HISTORY Prehistory and the Roman period

From Neolithic to Bronze Age (8000 - 800 BC). 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. The change from a hunter-gatherer to a farming way of life is what defines the start of the Neolithic or New Stone Age. In Britain the preceding period of the last, post-glacial hunter-gatherer societies is known as the Mesolithic, or Middle Stone Age. So the majority of early farmers were probably Mesolithic people who adopted the new way of life and took it with them to other parts of Britain. This was not a rapid change - farming took about 2,000 years to spread across all parts of the British Isles. Traditionally the arrival of farming is seen as a major and rapid change sometimes called the 'Neolithic revolution'. In many cases the earliest Neolithic sites (approx 4000 - 5000 BC) occur alongside late Mesolithic settlements, or in areas that we know were important in post-glacial times. From the start of the 4^th millennium BC (about 3800 BC), we see a move into new areas that had not been settled or exploited previously. This period, sometimes referred to as the Middle Neolithic, also witnesses the appearance of the first large communal tombs, known as ‘long barrows’, or ‘mounds’, and the earliest ceremonial monuments, known as ‘causewayed’ enclosures. Here people from communities in a particular region would gather together, probably at regular intervals, to socialise, to meet new partners, to acquire fresh livestock and to exchange ceremonial gifts. 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. 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.

For people in Britain today, the chief significance of the prehistoric period is its sense of mystery. This sense finds its focus most easily in the astonishing monumental architecture of this period, the remains of which exist throughout the country. Wiltshire, in south-western England, has two spectacular examples: Avebury, Silbury Hill and Stonehenge. The so-called 'henge' monuments, seem to have developed out of the causewayed enclosures from around 3000 BC. They include banks and ditches; the most impressive, at Avebury, in Wiltshire, had a ditch 21 metres in width, and 9 metres deep in places, an outer ring of one hundred standing stones and two smaller inner rings of stones. Outside the monument was a mile-long avenue of standing stones.

Many of the timber posts that defined these henges have long disappeared, but many sites still contain circles of pits, central stones, cairns or burials and clearly defined stone or timber entrances. Henges seem to have been used for multiple purposes, justifying the enormous expenditure of time and energy to construct them. Another legacy of the Stone age is the enormous earthwork called Silbury Hill, the largest manmade mound in prehistoric Europe. Silbury is 39 metres high and was built as a series of circular platforms; their purpose still unknown. It is situated nearby the largest henge of all, Avebury.

The creation of Stonehenge tested the ingenuity and technology of an ancient people to the limit. The origins of the stones, their construction, and the remains of those who lived and died near Stonehenge are telling profound things about what life was like for ancient ancestors. Along with other archaeological discoveries, Stonehenge is giving away the secrets of Britain in 2500 BC. And the first thing the great stone circles tell us is that, for at least some of the time, life in prehistoric Britain was pretty good: communities were settled, agriculture was well developed and efficiently practised. Compared with modern Britain, streams were teeming with fish and woods were alive with game.

This great prehistoric monument (Stonehenge) was built in several phases spanning hundreds of years, from around 3000 BC to 1600 BC - it was a construction project that tested ancient ingenuity and prehistoric technology to the limit. Four thousand years and more after Stonehenge was built, nobody is really sure what it was built for. A consensus among archaeologists on what Stonehenge was actually for has proved as difficult to build as the huge stone circle itself. There have been plenty of theories. One is that the great stone circle was a gigantic calendar. But the most popular theory about the purpose of Stonehenge has survived since serious archaeological work first began on the site hundreds of years ago. The great standing stones, thrusting heaven-wards from the ancient plain, certainly inspire a religious reverence. Working in the early 18^th century, William Stukeley was one of the great pioneers of archaeology at Stonehenge. He was struck by its innate spirituality. Many since Stukeley have also felt the power of the 'yawning ruins', and come to the conclusion that Stonehenge was a place of worship.

The Bronze Age. The first bronzes appear in Britain in the centuries just before 2500 BC, which is the usually accepted start date for the Bronze Age. On the European mainland the arrival of bronze was preceded by copper tools of the Chalcolithic or Copper Age, but in Britain tin and copper appear at about the same time as bronze. Although the appearance of metal marks an important technological development, especially in the control of fire, it does not seem to bring a big change in the way that people lived their lives in the Early Bronze Age. Henges, for example, continue in use, but the larger communal tombs, such as long barrows and passage graves, are replaced by smaller round barrows. Many of these contain an initial or 'primary' burial, often of an important man or woman, who may be buried with distinctive and highly decorated pottery known as 'Beakers', together with bronze or tin metalwork such as daggers or axes.

