Your respect for the creators , e.g. their sponsors, is one of several characteristics that many "reaction- themed " TH-camrs can learn from you, respect
@@L.J.Designs Indeed, though I tend to use that time to read through comments rather than miss some of the narration of the video (& some of which the Reactor is saying) and in this (& some other videos) I can, when necessary, catch the mispronounced names / words too...and there are often too many to ignore, even without passing comment upon those irritating details. Self-scrolling (as suggested?!) isn't necessary with the Reactors who do that for us though, and I appreciate those who do, (like: 'Not An Industry Artist'),
I am absolutely convinced that you know considerably more British History than 99.9% of the British population! Extremely knowledgeable on the topic😀😀😀
Hi Connor, love you interest in the United Kingdoms history. You have a great inquiring mind, which contributes so much enjoyment to your blogs. Don't apologise for interrupting, it what makes the blogs so interesting. 👍
@15:00 I agree that it's special to have a building as old as the Tower of London that can still be visited today. I've impressed American friends looking across from Tower Hill tube station that "they started building that in the 1070s", but there are also fragments of the Roman wall a few yards from the station that are 2000 years old. The picture in the video at this point also shows why the central part of the Tower complex is referred to as "the White Tower", as it was originally coated with lime whitewash.
Connor try looking at stone age remains in Orkney and Shetland, then look at Avebury and Stonehenge and don't overlook the Ice Age remains at Creswell Crags where there are carvings done by Ice Age people who lived in the caves there. These just spring to mind but there are places all over the UK and Ireland. There's all sorts in Ireland, see if you can find on the National Museum of Ireland with its collection of amazing artefacts from the Bronze Age.
Technically Wales is younger as there were many different Welsh kingdoms before Gruffudd ap Llywelyn (the first and last king of Wales) united the kingdoms in the early 11th century.
@@gwynwilliams4222 Diolch yn fawr iawn, G. and an interesting point. As Welsh is one of Europe's oldest living languages, and has linguistic links to Cornish and Breton, I would think that measuring a country's age in just stone is only one part of its story. There's language and culture too. The Welsh are ancient people. Hywl fawr.
Whenever a bridge was proposed there was a petition against it from watermen and the ferry-owner and that was one of the reasons London Bridge remained the only crossing until the early 18th century. If a bridge was built, large amounts of compensation were paid by the bridge owner to the Watermen’s Company to be distributed to its members, and perhaps to a ferry owner
As a regular visitor to London, it still surprises me to turn a corner and see a roman wall or a Christopher wren church, or recently a roman amphitheatre under the guild hall - and under the recently built Bloomberg building a temple to Mithras from roman times.
I was working at the victotia and Albert museum doing Air conditioning when I was in my 20's and the labourers literally unearthed a perfect Roman tile floor mosaic. It was crazy.
yeah the Ampitheatre is a "recent" thing as in It wasnt around in the 1980s when I was in London, Mithras bit has managed to be relocated three or four times - it was outside Bucklersbury House from the late 1960s
@@highpath4776 I think it suggests that the land wall around the city wasn't mainly defensive. Otherwise why would they leave the riverside completely 'open' for so long?
Popular misconception, King John didn't "sign" the Magna Carta in the true sense i.e. wrote words in ink, instead, he put his wax Royal Seal on the document so the image of him holding a quill is incorrect.
Remains of dwellings and tombs have been found, but nothing that suggests a large settlement. It is possible that there was a pre-Roman city, of which no traces have yet been found, but this hypothesis remains to be verified .
@@dfuher968 I wrote that : a) the hypothesis of a pre-Roman city remains to be verified since no traces have been found yet b) nothing suggests a large settlement ( but rather a few settlements ) . The idea that London had pre-Roman origins is dismissed .
@carlobellinaso4974 You are the only person here talking about a pre-Roman "city". Nobody else is. The point is simply that the Romans were not the first to recognise this spot as being a good place to settle. Nothing more.
Little plug for my home town. St Paul's Cathedral is made from Portland stone. It's from the Isle of Portland, a little island hanging off the south west coast.
Hi neighbour I have spent many lovely days over the years in Portland, climbing over the big rocks and taking photos of the lighthouse etc ..... I'm just further along the Jurassic coast. I could look this up but while I think of it now, is Portland cement actually from our part of the world or just called that? Obviously Purbeck stone is local to here but I have wondered before about the cement. I love where we live and wouldn't move anywhere else. Sorry for the long comment.
The Romans did settle around the London Bridge area, of course, but before then they were in an area called Dowgate, where the River Walbrook (now hidden underground) flowed into the Thames - just west of London Bridge.
18:17 Yes, they still do. The guilds(Wherrymen(mini ferry-taxis) are members of the Company of Watermen and Lightermen which has existed since 1700 but I assume it was made from merging other, older guilds), they hold some power still but they used to be very very powerful and held off new bridges for centuaries. There was only 1 bridge crossing the Thames untill 1729 and then it was outside the city limits and was tolled, 1750 saw the begining of many more bridges being built (and the decline of ferrys and wherries)
36:41 in fact the most historically correct definition for that period is "mercantilism" not capitalism (which concerns the ownership of the means of production not just the sale of goods produced by others)
18:17 That still happens today. Ferry companies will fight to stop bridges being built - and if they are built, they might demand compensation for lost revenue or demand that toll prices to cross that bridge are kept so high, that alternative ferry routes have a chance of competing. We've seen that happen here in Denmark.
Bridges in London do t have a toll. And the waterman don't ferry goods across the river anymore and given for many years, London doesn't really have a port now and hasn't really since the use of cargo ships that now use the big metal boxes to carry cargo. Once that started being used to shopping cargo and huge cargo ships were used they could no longer get up river to London to use the docks. That's why the docks are in London are now very upmarket housing areas amd offices etc. London bridges haven't had a roll charge for literally hundreds of years now.
In earlier times there were actually shops on London Bridge itself. The north side of the bridge was a fortified area (what is known as the Square Mile or the City), while the south side grew up as the red light district of London, where all the less respectable services were sold. Being on the other side of the bridge, they were out of reach of the law officers within the City, while still close enough to the City that their clientele could just cross the bridge to buy their wares and services.
