98-480: The Dictionary of National Biography ( DNB ) is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history , published since 1885. The updated Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ( ODNB ) was published on 23 September 2004 in 60 volumes and online, with 50,113 biographical articles covering 54,922 lives. Hoping to emulate national biographical collections published elsewhere in Europe, such as
196-659: A catastrophe. Cottiers (or farm labourers) were largely wiped out during what is known in Ireland as the " Great Hunger ". A significant minority elected Unionists , who championed the Union. A Church of Ireland former Tory barrister turned nationalist campaigner, Isaac Butt , established a new moderate nationalist movement, the Home Rule League , in the 1870s. After Butt's death the Home Rule Movement, or
294-465: A constitutional government there and recognising the independence of Spain's American colonies in 1824. British merchants and financiers, and later railway builders, played major roles in the economies of most Latin American nations. The Whig Party recovered its strength and unity by supporting moral reforms, especially the reform of the electoral system, the abolition of slavery and emancipation of
392-592: A daughter of William Percival Lindsay, Writer to the Signet , of Edinburgh . They had three daughters, and one son, Kenneth, who died at Abingdon in 1939 aged fifteen. On 11 October 1945, in the chapel of New College, Oxford, their daughter Joan married Frank Willan , a Royal Air Force pilot. Their daughter Olive married Edward T. Stewart-Jones in Chelsea in 1950. At the time of his death in December 1962, Legg
490-422: A digitised ODNB included what Christopher Warren calls Matthews's "data internationalism". In a 1996 essay, Matthew prophesied, "Who can doubt that in the course of the next century, as nationality in Europe gives way to European Union , so national reference works, at least in Europe, will do so also....Just as the computer is collapsing national library catalogues in a single world-wide series, so I am sure that in
588-466: A far lesser role than his father, George III. His governments, with little help from the king, presided over victory in the Napoleonic Wars, negotiated the peace settlement, and attempted to deal with the social and economic malaise that followed. His brother William IV ruled (1830–37), but was little involved in politics. His reign saw several reforms: the poor law was updated, child labour
686-757: A formal Empire based on British rule as well as an informal one based on the British pound. One nagging fear was the possible collapse of the Ottoman Empire. It was well understood that a collapse of that country would set off a scramble for its territory and possibly plunge Britain into war. To head that off Britain sought to keep the Russians from occupying Constantinople and taking over the Bosporous Strait , as well as from threatening India via Afghanistan . In 1853, Britain and France intervened in
784-828: A great victory over the British at the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815 (news took several weeks to cross the Atlantic before the advent of steam ships). The Treaty of Ghent subsequently ended the war with no territorial changes. It was the last war between Britain and the United States. Britain emerged from the Napoleonic Wars a very different country than it had been in 1793. As industrialisation progressed, society changed, becoming more urban and less rural. The postwar period saw an economic slump, and poor harvests and inflation caused widespread social unrest. Europe after 1815
882-697: A navy to rival Britain's. Ever since Britain had wrested control of the Cape Colony from the Netherlands during the Napoleonic Wars , it had co-existed with Dutch settlers who had migrated further away from the Cape and created two republics of their own. The British imperial vision called for control over these new countries, and the Dutch-speaking "Boers" (or "Afrikaners") fought back in
980-642: A new stage in demands for democracy in an industrial society. In 1832 Parliament abolished slavery in the Empire with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 . The government purchased the slaves for £20,000,000 (the money went to rich plantation owners who mostly lived in England), and freed the slaves, especially those in the Caribbean sugar islands. Prime Ministers of the period included: William Pitt
1078-447: A search for people by area of interest, religion and "Places, Dates, Life Events". This accesses an electronic index that cannot be directly viewed. Response to the new dictionary has been for the most part positive, but in the months following publication there was occasional criticism of the dictionary in some British newspapers and periodicals for reported factual inaccuracies. However, the number of articles publicly queried in this way
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#17327938376271176-479: A sharp decline. The new Labour party , whose leader Ramsay MacDonald led two minority governments, swiftly became the Conservatives ' main opposition, and Britain's largest party of the left. King Edward VIII succeeded his father George V in January 1936, but was not allowed by the government to marry Wallis Simpson , a divorcee. In December, he abdicated in order to marry Simpson. His brother George VI
1274-540: A time "when elaborate ceremonial practices emerged among some communities of subsistence agriculturalists of western Europe". As its name suggests, the British Iron Age is also characterised by the adoption of iron , a metal which was used to produce a variety of different tools, ornaments and weapons. In the course of the first millennium BC, and possibly earlier, some combination of trans-cultural diffusion and immigration from continental Europe resulted in