Houses in the Early Bronze Age were usually round with a conical roof and a single entrance while Neolithic houses were usually rectangular thatched buildings made from timber with walls of wattle (woven hazel rods) smeared with a plaster-like 'daub' (made from clay, straw and cow dung). Neolithic houses are far more commonly found in Scotland and Ireland than in England or Wales, where communities may have retained a more mobile pattern of life, involving fewer permanent buildings.

The Middle Bronze Age (1500 - 1250 BC) marks an important period of change, growth and probably of population expansion too. There was a fundamental shift in burial practice away from barrow burial, towards cremation in large open cemeteries where ashes were placed in specially-prepared pottery urns. Settlements consisted of round houses which were often grouped together, possibly for defence, but possibly too because people preferred to live near one another. During this period an increasing number of metalwork hoards is found. The Middle Bronze Age also sees the first field systems in Britain, indicating growing pressure on the land as the numbers of people and animals increased. The Late Bronze Age (1250-800 BC) is marked by the arrival of new styles of metalwork and pottery, but otherwise life continued much as before. Houses were still round, a pattern that would continue into the Iron Age, but a number of large hall-like rectangular houses are also known. The field systems of the Middle Bronze Age continued in use and were enlarged. In the uplands of Britain the Late Bronze Age saw the first construction of a few hill-forts and the start of the so-called 'Celtic' way of life.

Iron Age, 800 BC - AD 43: growth and development. The Iron Age of the British Isles covers the period from about 800 BC to the Roman invasion of 43 AD, and follows on from the Bronze Age. As the name implies, the Iron Age saw the gradual introduction of iron working technology, although the general adoption of iron artefacts did not become widespread until after 500-400 BC. As the Iron Age progressed through the first millennium BC, strong regional groupings emerged, reflected in styles of pottery, metal objects and settlement types. In some areas, 'tribal' states and kingdoms developed by the end of the first century BC. Earlier studies of the British Iron Age tended to see foreign invasions as being responsible for the large scale changes that took place during this period. Modern research has found little evidence to support these theories and the emphasis has switched towards mainly indigenous economic and social changes. However, archaeology can demonstrate that the trading and exchange contacts between Britain and mainland Europe that had developed in the Bronze Age continued throughout the Iron Age. Technological innovation increased during the Iron Age, especially towards the end of the period. Some of the major advances included the introduction of the potter's wheel (mainly in south eastern England), the lathe (used for woodworking and manufacturing shale objects) and the rotary quern for grinding grain. The population of Britain grew substantially during the Iron Age and probably exceeded one million. By the end of the Iron Age, amongst other things, coinage had been introduced, wheel thrown pottery was being made, there was an increased interest in personal appearance, people had started to live in larger and more settled communities, and the mortuary rites of society had changed.

Lifestyle. A very well preserved settlement has been discovered at the site of Chysauster in Cornwall. It was made up of individual houses of stone with garden plots, clustered along a street. In central southern Britain in about the 6^th century, hillforts - large bank and ditch enclosures in prominent positions in the landscape - began to be built. The archaeological evidence shows that the enclosures were densely occupied, with circular houses and roads. In Wessex, the typical building on a settlement would have been the large roundhouse. All of the domestic life would have occurred within this. The main focus of the interior of the house was the central open-hearth fire. This was the heart of the house - an indispensable feature - to provide cooked food, warmth and light. Because of its importance within the domestic sphere, the fire would have been maintained 24 hours a day.

The best known and most visible remains of the Iron Age are hill forts. Nearly 3,000 examples are known from across the British Isles, ranging in size from small enclosures of less than one hectare, to massive, multi-ditched sites like Maiden Castle in Dorset and Old Oswestry in Shropshire. The function and form of these monuments varied greatly over time. The earliest examples date from the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age (900-600 BC) and show little evidence of permanent settlement. Instead, these early sites often appear to have been used for seasonal gatherings, perhaps for trade, exchange and religious activities, with a further function as a storage centre for the broader community. By 450 BC, many of these early hill forts were going out of use. Those that survived were subject to major phases of rebuilding, often with multiple banks and ditches, very complex entrances and clear evidence of a large and permanent population. The function and form of hill forts varies greatly over time. The excavation of Danebury in Hampshire has revealed, in considerable detail, the development of a hill fort from the 8^th century BC until its abandonment in the first century BC. The reasons for this abandon are not fully understood, but may be due in part to the emergence of more centralised tribal states. In western and northern Britain and Ireland, hill forts continued to be occupied and were still playing an important role in everyday life at the time of the Roman conquest in AD 43.

