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97-436: A moot hall is a meeting or assembly building, traditionally to decide local issues. In Anglo-Saxon England , a low ring-shaped earthwork served as a moot hill or moot mound, where the elders of the hundred would meet to take decisions. Some of these acquired permanent buildings, known as moot halls. Surviving moot halls include: Anglo-Saxon England Anglo-Saxon England or Early Medieval England covers

194-627: A church; so in 597 Augustine built the church and founded the See at Canterbury. Æthelberht was baptised by 601, and he then continued with his mission to convert the English. Most of the north and east of England had already been evangelised by the Irish church. However, Sussex and the Isle of Wight remained mainly pagan until the arrival of Saint Wilfrid , the exiled Archbishop of York , who converted Sussex around 681 and

291-515: A clear-cut or stable group of seven kingdoms. The number of kingdoms and sub-kingdoms fluctuated rapidly during this period as competing kings contended for supremacy. The four main kingdoms in Anglo-Saxon England were East Anglia , Mercia , Northumbria (originally two kingdoms, Bernicia and Deira ), and Wessex . Minor kingdoms included Essex , Kent , and Sussex . Other minor kingdoms and territories are mentioned in sources such as

388-591: A fact which Edward would surely have known, having been elected himself by the Witenagemot . Roman Gaul The Roman Republic 's influence began in southern Gaul. By the mid-2nd century BC, Rome was trading heavily with the Greek colony of Massilia (modern Marseille ) and entered into an alliance with them, by which Rome agreed to protect the town from local Gauls, including the nearby Aquitani and from sea-borne Carthaginians and other rivals, in exchange for land that

485-512: A lower status than that of the Anglo-Saxons. Discussions and analysis still continue on the size of the migration, and whether it was a small elite band of Anglo-Saxons who came in and took over the running of the country, or mass migration of peoples who overwhelmed the Britons. An emerging view is that two scenarios could have co-occurred, with large-scale migration and demographic change in

582-676: A nation-state. It is certain that the concept of "Englishness" only developed very slowly. As the Roman occupation of Britain was coming to an end, Constantine III withdrew the remains of the army in reaction to the Germanic invasion of Gaul with the Crossing of the Rhine in December 406. The Romano-British leaders were faced with an increasing security problem from seaborne raids, particularly by Picts on

679-472: A number of foreign auxiliary units, a levy of Gaulish merchant ships, and barbarian mercenaries attracted by the prospect of booty. In 293 emperor Constantius Chlorus isolated Carausius by besieging the port of Gesoriacum (Boulogne-sur-Mer) and invaded Batavia in the Rhine delta, held by his Frankish allies, and reclaimed Gaul. A migration of Celts from Britain appeared in the 4th century in Armorica led by

776-563: A proper army and invaded Britain . However, tribes rose up on the continent, and the Romans suffered a humiliating defeat. 53 BC saw a draconian campaign against the Gauls in an attempt to pacify them. This failed and the Gauls staged a mass revolt under the leadership of Vercingetorix in 52 BC. Gallic forces won a notable victory at the Battle of Gergovia , but the Romans' indomitable siege works at

873-523: A safe haven, and they provided a safe place for the king's moneyers and mints. A new wave of Danish invasions commenced in 891, beginning a war that lasted over three years. Alfred's new system of defence worked, however, and ultimately it wore the Danes down: they gave up and dispersed in mid-896. Alfred is remembered as a literate king. He or his court commissioned the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , which

970-579: Is now regarded as the traditional view of the Anglo-Saxon arrival in Britain. He suggested a mass immigration, with the incomers fighting and driving the sub-Roman Britons off their land and into the western extremities of the islands, and into the Breton and Iberian peninsulas. This view is based on sources such as Bede, who mentions the Britons being slaughtered or going into "perpetual servitude". According to Härke

1067-543: Is often used for Scandinavian culture in England. Edgar died in 975, sixteen years after gaining the throne, while still only in his early thirties. Some magnates supported the succession of his younger son, Æthelred , but his elder half-brother, Edward was elected, aged about twelve. His reign was marked by disorder, and three years later, in 978, he was assassinated by some of his half-brother's retainers. Æthelred succeeded, and although he reigned for thirty-eight years, one of

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1164-702: The Groans of the Britons ), even though Honorius , the Western Roman Emperor, had written to the British civitas in or about 410 telling them to look to their own defence. There then followed several years of fighting between the British and the Anglo-Saxons. The fighting continued until around 500, when, at the Battle of Mount Badon , the Britons inflicted a severe defeat on the Anglo-Saxons. There are records of Germanic infiltration into Britain that date before