The oldest dated document found in London is from before Boudicca’s attack. It’s dated 8th January 57 CE in our calendar (“In the consulship of Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus for the second time and of Lucius Calpurnius Piso, on the 6th day before the Ides of January”), and fittingly, in regard to London’s future as a financial centre, it’s an IOU from Tibullus the freedman of Venustus, to say he owes Gratus the freedman of Spurius 105 denarii for merchandise sold and delivered.
My understanding is that the introduction of credit on a large scale, ie borrowing for overseas trade, trade in cotton from India, to fuel industrialisation in the mills of Manchester etc then in slaves that would produce more cotton to feed demand that overtook Indian production ( plus price fixing that led to mass starvation there) hailed a new form of trade. Watch George Monbiot on origins of capitalism and it's relationship to the gouging out of the Caribbean and other colonies, for resources
@@woodencreatures Interesting thought it was earlier, as there were some crowing ceremonies that argueably were not coronations - Henry II (or some such number)?
I was born in Lambeth and later moved to Southwark next door, parts of which were in Surrey until 1965 when they became South East London. I also lived near Crystal Palace Park before moving away to the South Coast
Capitalism is a particular form of economy heavily relying on banking which was strongly developed in the Italian Renaissance cities and maritime republics (especially Venice and Florence). Then the Dutch perfected it and subsequently it was made a global economic model by the British empire. The oldest bank of the world is considered the "Monte dei Paschi of Siena" (Tuscany) but Florence was considered the city of banks (and extremely rich for the time, landing money to the monarchies of all of Europe)
London was influenced by the Hanseatic League who bought wool from us in huge quantities and created great wealth in East Anglia. There is a Hanseatic Warehouse still standing in Kings Lynn. London copied and improved on a lot of their ideas.
The modern concept of capitalism was set out by Adam Smith in his book the wealth of nations. What was operating before wasn't strictly capitalistic really, it had another term, mercantile or something like that.
"Trading", "making money" and "capitalism" are not synonyms. Capitalism is a very particular economic system, that grew gradually, following the gradual death of labour. It would take far to long to explain capitalism here but three of it's central features are the widespread formation of companies, with shareholders, an extensive and accessible investment banking system, usually backed by a central bank and an insurance market for commercial and trading ventures.
You probably won't see this comment because it's 3 weeks late. The idea that capitalism has existed forever is a propaganda piece to strengthen the legitimacy of capitalism. Capitalism is not about trade. It's a method of production based on a social relationship. By this I mean that you have an owner/employee relationship based on paying wages for labour. This is in stark contrast to feudalism. Where the relationship was between landlord and serf. A serf pays rent to a landlord. In some cases the serf has some legal right to the land and the right to work the land can be inherited by family members. Serf's paid rent usually as a percentage of their produce. If you produced 100 bags of grain you might have to give 30 to your landlord and another 10 to the church. Leaving you with 60% of what you have produced. You would then sell or barter your own produce for the rest of what you need. I think that shows how different it is to capitalism. Where the owner sells your produce and keeps around 90% of the profits of your labour. In capitalism you have no right to work. You must continuously look for an employer to sell your labour to. The main benefit of capitalism was in civil rights. Serfs had very few and were not permitted to leave their jobs to look for better employment. Only a little better than slaves in that regard. There's also the security of not being at the whims of nature. Crop disease, floods, droughts generally bad harvests could mean that you starve. Capitalism shifted the risk to the owner along with the profit.
Hi Connor. Some of the county names of England give a clue to their ancient origins .... Essex (East Saxon), Wessex (West Saxon), Sussex (South Saxon), etc., whilst 'East Anglia' alludes to its ancient occupation by the 'Angles'.
Hi Connor. The difference between an inn and a tavern, I would expect to be able to stay overnight at an inn, I would expect to be able to eat and drink in either.
Connor. What is known as the 'Old London Bridge' was in existence for over 600 years, survived two great fires and had buildings-shop premises on it. Take a look at the history of the bridge itself when you've a chance.
Based on first hand experience, I would strongly recommend a visit to the Museum of London if you happen to be visiting in person, but unfortunately it's closed at the moment due to a relocation. When it reopens at the Smithfield site in 2026, the plan is for it to be called the London Museum. Keep an eye open for it then.
The ferries on the Thames were a boat called a wherry. The men that rowed these boats were known as Watermen and were in the Guild called The Company of Watermen and Lightermen. Watermen were the river taxis and the Lightermen moved the cargo along the river. The Company was originally formed in 1514.
Interesting!- My own home Town - Leicester as already a regional capital for almost 1,000 years before the Romans came, and the oldest town in the UK -Amesbury, has been occupied for over 11,000 years.
The thing to remember about London is that it has a good road network to the coastal ports closest to Continental Europe while have a bridge that links to a good road network into the interior of the country. Control of that bridge gives good control for much of the trade with Continental Europe. This would also have been very important to the Norman Kings of England, since their power base was in Continental Europe and at the time England would be little more than a colony of Normandy. Over time England would, as the American colonies would do seven centuries later, throw off its colonial yoke to become a superpower in its own right.
Great reaction. Love your enthusiasm as always, Connor. If you haven’t already you should check out Simon Schamas History of the Kings and Queens of England. Also Bettany Hughes’ seven ages of Britain. Much more in depth. Very fascinating. More grass to admire 😂
It is a word, meaning to put a crown on someone’s head during a coronation. However as a Brit I had never heard it until I watched YT videos of Americans reacting to recent coronation.
@@woodencreatures • Me neither. The word "coronated" is still in use, but as an adjective describing the crest on birds and some animals. That was its original meaning as well.
no youve got the idea of capitalism wrong, its not about trading and maximizing profits, they mean capitalism in terms of banking and the transition from coin to paper money which led to expanding money supply and more money lending and economy growth.
Yeah, and in particular the abstracting of money supply via *central* banking. That didn’t really start until the founding of the Bank of England although it was building on the earlier Venetian innovations. It’s arguable that the real kicker for it was the power game that Walpole played during the South Sea Company crisis as that underscored the importance of a central bank for managing money supply when dealing with the high risk ventures typical for worldwide empires and later nation states. That said, the evolution from mercantilism to capitalism took a long time, and even today there are plenty of people who want to take us back to the old system through high tariffs and other protectionist policies.
