1. Who were the first inhabitants of Great Britain?

107 words
The first inhabitants of Great Britain were the Pre-Celtic. Six thoused years ago the
land now we call'' Britain” was already inhabited. The population started to burn and
cut down the forests in order to grow cereals like wheat. oats or barley and to breed
cattle,pigs and sheep. However, over the course of four centuries they changed the
landscape and started to build ritual sites- large and enclosed spaces used both for
cerimonies and defense. The most famous of these is Stonehenge in southwest
England. Finally, during the Bronze Age the islanders started metalworking,
producing pottery and manufacturing leather and cloth, which they also traded
overseas.
2. Who were the Celts? What was their religion? How did they live? 109 words
The Celts were peoples from northwest of Germany that gradually settled in the country
between 500 and 100 BC. The Celts were tall and mascular, with fair skin, blue eyes and
blond hair. They were farmers, hunters, fishermen and metal workers. The women were
almost equal to men.
The Druids were the Celt’s priests; they were important also for justice,education and
medicine.They held their ceremonies in the middle of the forest because the Celts
worshipped the natural elements. They considered the water a holy element. They believed
in immortality and in the transmigration of the soul from one person to another.

3. What do you know about the Roman Invasion? What did Romans leave in
Britain? 110 words
Julius Caesar led the Roman invasion of Britain in 55-54 BC but the country was not actually
conquered until 43-47 AD under Emperor Claudius. They were attracted by the rich
agriculture,the availability of slaves and Britain’s strategic importance as an offshore base.
In 122 AD Emperor Hadrian ordered a wall to be built to mark the border between the
conquered and the unconquered peoples. In addition they built over 9.600 kilometres of
paved road and towns. Many of these were originally army camps, and the Latin name,
castra, has remained in many modern town names ending in -caste or -chester. The
Romans also brought their culture and Christianity to Britain.

4. When was there the Anglo-Saxons Invasion and what was their society based
on? 93 words
Over the course of the 5th and 6th centuries the British were overwhelmed by peoples
coming from the North Sea Region of Northern Europe including Jutes, Angles and Saxons
and they settled south the Hadrian’s wall. Their society was founded on loyality to the family,
or clan, and the centre of communal life was the hall, which was the place where they
gathered and swore loyalty to the chiefs in return for their protection.
By the begginnig of the 7th century the bounderies of the Anglo-Saxons kingdoms. had
formed, known as Seven Kingdoms.
 5. Who were the Danes and when did they invade Britain? 103 words
They were the Scandinavian neighbours of Anglo-Saxons. The Vikings whom the English
commonly called ‘danes’ were sea people. They crossed the Atlantic looking for treasure,
cattle and slaves. They then set up colonies creating a ‘Norseman’ culture around the coasts
of Europe. By the 9th century the Viking invasion became an occupation, they began to
settle and intermarry. They established Danelaw, which was a code of Danish laws but also
to describe the area administered by the Dans in northern and eastern England.
Their language blended with that of the local population and could be seen in names ending
in -thorpe, -by, - kirk.

6. Who was King Alfred (Anglo-Saxon) and what changes did he introduce? 107
words
King Alfred was the king of Wessex who was crowned in 871. He organised the army by
demanding one soldier from each freeman’s farm as a tribute.He built fortresses and
planned a navy with long ships. He established his capital at Winchester.A groundbreaking
innovation is that the Latin texts were translated into Anglo-Saxon. In 890 he commissioned
the Anglo- Saxon Chronicle; it was the first attempt to give a systematic year-by-year
account of English history, and it was later maintained by generations of anonymous scribes
until the middle of the 1100s. Church schools were opened and a new legal code was
created.

7. What is Danegeld?
It was a tax raised to pay tribute or protection money to the Viking raiders to save a land from
being ravaged.In fact in 991 the Vikings oranised a further attack but English responded by
paying money to being left alone.

8. Explain causes and consequences of the Battle of Hastings (1066). words 102
The last Anglo-Saxon king was Harold who managed to defeat the Danes in the north of
England but then, at the same time, he had to march south to fight William, Duke of
Normandy, who was claiming the English throne. So the last one ruled the dukedom of
Normandy against the English's army. The battle finished in 1066 when Harols was killed
and his barons escaped to the woods. Whilliam was later crowned William I.
The Conquest annihilated the English ruling class because many Anglo- Saxon barons died
in battle. The members of high clergy were replaced by French or Italian churchmen.

9. Who introduced the medieval pyramid in society and what was it like? 106
words
William the Conqueror introduced the medial pyramide in society, so the feudal system was
established: the new French barons obtained their land by becoming the king's tenants and
they paid their ‘rent’ in military services to the king, symbolized by the cerimony of homage.
The chain of agreement enabled a minority to dominate a majority. In fact the barons were
allowed to sublet lends to lesser tenants in return for their services. The military service
given by the baron and knights, and the agricultural labour given by the peasants who
belonged to the land of all tenants, guarantees security and food, and so prance and
prosperity.
 10. The Magna Charta and King John. (pag. 10) words 98
John became king in 1199. He had two nicknames which reflected his behavior: Lackland
(has no land) and Softsword (unsuccessful in war). In order to get more money to wage wars
to defend his French possession, collected higher taxes.
He seized lands without process of law, imposed arbitrary taxes and collected money from
widows by threatening them with a forced re-marriage if they didn’t play. At this point the
barons, knights, clergy and townspeople organised a rebellion and asked the king to sign the
Magna Charta, a charter demanding specific liberties. He signed it at Runnymede in 1215

11. The peasants’ revolt. (pag.11) 101 words

During the first years of Richard II’s reign,England was actually ruled by his uncle, John of
Gaunt, who became popular when, in 1381, he introduced the poll tax, a tax imposed on
every adult, without reference to their income.Riots broke out all over the land: it was the
beginning of the Peasants’ Revolt. Wat Tyler, a craftsman, gathered a huge crowd of people
to ask the king to abolish the peasants' duties to their landlords. The young king allowed to
meet them and to listen to their demands but the Mayor of London had Tyler killed.

12. The Black Death 101 words

It’s a deadly plague which killed nearly half the population of Europe during the 14th century.
It caused a dramatic fall in the number of men available to work in the fields and some
farmers turned from grain production to sheep farming. There were serious storages in
bread, and food prices went up by 400%
In addition the number of deaths brought a religious crisis as some people believed it was
God's punishment on them, while others thought God had deserted them.However the
medical faculty of Paris said the plague was caused by a great pestilence carried in the air.

13. The War of Roses words 109

Henry, Duke of Lancaster, led an uprising against his cousin, Richard II, becoming the first
Lancastrian king of England. His son, Henry V e renewed the war against France. His son
was Henry VI but he had mental illnesses so Richard, Duke of York, was chosen to rule
England. At this point the rivalry between the two families of York and Lancaster developed
into a civil war, known as war of roses, because the two symbols were a white and a red
rose. It lasted from 1455 to 1485. It ended when Richard III was defeated by Henry Tudor
who married Elizabeth of York, thus uniting the two roses.