British History

Introduction

British history, one of the most debated issues about Great Britain, goes back a long way, to ancient times, when Europe’s history had not yet started to be written.

One of the most important periods in British history is the one marking the birth of the British people, starting with the Celtic settlement, the first large scale migration to Britain, and ending up with the Norman Conquest of 1066, a moment which marks the beginning of a new period in British history.

The first stage in early British history is the Celtic settlement in Britain. The Celts, thought to be the oldest European population, originally inhabited the mainland of what is nowadays central France and Germany, from where they began their expansion into Spain, Denmark, the Balkans and of course Britain. They were superior to the population they found in Britain and soon enough they took control of most of the land, organising themselves into tribes, dominated by warriors and druids – the Celtic priests.

Another stage, by no means less important is the Roman period, marked by general development, the introduction of civilisation.

The conquest of Britain represented the Romans’ finest hour, and thus they tried to transform Britain into a Roman province, one that the Emperor would be proud of, despite Celtic opposition. A sign of the Romans’ weakness in front of the northern tribes of Scotland was Hadrian’s Wall, a defensive structure separating the Highlands from the Roman province of Britannia. Eventually, the Romans had to abandon Britain because of general decline, and with it the Celtic population in front of the barbarian danger.

The last stage, one full of political and social events, was the Anglo-Saxon period, one that would shape British history a great deal, changing it forever. Also known as the Dark Age, the Anglo-Saxon period marked the settlement in Britain of the Germanic tribes, the Angles, the Saxon and the Jutes, who gradually defeated the Celts and took over the island. It also meant Viking raids and invasions, which further agitated an already uncertain situation. Because of such events, the Celts were driven into remote areas such as Scotland, Wales and Ireland, where they continued to exist. Still, the Anglo-Saxon period had its advantages, as during these times the first kingdoms emerge and economic and cultural progress is recorded. However, this period ends in the 11th century AD with the Norman Conquest of Britain that was to bring a new order and set a new stage in British history.

And so ends the early stage of British history, the basis of what was to come, of what created one of the most powerful nations of classical and modern times.

Foreword

I have always liked history, especially ancient and medieval which is which is why I have chosen this topic. Another reason why I picked this topic is the importance and fame Britain has had in time and still has today in the world and which I think is worth taking into consideration and closer investigation. I divided my work into four chapters in which I am dealing in turn with every important aspect of early British history, starting with Celtic settlement and ending with the Norman Conquest of 1066, which marks a new epoque in the history of Great Britain.

As I see things, it is important to know and understand how a people was born and how it managed to keep going, especially when the people in question are the British, one of the most powerful nations of classical times and which continues to keep its status even today.

Another interesting aspect that has made me choose this topic is the complexity and variety of the phenomenon. Nowhere else in the world has the birth of a people been so complex, involving so many “components” and with so serious consequences for the future. Thus, I emphasized on the Anglo-Saxon period of early British history, along with the Viking raids and invasions which, to my mind, are representative for the evolutionary process of the British people, having left its mark on the outcome of the British nation.

To conclude, I would say the early period of the English history represents a milestone not just for Britain itself but also for the whole world, as in time, the world has been influenced a great deal by the British nation, one of the most powerful and famous ever.

Chapter I. – The Celts

Around 700 BC, another group of people began to arrive in Britain. These were the Celts, who probably came from central Europe or further east, from southern Russia, and had moved slowly westwards in earlier centuries. The Celts were technically advanced. They knew how to work with iron, and could make better weapons than the people who used bronze. It is possible that they drove many of the older inhabitants westwards into Wales and Ireland, or to the north into Scotland. The Celts began to control all the lowland areas of Britain, and were joined by new arrivals from the European mainland. They continued to arrive in one wave after another over the next seven hundred years.

The Celts are important in British history because they are the ancestors of many of the people in Highland Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Cornwall today. The British today are often described as Anglo-Saxon. It would be better to call them Anglo-Celt.

The Celtic culture as a whole, developing very early on about 1000 BC, and reaching its finest expression around 500 BC, is a fundamental part of Europe’s past. This is not to underrate the subsequent influence of the Latin and Germanic peoples on this part of Europe. But the Celtic foundation was al ready present. Thus, European culture is inconceivable without the Celtic contribution. Even when the presence of the Celts in their original territory is no longer obvious, we must acknowledge the fact: they are at the root of the Western European peoples who have made history.