1261-516: The Battle of Alesia utterly defeated the Gallic coalition. In 51 BC and 50 BC, there was little resistance and Caesar's troops were mostly mopping up. Gaul was conquered, although it would not become a Roman province until 27 BC, and resistance would continue until as late as 70 AD. There is no clear end-date for the war, but the imminent Roman Civil War led to the withdrawal of Caesar's troops in 50 BC. Caesar's wild successes in

1358-456: The Battle of Dyrham ). This expansion of Wessex ended abruptly when the Anglo-Saxons started fighting among themselves, resulting in Ceawlin retreating to his original territory. He was then replaced by Ceol (who was possibly his nephew). Ceawlin was killed the following year, but the annals do not specify by whom. Cirencester subsequently became an Anglo-Saxon kingdom under the overlordship of

1455-508: The Battle of Ellendun by Egbert of Wessex . Christianity had been introduced into the British Isles during the Roman occupation. The early Christian Berber author, Tertullian , writing in the 3rd century, said that "Christianity could even be found in Britain". The Roman Emperor Constantine (306–337) granted official tolerance to Christianity with the Edict of Milan in 313. Then, in

1552-469: The Battle of Hatfield Chase in 633. Their success was short-lived, as Oswald (one of the sons of the late King of Northumbria, Æthelfrith) defeated and killed Cadwallon at Heavenfield near Hexham. In less than a decade Penda again waged war against Northumbria, and killed Oswald in the Battle of Maserfield in 642. Oswald's brother Oswiu was chased to the northern extremes of his kingdom. However, Oswiu killed Penda soon afterwards, and Mercia spent

1649-739: The Battle of Vouillé . They were able to retain Narbonensis and Provence after the timely arrival of an Ostrogoth detachment sent by Theodoric the Great . Certain Gallo-Roman aristocratic families continued to exert power in episcopal cities (such as the Mauronitus family in Marseilles and Bishop Gregory of Tours ). The appearance of Germanic given and family names becomes noticeable in Gallia/Francia from

1746-666: The Franks and the Alamanni , invaded Gaul at this time. The Gallic Empire ended with Emperor Aurelian 's victory at Châlons in 274. In 286–7 Carausius , commander of the Classis Britannica , the fleet of the English Channel, declared himself Emperor of Britain and northern Gaul. His forces comprised his fleet, the three legions stationed in Britain and also a legion he had seized in Gaul,

1843-648: The Humber . His son, Æthelstan , annexed Northumbria in 927 and thus became the first king of all England. At the Battle of Brunanburh in 937, he defeated an alliance of the Scots, Danes, Vikings and Strathclyde Britons. Along with the Britons and the settled Danes, some of the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms disliked being ruled by Wessex. Consequently, the death of a Wessex king would be followed by rebellion, particularly in Northumbria. Alfred's great-grandson, Edgar , who had come to

1940-497: The Roman Empire 's withdrawal from Britain at the beginning of the 5th century. Anglo-Saxon history thus begins during the period of sub-Roman Britain following the end of Roman control , and traces the establishment of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the 5th and 6th centuries (conventionally identified as seven main kingdoms : Northumbria , Mercia , East Anglia , Essex , Kent , Sussex , and Wessex ); their Christianisation during

2037-507: The Siege of Massilia in 49 BC after which it lost its territories but was allowed to keep nominal autonomy, due to ancient ties of friendship and support of Rome. In 40 BC, during the Second Triumvirate , Lepidus was given responsibility for Gallia Narbonensis (along with Hispania and Africa), while Mark Antony was given the balance of Gaul. In 22 BC, imperial administration of Gaul

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2134-522: The Tres Galliae (the 3 Gauls): The Romans divided these huge provinces into civitates corresponding more or less with the pre-Conquest communities or polities sometimes described misleadingly as "tribes," such as the Aedui , Allobroges , Bellovaci , and Sequani (see List of Celtic tribes ) but the civitates were too large and in turn were divided into smaller units, pagi , a term that eventually became

2231-631: The Tribal Hideage : At the end of the 6th century the most powerful ruler in England was Æthelberht of Kent , whose lands extended north to the River Humber . In the early years of the 7th century, Kent and East Anglia were the leading English kingdoms. After the death of Æthelberht in 616, Rædwald of East Anglia became the most powerful leader south of the Humber. Following the death of Æthelfrith of Northumbria , Rædwald provided military assistance to

2328-678: The fall of Roman administration and the Domain of Soissons , a remnant of the Empire , survived from 457 to 486. In 486, the Franks defeated the last Roman authority in Gaul at the Battle of Soissons . Almost immediately afterwards, most of Gaul came under the rule of the Merovingians , the first kings of a proto-France. In 507, the Visigoths were pushed out of most of Gaul by the Frankish king Clovis I at

