Introduction
Much is said, not all of it complimentary, about Britain’s changeable weather and her isolation from Continental Europe. But American historian D. H. Montgomery believed that wind and wave had helped make Britain into a more stable, more diverse, more harmonious and more liberal country.
IN the course of the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries the Danes invaded England, but the sea prevented their coming all at once and with overwhelming force. They got possession of the throne and permanently established themselves in the northern half of the country. The English, however, held their own so well that the Danes were eventually compelled to unite with them.* Even when the Normans invaded England and conquered it,* they felt obliged to make many concessions to both the English and the Danes. The result was that every invasion of the island ended in a compromise, so that no one race ever got complete predominance. In time all the elements mingled and became one people.*
In the great crisis when Simon de Montfort was fighting (1264) to secure parliamentary representation for the people, King Henry III sought help from France. The French monarchy got a fleet ready to send to England, but bad weather held it back, and Henry was obliged to concede De Montfort’s demands for reform.
For Charles Dickens’s take on the mingling of the English and the Danes, see King Alfred’s Lyre.
In 1066. See The Battle of Hastings.
See Leslie Howard’s call at Christmas 1940 to defend the country’s unique blend of cultures in Britain’s Destiny.