Mihai Stoican

Module 1British Prehistory

http://faculty.history.wisc.edu/sommerville/123/123images/stonehenge2.jpgI. Geographical profile of the UK The countrys full title for constitutional and political purposes is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, although the short terms UK and Britain are normally used for convenience. It is part of that group of islands, described geographically as the British Isles, that lie off the northwest coast of continental Europe.

The mainlands of England, Scotland and Wales form the largest island and are known politically as Great Britain. Northern Ireland shares the second largest island with the Republic of Ireland (Ireland or Eire), which has been independent of Britain since 1921.

Smaller islands, such as Anglesey, the Isle of Wight, the Orkneys, Shetlands, Hebrides and Scillies, lie off the coasts and are part of the British political union.The Isle of Man in the Irish Sea and the Channel Islands off the French west coast are not, however, part of the United Kingdom. They are self-governing Crown Dependencies that have a historical relationship with the British Crown and possess their own independent legal systems, legislatures and administrative structures. However, the British government is responsible for their defence and foreign relations and can interfere if good administration is not maintained.

Britain was originally part of the European mainland, but the melting of the glaciers in the last Ice Age caused the sea level to rise. The country was separated from the continent by the North Sea at its widest point, and by the English Channel at its narrowest point. The shortest stretch of water between the two land masses is now the Strait of Dover between Dover in southern England and Calais in France (20 miles, 32 km)

Britains physical relief can be divided into highland and lowland Britain .The highest ground is mainly in the north and west. Most of the lowland zones, except for the Scottish Lowlands and central areas of Northern Ireland, are in the south and east of the country, where only a few points reach 1,000 feet (305 m) above sea level.

England

England (population 48,708,000) consists largely of undulating or flat lowland countryside, with highland areas in the north and south-west.

The heaviest population concentrations centre on the largest towns and cities, such as London and in south-east England generally; the West Midlands region around Birmingham; the Yorkshire cities of Leeds, Bradford and Sheffield; the northwestern industrial area around Liverpool and Manchester; and the north-east region comprising Newcastle and Sunderland.

Wales

Wales (population 2,913,000) is mainly a highland country, with long stretches of moorland plateau, hills and mountains. This upland mass contains the Cambrian Mountains and descends eastwards into the English counties of Shropshire and Hereford and Worcester. The highest mountains are in Snowdonia in the north-west, where the dominant peak is that of Snowdon (3,560 feet, 1,085 m). The lowland zones are restricted to the narrow coastal belts and to the lower parts of the river valleys in south Wales, where two-thirds of the Welsh population live. The chief urban concentrations of people and industry are around the bigger southern cities, such as the capital Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, and to a lesser extent in the north-east of the country. In the past, the highland nature of Wales has hindered conquest, agriculture and the settlement of people.

Scotland

Scotland (population 5,132,000) may be divided into three main areas. The first is the North-West and Central Highlands (Grampians), together with a large number of islands off the west and north-east coasts. These areas are thinly populated, but comprise half the countrys land mass. The second is the Central Lowlands, which contain one-fifth of the land area but three quarters of the Scottish population, most of the industrial and commercial centres and much of the cultivated land. The third is the Southern Uplands, which cover a number of hill ranges stretching towards the border with England.

The main population concentrations are around the administrative centre and capital of Edinburgh; the commercial and industrial area of Glasgow; and the regional centres of Aberdeen (an oil industry city) and Dundee. The climate, isolation and harsh physical conditions in much of Scotland have made conquest, settlement and agriculture difficult.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland (population 1,642,000) has a north-east tip that is only 13 miles (21 km) from the Scottish coast, a fact that has encouraged both Irish and Scottish migration. Since 1921, Northern Ireland has had a 303-mile (488-km) border in the south and west

with the Republic of Ireland. It has a rocky northern coastline, a south-central fertile plain and mountainous areas in the west, northeast and south-east. Belfast lies at the mouth of the river Lagan and has the biggest population concentration. But Northern Ireland generally has a sparse and scattered population and is a largely rural country.

II. Prehistory

http://www.england-history.org/category/00-early-period/Human beings have been living in the part of northern Europe that is today called Britain for about 750,000 years. For most of that time, they subsisted by gathering food like nuts, berries, leaves and fruit from wild sources, and by hunting.

Over the millennia there were phases of extreme cold, when large areas of Britain were covered in ice, followed by warmer times. Around 10,000 years ago, the latest ice age came to an end. Sea levels rose as the ice sheets melted, and Britain became separated from the European mainland shortly before 6000 BC.

The Earliest MenIn some parts of Britain one can see a number of huge stones standing in a circle. These are the monuments left by the earliest inhabitants of the country. The best-known stone-circle named Stonehenge dates from between 1900 and 1600 . C. It is made of many upright stones, standing in groups oftwos, 8.5 metres high. They are joined on the top by other flat stones, each weighing about 7 tons. No one can tell how these large stones were moved, or from what places they were brought.Stonehenge is still a mystery to scholars. What was it used for?As a burial-place or a sacred place where early man worshipped the sun?

. A passage grave (sometimes hyphenated) or passage tomb consists of a narrow passage made of large stones and one or multiple burial chambers covered in earth or stone. The building of passage tombs was normally carried out with megaliths and smaller stones; they usually date from the Neolithic Age. Those with more than one chamber may have multiple sub-chambers leading off from the main burial chamber. One common layout, the cruciform passage grave, is cross-shaped. Sometimes passage tombs are covered with a cairn, especially those dating from later times. Not all passage graves have been found to contain evidence of human remains. Some of the great ceremonial monuments of the Middle Neolithic, such as the so-called 'passage' graves, were aligned according to the position of the sun during the winter or summer solstice.

The long passage of a passage grave could be carefully positioned to allow the sun on the shortest few days of the year to shine directly into the central burial chamber. Passage graves were also constructed to provide good acoustics, and it seems most probable that they were the scenes of ritual or religious theatrical performances.

Visual support: the henge monuments Henges: Stonehenge, Woodhenge, Avebury & Stanton Drew , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulpQqzO2EFA&list=PLHq3R730iMb1H5Rqw3oUXzKCDq7s05yHo1. How many prehistoric henge monuments are in Britain at present?

1000

2. Which is the largest chamber tomb in England and Wales?

West Kennet Long Barrow

3. Which is the biggest man made mound in Europe?

Sillbury Hill

4.How many people and how much time were necessary for its construction? (500 men working every day for 10 years)

5. What did the term henge signify in Old English?

Lintles,hanging stones- horizontal beams

6. Why isnt Stonehenge strictly speaking a henge?

Henges have a ditch inside the raised bank, at Stonehenge the ditch lies outside , which implies that they had quite different functions

7. Which is the true henge mentioned by the speaker?

Avebury

8. Which is the grandest ceremonial site in Britain?

Avebury

9. What was the original structure and importance of Stanton Drew? What did the archaeologists discover?

Ditch plus a raised bank

9 concentric rings of wooden posts

10. What is the authors hypothesis regarding the role of Avesbury henge?

Blood sports- hunting shows

About three thousand years . C. many parts of Europe, including the British Isles, were inhabited by a people, who came to be known as the Iberians because some of their descendants are still found in the north of Spain (the Iberian Peninsula). We do not know much about these early people because they lived in Britain long before a word of their history was written, but we can learn something from their skeletons, their weapons and the remains of their dwellings which have been found. The Iberians used stone weapons and tools. The art of grinding and polishing stone was known to objects of stone with sharp edges and points.

The Celts

During the period from the 6th to the 3rd century . C. a people called the Celts spread across Europe from the east to the west.

The Celts were an Indo-European group, that is, related linguistically to the Greeks, the Germanic peoples, certain Italic groups and peoples of the Indian sub-continent. They arose in central Europe at the beginning of the first millennium B.C. and were an iron using and horse rearing peoples. By the end of the first millennium B.C. their cultural group had spread up and down the Danube and Rhine, taking in Gaul, Ireland and Britain, across central Europe, into northern Italy and northern Spain. Their roaming across Europe led some of the Celtic tribes to sack Rome in 390 B.C. (creating a fear of the northern barbarians that was to haunt Romans for hundreds of years to come), and in 279B.C. another Celtic tribe sacked the Greek sanctuary at Delphi, going on to found a Celtic kingdom in Asia-Minor, Galatia (The people to whom St. Paul was to address some of his epistles). Celtic peoples were apparently fierce warriors, with a taste for head hunting and going into battle naked, though armour of varying types are not uncommon artifacts (e.g. the famous Witham Shield in the British Museum).

