The Dawn of Britain

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Frangland?

England hasn’t always been an island.

The MEGA FLOOD

The creation of the English Channel.

2England hasn’t always been an island.

Sometime between 450,000 and 200,000 years ago, a megaflood destroyed the land bridge that joined what we now know to be England and France.

This vast dumping of water dug out the English Channel.

What’s the commonly accepted theory?

Melting glaciers

Increased pressure

Peak of the flooding

The next 100,000 years

Photo and data from Natl. Geog. 2007

3The commonly accepted theory is that a small earthquake initially disturbed the chalk wall, causing the first weaknesses in the natural dam.

As the glacier ice left over from the Ice Age melted over thousands of years, it continually built up pressure behind the natural chalk wall.

Eventually, the pressure became too great and the waters too high, and the dam gave way.

At the peak of the flooding, the flood would have discharged 264 million gallons of water per second at speeds of up to 62 mph!

This would leave the island virtually uninhabited for over a hundred thousand years.

~Natl. Geog. 2007

Before the dam burst...

About 120,000 years ago, Britain saw a warm spell.

Climate problems

So when do the people get there?

4Before the dam burst, there is archeological evidence of human existence in Britain as far back as 700,000 years ago! During the multiple Ice Ages, when glaciers began to take over the country, the people apparently migrated south to sunnier regions like modern-day Spain and France. Those who chose to stay behind were killed.About 120,000 years ago, Britain saw a warm spell, and many animals crossed the shallow waters from Europe to Britain looking for room to expand their growing herds. But people weren’t sailing boats at this time, and so there’s no evidence of humans despite the climate change.The problem is that when it gets warmer, and the ice starts to melt after an ice age, the water levels rise. This covers up the very low lands that actually, to this day, connect Britain to Europe underwater.

There are still no people?

The last re-population cycle: 15,000 years ago

Cold snap problems: 13,000 years ago

Continuous settlement: 11,500 years ago

5One of the last repopulation cycles of Britain dates back to as recently as 15,000 years ago. However, Britain experienced a smaller, yet very severe, cold snap that happened about 13,000 years ago and drove out or killed Britain’s inhabitants of the time.So it wasn’t until about 11,500 years ago that the modern Britains as we know them started to cross over again, as some of the last remaining glaciers began to melt and Britain saw continuous settlement.

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So how’d they get back?

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Here’s another way to look at it...

This is what the hypothetical landscape of Doggerland looks like based on satellite images of the ocean floor.

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You can see that Doggerland literally connects the eastern coast of Britain to the western coast of Denmark.

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“Doggerland” today is now known as Dogger Bank, a prime fishing location.

Britain finally became an island around 6,000BC.

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Okay... so there are people.

Now what?

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A quick glimpse at British History

c.4500BC - 2500BC

• Nomadic hunters and gatherers give way to farming.

• The oldest pottery excavated dates back to this time period.

• Stone tools are becoming more sophisticated and durable.

• Houses are being built for permanency and settlements are established.

• Carpentry and an understanding of wood and tree growth becomes apparent.

• Communal burial is practiced.

• Mining for flint and stone takes place.

• Ceremonial centers appear.

• Winter 3807BC - Spring 3806BC: Britain’s first wooden track way is built to cross marsh lands.

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Henges and Stone CirclesWhat’s the difference?

• Henge: a simple bank and ditch enclosing an area of land. The first henges start popping up around 3300BC.

• Stone Circle: literally a large circle of stones. The first of these also started showing up in 3300BC. There are over 900 still standing in Great Britain alone.

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Stonehenge from the air - you can clearly see the henge

around the formation

Stonehenge “restored” with a graphic

representation of sunrise on the Summer Solstice

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Avebury today - again, you can see

the henge formation clearly from the air.

Avebury “restored” - this is what it would

have looked like.

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A quick glimpse...c.2500BC - 800BC

• Metalworking develops with improvements in furnace technology and becomes more sophisticated over time.

• Bronze axes are invented and come into widespread use.

• First industrial-scale copper mines are dug.

• Major lowland areas are extensively settled.

• Celtic culture and tribes begin to solidify.

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The Iron Age800BC - 700BC: first hill forts are created.

