THE ORIGINS
The History of England is the story of the gradual settlement and colonization of the
islands later developed into Great Britain.
In ancient times Britain was known for:
§ Its fertile soil: for rich in minerals ad for cereal cultivation;
§
Its thick forests: fundamental in raw material and furnished a good timber;
§
The fresh water: water coming to the sea and from springs (=sorgenti);
§
Its mild climate.
The Iberians
First people arrived in Britain was the Iberian, a pre-Celtic population, in
3000 BC, come from the Iberian Peninsula.
They were small and dark-haired.
The Iberians left Spain for invaded and settled (=stabilirsi) the
Britain’s territory that are free.
The Iberians gradually reached the first stages of civilizations through:
• The use of stone and metals;
• The construction of wooden huts;
• The introduction of agriculture.
Thanks to the introduction of agriculture, they produced the biggest part of
the food necessary to live, especially cereals (like wheat, barley or oats).
Furthermore, they bred cattle (allevano il bestiame) pigs and sheep.
They also started metalworking, producing pottery (=vasellame) and salt, and manufacturing leather and
cloth, products that they traded overseas (commercia negli altri territori).
RITUAL AND BURIAL SITES
The barrows: are large graves made of earth and stone, that are
funerary stones.
The henges: are big circulares constructions made of stones and they:
® Enclosed spaces used both for ceremonies and for defense;
® Were centers in where people discuss about religious political and economic
power;
® The most famous of henges is Stonehenge in southwest England.
The Celts
Celts around 700 BC moved from northwest Germany to British Island because of
the opportunity that territory can offers.
They are generally fair-haired, blue-eyed, and tall.
Celtic Europe was dominated by three main groups:
• The Gauls (northern France);
• The Britons (Wales and Cornwall);
• The Gaels (Ireland and Scotland).
TWO WAVES OF INVADERS
The Gaels represented the first wave of invaders, they settled in the north of
Britain, particularly in Ireland and Scotland. Their descendant, who speak Gaelic,
continued live in Ireland and Scotland.
The Britons invaded the Britain’s territory two centuries after Gaels and represent the second
wave of invaders. They settled territory in the south-west of England, in Wales and Cornwall.
THE CELTIC SOCIETY
The Celts were: farmers, hunters, fishermen, metal worker, excellent warriors; they
constantly waged war (facevano guerra) with each other.
The Celts were divided in tribes based on Chieftains (capi tribù).
The most important cast was represented by the druids who are the Celtic priests
(sacerdoti), judged, doctors ad scholars (studiosi).
The pyramid: chieftain; the druid; warrior aristocracy, freeman and farmers.
DRUIDISM
The Celts practiced a pagan religious known as Druidism:
o
They worshipped the natural elements, in particular water and Sun;
o
They practiced rituals and sacrificed;
o
They believed in the immortality and in the transmigration of the soul (in
objects or animals).
THE ROLE OF WOMEN
Women were almost equal to men:
They could own land in their own name;
Participate in legal questions;
Become poets, druids, priestesses (sacerdotesse) and healers;
Ruled large tribes and fought;
Were entitled to the same Wergild as a man: wergild was a sum of money paid in compensation to
a person who had suffered injury or offence or, in case of death, to a relative of the victim.
Choose the man they wanted to marry and they didn’t require the consent of their husband to
carry out business.
Marriage was a contract between the woman’s family and the bridegroom. The
bridegroom had to pay a “bride-price” to the future bride’s family before the
wedding and a “morning gift” to the bride after the consummation of the
marriage.
The law protected woman from being forced into a nunnery or for being forced
to marry against their will.
The most famous was Boadicea: she became queen of her tribe after her
husband’s death.
The Romans
The romans decided to invade Britain for two reasons:
1. The British Celts were aiding (aiutavano) the Celts of Gaul against Rome;
2. Britain was very productive with a mild climate.
In 55 B.C. Britain, form the Latin word “Britannia”, was invaded by the Romans:
the invasion was led by Julius Caesar, but the country was not conquered.
CLAUDIUS AND THE ROMAN HERITAGE
Romans in 43-47 A.D. was under Emperor Claudius. The Romans settled in the southern half
of Britain, and they brought their civilization to Britain: buildings towns, roads, stone villas,
and aqueduct.
They also brought their culture, language, Latin, and Christianity, that after the end of
Romans occupation, disappeared with the invasion of the pagan Anglo-Saxons in the 5th
century.
Also, the Latin disappeared with the Anglo-Saxon invasion, but we can find traces in the name of cities like
Manchester of Gloucester.