The Celts might have invaded Britain or come peacefully as a result of the lively trade with Europe from about 750 BC onwards. They were organised into different tribes, and tribal chiefs were chosen from each family or tribe, sometimes as the result of fighting matches between individuals, and sometimes by election.

The last Celtic arrivals from Europe were the Belgic tribes, probably pushing the other Celtic tribes northwards as they did so. The Celtic tribes continued the same kind of agriculture as the Bronze Age people before them. But their use of iron technology and their introduction of more advanced ploughing methods made it possible for them to farm heavier soils. They continued to use, and build, hill-forts. The increase of these, particularly in the south-east, suggests that the Celts were highly successful farmers, growing enough food for a much larger population. The hill-forts remained the center for local groups. The insides of these hill-forts were filled with houses, and they became the simple economic capitals and smaller “towns” of the different tribal areas into which Britain was now divided. They remained local economic centers long after the Romans came to Britain and long after they went. Within living memory certain annual fairs were associated with hill-forts, like the September fair on the site of a Dorset hill-fort, turned into a literary subject.

The Celts traded across tribal borders and trade was probably important for political and social contact between the tribes. Trade with Ireland went through the island of Anglesey. The two main trade outlets eastwards to Europe were the settlements along the Thames River in the south and on the Firth of Forth in the north. It is no accident that the present-day capitals of England and Scotland stand on or near these two ancient trade centres. Much trade, both inside and beyond Britain, was conducted by river and sea. For money, the Celts used iron bars, until they began to copy the Roman coins they saw used in Gaul.

According to the Romans, the Celtic men wore shirts and breeches and striped or checked cloaks fastened by a pin. It is possible that the Scottish tartan and dress developed from this “striped cloak”.

The Celtic tribes were ruled over by a warrior class, of which the priests, or Druids, seem to have been particularly important members. These Druids could not read or write, but they memorised all the religious teachings, the tribal laws, history, medicine and other knowledge necessary in Celtic society. The Druids from different tribes all over Britain probably met once a year. They had no temples, but they met in sacred groves of trees, on certain hills, by rivers or by river sources. Their forms of worship included human sacrifice.

Chapter II. – The Romans and Roman life

The name “Britain” comes from the word “Pretani”, the Greco-Roman word for the inhabitants of Britain. The Romans mispronounced the word and called the island “Britannia”. The Romans had invaded because the Celts of Britain were working with the Celts of Gaul against them. There was another reason. Under the Celts Britain had become an important food producer because of its mild climate. It now exported corn and animals to the European main land. The Romans could make use of British food for their own army fighting the Gauls.

Julius Caesar first came to Britain in 55 BC, but it was not until al most a century later in 43 AD, that a Roman army actually occupied Britain. The Romans were determined to conquer the whole island. They had little difficulty, apart from the revolt of the Iceni tribe, led by their queen Bodicea, because they had a better trained army and because the Celtic tribes fought among themselves. The Romans considered the Celts as war-mad, “high spirited and quick for battle”.

The Romans established a Romano-British culture across the southern half of Britain, from the River Humber to the River Seven. This part of Britain was inside the empire. Beyond were the upland areas, under Roman control but not developed. These areas were watched from the towns of York, Chester and Caerleon in the western peninsula of Britain that later became known as Wales. Each of these towns was held by a Roman legion of about 7,000 men. The total Roman army in Britain was about 40,000 men.

The Romans could not conquer “Caledonia”, as they called Scotland, although they spent over a century trying to do so. At last they built a strong wall along the northern border, named after the Emperor Hadrian who planned it. At the time, Hadrian’s wall was simply intended to keep out raiders from the north. But it also marked the border between the two later countries England and Scotland. Apart from this, it represented an important trade point for the Celts and Romans alike, as merchants were safe from northern attacks and raids of the Scots and Picts.

Roman control of Britain came to an end as the empire began to collapse. The first signs were the attacks by Celts of Caledonia in AD 367. The Roman legions found it more and more difficult to stop the raiders from crossing Hadrian’s wall. The same was happening on the European mainland as Germanic groups, Saxons and Franks, began to raid the coast of Gaul. In AD 409 Rome pulled its last soldiers out of Britain and the Romano-British, the Romanised Celts, were left to fight alone against the Scots, the Irish and the Saxon raiders from Germany. The falloving year Rome itself fell to raiders.