1372-500: A variety of talents from veteran journalists to young scholars who cut their academic teeth on dictionary articles at a time when postgraduate historical research in British universities was still in its infancy. While much of the dictionary was written in-house, the DNB also relied on external contributors, who included several respected writers and scholars of the late nineteenth century. By 1900, more than 700 individuals had contributed to
1470-611: A volume of corrections, cumulated from the Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research . There were various versions of the Concise Dictionary of National Biography , which covered everyone in the main work but with much shorter articles; some were only two lines. The last edition, in three volumes, covered everyone who died before 1986. In the early 1990s, Oxford University Press committed itself to overhauling
1568-858: A volunteer army, the only great power in Europe to have no conscription. Some questioned whether the country was overstretched. The rise of the German Empire since its creation in 1871 posed a new challenge, for it (along with the United States), threatened to usurp Britain's place as the world's foremost industrial power. Germany acquired a number of colonies in Africa and the Pacific, but Chancellor Otto von Bismarck succeeded in achieving general peace through his balance of power strategy. When William II became emperor in 1888, he discarded Bismarck, began using bellicose language, and planned to build
1666-592: A wide variety of monuments in the landscape, many of which were megalithic in nature. The earliest of these are the chambered tombs of the Early Neolithic, although in the Late Neolithic this form of monumentalisation was replaced by the construction of stone circles , a trend that would continue into the following Bronze Age . These constructions are taken to reflect ideological changes, with new ideas about religion, ritual and social hierarchy. In
1764-566: The Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (1875), in 1882 the publisher George Smith (1824–1901), of Smith, Elder & Co. , planned a universal dictionary that would include biographical entries on individuals from world history. He approached Leslie Stephen , then editor of the Cornhill Magazine , owned by Smith, to become the editor. Stephen persuaded Smith that the work should focus only on subjects from
1862-698: The Allied forces in opposition to the Axis forces of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy . For the first time, civilians were not exempt from the war, as London suffered nightly bombings during the Blitz . Much of London was destroyed, with 1,400,245 buildings destroyed or damaged. The only part of the British Isles to be occupied by enemy forces were the Channel Islands. At the war's end in 1945, however,
1960-708: The Anglican Church . A campaign by the lawyer Daniel O'Connell , and the death of George III, led to the concession of Catholic Emancipation in 1829, allowing Roman Catholics to sit in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. But Catholic Emancipation was not O'Connell's ultimate goal, which was Repeal of the Act of Union with Great Britain. On 1 January 1843 O'Connell confidently, but wrongly, declared that Repeal would be achieved that year. When potato blight hit
2058-578: The Auld Alliance with France. In 1296, England invaded Scotland, but in the following year William Wallace defeated the English army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge . However, King Edward I of England came north to defeat Wallace himself at the Battle of Falkirk . In 1320, the Declaration of Arbroath , seen as an important document in the development of Scottish national identity, led to
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#17327938376272156-516: The Bronze Age around 2,500 BC. Later migrations contributed to the political and cultural fabric of the islands and the transition from tribal societies to feudal ones at different times in different regions. England and Scotland were sovereign kingdoms until 1603, and then legally separate under one monarch until 1707, when they united as one kingdom. Wales and Ireland were composed of several independent kingdoms with shifting boundaries until
2254-559: The Crimean War against Russia. Despite mediocre generalship, they managed to capture the Russian port of Sevastopol , compelling Tsar Nicholas I to ask for peace. It was a frustrating war with very high casualty rates—the iconic hero was Florence Nightingale . The next Russo-Ottoman war in 1877 led to another European intervention, although this time at the negotiating table. The Congress of Berlin blocked Russia from imposing
2352-609: The DNB was performed by the Alliance Photosetting Company in Pondicherry , India. The new dictionary would cover British history, "broadly defined" (including, for example, subjects from Roman Britain , the United States of America before its independence , and from Britain's former colonies , provided they were functionally part of the Empire and not of "the indigenous culture", as stated in
2450-589: The DNB . Work on what was known until 2001 as the New Dictionary of National Biography , or New DNB , began in 1992 under the editorship of Colin Matthew , professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford . Matthew decided that no subjects from the old dictionary would be excluded, however insignificant the subjects appeared to a late twentieth-century eye; that a minority of shorter articles from