2425-702: The 4th and 5th centuries, the Franks settled in northern France and Belgium , the Alemanni in Alsace and Switzerland , and the Burgundians in Savoie . Villas were usually centres of agricultural production, and were often closely associated with vineries and wine production . The owners were probably mainly local Gallic elites who became quickly romanised after the conquest , and sometimes Romans and Italians who wished to exploit rich local resources. The villas would have been

2522-519: The 5th century, until most of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms came under the overlordship of Egbert of Wessex in 829. This approximately 400-year period of European history is often referred to as the Early Middle Ages or, more controversially, as the Dark Ages . Although heptarchy suggests the existence of seven kingdoms, the term is just used as a label of convenience and does not imply the existence of

2619-506: The 6th century, which describes how a shrine "called 'Vasso Galatae' in the Gallic tongue" was destroyed and burnt to the ground. Throughout the Roman rule over Gaul, although considerable Romanization in terms of material culture occurred, the Gaulish language is held to have survived and continued to be spoken, coexisting with Latin. Germanic placenames were first attested in border areas settled by Germanic colonizers (with Roman approval). In

2716-599: The 7th century; the threat of Viking invasions and Danish settlers ; the gradual unification of England under the Wessex hegemony during the 9th and 10th centuries; and ending with the Norman Conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066. The Normans persecuted the Anglo-Saxons and overthrew their ruling class to substitute their own leaders to oversee and rule England. However, Anglo-Saxon identity survived beyond

2813-444: The 980s the kings of Wessex had a powerful grip on the coinage of the realm. It is reckoned there were about 300 moneyers, and 60 mints, around the country. Every five or six years the coinage in circulation would cease to be legal tender and new coins were issued. The system controlling the currency around the country was extremely sophisticated; this enabled the king to raise large sums of money if needed. The need indeed arose after

2910-506: The Aedui, a strong Roman ally, Rome turned a blind eye. The Sequani and the Arverni sought Ariovistus 's aid and defeated the Aedui in 63 BC at the Battle of Magetobriga . As 58 BC dawned, most of Gaul was still under independent rule. It was beginning to urbanize and shared many aspects of Roman civilization. Into this picture came the rising general Julius Caesar , who had ensured himself

3007-509: The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms fell to the invaders: Northumbria in 867, East Anglia in 869, and nearly all of Mercia in 874–77. Kingdoms, centres of learning, archives, and churches all fell before the onslaught from the invading Danes. Only the Kingdom of Wessex was able to survive. In March 878, the Anglo-Saxon King of Wessex, Alfred , with a few men, built a fortress at Athelney , hidden deep in

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3104-532: The Archbishop of Canterbury, was chosen to deliver the news to Godwin and his family. The Godwins fled rather than face trial. Norman accounts suggest that at this time Edward offered the succession to his cousin, William (duke) of Normandy (also known as William the Conqueror , William the Bastard, or William I), though this is unlikely given that accession to the Anglo-Saxon kingship was by election, not heredity –

3201-488: The Armorican peninsula ( Brittany and Normandy in modern-day France ): initially around 383 during Roman rule, but also c. 460 and in the 540s and 550s; the 460s migration is thought to be a reaction to the fighting during the Anglo-Saxon mutiny between about 450 to 500, as was the migration to Britonia (modern-day Galicia , in northwest Spain) at about the same time. The historian Peter Hunter-Blair expounded what

3298-543: The Britons), while the Danes held East Anglia and the North. After the victory at Edington and resultant peace treaty, Alfred set about transforming his Kingdom of Wessex into a society on a full-time war footing. He built a navy, reorganised the army, and set up a system of fortified towns known as burhs . He mainly used old Roman cities for his burhs, as he was able to rebuild and reinforce their existing fortifications. To maintain

3395-579: The Danes, but the success was short-lived: at the Battle of Ashingdon , the Danes were victorious, and many of the English leaders were killed. Cnut and Edmund agreed to split the kingdom in two, with Edmund ruling Wessex and Cnut the rest. In 1017, Edmund died in mysterious circumstances, probably murdered by Cnut or his supporters, and the English council ( the witan ) confirmed Cnut as king of all England. Cnut divided England into earldoms : most of these were allocated to nobles of Danish descent, but he made an Englishman earl of Wessex. The man he appointed

3492-628: The Deiran Edwin in his struggle to take over the two dynasties of Deira and Bernicia in the unified kingdom of Northumbria. Upon the death of Rædwald, Edwin was able to pursue a grand plan to expand Northumbrian power. The growing strength of Edwin of Northumbria forced the Anglo-Saxon Mercians under Penda into an alliance with the Welsh king Cadwallon ap Cadfan of Gwynedd, and together they invaded Edwin's lands and defeated and killed him at