The first Celtic immigrants to the British Isles probably arrived between 2000 and 1200 BC. These are known as the q-Celts and spoke Goidelic.

Classification of the British Celts

The Celts living in Britain today stem from the two main types of Celt who invaded Britain: the Goidelic Celts (Gaels or Gaelic) - Scotland, Isle of Man and Ireland

the Brythonic celts (Britons or British) - roughly Wales and Cornwall

The Goidelic Celts were first to invade Britain. They were later pushed into Ireland by their cousins the Brythonic (or British) Celts who came over in 500 - 400 BC. The Brythonic occupied present day England and Wales.

The three Gaelic languages spoken in Ireland, Man and later Scotland were derived Goidelic. Welsh and Cornish came from Brythonic. Brythonic survived in mainland Europe in the form of Breton.

By the time Julius Caesar was ready to launch his Roman invasion of Britain, more Celts had crossed over from Gaul, and had settled in the south-east of England. These were largely the Belgic tribes, from what is now southern Belgium and northern France, and they were related to the Britons already here.

Visual support - Hidden Histories: What is a Celt? optionalhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZRWwIAwB7U1. What did the term keltoi refered to?

2. Was there a homogeneous Celtic world?

3. What is the authors suggestion for the usage of the word Celtic today

Celtic a linguistic group

More than one Celtic tribe invadedBritain. From time to time these tribes were attacked and overcome by other Celtic tribes from the Continent. Celtic tribes called the Picts penetrated into the mountains on the North; some Picts as well as tribes of Scots crossed over to Ireland and settled there. Later the Scots returned to the larger island and settled in the North beside the Picts. They came in such large numbers that in time the name of Scotland was given, to that country. Powerful Celtic tribes, the Britons, held most of the country, and the southern half of the island was named Britain after them. Today the words Briton and British refer to the people of the whole of the British Isles.

The Iberians were unable to fight back the attacks of the Celts who were armed with metal spears, swords, daggers and axes. Most of the Iberians were slain in the conflict; some of them were driven westwards into the mountains of what is now Wales and the others probably mixed with the Celts.

We know more about the Celts than about the earlier inhabitants of the island, because of the written accounts that exist.

The Celts did not write down the events tthemselves. Other peoples who knew themdescribed them in their books.

The Greeks were the first to mention theBritish Isles. It is from the Greek books that we know about the Phoenicians, who were great sailors and traders even before the Greeks and who travelled as far as the shores ofBritain.

The ancient Greek historian Herodotus who is called the Father of History wrote that in the 5th century . C. the Phoenicians used to come to the British Isles for tin which was used in making bronze. They called the British Isles theTinIslands.

The earliest writer from whom we have learned much about the country and its inhabitants was Julius Caesar, the famous Roman general, statesman and writer. In his Commentaries on the Gallic War. a book written in Latin, Julius Caesar describes the island and the Celts against whom he fought. He tells us that the Celts were tall and blue-eyed. They wore long flowing moustaches but no beards. In their mode of life the British Celts differed little from the Celtic tribes of the Gauls who lived on the Continent. In the 1st century . C. they lived in tribes, and were ruled by chiefs whom all the tribesmen obeyed. The chiefs were military leaders and some of them were very powerful. The military leaders of the largest tribes were sometimes called kings and stood at the head of detachments of warriors.

The Celts had no towns; they lived in villages. They were acquainted with the use of copper, tin and iron and they kept large herds of cattle and sheep which formed their chief wealth. They also cultivated crops, especially corn.

They used light ploughs as well as hoes (splig), and grew their crops in small, square fields. The Celtic tribes of the Britons who inhabited the south-eastern parts of the island were more civilized than the other tribes. Their clothing was made of wool, woven in many colours while the other Celts wore skins.

Some of the Celtic tribes were quite large and fighting was common among them. In war-time the Celts wore skins and painted their faces with a blue dye to make themselves look fierce. They were armed with swords and spears and used chariots on the battle-field. Their war-chariots were made of wicker(rchit) and scythes of bronze were attached to the wooden wheels. These were drawn by two or four horses, and were large enough to hold several persons in each. Caesar writes that the Celts charged fiercely in the battle. Standing in their chariots, they rushed along the enemys lines, waving their spears and uttering loud cries and driving the scythes against all who came within reach.

Celtic Religion

The Celtic religion was an animistic polytheistic religion. This means that they believe in spirits who live in everything, so they also live in plants and rock. The spirits can be called deities. It must be said that there did not exist such a thing as a trans-Celtic religion. Of course there were similarities, but often Celts believed in their local Gods and Goddesses. Because of these differences there are more than 300 Celtic deities known today.

Because the Celtic religion was so deeply connected with Nature the Celts did not worship their Gods in temples. They believed that their Gods lived everywhere in nature and therefore the preferred natural places to worship their Gods and Goddesses. Especially certain trees like oaks and ashes and lakes, springs and streams were places to worship. These holy places were called after the deities with whom they were associated. Especially water had a strong spiritual power according to the Celts. They believed that the power of springs could heal. Because of this believe real places of pilgrimage aroused near holy springs such as the spring near Bath.

The Celts worshipped Nature. They imagined the sky, the sun, the moon, the earth and the sea, to be ruled by beings like themselves, but much more powerful. Sometimes the same pagan gods in various places were called by different names. Besides these they had many lesser gods and the gods of one tribe were often quite unknown to the other tribes. They also believed in many nameless spirits who lived in the rivers, lakes, mountains and thick forests. They sacrificed not only animals, but also human beings to their gods. Sometimes these victims were placed into a great wicker basket and burnt, sometimes they were slain with knives. The Celts believed in another life after death. They were taught by priests called druids that their souls passed after death from one body to another. The druids lived near groves of oak-trees which were considered to be sacred places. No one was allowed to come near without permission. The druids were very important and powerful, sometimes, more powerful than the chiefs. The Celts believed in their magic power. They believed that the druids were able to foretell the future and the druids very often acted as prophets. The tribesmen often called upon the druids to settle disputes. The druids could give orders to begin a battle or to put down arms and stop fighting. The druids were also teachers and doctors for they were wiser than the other tribesmen. Wise women were also considered to be very important. There were women prophets, and women warriors who trained young men in arms; some women were made tribal chiefs and called queens.

Visual support

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awT0oHT6S0U

What was the basic unit of Celtic life?

What was the structure of a Celtic tribe? ( more clans)

What was the Celtic occupation besides war? (farming)

What was the womens status in the Celtic society?

How was the Celtic culture transmitted? ( orally)

What was the druids status in Celtic society?What did the Celts do to their opponents in battle? Beheading What was the religious significance of this practice ? ( to gain the enemys energy)

What tactics were adopted by the Celts in order to scare their enemies?

Visual Support: The 6 Celtic Languages

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxvQm4E9dugLearn Irish - Lesson 1 (Introductions) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= WIfkvGeHUQ0Useful Welsh Phrases - Learning Welshhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rmzFIp2YZ0

Scots Gaelic Lesson 1 part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tIMC21k-nw

To this day the descendants of the ancientCelts live on the territory of the British Isles. The Welsh who live inWales are of Celtic origin. People in most parts of Wales speak Welsh, a Celtic tongue. In the Highlands of Scotland as well as in the western parts of Ireland the people speak a tongue of Celtic origin too.

Some words of the Celtic language can still be found in Modern English and most of them are geographical names. Many rivers, hills and towns are still called by their old Celtic names. Thus in England there are several rivers called Avon which in Celtic means a river. Some rivers have the name of Derwent, which in Celtic means clear water. The chalk highlands in the southern and south-eastern parts of England are called theDowns. This name comes from the Celtic word down which means bare, open highland.

For some hundreds of thousands of years people lived under the primitive communal system. Labour gradually changed the life of man. The Iberians knew only stone tools and weapons; the Celts produced tools of metalfirst, of bronze, that is, a mixture of copper and tin, and, later, of much harder metal, iron.

The improved tools of labour brought about important changes in the living conditions of primitive man. The Iberians had gathered or hunted their food, but the Celts began to tame and breed animals, to till the soil. Iron ploughs could cut the soil deeper, and so they could cultivate not only the light soil of the chalk downs but also the rich heavy soil in the valleys. They grew more and more corn.

They began to build dwellings and to make clothing. They learned the art of pottery.

The life of the Celts differed greatly from that of the Iberians. But both the Iberians and the Celts lived under the primitive system. At all stages of its development primitive society had very much in common: the primitive people worked collectively in clans or family communities; they owned common property and were all equal.

The related members of the clan jointly owned their hunting-grounds, tillable lands, rivers and lakes. They worked together and shared the products of their labour. All food was divided equally among the members of the clan.

