The Anglo-Saxon Invasion

The Celts

Around 700 BC, another group of people began to arrive. Many of them were tall, and had fair or red hair and blue eyes. Those were the Celts, who probably came from central Europe or southern Russia. The Celts were technically advanced. They knew how to work with iron, and could make better weapons than the people who used bronze. The Celts began to control all the lowland areas of Britain. They built hill-forts which were local economic centers. Their main occupation was agriculture.

The Celtic tribes were ruled over by a warrior class, of which the priests, or the Druids, seem to have been particularly important members. The Druids memorized all the religious teachings, tribal laws, history, medicine and other knowledge. They had no temples but they met in sacred groves of trees, by rivers and so on.

The Celts are so important in British history as they are ancestors of many people in Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and Cornwall today. Celtic languages are still spoken.

There were 3 waves of Celtic arrivals:

1. The Gaelic tribes - around 700 BC

2. The Britons - around 500 BC

3. The Belgic tribes - around 100 BC. They were strong enough to push other Celtic tribes northwards.

The Romans

The first attempt to conquer Britain was made in 55 BC. Julius Caesar landed in Britain but he had to leave soon. In 43 AD Claudius sent his legions to occupy Britain. The Romans ruled the land for about 400 years, until 410.

The Romans had invaded because the Celts of Britain were working with the Celts of Gaul against them. Another reason is that under the Celts Britain had become an important food producer. It exported corn and animals, as well as slaves

The Roman province of Britannia covered most of present-day England and Wales. The Romans imposed their own way of life and culture. They made use of the existing Celtic aristocracy to govern and encouraged that ruling class to adopt Roman dress and Latin language.

However, the Romans left behind only 3 things of importance: their roads, place-names like Chester, Lancaster and Gloucester, which include variants of the Roman word castra (military camp), and the seeds of Christianity. Their villas, baths, temples and towns were soon destroyed.

The Anglo-Saxon Invasion

The Roman influence was largely confined to the towns. In the countryside where the most people lived Celtic traditions and speech continued to be dominant. But, during the V century, a number of tribes from the north-west of Europe invaded and settled in large numbers. Two of these tribes were the Angles and the Saxons. The Anglo-Saxons soon had the south-east of England in their grasp. In the west their advance was temporarily stopped by an army of Britons led by legendary King Arthur. Nevertheless, by the end of the VI cent., all the Britons were either saxonized or pushed westwards, where their culture and language survived in Scotland, Wales and Cornwall.

The Anglo-Saxons had little use for towns and cities. But they had a great effect on the countryside, where they introduced new farming methods and founded the thousands of self-sufficient villages which formed the basis of English society for the next thousand years.

The Anglo-Saxons were paganwhen they came to Britain. Christianity spread throughout Britain from 2 different directions in the VI and VII cent. It came directly from Rome when St. Augustine arrived in 597 and settled in Canterbury. And it had already been introduced into Scotland and northern England from Ireland, which had become Christian more than 150 years earlier.

In the VII century seven kingdoms emerged: Essex, Sussex, Wessex, Kent, Mercia, Northumbria and East Anglia. The Anglo-Saxon kings were elected by the Witan.

The Vikings

Britain experienced another wave of Germanic invasions which started in 795. These invaders, known as Vikings, Norsemen or Danes, came from Scandinavia. In the IX cent. they conquered and settled the extreme north and west of Scotland, and also some coastal regions of Ireland. Their conquest of England was stopped when they were defeated by Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, in 878. This resulted in agreement which divided England between Wessex, in the south and west, and the "Danelaw" in the north and east.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 5294