Early Britain

In the time before written history, the earliest people hunted animals and gather food
from what was around them. Later as they discovered how to make and use metals
such as bronze and copper, they also began keeping cattle and sheep, the first farmers.
They built primitive villages and dug huge ditches to make hill forts. At about the time
the Egyptians were building the Great Pyramid at Giza, the earliest Britons were
starting the construction of Stonehenge. Britain at this time was still a fairly primitive
land compared with Egypt and other major civilisations.

1.1

CELTS

By around 700BC however Celtic tribes arrived

from Europe and settled in Britain. They were
making iron weapons and utensils, using
wheeled carts and chariots and build
impressive hill forts such as Maiden Castle in
Dorset. The Celtic tribes who settled in Britain
and their descendants are called Britons. Their
language is still spoken today, because Welsh,
Gaelic, Irish and Cornish are all directly related
to Celtic. The Celts left no written records
themselves, but the Romans wrote about
them, and their first accounts of these islands
tell of Celtic life in Britain. They tell us of the
forts and dwellings, culture and society including chieftains, warriors and druids. Though the Celts conquered much of
Europe their power was eventually threatened by the Romans.

1.2 THE ROMANS

By 100 BC The Romans had an empire that bordered all of the Mediterranean Sea and stretched across
much of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East up to the Red Sea. The Roman Armys Legions had
conquered France which was called Gaul, and were poised to cross the English Channel. In 55BC Julius
Caesar landed on the English coast but after fierce fighting had to retreat. In 54BC a second invasion
which reached north of the Thames and had succeeded in submission of the British tribes under their
chief Catuvellaunus ultimately failed due to a revolt in Gaul and civil war in Rome which took Caesar and his army away.
For the next hundred years they controlled only the south east with their capital
Camulodunum, now Colchester in Essex. In 43AD the Emperor Claudius sent 40,000
troops to conquer Britain, and the following year he entered Camulodunum in
triumph. Queen of the Iceni, modern Norfolk, led a revolt but was defeated on 62AD.
In 122AD the Emperor Hadrian visited Britain and decided to establish a secure
Northern border for the Roman province, Hadrians Wall. One of the most important
things that the Romans introduced was written language, Latin and written numbers.
The history of Britain was now recorded and many of the first accounts have been
passed down by Roman writers.
Christianity was probably brought to Britain by Roman soldiers or civilian settlers from Gaul some time before 200AD,
Saxon and British Pagan gods were slowly replaced. The Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion in

324AD, by which time English already had three bishops, at Lincoln, London and York. In 325AD British Bishops attend
the Council of Nicaea, the first world side council of the Christian Church. Two things combined to bring about the end
of Roman rule. Civil war in Rome and the increasing number of attacked on the empire from northern Europe. Troops
withdrew to protect Rome, the last legion left in 406AD.