3589-508: The Elder succeeded him. When Æthelred died in 911, Æthelflæd succeeded him as "Lady of the Mercians", and in the 910s she and her brother Edward recovered East Anglia and eastern Mercia from Viking rule. Edward and his successors expanded Alfred's network of fortified burhs, a key element of their strategy, enabling them to go on the offensive. When Edward died in 924 he ruled all England south of

3686-484: The Empire, but that task was not Caesar's and he left that to his successors. Gaul would not be made formally into Roman provinces until the reign of Augustus in 27 BC. Several rebellions happened subsequently and Roman troops were kept stationed throughout Gaul. There may have been unrest in the region as late as 70 AD. Massilia was allied to Pompey during Caesar's civil war , which led to its eventual defeat at

3783-596: The English coast. The result was that the courts of England and Normandy became increasingly hostile to each other. Eventually, Æthelred sought a treaty with the Normans, and ended up marrying Emma , daughter of Richard I, Duke of Normandy in the Spring of 1002, which was seen as an attempt to break the link between the raiders and Normandy. Then, on St. Brice's day in November 1002, Danes living in England were slaughtered on

3880-510: The English pay a ransom, but the English commander Byrhtnoth refused; he was killed in the ensuing Battle of Maldon , and the English were easily defeated. From then on the Vikings seem to have raided anywhere at will; they were contemptuous of the lack of resistance from the English. Even the Alfredian systems of burhs failed. Æthelred seems to have just hidden, out of range of the raiders. By

3977-605: The Gallic tribes. In 390 BC, the Gauls had sacked Rome , which left an existential dread of barbarian conquest the Romans never forgot. In 109 BC, Italy had been invaded from the north and saved by Gaius Marius only after several bloody and costly battles. Around 62 BC, when a Roman client state, the Arverni, conspired with the Sequani and the Suebi nations east of the Rhine to attack

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4074-490: The Isle of Wight in 683. It remains unclear what "conversion" actually meant. The ecclesiastical writers tended to declare a territory as "converted" merely because the local king had agreed to be baptised, regardless of whether, in reality, he actually adopted Christian practices; and regardless, too, of whether the general population of his kingdom did so. When churches were built, they tended to include pagan as well as Christian symbols, evidencing an attempt to reach out to

4171-574: The Mercians, rather than Wessex. By 600, a new order was developing, of kingdoms and sub-kingdoms. The medieval historian Henry of Huntingdon conceived the idea of the Heptarchy , which consisted of the seven principal Anglo-Saxon kingdoms ( Heptarchy is a literal translation from the Greek: hept – seven; archy – rule). By convention, the Heptarchy period lasted from the end of Roman rule in Britain in

4268-549: The Norman Conquest, came to be known as Englishry under Norman rule , and through social and cultural integration with Romano-British Celts , Danes and Normans became the modern English people . Bede completed his book Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum ( Ecclesiastical History of the English People ) in around 731. Thus, the term for English people ( Latin : gens Anglorum ; Old English : Angelcynn )

4365-613: The Roman rites by force. Between the 8th and 11th centuries, raiders and colonists from Scandinavia, mainly Danish and Norwegian, plundered western Europe, including the British Isles. These raiders came to be known as the Vikings ; the name is believed to derive from Scandinavia, where the Vikings originated. The first raids in the British Isles were in the late 8th century, mainly on churches and monasteries (which were seen as centres of wealth). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that

4462-410: The Roman tunic instead of their traditional clothing. Surviving Celtic influences also infiltrated back into the Roman Imperial culture in the 3rd century. For example, the Gaulish tunic—which gave Emperor Caracalla his surname—had not been replaced by Roman fashion. Similarly, certain Gaulish artisan techniques, such as the barrel (more durable than the Roman amphora ) and chain mail were adopted by

4559-462: The Romans wanted in order to build a road to Hispania to improve troop movements to its provinces there. The Mediterranean settlements on the coast continued to be threatened by the powerful Gallic tribes to the north and in 122 BC the Roman general Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus campaigned in the area and defeated the Allobroges followed by Quintus Fabius Maximus against the Arverni under King Bituitus in 121 BC. The Romans respected and feared

4656-410: The Romans. The Celtic heritage also continued in the spoken language (see History of French ). Gaulish spelling and pronunciation of Latin are apparent in several 5th century poets and transcribers of popular farces. The last pockets of Gaulish speakers appear to have lingered until the 6th or 7th century. Gaulish was held to be attested by a quote from Gregory of Tours written in the second half of