@@productjoe4069 No, the Bank of England was the product of the Dutch Republic's invasion of 1688, that had enjoyed a de facto central bank and fully fledged capitalism since 1608. To shift from mercantilism to capitalism you have to be competitive in trade as a country, England wasn't until the Bank of England got interest rates down.
@CliveBilby • Only a few members of the aristocracy would have drunk wine until very recently. The vast bulk of the British population would have drunk ale, as the water wasn't particularly safe to drink until Victorian times. The difference between a tavern and an Inn is that an Inn provided accomodation, a tavern doesn't.
We know very little about The Jutes. They settled in Kent in the south-east corner of England and in the Isle of Wight, and didn't play much of a part in the subsequent history.
Cornwall is the name of the southwestern tip of the isle. People couldn't simply use the bridges, they had to pay tolls to cross them. In Dublin, there's a bridge called "halfpenny bridge" to this day (though people don't have to pay anymore).
I know how proud the US is of their win in the War of Independance (and rightly so), but you can see from 2000 years of history, the British don't really give it a moments thought, it's just another episode in a long line of episodes. Very informative and interesting video, thanks.
It's important to them, but not to us. To us it was just another Tuesday. There's like 80 nations who've decades independence from the Briish Empire. America ain't that special really. Lol. Plus it'd have failed without French money and weapons etc. (And due to that it saw in the French revolution as a result.)
The population of Greater London is 8,866,180, the population of the London metropolitan area is 14,900,000. The population of New York City is 8,258,035, the population of the New York metropolitan area is 21,859,598.
Your question about ferries being in competition with bridges would mirror the situation in the late 20th century with the creation of the Channel Tunnel in competition with the Channel Ferries, many of which went out of business because of the Tunnel. Then again, ferries continued to pass across the Thames long after the creation of the Bridge. I suppose one could compare the choice between walking a mile down the road and taking a taxi over that distance.
You might also like to learn about the roads that the Romans built on the British mainland, remains of which are still here. They built about 2,000 miles of them! Some run parallel with busy routes today. I think you have seen Hadrian's Wall videos but if I am wrong you might be interested to learn about it. They have found lots of interesting things on and near Hadrian's Wall including letters from Roman soldiers to members of their families. Fascinating.
So much has changed in my lifetime. I was seven when war broke out, living on the edge of London and was bombed during the blitz. My father was known as a ‘backroom boy’, an expert in his field and we moved to the country. So at this time houses were single glazed, no central heating,just one room heated by coal fire, no running hot water, no fridge, no freezer, no washing machine, no tv, no phone, although there was a public one in the village. The only entertainment was the ‘wireless’., The only transport for the public in the country was walk or bike, in towns buses. Now compare that with today ninety years later.
i think you would be interested in a real life character called Samuel Pepys a Politician and writer, who lived in London and is best known for his diaries ,which he kept from1660 to 1669 life in these diaries he gives a good idea of what Life in London was like at that time , he also played a key role in reforming and modernising the Royal Navy.
The southwest peninsula that the Romans never conquered includes Cornwall, and parts of modern day Devonshire. That said, much of Devon was settled by the Romans and there numerous visible remnants and archeological sites in Devon's capital, Exeter. However, archeologists also keep finding evidence of Roman 'reach' further west throughout the county. Basically, the Roman influence on 'Celtic' Britain was minimal. The Celtic concentrations largely comprised Southwest England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.
Capitalism is about a collection of disparate people pooling their capital for an enterprise. Instead of a family working together to run a busness, a business is owned by many people who may be very far away from where the business is located and to whom the profits are distributed. As capitalism grows more sophisticed this can (and does) result in people owning a share of a business on the other side of the world, playing no part in the running of the bussiness and maybe not even having a clue what that business does on a day to day basis. This creates a damaging abdication of responsibility for the business owners who are isolated from the evils which might be being perpetrated in their name, and a near impossibility for those damaged by a business to achieve any reparation.
I think you'll like Samuel Pepys diary. Writtn 1660-1669 mostly in London. 1st hand accounts of the 1665 plague as well as the fire of London 1666.He visited many playhouses and hung out with the highest of and not so of london society. There's a fantastic reading of it by Kenneth Branagh on Audible. 📖
they have started to call "capitalism" the point where people, sometimes ordinary people, could invest money in a company as a share holder without having anything to do with the business or trade.
-wic in Dutch language = -wijk The modern meaning is a town/city area, like a neighborhood/district. It's also used in names, like Noordwijk is the name of a town at the Dutch North Sea coast, similar in that respect to Norwich in England.
hold on, the video said winchester used to be the capital of what was then england?? i thought the roman city of colchester was the capital or am i mad???
The idea that capitalism was always a driving force of society is a fiction. The driving force in society is status, and in a capitalist society that status is primarily through the acquisition of money. In feudalism that status was through ownership of land rather than money (although no society is totally pure, and even feudal societies had a monetary component, particularly where there was a need to hire mercenary armies). There are also societies that do not buy or sell goods at all. Often a person of high status demonstrates their status buy the opulence of the gifts the give (not sell) to their inferiors. Of course, in giving gifts you are in fact buying loyalty (and through the purchase of loyalty you gain more status), but you are not exchanging tangible goods for some other tangible goods. What started happening (only started, it was a gradual process) was the rise of corporatism, the rise of joint companies that were separate from the traditional social and financial unit of the family.
Re: 5:58 The Jutes (actually Eohtes) were wiped out in The Isle of Wight by later arriving Saxons, who seemed to also swamp them in Kent. There is a lack of runic inscribed archaology in the southern part of England. The Saxons were illiterate at this time, but the Engle, Fries and Northmen wrote in Runes so it is assumed that the Eohtes also wrote. This shows that many Eohtes further west may have been wiped out by the British, or never settled further north. They accupied a narrow band of southern land in Hampshire. This germanic part of England expanded after the Saxons arrived as invaders. Alfred the Great's mother is said to have been Eohtish.The Eoh part of the name means 'horse', and is probably the inspiration for Tolkien's kingdom of Rohan. The Rohan artwork in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings resembles native English artwork.
Fun fact: the first city in the world to reach 1 million people was ancient Rome in around 1AD. The first city to reach 2 million was London in around 1840. Then London was the first to reach 3 million, 4 million, 5 million, 6 million and 7 million... all within a century. Finally it was overtaken by New York in 1925.