Crannogs. Beyond the hill forts, most Iron Age settlements were small, and probably housed single extended families. These individual farmsteads were set within very ordered and extensive landscapes of fields and tracks. Many were enclosed by banks and ditches, although these were rarely large enough to be considered defensive. Two good examples have been excavated in southern England, at Little Woodbury in Wiltshire and Gussage All Saints in Dorset. In western and northern Britain and Ireland, such settlements are often known as 'raths' or 'duns'. The standard Iron Age building was the roundhouse. These could be made of timber or stone, with a roof covering of thatch or turf, depending upon locally available building materials. On marsh edges and lakes, substantial settlements known as 'crannogs' were also found. These were artificial islands constructed of stone and timber and may have been sited for their defensive qualities. Unenclosed settlements are also known. These could range from single or small groups of circular huts, to large village-like settlements. The latter are especially common in eastern England, for example at Little Waltham in Essex. In Scotland, large stone structures known as 'brochs' were built during the Iron Age. These were tall tower structures, often surrounded by smaller roundhouses.

Before Rome: the 'Celts'. At the end of the Iron Age (roughly the last 700 years BC), we get our first eye-witness accounts of Britain from Greco-Roman authors, not least Julius Caesar who invaded in 55 and 54 BC. Calling the British Iron Age 'Celtic' is so misleading that it is best abandoned. However, there is one thing that the Romans, modern archaeologists and the Iron Age islanders themselves would all agree on: they were not Celts. This was an invention of the 18th century; the name was not used earlier. The idea came from the discovery around 1700 that the non-English island tongues relate to that of the ancient continental Gauls, who really were called Celts. This ancient continental ethnic label was applied to the wider family of languages. But 'Celtic' was soon extended to describe insular monuments, art, culture and peoples, ancient and modern: island 'Celtic' identity was born, like Britishness, in the 18th century. Of course, there are important cultural similarities and connections between Britain, Ireland and continental Europe, reflecting intimate contacts and undoubtedly the movement of some people, but the same could be said for many other periods of history. The things we have labelled 'Celtic' icons - such as hill-forts and art, weapons and jewellery - were more about aristocratic, political, military and religious connections than common ethnicity.

The Celtic tribes were ruled over by a warrior class, of which the priests, or Druids, seem to have been particularly important members. These Druids could not read or write, but they memorised all the religious teachings, the tribal laws, history, medicine and other knowledge necessary in Celtic society. The Druids from different tribes all over Britain probably met once a year. They had no temples, but they met in sacred groves of trees, on certain hills, by rivers or by river sources. We know little of their kind of worship except that at times it included human sacrifice.

Britain and the Romans. Growing Roman influence. Towards the end of the second century BC, Roman influence began to extend into the western Mediterranean and southern France. This lead to growing contact between Britain and the Roman world across the English Channel. Initially this contact was confined to the trading of limited quantities of Roman luxury goods such as wine, probably exchanged for slaves, minerals and grain through sites like Hengistbury Head in Dorset and Mount Batten near Plymouth in Devon. After 50 BC and the conquest of Gaul (modern France) by Julius Caesar, this trade intensified and focused on south east England. In addition to intensive trade links, Rome appears to have established diplomatic relations with a number of tribes and may have exerted considerable political influence before the Roman conquest of England in AD 43. At the same time, new types of large settlements called 'oppida' appeared in southern Britain. These appear to have acted as political, economic and religious centres. Many also appear to have been the production centres for Iron Age coins, which often gave the names of rulers, some styling themselves 'Rex', Latin for 'king'. After AD 43, all of Wales and England south of the line of Hadrian's Wall became part of the Roman empire. Beyond this line, in Scotland and Ireland, Iron Age life and traditions continued with only occasional Roman incursions into Scotland, and trade with Ireland.

