From Ancient Britain to the Age of Normans H I S T O R I A A N G L I I I S T A N Ó W Z J E D N O C Z O N Y C H B U C Z E K A T A R Z Y N A @ G M A I L. C O M
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SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Burns, William E. 2010. A Brief History of Great Britain. New York: Facts on Fire. Davies, Norman. 2000. The Isles. A History. Basingstoke and Oxford: Papermac. Jenkins, Philip. 2007. History of the United States. London: Macmillan. McDowall David. 2006. An illustrated History of Britain. Longman O Callaghan Bryn. 2004. An illustrated History of the USA. Longman Remini, Robert V. 2008. A Short History of the United States. HarperCollins.
TOPICS Ancient Britain. The earliest human settlements in the British Isles. Celtic migrations and civilization. Roman conquest and rule. Anglo-Saxon England. Germanic invasions. Christianization. Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. Viking raids and Danish rule. Social structure of the country.
THE EARLIEST TIMES Britain has not always been an island. It became an island after the end of the last ice age, about 8000 years ago First evidence of human life is a few stone tools, dating from one of the warmer periods, about 250, 000 BC. Hand axe Kent. Natural History Museum
NEOLITHIC INTRODUCTION OF FARMING The introduction of farming into Britain is probably the result of migration of people from the continent. It took about 2000 years to spread across the island When they produced food, they needed a place to store it, so they stopped moving around the country every season and settled down.
EARLY SETTLEMENTS From about 3800 BC people started to settle down and we find the first large communal tombs called barrows
EARLY SETTLEMENTS There are also ceremonial monuments, where people from a particular region gathered together. Some of these monuments, called henges, were built according to the position of the sun during the winter or summer solstice. The most famous of these monuments is Stonehenge, developed about 3000 BC
STONEHENGE Stonehenge is a circular arrangement of standing stones built in prehistoric times and located near Salisbury The stones were put in place in three main phases c. 3100 c. 1550 BC. There are many theories about the reason for the building of Stonehenge but none has been proved. People generally believe that it was a place of worship and ritual Contrary to popular belief, there was no original connection between Stonehenge and the Druids, who came along much later.
STONEHENGE
BRONZE AGE About 2500 BC the Bronze Age starts. Henges continue in use, but communal tombs are replaced by individual ones. Important men and women were buried separately with objects like metal daggers or axes and pieces of pottery (beakers)
CELTIC EXPANSION 5 th century BC. Spread from central western Europe to the Balkans, Northern Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Britain. 387 BC Rome sacked by Celts.
CELTIC CULTURE Tribal organisation. Tribal hierarchy. Agricultural base. Limited urbanisation. Warrior culture. Language Spiral artistic style. Religion
THE CELTS
THE CELTS Social structure: King (chieftain) Aristocracy Warriors Druids (priesthood) - The elite caste of powerful religious, spiritual and intellectual leaders. Poets (bards) performed the roles of: court's critics and advisors, entertainers - harp players, messengers and commentators. Bards - survived the Roman conquest in Wales bardic tradition later extends from Wales to many European countries Free farmers Slaves (war captives)
CELTIC RELIGION animist; worshipping oak trees, mistletoe, wells, sun and moon known for human sacrifices polytheist
ROMAN BRITAIN The first Roman general to invade Britain was Julius Caesar. While fighting Celtic tribes in Gaul (modern France), Caesar believed they were getting help from the Celtic people of Britain. He resolved to invade Britain and punish those people. In 55 B.C. Caesar set sail with a fleet of ships to cross over to Britain. He planned to land near the famous white cliffs of Dover
In 54 B.C. Caesar fought a few small battles with the British tribes, and then concluded some treaties with their kings. Soon, he again left Britain, in order to return to Rome, where political developments demanded his attention. He never got back to Britain, for in 44 B.C. he was assassinated.