The most obvious characteristic of Roman Britain was its towns, which were the basis of Roman administration and civilisation. Many grew out of Celtic settlements, military camps or market centres. Broadly, there were three different kinds of town in Roman Britain, two of which were towns established by Roman charter. These were the “coloniae”, towns peopled by Roman settlers, and the “municipia”, large cities in which the whole population was given Roman citizenship. The third kind, the “civitas”, included the old Celtic tribal capitals, through which the Romans administered the Celtic population in the countryside. At first, these towns had no walls. Then, probably from the end of the second century to the end of the third century AD, almost every town was given walls. At first many of these were no more than earthworks, but by AD 300 all towns had thick stone walls.

The Romans left about twenty large towns of about 5,000 inhabitants, and almost one hundred smaller ones. Many of these towns were at first army camps, and the latin word for camp, “castra”, has remained part of many town names to this day, with the ending “chester”, “caster” or “cester”, like Gloucester, Leicester, Doncaster, Winchester, Lancaster and many others besides.

These towns were built with stone as well as wood, and had planned streets, markets and shops. Some buildings had central heating. They were connected by roads which were so well built that they survived when later roads broke up. These roads continued to be used long after the Romans left, and became the main roads of modern Britain. Six of these Roman roads met in London, a capital city of about 20,000 people. London was twice the size of Paris, and possibly the most important trading centre of northern Europe, because southeast Europe produced so much corn for export. Outside the towns, the biggest change during the Roman occupation was the growth of large farms, called “villas”. These belonged to the richer Britons, who were, like the townspeople, more Roman than Celt in their manners. The “villas” were usually close to towns so that the crops could be sold easily.

Due to peaceful times and increased economic life, the British population was, after the Romans had left the island, around five million. But the new wave of invaders changed all that.

Chapter III. The invaders Anglo-Saxons and Vikings

The wealth of Britain by the fourth century was a temptation to the greedy. At first Germanic tribes only raided Britain, but after AD 430 they began to settle. The invaders came from three powerful Germanic tribes, the Saxons, Angles and Jutes. The Jutes settled mainly in Kent and along the south coast, and were soon considered no different from the Angles and Saxons. The Angles settled in the east, and also in the north Midlands, while the Saxons settled between the Jutes and the Angles in a band of land from the Thames Estuary westwards. The Anglo-Saxon migrations gave the larger part of Britain its new name, England, “the land of the Angles”.

The British Celts fought the raiders and settlers from Germany as well as they the could. However, during the next hundred years they were slowly pushed westwards until by 570 they were forced west of Gloucester. Finally most were driven into the mountains in the far west, which the Saxons called “Weallas” or “Wales”, meaning “the land of the foreigners”. In the north, other Celts were driven into the lowlands of the country which became known as Scotland. Hardly anything is left of Celtic language or culture in England except for the names of some rivers, Thames, Mersey, Severn and Avon and two large cities, London and Leeds.

The strength of Anglo-Saxon culture is obvious even today. Days of the week were named after Germanic gods: Tig – Tuesday, Wodin – Wednesday, Thor – Thursday, Frei – Friday. New place – names appeared on the map. The first of these show that the earliest Saxon villages, like the Celtic ones, were family villages. 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, “ton” means settlement. Birmingham, Nottingham or Southampton, for example, are Saxon place – names.

The Anglo – Saxons established a number of kingdoms, some of which still exist in county or regional names to this day: Essex – East Saxons, Sussex – South Saxons, Wessex – West Saxons, East Anglia – East Angles. By the middle of the seventh century the three largest kingdoms, those of Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex, were the most powerful. It was not until a century later that one of these kings, King Offa of Mercia claimed “kingship of the English”. He was powerful enough to employ thousands of men to build a huge dyke, or earth wall, the length of the Welsh border to keep the troublesome Celts. But although he was the most powerful king of his time, he did not control all of England.

The Saxons created institutions which made the English state strong for the next 500 years. One of these institutions was the King’s Council, called the Witan. Its authority was based on the right to choose kings and to agree the use of the king’s laws.

The Saxons also divided the land into new administrative areas, based on ’’shires’’, or counties. Over each shire was appointed a shire reeve, the king’s local administrator. In time his name became shortened to ’’sheriff’’. In each district was a ’’manor’’ or large house. This was a simple building where local villagers came to pay taxes, where justice was administered, and where men met together to join the Anglo-Saxon army, the fyrd.

