Invasions and Patterns

of Settlement in the
British Isles (II)

The Anglo-Saxons

At first the Germanic tribes only raided Britain, but after 430 AD they began to
settle. One legend actually claims that they were initially hired by the Romanised
Celts to help them fight back the attacks of the Scots and the Picts (e.g. 449
Hengest and Horsa), but then they turned against their employers and decided to
stay despite their hosts resistance. A much more reliable source is Bedes
Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written three centuries later, which
was proven correct by archaeological evidence.

The Germanic invaders coming from northern Germany and southern

Denmark belonged to three powerful tribes:
1. The Angles who settled in the east and in the north Midlands;
2. The Jutes who settled in Kent and along the south coast;
3. The Saxons who settled from the Thames Estuary westwards between
the Angles and the Jutes.
The Anglo-Saxon migrations lasted from about 441 when they secured a
permanent stronghold at the mouth of the Thames to about 600 when
they virtually controlled the present-day England (land of the Angles).
The British Celts were killed, famished, enslaved and pushed into the
corners of the island in Wales (the land of the foreigners), Cornwall
and southern Scotland. Others sailed to Ireland or to Brittany on the
French coast. (The Celtic resistance to the invaders was immortalised
in legends dominated by the figure of King Arthur as a hero of many
victories against the Anglo-Saxons.)

The Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon Culture:

a Nordic culture which involved the worship of war gods,

which praised the warriors courage, strength, intelligence,
and, above all, loyalty to the leader; cowardice, desertion
and lack of honour were publicly condemned.
a religion of dread that taught people not to be afraid of
death and to aspire to the ideal of heroic sacrifice on the
battlefield. Coldness and pessimism were defining features
of the Anglo-Saxon religion according to which Wyrd (Fate)
was stronger than the gods themselves.
The Anglo-Saxon myths and legends were collected in the
Edda and handed down from generation to generation. The
body of epic poetry celebrated heroes like Sigurd and
Beowulf, whereas the elegies spoke of the ups and downs of
life, foregrounding, in lyrical terms, the values and beliefs of
the Anglo-Saxon society.
The Anglo-Saxons shared with the Scandinavians the art of
decorating weapons, jewellery, and objects of daily use with
patterns of great beauty and richness, as well as customs of
war and agriculture. (e.g. the Sutton Hoo archaeological
site, 1936)

The Anglo-Saxons

Government and society:

- the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in:

the 6th century the Heptarchy:
Angles: Mercia, Northumbria, EastAnglia;
Saxons: Essex, Wessex, Sussex;
Jutes: Kent.
the 8th century: as a result of the conflicts
between the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms,
Mercia, Northumbria and Wessex grew
larger and more powerful.
the 9th century: only the Anglo-Saxon
kingdom of Wessex (under the rule of
King Alfred the Great) managed to
survive the Viking invasion.
- the administrative organisation: shires
(counties) one of the worlds oldest still
functioning government unit. In each shire,
one shire reeve/ sheriff was appointed as the
kings local administrator, in charge of raising
taxes and recruiting soldiers.

The Anglo-Saxons
Government and society:
Unlike the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons were not city dwellers. They
settled in the countryside. The community was organised around the
lords manor where the villagers paid taxes, justice was administered
and men joined the army (the fyrd). It was the beginning of the
manorial system which reached its full development under the
Normans.
The Anglo-Saxon technology changed the shape of English
agriculture.
They cleared dense forests and drained wet lands.
Their heavier ploughs allowed them to better plough heavier soils in long
straight lines across the field.
Their system of land ownership and organisation put the land of the
community to better use. They divided the land into two-three large
fields, which were further sub-divided into long thin strips (hides) owned
by each family and cultivated in the same way as the ones of the
neighbours. One field was used for spring crops, a second one for
autumn crops, and a third one was left to rest for a year and used,
together with the other fields after crop harvesting, as common land for
animals to feed on.

Thus, the Anglo-Saxons set the basis of English agriculture

until the eighteenth century.

The Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxon hierarchical system:

the king (cyning): 1. the ring-giver in times of peace (arm-rings or neckrings = gold pieces/ jewellery given as a reward to the warriors for their
courage and values); 2. the shield and protector in times of war.
The king was elected and assisted during his rule by the Witan, a council
made of senior warriors and churchmen. Without the Witans support, the
kings authority was in danger.
- the noblemen eorlas (earls) or thanes: they enjoyed material
privileges in exchange for their loyalty and military support to the king.
- the ceorlas: free men entitled to their share of the common land.
- the laet: landless men who cultivated the soil for their lord (serfs).
- the slaves: war prisoners or people sold by their families in times of famine
to save them from starvation or convicts in a law-suit. Slaves were working
machines that could be bought or sold, even killed by their masters.
The Anglo-Saxons had their own system of punishing manslaughter by paying
a sum of money (wergilt = war money) to the relatives of the murdered
man. (The slaves were an exception in this respect; the master paid no
wergilt.)