EMPEROR CLAUDIUS INVADES Almost 100 years went by, before the Romans again turned their attention to Britain. In 43 A.D. Emperor Claudius sent an invasion force of about 40,000 soldiers to conquer the island and make its people submissive to Roman power. Claudius army was too great for the Britons to resist. Soon, a number of the Celtic kings decided to ask for terms of peace. Claudius himself came to Britain to receive a pledge of loyalty to Rome from these kings. Britain was now officially a part of the Roman Empire.
THE LARGEST REVOLT IN THE HISTORY OF BRITANNIA Boudicca s rebellion in 60 c.e. East Anglia (queen of the Iceni tribe) initially successful defeating Romans at Londinum and Colchester; however the revolt quenched by Suetonius.
ROMAN BRITAIN The British people were very agricultural and rural. They had small villages, but no real cities. The Romans began to change all this. They immediately set about building cities on the Roman model. One of these cities was Londinium, now known as London.
ROMAN ADMINISTRATION establishment of Roman province of Britannia ruled by governors Roman administration under governor Julius Agricola (78-84) Britannia divided into two provinces in the 3 rd c. by Septimus Severus: Britannia Superior with capital in Londinum Britannia Inferior with capital in Eburacum. (later York)
Unsuccessful attempts to conquer Wales and Scotland. Intrusions of Picts from the north make the Romans build two border walls in the north Hadrian's Wall (122)- surviving in part until today, in part marking the border with Scotland Antonine Wall (142) - abandoned later for the Romans had to retreat south.
CHRISTIANITY IN BRITAIN the earliest archaeological evidence of British Christianity dates from around 200 British Christianity was originally strongest in the cities It began to attract rural landowners after Emperor Constantine the Great (r. 324 337) made it the official religion of the Roman Empire in the early fourth century First Christian church was built in Glastonbury in 166.
BRITAIN AFTER ROME The collapse of central Roman authority in Britain after 410 was preceded by years of weakening Roman military presence At the end of the 3rd century, the Roman army began to withdraw from Britain to defend other parts of the Roman Empire. In 410, when the Visigoths invaded Rome, the last of the Roman legions were withdrawn from the island
GERMANIC INVASIONS
PLACE NAMES Freiston Freston Fressingfield Friston Frisby on the Wreake Freezingham
GERMANIC INVASIONS By 600 A.D., Germanic tribes controlled the southeastern part of Britain. Roman-Celtic Britons still held the north and west.
By 700 A.D., Celtic culture survived only in present-day Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall
ARTHURIAN LEGEND The medieval legends of King Arthur and his Round Table may have originated in the Saxon period. Arthur may have been a Roman-Celtic leader named Ambrosius Aurelianus who led an assault on the German invaders.
HEPTARCHY By the 7 th C., Anglo-Saxon England included 7-8 major kingdoms.together they were called the Heptarchy Northumbria Mercia East Anglia Essex Sussex Kent Wessex
HEPTARCHY Saxon: ESSEX (London) SUSSEX (Chichister) WESSEX (Winchester) Anglian: EAST ANGLIA (Cambridge) NORTHUMBRIA (York) MERCIA (Oxford, Chester) Jutish: - KENT (Canterbury)
HEPTARCHY Since the 7 th c. individual kingdoms gain supremacy over the remaining parts of the Heptarchy - the supreme ruler is called Bretwalda Supremacy order: 6 th c. - Kent 7 th c. - Northumbria 8 th c. - Mercia 9c - Wessex
In the 8 th C., Mercian King Offa defeated the other kingdoms, and proclaimed himself King of the English. He is best known for the building of Offa's Dyke, a 90-mile long earthwork marking the boundary between Mercia and Wales.
829 King Egbert of Wessex unites the Heptarchy into the Kingdom of England; the House of Wessex becomes the first royal English dynasty; the first capital of England becomes Winchester.