700BC - 500BC: iron-working technology becomes widespread

700BC - AD43: farming settlements begin creating complex networks of fields

330BC: Pytheas of Massilia (Greek merchant and explorer) circumnavigates the British Isles creating the first records of the people, agriculture, and landscape

200BC - AD0: talented gold and bronze smiths create decorative objects

100BC: coins are used for the first time

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Original Inhabitants

Iberians from present-day Spain and Portugal

Celts, as we’ve come to call them, came through next, though the timing is widely disputed.

19Iberians first used Doggerland to cross.Celts - Most people put them in Britain around 200BC, though they were in Gaul (France and Belgium) as early as 500BC and seem to have originated from a long way away east, possibly even as far away as modern-day Russia .

The Celts

Invasion or socialization?

Two major tribes of Celts, the Brythoni and the Gaels, and three quasi groups of Celts, the Picts, the Belgae, and the Atrebates.

All of the tribes were hunters and farmers. They were tightly knit clansmen.

Their languages were from the same family (but had different dialects) and were not related to the later Germanic languages of the Anglos and Saxons.

20Some sources say there was an invasion and the Celts “took over”. Other sources say that with the trading that had already been established, the Celts were basically socialized into the culture of the time. Some sources say that the Celts were in Britain dating as far back as 1900BC.

The Brythoni325BC - Settled in present-day England, Wales (where they were and are still called the “Cymri”), and the Scottish lowlands

Most famous Brython (or “Briton” as it would later be spelled) is King Arthur

Spoke what we now call P-Celtic dialect of the Celtic languages

Their language survives in the modern Welsh and Breton, though Cornish would have counted, too, if it would have survived.

21P-Celtic - the name comes from the way certain words are pronounced

The Gaels

Settled in present-day Ireland, the Scottish highlands, and the Isle of Man.

Spoke what we now call “Gaelic” or Q-Celtic.

Less is know about this period for Gaels, who arrived in Ireland as early as 4000BC.

22(Some Irish people still speak this language today and most of them still celebrate their Gaelic heritage.)Researchers suggest that the lack of written history during the time indicates a discouragement of writing. We don’t get a decent historical account of the Gaelic people until the 5th century AD (the 400s).

The PictsSettled in what is modern-day Scotland

Similar to the Brythoni and Gaels in culture, farming, religion (Celtic polytheism)- Druids are the priests of the religion and the greatest link between the tribes.

Spoke P-Celtic like the Brythoni

“Pict” is derived from etymology to mean “painted or tattooed people”

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• They would literally strip down, paint themselves blue, and terrorize their enemies in battle - Usually always victorious • William Wallace was a descendant of the Picts

The Belgae and the Atrebates

From Gaul originally

As early as 100BC, they start to cross the Channel looking for slaves.

They settled largely around the Thames River region, which is basically directly across the Channel from the Rhine.

24lived first on the west bank of the Rhine RiverThey’re of awkward descent, not as directly Celtic as the Picts, Brythoni, or Gaels. They’re part Germanic, part Gallic, and part Celtic, based on the history we have available to us.

Division of Celtic Land

Brythons

Gaels

Picts

Germanic

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The Roman Invasion

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In the summer of 55BC, an ambitious, wannabe emperor, Julius Caesar, then only a general of the Roman armies in Gaul (France and Belgium), decided to move northward into Celtic Britain.

A Pictish welcome

Tough day at the beach

27His mission was to retaliate against the local people who had been helping the Gallic people on the mainland (the Belgae) put up a resistance to him. He had been conquering Gaul one pitiful tribe at a time, and these silly Belgae sure weren’t going to stop him now!When Caesar showed up to Britain, he was met by a coastline full of crazy painted loons screaming at him to just come and try to take over.The Britons gave him a tough time on the beach, but as soon as the Romans gained land, they were able to push the Britons back, wipe out a few tribes, and then call it a day and sail back to Gaul.

Caesar again found easy victory in 54BC and gained the first strong foothold for Rome.

Caesar never actually “conquered” Britain, though many give him this credit.

He sailed back to Gaul and then headed to Rome to try and make himself emperor, but he was knifed to death before he could destroy the republic the Romans had worked so hard to build.