The period of the Scottish Enlightenment plays a huge part in the world we see today , the inventions in the 1700,s onwards have saved so many lives due to medicines like penicillin and understanding hygiene probably plays a major part in why we are now closing in on 8.2 Billion people alive today
Also Adam Smith sets out what is modern capitalism as an economic force in the book Wealth of Nations. And the Bank of England was founded and set up ny a Scot based on enlightenment ideas too. Bot to mention modern says personal banking with everyday citizens having access ro a bank acct too, another Scottish idea and concept. Bank of Scotland being the 1st (both a central bank and a personal bank too...RBS was founded to compete against BOS, as BOS supported the Jacobites so RBS was set up to support the Hanovarians/royalist of England).
Enjoyed the video and your reaction. The music was an unfortunate choice, which failed to dramatise the narrative to the point where it became a distraction from it.
Although we didn’t have cities people in UK had traded with Europe and elsewhere for thousands of years by the 12th century. Also Harold Godwinson had really bad luck. He actually tried to fight off two invasions. Everyone always forgets the Viking invasion of 1066 in the North. He marched an army north, fought them, then heard William was on his way and marched them all south again. He was knackered by the time he fought William.
11:52 Cornwall! - What you say about them boundaries is very true, the people have their own Celtic type languages. Cornwall has its own language, flag and many people list their nationality in the census as Cornish. MPs have campaigned to get a govenrment in Cornwall like the other celts. Welsh assembly, Scottish Parliament etc.There is also a Cornish Nationalist Party, they have had a few councilors elected in local councils but no MPs.
Early settlements, before roads existed, merely pathways, developed organically as people gathered around important means of transport which, in a heavily forested area, as then, rivers were used for any commercial movements. Therefore, larger settlements grew around such points as where there were fords (river crossing not vehicles) and later when bridges could be built. America did not have thes restriction when building large cities and could plan them, rather than letting them just grow 'organically', as in the rest of the then developed world.
Another old and interesting city is Paris, France. It has been around longer than London. I first realized how old it is when I was watching a video about Ceasar's war to conquer Gaul, and it mentioned Paris because Ceasar's army had camped near it when in that part of Gaul.
The Isle of Wight was part of England, and Wessex beforehand. Some of the maps aren't particularly accurate. I think in this case they just forgot to colour it in. :) Btw, that small southwestern tip of England, that you were trying to remember the name for, is 'Cornwall'. Though the map also included the much larger county of Devon, for some reason. Although not heavily settled by the Anglo-Saxons, it was under their control almost from the start and was part of the Kingdom of Wessex. The heir to the throne is traditionally the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall. :)
I am German but have lived in England a long time now. Guess it had to happen as I was born in what translated means Lower Sachsen 🙂 Invasion of a different kind, 👨🏭👨🏭💖💖
That is called Devon and Cornwall, but the rest of the border between Wales and Scotland are wrong, Mercia also had North Wales right up to Rhyl, also the Wirral Peninsula is not shown as a part of England, on top of that the far North Eastern lands of Lothian in present day Scotland are also not shown as being England during the Anglo-Saxon period.
Your respect for the creators , e.g. their sponsors, is one of several characteristics that many "reaction- themed " TH-camrs can learn from you, respect
I much prefer the TH-camrs who flick through the sponsor gumf at speed and move on to the actual video's info.
Its kinda best of both worlds for him to show it yet we can skip it
@@brigidsingleton1596 You have the ability to do that yourself.
@@gyderian9435Glad to see someone with insight. And the original creators get credit and maybe some money.
@@L.J.Designs
Indeed, though I tend to use that time to read through comments rather than miss some of the narration of the video (& some of which the Reactor is saying) and in this (& some other videos) I can, when necessary, catch the mispronounced names / words too...and there are often too many to ignore, even without passing comment upon those irritating details.
Self-scrolling (as suggested?!) isn't necessary with the Reactors who do that for us though, and I appreciate those who do, (like: 'Not An Industry Artist'),
a tavern offers food and drink, an inn offers food and drink and also a place to house horses and shelter for the night.
I am absolutely convinced that you know considerably more British History than 99.9% of the British population! Extremely knowledgeable on the topic😀😀😀
I agree and also a very good historical sense ie how we have changed and how we are the same.
The music almost blocks out the announcer's voice. Glad to hear it fade away.
Hi Connor, love you interest in the United Kingdoms history. You have a great inquiring mind, which contributes so much enjoyment to your blogs. Don't apologise for interrupting, it what makes the blogs so interesting. 👍
@15:00 I agree that it's special to have a building as old as the Tower of London that can still be visited today. I've impressed American friends looking across from Tower Hill tube station that "they started building that in the 1070s", but there are also fragments of the Roman wall a few yards from the station that are 2000 years old. The picture in the video at this point also shows why the central part of the Tower complex is referred to as "the White Tower", as it was originally coated with lime whitewash.
You should look at some stuff about prehistoric England. There is thousands of years of history before the romans came here.
Connor try looking at stone age remains in Orkney and Shetland, then look at Avebury and Stonehenge and don't overlook the Ice Age remains at Creswell Crags where there are carvings done by Ice Age people who lived in the caves there. These just spring to mind but there are places all over the UK and Ireland. There's all sorts in Ireland, see if you can find on the National Museum of Ireland with its collection of amazing artefacts from the Bronze Age.
You mean prehistoric Wales England is only 1500 years old
Technically Wales is younger as there were many different Welsh kingdoms before Gruffudd ap Llywelyn (the first and last king of Wales) united the kingdoms in the early 11th century.
@@gwynwilliams4222 Diolch yn fawr iawn, G. and an interesting point. As Welsh is one of Europe's oldest living languages, and has linguistic links to Cornish and Breton, I would think that measuring a country's age in just stone is only one part of its story. There's language and culture too. The Welsh are ancient people. Hywl fawr.
Whenever a bridge was proposed there was a petition against it from watermen and the ferry-owner and that was one of the reasons London Bridge remained the only crossing until the early 18th century. If a bridge was built, large amounts of compensation were paid by the bridge owner to the Watermen’s Company to be distributed to its members, and perhaps to a ferry owner
As a regular visitor to London, it still surprises me to turn a corner and see a roman wall or a Christopher wren church, or recently a roman amphitheatre under the guild hall - and under the recently built Bloomberg building a temple to Mithras from roman times.
