Main Page

Welcome to the British Culture Wiki

Symbols of the British Monarchy: the Imperial State Crown (part of the Crown Jewels) and the Royal Coat of Arms

• This Wiki currently boasts 1,018 articles - and counting. Thank you to all writers!
• New and newly revised articles are listed under Recent Changes.
  
• There's also an overview of All Articles.
• All contributions are welcome.
• For an article to count toward the 3 CP tasks, however, it will have to be a substantial and new entry (no double entries under a new heading and no mere revisions, whereas significant expansions of one-sentence stubs are fine). Furthermore, every article will need a bibliography that consists of at least two sources and conforms to the citation guide in the Academic Style Sheet. All verbatim quotes must be identified as such (quotation marks, source incl. the page number) and all other sources need to be acknowledged at the end of the article.
• These rules are necessary for reasons of fairness and academic soundness. However, do not let that keep you from enjoying writing for an audience and from experimenting with the wiki system. The neat thing is: you gain both in writing (by boiling down a topic to its important elements) and in reading, as this wiki is well on the way to being an encyclopaedia of British history and culture, marked by its reliability and its relevance for the Cultural Studies lecture courses.
• Troubleshooting, help and your feedback: Discussion Board on Blackboard or via e-mail.
• Looking for inspiration? Short articles whose expansion counts as a valid contribution to the wiki task are listed under Category:Expansion.

What's hot these days? - Session 7: Monarchy, Morals and the Family

Duty and Moral Principles		Elizabeth II	Victoria	Prince Albert	Great Exhibition
Before the Moral Turn		Arranged Marriages	Henry VIII	Catherine of Aragon	Anne of Cleves
The Merry Monarch		Charles II	Barbara Villiers	Louise de Querouaille	Nell Gwynn
Hanoverian Scandals		George IV	Mary Anne Fitzherbert	Caroline of Brunswick	Royal Marriages Act
20th Century		Edward VIII	Wallis Simpson	Abdication Crisis	Princess Margaret

Landmarks in the History of the British Monarchy

• 1485: End of the War of the Roses. Henry VII becomes king: House of Tudor.
• 1509: Henry VIII becomes king.
• 1534: Act of Supremacy. Reformation. The monarch becomes Head of the Church of England.
• 1558: Elizabeth I becomes queen.
• 1588: The Spanish Armada and the threat of invasion. Elizabeth gives the Tilbury Speech.
• 1603: The Scottish king James VI inherits the English throne as James I of England : House of Stuart.
• 1642: Struggles for power between King and Parliament lead to the English Civil War.
• 1649: Charles I is tried and executed. A republic, the Commonwealth of England, is established.
• 1660: Restoration. Charles II becomes king.
• 1679: Exclusion Crisis. The forerunners of political parties emerge: Whigs, Tories.
• 1688: "Glorious Revolution". James II leaves the country. Parliament declares his abdication, offers the Crown to William III and Mary II.
• 1689: Parliament passes the Bill of Rights.
• 1701: Parliament passes the Act of Settlement.
• 1714: George I becomes king: House of Hanover.
• 1721: Robert Walpole becomes Britain's first Prime Minister.
• 1743: Battle of Dettingen. George II is the last British monarch to lead his troops into battle.
• 1837: Victoria becomes queen. Her reign lasts until 1901, longer than that of any other British monarch.
• 1901: Edward VII becomes king: House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
• 1917: George V changes the name of the royal house to "Windsor", reacting to anti-German sentiment during WWI.
• 1936: Edward VIII becomes king. Abdication Crisis. Elizabeth II's father, George VI, becomes king.
• 1952: Elizabeth II becomes queen. Coronation in 1953.
• 12 June 2010: Trooping the Colour. The official celebration of the Queen's birthday, held annually, reflects the modern role of the monarch as a focus of national identity and a moral example (The Role of the Monarchy) as well as the emotional appeal of monarchy.

Navigating

In the menu on the left, use the search box to find a specific article, or click on "Random page" to read a surprise article.

Wiki articles are cross-linked; thus you can choose one article as an entry point and explore your topic by moving through the pages.

The "What links here" feature in the toolbox on the left allows you to see a list of the articles that link to the page you're currently reading, helping you to put information in context.

"Recent changes" will allow you to keep track of all modifications and new articles.