4753-419: The Visigoths against the Huns. The conflict climaxed in 451 at the Battle of Châlons , in which the Romans and Goths defeated Attila. The Western Roman administration finally collapsed as remaining Roman troops withdrew southeast to protect Italy. Between 455 and 476, the Visigoths , the Burgundians, and the Franks assumed control in Gaul. However, certain aspects of the ancient Celtic culture continued after

4850-452: The Western Roman Empire, the Gaulish language and cultural identity underwent a syncretism with the Roman culture of the new governing class, and evolved into a hybrid Gallo-Roman culture that eventually permeated all levels of society. Gauls continued writing some inscriptions in the Gaulish language, but switched from the Greek alphabet to the Latin alphabet during the Roman period. Current historical research suggests that Roman Gaul

4947-422: The army that live in that earldom". There are over 3,000 words in modern English that have Scandinavian roots, and more than 1,500 place-names in England are Scandinavian in origin; for example, topographic names such as Howe, Norfolk and Howe, North Yorkshire are derived from the Old Norse word haugr meaning hill, knoll, or mound. In archaeology and other academic contexts the term Anglo-Scandinavian

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5044-412: The authors of the important Panegyrici latini . Many other writers were from the region of Cisalpine Gaul , which was part of Italy, including Virgil , Caecilius Statius , Catullus and Pliny the Elder . In the Crisis of the Third Century around 260, Postumus established a short-lived Gallic Empire , which included the Iberian Peninsula and Britannia, in addition to Gaul itself. Germanic tribes,

5141-414: The barbarian raids, and Flavius Aëtius had to use these tribes against each other in order to maintain some Roman control. He first used the Huns against the Burgundians , and these mercenaries destroyed Worms , killed king Gunther , and pushed the Burgundians westward. The Burgundians were resettled by Aëtius near Lugdunum in 443. The Huns, united by Attila , became a greater threat, and Aëtius used

5238-438: The battle of Maldon, as Æthelred decided that, rather than fight, he would pay ransom to the Danes in a system known as Danegeld . As part of the ransom, a peace treaty was drawn up that was intended to stop the raids. However, rather than buying the Vikings off, payment of Danegeld only encouraged them to come back for more. The Dukes of Normandy were quite happy to allow these Danish adventurers to use their ports for raids on

5335-489: The burhs, and the standing army, he set up a taxation system known as the Burghal Hidage . These burhs (or burghs) operated as defensive structures. The Vikings were thereafter unable to cross large sections of Wessex: the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that a Danish raiding party was defeated when it tried to attack the burh of Chichester. Although the burhs were primarily designed as defensive structures, they were also commercial centres, attracting traders and markets to

5432-486: The collapse of the Roman Empire. It is believed that the earliest Germanic visitors were eight cohorts of Batavians attached to the 14th Legion in the original invasion force under Aulus Plautius in AD 43. There is a recent hypothesis that some of the native tribes , identified as Britons by the Romans, may have been Germanic-language speakers, but most scholars disagree with this due to an insufficient record of local languages in Roman-period artefacts. It

5529-405: The core areas of the settlement and elite dominance in peripheral regions. According to Gildas , initial vigorous British resistance was led by a man called Ambrosius Aurelianus . From then on, victory fluctuated between the two peoples. Gildas records a "final" victory of the Britons at the Battle of Mount Badon in c. 500, and this might mark a point at which Anglo-Saxon migration

5626-420: The earl's daughter. This arrangement was seen as expedient, however, as Godwin had been implicated in the murder of Alfred, the king's brother. In 1051 one of Edward's in-laws, Eustace, arrived to take up residence in Dover; the men of Dover objected and killed some of Eustace's men. When Godwin refused to punish them, the king, who had been unhappy with the Godwins for some time, summoned them to trial. Stigand,

5723-420: The east coast of England. The expedient adopted by the Romano-British leaders was to enlist the help of Anglo-Saxon mercenaries (known as foederati ), to whom they ceded territory. In about 442 the Anglo-Saxons mutinied, apparently because they had not been paid. The Romano-British responded by appealing to the Roman commander of the Western empire, Magister militium Aetius , for help (a document known as

5820-466: The east, where the Nervii nearly defeated him. In 56 BC, Caesar defeated the Veneti in a naval battle and took most of northwest Gaul. In 55 BC, he sought to boost his public image, and undertook first of their kind expeditions across the Rhine river and the English Channel . Upon his return from Britain, Caesar was hailed as a hero, though he had achieved little beyond landing because his army had been too small. The next year, he went back with

5917-434: The end of the Merovingian period in the 750s. Slowly, during the ensuing Carolingian period (751–987), the expression Francia , then Francia occidentalis spread to describe the political reality of the kingdom of the Franks ( regnum francorum ). Before 22 BC, Gaul had three geographical divisions, one of which was divided into multiple Roman provinces: After 22 BC, the Romans divided Gallia Comata into three provinces,

