British history

I/Roman Britain

the roman domination of Britain lasted about 300 years in 55-54 before Christ (BC) , Julius Caesar made two attempts at invasion both of which were unsuccessfull.

However following these military adventures the much more subtle and fruitfull methods of invasion by stealth was tryde ( venaient à la dérobée) .

Roman traders established settelments in Britain and gained influence at the courts of the tribal celtics kings . It is during this period that we see London emerging as the major city in England. It was built on the banks of the thames being a convinient landing place for continental trading ships.

In Ano Domini (AD : après JC) 43 the romans attempted another invasion and this time met with little resistance , except in Wales and Scotland were contacts with romans had been very limited while Wales was supressed but not completely conquered Scotland successfully reposted the invaders mainly with the pics. In AD 123 emperor Hadrian ordered a wall to be built across nothern England as the form of defense and as an indication of the nothern limit of the roman empire.

Roman encampments develope throughout England. Linked by good strait roads they became the bases for today's modern cities such as Munchester , Lancaster … In english the suffixes Chester and Caster indicate a roman camp . In AD 300 roman Britain was regularly attacted by saxons pirate. But AD 409 roman rule in Great Britain was effactevely at an end

II/ Anglo saxon britain

Written sources for these period are rare and unrelieable . So this period is called the « Dark Ages »,but today this term is misleading following many archeological discoveries.

By the VIth century the Saxon heptarchy was created , this was an empire composed of seven contigues kingdoms : Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Sussex, Essey, Kent,Wessex.

Form circa (environ) AD 450 the North europeans tribes named the Angles and the saxons repeatedly invaded Britain killing the romanised britains . The excellent roman roads and the easily navigable waterways served to hasten the pace of the conquest.

By the 6th century the saxons hebtarchy was created this was an empire composed of 7 contigrass kingdoms named : northumbria , Mercia (Midlands) , East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex , Wessex (South west) .

The saxon invaders brought with them their pagan philisophy based on north mithology , their worshipped gods such as Tiur (god of war), Woden (god of war and magic = Odin), Thor (god of thunderstorms).

These gods were immortalized in the week day names of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday .

They also worshipped north goddess of Spring, called Eostre,who’s fest was christianized into Easter. Mainly of the Celts who refused to give up their roman religion crossed the sea to Armorica, in Gaul.

They established a cultural and linguistic link between the celtic Welsh and Breton which survived to this day.

Christianity made a comeback at the begining of the VIIth century after the visit of Augustin in AD 597. He was a missionary who had been sent by Pope Gregory the Great to reconvert the Britains .

Augustin landed in Kent and established Canterbury as his base thus determining that this city would become one of the most important centers of world wide chritianity .

From 825 to 839 king Egbert reigned as king of all England , while this reign was not enterly accurate he begun to establish the idea of a hereditary monarchy . The present queen Elisabeth the IInd can trace a genealogy-line back to him.

During the IXth century Vikings or North Men began to raid the East Coast of England for their setting. They also established themselves in the area of Northern France known as Normandie . In 907 Rolf was the first duke of Normandie . By the VIIIth century the Saxon monarchy had collapsed and England was ruled over by Danish kings.

From 1016 to 1035 Cnut was king of England landmark and Norway . According to legend he attempted to turn back the tide , however what he has really to do was showing his royal court that he was not omnipresent and that only God could control the seas.

Cnut married a Normand aristocrat named Emma. This political association had very dramatic consequences for England. Upon the death of Cnut in 1045 there followed a period of embrassed , while his two sons battled over who should succeed their father.

When the second son died in 1052, men in England such as Bishops earls and royal officials collectively known as the Witam met and decided to appoint a Saxon as the next king of England.

His name was Edward the Confessor because of his deap religious convictions. He was half normand and theirfore placed many normands in important positions in the Church and governement .

Having taken a vow of chastity Edward had no successors. His cousin was William the duke of Normandie .

On the 5th of January 1066 Edward died and a stage was set for a political and military conflict determining the futur direction of English History for the next thousand years.

The Normand invasion :

Upon the death of Edward the Confessor the Witam met and chose another Saxon for their king, Harold. This incited two invasions from men who believed they had a stronger claim to the throne of England . The first was lead by the Norvegian king who whished to reassempted the Scandinavian claim to the English throne. He attacked in the North of England but was defeated by Harold’s supperior forces.

However while Harold was in the North the duke of Normandie William landed in the South of England with a very large and well prepared army. Harold rushed South to meet this second invasion.

By the time Harold’s forces arrived to repel the invaders. They were physically exausted and had been seriously depleted by their fight with the Norvegians

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