Towards the end of the century new raiders were tempted by Britain’s wealth. These were the Vikings, a word which probably means either “pirates” or “the people of the sea inlets”, and they came from Norway and Denmark. Like the Anglo – Saxons they only raided at first. They burnt churches and monasteries along the east, north and west coasts of Britain and Ireland.

Before Alfred, the Danes had been relatively unopposed. They came in a huge fleet to London in 851 to destroy the army of Mercia and capture Canterbury, only to receive their first check at the hands of Aethelstan of Wessex. But this time, instead of sailing home with their booty, the Danish seamen and soldiers stayed the winter on the Isle of Thanet on the Thames where the men of Hengist had come ashore centuries earlier. Like their Saxon predecessors, the Danes showed that they had come to stay.

It was not too long before the Danes had become firmly entrenched seemingly everywhere they chose in England (many of the invaders came from Norway and Sweden as well as Denmark). They had begun their deprivations with the devastation of Lindisfarne in 793, and the next hundred years saw army after army crossing the North Sea, first to find treasure, and then to take over good, productive farm lands upon which to raise their families. Outside Wessex, their ships were able to penetrate far inland; they sailed with impunity up the Dee, Humber, Ribble, Tyne, Medway and Thames, and founded their communities wherever the rivers met the sea.

In the West, Aethelwulf succeeded Egbert continuing his father's role as protector of the English people. He was succeeded by Aethelred, who continued to hold his lands against the ever-increasing host of the Danes, now firmly in control of Northumbria, including York. In 867, the Danes also made incursions into Mercia and had conquered all of East Anglia. Of all the English kingdoms, Wessex now stood almost alone. Armies under Aethelred and the young Alfred fought the Danes to a standstill, neither side claiming complete victory, but the borders of Wessex remained secure.

Alfred was born in 849. He became King of Wessex in 871 the year the Danes defeated a large English force at Reading. The invaders had already shown their strength by splitting their forces in two: one remaining in the North under Halfdene, where they settled down as farmers and the lords of large estates; and the other moving southwards under King Guthrum, anxious to add Wessex to his territories. Before Alfred, the results of battles against the Danes often depended upon chance; there was no standing army in England and response to threats without meant the calling up of the "fyrd" or the local levies. The Danes marched westward without opposition. Not strong enough to offer total resistance, Alfred was forced to pay tribute to buy off the Danish army until he could build up his supporters. Taking refuge on the Isle of Athelney, he conducted a campaign of guerilla warfare against the foreign occupiers of his kingdom; it wasn't long before the men of Wessex were ready to reassert themselves.

The turning point took place in 878. From the Chronicle, we learn of the decisive event that took place at Edington (Ethandune), when Alfred "fought with the whole force of the Danes and put them to flight, and rode after them to their fortifications and besieged them a fortnight. Then the Danes gave him hostages as security, and swore great oaths that they would leave his kingdom; and they promised him that their king should receive baptism. And they carried out their promises…" Wessex had been saved.

Alfred's successes were partly due to his building up the West Saxon navy into a fleet that could not only meet the Danes on equal terms, but defeat them in battle. According to the Chronicle of 896, when the enemy attacked the south coast of Wessex "with the warships which they had built many years before," Alfred "bade build long ships against the Danish warships: they were nearly twice as long as the others: some had sixty oars, some more: they were both swifter and steadier and higher than the others. They were built neither on the Frisian pattern nor on the Danish, but as it seemed to the king that they might be most serviceable." The Chronicle also records one of his victories in 882, though he was later defeated by a large Danish force of the mouth of the River Stour. Alfred also fortified the key English towns.

East Anglia and Southern Mercia remained in Danish hands. In 896, however, Alfred occupied London, giving the first indication that the lands which had lately passed under Danish control might be reclaimed. His success made him the obvious leader of all those who, in any part of the country, wished for a reversal of the disasters, and it was immediately followed by a general recognition of his lordship. In the words of the Chronicle, "all the English people submitted to Alfred except those who were under the power of the Danes." Furthermore, the city of London, on the southeastern edge of Mercia became a national symbol of English defiance. Its capture made Alfred truly the first king of England.

By 950 England seemed rich and peaceful again after the troubles of the Viking invasion. But soon afterwards the Danish Vikings started raiding westwards. The Saxon king, Ethelred, decided to pay the Vikings to stay away. To find the money he set a tax on all his people, called Danegeld, or ”Danish money”. It was the beginning of a regular tax system of the people which would provide the money for armies.