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6014-423: The faith to the Angles or Saxons. Pope Gregory I sent Augustine in 597 to convert the Anglo-Saxons, but Bede says the British clergy refused to help Augustine in his mission. Despite Bede's complaints, it is now believed that the Britons played an important role in the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons . On arrival in the south east of England in 597, Augustine was given land by King Æthelberht of Kent to build

6111-414: The holy island of Lindisfarne was sacked in 793. The raiding then virtually stopped for around 40 years; but in about 835, it started becoming more regular. In the 860s, instead of raids, the Danes mounted a full-scale invasion. In 865, an enlarged army arrived that the Anglo-Saxons described as the Great Heathen Army . This was reinforced in 871 by the Great Summer Army. Within ten years nearly all of

6208-488: The important general Gnaeus Julius Agricola . Another general born in Gaul was Marcus Antonius Primus . In addition, the family of Antoninus Pius , which was also the adoptive family of Marcus Aurelius , came from Roman Gaul. Among the Roman writers known or hypothesized to be born in Gaul there are Tacitus , Petronius , Varro Atacinus , Aemilius Magnus Arborius , Frontinus , Ausonius , Rutilius Claudius Namatianus , Sextus Pompeius Festus , Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus and

6305-445: The legendary king Conan Meriadoc . They spoke the now extinct British language , which evolved into the Breton , Cornish , and Welsh languages . The Goths , who had sacked Rome in 410, established a capital in Toulouse and in 418 succeeded in being accepted by Honorius as foederati and rulers of the Aquitanian province in exchange for their support against the Vandals . The Roman Empire had difficulty responding to all

6402-420: The longest reigns in English history, he earned the name "Æthelred the Unready", as he proved to be one of England's most disastrous kings. William of Malmesbury , writing in his Chronicle of the kings of England about one hundred years later, was scathing in his criticism of Æthelred, saying that he occupied the kingdom, rather than governed it. Just as Æthelred was being crowned, the Danish Harald Gormsson

6499-449: The marshes of Somerset. He used this as a base from which to harry the Vikings. In May 878 he put together an army formed from the populations of Somerset, Wiltshire, and Hampshire, which defeated the Viking army in the Battle of Edington . The Vikings retreated to their stronghold, and Alfred laid siege to it. Ultimately the Danes capitulated, and their leader Guthrum agreed to withdraw from Wessex and to be baptised. The formal ceremony

6596-404: The matter; Saint Wilfrid was an advocate for the Roman rites and Bishop Colmán for the Irish rites. Wilfrid's argument won the day and Colmán and his party returned to Ireland in their bitter disappointment. The Roman rites were adopted by the English church, although they were not universally accepted by the Irish church until Henry II of England invaded Ireland in the 12th century and imposed

6693-401: The middle of the 7th century on, most notably in powerful families, indicating that the centre of gravity had definitely shifted. The Gallo-Roman (or Vulgar Latin ) dialect of the late Roman period evolved into the dialects of the Oïl languages and Old French in the north, and into Occitan in the south. The name Gallia and its equivalents continued in use, at least in writing, until

6790-403: The modern French word "pays". These administrative groupings would be taken over by the Romans in their system of local control, and these civitates would also be the basis of France's eventual division into ecclesiastical bishoprics and dioceses , which would remain in place—with slight changes—until the French Revolution . In the five centuries between Caesar's invasion and the collapse of

6887-487: The more modern view is of co-existence between the British and the Anglo-Saxons. He suggests that several modern archaeologists have now re-assessed the traditional model, and have developed a co-existence model largely based on the Laws of Ine . The laws include several clauses that provide six different wergild levels for the Britons, of which four are below that of freeman. Although the Britons could be rich freemen in Anglo-Saxon society, generally it seems that they had

6984-548: The next few centuries to predominate throughout what is now England , at the expense of British Celtic and British Latin . The arrival of the Anglo-Saxons into Britain can be seen in the context of a general movement of Germanic peoples around Europe between the years 300 and 700, known as the Migration period (also called the Barbarian Invasions or Völkerwanderung). In the same period there were migrations of Britons to

7081-628: The orders of Æthelred. In mid-1013, Sven Forkbeard , King of Denmark, brought the Danish fleet to Sandwich, Kent. From there he went north to the Danelaw, where the locals immediately agreed to support him. He then struck south, forcing Æthelred into exile in Normandy (1013–1014). However, on 3 February 1014, Sven died suddenly. Capitalising on his death, Æthelred returned to England and drove Sven's son, Cnut , back to Denmark, forcing him to abandon his allies in

