Jeffery Winkler

Early British History


	When historians divide history into periods it's intrinsically artificial since people 
at the time weren't conscious of it. That said, its convenient to divide early British history 
into the following periods: the Neolithic, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Romans, the 
Saxons, and the Normans. The history of Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain is many times 
longer and at least as intricate as the rest of the history of Great Britain. It is beyond the 
scope of this paper to discuss all of the different tribes of people that invaded, retreated 
from, and affected the inhabitants of Britain during the Neolithic and Bronze Age. The 
story begins at the end of the last ice age, when the last Neanderthalus died out. Then the 
only people in the world were Homo Sapien Sapiens. Agriculture began in Britain around 
5000 B.C. This is when Neolithic people began living permanently in Britain. Before 
then, the Neolithics were nomadic hunters. The Neolithics developed the use of beasts of 
burden to help plow their fields. 
	The Neolithics didn't develop the use of metallurgy themselves but adopted it 
from the Beaker people who arrived in Britain around 3000 B. C. and were already in the 
Bronze Age. Like the Romans and the Normans, the Beakers were relatively few in 
number but had a profound effect on the way of life in Britain. The Beaker people were 
so called because they buried beakers with their dead. The Beakers previously lived in 
northern France where they worked with malleable metals, such as copper and gold, 
before forming their own bronze prior to moving into Britain. By 1500 B.C., the height of 
the Bronze Age, agriculture had existed in Britain for 3500 years. These people were not 
pioneers but seasoned skilled farmers and craftsmen. They grew trees for the purpose of 
harvesting them. They lived in thatched wattle-and-daub houses not unlike those lived in 
by British people today.
	The Beakers were extremely religious mystical people. In Brittany, in France, 
they had built great earthen tombs for their dead. They had erected single stone 
monuments called "merhirs" or larger stones called "monutes". They brought this practice 
of building stone monuments to Britain. In Britain, stone circles became popular, the 
most famous examples being Stonehenge and Avebury. They worshipped nature itself. In 
their world, everything depended on nature. If there was not a good harvest or if it was 
eaten by insects, there would be starvation. People would frequently die from starvation, 
disease, or freezing to death. Simply to prevent disease, parasites, swarms of insects, 
extremely cold winters, or attacks from other villages, they felt it was worth begging for 
mercy from the gods or whatever powerful force determined their fate. The religion of 
the Bronze Age farmers was based on nature. Whether or not they survived depended 
upon minor fluctuations in the weather. Thus they believed that their survival depended 
upon the whims of some powerful entity they couldn't understand. Some of the stone 
monuments are inscribed with a square which means Mother Earth. Many stone circles 
have an Avenue, which is a pathway lined with stones leading to the monument. They 
usually point to where the sun rises on the summer solstice. This is similar to fact that the 
alter of Christian churches also point to where the sun rises on the summer solstice. A 
comprehensive knowledge of astronomy was necessary to know when to plant and 
harvest their crops. Stonehenge was a staggering feat of engineering. It's the only 
monument that has stones on top of other stones. It was built over a period of time 
spanning from 2000 B. C. to 1500 B.C. It was probably in use until the Romans. The fact 
that it would have taken a large number of people to move the stones to the location and 
construct the monument says something about the level of social organization that 
existed at the time. Keep in mind that Stonehenge was atypical and most people in 
Bronze Age Britain were probably unaware of its existence. Most Bronze Age 
monuments consisted of about five or six relatively small stones arranged in a rough 
circle. Many of the stones, including 60% of those that made up Avebury, were later torn 
down by the medieval church that condemned them as pagan.
	The Bronze Age cultures were at the beginning of British history, yet you should 
not think of them as primitive since at the time they were not. A Bronze Age farmer, who 
probably wouldn't own a scrap of bronze, would consider himself a thoroughly modern 
peasant farmer with thousands of generations of experience to rely upon.
