The history of England is the study of the human past in one of Europe's oldest and most influential national territories.
England became inhabited more than 800,000 years ago, as the discovery of stone tools and footprints at Happisburgh in Norfolk has revealed. The earliest evidence for early modern humans in North West Europe, a jawbone discovered in Devon at Kents Cavern in 1927, was re-dated in 2011 to between 41,000 and 44,000 years old. Continuous human habitation in England dates to around 13,000 years ago, at the end of the last glacial period. The region has numerous remains from the Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age, such as Stonehenge and Avebury. In the Iron Age, England, like all of Britain south of the Firth of Forth, was inhabited by the Celtic people known as the Britons, including some Belgic tribes in the south east. In AD 43 the Roman conquest of Britain began; the Romans maintained control of their province of Britannia until the early 5th century.
History of England may also refer to:
- The History of England: From the First Entrance of Julius Caesar and the Romans to the End of the Reign of King James the First Containing the Space of 1678 Years , early-18th-century book by Laurence Echard
- The History of England (Hume), 1754 book by David Hume
- The History of England (Austen), 1791 parody by Jane Austen
- A complete history of England, from the descent of Julius Caesar, to the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle, 1748., a ten volume history by Tobias Smollett
- The History of England from the Accession of James the Second , 1848 multi-volume work by Lord Macaulay
- A Child's History of England , 1851-54 three book series by Charles Dickens, intended for adults despite the name
- History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 1893 multi-volume work by James Anthony Froude
- History of England (Trevelyn), 1926 book by G.M. Trevelyan
- A Shortened History of England (1942), abridged version of above
- A History of England (1997–2002), a series of reprints of twelve classic, magisterial volumes of different periods of English history
The History of England (1754–61) is David Hume's great work on the history of England, which he wrote in instalments while he was librarian to the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh. It was published in six volumes in 1754, 1756, 1759, and 1761. The first publication of his History was greeted with outrage by all political factions, but it became a best-seller, finally giving him the financial independence he had long sought. Both the British Library and the Cambridge University Library, as well as Hume's own library, still list him as "David Hume, the historian." Hume's History spanned "from the invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution of 1688" and went through over 100 editions. Many considered it the standard history of England in its day.
The History of England is a 1791 work by Jane Austen, written when the author was fifteen.
Tobias George Smollett was a Scottish poet and author. He was best known for his picaresque novels, such as The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748) and The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle (1751), and The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771), which influenced later novelists including Charles Dickens. His novels were amended liberally by printers; a definitive edition of each of his works was edited by Dr O. M. Brack, Jr, to correct variants.