The Anglo-Saxon system represented a transition from the tribal to

the feudal organisation.

The Anglo-Saxons
The introduction of Christianity (7 th century):
in the early days of the Anglo-Saxon rule in Britain: heathen Anglo-Saxons
/vs./ the Christianised Celts (Wales, Scotland and Ireland)
597 AD: Pope Gregory the Great sent a monk, Augustine, to re-establish
Christianity in England. He came as a missionary in Canterbury, at king
Ethelbert of Kents court, and he became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in
601. He continued to convert especially ruling families in Kent, East Anglia,
Essex, Sussex and Wessex.
In Northumbria, Christianity was introduced by Irish monks 40 years later.
The ordinary people in Britain were converted by Celtic Church bishops from
Wales, Ireland and Scotland, who travelled from village to village to spread
Christianity.

the Celtic Christian Church (ordinary people) vs. the Roman

Christian Church (interested in authority)

663 AD: the Synod of Whitby decided in favour of the Roman

Church. The Celtic Church retreated as Rome extended its authority
over all Christians, even in the Celtic parts of the island.
Christianity brought about the return of learning, reading and writing in
Latin, enriching the Anglo-Saxon language with Latin vocabulary.
The monasteries became seats of learning and teaching of Latin,
Greek, music, astronomy, medicine, miniature art and history (e.g.
the Venerable Bede, Ecclesiastic History of the English People).

The Vikings
Vikings (pirates; people of the sea inlets) came from Norway and
Denmark.
end of the 8th century: the first raids along the east, north and west
coasts of Britain and Ireland (London raided in 842)
9th-10th centuries: Viking raids in various other parts of the world
going as far as Piraeus and Constantinople.
Viking lore:

The Scandinavian prose Sagas recorded with extraordinary realism their

life of war and plunder.
God spare us from the wrath of the Northmen. regular prayer in
England.

870: From among the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, only Wessex

(incorporating Wessex, little of Kent and half of Mercia) survived.
England divided into: Wessex and the Danelaw (the east and north
of England).
Alfred the Great (871-900): He built walled settlements (burghs) to
keep the Danes out. 878 he defeated the Danes and forced their
leader Guthrum to sign the treaty of Wedmore, whereby the Vikings
underwent baptism and agreed to retire into the Danelaw.

The Vikings
King Canute/ Knut/ Cnut: the Viking king of England
(elected in 1016), Denmark (1018), Norway (1028) and
parts of Sweden. He was on the way to found a Northern
Empire with Scandinavia for one pillar and England for the
other, reinforcing the cultural bonds between these cultural
spaces. When he died in 1035, his incapable Danish
successors dissipated the confederation and England
returned to Anglo-Saxon monarchs.
The last Viking invasion: during the rule of the last AngloSaxon king, Harold Godwinson. 1066: Harold had to march
north into Yorkshire to fight the Vikings led by Harald
Hardrada, King of Norway. The Vikings were defeated at
Stanford Bridge.

The Normans
1066:
the death of Edward the Confessor (1042-66);
Harold Godwinson chosen by the Witan as the new king. He
succeeded to the throne under the suspicion of having usurped the
rights of Edwards heir, William, Duke of Normandy.
Williams claims to the English throne:
King Edward had promised the throne to him before his death;
Harold, who visited William in 1064/1065, promised he would not take
the throne for himself.

October 13, 1066: Williams troops landed at Pevensey.

The battle of Hastings: Better armed, better organised and mounted
on horses, the Normans defeated the Anglo-Saxons. Harold died on
the battlefield. (The Tapestry of Bayeux the story of the Norman
triumph)
William marched to London and he was crowned King of England in
Edwards church of Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1066.
- the harrying of the North: atrocious punitive campaigns meant to
put down the resistance of the Saxon earls in the North of England.

The Normans
The Norman feudal system:
the King:
divided the land to the nobles: William gave half to the Norman
nobles, a quarter to the Church and kept a fifth for himself. The
nobles were given pieces of land in different parts of the country so
that no noble could easily or quickly gather his fighting men to
rebel.

the nobles:
received from the king the feu, land held in return for duty or
service to the lord. vassals who owed the king obedience, help
in time of war and part of the produce of their land.
The greater nobles gave parts of their lands to lesser nobles,
knights, and other freemen (yeomen).
the homage ritual: the vassal kneeled before the lord, his hands
placed between those of his lord. (nowadays part of the coronation
ceremony of British kings and queens)

the freemen (yeomen): some paid for the land by doing

military service, while others paid rent.
the peasants bound to the land (serfs): they were not free
to leave the estate and were often little better than slaves.

The Normans
Basic principles of feudalism:
Every man has a lord.
Every lord has land.

DOOMSDAY BOOK (1088): a general survey of all the

lands of the kingdom, their value, owners, quality of the
soil, cattle or poultry. It was an inventory of both all the
possessions of the country and the social distribution of
the population.
the fate of the defeated: English lords were deprived of
their lands in favour of the French barons. All high offices
both in the church and state were exclusively filled by
French speaking foreigners. The English found themselves
excluded from all road leading to honour or preferment. In
1088, only 5,000 thanes were recorded to survive as the
local gentry.

