Ancient and Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) England
Ancient Period (5000 BC-449 AD)
- Neolithic period, c. 5000-2000
BC, agriculture, mound tombs
- Non-Indo-European inhabitants
- New Grange, Ireland, 3200
B.C., passage grave.
- Stonehenge I & II (2800-2000
B.C.)
- Bronze Age,
2000-500 B.C.
- Indo-European language, burial
with drinking vessels, flint, metal, farms, circular huts, oblong fields
- Celtic inhabitants arrived
around 750 B.C., hill forts
- Iron Age (begins in England around
500 B.C.)
- Celtic people in England:
Britons (hence the name Britain/Britannia) (other Celtic tribes: Atrebates,
Belgae, Brigantes, Catuvellauni, Dumnonii, Ordovices, Silures)
- Celtic languages: Gaelic,
Brythonic (Britannic)
- Roman
Britain (55 BC-410 AD)
- Julius Caesar invades Britain,
55 BC
- Roman conquest of Britain
takes place gradually; Celtic peoples become Romanized under the influence
of Roman administration, Latin culture and language
- ongoing conflicts with tribes
of Picts and Scots living in northern Britain; Hadrian's
Wall (73 miles long), built 121-127 AD as a fortification against
Picts and Scots
- some degree of Christianization
of the Britons took place after Emperor Constantine's adoption of Christianity
as the official religion of the Roman Empire (313 AD)
- Roman-Celtic-Christian culture
of Britain
- Roman departure from Britain
in 410 AD (Romans forced to withdraw their troops from Britain due to
Germanic invasions of the Roman Empire)
- Germanic Invasions
- beginning around 375 the Huns
from Central Asia attacked the Germanic tribes (Goths, Ostrogoths) settled
in eastern Europe and drove them to invade the Roman Empire. The Roman
Empire was destabilized by attacks from the Huns and Germanic raids involving
tribes such as the Goths, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, Burgundians,
Vandals, Lombards, etc. Rome was sacked by the Visigoths in 410 AD. The
Western Roman Empire finally fell to the Germanic invaders in 476 AD.
- Abandoned by the Romans in
410 AD, Britain is besieged by Picts and Scots
- British leader Vortigern (c.
425-450 AD) invites Germanic Saxons into alliance against Picts and Scots
- Saxons turn
against their British allies and begin their conquest of Britain (442
AD)
- Large-scale Germanic invasions
of Britain by Saxons, Angles, and Jutes (449 AD)
- British resistance. King Arthur
was likely a British general fighting the Saxons, Battle of Mt. Badon
(500 AD). Death of Arthur at Battle of Camlann (c. 537 AD)
- Britons defeated by Germanic
invaders and driven away into Wales, Cornwall, Ireland, and Brittany (on
northwest coast of France)
- Anglo-Saxons in control of
Britain by sixth century; land renamed "England" (i.e. Angle-lond
> Engla-lond, "land of the Angles"), and the people "English"
(i.e. Angles > Anglisc)
- Roman, Celtic, and Christian
culture displaced from England.
Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) England
(449-1066 AD)
- Germanic culture dominant in England
(pagan, warrior society centered on institution of kinship band or comitatus;
worship of wild animals like boar, bear, and wolf; blood revenge and wergild
(man-money); importance of acquisition and distribution of treasure; emphasis
on pride and glory in battle; heroic poetry; mead drinking and social gatherings
in banquet hall; belief in fixed destiny or wyrd)
- Co-existence of seven
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (Heptarchy): Northumberland, East Anglia, Mercia (Angles),
Kent (Jutes), Essex, Sussex, Wessex (Saxons); seventh century Northumbrian
dominance, eighth century Mercian dominance, ninth/tenth century West Saxon
dominance
- Pope Gregory sends to Kent a Benedictine
monk named Augustine (not to be confused with the more famous St. Augustine
of Hippo c. 354-430 A.D.) in 597 AD. Beginnings of the Christianization of
the Anglo-Saxons.
- Aethelbert I of Kent (Jutes),
converted to Christianity by Augustine, first Christian king of Anglo-Saxon
England; also compiled law code (c. 600) (including definitions and rules
of kinship, use of wergild, status of slaves, freemen, and nobles)
- Gradual Christianization of Anglo-Saxons
by Roman and Irish missionaries (St. Aidan and others, 635-655); coexistence
of Christian and pagan beliefs, Wyrd and Divine Providence; persistence of
pagan customs (e.g. the ship burial of East-Anglian king Raedwald at Sutton
Hoo,c. 625 AD)
- first Viking attacks 787AD
- Alfred the Great, king of Wessex
(r. 871-899), victories over Vikings at Ashdown (871) and Edington (878);Treaty
of Wedmore (878) forcing Danish king Guthrum to accept Christianity and retreat
to Danelaw (in east England); Alfred captures London (886) and is recognized
as king of all England (except for Danish parts)
- West Saxon dialect became literary
standard of Old English literature
- renewed Scandinavian invasions
in late 10th and early 11th centuries
- Aethelred II Unraed (the "unwise"
or "un-ready") (r. 978-1016), king of England, very ineffective
in resisting Scandinavian invasions; lost his throne to Danish leader Canute
- Canute, Danish king of England
(r. 1016-1035), married Aethelred's widow Emma and fathered Hardecanute, king
of England (r. 1040-1042)
- Exeter
Book (late 10th century) manuscript containing the Wanderer
and the Seafarer
- Cotton
Vitellius (early 11th century), manuscript containing Beowulf
- brief return of the Anglo-Saxons
to power wtih Edward the
Confessor (last Anglo-Saxon king) (r. 1042-1066). Edward was the son of Aethelred
II and Emma;Edward lived in exile in Normandy, during Danish rule of England;
during his stay in Normandy Edward promised Duke William of Normandy the succession
to the English throne
- Norman invasion of England by
William of Normandy ("the Conqueror") (claiming the throne which
Edward had promised him). Battle of Hastings (1066), defeat of the Anglo-Saxons
and end of the Anglo-Saxon Period.
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