I was working at the victotia and Albert museum doing Air conditioning when I was in my 20's and the labourers literally unearthed a perfect Roman tile floor mosaic. It was crazy.
@@Steelninja77 great, isn’t it? Recently archaeologists uncovered evidence of the Roman wall that ran along the riverside.
@@soozb15 interesting that the wall wasnt built all at one time too.
yeah the Ampitheatre is a "recent" thing as in It wasnt around in the 1980s when I was in London, Mithras bit has managed to be relocated three or four times - it was outside Bucklersbury House from the late 1960s
@@highpath4776 I think it suggests that the land wall around the city wasn't mainly defensive. Otherwise why would they leave the riverside completely 'open' for so long?
Popular misconception, King John didn't "sign" the Magna Carta in the true sense i.e. wrote words in ink, instead, he put his wax Royal Seal on the document so the image of him holding a quill is incorrect.
Incorrect and incorrect. That's assuming the goal was to be historically accurate. But it's symbology. He put his stamp on it, he signed it. Whatever.
Although the Romans named it Lundinium, there was a settlement there for centuries before the Roman occupation...
Remains of dwellings and tombs have been found, but nothing that suggests a large settlement. It is possible that there was a pre-Roman city, of which no traces have yet been found, but this hypothesis remains to be verified .
Legend has it King Lud fortified London in about 70 BC and gave it its present name, a corruption of Lud-Dun, Lud's fortress.
@@carlobellinaso4974 Ur talking about a pre-Roman city. The OP is talking about a settlement. Big difference.
@@dfuher968 I wrote that : a) the hypothesis of a pre-Roman city remains to be verified since no traces have been found yet b) nothing suggests a large settlement ( but rather a few settlements ) . The idea that London had pre-Roman origins is dismissed .
@carlobellinaso4974 You are the only person here talking about a pre-Roman "city". Nobody else is. The point is simply that the Romans were not the first to recognise this spot as being a good place to settle. Nothing more.
Little plug for my home town. St Paul's Cathedral is made from Portland stone. It's from the Isle of Portland, a little island hanging off the south west coast.
Hi neighbour I have spent many lovely days over the years in Portland, climbing over the big rocks and taking photos of the lighthouse etc ..... I'm just further along the Jurassic coast. I could look this up but while I think of it now, is Portland cement actually from our part of the world or just called that? Obviously Purbeck stone is local to here but I have wondered before about the cement. I love where we live and wouldn't move anywhere else. Sorry for the long comment.
DORSET
Portland cement is Danish 🇩🇰, it was patented in 1824.
The Romans did settle around the London Bridge area, of course, but before then they were in an area called Dowgate, where the River Walbrook (now hidden underground) flowed into the Thames - just west of London Bridge.
18:17
Yes, they still do. The guilds(Wherrymen(mini ferry-taxis) are members of the Company of Watermen and Lightermen which has existed since 1700 but I assume it was made from merging other, older guilds), they hold some power still but they used to be very very powerful and held off new bridges for centuaries. There was only 1 bridge crossing the Thames untill 1729 and then it was outside the city limits and was tolled, 1750 saw the begining of many more bridges being built (and the decline of ferrys and wherries)
Don’t pay the wherryman until he gets you to the other side
36:41 in fact the most historically correct definition for that period is "mercantilism" not capitalism (which concerns the ownership of the means of production not just the sale of goods produced by others)
The Roman city of Londinium was built on the last point on the river where you can ford (ie walk through) the river.
I wouldnt try walking (maybe with a horse) , even when the banks were wider and southwark marshes spread in and out the river on the south
Great video again, I love your historic videos, I find them very interesting
17:49 That was exactly the use for the draw bridge, for the passage of tall ships.
Tavern = primarily a place for drinking. Inn = place for lodging which also serves drink and food.
An Inn also had places to rest and feed your horse etc too, as well as a place for you to eat drink and sleep too.
I thoroughly enjoyed that video. They seem a very interesting channel. Thank you Connor.
18:17 That still happens today. Ferry companies will fight to stop bridges being built - and if they are built, they might demand compensation for lost revenue or demand that toll prices to cross that bridge are kept so high, that alternative ferry routes have a chance of competing. We've seen that happen here in Denmark.
Bridges in London do t have a toll. And the waterman don't ferry goods across the river anymore and given for many years, London doesn't really have a port now and hasn't really since the use of cargo ships that now use the big metal boxes to carry cargo. Once that started being used to shopping cargo and huge cargo ships were used they could no longer get up river to London to use the docks. That's why the docks are in London are now very upmarket housing areas amd offices etc.
London bridges haven't had a roll charge for literally hundreds of years now.
In earlier times there were actually shops on London Bridge itself.
The north side of the bridge was a fortified area (what is known as the Square Mile or the City), while the south side grew up as the red light district of London, where all the less respectable services were sold. Being on the other side of the bridge, they were out of reach of the law officers within the City, while still close enough to the City that their clientele could just cross the bridge to buy their wares and services.
Brilliant video and as always a respectful but young enquiring mind to accompany it . Excellent job.
The oldest dated document found in London is from before Boudicca’s attack. It’s dated 8th January 57 CE in our calendar (“In the consulship of Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus for the second time and of Lucius Calpurnius Piso, on the 6th day before the Ides of January”), and fittingly, in regard to London’s future as a financial centre, it’s an IOU from Tibullus the freedman of Venustus, to say he owes Gratus the freedman of Spurius 105 denarii for merchandise sold and delivered.
Enjoyed this immensely. Thanks 😊
My understanding is that the introduction of credit on a large scale, ie borrowing for overseas trade, trade in cotton from India, to fuel industrialisation in the mills of Manchester etc then in slaves that would produce more cotton to feed demand that overtook Indian production ( plus price fixing that led to mass starvation there) hailed a new form of trade. Watch George Monbiot on origins of capitalism and it's relationship to the gouging out of the Caribbean and other colonies, for resources
samuel pepys diary is a must read for london history
@@garyballared2077 just don't buy it in the original ... 😉
@@soozb15please don't remind me of studying for a degree in English.😮😮
@pathopewell1814 😁 sorry about that! The memories of my degree - English/history - have almost faded away, as it was so long ago...