Their tools were primitive and the labour productivity was low. A man could not produce any surplus over and above his immediate needs.

All the tribesmen became warriors in war-time, but in time of peace they hunted, tamed and bred animals and tilled the soil. A tribe was governed by a council of elders. The council distributed hunting- and fishing-grounds and tillable lands among the family communities and settled all disputes. The elders acted in the interests of the whole tribe. They were obeyed and trusted by all. They called meetings of all the tribesmen to discuss the most important problems.

In primitive society there was no private property; therefore there were no classes and no exploitation that is, appropriation by the rich of the fruits of other mens labour. Since there were no classes there was no state system, that is, no armed forces, no prisons, no courts, no overseers, no government bodies.

In the last centuries B.C. and in the first centuries A. D. the Celts were in a period of transition from primitive communal society to class society. The elders, military leaders and their warriors made up the tribal nobility. They were beginning to seize much land for themselves and they had more cattle than the other members of the clan. But still the communal way of life predominated among them.

Celtic Mythology

Like all the ancient peoples the Celts made up many legends about their gods and heroes. The legends were passed down from generation to generation. They were written down in the Middle Ages but they describe far older times when the tribal way of life predominated among the Celts. The chroniclers and writers translated the Celtic legends into Modern English and called them the Celtic Sagas.

The heroes of the Sagas and their adventures were imaginary. However, they give an idea of the Celts way of life, their occupations, tools, weapons, customs and religion.The Roman books tell us mainly about the Celts of southeasternBritain. The Romans knew very little about the Celts who lived in Wales and the Northern Celts who lived in Scotland and inIreland. That is why Celtic mythology is a valuable source of information about the early inhabitants of the British Isles.

The greatest hero of the Celtic heroic sagas was Cuchuiainn.

Optional sources

Celtic Symbols http://www.whats-your-sign.com/celtic-symbols.htmlModule 2

Roman Britan

I. The Roman Empire

Inthe1st century . C. when the inhabitants of the British Isles were still living under the primitive communal system, the Roman Empire became the strongest slave-owning state in theMediterranean.

It was the last and greatest of the civilizations of the ancient world. The Romans ruled all of the civilized world and in the 1st century A.D. theyconqueredBritain.

Two thousand years ago while the Celts were still living in tribes the Romans were the most powerful people in the world. Roman society differed greatly from that of the Celts. It was a slave society divided into antagonistic classes. The main classes were the slaves and the slave-owners. The slave-owners made up the minority of the population but they owned the land, tools, buildings and slaves. The slaves possessed neither had nor tools and were themselves the property of the slave-owners. The slaves could be boughs and sold, exchanged or given away like any other thing. They could be kept in chains, whipped and put to death.

Slavery was the first and the most inhuman form of exploitation. The slave owners appropriated almost all the results of the slaves labour; the slaves were given some food and clothing so that they would not die of starvation and cold. Thus, whatever was produced by the slaves beyond what they needed to keep themselves alive was taken away by their masters. Therefore the slaves were not interested in the results of their labour.

Overseers forced the slaves to work more. The disobedient slaves were severely punished. Government bodies issued acts beneficial to the exploiters. With the help of the army the slave-owners put down the uprisings of the exploited. The army also helped the slave-owners to protect their riches against foreign enemies and to wage endless wars in order to conquer new lands and to seize more slaves.

TheRomansconquered all the countries around theMediterranean Sea. In the wars, in which Rome gained one province after another for the empire, many thousands of prisoners were taken. Theywere sold at the slave-market atRome. Slaves were so cheap that all the Romans except the poorest had one or more, and rich slave-owners possessed hundreds of them.

Inthe1stcentury . C.and in the 1st century A. D. slavery spread widely in theRoman Empire. Unlike the Ancient East and Greece where the land was cultivated chiefly by peasants, inRome, very many slaves were engaged in agri- culture; large farms in Italy were worked entirely by gangs of slaves. The slave system reached its peak in theRoman Empire. No other country in the ancient world had so many slaves as Rome did. In no other country did slave labour replace that of the freemen on such a large scale.

II. The Roman Conquest of Britain

One of the last countries to be conquered by Rome wasFrance, or Gaul as it was then called. The war against the Gauls, who were Celtic tribes, lasted for eight years. Julius Caesar was appointed Head of the Roman army which was sent to conquerGaul. In the course of his campaigns Caesar reached the Channel and that was how the Romans came to see the white cliffs of the land of the British Celts.

The English Channel

The White Cliffs at Dover

In 55 B.C. a Roman army of 10,000 men crossed the Channel and invadedBritain. The Celts saw their ships approaching and rushed to attack the invaders in the sea as they were landing. The Celts made a great impression on the Romans, who saw them for the first time in battle. On the occasion of the battle their hair and moustaches were dyed red and their legs and arms were painted blue. With loud shouts they attacked the Romans in chariots and on foot and the well-armed invincible Romans under one of the greatest generals of that time had to return toGaul.

In the next year, 54 B.C., Caesar again came toBritain, this time with larger forces (25,000 men). The Cells fought bravely for their independence but they were not strong enough, in spite of their courage, to drive the Romans off. The Romans who had better arms and armour and were much better trained defeated the Celts in several battles. Some of the chiefs submitted and promised to pay tribute toRome. Caesar then went back to Gaul to complete his conquest on the Continent.

Although Julius Caesar came to Britain twice in the course of two years, he was not able, really, to conquer it. The promised tribute was not paid and the real conquest of Britain by the Romans was not begun until nearly a hundred years after Caesars visits to the island.

To defend their province the Romans stationed their legions inBritain. Straight roads were built so that the legions might march quickly, whenever they were needed, to any part of the country. These roads were made of several layers of stones, lime, mortar and gravel. They were made so well that they lasted a long time and still exist today. Bridges of stone were built wherever a road crossed a river; some of these bridges can still be found in Britain today. Besides, to guard the province against the Picts and Scots who lived in the hills of Scotland a high wall was built in the North. It was called Hadrians Wall because it was built by command of the Emperor Hadrian. From one end of the wall to the other forts were built a mile apart and the Roman warriors could be seen marching up and down the whole length of the wall. When the Northern Britons were not at war with the Romans they often came to the wall and traded with the warriors and the Romans would go hunting in the region north of the wall.

Hadrians wall AD 122

Visual support Hadrians Wall http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeosZImCrMYWho was Hadrian? ( Trajans adoptive son)

What was the disadvantage of long/expanded borders in the Roman Empire? (they were difficult to defend)

What was Hadrians strategy of maintaining the strength of the Roman Empire? (protecting what they already had)

What was the double danger faced by the Roman soldiers on the Northern part of Britannia? (cold winters plus barbarian incursions )

What was the primary purpose of engaging the Roman soldiers in the building of the wall? ( the need for discipline)

Why is Hadrians wall unique in Roman history? ( the Romans largest stone fortification)

How long and high was the wall? ( 73 miles long, = 117 km, 55 feet high= aprox 16 m high))

How many legions took part in the construction of the wall? (3 legions, 15, 000-25,000 men)

What did the guard posts/ Mile Castles contain? ( 60 troops at a time)

What was the purpose of the watch towers placed between the Mile Castles? (border supervision)

How many super- forts were placed along the length of the wall and what was their purpose? ( they could host 1000 Roman soldiers)

What did the construction of Hadrians wall actually imply? ( the maintenance of a military zone)

II. Roman Influence in Britain

As a result of the conquest signs of Roman civilization spread overBritain. There had been no towns in Britain before the Romans conquered it. The civilized Romans were city dwellers, and as soon as they had conquered Britain they began to build towns, splendid villas, public baths as in Rome itself. York,Gloucester, Lincoln and London became the chief Roman towns; there were also about fifty other smaller towns. London which had been a small trading settlement before the conquest now became a centre for trade both by road and river. Colchester,Gloucester, York and Lincoln sprang up round the Roman military camps. The town ofBath became famous for itshot springs.

The towns grew up as markets and centres of administration. In most towns there were market-places and plenty of shops where merchants sold their goods. The houses were built of stone, plastered and painted, with roofs made of large red tiles. The rich merchants and officials had luxurious houses which contained many rooms, with mosaic floors and central heating. Every Roman town had a drainage system and a good supply of pure water.Temples and public baths could be found in most towns. The Roman towns were military stations surrounded by walls for defence which were guarded by the Roman warriors.

The Romans were great road-makers and now a network of roads connected all parts of the country. One of the chief roads was Watling Street which ran from Dover toLondon, then to Chester and intoWales. Along the roads new towns and villages sprang up.