28It helped that some of the Britons had signed on to their forces, too, which offered them an inside angle.Really, he just invaded it a couple of times. He did plenty to show that he could have conquered it, but it really wasn’t necessary when the tribes agreed to pay tribute (or protection money) to Rome and leave any tribes who’d professed their Roman loyalties alone.

Afterwards, Rome basically leaves Britain alone for almost 100 years.

Most Romans felt that a pro-Roman Britain wasn’t something to be bothered with. The southern bit of Britain, the part the Romans cared about anyway, was ruled by a sympathizer named King Cunobelinus (Shakespeare’s “Cymbaline”). He, like all people, dies, and his two sons, Caratacus and Togodumnus begin taking over neighboring tribes. One of the conquered tribes, the Roman friendly Atrebates, had been ruled by a man called Verica, and, upon his defeat, he went to Rome to plead to Emperor Claudius, who was thirsty for some street cred.

Claudius decided to show Britain what’s up.

Togodumnus is killed early on, but Caratacus manages to put up a better fight, leading the Romans all around Britain until finally, he’s captured and given up by a traitor, Queen Cartimandua of the Brigantes.

29Claudius decided that if these two were going after Roman supporters, then it was apparently time to go back to Britain and show them what’s up and how Rome wasn’t going out like that.He sends enough troops to fight and then leave some behind to keep order, having learned from Julius Caesar what NOT to do.

In 58AD, the Emperor Nero appointed a new governor of Britain, Suetonius Paulinus.

The Iceni tribe, back on the east coast, was causing a little ruckus. They were led by a client-king named Prasutagus, who died in 60AD.

Well, a pretty silly Roman tax collector named Catus Decianus came to collect Rome’s “half” and also to collect all the money that Rome had ever given Iceni -- with interest. Cue Queen Boudica.

30He decides he’s going to take care of the Druids once and for all so he takes a huge army to Wales and on to the Isle of Anglesey (Druid central). The Druids hurled curses at him, but that didn’t save them. The curses may have stuck, though....(basically a puppet-king, Roman “yes man”) - When he died, he left half his kingdom and wealth to his wife, Boudica, and the other half to Rome, like a good little puppet king does.

Making demands and looting and raping won’t get you anywhere

Iceni went on a Roman-slaughtering rampage with the help of other tribes.

Boudica marches her armies straight to the Roman capital, Camulodunum

That wasn’t good enough, so they headed to Londonium

And she wasn’t done yet - afterwards, she headed out to Verulamium and burns that to the ground, too.

Paulinus couldn’t go out like that, allowing this one little woman to cause all this chaos, so he lured her into battle with all of his troops from Wales.

Queen Boudica

31Obviously walking around demanding money from grieving widows isn’t the way to win friends and influence people, but Decianus was even more dense than that; by Roman record of the event, Decianus ordered Roman soldiers to flog Queen Boudica and rape her two daughters. Well, folks just can’t have some Roman tax collector violating their kinfolk like that, so, like most angry people do, the Iceni went on a Roman-slaughtering rampage with the help of other tribes. Decianus’ is helpless and Governor Paulinus was still in Wales walloping Druids.So, Boudica herself marches her armies straight to the Roman capital where the locals are trying to hide from her in this massive temple they’ve built to honor Emperor Cladius. She burns the place down and kills everyone in sight.That wasn’t good enough, so they headed to Londonium, an up and coming port city full of Romans and sympathizers. Paulinus managed to get news of this and evacuate the city, but that didn’t stop her from burning it to the ground.And she wasn’t done yet - afterwards, she headed out to Verulamium and burns that to the ground, too.After she’s done “expressing herself”, all three major Roman cities in Britannia are non-existent.Paulinus couldn’t go out like that, allowing this one little woman to cause all this chaos, so he lured her into battle with all of his troops from Wales. Of course the Romans defeated Boudica’s army, but they didn’t get Boudica. Legend has it, she and her daughters poisoned themselves to avoid capture, and supposedly, Boudica’s remains are resting underneath one of the platforms at King’s Cross Station (the underground).

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Bad little Romans

71AD - Romans capture Northern England

78AD - Romans capture Wales

78AD - Romans invade Mona, the center of Druidism, and wipe it out.