The cultural heritage remained especially with the Bath (a Thermal city),
and with the plan of the cities.
HADRIAN’S WALL
The Romans didn’t control the whole island.
In 122 A.D. Emperor Hadrian ordered the building of a wall, the
Hadrian’s wall, to mark the border between the conquered Britons and
the unconquered population in the North.
Roman’s control of Britain ended in 409 AD.
Emperor Honorius withdraws his soldiers to defend Romans against Barbarian
raiders.
The Roman-British were left alone to fight against the Scots and the new Germanic invaders:
o Angles
o Saxon
o Jutes
The Anglo-Saxons
The Anglo-Saxon invaded Britain over the course of the 5th and the 6th
centuries.
Angles, Saxons, and Jutes came from the North Sea regions of
Northern Europe.
They settled territory in the south of Hadrian’s Wall, and they
were looking for farming land.
Anglo-Saxons speak a language we now call Old English, this language is very simple, used
shorts and mono-syllabic words refers with things they could see or touch (like body, animals,
family relationship…).
So, they talked about things they could experience in their life.
We still find traces of its vocabulary in modern English.
THE HEPTARCHY
® The Britons were driven to the West, in Wales;
® the Gaels (Celts) fled to the north of the country (now Scotland);
® the Anglo-Saxons controlled eastern Britain and formed seven autonomy
kingdoms, each one governed by one king, this period is known as the
Heptarchy.
The kingdom of Wessex became the most important in 829 AD.
The land of the Angles became the actual England.
THE ANGLO-SAXON SOCIETY
They were organized in family groups or clans.
Loyalty to family and lord was the most important value.
The center of communal life was the hall: the place where they
gathered to talk about everything and where they swore loyalty
to the chiefs in return for their protection.
They didn’t use alphabet we use but they use the runic alphabet, which was
composed of characters carved on metal stones and wood.
So, they started writing about their culture and they have left few documents to
historian.
CHRISTIANITY
Romans had introduced Christianity to Britain but the Anglo-Saxons was pagans and they reintroduced
pagan values. Even if, the influence of Christian church was strong, Christianity spared all over Europe.
In 597 Pope Gregory I sent a monk called Augustine to bring Christianity back to
England to convert the Anglo-Saxons.
Augustine landed in Kent, the most civilized of the seven Anglo-Saxon
kingdoms. He built a church in Canterbury in 602, where he later name himself
the first Archbishop of Canterbury, that since then became the most important
role within the Church of England.
In this way Christianity was gradually reintroduced.
The king was the head of the Church, but Archbishop of Canterbury was a guide of Christianity.
Churches and Monasteries were built all over the country and became important cultural centers:
® The Church educated the people;
® Offered shelter;
® Managed public administration.
The Abbey of Lindisfarne was founded in 635 and contains the biggest collection of
manuscript because the main activity of monks is copied old manuscript and wrote new
ones in Latin.
One of this monks, Venerable Bede, in 731 wrote “The Ecclesiastical History of the English
People” where he describes the history of Anglo-Saxon and their culture, and which is the
main source of our knowledge of this period. He regarded as “the father” of English
history.
Vikings
Wiking was called “Danes by the English”. They were seaborne warriors, and they
crossed the Atlantic on their longships looking for treasures, cattle and slaves.
In 793 they attacked the monastery of Lindisfarne and over the next few
decades many monasteries in the north of Britain were destroyed. A lot of
monks fled to Kells.
By the 9th century Vikings occupied England.
The Vikings established the Danelaw, a code of Danish laws, in the area of
norther and eastern England.
Their language blended (si fuse) with that of the local population (AngloSaxons).
However, when they reached Wessex, they met with opposition from
King Ethelred and his brother Alfred.
With the Battle of Edington in 878, king Alfred, the king of Wessex,
defeated (sconfisse) the Danish commander Guthrum.
KING ALFRED
King Alfred reorganized the army of Wessex and planned a navy with longships.
He established his capital at Winchester, had Latin texts translated into Anglo-Saxons and
commissioned the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles.
King Alfred the Great died in 899.
THE END OF THE ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND
Harold, the last Anglo-Saxon king, defeated the Vikings at the battle of Stamford Bridge
in the north of England in 1066.
Harold was forced to move his army to the south coast to face a Norman invasion.
“William the Conqueror”, Duke of Normandy landed with an impressive army and in
October 1066, defeated the Anglo-Saxons at the Battle of Hastings.
Harold was killed and the Anglo-Saxon reign came to an end.