The Normans
Cultural conditions in Norman England:
the 13th century Renaissance
the peaceful invasion of Normandys industrial and trading
classes

a) Architecture: the building of Englands twenty-seven greatest

cathedrals
(Norwich,
Gloucester,
Oxford,
Peterborough,
Winchester, St. Albans, Durham, etc.)
-styles: 1) the English Romanesque or Norman style (bold
massive construction, semicircular arches, flat buttresses,
ponderous cylindrical pillars, geometrical patterns); 2) the
Gothic (pointed arches, clustered columns, pointed ribbed
vaults, flying buttresses, tall and pointed towers and spires,
stained glass)
b) development of crafts in wood, stone, glass, tapestry and
painting (miniatures).

The Normans
c) the first universities: Oxford 1249; Cambridge 1284
seats of learning (John Duns Scotus, William of Occam,
Roger Bacon);
d) chronicles: The Anglo-Norman Chronicles (written in
Latin, but lacking the impartiality of their Anglo-Saxon
predecessors); Matthew Pariss Chronica Majora (English
and Continental events from 1255) and Chronica Minora
(home events between 1200-1250); Walter Maps Of
Courtiers Trifles (violent attacks at the corruption and
abuses of the clergy);
e) Middle English: Latin (the language of the church and
scholarship) French (the language of public life,
aristocratic society, law-courts and royal administration,
literature, art and cooking) English (the language of
the people at large, of the illiterate lower classes).

Battles for Britain

The defeat of the Spanish
Armada (1588)
Fighting the German Luftwaffe
(1940)

England versus Spain in the Late

Sixteenth Century
Anglo-Spanish relations in the 1570s-1580s:
the conflict over control of the commercial routes:
Spain ruling over the Protestant Netherlands that fought for
independence;
Spanish ships harassed by English privateers (pirates
unofficially supported by Queen Elizabeth I; e.g.: Francis Drake,
Martin Frobisher, Walter Raleigh) the result of Spains refusal
to allow England to trade freely with Spanish American
colonies.

the religious conflict: Catholic Spain vs. Protestant England

1570 Elizabeth I excommunicated by Pope Pius V. Loyal
Catholics were urged to depose her.
England supported the Protestant French and the Dutch
Protestant rebels.

England versus Spain in the

Late Sixteenth Century
1580s:

Philip II of Spain prospered: he annexed Portugal (1580) and the Azores

(1582-3). He built a great fleet, an Armada, exceeding in size the combined
fleets of England and the Netherlands. Philip decided to conquer England
before he would be able to defeat the Dutch in the Netherlands.
1584: the Dutch leader, William of Orange, was assassinated. That created
panic among English politicians who feared that Elizabeth I might fall victim
too.
1585: Phillip II was confident he could seize all English ships in Iberian ports.
Elizabeth I responded by sending the Earl of Leicester to Holland with an
army, but Leicester was defeated.
1587: The Spanish Armada was attacked and partly destroyed by Francis
Drake in the Cadiz harbour.
1588: The re-built Spanish Armada (the largest that had ever gone to sea,
but less fast than the English ships) carrying mainly soldiers (few ships
carried cannons and medium guns) aimed at conquering England and
controlling the English Channel, so that subsequently Spanish troops could
have easier access to the Netherlands. However, the Spanish Armada was
defeated by the English weather and by the English guns. Some Spanish
ships were sunk, but most were blown northwards by the wind, many being
wrecked on the rocky coasts of Scotland and Ireland. In August 1588
Protestant England celebrated with prayers and public thanksgiving. The war
with Spain continued until Elizabeth Is death (1603), but the Britain did not
become the scene of a foreign invasion.

The Second World War: The Battle of

Britain
September 1939: Germany invaded Poland, and Britain entered the war.
May 1940 June 1940: The German army invaded the Netherlands,
attacked and defeated the French. France capitulated within 11 days on
June 10, 1940. The British army was driven into the sea and was saved
by thousands of private boats which crossed the English Channel at
Dunkirk.
Summer-autumn 1940: The German air forces (Luftwaffe) launched a
major bombing and raiding campaign over Britain. Their targets: coastal
shipping convoys, shipping centres, Royal Air Force (RAF) airfields and
infrastructure, aircraft factories and ground infrastructure. Finally, the
Lufwaffe resorted to attacks on strategic town areas which culminated in
the serial bombing of London which killed thousands of civilians and
destroyed most of central London.
In this time of terror, Prime Minister Winston Churchill brilliantly managed
to persuade a nation on its knees that it would win.
The failure of Germany to achieve its objectives of destroying Britains air
defences, or forcing Britain to negotiate an armistice or an outright
surrender is considered both its first major defeat and one of the crucial
turning points in the war. If Germany had gained air superiority, Adolf
Hitler might have launched Operation Sealion, an amphibious and
airborne invasion of Britain.