79/80AD - British aristocrats encouraged to give up Celtic ways and “Romanize”. Many do.

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Roman governor Agricola makes easy work of the lowlands

Moved north to take on the Caledonians in 84AD, who lose

Rome successfully captured all of modern-day England, Wales, and almost all of Scotland (until Agricola heads out).

When Rome calls Agricola out a few years later, the Caledonians see their chance to attack

Romans in Scotland?

34Roman governor Agricola makes easy work of the lowlands; some tribes make peace, some tribes get their rumps kickedMoved north to take on the Caledonians in 84AD, who lose. They don’t surrender, however. Instead, they burn their town to the ground and retreat higher.Rome successfully captured all of modern-day England, Wales, and almost all of Scotland (until Agricola heads out).When Rome calls Agricola out a few years later, the Caledonians see their chance to attack, and so they do, conquering the poorly guarded forts and driving the rest of the Romans out.

What’s with all these walls?122AD - The Roman Emperor, Hadrian, orders the construction of a 73-mile-long wall to be built

142AD - Construction of the Antonine Wall, a 37-mile-long wall of earth and timber north of Hadrian’s Wall

Summer 163AD - Roman troops recede back to Hadrian’s Wall

Summer 182AD - full-scale revolt breaks out in northernmost Britannia.

186AD - mutiny in the Roman army within Britannia

35122AD - The Roman Emperor, Hadrian, orders the construction of a 73-mile-long wall to be built to divide the Roman territory from the unconquered “barbarians” (namely the Caledonians in modern-day Scotland) and perhaps to separate them from the Brigantes in the northern area of modern-day England. It is not a boundary separator between the countries and never was.142AD - Construction of the Antonine Wall, a 37-mile-long wall of earth and timber north of Hadrian’s Wall, begins in Antoninus’ attempt to advance the Roman territories northwardSummer 163AD - Roman troops recede back to Hadrian’s Wall because they can’t secure the Antonine Wall.

Summer 182AD - full-scale revolt breaks out in northernmost Britannia. The Brigantes had been giving Rome a hard time for about 80 years, up to this point. Finally, Rome divides the country into two parts: Britannia Prima, in the southern part of modern-day England or the Romanized, “civil” part, and Britannia Secunda in the north where all the troublemakers were.

186AD - mutiny in the Roman army within Britannia

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Bad little RomansWinter 197/198AD - Reinforcements arrive and battle intensifies. Part of the stonework of Hadrian’s Wall is destroyed.

250AD - Angles, Saxons, and Jutes attack the eastern coast of England from Germany. They aren’t too successful... yet.

After many years of battle, Constantine becomes emperor of Rome in autumn 306AD.

313AD - Constantine orders the Edict of Milan to end persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire.

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This is the commonly accepted timeframe for the conversion of Rome to Christianity, which then spread through the Empire and into Britannia.

Bad little Romans367AD - “The Great Conspiracy” takes place.

369AD - Rome sends reinforcements to regain control of Hadrian’s Wall and drive out the barbarians from southern England.

400AD - Vast numbers of Roman troops are withdrawn from Britannia to defend Italy from German invasion leaving the area open to barbarian attacks.

409AD - Britons throw off their allegiance to Rome.

38367AD - “The Great Conspiracy” takes place. Picts from Scotland, Scots from Ireland, Franks and Anglo Saxons from Germany, and Attacotti from the Western Isles launched near-simultaneous attacks on the Romans guarding Hadrian’s Wall. They overtook and plundered the area, killing one Roman general and defeating another.369AD - Rome sends reinforcements to regain control of Hadrian’s Wall and drive out the barbarians from southern England.400AD - Vast numbers of Roman troops are withdrawn from Britannia to defend Italy from invasion leaving the area open to barbarian attacks.409AD - Britons throw off their allegiance to Rome.

Good things for Britannia:

• Begin paving and making roads; London’s M-1 is just asphalt over the original Roman road through Londonium

• Brought their craftsmen to set up stronger buildings

• Created a major trading city on the Thames River - Londonium

• Created “client kingdoms” - basically left tribes on the outskirts alone if they promised allegiance to Rome. This worked well for the Roman campaign of wiping out the resistance to their invasion.