2548-605: The First World War by declaring war on Germany . Nearly a million Britons were killed in the war, which lasted until Germany's surrender on 11 November 1918. Home Rule in Ireland, which had been a major political issue since the late 19th century but put on hold by the war, was somewhat resolved after the Irish War of Independence brought the British Government to a stalemate in 1922. Negotiations led to
2646-638: The Irish Parliamentary Party as it had become known, was turned into a major political force under the guidance of William Shaw and a radical young Protestant landowner, Charles Stewart Parnell . Parnell's movement campaigned for "Home Rule", by which they meant that Ireland would govern itself as a region within Great Britain. Two Home Rule Bills (1886 and 1893) were introduced by Liberal Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone , but neither became law, mainly due to opposition from
2744-684: The Menai Strait and massacred the druids and burnt their sacred groves. At the moment of triumph, news came of the Boudican revolt in East Anglia . The suppression of the Boudican revolt was followed by a period of expansion of the Roman province, including the subjugation of south Wales. Between 77 and 83 AD the new governor Gnaeus Julius Agricola led a series of campaigns which enlarged
2842-631: The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography its prestigious Dartmouth Medal . A general review of the dictionary was published in 2007. Sir David Cannadine took over the editorship from October 2014. History of the British Isles The history of the British Isles began with its sporadic human habitation during the Palaeolithic from around 900,000 years ago. The British Isles has been continually occupied since
2940-761: The Parliament of Ireland . Before the Constitution of 1782 , the Irish parliament was also severely fettered , and decisions in Irish courts could be overturned on appeal to the British House of Lords in London. The Anglo-Irish ruling class gained a degree of independence in the 1780s thanks to Henry Grattan . During this time the effects of the penal laws on the primarily Roman Catholic population were reduced, and some property-owning Catholics were granted
3038-556: The Roman Empire . On Nero 's accession Roman Britain extended as far north as Lindum ( Lincoln ). Gaius Suetonius Paulinus , the conqueror of Mauretania (modern-day Algeria and Morocco ), then became governor of Britain , where he spent most of his governorship campaigning in Wales. Eventually in 60 AD he penned up the last resistance and the last of the druids in the island of Mona ( Anglesey ). Paulinus led his army across
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3136-686: The Treaty of Union , the Scottish Enlightenment and the formation of the First British Empire . The Kingdom of Ireland was a settler state; the monarch was the incumbent monarch of England and later of Great Britain. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland headed the government on behalf of the monarch. He was assisted by the Chief Secretary of Ireland . Both were responsible to the government in London rather than to
3234-607: The War in 1899–1902 . Outgunned by a mighty empire, the Boers waged a guerrilla war (which certain other British territories would later employ to attain independence). This gave the British regulars a difficult fight, but their weight of numbers, superior equipment, and often brutal tactics, eventually brought about a British victory. The war had been costly in human rights and was widely criticised by Liberals in Britain and worldwide. However,
3332-624: The 1970s. Leopold George Wickham Legg Leopold George Wickham Legg (22 March 1877 – 19 December 1962) was an English academic historian specializing in diplomatic history. An Oxford don from 1908 to 1948, for the Great War Legg was commissioned into the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve . Apart from his own research work, he was editor of the Dictionary of National Biography . Born in
3430-709: The 5th century. Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were formed and, through wars with British states, gradually came to cover the territory of present-day England. Scotland was divided between the Picts , Dál Riata , the Kingdom of Strathclyde and the Angles. Around 600, seven principal kingdoms had emerged, beginning the so-called period of the Heptarchy . During that period, the Anglo-Saxon states were Christianised (the conversion of
3528-533: The British Isles saw the region's first known habitation by early hominids, specifically the extinct Homo heidelbergensis . This period saw many changes in the environment, encompassing several glacial and interglacial episodes greatly affecting human settlement in the region. Providing dating for this distant period is difficult and contentious. The inhabitants of the region at this time were bands of hunter-gatherers who roamed Northern Europe following herds of animals, or who supported themselves by fishing. One of
3626-539: The British Isles, the Bronze Age saw the transformation of British and Irish society and landscape. It saw the adoption of agriculture, as communities gave up their hunter-gatherer modes of existence to begin farming. During the British Bronze Age, large megalithic monuments similar to those from the Late Neolithic continued to be constructed or modified, including such sites as Avebury , Stonehenge , Silbury Hill and Must Farm . This has been described as
