Celtic and Roman Britain PDF

Celtic and Roman Britain Celtic Britain. About a thousand years before Christ the Celts spread across Europe. We do not know where they came from or what encouraged them to emigrate. Over several years they spread outwards, taking over what is now france and Belgium, and crossing to Britain Northw...

Celtic and Roman Britain Celtic Britain. About a thousand years before Christ the Celts spread across Europe. We do not know where they came from or what encouraged them to emigrate. Over several years they spread outwards, taking over what is now france and Belgium, and crossing to Britain Northwest Europe was dominated by three main Celfic groups: the Gauls (northern France), the Britons (Wales, Cornwall) and the Gaels (Ireland, Scotland). These tribes of Celts spoke a vaguely common language which still survives today in parts of Scotland, Ireland, Wales, the Isle of Man, Cornwall and Brittany in France. The Celtic languages are older than English and are incomprehensible for English speakers. The ancient Celtic people of Britain lived in tribes, their religion was called Druidism and their most important divinity was the sun god. The ancient monument in Wiltshire in the southwest of England called Stonehenge may have been connected with their worship of the sun. The Roman occupation. The Romans came to Britain nearly 2000 years ago and changed the country. Even today. evidence of the Romans being here can be seen in the ruins of Roman buildings, forts, roads and baths all over Britain Julius Caesar raided Britain in 55 and 54 BCE, a hundred years later (43-54c CE), with Emperor Claudius, the Romans conquered the island. Roman Britain Included what we now know as England and Wales Unable to overcome the fierce Picts of 'Caledonia' Norman England William the Conqueror. William, Duke of Normandy, was crowned king in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1066. Now with William as king of England, Normandy became an English territory. The Normans introduced the feudal system and built castles to defend their conquest (the White Tower of the Tower of London was built in 1078 by William the Conqueror). The defeated Anglo-Saxons were reduced to the condition of serfs, deprived of their property and rights. The Normans also brought their language, Norman French. Latin and Norman French were now the languages of the Church and government. In 1085 William commissioned a detailed survey of the land and wealth in England and of all the nation's resources so that he could calculate how much money he could raise in taxes. This was an impressive achievement and nothing similar was produced in England until the first censuses of the 19" century. The results of this survey were published one year later in a book called the Domesday Book, which is also a precious source of useful information for the study of the history of England in William's time Feud, church and guild. The word feudalism comes from feud, the name of the land a person held under the king William introduced the idea that all the land belonged to the king, to be portioned out to his followers. They in turn promised him loyalty, a unit of fighting men, and a certain amount of money Nobles, knights and men of rank down to the humblest tenants, portioned the land to their followers, who in turn gave certain services to their masters. The members of the lowest class, the serfs, were bound to the land on which they worked and did not get any wages in exchange for their hard work, but only the right to cultivate a few strips of land for themselves. In the towns, the great centres of aggregation were the church and the marketplace. As the towns gradually expanded, a new form of trade organisation emerged. The guilds or trade associations, protected its members from unchecked competition, trained new workers.as apprentices and set wages and prices. Weavers, carpenters and butchers all had their guilds.  Norman England after William. William was succeeded by his son William II, a coarse and violent man who was very unpopular and who was succeeded by his younger brother Henry upon his untimely death. Henry I was the first Norman king born in England, and the first to speak English as well as French. When Henry I died in 1135 he had no male heirs and his nephew Stephen came to the throne. Stephen was a weak king and lost control of much of England. Henry's daughter Matilda, who had married Geoffrey Plantagenet, came over to England from Anjou in 1139 Under the Treaty of Westminster a compromise solution was found. Matilda's son Henry Plantagenet would succeed to the throne when Stephen died. In 1154 Henry Il of Anjou became king, the first of the French Plantagenet line. A strong king and an able soldier, Henry dominated mast of France and laid the foundations for the English Jury System. Henry is remembered for his struggle with the power of the Church and for his quarrel with Thomas Becket. He is also held responsible for Becket's murder in Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December 1170. Henry II was succeeded by his son Richard I in 1189. Known as 'Richard the Lionheart' for his bravery and military abilities, Richard spent only six months of his reign in England. He spent the first half of his reign on crusade in Palestine and the second half fighting to regain French territories he had lost during his absence. While Richard was absent from England, his younger brother, Prince John, reigned in his stead. Much later, in the 16* century, folklore began to link Robin Hood to King Richard. The Hundred Years' War (1337-1453). The Hundred Years' War with France began in 1337 with the aim to regain territories and to put a doubtful claim to the French throne. The war did not go on continuously; there were several intervals when all fighting ceased for years. Under Edward Ill, the English won two important victories, at Crécy (1346) and Poitiers (1356) and, during the reign of Henry V (1413-22) at Agincourt (1415). However, under Henry VI (1422-60), things changed. Joan of Arc, the greatest heroine of French historv. led the French to victory and succeeded in having the Dauphin crowned at Rheims. Over the pext years, the French regained their territories and in 1453 the only English possession left in France was the port at carais. Towards the end of feudalism. The Black Death, a pestilence that swept across Europe and reached England in 1348, was the worst that ever befell the people of England. Nearly half of the English population died. The Black Death had a major impact on England's social structure because the reduced number of serts obliged the lords to pay free labourers who, being fewer in number, were able to demand higher wages. Although a Peasants' Revolt demanding for freedom and wages was checked in 1381, the rigid structure of the feudal system was beginning to crumble. This is particularly true ife consider the case of Beowulf. which developed out of a Germanic oral tradition through the activity of many storytellers contributing to its final form. Today scholars tend to believe that Beowulf as we know it is a single-author poem composed by a cultured man practising the art of poetry in an Anglo-Saxen court. The author of Beowulf was probably Christian and spoke Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon). PLOT The epic poem Beowulf is contained in a manuscript currently kept by the British Library. The manuscript was written down by two scribes in around the year 1000 CE, but it was composed before then, approximately between 700 CE and 1000 CE. The events narrated in the poem take place in an area now known as Scandinavia, not in Britain. This shows that the Anglo-Saxons shared a common group of legends and heroes with other Germanic peoples. The poem revolves around the actions of the Scandinavian prince Beowulf. In the first part, Beowulf travels from the land of the Geats (today southern Sweden) to the land of the Danes to free it from Grendel, a fire-breathing and man-eating monster. The second part of the poem presents the story of Beowulf as a king. After ruling for about 50 years in peace and prosperity, Beowulf is asked to fight another terrible dragon. Despite his old age, Beowulf manages to defeat the monster, but during the fight he is mortally wounded. The poem ends with the description of Beowulf's funeral. As Beowulf had requested, his body is burnt in a funeral pyre and is buried with the dragon's treasure in a place overlooking the sea.