ANGLO-SAXON KINGDOMS The king - leadership position depended not on birth, but on the leadership in war. Money compensation (wergeld) for death, personal injury, and theft. Customary law: neither the king nor his council (the Witan) could make law. Instead, they declared a custom. Agriculture determines social and family lifestyle
HIERARCHY OF SOCIETY King or Bretwalda Atheling: a prince of the royal house. Eorl: a noble by birth, given land by the king in return for military service. Both land and nobility was inherited. Thegn: a lesser noble, given land in return for military service. But land and title was not inheritable. Ceorl: a freeman; an independent landowner
ANGLO-SAXON LEGAL SYSTEM Based on custom and tradition. Recognized the intervention of God. Principal court was the Hundred-Moot.
OATH-TAKERS A group of twelve freemen who could swear that the defendant was truthful.
ANGLO-SAXON FYRD Military service owed by Eorls, Thegns, and Ceorls formed the primary defensive force, the fyrd.
MYTHOLOGY Names of weekdays after Germanic gods: Sunday - Old English sunne - day of sun Monday - OE mona - day of moon Tuesday - (Tiw - Germ. god of war) Wednesday - (Woden - Germ. head god) Thursday - (Thor - Germ. god of thunders) Friday - (Frigg - Germ. goddess of marriage) Saturday - Rom. day of Saturnus
RETURN OF CHRISTIANITY Between 600-900 A.D., two forces the development of a strong monarchy and the return of Christianity encouraged the unification of England. In 597 A.D., Pope Gregory sent St. Augustine and 40 monks to evangelize in Britain. Augustine established a base at Canterbury, in Kent. Canterbury became the mother-church of Roman Christianity in Britain, and Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury.
CELTIC CHURCH vs ROMAN CHURCH CELTIC CHURCH Monks followed a stricter rule; but monasteries were less regulated. Celtic monks shaved the front of their heads, not the tonsure. Celtic Christians used a different method of calculating the date of Easter. ROMAN CHURCH stress on authority and organization
SYNOD OF WHITBY 664 A.D. It settled the problem of which Christian tradition England would follow. It brought Britain in line with the rest of Europe. The English church adopted the Roman episcopal structure. Spiritual unity could now lead to political unity.
HISTORICAL CHRONICLES Gildas - Welsh monk, De excidio et conquestu Brittanniae (548) The Venerable Bede (673-735) -history of Christianity in England Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (731) - translated into Old English by Alfred the Great Nennius (8/9c.) Welsh; Historia Britonum - based on earlier chronicles. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (891-1154) - annual records of Anglo-Saxon England; anonymous, written in few versions in monasteries, the last version - Peterborough Chronicle (1154)
SCANDINAVIANS
SCANDINAVIANS The Scandinavians were divided into three main groups: Swedes,Danes, and Norwegians. Danes led the invasion of England, while Norwegians led the invasions of Ireland and Scotland. Three phases: 8th c. - smash-and-grab Viking raids by single ships or small groups of ships 9th c. larger groups for bigger projects; a fleet of 350 ships arrived on the Thames near London in 851 10th 11th c. - invasion by military forces of Scandinavian kings, both Danish and Norwegian.
KING ALFRED King Alfred (871-899) was the greatest of the Wessex Bretwaldas and is considered the first true King of England. King Alfred the Great of Wessex
KING ALFRED S REIGN created a national army, the fyrd, to fight the Danes. built a line of fortifications the burghs that soon became towns. began construction of a navy to fight the Danes on the sea. made the Anglo-Saxon laws the dooms apply uniformly over England.
forced the Danish king to accept the division of Britain into two kingdoms, Wessex and the Danelaw (Essex, East Anglia, and part of Northumbria). The Danelaw, A.D. 880
Under Ethelred (978-1016), the Unready, England lost the gains achieved by King Alfred. Danegeld - money paid by the English to Danes to buy peace
A Dane, Cnut (or Canute), held the English throne from 1016-1035. Canute introduces legal and military reforms. The country divided into four EARLDOMS: Northumbria East Anglia Mercia Wessex
EDWARD THE CONFESSOR (1042-1066) Edward, called the Confessor, succeeded Cnut. He was the last Anglo- Saxon King of England. Edward built the first Abbey at Westminster, which was completed only eight days before his death in January of 1066.