3724-476: The British navy, which was short on manpower due to the conflict in Europe. The Duke of Wellington argued that an outright victory over the U.S. was impossible because the Americans controlled the western Great Lakes and had destroyed the power of Britain's Indian allies. A full-scale British invasion was defeated in upstate New York. Peace was agreed to at the end of 1814, but unaware of this, Andrew Jackson won
3822-587: The British ones had begun much earlier). In the 9th century, Vikings from Scandinavia conquered most of England and the Scots and Picts were combined to form the Kingdom of Alba . Only the Kingdom of Wessex under Alfred the Great survived and even managed to re-conquer and unify England for much of the 10th century, before a new series of Danish raids in the late 10th century and early 11th century culminated in
3920-528: The Catholics. Catholic emancipation was secured in the Catholic Relief Act of 1829, which removed the most substantial restrictions on Roman Catholics in Great Britain and Ireland. The Whigs became champions of Parliamentary reform. They made Lord Grey prime minister 1830–1834, and the Reform Act of 1832 became their signature measure. It broadened the franchise and ended the system of "rotten borough" and "pocket boroughs" (where elections were controlled by powerful families), and instead redistributed power on
4018-421: The Conservative Party and the House of Lords . The issue was a source of contention throughout Ireland, as a significant majority of Unionists (largely based in Ulster ), opposed Home Rule, fearing that a Catholic Nationalist ("Rome Rule") Parliament in Dublin would discriminate against them, impose Roman Catholic doctrine, and impose tariffs on industry. While most of Ireland was primarily agricultural, six of
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4116-533: The Crisis of 1914", and "The new German theory of the State". He then joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve , serving throughout the war, and in January 1919 was a temporary lieutenant . After the war, he returned to his fellowship at New College. His next book was a study of Matthew Prior . From 1944 to 1946, Legg was the principal editor for the Dictionary of National Biography , taking responsibility for supervising new entries. In 1915, at St Martin-in-the-Fields , Westminster, Legg married Olive Maud,
4214-401: The Introduction), up to 31 December 2000. The research project was conceived as a collaborative one, with in-house staff co-ordinating the work of nearly 10,000 contributors internationally. It would remain selective – there would be no attempt to include all members of parliament , for example – but would seek to include significant, influential or notorious figures from the whole canvas of
4312-420: The Napoleonic Wars, trade disputes and British impressment of American sailors led to the War of 1812 with the United States. A central event in American history, it was little noticed in Britain, where all attention was focused on the struggle with France. The British could devote few resources to the conflict until the fall of Napoleon in 1814. American frigates also inflicted a series of embarrassing defeats on
4410-450: The Napoleonic Wars, whereas France's armies exceeded a million men—in addition to the armies of numerous allies and several hundred thousand national guardsmen that Napoleon could draft into the French armies when they were needed. Although the Royal Navy effectively disrupted France's extra-continental trade—both by seizing and threatening French shipping and by seizing French colonial possessions—it could do nothing about France's trade with
4508-501: The Norman elite to many positions of authority, building a system of castles across the country and ordering a census of his new kingdom, the Domesday Book . The Late Medieval period was characterized by many battles between England and France, coming to a head in the Hundred Years' War from which France emerged victorious. The English monarchs throughout the Late Medieval period belonged to the houses of Plantagenet, Lancaster, and York. Under John Balliol, in 1295, Scotland entered into
4606-442: The People's Charter demanding manhood suffrage, equal sized election districts, voting by ballots, payment of Members of Parliament (so that poor men could serve), annual Parliaments, and abolition of property requirements. The ruling class saw the movement as dangerous, so the Chartists were unable to force serious constitutional debate. Historians see Chartism as both a continuation of the 18th century fight against corruption and as
4704-415: The U.K. emerged as one of the victorious nations. Winston Churchill , who had been leader of the wartime coalition government, suffered a surprising landslide defeat to Clement Attlee 's Labour party in 1945 elections. Attlee created a Welfare State in Britain, which most notably provided free healthcare under the National Health Service . On the international stage, the second half of the 20th century
4802-489: The United Kingdom and its present and former colonies. An early working title was the Biographia Britannica , the name of an earlier eighteenth-century reference work . The first volume of the Dictionary of National Biography appeared on 1 January 1885. In May 1891 Leslie Stephen resigned and Sidney Lee , Stephen's assistant editor from the beginning of the project, succeeded him as editor. A dedicated team of sub-editors and researchers worked under Stephen and Lee, combining