1.3

THE ANGLO-SAXONS
The Roman Empire split in two and the west fell into the Dark Ages. So called partly because so
little is known about it but also because of the loss of Roman law, science, learning and classical
culture. When the Romans left in 406AD Britain was already being attacked by Saxon pirates,
stories of which are contained in the legends of King Arthur. Eventually Saxons, Jutes and Angles
invaded from northern Germany, Denmark, Holland, Belgium and later the Vikings, the
Northmen. The Picts from Scotland also breeched Hadrians wall to attack from the north. Some
Roman-British chiefs paid German mercenaries to help them fight and according to some
legends these mercenaries then took over some Romano-British Kingdoms by force.
ARTHUR
A tribal leader who fought the Saxons from around 470 500AD did exist. However, his legend grew and though
exciting Merlin, the Lady of the Lake, Lancelot, Guinevere and the Knights of the Round Table are not history. They are
the composite of layers of different legends, written by different authors at different times, but retellings of the core
myths we know of the Celtic peoples in their battle against Saxon invaders. Arthur appears in his first incarnation in the
'History of the Britons', written in 830AD and attributed to a writer called Nennius as a heroic British general and a
Christian warrior, during the tumultuous late fifth century, when Anglo-Saxon tribes were attacking Britain.
LIFE UNDER THE ANGLO-SAXONS
The Anglos-Saxons built simple wooden houses, craft workers made pottery and glass, metal workers included skilled
jewellers though most people were farmers. Under each tribal king there were three classes: noblemen; churls
(freemen and yeomen) and slaves. A slave could be bought for the price of eight oxen. New kingdoms were created
such as East Anglia, Sussex and Wessex, whist many ancient Britons fled to Cornwall and northern France; this is from
where Brittany gets its name. This is why Cornish is a development of Celtic and the Old English of the Anglo-Saxons
developed into present day English. Beowulf the epic poem was written in 650AD.
RELIGION
Anglo-Saxons were pagans and worshiped their own gods and goddesses. The Celtic St Patrick followers Columa and
Aiden converted them to Christianity after the romans left. There are Celtic monasteries at Iona, Tintagel and
Lindisfarne. In 597AD Augustine was sent by Pope Gregory to convert England. During the Dark ages Celtic and roman
Christians argued fiercely about the form the church should take. In 664 King Oswy of Northumbria called a synod at
Whitby. There the church leader agreed under Abbess Hilda that they should follow the Church of Rome accepting the
pope as leader and they also decided the date of Easter. Much of what we know about Britain comes from monks such
as the venerable Bede. His History of the English Church and People completed in 731AD is one of the most important
sources. Referred to as the father of English learning he set up a school for monks at his monastery in Jarrow. His
History was later translated into Anglos-Saxon by Alfred the Great. In the Monastery of Whitby, Caedmon, a monk, the
founder of English poetry, wrote The Creation, the earliest surviving English poem. Another major work, begun around
800AD by the monks at Winchester is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. This records the attacks by the Northmen; Vikings, a
name meaning pirate or sea raider, calling them heathen or the force.

1.4 KING EGBERT

During this time a new dynasty of rulers began. King Egbert (802-839) became the first king who could claim to rule
over all of England. After conquering the peoples of Northumbria and Mercia he was proclaimed as Bretwalda, Lord of
Britain.

1.5 ALFRED THE GREAT

Alfred was Egberts grandson, the youngest son of Ethelwulf of Wessex. Educated in Rome he is the King fabled to have
burnt the cakes. In 871AD Alfred defeated the Danes at the Battle of Ashdown on the Berkshire downs, forcing a treaty
which lasted for five year. The Danes under Guthrun attacked again this time when they were defeated in 878Ad Alfred
forced Guthrum to convert to Christianity and sign a treaty. The Danes settled according to the agreement in the area
to the east of the old Roman road that ran between London and Chester.

1.6 THE WESSEX KINGS

Three kings Alfred, his son Edward the Elder and Athelstan made England Strong against the Danes. However when
Ethelred II succeeded aged just 10 in 978 these gains were lost. He was known as the Redless or evil council but it has
been translated as unready. Eventually the kingdom shrank to just Wessex and Kent and when he attacked peaceful
Danes he and his French wife Emma were forced to flee to Normandy. This was the first dynastic link between England
and France. The Danes proclaimed their Danish king Sweyn, king of England in 1013 but when he died just one year
later Ethelred returned. His son Edmund and Sweyns son Canute battle for the throne, then agreed to share the
kingdom, but Edmund died in 1016 and Canute became King of all England, much of Scandinavia including Denmark,
Norway and southern Sweden. Wisely he choose Englishmen for the Church and for his court. Canute brought peace
and prosperity, fair government and maintained an army. He said I have vowed to God to govern my kingdoms with
equity, and to act justly in all things. His sons succeeded him from 1053 to 1042.

1.7 THE LAST SAXON KING

In 1042, Edward, son of Ethelred II and Emma became king. Although Saxon he had grown up in Normandy, he was so
devout that his people called him Edward the Confessor. The construction of Westminster Abbey was begun during his
reign in 1052. He died in 1066 and named his brother in law Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex his successor. The witan,
Saxon council agreed and on Jan 6th 1066, Harold became the last Saxon King.