In a sea battle in 1000 AD, Anlaf, now known as Olaf, King of Norway, was defeated by the Danish King Sweyn who continued his rivals raids on England, and who in turn, was offered huge sums by Ethelred. But the Danes refused to stop their raids. Giving command of a great army to his son Cnut, Sweyn marched on and conquered Winchester and Oxford and forced Ethelred to flee to France, only returning to England upon the death of Sweyn in the year 1003. More fighting continued under Edmund, who succeeded his father Ethelred by appointment of the citizens of London, anxious to be led by one who was called Edmund Ironside on account of his great strength. Edmund won many important victories, but the strength of the Danes forced him to make peace with Cnut, and at Alney, it was agreed that Edmund should be King of Wessex and Cnut of Mercia. Upon Edmund's death, that same year, Cnut Ethelred's widow that sam became king of all England. Formally taking the reins of power in 1017, he married e year.

Meanwhile, there had been important developments in the administration of English law that would have profound effects upon the future legal system. Changing social conditions led to Aethelstan issuing many new laws. He had to deal in legislation with lords who "maintained" their men in defiance of right and justice. Under Edgar, who became King in Wessex in 954, a semblance of order was restored, and England was made secure at least temporarily. It is recorded that eight kings in Britain came to him on a single day to acknowledge his supremacy. He was the first English King to recognize in legislation that the Danish east of England was no longer a conquered province, but an integral part of the English realm.

Legal customs from the Scandinavian North were practiced throughout the eastern counties of England; villages were combined into local divisions for the administration of justice. These divisions were known as wapentakes. The word first appeared when Edgar refered in general terms to the buying and selling of goods in a borough or a wapentake. There seems to have been no essential difference of function between the courts of the wapentake and those of the more familiar hundred. Under Ethelred, the wapentake court appeared as the fundamental unit in the organization of justice throughout the territory of the five boroughs. The authority of a ruler universally regarded as king of England was placed over the local courts.

The most interesting feature of the organization was the aristocratic jury of presentment which initiated the prosecution of suspected persons in the court of the wapentake. In what is known as the Wantage Code of Ethelred, one passage states that the twelve leading thegns in each wapentake were to go out from the court and swear that they would neither accuse the innocent nor protect the guilty. Thus the sworn jury, hitherto unknown to English law, came into being in a most important document in English legal history. The fate of the suspect, however, was still settled by ordeal, not by the judgment of the thegns who presented them.

The strength of the Crown, with the king becoming arbiter of the law continued during the reign of Cnut, the first Viking leader to be admitted into the civilized fraternity of Christian Kings, and one who was determined to rule as the chosen king of the English people as well as King of Denmark, Norway, and part of Sweden. It is generally agreed that he turned the part of conquering Viking ruler into one of the best kings ever enjoyed by the English people. Ruler of a united land, he kept the peace, enforced the laws, became a generous patron of the Church and raised the prestige of England to unprecedented levels on the Continent of Europe. Upon his death, he had become part of the national heritage of England, his favorite realm.

Cnut and his successors became heirs to the English laws and traditions of Wessex. At a great assembly in Oxford in 1018, he agreed to follow the laws of Edgar; his Danish compatriots were to adopt the laws of their English neighbors, be content as subjects of a Danish king in an English country. Cnut ruled England as it had long been ruled: he consulted his bishops and his subjects. He even traveled to Rome in 1027 to attend the coronation of the new Holy Roman Emperor but also to consult with the Pope on behalf of all his people, Englishmen and Danes. He made atonement for the atrocities of the past wrought by Danish invaders by visiting the site of the battle with Edmund Ironside at Ashingdon and dedicating a church to the fallen. His eighteen-year rule was indeed a golden one for England, even though it was part of a Scandinavian empire. Cnut died in 1035 and was buried in the traditional resting place of the Saxon Kings, at Winchester.

After Canute’s death, the Witan chose Edward, one of Ethelred’s sons, to be king. Edward, known as “the Confessor”, was more interested in the Church than in kingship. Church building had been going on for over a century and he encouraged it. Edward started a new church fit for a king at Westminster, just outside the city of London. In fact Westminster Abbey was a Norman, not a Saxon building, because he had spend almost all his life in Normandy and his mother was a daughter of the duke of Normandy.