4900-521: The United States gave its support. The Boer republics were merged into the Union of South Africa in 1910; this had internal self-government, but its foreign policy was controlled by London and it was an integral part of the British Empire. Part of the agreement which led to the 1800 Act of Union stipulated that the Penal Laws in Ireland were to be repealed and Catholic emancipation granted. However King George III blocked emancipation, arguing that to grant it would break his coronation oath to defend
4998-405: The Victorian period—as defined by a variety of sensibilities and political concerns that have come to be associated with the Victorians—actually begins with the passage of the Reform Act 1832 . The era was preceded by the Regency era and succeeded by the Edwardian period . Victoria became queen in 1837 at age 18. Her long reign saw Britain reach the zenith of its economic and political power, with
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#17327938376275096-412: The Younger , Lord Grenville , Duke of Portland , Spencer Perceval , Lord Liverpool , George Canning , Lord Goderich , Duke of Wellington , Lord Grey , Lord Melbourne , and Sir Robert Peel . The Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's rule between 1837 and 1901 which signified the height of the British Industrial Revolution and the apex of the British Empire . Scholars debate whether
5194-401: The adoption of agriculture and sedentary living . To make room for the new farmland, these early agricultural communities undertook mass deforestation across the islands, dramatically and permanently transforming the landscape. At the same time, new types of stone tools requiring more skill began to be produced; new technologies included polishing. The Neolithic also saw the construction of
5292-462: The basis of population. It added 217,000 voters to an electorate of 435,000 in England and Wales. The main effect of the act was to weaken the power of the landed gentry, and enlarge the power of the professional and business middle-class, which now for the first time had a significant voice in Parliament. However, the great majority of manual workers, clerks, and farmers did not have enough property to qualify to vote. The aristocracy continued to dominate
5390-465: The colonies temporarily refused to join the Dominion despite pressure from both Canada and Britain; the last one, Newfoundland , held out until 1949. The second half of the 19th century saw a huge expansion of Britain's colonial empire, mostly in Africa . A talk of the Union Jack flying "from Cairo to Cape Town" only became a reality at the end of the Great War . Having possessions on six continents, Britain had to defend all of its empire and did so with
5488-416: The counties in Ulster were the location of heavy industry and would be affected by any tariff barriers imposed. Queen Victoria , who had reigned since 1837, died in 1901 and was succeeded by her son, Edward VII , who, in turn, was succeeded by his son, George V , when he died in 1910. The British Empire flourished but there was a bitterly fought Second Boer War in South Africa . In 1914, Britain entered
5586-400: The course of the next fifty years we will see the gradual aggregation of our various dictionaries of national biography. We will be much blamed by our users if we do not!" Following Matthew's death in October 1999, he was succeeded as editor by another Oxford historian, Brian Harrison , in January 2000. The new dictionary, now known as the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (or ODNB ),
5684-414: The dictionary had "proved of inestimable service in elucidating the private annals of the British", providing not only concise lives of the notable deceased, but additionally lists of sources which were invaluable to researchers in a period when few libraries or collections of manuscripts had published catalogues or indices, and the production of indices to periodical literatures was just beginning. Throughout
5782-405: The earliest indisputably acknowledged languages spoken in the British Isles belonged to the Celtic branch of the Indo-European family it is not known what language these early farming people spoke. These migrants brought new ideas, leading to a radical transformation of society and landscape that has been called the Neolithic Revolution . The Neolithic period in the British Isles was characterised by
5880-415: The early Holocene , the current geological epoch , which started around 11,700 years ago. Mesolithic hunter-gatherers migrated from the Continent soon afterwards at a time when there was no sea barrier between Britain and Europe, but there was between Britain and Ireland. There were almost complete population replacements by migrations from the Continent at the start of the Neolithic around 4,100 BC and
5978-452: The establishment of Celtic languages in the islands, eventually giving rise to the Insular Celtic group. What languages were spoken in the islands before is unknown, though they are assumed to have been Pre-Indo-European . In 55 and 54 BC, the Roman general Gaius Julius Caesar launched two separate invasions of the British Isles, though neither resulted in a full Roman occupation of the island. In 43 AD, southern Britain became part of
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#17327938376276076-402: The formation of the Irish Free State . However, in order to appease Unionists in the north, the north-eastern six counties remained as part of the U.K., forming Northern Ireland with its own Parliament at Stormont in Belfast. Liberals were in power for much of the early 20th century under Prime Ministers Campbell-Bannerman , Asquith and Lloyd George . After 1914, the Liberal party suffered
