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Britain is an Island and its history has been closely connected to the sea. The seas saved Britain from danger. Strong national sense have been developed by the sea. Britain has not always been an island.
The ice age wasnt one cold period. Our first evidence of human life is a few stone tools, dating from 250. 000 BC. Britain was hardly habitable until another milder period around 50. 000 BC. During this period, a new type of human seemed to have arrived.
They look similar to normal people, but they were smaller and had a life span of only thirty years. Around 10. 000 BC Britain was peopled by groups of hunters, gatherers and fishers. Around 5. 000 BC, Britain has become an island. The first people to invade were people from either spain or north-africa. They were small and dark and knew how to make pottery.
After 2400 BC new groups of people arrived in Britain, they were round-headed and strongly built. They became leaders of British society. Around 700 BC They Celts arrived in Britain, They came from central Europe and they were technically advanced. They could make weapons from Iron. These are the ancestors of many of the people in Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Cornwall.
Last Celtic arrivals were the belgian Tribes. The Romans arrived in 55 BC. They brought the skills of reading and writing to Britain. The Romans could not conquer Scotland. The Anglo-Saxons Invaded in the fifth century AD. The Romans had a good influence on British life, The people learned how to speak Latin/ Greek and learned how to write.
The Romans came to Britain because they could use the British food for their army with the Gauls. Most obvious characteristic were the towns, They were the bases of Roman civilisation. There were three different kind of towns in Roman Britain. Colonial: Towns settled by Roman settlers Municipal: Large cities in which all inhabitants were given Roman citizenship. Civitas: Included the old Celtic tribal Capitals London was twice the size of Paris and the most important trading centre of Northern Europe, because Britain produced so much corn for export. The biggest change during the Roman occupation was the growth of large farms called villas.
Roman life seemed civilised, but it was also hard if you were poor. The life expectancy was only 20 years. The invaders came from powerful Germanic tribes. The Saxons Settled in the rest of England. The Jutes Settled in mainly Kent and along the south coast They gave the England of modern times her name. It was the part they had settled in Britain.
The Anglo-Saxon left little of Celtic culture in England. There are only two cities: London and Leeds and some rivers: Thames. The Saxons created institutions which made the English state strong for the next 5 oo years. One of them was the Kings council, the Witan.
It issued laws and orders. Nowadays the king still has a privy council, based on the Witan. The Saxons divided the land into counties (Shire is the Saxon word for county). They also changed the agriculture in Britain. They introduced a new plough which was far more better than the Celtic one. The farmers had to work together, because they had to share land and instruments with each other.
This made a new form of settlements. To make this work they had several laws and regulations. Each district had a manor, The villagers paid their taxes here and men met here to join the fyrd, The Anglo-Saxon army. The Aldermen were the local officials, but they changed to warlords. The name was changed to Earl. A Danish name.
They are both still used in the army. In the Celtic areas, Christianity began to spread, because it was forbidden in the Anglo-Saxon part. Not Augustine, but the Celtic church brought Christianity to the normal people. Bishops went from village to village to tell about their religion. They were also accepted in Anglo-Saxon villages, in spite of the difference. Saxon kings helped the church become big, but the church also increased the power of kings.
They gave their king support and made it harder for Royal power to be questioned. It was different from now, an eldest son did not become king automatically. The power of the church was also increased by the monasteries. They trained the men who could read and write.
The Vikings invaded in 865 AD. They accepted Christianity quickly and did not disturb the local population. King Alfred won a battle against the Vikings in 878, and eight years later he captured London. He was smart enough to make a treaty with the Vikings. The Saxon king, Ethelred decided to pay the Vikings to stay away. He asked money from his people (taxes) It was the beginning of the tax system.
Edward (the confessor), who was the son of Ethelred, was more interested in the church, than in being king. Edward died in 1066 without an heir. The question who should be king is important in British History. Harold was chosen to be king, He had no Royal blood. His right to the throne was challenged by the Duke of Normandy. Harold was faced by two dangers: He defeated the Danish, but got killed in the battle of Hastings by the French.
Duke William became king. The Celts were driven in to wales, they called themselves cymry fellow countrymen. Life in Wales was dangerous and bloody. Almost all kings got killed by a cymry. In 1039 Gruffydd ap Llewelyn was the first Welsh king to rule all over Wales. Ireland was never invaded by the Anglo-Saxons or the Romans.
They had their own Celtic culture. Kings were chosen by election. Christianity came to England about AD 430, which is the beginning of Irelands history. Scotland was populated by different groups; The Picts; The main group/ lived in the north and northeast/ spoke Celtic The non-Pictish/ mainly Scots who moved to the highlands from Ireland in the Fourth century. The Britons/ lived in the lowlands. William was crowned king, his conquest had only just begun.
Only the Saxon Lords who accepted William completely from the beginning kept their land, the others lost everything. William gave the land to his Norman nobles. William was smart in giving away land. He gave his nobles and armies land in different parts of Britain, so they couldnt gather men easily to start a rebellion. At the same time he kept enough land himself to make sure was stronger. He kept the Saxon system of sheriff.
Feudalism came from the French word feu. It means that all the land belongs to the King, but there are several Lords who look after it. In return for goods. William decided to make an overview of his land and the value of it. This was no very popular, because everyone felt they could not escape this. When William died he left the Duchy of Normandy to his Elder son, Robert.
He gave England to his second son, William. When William died, their younger brother Henry acted quickly and took over the throne. Robert was very angry and decided to invade England, but it took him over a year to gather an army. The Norman nobles had to choose between Henry and Robert.
They chose Henry, because he was already in London, with a crown on his head. In 1106 Henry invaded Normandy and defeated Robert. England and normandy were now under the same ruler. Henrys son died and he had no other sons so he left everything to his daughter Matilda. He married her to a French noble. When henry died, His nephew Stephen did the same thing as him and raced to England to take the Throne.
Matilda invaded four years later, with the result of a civil war. Matilda finally accepted Stephen as a king, but when he died he would have to leave the throne to her son. Stephen died only one year later, and England was ruled by a king accepted by everyone, Henry II. He married Eleanor of Aquitaine and he also ruled anjou. His empire stretched from the pyrenees to the Borders of Scotland. Henry quarrelled with his wife and his two sons took the side of their mother.
Henry died in 1189, defeated by his sons. Richard followed his father. He has always been one of England's most popular kings. Richard the lionhearted was captured by the duke of Austria on his return from the holy land. The Duke demanded money and it took England two years to pay. Richard was killed in France in 1199 and the French king took over Richards part of France.
Richard had no son, so his brother John followed him. John wasnt popular because he was greedy. He made a lot of money by raising taxes and payments. In 1204 John had become less popular by failing to protect his nobles land against France.
In 1209 John quarrelled with the pope. The pope asked the king of France t...
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Research essay sample on Anglo Saxon Normal People
