In this gallery of eight maps, we examine the history of Britain by looking at the four great challenges faced from the outside: Rome, Scandinavia, Normandy, and Spain, as well as that which came from within and the chaotic civil war of the mid-17th century.
Beyond the days of Roman rule, with Britannia, a distant province of the Roman Empire, through King Cnute's North Sea Empire, the Norman Conquest of William the Conqueror in 1066, and the Wars of the Roses in the 15th century, the British Isles have witnessed long and bitter struggles for dominance and power. The Spanish Armada's attempted invasion in 1588 marked a pivotal moment in the islands' history, asserting England's naval prowess and global ambitions, and the 17th-century Civil Wars and the execution of King Charles I shaped a trajectory towards parliamentary governance.
