United Kingdom

A Land of Diversity

Spiritual values and beliefs

A Land of Diversity

-The Romans

The Romans came to Britain nearly 2000 years ago and remained in Britain from 43 AD to 410 AD.

By the time the Roman armies left around 410 AD, they had established medical practice, a language of administration and law, and had created significant public buildings and roads.

The Romans had named the actual capital of England as 'Londinium'

-The Angle, Saxon, and Jute

Anglo-Saxons, Saxons, and Jutes are known as Anglo-Saxons. The tribes of the Angles and the Saxons were the largest of the 3 attacking tribes, which is why we constantly refer to them as the Anglo-Saxons. The Anglo-Saxons came from the northwest of the European continent. The Anglo-Saxons were tall, blond men armed with swords, spears, and round shields.

They ruled in England for about 500 years (a hundred years longer than the Romans). The name England even comes from the Saxon word 'Angle-Land'.

-The Vikings

About the year 800, bands of ferocious raiders began to attack the coasts of Britain. They were called as the Vikings. They eventually settled in Britain, like the Anglo-Saxons. They pushed the Saxons out of a part of the country and took it for themselves. King Alfred, the Saxon king of Wessex, battled them in a great battle, but he could not drive them away quickly and had to give them a part of the country.

-The Norman

The Norman invasion began once William, the Duke of Normandy's 7,000 militaries landed in the port of Pevensey on the morning of September 28, 1066. William, who defeated the monarch Harold II of England on October 14, 1066, at the Hastings contest, was crowned monarch at Christmas. Day 1066. Later, he consolidated control of him and installed several of his followers in England, introducing a sequence of governmental and social changes.

In 1066, the Norman conquest of England made the Duke of Normandy the monarch of England as William (William the Conqueror).

-The Tudors

The Tudors were a Welsh-English family who controlled England and Wales from 1485 to 1603 – one of Britain's most thrilling periods. They governed for 118 years and promoted new religious ideas, abroad exploration, and colonization.

-The Victorians

Victorians lived well over a hundred and fifty years ago during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837 to 1901). In 1837 most of the population lived in villages and worked the land; by 1901, most lived in towns and worked in offices, shops, and factories. Great Britain has become the most powerful and wealthy territory in the world, with the largest empire that has ever existed, ruling a quarter of the world's people. The number of individuals living in Britain more than doubled, from 16 million to 37 million, causing enormous demands for food, clothing, and shelter.

Spiritual values and beliefs

-Ten core values of the British identity

I. The rule of law: No one is above the law - not even the government.

II. The sovereignty of the Crown in Parliament: There is no appeal to any higher, spiritual, or temporal jurisdiction.

III. The pluralist state: Equality before the law implies that no one should be treated differently on the basis of belonging to a particular group. Conversely, all parties, sects, faiths, and ideologies must tolerate the existence of their rivals.

IV. Personal freedom: There should be a presumption, always and everywhere, against state coercion. We should tolerate eccentricity in others, almost to the point of lunacy, provided no one else is harmed.

V. Private property: Freedom must include the freedom to buy and sell without fear of confiscation, transfer ownership, to sign contracts and have them enforced. Britain was quicker than most countries to recognize this and became, in consequence, one of the happiest and most prosperous nations on Earth.

VI. Institutions: British freedom and British character are immanent in British institutions. These are not, mostly, statutory bodies, but spring from the way free individuals regulate each other's conduct, and provide for their needs, without recourse to coercion. 

VII. The family: Civic society depends on values being passed from generation to generation. Stable families are the essential ingredient of a stable society.

VIII. History: British children inherit a political culture, a set of specific legal rights and obligations, and a stupendous series of national achievements. They should be taught about these things.

IX. The English-speaking world: The atrocities of September 11, 2001, were not simply an attack on a foreign nation; they were an attack on the anglosphere - on all of us who believe in freedom, justice, and the rule of law.

X. The British character: Shaped by and shaping our national institutions is our character as a people: stubborn, stoical, and indignant at injustice. "The Saxon," wrote Kipling, "never means anything serious till he talks about justice and right."