The Watling Street map

Great tracts of forest were cleared, swamps were drained, and corn-fields took their place. The province of Britain became one of the granaries of the Roman Empire.

A constant trade was carried on with other parts of the empire. Thechief exports were corn, lead, tin, and building tiles. The goods were sent in wagons along the roads ofBritain, Gaul and ItalytoRome.Britainimportedluxury goods, especially fine pottery and metalware.

But together with a high civilization the Romans brought exploitation and slavery to the British Isles. Rich Romans had villas in the country with large estates, which were worked by gangs of slaves. Prisoners of war were sent to the slave-market in the Roman Empire. The free Celts were not turned into slaves but they had to pay heavy taxes to the conquerors and were made to work for them. The Romans made them clean forests, drain swamps, build roads, bridges and walls for defence.

Among the Celts themselves inequality began to grow the tribal chiefs and nobility became richer than other members of the tribe. Many of them became officials acting forRome. Tribal chiefs who submitted were appointed to rule their people as before, but now they acted in the name of the Roman Emperor. The noble Celts adopted the mode of life of their conquerors. They lived in rich houses and they dressed as Romans. They were proud to wear the toga which was the sign of being a Roman citizen. They spoke Latin, the language of the Romans. But most of the celts went on living in their tiny huts, they spoke their native Celtic tongue and they did not understand the language of their rulers.

The Romans remained in Britain for about four centuries and during that time Britain was a Roman province governed by Roman governors and protected by Roman legions.

In the 3rd-4th centuries the power of the Roman Empire gradually weakened. The unproductive labour of the slaves led to the economic decline of the empire. Neither new methods of land cultivation nor new technical inventions were introduced. Slavery became an obstacle to technical progress. Poor cultivation exhausted the fields, the harvests became poorer from year to year.

The uninterrupted struggle of the exploited against the slave-owners greatly weakened the Roman Empire too. The enormous number of slaves presented a great danger to the Roman Empire. The end of the 4th century found the Germanic tribes invading the Western Roman Empire and the slaves who hated the Roman state were joining them by the thousand.

Early in the 5th century (407) the Roman legions were recalled from Britain to defend the central provinces of the Roman Empire from the attacks of the barbarian tribes. They did not return toBritain, and the Celts were left alone in the land.

During the 5th century the Germanic tribes overran the empire and settled in all parts of it. The fall of the Western Roman Empire meant the end of the slave-owning system in Western Europe.

Traces of the Roman Rule in Britain

There are today many things in Britain to remind the people of the Romans. The wells which the Romans dug give water today, and the chief Roman roads are still among the highways of Modern England. WatlingStreet still runs from London to Chester. Long stretches of Hadrians Wall, the ruins of public baths and parts of the Roman bridges have remained to this day. The fragments of the old London wall built by the Romans can still be seen. Often, even now, when men are digging in England they find Roman pottery, glass, tiles, statues, armour, coins and other things that were used by the Romans in those old times. Many of these remains may be seen in British museums.

Fragment of the old London wall

Besides, many words of Modern English have come from Latin. The words which the Romans left behind them in the language of Britain are for the most part the names of the things which they taught the Celts. For example, the word street came from the Latin strata which means road, port from the Latin portus, wall from vallum.

The names of many modern English towns are of Latin origin too. The Roman towns were strongly fortified and they were called castra which means camps. This word can be recognized in various forms in such names Chester,Winchester,Manchester, Leicester,Gloucester, Doncaster,Lancaster. Any English town today with a name ending in chester, cester or caster was once a Roman camp or city. The town-name Lincoln comes from the Latin word colonia which means a colony; and Colchester (that is, Colne-chester) from both colonia and castra. The city of Bath was an important Roman watering-place although it has lost its Roman name.

But Roman influence in Britain was weaker than in other provinces because the province of Britain was separated from the mainland of Europe by the Channel and the North Sea. The Roman way of life influenced only the south-eastern part of the country. The Romans built most of their towns in the south and east. The slave villas of the Roman type were also concentrated in the south-eastern part of the country. The old way of life of the British Celts did not change very much. Only among the Celts of the South and East did the tribal chiefs and nobility become rich and adopt the Roman way of life. At the same time the Celts who lived in the country far away from the Roman towns and villas kept to their customs and Roman influence upon them was insignificant. In the remoter western parts of the country and especially in the North, which the Romans did not manage to conquer, the old tribal life went on, and villages of native tribes still living under the primitive system, were predominant.

Module 3

The Anglo-Saxon Conquest of Britain

I. The Anglo-Saxon invasion

After the Roman legions left Britain the Celts remained independent but not for long. From the middle of the 5th century they had to defend the country against the attacks of Germanic tribes from the Continent. In the 5th century, first the Jutes and then other Germanic tribesthe Saxons and the Angles began to migrate toBritain.

The Saxons came from the territory lying between the Rhine and the Elbe rivers which was later on calledSaxony. The Jutes and the Angles came from theJutlandPeninsula.

The Rhine and the Elbe

The Jutland Peninsula At first they only came to plunder. They would land from their boats, drive off and slay the cattle, seize the stores of corn, and be off again to sea before the Celts could attack them. But after some time they returned again and again in larger numbers, and began to conquer the country.

In 449 the Jutes landed in Kent and this was the beginning of the conquest. The British natives fought fiercely against the invaders and it took more than a hundred and fifty years for the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes to conquer the country. Other Germanic tribes conquered the Roman provinces on the Continent without any serious resistance as the bulk of the population in the provinces occupied by the Romans welcomed the Germanic conquerors as their liberators. But the British Celts were free at the time and their resistance was often stubborn and prolonged.

In the South-East the Celts were soon overwhelmed, but in the western parts of the country they offered stout resistance for many years. Now and then the Celts won and the invaders were forced back. As a result Britain held out longer than the other provinces of the Roman Empire. It was only by the beginning of the 7th century that the invaders managed to conquer the greater part of the land.

The final refuge of the Celts was Cornwall and Wales the mountainous districts of the West and the northern part of the island (Scotland) where the Celts were still living in tribes and, later on, some independent states were formed. The Celts ofIreland remained independent too.

Cornwall map

Cornwall and Wales

In the course of the conquest many of the Celts were killed, some were taken prisoners and made slaves or had to pay tribute to the conquerors. Some of the Celts crossed the sea to the North-West of France and settled in what was later on called Brittany after the Celtic tribes of Britons.

Descendants of the ancient British Celts can be found in Brittany today..

Bretagne

By the end of the 6th and the beginning of the 7th century several kingdoms were formed on the territory of Britain conquered by the Germanic tribes. (Thisterritory later on becameEngland proper.) Kent was set up by the Jutes in the South-East. In the southern and the southeastern parts of the country the Saxons formed a number of kingdomsSussex (the land of the South Saxons), Wessex (the land of the West Saxons) and Essex (the land of the East Saxons). Farther north were the settlements of the Angles who had conquered the greater part of the country. In the North they foundedNorthumbria, which has left its name in the present county ofNorthumberland; Mercia was formed in the Middle, and East Angliain the East of England, north of the East Saxon kingdom. These kingdoms were hostile to one another and they fought constantly for supreme power in the country.

The new conquerors brought about changes altogether different from those that had followed the conquest of the country by the Romans. The new settlers disliked towns preferring to live in small villages. In the course of the conquest they destroyed the Roman towns and villas. All the beautiful buildings and baths and roads were so neglected that they soon fell in ruins. Sometimes the roads were broken up, the stones being used for building material. Thus the art of road-making was lost for many hundreds of years to come.

The Jutes, the Saxons and the Angles were closely akin in speech and customs, and they gradually merged into one people. The name Jute soon died out and the conquerors are generally referred to as the Anglo-Saxons.

As a result of the conquest the Anglo-Saxons made up the majority of the population in Britain and their customs, religion and languages became predominant. They called the Celts welsh which means foreigners as they could not understand the Celtic language which was quite unlike their own. But gradually the Celts who were in the minority merged with the conquerors, adopted their customs and learned to speak their languages. Only the Celts who remained independent in the West, Scotland and Ireland spoke their native tongue.

At first the Anglo-Saxons spoke various dialects but gradually the dialect of the Angles of Mercia became predominant. In the course of time all the people of Britain were referred to as the English after the Angles and the new name of England was given to the whole country. The Anglo-Saxon language, or English, has been the principal language of the country since then although it has undergone great change.

II. Anglo-Saxon lifestyle

a. Arable-farmingMost of the Anglo-Saxons settled far away from the Roman towns. They would find a suitable place in the valley of some river, where the soil was good and there was a good water supply. They often used the lands round the Roman villas, but as a rule they lived neither in the villas themselves nor in the Roman townsthey were essentially an agricultural people.