6174-402: The franchise in 1794; however, they were still excluded from becoming members of the Irish House of Commons . This brief period of limited independence came to an end following the Irish Rebellion of 1798 , which occurred during the British war with revolutionary France . The British government's fear of an independent Ireland siding against them with the French resulted in the decision to unite
6272-433: The government, the Army and Royal Navy, and high society. After parliamentary investigations demonstrated the horrors of child labour, limited reforms were passed in 1833. Chartism emerged after the 1832 Reform Bill failed to give the vote to the working class. Activists denounced the "betrayal" of the working classes and the "sacrificing" of their "interests" by the "misconduct" of the government. In 1838, Chartists issued
6370-447: The harsh Treaty of San Stefano on the Ottoman Empire. Despite its alliance with the French in the Crimean War, Britain viewed the Second Empire of Napoleon III with some distrust, especially as the emperor constructed ironclad warships and began returning France to a more active foreign policy. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), British leaders favoured the Confederacy, a major source of cotton for textile mills. Prince Albert
6468-594: The institution of slavery, there was no possibility of European intervention. The British sold arms to both sides, built blockade runners for a lucrative trade with the Confederacy, and surreptitiously allowed warships to be built for the Confederacy. The warships caused a major diplomatic row that was resolved in the Alabama Claims in 1872, in the Americans' favour. In 1867, Britain united most of its North American colonies as Canada , giving it self-government and responsibility for its own defence, but Canada did not have an independent foreign policy until 1931. Several of
6566-509: The introduction of steam ships, railroads, photography, and the telegraph. Britain again remained mostly inactive in Continental politics. The Great London Exhibition of 1851 clearly demonstrated Britain's dominance in engineering and industry; that lasted until the rise of the United States and Germany in the 1890s. Using the imperial tools of free trade and financial investment, it exerted major influence on many countries outside Europe, especially in Latin America and Asia. Thus Britain had both
6664-411: The island in 1846, much of the rural population was left without food, because cash crops were being exported to pay rents. British politicians such as the Prime Minister Robert Peel were at this time wedded to the economic policy of laissez-faire , which argued against state intervention. While funds were raised by private individuals and charities, lack of adequate action let the problem become
6762-420: The life of the United Kingdom and its former colonies, overlaying the decisions of the late-nineteenth-century editors with the interests of late-twentieth-century scholarship in the hope that "the two epochs in collaboration might produce something more useful for the future than either epoch on its own", but acknowledging also that a final definitive selection is impossible to achieve. Matthews's dedication to
6860-417: The major continental economies and posed little threat to French territory in Europe. France's population and agricultural capacity far outstripped that of Britain. In 1806, Napoleon set up the Continental System to end British trade with French-controlled territories. However Britain had great industrial capacity and mastery of the seas. It built up economic strength through trade and the Continental System
6958-423: The medieval period. The British monarch was head of state of all of the countries of the British Isles from the Union of the Crowns in 1603 until the enactment of the Republic of Ireland Act in 1949. The Palaeolithic and Mesolithic , also known as the Old and Middle Stone Ages, were characterised by a hunter-gatherer society and a reliance on stone tool technologies. The Lower Palaeolithic period in
7056-747: The most prominent archaeological sites dating to this period is that of Boxgrove Quarry in West Sussex, southern England . By the Mesolithic, Homo sapiens , or modern humans, were the only hominid species to still survive in the British Isles. There was then limited occupation by Ahrensburgian hunter gatherers, but this came to an end when there was a final downturn in temperature which lasted from around 9,400 to 9,200 BC. Mesolithic people occupied Britain by around 9,000 BC, and it has been occupied ever since. By 8000 BC temperatures were higher than today, and birch woodlands spread rapidly, but there
7154-732: The old DNB (the old DNB entries on these subjects may be accessed separately through a link to the "DNB Archive" – many of the longer entries are still highly regarded). A small permanent staff remain in Oxford to update and extend the coverage of the online edition. Harrison was succeeded as editor by another Oxford historian, Lawrence Goldman , in October 2004. The first online update was published on 4 January 2005, including subjects who had died in 2001. A further update, including subjects from all periods, followed on 23 May 2005, and another on 6 October 2005. New subjects who died in 2002 were added to
7252-540: The online dictionary on 5 January 2006, with continuing releases in May and October in subsequent years following the precedent of 2005. The ODNB also includes some new biographies on people who died before the DNB was published and are not included in the original DNB , because they have become notable since the DNB was published through the work of more recent historians, for example William Eyre (fl. 1634–1675). The online version has an advanced search facility, allowing
