HISTORY 1

• Pre history
• The Roman Period
• The Germanic
invasions
• The Medieval period
 Prehistory
••Iron Age Celtic culture
About
years two
ago thousands
•The Celts/Celtic
arrived from tribes
Europe.
•The
with Celts
otherintermingled
people
living there
 Prehistory
• Sense of mystery as no written records
• Two examples of most astonishing
monumental architecture of the
period:
- Silbury Hill /sɔlzbri/
- Stonehenge
Silbury Hill, the largest burial mound in Europe
Stonehenge
 The Roman period (43-410)

• Britannia (GB)- The Roman

province
• Romans imposed their way
of life and culture using
Celtic aristocracy to govern
 The Roman period
• Celtic tribes were divided into
groups:
- Scots (S) + Picts (S) = opponents of
the Romans
- Britons (E +W) under Roman control
- Gaels (I+S) not under Roman control
 The Roman period
• Long occupation, but the Romans left
very little behind
• The only lasting reminders: place-
names
Chescter, Lancaster, Gloucester
Roman word castra = millitary camp
The Germanic invasions (410-1066)
First invasion: 5 century
th

- Invaders: Tribes from north-

western European mainland
Angles + Saxons = Anglo-Saxons
- Settled in large numbers
- Occupied the south-east
 King Arthur
• In the west their advance was
temporarily halted by Celtic Britons
under the command of King Arthur
• By 6th century, Celtic Britons were
either Saxonized or driven westwards
(south-west Scotland, Wales and
Cornwall)
 The first Germanic invasion
• Germanic tribes settled in large
numbers in the countryside
- new farming methods
- self-sufficient villages
• They and their way of life
dominated England and parts of
Scotland
 The second wave of Germanic invasions
• 8th century
• Invaders: Vikings, Norsemen, Danes
from Scandinavia in Northern Europe
(Denmark, Norway, and Sweden)
• They conquered and settled extreme
north and west of Scotland + some
coastal regions of Ireland
The second wave of Germanic invasions

• Their conquest of England was

halted when they were defeated
by King Alfred of the Saxon
kingdom of Wessex.
• Agreement divided England into
Wessex and Danelaw
 The end of Germanic Invasions
• Anglo-Saxons and Danes were not
very culturally different:
- led the same way of life
- spoke two varieties of the same
Germanic tongue (combined to form
the basis of modern English)
• By 10th c. England was one kingdom
with a Germanic culture throughout
The Medieval period (1066-1485)

• Norman invasion
- Feudal system
• After the Norman
conquest
 Norman invasion: 1066-most famous date
• The last time England was successfully
invaded
• Invading Army from Normandy defeated
the English at the Battle of Hastings
• English warriors and their King Harold
were dead
• Norman leader, Duke William of
Normandy (William the Conqueror) was
crowned King of England
Norman invasion: the feudal system

• Invasion was on small

scale
• Norman soldiers were
given ownership of land
and of people living on it
Strict feudal system imposed by the Normans

Strict feudal system

The The great

nobles/
Lesser peasa
king barons lords nts
 250 years after the Norman conquest:
• Anglo-Norman kingdom was the
most powerful in the British Isles
• Large part of Eastern Ireland:
controlled by Anglo-Norman lords
in the name of English King
• Wales: under English king’s rule
•(Middle
250 years after the Norman conquest
Germanic language
English)
became
in all dominant
classes of
society
•its in England
Parliament
evolution began
means parler
(French) = to speak
Early
assembly Parliament
of =
nobles
+representatives
elected