TheAnglo-Saxonvillageswere small. A village which had twenty-five families was considered a large one. Nearlyall the villagers were engaged in cultivating the land. Over large areas of unbroken forests roamed the deer, the boar, the wolf, the bear and other wild animals. In other parts great swamps stretched for miles and miles. The Anglo-Saxons had to do a great deal of pioneer work in clearing the forests and breaking up the land for agriculture.

Great stretches of forest separated one village from another. Each village with the land belonging to it was surrounded by a thick hedge. When the hedge was well grown it kept wild animals out of the village, and in those parts of England that were fully inhabited the hedge separated the land of one village from that of the next. The names of the Anglo-Saxon villages meant as a rule either their new home or a protected place.

A great number of village-names in England today are of Anglo-Saxon origin. Many English towns are called by the old Anglo-Saxon names too. For example, the word ton was the Saxon for hedge or a place surrounded by a hedge. Thus there areNorthampton, Southampton, Brighton,Preston and others. Burgh or bury was the Saxon for to hide. There are many village- and town-names derived from these words.Salisbury,Canterbury,Edinburgh,

Middlesbrough. The Anglo-Saxon ham, another form of the word home, can also be found in such names now as Nottingham,Birmingham,Cheltenham. The same is true of the word field meaning open country, in names such as Sheffield,Chesterfield,Mansfield, etc.

Corn was grown on the arable landthat is ploughed land. There was a great stretch of land that was not cultivated. This was called waste land and was always covered with trees and bushes, and it surrounded the village on every side. In those times there was more waste land than cultivated land. There was also a large stretch of pasture land for cattle and sheep as well as a meadow where grass was grown and cut for hay.

Themostcommon crops were wheat and barley.

Besides arable-farming, the Anglo-Saxons continued their old occupations of cattle-breeding, hunting and fishing. Oxen, sheep and goats belonging to the villagers grazed on the common pastures, and poultry (hens, geese, ducks) would feed there also. Pigs were turned into the woodland to feed on nuts and acorns.

Natural economy: a system under which every village was self-sufficient and produced all the necessities of life for consumption and not for sale, predominate in Britain in early medieval times. In the 8th-9th centuries the Anglo-Saxons sold only some surplus above their personal consumption.

III. Religious aspects

Conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity

The conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity began at the end of the 6th century (597) and was completed, in the main, in the second half of the 7th century.

Before this the Angles, Saxons and Jutes had been pagans, that is they believed in many gods. They worshipped the sun and the moon, the sea, springs and trees, and other pagan gods. One of their gods was Tu, or Tuescothe god of Darkness. Another was Wodenthe great god of War. The red-bearded Thor was the god of Thunder. The Anglo-Saxons thought they heard his magic hammer in the thunderclap. Freya was the goddess of Peace and Plenty.

The Anglo-Saxons named the days of the week after their gods. Thus Sunday meant the Suns day, Mondaythe Moons day, Tuesdaythe day of the god Tuesco; Wednesday was Wodens day, Thursday was Thors day and FridayFreyas day; Saturday was named after Saturn, a Roman God.

Paganism had developed among the Anglo-Saxons when they lived under the primitive system and it reflected the life of the tribal society where all men were equal and where there was no oppression of man by man. Paganism did not teach obedience and when feudal relations began to develop among the Anglo-Saxons this religion was of no use to the kings and landlords. They needed a religion which would teach the peasants that this order of society in which the land and power belonged to the king and the lords and in which the peasants had to work for their masters, had been established by God.

The religion that was to serve the interests of the rich Anglo-Saxons was Christianity. Christianity talked the poor people into being obedient, it taught them to be meek and patient and to obey their masters. In return for their patience and obedience Christianity promised them eternal happiness after death in the next world.

In 597 the Roman Pope sent about forty monks to Britain to convert the Anglo-Saxons. The monks landed in.

Kent and it became the first Anglo-Saxon kingdom to be converted. The first church was built in the town ofCanterbury, the capital ofKent, that is why the Archbishop of Canterbury is now Head of the Church of England. ThenChristianity spread among the Anglo-Saxons of the other kingdoms.

It was the Anglo-Saxon kings and nobles who accepted Christianity first. Then they began to convert the rank-and-file to the new faith. Butthey did not meet with great success. The people were attached to their old gods and after a short time they went back to their old religion. Moreover, the old religion meant freedom for the peasants, while the new one justified the power of the big landowners over them, that is why they resisted their conversion into Christianity stubbornly. It took about a century to compel all the Anglo-Saxons to accept the new faith.

The spread of Christianity brought about important changes in the life of the Anglo-Saxons. Many new churches and monasteries were built all over the country. The kings and nobles granted much land to the bishops and monasteries, and that promoted the growth of the big landed estates. The kings also granted them the right to collect dues from the population and to administer justice on their estates. Thus alongside with the lay landlords the churchmen became great landowners too.

Besides, the spread of Christianity was of great importance for the growth of culture inBritain. The Roman monks who were converting the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity helped to spread Roman culture in the country again. The Roman monks brought many books toBritain. Most of them were religious books and they were all written in Latin and Greek. The church services were also conducted in Latin.

The Latin language was again heard inBritain. Latin was of international importance at that time, as it was used by learned men in all countries. They wrote their books in Latin so that they could be understood by the learned men of other countries.

The Anglo-Saxons spoke quite a different language of Germanic origin and did not understand Latin. The Anglo-Saxon nobles were ignorant, many of them were quite illiterate and could not even sign their own names. No one except the monks knew Latin and the monasteries became centres of knowledge and of learning in those early times. The first libraries and schools for the clergy were set up in monasteries. The monks copied out many handwritten books and even translated some books from Latin and Greek into Anglo-Saxon. Some monks were chroniclersthey kept a record of the important events of each year. Psalters, chronicles and other manuscripts written by the medieval monks are very important historical documents today. Monks often illuminated their manuscripts with miniatures and drawings which are also of great interest for they portray many scenes of contemporary life.

Visual support- The Book of Kells: The Pages of History, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMvfMVBhUXI1. When was the Book of Kells produced?

2. What type of art did The Book of Kells stand for?

3. In what language is The Book of Kells written and what does its content refer to?

4. Why is it considered a masterpiece to these days?

5. Why is The Book of Kells considered an instance of cross-cultural art?

6. What influences are blended in it?

7. What are the unsolved mysteries about The Book of Kells?

8. Where is The Book of Kells today?

The learned men lived and wrote their books in monasteries. They wrote in Latin and some of their books were well known inEurope. The most famous writer was the monk named Bede who lived from 673 to 735. The Venerable Bede, as he was known in Europe, was brought up and educated in the monasteries of Northumbria where he lived all his life. He wrote Ecclesiastical History of the English People which was studied carefully by educated people in Europe as it was the only book on Anglo-Saxon history. From this book we learn much of what happened in Britain thirteen centuries ago. A copy of Bedes book can be found at the British Museum inLondon.

Venerable Bede, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwskvkVejuA1. Why is Venerable Bede an important figure?

2. What did his translation works involve?

Another early-medieval scholar Alcuin, who lived from 735 to 804, was also an Anglo-Saxon monk from the kingdom ofNorthumbria. He got his education in the monastic school of York where later on he himself began to teach. As a teacher he became famous all overEngland. Many young monks would come to the school in York from faraway places to be taught by Alcuin. He was the author of the school text-books that were very popular in the 8th- 9th centuries not only in England but on the Continent too. For more than twenty years Alcuin lived on the Continent where he organized monastic schools and many pupils of his became well-known teachers.

Thus the spread of Christianity promoted a revival of learning. Such English words of Greek origin as arithmetic, mathematics, theatre and geography, or words of Latin origin, such as school, paper and candle reflect the influence of the Roman civilization, a new wave of which was brought about in the 7th century by Christianity. However the cultural influence of the Church effected only a small number of people and mainly the clergy. Most Anglo-Saxons remained completely illiterate.

The Christian religion had a tremendous influence over mens minds and actions. It controlled the most important events of their lifebaptism, marriage and burial. There was a church in every village and the villagers were compelled to attend the religious services held by the priests. The priests taught that it was the right of the nobles due to their position as landlords to keep order and justice on their estates. They made the villager believe that it was his duty to obey the landlords. They promised that he would be rewarded in the after-life for all his sufferings. And the villager believed that the clergymen had the power to reward him or to send him to eternal torment after his death. Thus the Church became a powerful instrument in the hands of the feudal lords. The churchmen who became rich landlords themselves did their utmost to preach up the king, to justify the exploitation of the peasants and the power of the great landowners over them.