The Roman conquest, which started in AD 43, illustrates the profound cultural and political impact that small numbers of people can have in some circumstances, for the Romans did not colonise the islands of Britain to any significant degree. To a population of around 3 million, their army, administration and carpet-baggers added only a few per cent. The province's towns and villas were overwhelmingly built by indigenous people - again the wealthy - adopting the new international culture of power. Greco-Roman civilisation displaced the 'Celtic' culture of Iron Age Europe. These islanders actually became Romans, both culturally and legally (the Roman citizenship was more a political status than an ethnic identity). By AD 300, almost everyone in 'Britannia' was Roman, even though of indigenous descent and still mostly speaking 'Celtic' dialects. Roman rule saw profound cultural change, but emphatically without any mass migration. However, Rome only ever conquered half the island. The future Scotland remained beyond Roman government, although the nearby presence of the empire had major effects. The kingdom of the Picts appeared during the 3^rd century AD.

The first Roman invasion of the lands we now call the British Isles took place in 55 B.C. under war leader Julius Caesar, who returned one year later, but these probings did not lead to any significant or permanent occupation. He had some interesting, if biased comments concerning the natives: "All the Britons," he wrote, "paint themselves with woad, which gives their skin a bluish color and makes them look very dreadful in battle." It was not until a hundred years later that permanent settlement of the grain-rich eastern territories began in earnest. In the year 43.A.D. an expedition was ordered against Britain by the Emperor Claudius. Establishing their bases in what is now Kent, through a series of battles involving greater discipline, a great element of luck, and general lack of co-ordination between the leaders of the various Celtic tribes, the Romans subdued much of Britain in the short space of 40 years. They were to remain for nearly 400 years. The great number of prosperous villas that have been excavated in the southeast and southwest testify to the rapidity by which Britain became Romanized, for they functioned as centers of a settled, peaceful and urban life.

The highlands and moorlands of the northern and western regions, present-day Scotland and Wales, were not as easily settled, nor did the Romans particularly wish to settle in these agriculturally poorer, harsh landscapes. They remained the frontier -- areas where military garrisons were strategically placed to guard the extremities of the Empire. The stubborn resistance of tribes in Wales meant that two out of three Roman legions in Britain were stationed on its borders, at Chester and Caerwent.

Major defensive works further north attest to the fierceness of the Pictish and Celtic tribes, Hadrian's Wall in particular reminds us of the need for a peaceful and stable frontier. Built when Hadrian had abandoned his plan of world conquest, settling for a permanent frontier to "divide Rome from the barbarians," the 72 mile long wall connecting the Tyne to the Solway was built and rebuilt, garrisoned and re-garrisoned many times, strengthened by stone-built forts as one mile intervals.

For Imperial Rome, the island of Britain was a western breadbasket. Caesar had taken armies there to punish those who were aiding the Gauls on the Continent in their fight to stay free of Roman influence. Claudius invaded to give himself prestige, and his subjugation of 11 British tribes gave him a splendid triumph.