	Around 700 B.C., the Celts invaded Britain. One of the most important things 
they brought with them, in addition to their unique culture, was the use of iron. Britain 
thus entered the Iron Age. The use of iron greatly increased the technological level of 
warfare and agriculture. The improvements in technology increased the standard of 
living. Yet this can be the proverbial double edged sword. It was a period of continual 
warfare and saw more bloodshed than any other in British history. The Iron Age is often 
known as the Age of Hillforts. During this time, the climate deteriorated and farmland 
became scarce and valuable. Powerful chieftains attempted to seize as much farmland as 
possible from each other. Most peasant families lived under a chieftain to whom they 
gave part of what they produced. So intense was the rivalry between chieftains that great 
military fortifications of hillforts were established. This was the first time that military 
structures became a dominant feature upon the landscape. Most hillforts consisted of 
earthworks. You just dig a ditch, throwing the dirt next to it, creating a long mound of 
dirt, and then you get down in the ditch and the use the mound as a shield from arrows or 
spears. Often villages would exist inside concentric rings of ditches and earthworks. 
Often earthworks would be on top of hills making attack more difficult. During the Iron 
Age, the stone monuments of the Bronze Age were still in use although they were no 
longer being built. During the Iron Age, chalk etchings, such as the Uffington Horse and 
the Cerne Giant, were popular.
	In 54 B. C., Julius Caesar invaded Britain, 10 years before his assassination, 
ushering in a new era of British history. Actually, Caesar just entered Britain, declared it 
part of the Roman Empire, and left. A Celtic chieftain named Cassivellaunus agreed to 
swear allegiance to Rome, but after the Romans left, it was as if they hadn't been there. 
Cassivellaunus was the chieftain of the Catuvellauni tribe. Their capital was St. Albans, 
which the Romans called Verulamium. A later leader of the tribe was Cunobelin who 
extended their domination over the Trinovantes of Essex and the Cantii of Kent, and 
changed the capital to Colchester, which the Romans called Camulodunum. Cunobelin 
had two sons, Caratacus and Togudumnus. The Romans didn't return until 43 A. D. when 
Claudius defeated the Celtic chieftain Caratacus and took their capital Colchester. The 
Roman invasion of 43 A. D. was carried out by the Roman commander Aulus Plautius 
who relied on intelligence reports from merchants trading between Britain and Gaul. 
Then in 60 A. D. there was a rebellion headed by Boudicca, the widow of Prasutagus, the 
chieftain of the Iceni, a Celtic tribe on the east coast. The rebellion was crushed. No 
longer would the British be primitive farmers. They entered the civilized world and thus 
ended British prehistory. The Romans from Italy were relatively few in number but had a 
profound effect on life in early Britain. Many were soldiers to keep Britain loyal to 
Rome, and Hadrian's Wall was built, but the most profound effect was not military but 
cultural. The Romans built libraries, bath, amphitheaters, and aqueducts. Like in France, 
the Romans completely uplifted the standard of living and the cultural level of the 
people. A small Celtic village was expanded into the city of Londonium. Britain was 
made part of the Roman Empire. The civilized world was united with elaborate trade 
routes. Glass from Germany was found in a little known villa in the Cotswolds. If you 
consider the rarity of glass in the ancient world, the distance form which it was imported, 
and the obscurity and unimportance of the small villa it was found in, you appreciate the 
level of civilization the Romans enjoyed and imposed on the native and previously Iron 
Age British. 
	The British truly became accustomed to this level of living. Many Roman ruins in 
Britain were built by local British and may never have been seen by anyone who had 
stepped foot in Italy. The founding of the first towns was essentially a military exercise. 
