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Name ________________________________
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The Conquest of Britain
1) Who were the Celts, and when and where did they settle? Between _________________________,
two groups of Celts from southern Europe invaded the British Isles. One group,
_______________________ (now spelled “_______________________”) settled on the largest
island, Britain. The other group, known as _______________________, settled on the second
largest island, _______________________. The Celts were ______________________________.
They organized themselves into tightly knit clans, each with a ___________________________to
its chieftain.
2) Who were the next conquerors who were far more sophisticated, and when did they settle in
Britain? The next conquerors of Britain were the far more sophisticated
_______________________. In 55 B.C. , the Roman general _______________________made
hasty invasions. The true conquest occurred nearly 100 years later. Roman rule of Britain lasted
more than 300 years. The last Roman legions departed from Britain to defend Rome in A.D. 407
(leading to the collapse of the Roman Empire in 476).
3) Who were the new set of invaders and where were they from? The next invaders were the
____________________________, from what is now _______________________. Some AngloSaxons appear to have been ________________________________; others seem to have been
_______________________, perhaps seeking soil richer than the sandy or marshy land at home.
The Coming of Christianity
4) When and how was Christianity introduced to Britain? During the _______________________ ,
the_______________________had accepted Christianity and introduced it to Britain. A century
later, when the _______________________ fled the Anglo-Saxons, they took their Christian faith
with them. Although Rome fell to Barbarian tribes in _______________________, the Celtic
Christian church continued to thrive.
In 597, the Roman cleric Saint Augustine (not the early Christian Church father) arrived in
Southeast England and converted King Ethelbert of Kent to Christianity, and preached to other
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rulers as well. By providing _______________________ to quarreling rulers, the Church promoted
_______________________ and helped ______________________________________________.
Danish Invasion (Vikings)
5) Where did the Norse of Norway and the Danes of Denmark invade, and what were their tactics? In
the 9th century, the Norse and the Danes were beset with a rising population and took to the seas.
These_______________________carried their piracy to the British Isles; they
_______________________________monasteries, destroyed manuscripts, and stole sacred
religious objects. They burned entire communities and put villagers to the sword. By the middle
of the ______________________, most of northern, eastern, and central England had fallen to the
invaders.
6) What did King Alfred “the Great” do to earn his title? In 871, a king, named Alfred, ascended to
the Wessex throne who would become the only ruler in England’s history ever to be honored with
the title “the Great.” Alfred the Great earned his title partly by _____________________________
________________________________. In 886, a truce formally divided England to respect the
_______________________rule in the east and north and the Saxon rule in the south; Alfred the
Great became a great national hero. He achieved well beyond stopping the Viking invasions, but
also preserving the remnants of pre-Danish civilization in Britain and encouraging the rebirth of
learning and education.
However, in the next hundred years, more Danes from Europe attempted to recapture and widen
Danelaw. Once they succeeded, they forced the Saxons to select Danish kings. Then, in 1042, the
line of succession returned to a descendant of Alfred the Great, King Edward, who gained the title
“the Confessor” because he was a deeply religious Christian. His death in 1066 le to the end of the
Anglo-Saxon period of history.
The Norman Conquest (French)
7) Who are the Normans, and how did King Edward the Confessor’s death in 1066 lead to end of the
Anglo-Saxon period? The Normans, or “north men,” were descendants of Vikings who had
invaded the coast of France in the ninth century. William, Duke of Normandy, had family ties to
the king of England, Edward the Confessor, and when king Edward died in 1066, the Saxon council
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of elders chose Harold II as king. William or Normandy, meanwhile, claimed that Edward had
promised him the throne, and he crossed the English channel to assert his claim by force. At the
Battle of Hastings, Harold was killed, and William emerged victorious.
8) What language and system of government did William , Duke of Normandy, introduce to
England? Over the next five years, William suppressed Anglo-Saxon nobility, confiscated their
lands, and saw to it that Normans controlled government and that business was conducted in
Norman French or Latin. The Normans gradually remade England along feudal lines. Feudalism
involved an exchange of property for personal service. All land belonged to the king, who
parceled out land and special privileges among his powerful supporters, nobles known as “Barons.”
Each baron paid taxes and supplied a specified number of knights (professional soldiers). Knights
usually received smaller parcels of land, called manors. The peasants who worked these manors
were the lowest class in the feudal system, the serfs.
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Anglo-Saxon Literature
9) How did Anglo-Saxon literature begin? Anglo-Saxon literature began not with books, but with
spoken verse and incantations (the ritual chanting or use of supposedly magic words- Encarta).
The reciting of poems often occurred on ceremonial occasions, such as the celebration of military
victories.
10) Define and give an example:
heroic poetry: recounting the achievements of warriors- ex: Beowulf.
elegiac poetry: lamenting the deaths of loved ones and the loss of the past- ex: The Wanderer.
epic: a long heroic poem (long narrative poem about a larger than life hero, one which reveals
his culture- ex: The Odyssey and Beowulf (tale of a great pagan warrior renowned for his
courage, strength, and dignity; it is a national epic of England.)
lyric poem: expresses the thoughts and feelings of a single speaker, usually by recounting the
events in the speaker’s life.
Elegy: type of lyric poem; the loss of someone of something is mourned.
Caesura: sound break appearing in the middle of a line, indicating a pause for breath in the
reading; useful for scops who had to recite hundreds of lines of poetry.
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Kenning: a two-word metaphorical name for something, such as “whale’s home” for the sea;
clever ways of renaming familiar things.
11) Before Alfred the Great, which group of people were the only ones that could read and write?
Important prose in the British Isles and why? Monks were the only ones that could read and write,
because at this time all important prose was written in Latin; they regarded the vernacular, the
language of the common people, as a “vulgar tongue.”
12) Who is the greatest of England’s Latin scholars, and what did he write? Venerable Bede- A
History of the English Church and People
13) What are The Anglo Saxon Chronicles? A great work from A/S time; group of historical journals
written and compiled in monasteries; written in Old English.
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The Beginnings of English
14) Look at the map and recall the history of invasions. Name the languages brought into England in
chronological order.
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15) What is the Exeter Book?