IV. Unification of the Anglo-Saxon KingdomsThe Anglo-Saxon kingdoms waged a constant struggle against one another for predominance over the country. From time to time some stronger state seized the land of the neighbouring kingdoms and made them pay tribute, or even ruled them directly. The number of kingdoms was always changing; so were their boundaries.

Thegreatestandmostimportant kingdoms wereNorthumbria, Mercia and Wessex. Foratime Northumbria gained supremacy. Merciawasthe next kingdom to take the lead. The struggle for predominance continued and at last at the beginning of the 9th century Wessex became the strongest state. In 829 Egbert, King of Wessex, was acknowledged byKent, a Viking sword handle of the Mercia andNorthumbria. This was really the beginning of the united kingdom ofEngland, for Wessex never again lost its supremacy and King Egbert became the first king ofEngland. Under his rule all the small Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were united to form one kingdom which was called England from that time on.

The clergy, royal warriors and officials supported the kings power. It was the king who granted them land and the right to collect dues from the peasants and to hold judgement over them. In this way the royal power helped them to deprive the peasants of their land and to turn them into serfs.

The political unification of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms was sped up by the urgent task of defending the country against the dangerous raids of the new enemies. From the end of the 8th century and during the 9th and the 10th centuries Western Europe was troubled by a new wave of barbarian attacks. These barbarians came from the North fromNorway, Sweden andDenmark, and were called Northmen. In different countries the Northmen were known by many other names, as the Vikings, the Normans, the Danes. They came to Britain from Norway andDenmark. But more often the British Isles were raided fromDenmark, and the invaders came to be known in English history as the Danes.

Northumbria and East Anglia suffered most from the Danish raids. The Danes seized the ancient city of York and then all ofYorkshire. Here is what a chronicler wrote about the conquest ofNorthumbria: The army raided here and there and filled every place with bloodshed and sorrow. Far and wide it destroyed the churches and monasteries with the fire and sword. When it departed from a place, it left nothing standing but roofless walls. So great was the destruction that at the present day one can hardly see anything left of those places, nor any sign of their former greatness. Soon after, the Danes conquered East Anglia and slew King Edmund. (The Christians considered him a martyr, and a monastery was built where he was buried and the town still bears his name Bury St. Edmunds.)

Then large organized bands of Danes swept right over to the midlands. At last all England north of the Thames, that is,Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia, was in their hands.

Only Wessex was left to face the enemy. Before the Danes conquered the North, they had made an attack on Wessex, but in 835 King Egbert defeated them. In the reign of Egberts son the Danes sailed up the Thames and captured London. Thus the Danes came into conflict with the strongest of all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Wessex.

Alfred demanded that all the priests should learn Latin, as the Bible and service-books were all in that language, and it was the duty of the clergy to understand them. He also ordered all future state officials to learn the Latin language as well. Here is what a contemporary wrote about how Alfred corrected incompetent judges: If Alfred found something wrong in the judgements, he would ask those judges why they had judged so unjustly, whether through ignorance or for the love or fear of any one, the hatred of another, or the desire of some ones money. If the judges acknowledged they had given such judgement because they knew no better, he reproved their inexperience and folly in such terms as these:

I greatly wonder at your assurance, that whereas, by Gods favour and mine, you have taken upon you the rank and office of the wise, you have neglected the studies and labours of the wise. Either, therefore, at once give up the administration which you possess or do your best to study the lessons of wisdom. Such are my commands. At these words all his sheriffs and officers would be filled with terror at being thus severely corrected, and they gave themselves up to the study of letters, choosing rather to acquire an unfamiliar discipline than to resign their functions.

A school was started in the palace itself where the sons of the nobles learned to read and write. Alfred himself sometimes taught there. As nearly all the books of that time were written in Latin, and few people could read them, translations of some Latin books into Anglo-Saxon were made. Books on religion, history and philosophy were translated so that those people who learned to read could understand them in their own tongue.

Strengthening of the Kingdom in the Reign of Alfred the Great (871-899)

In 871 the Danes invaded Wessex again. But it was not so easy to devastate Wessex as other parts ofEngland. Wessex had united the small Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and under the reign of Egberts grandson, King Alfred (871-899) who became known in English history as Alfred the Great, Wessex became the centre of resistance against the invaders.

During the reign of Alfred the Great the first British Navy was built and a war fleet of ships larger and faster than those of the Danes protected the island. Besides, many places which could be easily attacked by the enemy were fortified. Earthen walls were built around them. These walls, or forts, were protected by fighting men who owned land in the neighbourhood.

As a result of all these measures, the Anglo-Saxons won several victories over the Danes. In the treaty which followed in 886, the Danes promised to leave Wessex and a part ofMercia. They settled in the north-eastern part ofEngland, a region which was from that time called the Danelaw, because it was ruled according to the law of the Danes. The great Roman road, Watling Street, was the boundary that separated the Danelaw fromWessex. Thus the Danes were prevented from conquering the whole island and the country was divided into two parts: the Danelaw (Northumbria, East Anglia and a part of Mercia), where the Danes spoke their language and kept to their way of life, and the English south-western part of the country, that is, Wessex, which was under Alfreds rule. At the end of the 9th century new Danish attacks were made, but they were beaten off; the Anglo-Saxons won their first victories on the sea, and soon the Danes no longer dared to attackWessex.

In time of peace Alfred the Great took measures to improve the laws in the interests of the great landowners and to raise the standard of culture among them. King Alfred knew not only how to write and read an uncommon thing even for princes in those daysbut he was well versed in Greek and Latin. He read a good deal and he realized how backward the Anglo-Saxons were compared with the people of France andItaly, and even more so as compared with the Romans five hundred years earlier. The Anglo-Saxons, whose ancestors had destroyed the Roman civilization in Britain four centuries before, could build nothing better than rough timber dwellings, and wore nothing finer than coarse homespuns. Few, even among the clergy, could read and write and even at Canterbury there were not enough priests to conduct the services in the cathedral.

The king sent for artisans, builders and scholars from the Continent. The monasteries and churches which had been burnt by the Danes were rebuilt and schools were set up in the monasteries for the clergy.Documents. Alfreds Statement Concerning His LawsAfter many nations had accepted the faith of Christ, many synods assembled throughout the world. Such there were throughoutEngland, consisting of bishops and other competent councillors.

Christ ordained that one should love ones lord as himself. Accordingly in many synods they prescribed fines for many human misdeeds, and in many synodical records they wrote here one punishment, and there another. I, then, King Alfred, gathered these laws together, and commanded many of those which our forefathers held and which seemed good to me, to be written down, and many of those which did not seem good to me I rejected and commanded that they be kept in another manner.

I, then, Alfred, King of the West Saxons, showed all these to my councillors, and they said that it seemed good to them all.

Module 5

The Norman Conquest and Its Effects

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_conquest_of_EnglandIn the 9th century while the Danes were plundering England another branch of Northmen who were related to the Danes were doing the same along the Northern coasts ofFrance. They came to be called theNormans, a variation of the word Northmen. The Danes, as you remember, settled down in the conquered part of England known as the Danelaw. Likewise, the Normans settled down on land conquered from the French king a territory which is still called Normandy after theseNormans.

Normandy, Source: https://www.durhamworldheritagesite.com/history/normans/founding-normandy

Many changes came about in the life of the Normans and the Danes after the 9th century. By the 11th century the Danes had finally settled down as subjects of the English kings. As time went on they gradually mixed with the Anglo-Saxons among whom they lived. Thus they retained their Germanic language and many of their customs that were very much like those of the Anglo-Saxons. But the Normans who had settled down in France were now quite different from their Germanic forefathers. They lived among the French people, who were a different people, with different manners, customs and language. They had learned to speak the French language, many ways, they had become like the French themselves. They adopted their manners and customs, and their way of life. The establishment of the feudal system in France had been completed by the 11th century and the Norman barons had come into possession of large tracts of land and a great number of serfs.

The Normans lived under the rule of their own duke. By the 11th century the dukes of Normandy had become very powerful. Though they acknowledged the king of France as their overlord, they were actually as strong as the king himself, whose domain was smaller than the Duchy of Normandy. Like other French dukes and counts they made themselves practically independent. They coined their own money, made their own laws, held their own courts, built their own castles. They could wage wars against other dukes and even against the king himself. As a well- armed and well-trained cavalry, the Norman knights were the best inEurope. They were formidable fighters and would wage wars in order to seize new lands and serfs.

These descendants of the Northmen who had settled in northern France in the 9th century became the new conquerors ofEngland.