Further south, however, in what is now England, Roman life prospered. Essentially urban, it was able to integrate the native tribes into a town-based governmental system. Agricola succeeded greatly in his aims to accustom the Britons "to a life of peace and quiet by the provision of amenities; he consequently gave private encouragement and official assistance to the building of temples, public squares and good houses." Many of these were built in former military garrisons that became the coloniae , the Roman chartered towns such as Colchester, Gloucester, Lincoln, and York (where Constantine was declared Emperor by his troops in 306 A.D.). Other towns, called municipia, included such foundations as St. Albans (Verulamium). Chartered towns were governed to a large extent on that of Rome. They were ruled by an ordo of 100 councillors (decurion), who had to be local residents and own a certain amount of property. The ordo was run by two magistrates, rotated annually; they were responsible for collecting taxes, administering justice and undertaking public works. Outside the chartered town, the inhabitants were referred to as peregrini , or non-citizens. They were organized into local government areas known as civitates, largely based on pre-existing chiefdom boundaries. Canterbury and Chelmsford were two of the civitas capitals. In the countryside, away from the towns, with their metalled, properly drained streets, their forums and other public buildings, bath houses, shops and amphitheatres, were the great villas, such as are found at Bignor, Chedworth and Lullingstone. Many of these seem to have been occupied by native Britons who had acquired land and who had adopted Roman culture and customs. The 3^rd and 4^th centuries saw a golden age of villa building that further increased their numbers of rooms and added a central courtyard. Roman society in Britain was highly classified. At the top were those people associated with the legions, the provincial administration, the government of towns and the wealthy traders and commercial classes who enjoyed legal privileges not generally accorded to the majority of the population. In 2l2 AD, the Emperor Caracalla extended citizenship to all free-born inhabitants of the empire, but social and legal distinctions remained rigidly set between the upper rank of citizens known as honestiores and the masses, known as humiliores. At the lowest end of the scale were the slaves, many of whom were able to gain their freedom, and many of whom might occupy important govermental posts. Women were also rigidly circumscribed, not being allowed to hold any public office, and having severely limited property rights. One of the greatest achievements of the Roman Empire was its system of roads, in Britain no less than elsewhere. When the legions arrived in a country with virtually no roads at all, as Britain was in the first century A.D., their first task was to build a system to link not only their military headquarters but also their isolated forts. Vital for trade, the roads were also of paramount important in the speedy movement of troops, munitions and supplies from one strategic center to another. They also allowed the movement of agricultural products from farm to market. London was the chief administrative centre, and from it, roads spread out to all parts of the province. They included Ermine Street, to Lincoln; Watling Street, to Wroxeter and then to Chester, all the way in the northwest on the Welsh frontier; and the Fosse Way, from Exeter to Lincoln, the first frontier of the province of Britain. An advantage of good roads was that communications with all parts of the country could be effected. They carried the cursus publicus, or imperial post. A road book used by messengers that lists all the main routes in Britain, the principal towns and forts they pass through, and the distances between them has survived: the Antonine Itinerary. In addition, the same information, in map form, is found in the Peutinger Table. It tells us that mansiones were places at various intervals along the road to change horses and take lodgings. Apart from the villas and fortified settlements, the great mass of the British people did not seem to have become Romanized. The influence of Roman thought survived in Britain only through the Church. Christianity had thoroughly replaced the old Celtic gods by the close of the 4^th Century, as the history of Pelagius and St. Patrick testify, but Romanization was not successful in other areas. For example, the Latin tongue did not replace Brittonic as the language of the general population. Today's visitors to Wales, however, cannot fail to notice some of the Latin words that were borrowed into the British language, such as pysg (fish), braich (arm), caer (fort), foss (ditch), pont (bridge), eglwys (church), llyfr (book), ysgrif (writing), ffenestr (window), pared (wall or partition), and ystafell (room).

The disintegration of Roman Britain began with the revolt of Magnus Maximus in A.D. 383. After living in Britain as military commander for 12 years, he had been hailed as Emperor by his troops. He began his campaigns to dethrone Gratian as Emperor in the West, taking a large part of the Roman garrison in Britain with him to the Continent, and though he succeeded Gratian, he himself was killed by the Emperor Thedosius in 388. Some Welsh historians, and modern political figures, see Magnus Maximus as the father of the Welsh nation, for he opened the way for independent political organizations to develop among the Welsh people by his acknowledgement of the role of the leaders of the Britons in 383 (before departing on his military mission to the Continent). The Roman legions began to withdraw from Britain at the end of the 4^th century. Those who stayed behind were to become the Romanized Britons who organized local defences against the onslaught of the Saxon hordes. The famous letter of A.D.410 from the Emperor Honorius told the cities of Britain to look to their own defences from that time on. As part of the east coast defences, a command had been established under the Count of the Saxon Shore, and a fleet had been organized to control the Channel and the North Sea. All this showed a tremendous effort to hold the outlying province of Britain, but eventually, it was decided to abandon the whole project. In any case, the communication from Honorius was a little late: the Saxon influence had already begun in earnest.

HISTORY

The Germanic invasions (410 - 1066)

The Normans (1066 - 1154)

The Medieval Period (1066 - 1485)

The 'Dark Ages'. From the time that the Romans more or less abandoned Britain, to the arrival of Augustine at Kent to convert the Saxons, the period has been known as the Dark Ages. Written evidence concerning the period is scanty, but we do know that the most significant events were the gradual division of Britain into a Brythonic west, a Teutonic east and a Gaelic north; the formation of the Welsh, English and Scottish nations; and the conversion of much of the west to Christianity. By 4l0, Britain had become self-governing in 3 parts, the North (which already included people of mixed British and Angle stock); the West (including Britons, Irish, and Angles); and the South East (mainly Angles). With the departure of the Roman legions, the old enemies began their onslaughts upon the native Britons once more. The Picts and Scots to the north and west (the Scots coming in from Ireland had not yet made their homes in what was to become later known as Scotland), and the Saxons, Angles, and Jutes to the south and east.