One way to subdue the local population is to demonstrate the superiority of the Roman 
way of life by building a few showcases. Such cities were obviously very expensive and 
so Rome was quite anxious for the Provincials to start building them themselves. Thus 
through mutual interest, the British became very Roman. They greatly indulged in the 
Roman tradition of baths (ironic considering them today) which were usually designed by 
retired military architects. Complex water systems were built although masonry 
aqueducts were rarer than on the continent. Britain produced a type of garment, a jerkin 
with a hood, that was known throughout the Roman Empire as British. In 122 A. D., 
Hadrian visited Britain and inspected construction of the wall which bears his name and 
runs from Solway Firth to the Tyrne to keep out marauding tribesman. In 286 A. D., 
Roman general Mausaeus Carausius, after having been sent by Maximian clear the North 
Sea and English Channel of pirates, declared himself emperor of Britain. In 293 A. D., he 
was assassinated by Allectus who seized control. In 296 A. D., Constantius invaded 
Britain and reestablished Roman rule from Land's End to Hadrian's Wall. 
	Since Britain was an island, it was protected by the waves of Germanic hordes 
that wracked the rest of the Empire. However, all good things come to an end. 
Eventually, in 407 A. D., the Romans withdrew from Britain. Thus the British were left 
to themselves. Despite what they had learned, they couldn't maintain the way of life they 
enjoyed under Roman rule. For four centuries they had been living in the highest level of 
civilization then existing on Earth. After the Romans left, the buildings as well as the 
intricate political structure collapsed. There was no more German glass imported and the 
baths filled with silt. However, the British did not return to the Iron Age. Roman 
agricultural and architectural practices continued. There's a common belief that when the 
Romans withdrew, they were withdrawing their protection from invading tribes. Yet 
tribes did not begin to invade Britain until after the Romans left. Also, there was nothing 
military about the invasion. It would be better described as a wave of immigration. The 
invading tribes, the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes contributed culturally to Britain, 
and their people ended up comprising a large fraction of the British population. The 
Anglo-Saxons, became the bulk of the British people and if anything, helped maintain the 
standard of living under Roman rule, and paved the way for Britain becoming a world 
power.
	There was some resistance to the invaders. Since most of the British were 
descended from the Celts, who had been large in number, instead of the Romans, who 
had been small in number, we'll call the local British "Celts". There were many battles 
between the Anglo-Saxons, or the "Saxons", and the Celts. In Scotland the Gaelic and 
Goidelic Celts held out against the Saxons and retained their own language of Scottish 
Gaelic. The Scots had been particularly independent since the Romans never conquered 
them although they been subject to Viking attacks. Scotland remained independent from 
England until 1603. In Cornwall the Cymric and Brythonic Celts held out against the 
Saxons and retained their own language of Cornish. Cornwall remained independent of 
England until the 650's. What fostered this unification was that after both the English and 
the Cornish were Christianized, they weren't as different culturally. Saxons sort of 
conquered Wales in the beginning but control over the region was always very weak. 
Later , the English King Edward I and the King of Wales entered into a treaty saying that 
the Prince of Wales will not speak English, implying he would speak Welsh. Then 
Edward declared his infant son Prince of Wales, cementing English control over the 
region. That is why the son of the monarch is called the Prince of Wales. The fictitious 
character of King Arthur can be traced to a real person who fought against the Saxons. 
King Arthur is a myth based on a myth based on a myth, etc. that was based on a Welsh 
warchief or "dux bellerum" who in the year 517 led his cavalry to victory at Mount 
Badon, thus ending a series of twelve battles against Saxon invaders.
	There were seven Saxon kingdoms: the South Saxons (Sussex), the East Saxons 
(Essex), the West Saxons (Wessex, currently around Dorset), the East Angles (East 
Anglia), Kent (settled by the Jutes), Mercia, and Northumbria. The King of Wessex was 
Alfred. In 865, the Danes over ran all of the Saxon Kingdoms except Wessex. Alfred said 
that he had the ability to drive the Danes from the Saxon kingdoms. He said that he 
would liberate them if they swore allegiance to him. They agreed. In 871, Alfred fought 
nine battles with the Danes. In 878, Alfred defeated the Danes at Edington. They had the 
treaty of Wedmore where England is divided between Danelaw in the north and Wessex 
in the south. In the 10th Century, Wessex managed to capture much of Danelaw 
including East Anglia. The Danish settlers in Northumbria are attacked by Vikings from 
Norway and eventually left. In 991 Byrthnoth of Essex drove the Danes from his country. 
