrible military leadership.

France: The Hundred Years War In 1337, the last Capetian king of France died without an heir. The English king at that time, Edward III, claimed the throne because he was a relative of the last French king who had just died. England would fight a war versus France for control of the French throne from 1337 to 1453, known as the Hundred Years War (it was actually 116 years, but whose counting).

France: The Hundred Years War (cont’d) The Hundred Years War is what really makes England and France their own countries. Towards the end of the war, each country had a well defined border and the back and forth claims over who should be king are over for the most part.

France: Joan of Arc One of the most important figures to come out of the Hundred Years War was Joan of Arc. Joan was a young French girl who claimed to receive visions from God, telling her to fight and defeat the English. She convinced the French leaders to let her command troops and she helped the French win a key victory at Battle of Orleans in She was later captured by the English and burned at the stake.

Spain: The Formation, Reconquista, and Exploration In the 1400s, the country of Spain was formed by merging the two kingdoms of Aragon and Castille, with the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella. After their marriage, the Catholic monarchs began to drive out the Muslims (Moores), who had established a kingdom in southern Spain. This series of military ventures is known as the Reconquista. The last of the Moores were finally driven out in 1492, the same year Spain started their exploration of the Americas. As Spain began to expand in the Western Hemisphere, on the lands discovered by Columbus, it is under Spanish king Charles V that Spain becomes most powerful.

Russia: Ivan III As early as the 1200s, Russia was apart of the Mongol Empire. It wasn’t until the 1400s that Ivan, a prince from Moscow, cut the Mongols off, making Russia independent. He married a Byzantine princess in an attempt establish connections to the Roman Empire, even using Czar (from Caesar) as his new title.

Russia: The Rise of Moscow After ridding Russia of the Mongols, Czar Ivan III declared that he would rule all of Russia from Moscow, and that it would be the new Rome. He conquered even more territory in order to expand the Russian empire.