The two centuries that followed the collapse of Roman Britain happen to be among the worst recorded times in British history, certainly the most obscure. One reason why Roman Britannia disappeared so quickly is probably that its influence was largely confined to the towns. In the country­side, where most people lived, farming methods had remained unchanged and Celtic speech continued to be dominant. The Roman occupation had been a matter of colonial control rather than large-scale settlement. But, during the 5^th century, a number of tribes from the north of the BI and from the north-western European mainland invaded and settled in large numbers. (Picts from Scotlsnd, and Scots from Irelands devastated the north and north west; the Francs and those Germanic tribes whom contemporary historians called Angles, Saxons and Jutes, and others simply Vandals devastated the eastern coasts. England did not yet exist, it was a heptarchy; a collection of the seven small kingdoms of Kent, Essex, Sussex, East Anglia, Mercia, Wessex and Northumbria, of which the last three were the most important). Anglo-Saxons soon had the south-east of the country in their grasp. In the west of the country their advance was temporarily halted by an army of (Celtic) Britons under the command of the legendary King Arthur.

Nevertheless, by the end of the 6^th century, they and their way of life predominated in nearly all of England and in parts of southern Scotland. The Celtic Britons were either Saxonized or driven westwards, where their culture and language survived in south-west 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 or so years. In most of lowland Britain, Latin had become the language of administration and education, especially since Celtic writing was virtually unknown. Latin was also the language of the Church in Rome. The old Celtic gods had given way to the new ones introduced by the Roman mercenaries; they were again replaced when missionaries from Gaul introduced Christianity to the islands. By 3l4, an organized Christian Church seems to have been established in most of Britain, for in that year British bishops were summoned to the Council of Arles. By the end of the 4^th century, a diocesan structure had been set up, many districts having come under the pastoral care of a bishop. It was during the time of the Saxon invasions, in that relatively unscathed western peninsular that later took the name Wales, that the first monasteries were established (the words Wales and Welsh were used by the Germanic invaders to refer to Romanized Britons). They spread rapidly to Ireland from where missionaries returned to those parts of Britain that were not under the Roman Bishops' jurisdiction, mainly the Northwest.

By the end of the 7^th century we can also begin to speak of an Anglo-Saxon political entity in the island of Britain, and the formation and growth of various English kingdoms.

Britain experienced another wave of Germanic invasions in the 8^th century. These invaders, known as Vikings, Norsemen or Danes, came from Scandinavia. In the 9^th century they conquered and settled the extreme north and west of Scotland, and also some coastal regions of Ireland. Their conquest of England was halted when they were defeated by King Alfred of the Saxon kingdom of Wessex. This resulted in an agreement which divided England between Wessex, in the south and west, and the 'Danelaw' in the north and east. The Vikings’ invasions were thus different from those of the earlier Saxons who had originally come to defend the British people and then to settle. Though they did settle eventually in their newly conquered lands, the Vikings were more intent on looting and pillaging; their armies marched inland destroying and burning until half of England had been taken, and it seemed as if there was no one strong enough to stop them. However, just as an earlier British leader, perhaps the one known in legend as Arthur had stopped the Saxon advance into the Western regions at Mount Badon in 496, so a later leader - Alfred of Wessex - stopped the advance of the Norsemen at Edington in 878.

However, the cultural differences between Anglo-Saxons and Danes were comparatively small. They led roughly the same way of life and spoke two varieties of the same Germanic tongue. Moreover, the Danes soon converted to Christianity. These similarities made political uni­fication easier, and by the end of the 10^th century England was one kingdom with a Germanic culture throughout. Most of modern-day Scotland was also united by this time, at least in name, in a (Celtic) Gaelic kingdom.

There are over 1040 place names in England of Scandinavian origin, most occurring in the north and east, the area of settlement known as the Danelaw (the land where the law of the Danes ruled). The evidence shows extensive peaceable settlement by farmers who intermarried their English cousins, adopted many of their customs and entered into the everyday life of the community. Though the Danes and Norwegians who came to England preserved many of their own customs, they readily adapted to the ways of the English whose language they could understand without too much difficulty. There are more than 600 place names that end with the Scandinavian -by, (farm or town); some 300 contain the Scandinavian word thorp (village), and the same number with thwaite (an isolated piece of land). Thousands of words of Scandinavian origin remain in the everyday speech of people in the north and east of England. There was another very important feature of the Scandinavian settlement which cannot be overlooked. The Saxon people had not maintained contact with their orginal homelands; in England they had become an island race. The Scandinavians, however, kept their contacts with their kinsman on the continent. Under Cnut, England was part of a Scandinavian empire; its people began to extend their outlook and become less insular. The process was hastened by the coming of another host of Norsemen: the Norman Conquest was about to begin.

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 817