8.1/1060 votes#1 - Beginnings (3100 BC - 1000 AD)
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 9/30/2000
Simon Schama starts his story in the Stone Age village of Skara Brae, Orkney. Over the next four thousand years Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Christian missionaries arrive, fight, settle and leave their mark on what will become the nations of Britain.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.4/1045 votes
#2 - Conquest! (1000 - 1087)
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 10/7/2000
1066 is not the best remembered date in British history for nothing. In the space of nine hours whilst the Battle of Hastings raged, everything changed. Anglo-Saxon England became Norman and, for the next 300 years, its fate was decided by dynasties of French rulers.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.6/1044 votes
#3 - Dynasty (1087 - 1216)
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 10/14/2000
There is no saga more powerful than that of the warring dynasty - domineering father, beautiful, scheming mother and squabbling, murderous sons and daughters, (particularly the nieces). In the years that followed the Norman Conquest, this was the drama played out on the stage of British history.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.3/1042 votes
#4 - Nations (1216 - 1348)
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/21/2000
Nations is the epic account of how the nations of Britain emerged from under the hammer of England's "Longshanks" King Edward I, with a sense of who and what they were, which endures to this day.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.9/1040 votes
#5 - King Death (1348 - 1500)
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 10/28/2000
It took only six years for the plague to ravage the British Isles. Its impact was to last for generations. But from the ashes of this trauma an unexpected and unique class of Englishman emerged.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.2/1042 votes
#6 - Burning Convictions (1500 - 1558)
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 11/4/2000
Here Simon Schama charts the upheaval caused as a country renowned for its piety, whose king styled himself Defender of the Faith, turns into one of the most aggressive proponents of the new Protestant faith.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.7/1039 votes
#7 - The Body of the Queen (1558 - 1603)
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 11/11/2000
This is the story of two queens - Elizabeth I the consummate politician and Mary Queen of Scots the Catholic mother. It is also the story of the birth of a nation.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
The Best Episodes of A History of Britain Season 1
Every episode of A History of Britain Season 1 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of A History of Britain Season 1!
Stretching from the Stone Age to the year 2000, Simon Schama's Complete History of Britain does not pretend to be a definitive chronicle of the...
Genre:Documentary
Network:BBC Two
Season 1 Ratings Summary
"Beginnings (3100 BC - 1000 AD)" is the best rated episode of "A History of Britain" season 1. It scored 8.1/10 based on 60 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 9/30/2000. This episode is rated 0.3 points higher than the second-best, "Conquest! (1000 - 1087)".