Very educational, thanks for sharing mate
PS: for _coronated_ (?????) , please read _crowned_ !
Just came here to say that - 'coronated' really irritates me.
@@robheyes6470same here
That really bugs me as well and I looked it up thinking it wasn't a real word but it actually is, from the 1700s
@@woodencreatures Interesting thought it was earlier, as there were some crowing ceremonies that argueably were not coronations - Henry II (or some such number)?
@@highpath4776 You're probably right, I just googled it haha
I was born in Lambeth and later moved to Southwark next door, parts of which were in Surrey until 1965 when they became South East London. I also lived near Crystal Palace Park before moving away to the South Coast
I wonder how many Romans who first arrived in Lundinium thought to themselves, 'you wait, this place has prospects'..
Connor, Inns especially coaching inns were I think like hotels. I admire your interests in British history and your knowledge of it ❤
Capitalism is a particular form of economy heavily relying on banking which was strongly developed in the Italian Renaissance cities and maritime republics (especially Venice and Florence). Then the Dutch perfected it and subsequently it was made a global economic model by the British empire.
The oldest bank of the world is considered the "Monte dei Paschi of Siena" (Tuscany) but Florence was considered the city of banks (and extremely rich for the time, landing money to the monarchies of all of Europe)
London was influenced by the Hanseatic League who bought wool from us in huge quantities and created great wealth in East Anglia. There is a Hanseatic Warehouse still standing in Kings Lynn. London copied and improved on a lot of their ideas.
The modern concept of capitalism was set out by Adam Smith in his book the wealth of nations. What was operating before wasn't strictly capitalistic really, it had another term, mercantile or something like that.
"Trading", "making money" and "capitalism" are not synonyms. Capitalism is a very particular economic system, that grew gradually, following the gradual death of labour. It would take far to long to explain capitalism here but three of it's central features are the widespread formation of companies, with shareholders, an extensive and accessible investment banking system, usually backed by a central bank and an insurance market for commercial and trading ventures.
You probably won't see this comment because it's 3 weeks late. The idea that capitalism has existed forever is a propaganda piece to strengthen the legitimacy of capitalism. Capitalism is not about trade. It's a method of production based on a social relationship. By this I mean that you have an owner/employee relationship based on paying wages for labour. This is in stark contrast to feudalism. Where the relationship was between landlord and serf. A serf pays rent to a landlord. In some cases the serf has some legal right to the land and the right to work the land can be inherited by family members. Serf's paid rent usually as a percentage of their produce. If you produced 100 bags of grain you might have to give 30 to your landlord and another 10 to the church. Leaving you with 60% of what you have produced. You would then sell or barter your own produce for the rest of what you need.
I think that shows how different it is to capitalism. Where the owner sells your produce and keeps around 90% of the profits of your labour. In capitalism you have no right to work. You must continuously look for an employer to sell your labour to.
The main benefit of capitalism was in civil rights. Serfs had very few and were not permitted to leave their jobs to look for better employment. Only a little better than slaves in that regard. There's also the security of not being at the whims of nature. Crop disease, floods, droughts generally bad harvests could mean that you starve. Capitalism shifted the risk to the owner along with the profit.
Hi Connor. Some of the county names of England give a clue to their ancient origins .... Essex (East Saxon), Wessex (West Saxon), Sussex (South Saxon), etc., whilst 'East Anglia' alludes to its ancient occupation by the 'Angles'.
An inn has rooms to stay the night, a tavern doesn't.
Hi Connor.
The difference between an inn and a tavern, I would expect to be able to stay overnight at an inn, I would expect to be able to eat and drink in either.
An Inn offered slepping facilities. A Tavern is a drinking environment, as in those days, alchol was safer to drink than water.
Connor. What is known as the 'Old London Bridge' was in existence for over 600 years, survived two great fires and had buildings-shop premises on it. Take a look at the history of the bridge itself when you've a chance.
I live in Verulamium, now called St Albans, basically a days march from London.
Based on first hand experience, I would strongly recommend a visit to the Museum of London if you happen to be visiting in person, but unfortunately it's closed at the moment due to a relocation. When it reopens at the Smithfield site in 2026, the plan is for it to be called the London Museum. Keep an eye open for it then.
An inn is a place to sleep for the night, a tavern is where you go to drink ale.
Great reaction Connor, hope you are well bro
The ferries on the Thames were a boat called a wherry. The men that rowed these boats were known as Watermen and were in the Guild called The Company of Watermen and Lightermen. Watermen were the river taxis and the Lightermen moved the cargo along the river. The Company was originally formed in 1514.
Evening connor 😊. Another interesting video.
Interesting!- My own home Town - Leicester as already a regional capital for almost 1,000 years before the Romans came, and the oldest town in the UK -Amesbury, has been occupied for over 11,000 years.
The thing to remember about London is that it has a good road network to the coastal ports closest to Continental Europe while have a bridge that links to a good road network into the interior of the country. Control of that bridge gives good control for much of the trade with Continental Europe.
This would also have been very important to the Norman Kings of England, since their power base was in Continental Europe and at the time England would be little more than a colony of Normandy. Over time England would, as the American colonies would do seven centuries later, throw off its colonial yoke to become a superpower in its own right.
Great reaction. Love your enthusiasm as always, Connor. If you haven’t already you should check out Simon Schamas History of the Kings and Queens of England. Also Bettany Hughes’ seven ages of Britain. Much more in depth. Very fascinating. More grass to admire 😂
You should take a look at Jay Foreman's 'Unfinished London'. He did a lot of vids about bridges over the Thames!
I hate that the pause screen Immediatly had The Eastenders theme drum intro play in my head...
There's another city inside of London itself that is separate from the rest of Britain and makes its own laws fun fact I thought
Coronated? Not even word. Crowned !
It is a word, meaning to put a crown on someone’s head during a coronation. However as a Brit I had never heard it until I watched YT videos of Americans reacting to recent coronation.
It is slowly creeping into the vocabulary! Dreadful word!
I thought it wasn't a real word but it is, from the 1700s. I can't stand it
@@woodencreatures • Me neither. The word "coronated" is still in use, but as an adjective describing the crest on birds and some animals. That was its original meaning as well.
