History of York

The Romans chose York's swampy position, at the confluence of two minor rivers, as the site of a military camp during their campaigns against the Brigantes in 71 AD, and in time this fortress became a city - Eboracum , capital of the empire's northern European territories. The base for Hadrian's northern campaigns, it was also ruled for three years by Septimius Severus, one of two emperors to die in the city. The other, Constantine Chlorus, was the father of Constantine the Great, first Christian emperor and founder of Constantinople; at Chlorus' death, his son was proclaimed Roman Emperor here - the only occasion an emperor was enthroned in Britain.

Much fought over after the decline of Rome, the city later became the fulcrum of Christianity in northern England. It was here, on Easter Day in 627, that Bishop Paulinus, on a mission to establish the Roman Church, baptized King Edwin of Northumbria in a small timber chapel built for the purpose. Six years later the church became the first minster and Paulinus the first Archbishop of York. In 867 the city fell to the Danes , who renamed it Jorvik , and later made it the capital of eastern England (Danelaw). Viking raids culminated in the decisive Battle of Stamford Bridge (1066) six miles east of the city, where English King Harold defeated Norse King Harald - a pyrrhic victory in the event, for his weakened army was defeated by the Normans just a few days later at the Battle of Hastings, with well-known consequences for all concerned. In York, aside from the physical remains left by the Vikings on show in several of the museums, the very street names tell of their profound influence - the suffix "-gate" is derived from an old Norse word for street.

The Normans devastated much of York's hinterland in their infamous "Harrying of the North", building two castles astride the Ouse in the city itself. Stone walls were thrown up during the thirteenth century, when the city became a favoured Plantagenet retreat, its importance reflected in the new title of Duke of York, bestowed ever since on the monarch's second son. The 48 York Mystery Plays , one of only four surviving such cycles, date from this era, created by the powerful guilds which rose with the city's woollen industry. Although Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries took its toll on a city crammed with religious houses, York remained strongly wedded to the Catholic cause, and the most famous of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators, Guy Fawkes , was born here. During the Civil War Charles I established his court in the city, which was strongly pro-Royalist, inviting a Parliamentarian siege that was eventually lifted by Prince Rupert of the Rhine, a nephew of the King. Rupert's troops, however, were routed by Cromwell and Sir Thomas Fairfax at the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644, another seminal battle in England's history, which took place just six miles west of York.

Whilst the Industrial Revolution largely passed it by, the arrival of the railways brought renewed prosperity, thanks largely to the enterprise of pioneering "Railway King" George Hudson, lord mayor during the 1830s and 1840s. The railway is still a major employer, as is the confectionery industry, together with the proceeds from new service and bioscience industries - not forgetting, of course, the income from four million annual tourists. While a comparatively wealthy place, York is not without its problems, not least its susceptibility to flooding . There's river damage most years to low-lying properties near the River Ouse - the floods of 2000 were particularly damaging to the city.