Chapter 3: History — Set 9

James IV of Scotland was killed at Flodden in 1513, along with much of his nobility, after invading England while Henry VIII was campaigning in France.

St Columba founded his monastery on the small island of Iona off Scotland's west coast in about 563, and it became a great centre for spreading Christianity.

Cnut of Denmark conquered England and became its king in 1016, ruling until 1035 over an empire that also included Denmark and Norway.

English and Welsh longbowmen devastated the French at Crécy in 1346, demonstrating the power of the longbow that featured in English victories throughout the Hundred Years War.

More resigned as Chancellor and was executed in 1535 for refusing to swear the oath accepting Henry VIII, rather than the Pope, as head of the Church in England.

The Bank of England was founded in 1694, during the reign of William III, and grew into the country's central bank.

In the Clearances, Highland landlords removed tenant farmers, many of whom emigrated, to replace small farms with more profitable large sheep runs.

The Peterloo crowd of 1819 had gathered to demand parliamentary reform and the vote for working people; the charge by local yeomanry killed and injured many.

The six Tolpuddle labourers were transported in 1834 after swearing an oath as members of a friendly society of farm workers — in effect, for forming a trade union; public protests later won their pardon.

The Charge of the Light Brigade happened at the Battle of Balaclava in 1854 during the Crimean War, after a misunderstood order sent the cavalry against well-defended Russian guns.

Livingstone explored large parts of central and southern Africa, and in 1855 reached the waterfall he named Victoria Falls in honour of the Queen.

Emily Davison was fatally injured at the Derby at Epsom in 1913 when she stepped onto the course in front of the King's horse, becoming the suffragette movement's most famous martyr.

Ramsay MacDonald formed the first Labour government in 1924, a landmark in the party's rise as it overtook the Liberals as the main rival to the Conservatives.

After the closure of Jarrow's shipyard left most of the town out of work, its 'crusade' of marchers carried a petition to London in 1936 protesting at unemployment and poverty.

The Representation of the People Act 1969 lowered the voting age to 18, making the UK the first major democracy to enfranchise 18-year-olds.

Parliament abolished the death penalty for murder in Great Britain in 1965, initially for a trial period; the change was made permanent in 1969.

At Tilbury in August 1588 Elizabeth told her soldiers that although she had the body of a weak and feeble woman, she had the heart and stomach of a king — and of a king of England too.

The last statement is impossible: Mary was executed in 1587, long before Elizabeth's reign ended, so she could never have succeeded her — the crown eventually passed to Mary's son, James. The other statements are all true: the Armada was defeated in 1588, Mary was raised at the French court, and she was executed in 1587 after many years as Elizabeth's prisoner and her implication in plots against Elizabeth.

The Act of Settlement 1701 settled the crown on Sophia of Hanover and her heirs, provided they were Protestants — anyone who was, or married, a Roman Catholic was excluded.

Prince Albert, Victoria's husband, championed the Great Exhibition and presided over the Royal Commission that organised it; its profits later helped create the South Kensington museums.

At Passchendaele in 1917, heavy rain and shelling turned the battlefield into deep mud in which men and horses could drown; hundreds of thousands of casualties were suffered for a gain of only a few miles.

Churchill's words of 20 August 1940 paid tribute to the aircrew of RAF Fighter Command — the pilots of the Battle of Britain, who have been known as 'the Few' ever since.

The Luddites were skilled English textile workers who, between 1811 and 1816, broke into mills and smashed the new machines they believed threatened their livelihoods.

English wool was one of the country's most valuable exports in the Middle Ages, but much of it was sold raw. The Flemish weavers brought advanced weaving skills that helped England produce fine cloth of its own, adding to the wealth created by the wool trade.