Winchester is near the coast on the mainland, the isle of Wight is a few miles off the coast
An inn is a place to stay overnight, while a tavern is a place to drink and eat:
Greetings from Trajectum founded 50 AD, today known as Utrecht (NL). 😊
no youve got the idea of capitalism wrong, its not about trading and maximizing profits, they mean capitalism in terms of banking and the transition from coin to paper money which led to expanding money supply and more money lending and economy growth.
Yeah, and in particular the abstracting of money supply via *central* banking. That didn’t really start until the founding of the Bank of England although it was building on the earlier Venetian innovations. It’s arguable that the real kicker for it was the power game that Walpole played during the South Sea Company crisis as that underscored the importance of a central bank for managing money supply when dealing with the high risk ventures typical for worldwide empires and later nation states. That said, the evolution from mercantilism to capitalism took a long time, and even today there are plenty of people who want to take us back to the old system through high tariffs and other protectionist policies.
@@productjoe4069 No, the Bank of England was the product of the Dutch Republic's invasion of 1688, that had enjoyed a de facto central bank and fully fledged capitalism since 1608. To shift from mercantilism to capitalism you have to be competitive in trade as a country, England wasn't until the Bank of England got interest rates down.
Tavern serves more wine than beer, whilst Inns have rooms to accommodate travellers. South West England is called Cornwall.
South west covers Somerset Devon & Dorset, not just Cornwall
@CliveBilby • Only a few members of the aristocracy would have drunk wine until very recently. The vast bulk of the British population would have drunk ale, as the water wasn't particularly safe to drink until Victorian times. The difference between a tavern and an Inn is that an Inn provided accomodation, a tavern doesn't.
We know very little about The Jutes. They settled in Kent in the south-east corner of England and in the Isle of Wight, and didn't play much of a part in the subsequent history.
Cornwall is the name of the southwestern tip of the isle. People couldn't simply use the bridges, they had to pay tolls to cross them. In Dublin, there's a bridge called "halfpenny bridge" to this day (though people don't have to pay anymore).
I currently live in Colchester which used to be Camulodunum in Roman times
Also, they didn’t have the letter U in the Roman Latin alphabet, so it was called Camvlodvnvm. But they still pronounced U in their speech
I know how proud the US is of their win in the War of Independance (and rightly so), but you can see from 2000 years of history, the British don't really give it a moments thought, it's just another episode in a long line of episodes. Very informative and interesting video, thanks.
It's important to them, but not to us. To us it was just another Tuesday. There's like 80 nations who've decades independence from the Briish Empire. America ain't that special really. Lol. Plus it'd have failed without French money and weapons etc. (And due to that it saw in the French revolution as a result.)
@@chadUCSD Too true. But hey let them have their time in the sunshine. lol
The population of Greater London is 8,866,180, the population of the London metropolitan area is 14,900,000. The population of New York City is 8,258,035, the population of the New York metropolitan area is 21,859,598.
when olymoic park, old oak common and dagenham dock areas are full of flats the london population will well go over 9million
The Cornish!
I lived and worked in London for most of my early years (Westminister) and you take for granted how much history surrounds you daily.
Your question about ferries being in competition with bridges would mirror the situation in the late 20th century with the creation of the Channel Tunnel in competition with the Channel Ferries, many of which went out of business because of the Tunnel.
Then again, ferries continued to pass across the Thames long after the creation of the Bridge. I suppose one could compare the choice between walking a mile down the road and taking a taxi over that distance.
You might also like to learn about the roads that the Romans built on the British mainland, remains of which are still here. They built about 2,000 miles of them! Some run parallel with busy routes today. I think you have seen Hadrian's Wall videos but if I am wrong you might be interested to learn about it. They have found lots of interesting things on and near Hadrian's Wall including letters from Roman soldiers to members of their families. Fascinating.
An 'Inn' would have had food & drink, and also accommodation ..... a 'Tavern' typically would be just an 'alehouse' with no guest accommodation.
So much has changed in my lifetime. I was seven when war broke out, living on the edge of London and was bombed during the blitz. My father was known as a ‘backroom boy’, an expert in his field and we moved to the country. So at this time houses were single glazed, no central heating,just one room heated by coal fire, no running hot water, no fridge, no freezer, no washing machine, no tv, no phone, although there was a public one in the village. The only entertainment was the ‘wireless’., The only transport for the public in the country was walk or bike, in towns buses.
Now compare that with today ninety years later.
i think you would be interested in a real life character called Samuel Pepys a Politician and writer, who lived in London and is best known for his diaries ,which he kept from1660 to 1669 life in these diaries he gives a good idea of what Life in London was like at that time , he also played a key role in reforming and modernising the Royal Navy.
You can look these things up, Connor. In 2013, approximately 36% of the (New York) city's population is foreign born says Wikipedia.
The southwest peninsula that the Romans never conquered includes Cornwall, and parts of modern day Devonshire. That said, much of Devon was settled by the Romans and there numerous visible remnants and archeological sites in Devon's capital, Exeter. However, archeologists also keep finding evidence of Roman 'reach' further west throughout the county. Basically, the Roman influence on 'Celtic' Britain was minimal. The Celtic concentrations largely comprised Southwest England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.
what about the tin trade with urns from Greece and elsewhere ?
Cornwall
Capitalism is about a collection of disparate people pooling their capital for an enterprise. Instead of a family working together to run a busness, a business is owned by many people who may be very far away from where the business is located and to whom the profits are distributed. As capitalism grows more sophisticed this can (and does) result in people owning a share of a business on the other side of the world, playing no part in the running of the bussiness and maybe not even having a clue what that business does on a day to day basis. This creates a damaging abdication of responsibility for the business owners who are isolated from the evils which might be being perpetrated in their name, and a near impossibility for those damaged by a business to achieve any reparation.
I think you'll like Samuel Pepys diary. Writtn 1660-1669 mostly in London. 1st hand accounts of the 1665 plague as well as the fire of London 1666.He visited many playhouses and hung out with the highest of and not so of london society. There's a fantastic reading of it by Kenneth Branagh on Audible. 📖
they have started to call "capitalism" the point where people, sometimes ordinary people, could invest money in a company as a share holder without having anything to do with the business or trade.
Colchester is still an Army town now
-wic in Dutch language = -wijk
The modern meaning is a town/city area, like a neighborhood/district.
