The most defensible and common sense way of identifying what is important in history is to ask how many people it affected in the end. The history of England has not been one of smooth linear progress. Rather, it has been one of variegated change and of repeated, turbulent transformations. The six events documented reflect the change and turbulence that England has experienced and gives the reader a glimpse of the tenacity of the English people.

It is not an exhaustive study but it is a groundwork. Much still needs to be said and many details to be added, but these will fall naturally into their places, if the mind is already prepared with a general plan on which to fit them.