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    Celts, Romans and Saxons: DR Jesús Blanco Hidalga

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    Carlota Dcp
    The Celts were the first inhabitants of Britain, arriving around 800 BC and establishing tribal communities. In 43 AD, the Romans invaded Britain and controlled southern parts of the island for over 300 years, introducing Roman infrastructure. Following the decline of Roman rule in the early 5th century, various Germanic tribes including the Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded Britain, establishing Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and displacing the Celtic culture to the western fringes. Viking invasions from the 9th century resulted in their settlement in parts of Britain as well.

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    Celts, Romans and Saxons: DR Jesús Blanco Hidalga

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    Carlota Dcp
    46 views23 pages
    The Celts were the first inhabitants of Britain, arriving around 800 BC and establishing tribal communities. In 43 AD, the Romans invaded Britain and controlled southern parts of the island for over 300 years, introducing Roman infrastructure. Following the decline of Roman rule in the early 5th century, various Germanic tribes including the Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded Britain, establishing Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and displacing the Celtic culture to the western fringes. Viking invasions from the 9th century resulted in their settlement in parts of Britain as well.

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    The Celts were the first inhabitants of Britain, arriving around 800 BC and establishing tribal communities. In 43 AD, the Romans invaded Britain and controlled southern parts of the island for over 300 years, introducing Roman infrastructure. Following the decline of Roman rule in the early 5th century, various Germanic tribes including the Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded Britain, establishing Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and displacing the Celtic culture to the western fringes. Viking invasions from the 9th century resulted in their settlement in parts of Britain as well.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    46 views23 pages

    Celts, Romans and Saxons: DR Jesús Blanco Hidalga

    Uploaded by

    Carlota Dcp
    The Celts were the first inhabitants of Britain, arriving around 800 BC and establishing tribal communities. In 43 AD, the Romans invaded Britain and controlled southern parts of the island for over 300 years, introducing Roman infrastructure. Following the decline of Roman rule in the early 5th century, various Germanic tribes including the Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded Britain, establishing Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and displacing the Celtic culture to the western fringes. Viking invasions from the 9th century resulted in their settlement in parts of Britain as well.

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    of 23

    CELTS, ROMANS AND SAXONS

    Dr JESÚS BLANCO HIDALGA


    Departamento de Filologías Inglesa y Alemana
    WHO WERE THE CELTS?

    • Over 2000 years ago, there was an Iron


    Age Celtic Culture in the British Isles.
    • The Celts had been arriving from the
    continent since the 8th century BC.
    • They were tied by a similar language,
    religion, and cultural expressions.
    • They were divided up into different
    tribes ruled by chiefs who lived in hill
    forts.
    WHAT WERE THE CELTS
    LIKE?

    • They were renowned warriors. However,


    there was never an organized Celtic
    invasion. It was a gradual process of
    settlement over a long period of time.
    • The Celts did not form a unified political
    entity.
    • They left no written records.
    • They settled in different parts of western
    Europe: Britain, Ireland, France, Spain, etc.
    THEY WE RE TH E FIRST TO USE IRON

    • The advent of iron had important consequences:


    • Because iron was cheap and available, it changed trade and
    fostered local independence.
    • The Celts brought a very important innovation to
    agriculture: the iron plough, which greatly increased the
    land’s productivity.
    CELTIC TRIBES AND
    CLANS

    • The Celts were divided into different tribes.


    • The basic social unit was the clan, which was
    a kind of extended family.
    • Each clan had its own leaders, social structure,
    customs, and even gods.
    THEIR
    RELIGIOUS
    PRACTICES

    • The Celts were


    Pagans (holding
    beliefs that were not
    part of the world’s
    main religions).
    • They had a very
    powerful priestly
    class called the
    Druids, who used to
    offer sacrifices on
    behalf of the people.
    • After the Celtic settlement, Britain was
    the stage of four foreign invasions. The
    invaders came from different sections
    of Europe and for different reasons.
    THE FOUR
    • The Roman invasion (43 AD)
    INVASIONS OF
    BRITAIN • The Germanic invasions (410 AD-
    1066)
    • The Viking Invasions (9th C – 11th C)
    • The Norman invasion 1066
    THE ROMAN INVASION
    THE ROMA N INVA S ION OF BRITA I N:
    FIRS T ATTEMPT

    • In the summer of 55 B.C. Julius Caesar planned an expedition to Britain.


    It was an exploration expedition or perhaps a punitive one, not a real
    attempt to invade the territory.

    • In the same year (55 B.C.), Caesar had conquered France, which was
    called Gaul by the time. The Gauls fought hard against the Romans and
    had been helped by their allies in Britain. It is possible that Caesar
    decided to teach the Britons a lesson.

    • He attempted to invade Britain, thus, a year later (54 B.C.), but Celtic
    warriors and rotten British weather made his army give up and return to
    Gaul.
    2 ND ATTEMPT: 43 A.D.

