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Samenvatting History and culuture of Anglo-Saxon countries (gedeelte UK)
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Samenvatting History and culuture of Anglo-Saxon countries (gedeelte UK)
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History and culture of Anglo-Saxon countries.History of the British isles
Chapter 1- The British Isles before the Norman
Conquest of 1066
British History started just like the rest of Europe becoming permanently settled around 10 000 BC,
nothing outstanding.
-Hunters/ gatherers society, moving around, hunting. These people had a good life with big forests
providing loads of food.
-Neolithic revolution:
Development of a ‘Celtic’ profile. Hunters/gatherers settle in hamlets (later larger villages), start of an
agricultural society, with the fastest development in south-east due to more ideal soil. (4000 BC)
Following the deteriorating climatological circumstances new land was taken and deforestation took
place. (1000 BC)
This also brings a first form of slavery with it, not much known about living situation and cultural
organization. Yet there was social inequality due to elites being able to build monuments (e.g.
Stonehenge), for this they needed to command resources and labour from others.
Social inequality also meant a very sexist society.
-Celitc culture: (6th century BC):
Also present in the rest of Europe.
-Linguistic community, culturally linked in terms of religion and practices.
-Still no shared identity or government. Small independent polities dominated by it’s own warrior
elite or landlord = frequent wars.
Never proven as a deep rout of western civilization.
-Roman invasion (43 AD-410 AD.)
First century AD, first Roman occupation as colony ‘Britannia’.
Started as invitation for Romans to help British settlements in 55-53 AD.
Invasion to impress Roman people and senate, managed to conquer most of today’s Wales and
England, never the whole of the British Isles. Today’s Ireland and Scotland remained Celtic societies.
-Introduction of roman ways of life:
-Urban society, towns build around military camps often named after them.
Looked a lot like Roman towns in Italy.
-Networks of roads, with settlements on the crossroads.
-Huge exchange of goods within RE, new things are brought to Britain, new economic entity.
-Upper class spoke Latin , others continue in the Celtic language.
-New religion; Christianity, now accepted and spread by the Romans.
This did not impy complete disappearance of beliefs and costums.
,-The ‘Dark ages’ (5th-6th century)
Collapse of Roman province Britannia. (around 400 AD)
-Very slow process
-Started with increasing attacks by Scottish and Irish raiders.
-Taxes continued to get raised to support defenses. Forcing people to leave the Roman towns,
leaving them unable to function.
-No people meant no taxes, leaving Roman defenses weak.
-The increasing presence of Germanic tribes in Roman Gaul made the emperor decide to leave the
British Isles in 410 AD, leaving local population to themselves.
The well developed urban network completely collapsed.
With more Germanic tribes like the Angles and the Saxons invading, the urban society had yet
another threat, with these tribes preferring to settle on the countryside..
Christianity disappeared and made way for Celtic practices or newly established Germanic cultural
practices. Also causing Latin to disappear. Leaving the impact of the Roman settlements to be quite
limited in the long run.
About the centuries that follow not much is known due to very little written evidence available =
Dark Ages.
Referred to as ‘dark’ because of the little knowledge we have of this period.
Otherwise this was a period in which normal people had a better life without taxes. So wellbeing was
increased in these ‘Dark Ages’.
The British Isles saw four cultural and linguistic spheres: three Celtic and one Germanic.
They were:
-Largely independent despite Celts having shared linguistic and cultural roots.
-Important for long lasting history of the British Isles.
Germanic society in England
-complex process to take it’s shape.
-Started with violent confrontation between Romano-Celtic inhabitants and Germanic immigrants.
-Germanic settlers became dominant. The Germanic ruling class emerged and this heterogeneous
community became known as the English from the eight century onwards, referring to the Angles.
= Anglo-Saxon, early English or early medieval period.
-Development of the English language, with surprisingly little of Celtic languages and Latin.
= Old English
-Got adopted in governance, administration and justice.
Wales
After being able to resist Germanic invaders the inhabitants of Wales formed a Celtic society, with its
own Celtic language laying the roots for todays Welsh.
, Northern region (Today’s Scotland)
-Escaped Roman occupation.
-Saw a fusion of it’s Celtic inhabitants. With this hybrid community becoming known as the ‘Scots’.
-Celtic language became dominant up to the 11 th century, after this English.
Ireland
-Also escaped Roman occupation.
-Remained patchwork of polities, all independent politically with a shared Celtic cultural framework.
-English became dominant here in the 12 th century.
The early medieval era (7th-11th century)
More written evidence available reveal important events:
-The (re) Christianization
From 7th century onwards.
-First in Ireland (5th century) under influence of Saint Patrick, who went to Ireland to convert people
to the Christian religion. Irish people to this day are very proud of this (Saint Patrick’s day).
-After the conversion of Ireland the Roman Catholic Church sent missionaries to the rest of the BI to
convert local population.
-The elites converted first, leading to lower class people following. After some time old beliefs
disappeared and Christianity eventually remained the only religion by the end of the 7 th century.
-In the 9th century an invasion by Danish Vikings caused a religious crisis. A big number of churches
and abbeys where destroyed by these non-christian invaders. But eventually even these invaders
would turn to Christianity.
However over the different parts of the BI different forms of Christianity occurred. Mainly the Celtic
regions followed a different trajectory to the Roman Catholic Church in England.
Ireland completely resisted a centralized unit, rather than bishops appointed by Rome, the island
was dominated by monasteries and abbeys, not under control of a bishop.
Only in the 12th century these institutions where integrated into the RCC.
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