A long and illustrious history
Chapter 3 is the largest in the handbook and the densest in the test. Rather than one long page, it's split into five era clusters. Each one focuses on the people, threads, and traps that the test actually asks about — the dates themselves are catalogued in the mental timeline.
- 1 Ancient Britain — Stone Age to Roman departure Britain before England: the prehistoric arrivals, the Roman conquest under Claudius, and the moment in AD 410 when Rome walked away and never came back.
- 2 Medieval Britain — from Anglo-Saxons to Bosworth Six centuries between the Roman departure and the rise of the Tudors. The shape of England forms, royal power gets its first checks, and the Wars of the Roses ends with a Welshman on the throne.
- 3 Early Modern Britain — Tudors, Civil War, and the Glorious Revolution From Henry VIII's break with Rome to the constitutional monarchy of 1688. The most religiously and politically violent two centuries of British history, and the period the test asks about most densely.
- 4 The Long 19th Century — Empire, industry, and reform From the first Prime Minister to the death of Queen Victoria. The period when Britain becomes industrial, global, and recognisably modern — and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is created.
- 5 Modern Britain — two world wars to the present From the trenches of the First World War to devolution, the European question, and the start of the 21st century. The era of the welfare state, decolonisation, and the modern UK political settlement.