Helpful little Romans

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c.449AD - the Angles from Holland, Saxons from Germany, and Jutes from Denmark begin a British invasion. Each boatload of people created their own settlement with their own leader.

The Anglo-Saxon Conquest

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Angles - Mercia, East Anglia, and Northumbria

Saxons - Wessex, Essex, and Sussex

Jutes - Kent

Picts - Still to the north of Northumbria

Celts - Fled to the highlands of Wales

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Anglo-Saxon LifeSettlements run by a “Witan”, a counsel of elders along with their appointed tribal leader

Formed the Old English language

Farmers, hunters, and deep-sea fishermen (actually rowed small boats over)

Were pagans who worshipped the Germanic gods and believed in fate (“wyrd”)- beginnings of Christianity stalled

Fearful Brythoni ran to Wales, Cornwall, and Ireland; Gaels settled present-day Scotland

Established the “wergild”, or price of man, as a fee paid to a family wronged

Established the “heroic ideal” - strove to be heroic, as seen in the literature.

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Sutton HooMuch of what we know about the Anglo-Saxons today is owed to the discovery of a burial mound at Sutton Hoo in England.

An entire ship, full of various treasures like ornate gold pieces, engraved spoons, elaborate armor, and ivory from China was discovered in the backyard of Mrs. Edith Pretty in 1939.

After excavation of the mound, it was determined that the burial site was that of King Raedwald, King of East Anglia from 600AD - 624AD.

Although a fairly ambiguous king historically, he is credited for his widespread movement to Christianize England and was the first ruler in England to be baptized and receive Christian teaching.

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Coming of ChristianityInitially introduced by Romans - Edict of Milan 313AD

Celts took it with them when they fled

476AD - Rome falls to Germanic tribes in Italy, church fighting for order

Celtic Christian churches thrive due to the fact that Christianity absorbs a great deal of the Celtic religious system

500AD - 600AD - Legendary King Arthur rules the Celtic tribes

547AD - Widespread plague reaches Britain

563AD - Irish monks go to Scotland to proselytize

597AD - Roman cleric, Augustine, went to England and converted King Ethelbert of Kent who becomes the first Christian king in Britain

Augustine set up a monastery in Canterbury

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Ethelbert’s Queen was already Christian, so this probably helped Augustine.

664AD - Synod at Whitby Abbey

Religious “battle” between the Celtic Church and the Roman Church

British bishops were upset with Augustine

651AD - King Oswy of Celtic Northumbria married Eanfled, a Roman Christian

664AD - The Synod (summit) takes place. King Oswy takes the lead. When the two churches’ officials met, Oswy basically lays it out for them saying that if St. Peter keeps the gates of heaven and he’s a Roman sympathizer, then they should do as St. Peter or risk eternal damnation. Case closed.

This summit goes down as the year that the English turned their backs on their Celtic ways and conformed.

45*The Romans put a lot of emphasis on having powerful bishops whereas the Celts were more interested in monasteries and abbeys. Monks from each church wore their hair differently. They operated on different calendars, which put their major religious holidays on different days. The pope most likely thought it was about time to put Britain in its place, which was his motivation for sending Augustine with a group of 40 monks to campaign.*British bishops didn’t feel like Augustine had any authority over them and they were going to tell him so, too. When they met with him, he stood firm, not even getting up out of his chair to greet them properly. The meeting ended in a shouting match, with Augustine threatening the bishops with divine wrath and the bishops heading back to Wales in a huff.*Roman monks see this as their chance to settle things. They persuaded King Oswy to summon both the Celtic and Roman Churches together for a big meeting, the Synod at Whitby Abbey.