7178-469: The pagan Anglo-Saxons, rather than demonstrating that they were already converted. Even after Christianity had been set up in all of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, there was friction between the followers of the Roman rites and the Irish rites, particularly over the date on which Easter fell and the way monks cut their hair. In 664, a conference was held at Whitby Abbey (known as the Whitby Synod ) to decide

7275-514: The period from the end of Roman Britain in the 5th century until the Norman Conquest in 1066. It consisted of various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms until 927, when it was united as the Kingdom of England by King Æthelstan (r. 927–939). It became part of the short-lived North Sea Empire of Cnut , a personal union between England , Denmark and Norway , in the 11th century. The Anglo-Saxons migrated to Britain from mainland northwestern Europe after

7372-480: The period of the Anglo-Saxon first rebellion of 442. If the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is to be believed, the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which eventually merged to become England were founded when small fleets of three or five ships of invaders arrived at various points around the coast of England to fight the sub-Roman British, and conquered their lands. The language of the migrants, Old English , came over

7469-531: The position of Governor of both Transalpine and Cisalpine Gaul . He sought to pay off debts and find glory for himself, and so began a series of aggressive campaigns to conquer the Gallic tribes. The wars began with a conflict over the migration of the Helvetii in 58 BC, which drew in neighboring tribes and the Germanic Suebi . By 57 BC, Caesar had resolved to conquer all of Gaul, and led campaigns in

7566-450: The process. In 1015, Cnut launched a new campaign against England. Edmund fell out with his father, Æthelred, and struck out on his own. Some English leaders decided to support Cnut, so Æthelred ultimately retreated to London. Before engagement with the Danish army, Æthelred died and was replaced by Edmund. The Danish army encircled and besieged London, but Edmund was able to escape and raised an army of loyalists. Edmund's army routed

7663-502: The reign of Emperor Theodosius "the Great" (379–395), Christianity was made the official religion of the Roman Empire. It is not entirely clear how many Britons would have been Christian when the pagan Anglo-Saxons arrived. There had been attempts to evangelise the Irish by Pope Celestine I in 431. However, it was Saint Patrick who is credited with converting the Irish en masse . A Christian Ireland then set about evangelising

7760-493: The rest of the 7th and all of the 8th century fighting the Welsh kingdom of Powys . The war reached its climax during the reign of Offa of Mercia, who is remembered for the construction of a 150-mile-long dyke which formed the Wales/England border. It is not clear whether this was a boundary line or a defensive position. The ascendency of the Mercians came to an end in 825, when they were soundly beaten under Beornwulf at

7857-556: The rest of the British Isles, and Columba founded a religious community in Iona , off the west coast of Scotland. Then Aidan was sent from Iona to set up his see in Northumbria, at Lindisfarne , between 635 and 651. Hence Northumbria was converted by the Celtic (Irish) church . Bede is very uncomplimentary about the indigenous British clergy: in his Historia ecclesiastica he complains of their "unspeakable crimes", and that they did not preach

7954-486: The syncretic nature of the Roman religion led to disappearance of the Celtic religion. It remains to this day poorly understood: current knowledge of the Celtic religion is based on archaeology and via literary sources from several isolated areas such as Ireland and Wales . The Romans easily imposed their administrative, economic, artistic (especially in terms of monumental art and architecture) and literary culture. They wore

8051-425: The throne in 959, was crowned at Bath in 973 and soon afterwards the other British kings met him at Chester and acknowledged his authority. The presence of Danish and Norse settlers in the Danelaw had a lasting impact; the people there saw themselves as "armies" a hundred years after settlement: King Edgar issued a law code in 962 that was to include the people of Northumbria, so he addressed it to Earl Olac "and all

8148-418: The throne was disputed between Ælfgifu's son, Harald Harefoot , and Emma's son, Harthacnut . Emma supported her son by Cnut, Harthacnut, rather than a son by Æthelred. Her son by Æthelred, Edward, made an unsuccessful raid on Southampton, and his brother Alfred was murdered on an expedition to England in 1036. Emma fled to Bruges when Harald Harefoot became king of England, but when he died in 1040 Harthacnut

8245-440: The two sons he had with Ælfgifu, he had a further son with Emma, who was named Harthacnut . When Cnut's brother, Harald II, King of Denmark , died in 1018, Cnut went to Denmark to secure that realm. Two years later, Cnut brought Norway under his control, and he gave Ælfgifu and their son Svein the job of governing it. One result of Cnut's marriage to Emma was to precipitate a succession crisis after his death in 1035, as