7350-402: The original DNB included 29,120 lives; the supplements published between 1912 and 1996 added about 6,000 lives of people who died in the twentieth century. In 1993, a volume containing missing biographies was published. This had an additional 1,086 lives, selected from over 100,000 suggestions. L. G. L. Legg was editor of the DNB in the 1940s. In 1966, the University of London published
7448-534: The original alphabetical sequence. The supplements brought the whole work up to the death of Queen Victoria on 22 January 1901. Corrections were added. After issuing a volume of errata in 1904, the dictionary was reissued with minor revisions in 22 volumes in 1908 and 1909; a subtitle said that it covered British history "from the earliest times to the year 1900". In the words of the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition ,
7546-456: The original dictionary would remain in the new version in revised form, but most would be rewritten; and that room would be made for about 14,000 new subjects. Suggestions for new subjects were solicited through questionnaires placed in libraries and universities and, as the 1990s advanced, online. The suggestions were assessed by the editor, the 12 external consultant editors, and several hundred associate editors and in-house staff. Digitisation of
7644-538: The parish of St George Hanover Square , Westminster , in 1877, the son of John Wickham Legg (1843–1921), a physician and writer on ecclesiology, and his wife Eliza Jane, the young Legg was named after Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany (1853–1884), for whom his father was personal physician. His parents were then living at 47, Green Street , Mayfair , and he was christened at All Saints, Margaret Street , on 31 March 1877 by William Legg, Rector of Hawkinge in Kent. Legg
7742-466: The province significantly, taking in north Wales, northern Britain, and most of Caledonia (Scotland). The Celts fought with determination and resilience, but faced a superior, professional army, and it is likely that between 100,000 and 250,000 may have perished in the conquest period. The Early medieval period saw a series of invasions of Britain by the Germanic -speaking Saxons , beginning in
7840-806: The recognition of Scottish independence by major European dynasties. In 1328, the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton with England recognised Scottish independence under Robert the Bruce . Major historical events in the early modern period include the English Renaissance , the English Reformation and Scottish Reformation , the English Civil War , the Restoration of Charles II , the Glorious Revolution ,
7938-460: The twentieth century, further volumes were published for those who had died, generally on a decade-by-decade basis, beginning in 1912 with a supplement edited by Lee covering those who died between 1901 and 1911. The dictionary was transferred from its original publishers, Smith, Elder & Co., to Oxford University Press in 1917. Until 1996, Oxford University Press continued to add further supplements featuring articles on subjects who had died during
8036-777: The twentieth century. These include the 3rd supplement in 1927 (covering those who died between 1912 and 1921), 4th supplement in 1937 (covering those who died between 1922 and 1930), 5th supplement in 1949 (covering those who died between 1931 and 1940), 6th supplement in 1959 (covering those who died between 1941 and 1950), 7th supplement in 1971 (covering those who died between 1951 and 1960), 8th supplement in 1981 (covering those who died between 1961 and 1970), 9th supplement in 1986 (covering those who died between 1971 and 1980), 10th supplement in 1990 (covering those who died between 1981 and 1985), 11th supplement in 1993 (covering missing persons, see below), and 12th supplement in 1996 (covering those who died between 1986 and 1990). The 63 volumes of
8134-414: The two countries. This was brought about by legislation in the parliaments of both kingdoms and came into effect on 1 January 1801. The Irish had been led to believe by the British that their loss of legislative independence would be compensated for with Catholic Emancipation , i.e. by the removal of civil disabilities placed upon Roman Catholics in both Great Britain and Ireland. However, King George III
8232-557: The wholesale subjugation of England to Denmark under Sweyn Forkbeard and Canute the Great . Danish rule was overthrown and the local House of Wessex was restored to power under Edward the Confessor for about two decades until his death in 1066. In 1066, William, Duke of Normandy claimed the English throne and invaded England. He defeated King Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings . Proclaiming himself to be King William I, he strengthened his regime by appointing loyal members of
8330-432: The work. Successive volumes appeared quarterly with complete punctuality until midsummer 1900, when the series closed with volume 63. The year of publication, the editor and the range of names in each volume is given below . Since the scope included only deceased figures, the DNB was soon extended by the issue of three supplementary volumes, covering subjects who had died between 1885 and 1900 or who had been overlooked in
8428-444: Was a cold spell around 6,200 BC which lasted about 150 years. The British Isles were linked to continental Europe by a territory named Doggerland . The plains of Doggerland were thought to have finally been submerged around 6500 to 6000 BC, but recent evidence suggests that the bridge may have lasted until between 5800 and 5400 BC, and possibly as late as 3800 BC. Around 4000 BC migrants began arriving from central Europe. Although