Christianity and Literature

Church brought education and written literature

The Church established schools

Venerable Bede (673-735AD) becomes an important historian

731AD - Bede completes his “Ecclesiastical History of the English People” the most comprehensive historical account of post-Roman Britain

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Viking InvasionsVikings from Scandinavia invaded throughout the 8th and 9th centuries

First invasion from the Danish Vikings - 793AD

• Very aggressive; destroyed homes, burned churches, massacred people by the hundreds, stole animals and precious objects

• Established the Danelaw region on the eastern coast of Britain

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By 878, the Danish had conquered all of England but Wessex

Wessex remained Anglo-Saxon under the rule of King Alfred

Eventually, Alfred’s descendants would go on to recapture the Danish territories

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871AD - Wessex king; the only “Great”, becomes king

878AD - Forces the Danes (Vikings) from Wessex

886AD - a truce made between Alfred in the south and the Danes in the north and east

Had Bede’s work translated from Latin to the vernacular so that more people could read it

892AD - Ordered the writing of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles to record Wessex history

Helped Danes settle down and build trading posts

Easily communicated in both Germanic languages

As stated, Alfred’s descendants had regrouped much Danish territory

Alfred the Great

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Danish Invasion - Round 2991AD - Danes from Denmark bring new onslaughts and widen Danelaw

• King Ethelred II, also known as Ethelred the Unready, was not a successful Wessex king

• Rushed to meet Vikings in Maldon - Maldon became one of the greatest Viking victories ever

• Ethelred pays the Vikings a “Danegeld” (protection racket) to go away

1002AD - Ethelred orders a terrible massacre of thousands of Danes (men, women, and children) at Oxford

• Danish king, Svein Forkbeard, launched attack on England

• Ethelred offers Svein Danegeld - Svein tells him the rates have skyrocketed

• Svein’s men raid Canterbury and murder the Archbishop

1013AD - Svein orders full-scale invasion; he wants the throne of England

• Danes of Danelaw (local Vikings) flock to Svein

• Ethelred hauls tail out of there

• Edmund Ironside, Ethelred’s son, leads battle and manages to force the Danes to agree to divide the kingdom, but Cnut, Forkbeard’s son, murders Edmund before it could happen

• Svein becomes king of England; hands down throne to son Cnut, who becomes King Canute

• Despite the many years of successful conquest by the kings of Wessex, Ethelred the Unready had handed England over to the Danes.

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Cnut to Edward1035AD - After Cnut dies, there’s a fight for the throne. Through a lot of marriages, there are five boys with good claims:

• Ethelred’s sons, Alfred and Edward, with his second wife, Emma of Normandy, who’ve been hiding out in Normandy while Cnut’s been in power

• Cnut’s sons, Swein (who becomes king of Norway) and Harold ‘Harefoot’, with his temporary wife

• Cnut’s son, Harthacnut, who’s born to Cnut and Ethelred’s widow, Emma (above). The two marry after Ethelred’s death, of course.

Harold and Harthacnut fight over it first (figuratively). Harold was the eldest, but Harthacnut said that his mother wasn’t Cnut’s “real” wife. An offended Harold seizes the throne.

In Normandy, young Alfred thinks that he should be king, so he goes to challenge Harold. He’s killed by an ambitious English nobleman called Godwin.

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Cnut to Edward, cont.Harold rules unchallenged, then dies. Harthacnut rules after him and dies in the middle of a wedding banquet. The obvious person to put on the throne now is the youngest son of Ethelred and Emma, Edward, who just happens to be the only royal male left alive. He’s English, for as much as anyone can be English at this time, but he’s been raised Norman (French).

1040AD - Meanwhile, Macbeth defeats Duncan I of Scotland and makes himself king (not exactly the way Shakespeare portrays it, though)

Danes have Saxon “Witan” (group of elders) select succession of kings

1042AD - Edward “the Confessor” reigns England

• joins with Normandy after spending most of his childhood in her shelter during Danish unrest - doesn’t really like England

• Edward’s Norman sympathies led to disfavor from Saxons and Danes

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Stirring the pot...Edward’s reign was dominated by the ambitions of his father-in-law and powerful nobleman, Godwin, Earl of Wessex

• Godwin had killed Edward’s older brother, Alfred, and Edward wanted revenge

• Godwin too powerful with too many powerful friends to just retaliate against him - even had to marry his daughter, Edith

In 1051, there was trouble in Dover, England, between the Normans and some of Godwin’s men, so Edward had Godwin and his family exiled and locked Edith up, taking advantage of the situation.

All this animosity didn’t prevent Edward from leaving his mark, though. Between the years of 1045-1050, Edward contracted the building of Westminster Abbey.