    • Emperor Claudius sent another army to Britain. This time the


    army came to stay.
    • Claudius sent one of his generals leading 48,000 troops that
    landed in East Kent. They managed to conquer the south and the
    east, but they found fierce resistance in the north (today’s
    Scotland).
    • The Romans build Hadrian’s Wall in the 2nd century AD to keep
    the northern Celts (Scots and Picts) at bay. It marked one of the
    borders of the Roman Empire. Today, the remains are very close
    to the border between Scotland and England.
    THE ROMAN PERIOD

    • The Roman province of Britannia covered most of


    present-day England and Wales.
    • The Romans made use of the existing Celtic
    aristocracy to govern (‘client kings’).
    • Romanization in Britain was not as intense as in
    other provinces of the Empire.
    • Their influence was mostly confined to the towns.
    Their contribution to the ethnic makeup of Britain
    was very limited.
    • They built an extensive network of roads.
    THE ROMAN PERIOD #2

    •
    • The Romans built a settlement to become a trade
    and administrative centre, which they called
    Londinium. It became the of capital of Britannia.
    • Although the Romans stayed in Britain for a long
    time, they left relatively little behind,. Their towns,
    roads, villas, baths and temples were soon
    destroyed or fell into disrepair.
    • The contribution of Latin to the languages spoken
    in Britain was minimal during the Roman period.
    It may be found in place-names like Chester,
    Lancaster or Gloucester, which include variants of
    the Roman word castra (a military camp)
    THE
    GERMANIC
    INVASIONS

    ANGLES, JUTES AND


    SAXONS
    • They did not come with an
    organized army like the
    Romans. Instead, they came in
    the form of successive raids.

    WHY DID • They first came for plunder (to


    take what they want and then
    THE leave), but afterwards they
    sought settlement in Britain.
    ANGLO- • Because they decided to settle,
    SAXONS they had to interact. When
    settlers mixed with the Celts,
    INVADE there was a change in the
    BRITAIN? ethnic makeup of Britons.
    • The Anglo-Saxon invasion
    changed Britain beyond
    recognition.
    THE ANGLO-SAXON
    PERIOD (410-1066)

    • During the 5th century, a number of tribes


    from north-western Europe invaded and
    settled Britain in great numbers. Two of
    these tribes were the Anglos and Saxons.
    • The Anglo-Saxons had little use for towns,
    but they had a great effect in the
    countryside: they introduced new farming
    methods and founded thousands of self-
    sufficient villages. These villages formed
    the basis of English society for the next
    thousand years.
    • The Celtic Britons were either Saxonized
    or driven westwards, where their culture
    and language survived in south-west
    Scotland, Wales and Cornwall.
    THE ANGLO-
    SAXON PERIOD #2

    • The Anglo-Saxon spoke Germanic


    tongues that became the basis for
    Old English. They left a small
    literary corpus, with the epic poem
    Beowulf (9th C) as the most
    important work.

    • They brought to Britain the idea of


    kingship and kingdom: England was
    divided into seven kingdoms, each
    one ruled by a different king:
    Wesex, Essex, Sussex, Northumbria,
    Kent, Mercia, East Anglia.
    THE ANGLO-SAXON
    PERIOD #3

    • The Anglo-Saxons were pagans when they


    came to Britain but they were gradually
    christianized.
    • St Augustine was sent by the Pope with that
    mision. He arrived in 597 and set his
    headquarters in Canterbury, future seat of the
    Archbishop.
    • Christianity had already been introduced in
    Scotland and Northern England by
    missionaries from Ireland.
    THE ANGLO -SAXON PERIOD#4

    • The Saxons created the Witan (King’s Council). The Witan elected
    the King (monarchy was not hereditary but elective). By the 11th
    century, royal authority in England was among the strongest in
    Europe.
    • The Saxons divided the land into new administrative areas: the
    shires (counties). This division has reached our times with little
    changes. Each shire had a King’s local administrator, the sheriff.
    • In each district there was a manor, or large house, where the taxes
    were paid, justice was administered, and the men met to join the
    fyrd (the Saxon army). The lord of the manor organised all this. It
    was the beginning of the manorial system, which was further
    developed by the Normans.
    • Growing partnership between the Church and the state. Saxon kings
    helped the Church to grow. In turn, bishops gave kings their support,
    which made it harder for royal power to be questioned.
    THE ANGLO
    SAXON PERIOD#5

    • Farming: The Saxons introduced a far


    heavier plough, suitable for heavier
    grounds. New lands were cultivated. They
    also introduced a three-fold system of crop
    rotation that was used until the 18th
    century.
    • Two important historiographic works
    from the period: the Ecclesiastical History of
    the English People, written by Bede about
    731,and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, started by
    Alfred the Great in the late 9th century.
    • Some examples of Anglo-Saxon culture still
    present in the English language. The days of
    the week were named after Germanic gods:
    Tig (Tuesday), Wodin (Wednesday), Thor
    (Thursday), Frei (Friday).
    • Place names: the ending –ing meant ‘folk’ or
    ‘family’. Thus, Reading is the place of the
    family of Rada, Hastings of the family of
    Hasta. Ham means ‘farm’ and ton means
    ‘settlement’: Birmingham, Nottingham,
    Southampton.
    SUTTON
    HOO

    • Sutton Hoo is the site


    of two Anglo-Saxon
    cemeteries from the
    6th and 7th centuries.
    It is located in Suffolk.
    • It was discovered in
    1937 and it is one of
    the most important
    archeological sites in
    Britain.
    VIKINGS!

    • Britain experienced another wave of Germanic


    invasions in the 8th and 9th centuries. These
    invaders were known as Vikings, Norsemen or
    Danes. They came from Scandinavia.

    • Their conquest of England was halted by King


    Alfred the Great, of the Saxon kingdom of
    Wessex.

    • There was an agreement in 878 which resulted


    in the partition of England between Wessex
    (south and west of England), ruled by Alfred,
    and the ‘Danelaw’ in the north and east.
    EPILOGUE:
    KING
    ARTHUR

    • King Arthur provides a Good


    example of the distortions of
    popular history. In folklore
    and myth he is a great
    English hero, and he and his
    knights of the round table
    are regarded as the perfect
    example of medieval nobility
    and chivalry.
    • In fact, King Arthur lived long
    before medieval times and
    was a Romanized Celtic
    leader trying to hold back
    the advances of the Anglo-
    saxons—the very people
    who later became ‘the
    English’!

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