In 1066 William, the Duke of Normandy, began to gather an army to invade Britain. The pretext for the invasion was Williams claims to the English throne. He was related to the king who died in 1066.

http://www.england-history.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/norman_conquest1.gifAccording to the English law, if the late king left a grown-up son he was almost sure to be chosen; if not, the Kings Council of wise men would offer the Crown to some other near relative of the dead king. The king who died in 1066 had no children and Duke William cherished the hope that he would succeed to the English throne. But the Witenagemot/Council chose another relative of the deceased king, the Anglo-Saxon Earl, Harold. William of Normandy claimed that England belonged to him and he began preparations for a war to fight for the Crown.

William mustered a numerous army which consisted not only of the Norman barons and knights but of the knights from other parts of France. Many big sailing-boats were built to carry the army across the Channel. William landed in the south of England and the battle between the Normans and the Anglo-Saxons took place on the 14th of October 1066 at a little village in the neighbourhood of the town now called Hastings.

The Normans outnumbered the Anglo-Saxon forces and were greatly superior in quality. They were all men for whom fighting was the main occupation in life. They were well armed and the chance of being killed was not so great, since they all wore armour and there were no fire-arms at that time. The superior military tactics of the well- trained Normans were unknown inEngland. They used a skilful combination of heavy-armoured cavalry and archers. First the archers would break up the ranks of their enemy and then followed a charging cavalry which decided the victory.The victory at Hastings was only the beginning of the Conquest. It took several years for William and his barons to subdue the whole ofEngland. Soon after the victory at Hastings the Normans encircled London and the Witenagemot had to acknowledge William as the lawful king ofEngland. Thus the Norman duke became king of England William I or, as he was generally known, William the Conqueror. He ruled England for 21 years (1066-1087).

During the first five years of his reign the Normans had to put down many rebellions in different parts of the country. The free peasants fought fiercely for their freedom against the invaders. The peasant communities in Kent offered the most stubborn resistance to the invaders. Only in the early part of 1068 did the Normans conquer the West, and in the latter part of that year they subdued central and northern England as far as Yorkshire. But rebellions against Norman rule rose again and again, in one part of the country and then in another. The largest rebellions took place in 1060 and 1071 in the North-East where the free peasantry was more numerous than in other regions of the country.

In 1071 the subjugation of the country was completed. All the uprisings were put down and the rebels were punished severely. Williams knights raided the villages burning and slaying far and wide. After several uprisings in the North,William who was a fierce and ruthless man, determined to give the Anglo-Saxons a terrible lesson. The lands of Northumbria were laid waste. Whole villages between York and Durham were ruinedevery cottage was burnt to the ground, people were killed, cattle were driven off, all the crops and orchards were destroyed. Hardly a house was left standing, or a human being alive and the land became a desert for many years. Only the great castle of Durham which was built by Williams order rose on a high rock surrounded by a river, above the burnt villages and untilled fields.

Durham castle, Source: http://www.schreder.com/

Durham castle gate, Source: http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com

With lessons of such severe punishment the conquerors meant to keep the people in obedience, to intimidate them, so that they should not dare to rise against Norman rule.

In the Norman town ofBayeux, in the museum, one can see a strip of canvas about 70 metres long and half a metre wide embroidered with very well-defined pictures which tell the whole story of the Norman Conquest. That is the famous Bayeux Tapestry. It is said that Williams wife and the ladies of the court made it to hang round the walls of the cathedral.

http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/images/hastings/bayeux_5.jpg

The Bayeux Tapestry shows the preparations made for the invasion of Englandmen felling trees or having and shaping the rough timber into ship, scenes depicting the subjugation of the country and other details pertaining to the battle of Hastings, the armour and weapons used, are all very well represented. The tapestry is of great interest to specialists in history and art. It gives us very valuable information about the life of the people at that time. http://i00.i.aliimg.com/photo/v0/240512886/Bayeux_Tapestry_William_right_ME008_.jpgVisual support

Norman Conquest - Timelines.tv History of Britain B01 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE0RAgHr06U1. What was the Anglo-Saxon tactics mistake that tiggered their defeat?

2. What is the significance of the Norman castles with respect to Anglo Saxon Norman relations?

3. What was the model of royal authority introduced by William the Conqueror?

4. Why was William the Conqueror a powerful monarch?

5. Why is 1086 an important date?

THE NORMAN CONQUERORS AND HOW LIFE CHANGED IN ENGLAND UNDER THEIR RULEWilliam was now not only the duke of Normandy but the king of England as well and he received great incomes from both Normandy and his rich domain inEngland. As king of England, William the Conqueror was determined that his nobles should not be able to make themselves independent of him as he had made himself independent of his overlord, the king of France.

The Conqueror declared that all the lands of England belonged to him by right of conquest. The estates of all the Anglo-Saxon lords who had supported Harold or acknowledged him as king were confiscated. The Anglo-Saxon landowners, great and small, and the Anglo-Saxon clergy were turned out of their houses, and estates, and churches. One-seventh of the country was made the royal domain. The other lands the king granted to the Normans and Frenchmen who had taken part in the Conquest and to the Anglo-Saxon landlords who supported him.

The Conqueror claimed that the forest lands which made up one-third of the country belonged to him too. Large forests were turned into reserves for the royal hunting. Special Forest Laws about hunting were issued. Anyone who dared to hunt in the royal forests without the kings permission was threatened with severe punishment. Thus the king of England became the richest feudal lord of all.Each Norman noble, on getting his estate, swore an oath of allegiance to the king and became the kings vassal. The great barons granted some part of their land to lesser feudal lords and the barons vassals frequently granted land to still lesser vassals.

Each baron received with the grant of land the promise of the kings protection, but in return he had to render military service to his overlord bringing a number of fully armed knights with him in time of war. When the king went to war he called upon his chief vassals, they in their turn called upon theirs, and as a result, all the landowners were in arms. William demanded that military service should be rendered for all the landseven for those in the possession of the Church, and the abbot or bishop was obliged to grant some of the estates to men who would do this for them.

William the Conqueror made not only the great landowners, to whom he granted land, but also their vassals swear allegiance to him directly.For greater security, when William the Conqueror rewarded his important supporters with a large number of estates, he did not give them large blocks of land but gave them a number of small estates scattered about the country. Any great lord who planned to rebel against the king would have to collect his vassals from all over England instead of having them ready in one part of the country, and while he was doing this the king would march against him and defeat him.

Another change which William I introduced to reduce the power of the great lords was the abolition of the great earldomsNorthumbria,Mercia, andWessex, that had been established in the reign of the Danish King Canute. Now the country was divided into shires, or counties, as the Normans called them. William I appointed a royal official in each shire to be his sheriff. The royal sheriffs became of great importance. Through the sheriffs the king exercised control over all his vassals. The sheriff administered justice in the shire. He presided in the kings name over the shire-courts. Each landowner was allowed to hold his court on the estate, but the sheriff kept a check on him.

The sheriff also collected taxes paid to the royal treasury and his duty was to see that all the royal dues were paid in full and in time. Besides, the sheriff was responsible for the gathering of an army for the king. He was well acquainted with all the kings vassals living in the shire and what military service they owed the king. It was his duty to see that they were ready to perform military service for the king when they were called up. If necessary the sheriff could call up an army for the king in two or three days.

The great landlords, on the other hand, would require a much longer time to collect their vassals from all the scattered estates.

To make himself stronger than any of his nobles, William the Conqueror ordered that many castles should be built in different parts of the country. They were nearly all royal castles. No other person was allowed to build a castle without the kings permission. The kings castles were garrisoned by his own men-at-arms who were always ready to ride out and destroy anyone who disobeyed the king.

William I replaced the Witenagemot by a Great Council, made up of bishops and barons. The bishops and barons met together to talk over governmental problems and to give their advice to the king. One of the functions of the Great Council was to act as the kings Supreme Court and it presided over all serious trials. The right to belong to the Great Council depended on the holding of land granted by the king.

The kings laws were in force everywhere. Only the king had the right to have money coined. Nobles were not allowed to make war on one another; all men had to keep the kings peace.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says: In 1086 William the Conqueror sent his men all over England, into every shire to find out what property every inhabitant of all England possessed in land, or in cattle and how much money this was worth and then all these writings were brought to him. That was the first registration inEngland.

The Anglo-Saxons were afraid of the registration and hated it. The villagers used to say that nothing could be concealed from the kings officials just as you would not conceal anything from God on doomsday. The villagers were threatened to be punished on doomsday in case they did not tell the whole truth. That is why probably the book in which all these accounts were written was called by the people of England the Domesday Book.