8526-467: Was being driven back in the east by the Prussians, Austrians, and Russians, Wellington invaded southern France. After Napoleon's surrender and exile to the island of Elba, peace appeared to have returned, but when he escaped back into France in 1815, the British and their allies had to fight him again. The armies of Wellington and Blucher defeated Napoleon once and for all at Waterloo. Simultaneous with
8624-598: Was bitterly opposed to any such Emancipation and succeeded in defeating his government's attempts to introduce it. During the War of the Second Coalition (1799–1801), William Pitt the Younger (1759–1806) provided strong leadership in London. Britain occupied most of the French and Dutch overseas possessions, the Netherlands having become a satellite state of France in 1796. After a short peace, in May 1803, war
8722-414: Was crowned king. In order to avoid another European conflict, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain attempted to appease German Chancellor Adolf Hitler , who was expanding his country's territory across Central Europe. Despite proclaiming that he has achieved "peace for our time", Britain declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, following Hitler's invasion of Poland two days earlier. The U.K. thus joined
8820-408: Was declared again. Napoleon's plans to invade Britain failed, chiefly due to the inferiority of his navy. In 1805 Lord Nelson's fleet decisively defeated the French and Spanish at Trafalgar , ending any hopes Napoleon had to wrest control of the oceans away from the British. The British Army remained a minimal threat to France; it maintained a standing strength of just 220,000 men at the height of
8918-703: Was dominated by the Cold War between the Soviet Union and its socialist allies and the United States and its capitalist allies; the U.K. was a key supporter of the latter, joining the anti-Soviet military alliance NATO in 1949. During this period, the U.K. fought in the Korean War (1950–1953). The Cold War shaped world affairs until victory was achieved in 1989. The major parties largely agreed on foreign and domestic policy—except nationalization of some industries—in an era of Post-war consensus that lasted into
9016-558: Was educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford , and was a Fellow of his college from 1908 to 1948. In 1914, shortly after the beginning of the First World War, Legg contributed to Why We Are at War: Great Britain's Case , a book giving a comprehensive account of the causes of the war, with chapters including "The neutrality of Belgium and Luxemburg", "The growth of alliances and the race of armaments since 1871", "The development of Russian policy", "Chronological sketch of
9114-616: Was effective in defusing a war scare in late 1861 . The British people, however, who depended heavily on American food imports, generally favoured the Union. What little cotton was available came from New York, as the blockade by the US Navy shut down 95% of Southern exports to Britain. In September 1862, Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation . Since support of the Confederacy now meant supporting
9212-597: Was largely ineffective. As Napoleon realized that extensive trade was going through Spain and Russia, he invaded those two countries. He tied down his forces in Spain, and lost very badly in Russia in 1812. The Spanish uprising in 1808 at last permitted Britain to gain a foothold on the Continent. The Duke of Wellington and his army of British and Portuguese gradually pushed the French out of Spain, and in early 1814, as Napoleon
9310-530: Was on guard against a return of Jacobinism, and even liberal Britain saw the passage of the Six Acts in 1819, which proscribed radical activities. By the end of the 1820s, along with a general economic recovery, many of these repressive laws were repealed and in 1828 new legislation guaranteed the civil rights of religious dissenters. A weak ruler as regent (1811–1820) and king (1820–1830), George IV let his ministers take full charge of government affairs, playing
9408-422: Was published on 23 September 2004 in 60 volumes in print at a price of £7,500, and in an online edition for subscribers. Most UK holders of a current library card can access it online free of charge. In subsequent years, the print edition has been obtainable new for a much lower price. At publication, the 2004 edition had 50,113 biographical articles covering 54,922 lives, including entries on all subjects included in
9506-608: Was restricted, slavery was abolished in nearly all the British Empire , and, most important, the Reform Act 1832 refashioned the British electoral system. There were no major wars until the Crimean War (1853–1856). While Prussia, Austria, and Russia, as absolute monarchies, tried to suppress liberalism wherever it might occur, the British came to terms with new ideas. Britain intervened in Portugal in 1826 to defend
9604-507: Was small – only 23 of the 50,113 articles published in September 2004, leading to fewer than 100 substantiated factual amendments. These and other queries received since publication are being considered as part of an ongoing programme of assessing proposed corrections or additions to existing subject articles, which can, when approved, be incorporated into the online edition of the dictionary. In 2005, The American Library Association awarded
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