8342-613: The war had made him extremely wealthy and provided a legendary reputation. The Gallic Wars were a key factor in Caesar's ability to win the Civil War and declare himself dictator , in what would eventually lead to the end of the Roman Republic and the establishment of the Roman Empire . At the end of the Gallic Wars, the Gauls had not been entirely subjugated and were not yet a formal part of

8439-433: Was "Roman" only in certain (albeit major) social contexts, the prominence of which in material culture has hindered a better historical understanding of the permanence of many Celtic elements. The Roman influence was most apparent in the areas of civic religion and administration. The Druidic religion was suppressed by Emperor Claudius I , and in later centuries Christianity was introduced. The prohibition of Druids and

8536-569: Was Godwin, who eventually became part of the extended royal family when he married the king's sister-in-law. In the summer of 1017, Cnut sent for Æthelred's widow, Emma, with the intention of marrying her. It seems that Emma agreed to marry the king on condition that he would limit the English succession to the children born of their union. Cnut already had a wife, known as Ælfgifu of Northampton , who bore him two sons, Svein and Harold Harefoot . The church, however, seems to have regarded Ælfgifu as Cnut's concubine rather than his wife. In addition to

8633-474: Was able to take over as king. Harthacnut quickly developed a reputation for imposing high taxes on England. He became so unpopular that Edward was invited to return from exile in Normandy to be recognised as Harthacnut's heir, and when Harthacnut died suddenly in 1042 (probably murdered), Edward (known to posterity as Edward the Confessor ) became king. Edward was supported by Earl Godwin of Wessex and married

8730-547: Was completed a few days later at Wedmore . There followed a peace treaty between Alfred and Guthrum, which had a variety of provisions, including defining the boundaries of the area to be ruled by the Danes (which became known as the Danelaw ) and those of Wessex. The Kingdom of Wessex controlled part of the Midlands and the whole of the South (apart from Cornwall, which was still held by

8827-539: Was in use by then to distinguish Germanic groups in Britain from those on the continent (Old Saxony in Northern Germany). The term ' Anglo-Saxon ' came into use in the 8th century (probably by Paul the Deacon ) to distinguish English Saxons from continental Saxons ( Ealdseaxan , 'old' Saxons). The historian James Campbell suggested that it was not until the late Anglo-Saxon period that England could be described as

8924-458: Was quite common for Rome to swell its legions with foederati recruited from the German homelands. This practice also extended to the army serving in Britain, and graves of these mercenaries, along with their families, can be identified in the Roman cemeteries of the period. The migration continued with the departure of the Roman army, when Anglo-Saxons were recruited to defend Britain; and also during

9021-504: Was reorganised establishing the provinces of Gallia Aquitania , Gallia Belgica and Gallia Lugdunensis . Parts of eastern Gaul were incorporated into the provinces Raetia (15 BC) and Germania Superior (AD 83). Roman citizenship was granted to all in 212 by the Constitutio Antoniniana . Several significant Roman figures were born in Gaul, including Roman Emperors Claudius , Caracalla and probably Carus , as well as

9118-584: Was temporarily stemmed. Gildas said that this battle was "forty-four years and one month" after the arrival of the Saxons, and was also the year of his birth. He said that a time of great prosperity followed. But, despite the lull, the Anglo-Saxons took control of Sussex, Kent, East Anglia and part of Yorkshire; while the West Saxons founded a kingdom in Hampshire under the leadership of Cerdic , around 520. However, it

9215-454: Was to be 50 years before the Anglo-Saxons began further major advances. In the intervening years the Britons exhausted themselves with civil war, internal disputes, and general unrest, which was the inspiration behind Gildas's book De Excidio Britanniae (The Ruin of Britain). The next major campaign against the Britons was in 577, led by Ceawlin , king of Wessex, whose campaigns succeeded in taking Cirencester, Gloucester and Bath (known as

9312-542: Was trying to force Christianity onto his domain. Many of his subjects did not like this idea, and shortly before 988, Sweyn , his son, drove his father from the kingdom. The rebels, dispossessed at home, probably formed the first waves of raids on the English coast. The rebels did so well in their raiding that the Danish kings decided to take over the campaign themselves. In 991 the Vikings sacked Ipswich, and their fleet made landfall near Maldon in Essex. The Danes demanded that

9409-735: Was written in Old English (rather than in Latin, the language of the European annals). Alfred's own literary output was mainly of translations, but he also wrote introductions and amended manuscripts. From 874 to 879, the western half of Mercia was ruled by Ceowulf II , who was succeeded by Æthelred as Lord of the Mercians. Alfred the Great of Wessex styled himself King of the Anglo-Saxons from about 886. In 886/887 Æthelred married Alfred's daughter Æthelflæd . On Alfred's death in 899, his son Edward

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