All the kings vassals wrere registered in the Domesday Book and William I could now see to it that they all performed their military service. William I knew the exact value of their estates and he demanded that when he called upon them they should bring a certain number of their retainers in proportion to the value of their estates.As the names of all the new owners of the estates were written down in the official state document, the Domesday Book, the Norman lords were considered now the lawful owners of the English lands. Thus the feudal registration of 1086 consolidated the position of the conquerors.

The two volumes of the Domesday Book now kept in the Public Record Office inLondon.

Great changes were brought about in the life of the Anglo-Saxon peasantry as a result of the registration organized by William the Conqueror. Before the Conquest many peasants were serfs, or villeins, as they were called inEngland. The villeins were bound to the soil and to the lord. They belonged to the feudal estate, or to the manor, as it was called inEngland. They were not allowed to leave the lord of the manor. However, alongside with the villeins there were many semi-bondsmen whose services to the lord of the manor were much lighter than those of the villeins. There were also many peasants who cultivated their own land but whose freedom was slightly curbed because they could be tried only in the lords court. Now all those semi-bond peasants were registered in the Domesday Book as villeins. In addition to everything else, the peasants had to pay heavier taxes. Before the registration William the Conqueror collected all the old taxes which had been imposed in England before the Conquest. He continued to collect even the old Danegeld, a tax which had been imposed to organize resistance to the raids of the Danes. As a result of the registration the Conqueror had the exact data for taxation and he increased the old taxes considerably. Moreover, a heavy property tax was imposed on the population ofEngland.

Thus the Norman Conquest aggravated feudal exploitation and it hastened the process of turning the free peasants into serfs. The Norman conquerors became not only the owners of the English lands but also the masters of the people who lived on it.How the Norman Conquerors Lived in EnglandThe new masters were strangers in the country. They had different manners, customs and laws from those of the conquered people. They spoke a foreign tongue and the Anglo-Saxon peasants could not understand their speech. The conquerors were few in number but they were harsh and cruel rulers. They punished those who dared to disobey severely, to intimidate and to suppress the conquered people. The Anglo-Saxons felt great hatred towards their new masters. The Normans did not feel safe in the conquered country for they could be attacked at any time. They were compelled to build large thick stone-walled castles for defence where they lived with their families and vassals.

Before the Norman Conquest the Anglo-Saxon lords lived in timber houses. Sometimes the lords house was built on a hill with a strong wooden fence or palisade round it, and with a ditch outside the fence. These were not castles. After the Norman Conquest strong castles began to appear in each county. At first they were built of wood and later of stone. The first of these stone castles was the Tower ofLondon. The Conqueror ordered it to be built on the north bank of the Thames to protectLondon. The great castle of Durham was built to protect northern England from the raids of the Scots. Another fortress was built on the river Tyne and was calledNewcastle. Many other castles were built in the reign of William the Conqueror. At first most of the castles belonged to the king, but later on great castles belonging to the Norman barons arose all over England. The old timber houses were pulled down, and the villagers were forced to build strong castles in which the new lords and their fighting men lived.

The Tower of London, Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news

Newcastle: http://www.tour-smart.co.uk

http://www.england-history.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/knight_armour_13ad1.gifThe Norman castle was often built on a hill or rock so that it could not easily be attacked. The castle was as a rule a square stone tower with very thick walls and it was surrounded by a thick stone wall wide enough for the archers to walk along. The outer wall was strengthened with towers built on each corner. Outside the wall was a deep ditch, or moat, filled with water. The moat could be crossed by a drawbridge. At night and during the enemy attacks the drawbridge was drawn up by chains.The chief tower where the baron and his family lived, was called the keep. This was the strongest part of the building. Between the keep and the outer massive wall there was a court where stood the stables for horses and houses for the servants. Later the keep in the Norman castle was surrounded by two or even three stone walls. The castle dominated over the country round. The Anglo-Saxon neighbours saw themselves constantly controlled by the foreign oppressors, who were safe behind the massive walls of their castles. Some of the massive strong towers built by the Normans can be seen in England today, like the White Tower of London Tower or the keep of the castle at Colchester which was the largest Norman castle inEngland. Some, such as Windsor Castle, are still used as residences. But most of the old Norman castles are ruins which can still be seen in various parts ofEngland.

The White Tower, http://en.wikipedia.org

The Norman noble considered war his chief occupation. Each noble was a knight, or a fully armed mounted warrior. Nobles were trained in warfare from childhood. It was honourable to be a knight and the sons of nobles were trained to become good knights. They were not taught to read and write. Nobles in heavy armour could fight skilfully on horseback, but they were coarse and ignorant. They spent their childhood and youth in military training and as they grew up they spent their time in wars or feasting with the guests in the halls of their castles. The Norman lords were fond of the tournament, a military competition between knights, and hunting, as they both were akin to warfare.

http://www.democratic-republicans.us/images/Norman-knight-mounted.jpg

William the Conqueror himself was very fond of hunting. He chose a place near Salisbury and gave orders to make it an enormous hunting-ground. The king and his nobles would turn whatever part of the country they found suitable into hunting-ground. All the uncultivated lands were turned into forests for hunting. Norman effects on the language

The victorious Normans made up the new aristocracy and the Anglo-Saxon people became their servants. The Norman aristocracy spoke a Norman dialect of French, a tongue of Latin origin, while the Anglo-Saxons spoke English, a tongue of Germanic origin. Thus there were two different languages spoken in the country at the same time. Norman-French became the official language of the state. It was the language of the ruling class spoken at court; it was the language of the lawyers, and all the official documents were written in French or Latin. The learned clergy whom the Normans brought into the country used Latin for the most part. The richer Anglo-Saxons found it convenient to learn to speak the language of the rulers. But the peasants and townspeople spoke English. The Normans looked upon English as a kind of peasant dialect, and continued to speak their own language. They despised anyone unable to speak their language.

But the Normans could not subdue the popular tongue which was spoken by the majority of the population, those who cultivated the land and produced goods. The conquerors who settled down on English estates had to communicate with the natives of the country and they gradually learned to speak their language. Many of them married Anglo-Saxon wives and their children and grandchildren grew up speaking English. In a few generations the descendants of the Normans who had come with William the Conqueror learned to speak the mother tongue of the common people ofEngland. In time English became the language of the educated classes and the official language of the state.

This was a gradual process, however, and many years passed before the Normans forgot their old tongue. At the time when the two languages were spoken side by side the Anglo-Saxons learned many French words and expressions which gradually came into the English language. They borrowed many French words the equivalents of which did not exist in their own language. For example, the wife cf an English earl is called countess, a French word, because there was no Anglo-Saxon word meaning the wife of an earl. Many synonyms appeared in the English language, because very often both French and English words for the same thing were used side by side.

Words of Germanic origin make up the basic vocabulary of Modern English. The Anglo-Saxons spoke the simple countrymans language and in Modern English simple everyday words are mostly Anglo-Saxon, like eat, land, house and others. But as there were no English words to describe the more complicated feudal relations, many words were adopted from the French language. Thus the vocabulary of the English language was enlarged due to such Norman- French words dealing with feudal relations as manor, noble, baron, serve, command, obey; or words relating to administration and law, such as charter, council, accuse, court, crime; or such military terms as arms, troops, guard, navy, battle, victory and other words characterizing the way of life and customs of the Norman aristocracy.

As a result of the Conquest, the English language changed greatly under the influence of the French language. The two languages gradually formed one rich English language which already in the 14th century was being used both in speech and in writing. Gradually, the Normans mixed with the Anglo-Saxons and the Danes and from this mixture the English nation finally emerged.The History of English in 10 Minutes the first two chapters http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rexKqvgPVuA1. What words characterized the Anglo-Saxon vocabulary?(house, woman, wolf, loaf,cow,sheep, swine)

2. What Latin words were introduced via Christianity? ( bishop, martyr, font)

3. What Viking words are mentioned and what is their semantic sphere? ( drag,thrust, ransack, die, give, take, )

4. Examples of Words coming from French judge, jury, evidence, beef, mutton, pork

Villages After the Norman ConquestAt the end of the 11th and at the beginning of the 12th century England had a population of about 1,500,000 people. More than nine-tenths lived in villages and were engaged in agriculture.

The church was the centre of the village. The Anglo-Saxon church would be made of stone, with very thick walls and a tower. In the life of the villagers the church was of great importance. The church bell told men when to begin work and when to come home from the fields. The villagers spent their spare time for the most part in church. The religious services were held not only on Sundays, but also on all feast days or holy days. The people did not work on these days, and that is how a holy day became a holiday. The church was used not only for the worship of God but also as a store-house, sometimes as a prison. As the church was the