Chapter IV. The Celtic kingdoms – Wales and Scotland

By the eighth century most of the Celts had been driven into the Welsh peninsula. They were kept out of England by Offa’s Dyke, the huge earth wall built in AD 779. These Celts, called Welsh by the Anglo – Saxons, called themselves cymry, “fellow countrymen”.

Because Wales is a mountainous country, the cymry could only live in the crowded valleys. The rest of the land was rocky and too poor for anything except keeping animals. For this reason the population remained small. It only grew to over half a million in the eighteenth century. Life was hard and so was the behaviour of the people. Slavery was common, as it had been all through Celtic Britain.

In 1039 Gruffydd ap (son of) Llewelyn was the first Welsh high king strong enough to rule over all Wales. He was also the last, and in order to remain in control he almost the whole of his reign fighting his enemies. Like many other Welsh rulers, Gruggydd was killed by a cymry while defending Wales against the Saxons. Welsh kings after him were able to rule only after they had promised loyalty to Edward the Confessor, king of England. The story of an independent and united Wales was over almost as soon as it had begun.

As a result of its geography, Scotland has two different societies. In the centre of Scotland mountains stretch to the far north and across the west, beyond which lie many islands. To the east and to the south the lowland hills are gentler, and much of the countryside is like England, rich, welcoming and easy to farm. North of the “Highland Line”, as the division between highland and lowland is called, people stayed tied to their own family groups. South and east of this line society was more easily influenced by the changes taking place in England.

Scotland was populated by four separate groups of people. The main group, the Picts, lived mostly in the north and northeast. They spoke Celtic as well as another, probably older, language completely unconnected with any known language today, and they seem to have been the earliest inhabitants of the land. The Picts were different from the Celts because they inherited their rights, their names and property from their mothers, not from their fathers.

The non-Pictish inhabitants were mainly Scots. The Scots were Celtic settlers who had started to move into the western Highlands from Ireland in the fourth century.

In 843 the Pictish and Scottish kingdoms were united under a Scottish king, who could also probably claim the Pictish throne through his mother, in this way obeying both Scottish and Pictish rules of kingship.

The third group were the Britons, who inhabited the Lowlands, and had been part of the Romano-British world. They had probably given up their old tribal way of life by the sixth century. Finally, there were Angles from Northumbria who had pushed northwards into the Scottish Lowlands.

Unity between Picts, Scots and Britons was achieved for several reasons. They all shared a common Celtic culture, language and background. Their economy mainly depended on keeping animals. These animals were owned by the tribe as a whole, and for this reason land was also held by tribes, not by individual people. The common economic system increased their feeling of belonging to the same kind of society and the feeling of difference from the agricultural Lowlands. The sense of common culture may have been increased by marriage alliances between tribes. This idea of common landholding remained strong until the tribes of Scotland, called “clans”, collapsed in the eighteenth century.

The spread of Celtic Christianity also helped to unite the people. The Christian mission to Scotland had come to southwest Scotland in about AD 400. Later, in 563, Columba, known as the “Dove of the Church’, came from Ireland. Through his work both Highland Scots and Picts were brought to Christianity. He even, so it is said, defeated a monster in Loch Ness, the first mention of this famous creature. By the time of the Synod of Whitby in 663, the Picts, Scots and Britons had all been brought together by Christianity.

Finally, as in Ireland and in Wales, foreign invaders increased the speed of political change. Vikings attacked the coastal areas of Scotland, and they settled on many of the islands, Shetland, the Orkneys, the Hebrides, and the Isle of Man southwest of Scotland. In order to resist them, Picts and Scots fought together against the enemy raiders and settlers. When they could not push them out of the islands and coastal areas, they had to deal with them politically. At first the Vikings, or “Norsemen”, still served the king of Norway. But communications with Norway were difficult. Slowly the earls of Orkney and other areas found it easier to accept the king of Scots as their overlord, rather than the more distant king of Norway.

H0wever, as the Welsh had also discovered, the English were a greater danger than the Vikings. In 934 the Scots were seriously defeated by Wessex army pushing northwards. The Scots to seek the friendship of the English, because of the likely losses from war. England was obviously stronger than Scotland but, luckily for the Scots, both the north of England and Scotland were difficult to control from London. The Scots hoped that if they were reasonably peaceful the Sassenachs, as they called the Saxons (and still call the English), would leave them alone.

Chapter V. The Norman Conquest

As their name suggests, the Normans were people from the north. They were the children and grandchildren of Vikings who had captured, and settled in northern France. They had soon become French in their language and Christian in their religion.

