The ENTIRE History of Britain | How the Biggest Empire Ever Lost It All in 30 Years

November 5th, 1688. 300 km west of London, a small fishing village called Brixham. As the sun burns off the fog, ships appear across the bay, row after row, 463 of them. Every deck is packed with soldiers, 15,000 of them all together, many times the whole population of the village on the shore. The largest fleet

anyone has ever seen in these waters. Exactly 100 years earlier, the Spanish Armada came with 130 ships and this island never even let it near the shore. This fleet is three times that size. The first boats are already rowing for the shore. No fort waits for them, not even a sentry. The fishermen stand on the

beach and watch. A few of them wave because the man at the head of this army, a Dutch prince named William, is here by invitation. The letter came from seven English noblemen and what they asked for was startling, that he pull their own king off the throne. So, where is the king's navy? 31 warships east of London,

anchored where the Thames meets the sea and unable to get out because the east wind that carried William here is blowing straight into their faces. People will take it as a sign from heaven and give the wind a name, the Protestant wind. Even the date doesn't look like a coincidence. November 5th is

Guy Fawkes Night, the night 83 years earlier when a Catholic plot to blow up Parliament was stopped at the last moment. Tonight, as every year, bonfires will burn all over the country. But this year, the party has a guest, a Protestant army come to overthrow the Catholic king. There's a line everyone in England knows by heart. Nobody has

invaded us since 1066. But the guest who landed at Brixham this morning is exactly that, an invader, and he will win because the English opened the door to this invasion with their own hands. William isn't the first foreigner to come to this island. For centuries, this small land of 5 million people has been