Godwin returns from exile in a year with an army and demands his title and property back. It is granted, and he and his family return to England. Godwin dies in 1053. His son Harold Godwinsson becomes the Earl of Wessex, and his other son, Tostig, becomes the Earl of Northumbria.

Upon Edward’s death on 5 January 1066, Godwin’s son, Harold, was proclaimed King Harold II by the Witan and crowned in Westminster Abbey by the Archbishop of York, and all damnation breaks loose.

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Harold Godwinsson leads men into Wales and helps restore order between the Welsh and English. The English people revere him for this.

But it’s never as simple as all that, is it?Even though Harold Godwinsson was proclaimed king by the Witan, there were disputes, and two claimants, Harald Hardrada, King of Norway, (who was descended from an Danish king who’d also ruled in England in 1042) and William of Normandy (who claimed Edward had promised him the kingship), both spoke up.

Harald was only momentarily successful. He led an invasion on York with Tostig, Harold II’s displaced and bitter brother. He won the battle and called himself King of England.

Harold II took the “fyrd” (instant army - equivolent to America’s concept of a militia; think The Patriot) he had waiting down south for William of Normandy’s anticipated invasion up to York and crushed Harald in the Battle of Stamford Bridge, one of the most impressive victories ever waged against the Vikings. Harold II kills Harald Hardrada, King of Norway, and also his brother, Tostig, in this battle.

William of Normandy, however, is waiting with his massive army in the mouth of the Seine river for the winds to change...

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The Battle of Hastings

28 September 1066 - William of Normandy lands on the English coast

14 October 1066 - William defeats and kills Harold II at the Battle of Hastings

25 December 1066 - William crowned King William I of England, more commonly known as William the Conquerer. He was crowned in Westminster Abbey where Edward the Confessor was buried, the same king from whom William claimed his right to the throne.

55*Hardrada took a fleet of over 300 ships to England to fight Harold II. On Sept. 20th, 1066, Hardrada defeats Harold II in battle, but on 25 Sept, they meet again, and Harold II kills Hardrada, which opens the door for William, duke of Normandy.

William IWilliam I began construction on the Tower of London almost immediately as a fortress to remind people that the Normans were a permanent fixture in England. Fortress castles start springing up along the borders as well.

Harold’s sons come back to claim throne, and Edgar the AEtheling (Alfred the Great’s direct descendent) was really the closest claimant via bloodline. He (Edgar) has lots of support.

• Edwin of Mercia and Morcar of Northumbria: Two important English noblemen still around after the Battle of Hastings who hate William

• Malcolm Canmore III, King of the Scots: The English had helped him get his throne back, so he was willing to help them kick out the French guy. This is the Malcolm who replaces Macbeth as king of Scotland.

• King Svein of Denmark: Danes are still interested in a foothold in England, so he’s all for the battle.

1068-69AD - William fights Edgar and all of his allies. A LOT of blood is spilled. Edwin and Morcar eventually give in, the Danes have to go home, and Edgar had to flee to Scotland with Malcolm. William decides he’s going to teach him a lesson and follows him through the north of England destroying everything in his path in what was called “Harrying the North”.

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Beowulf

c.1000AD - written as a manuscript

Considered an “epic poem”

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Characteristics of an EpicThings you can expect to see in an epic poem:

• the hero is of imposing stature, of national or international importance, and of great historical or legendary significance

• the setting is vast, covering many nations, the worlds or the universe

• the action consists of deeds of great valor or requiring superhuman courage

• supernatural forces (gods, angels, demons) interest themselves in the action

• a style of sustained elevation is used

• the poet retains a measure of objectivity

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Conventions of an EpicOpens by stating the theme or subject matter of the epicWriter invokes a Muse, one of the nine daughters of Zeus. The poet prays to the Muses to provide him with divine inspiration to tell the story of a great hero. Narrative opens “in medias res,” or in the middle of things, usually with the hero at his lowest point. Usually, flashbacks show earlier portions of the story.Catalogues and genealogies are given. These long lists of objects, places, and people place the finite action of the epic within a broader, universal context. Oftentimes, the poet is also paying homage to the ancestors of audience members.Main characters give extended formal speeches.Use of the epic simileHeavy use of repetition or stock phrases.

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And the literature begins...

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