When Edward died in 1066, he had no obvious heir to the throne. He had brought many Normans to his English court from France, but they were not liked by the more powerful Saxon nobles, particularly by the most powerful family of Wessex, the Godwinsons. It was a Godwinson, Harold, whom the Witan chose to be the next king of England. Harold had already shown his bravery and ability. He had no royal blood, but he seemed a good choice for the throne of England. Harold’s right to the English throne was challenged by Duke William of Normandy, who had two claims to it. His first claim was that king Edward had promised it to him. The second claim was that Harold, who had visited William in 1064 had promised him that he would not try to take the throne for himself. Harold did not deny this second claim, but said he had been forced to make the promise, and that because it was made unwillingly he was not tied by it.

Harold was faced by two dangers, one in the south and one in the north. The Danish Vikings, led by Harald Hardraake, had not given up their claim to the English throne. In 1066 Harold had to march north into Yorkshire to defeat the Danes. No sooner had he defeated them than he learnt that William had landed in England with an army. His men were tired, but they had no time to rest. They marched south as fast as possible. Harold decided not to wait for the whole Saxon army, the fyrd, to gather because William’s army was small. He thought he could beat them with the men who had done so well against the Danes. However, the Norman soldiers were better armed, better organised, and were mounted on horses. Time was now Harold’s ally, as William together with his small army were isolated in foreign teritory and the Saxon army was getting larger every day. Still, disregarding his generals’ advice, Harold decided to engage the Norman army, positioning his troops on a hill top, from where he could keep an eye on the enemy’s movement of units. Forming a compact wall the Saxon army was ready to repel any Norman attack. Although they tried hard to anihilate the enemy, the Saxons were finally defeated thanks to a better Norman army but also with the aid of a trick to which Harold fell victim. If he had waited, Harold might have won, but instead he was defeated and killed in battle near Hastings

The only standing army in England had been defeated in an-all day battle in which the outcome was in doubt until the undisciplined English had broken ranks to pursue the Normans' feigning retreat.

Had Harold Hardrada won at Stamford Bridge, England would surely have become part of the Scandinavian Empire with all its attendant problems. Had Harold of Wessex won at Hastings, and it was touch and go all day, then the future course of England would have been certainly different. We can only guess at further isolation from the Continent and the making of a truly island nation at this very early date. We do know that William of Normandy won and changed the face of the nation forever. Not only was the land now governed by a foreign king and subjected to a foreign aristocracy, for the next four hundred years it wasted its resources and manpower on futile attempts to keep its French interests alive while, at the same time, becoming part of (and contributing to) the spectacular flowering of European culture.
The Conquest meant a new dynasty for England and a new aristocracy. It brought feudalism and it introduced changes in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, with the attendant change in the relations of Church and State. In the early part of the 11th century, mainly under the Cluniac Order, there had been a tremendous monastic revival in the Dukedom of Normandy. This came about as a result of close cooperation between King and Church in what was basically a feudal society, and one which was transferred to England in 1066 lock, stock and barrel.

A new period had begun, a period that was going to influence the British history, like none other before or even after that.

Conclusion

The Celtic settlement, Roman Britain, Anglo – Saxon period and the Viking invasion, the Norman Conquest – the very first pages of British history, the birth of the most powerful nation of classical times. Throughout the four chapters of early British history, emphasis was laid on the key elements that helped with the “birth” of the British nation.

Firstly there are the Celts, the oldest in habitants of Europe and the oldest important population of Britain, a rather barbarian people, dominated by warriors and druids – the priesthood. A population which created the premises of a future British nation.

Of significant importance to the development of Britain were the Romans, who during their occupation of the island brought civilisation and with it new opportunities, that were to fade away with the abandoning of Brittania.

Of special importance to the “birth” of the British nation are the Anglo – Saxons and Vikings. Although thy brought with them the Dark Age in Britain, the Anglo – Saxons influenced the course of history a great deal, influence which can still be seen today.

And, finally, there is the Norman Conquest of 1066, which came in a time of political unrest in Britain and which drove away the Anglo – Saxon rule, changing British history .

On the whole, an insight of the early history of one of the most powerful and famous nations of classical and modern times, the “birth” of a people who was going to influence, throughout its history the whole world, a people who’s glorious past reverberates at present, a people unsurpassed by any other – the British.