It's also used in names, like Noordwijk is the name of a town at the Dutch North Sea coast, similar in that respect to Norwich in England.
hold on, the video said winchester used to be the capital of what was then england?? i thought the roman city of colchester was the capital or am i mad???
Colchester was the largest settlement in Roman Britannia. Winchester was the first capital in England (land of the Angles)
@@pjdunnit6753 thats why i was sure it was colchester, the angles settled in essex, suffolk and norfolk. anyway my mistake.
The idea that capitalism was always a driving force of society is a fiction.
The driving force in society is status, and in a capitalist society that status is primarily through the acquisition of money. In feudalism that status was through ownership of land rather than money (although no society is totally pure, and even feudal societies had a monetary component, particularly where there was a need to hire mercenary armies).
There are also societies that do not buy or sell goods at all. Often a person of high status demonstrates their status buy the opulence of the gifts the give (not sell) to their inferiors. Of course, in giving gifts you are in fact buying loyalty (and through the purchase of loyalty you gain more status), but you are not exchanging tangible goods for some other tangible goods.
What started happening (only started, it was a gradual process) was the rise of corporatism, the rise of joint companies that were separate from the traditional social and financial unit of the family.
11:35 Cornish, some of them still speak it, even though it is dwindling,
Pretty sure there was an existing settlement before the Romans arrived.
Yes, the present locality of London was inhabited in prehistoric times.
Kimg Lud set up a settlement. Lud Dum (Luds Fort)
Re: 5:58 The Jutes (actually Eohtes) were wiped out in The Isle of Wight by later arriving Saxons, who seemed to also swamp them in Kent. There is a lack of runic inscribed archaology in the southern part of England. The Saxons were illiterate at this time, but the Engle, Fries and Northmen wrote in Runes so it is assumed that the Eohtes also wrote. This shows that many Eohtes further west may have been wiped out by the British, or never settled further north. They accupied a narrow band of southern land in Hampshire. This germanic part of England expanded after the Saxons arrived as invaders. Alfred the Great's mother is said to have been Eohtish.The Eoh part of the name means 'horse', and is probably the inspiration for Tolkien's kingdom of Rohan. The Rohan artwork in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings resembles native English artwork.
Makes me want to know more about Winchester.
good vid :D enjoyed that.
trade is not the basis of capitalism, its banking.
Fun fact: the first city in the world to reach 1 million people was ancient Rome in around 1AD. The first city to reach 2 million was London in around 1840. Then London was the first to reach 3 million, 4 million, 5 million, 6 million and 7 million... all within a century. Finally it was overtaken by New York in 1925.
The period of the Scottish Enlightenment plays a huge part in the world we see today , the inventions in the 1700,s onwards have saved so many lives due to medicines like penicillin and understanding hygiene probably plays a major part in why we are now closing in on 8.2 Billion people alive today
Also Adam Smith sets out what is modern capitalism as an economic force in the book Wealth of Nations. And the Bank of England was founded and set up ny a Scot based on enlightenment ideas too. Bot to mention modern says personal banking with everyday citizens having access ro a bank acct too, another Scottish idea and concept. Bank of Scotland being the 1st (both a central bank and a personal bank too...RBS was founded to compete against BOS, as BOS supported the Jacobites so RBS was set up to support the Hanovarians/royalist of England).
Enjoyed the video and your reaction. The music was an unfortunate choice, which failed to dramatise the narrative to the point where it became a distraction from it.
Although we didn’t have cities people in UK had traded with Europe and elsewhere for thousands of years by the 12th century. Also Harold Godwinson had really bad luck. He actually tried to fight off two invasions. Everyone always forgets the Viking invasion of 1066 in the North. He marched an army north, fought them, then heard William was on his way and marched them all south again. He was knackered by the time he fought William.
11:52 Cornwall! - What you say about them boundaries is very true, the people have their own Celtic type languages. Cornwall has its own language, flag and many people list their nationality in the census as Cornish. MPs have campaigned to get a govenrment in Cornwall like the other celts. Welsh assembly, Scottish Parliament etc.There is also a Cornish Nationalist Party, they have had a few councilors elected in local councils but no MPs.
Do some people still speek Gealic Cornish in Cornwall. I recall this from holidays there in the early 70's. I'd be interested to know.
Early settlements, before roads existed, merely pathways, developed organically as people gathered around important means of transport which, in a heavily forested area, as then, rivers were used for any commercial movements. Therefore, larger settlements grew around such points as where there were fords (river crossing not vehicles) and later when bridges could be built. America did not have thes restriction when building large cities and could plan them, rather than letting them just grow 'organically', as in the rest of the then developed world.
Check out St Martins church, Canterbury. It’s very old👍
I'm going to assume that the division of control by the Saxons and Vikings you couldn't remember the name of was the Danelaw?
Another old and interesting city is Paris, France. It has been around longer than London. I first realized how old it is when I was watching a video about Ceasar's war to conquer Gaul, and it mentioned Paris because Ceasar's army had camped near it when in that part of Gaul.
There was a poulation inhabiting the area for centuries before the Romans named it Londinium!
@@AnnMcKinlay-zp2efjust like like the rest of Eurpoe 😂
There also some cities and towns in the UK that were established towns when London was still farmland
1000 years ago? Pretty much the start of modern times, but there are buildings on these islands much older than that.
Keep Reacting!
The Isle of Wight was part of England, and Wessex beforehand. Some of the maps aren't particularly accurate. I think in this case they just forgot to colour it in. :)
Btw, that small southwestern tip of England, that you were trying to remember the name for, is 'Cornwall'. Though the map also included the much larger county of Devon, for some reason. Although not heavily settled by the Anglo-Saxons, it was under their control almost from the start and was part of the Kingdom of Wessex. The heir to the throne is traditionally the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall. :)
I am German but have lived in England a long time now. Guess it had to happen as I was born in what translated means Lower Sachsen 🙂 Invasion of a different kind, 👨🏭👨🏭💖💖
That is called Devon and Cornwall, but the rest of the border between Wales and Scotland are wrong, Mercia also had North Wales right up to Rhyl, also the Wirral Peninsula is not shown as a part of England, on top of that the far North Eastern lands of Lothian in present day Scotland are also not shown as being England during the Anglo-Saxon period.