That same year Ethelred II paid the remaining Danes10,000 pounds of silver to leave 
England.
	Stories told about King Arthur are only an example of the rich oral tradition of the 
Saxons. The Saxons saw the Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Iron Age monuments and hadn't 
foggiest idea what they were. They saw the stone circles and imagined the huge stones 
being carried there and set up by giants. For this reason many of their stories dealt with 
giants. There is a Bronze Age monument in northern England called "Long Meg and her 
daughters" because it was supposedly built by Long Meg, a famous giantess who, among 
other things, ran a house of prostitution. The Saxons believed that the chalk etchings 
done in the Iron Age were also done by giants. They imagined giant men and horses 
sleeping on the hillside and then getting up and leaving their imprint. 
	Despite the fact that these stories flourished, one of the most important events in 
Saxon times was the introduction of Christianity into Britain. Almost all of Europe had 
converted to Christianity during Roman times but the Brits had always been a holdout. 
However, during Saxon times, the Catholic Church, eager to expand its power, flooded 
Britain with missionaries. Once it got started, it took off like wild fire. Most people 
always want to be in the majority or in the main stream, whatever that happens to be.
The transition was made easier by adopting local religious beliefs and practices into 
Christianity. Monasteries were started. Saint David took Christianity to Wales. For a 
while, there was a Celtic Christian Church but it was abandoned and the Church of 
England was started. The Greek monk Theodore of Tarsus was sent to England as the 
Archbishop of Canterbury in 669.
	It's often said that Alfred the Great was the first English king. That's somewhat 
debatable. It's sometimes said that Offa, king of Mercia, became king of England in 779 
and ruled until his death in 796. Yet it's also true that the other Saxon kings did agree to 
accept Alfred as their overlord if he would drive out the Danes. Alfred was followed by 
his son Edmund the Elder, and then his sons Aethelstan, Edred, and Edwy, who 
conquered much of Danelaw. When their successor Edgar the Peaceful died, there was 
the Edward the Martyr affair. Edward's stepmother wanted her son Aethelred to be king. 
She arranged to have Edward assassinated. When Edward was on horseback at Corfe 
Castle, an assassin fired an arrow at him. The arrow hit the horse and the horse dragged 
him down into the village by the stirrup. By the time he reached the village he was dead. 
His stepbrother took the throne and was called Aethelred the Unready. He was followed 
by Edmund Ironside, and King Canute. King Canute was surrounded by such sucking 
sycophants, they claimed he could order the tide to not come in. They all got very wet as 
he proved to them that this wasn't true.
	Since Sargon of Akkad, there have been conquerors who sought to increase their 
territory and thus their power. Like Caesar before him, Duke William of Normandy 
decided that he wouldn't mind if his possessions included Britain. Unlike Caesar, he was 
the last person to conquer Britain. Napoleon and Hitler tried and failed. The Normans 
were originally of Viking stock but they had been living in France for centuries. In 1066 
William the Conqueror and his men invaded Britain. In the Battle of Hastings, on 
October 14, 1066, about 8000 troops under William defeated an equal number under the 
Saxon king Harold II. The Saxons only had infantry while the Normans fought with 
cavalry. Harold II was killed by an arrow to the head. Like the Battle of Actium in 
Roman history, the battle itself wasn't interesting but profoundly altered history. Duke 
William of Normandy's claim to the English throne was that he was the cousin of Edward 
the Confessor, who was Harold's father-in-law, which was a greater claim than Caesar 
had. Like the Beaker people who instigated the Bronze Age, and later the Romans, but 
unlike the Celts who initiated the Iron Age, and later the Saxons, the Normans were 
small in number but had a profound effect on British culture and society. In Roman 
Britain there were very few actual Romans from Italy in Britain, yet British culture and 
society was Roman. Similarly, in Norman Britain, there were very few actual Normans 
from France in Britain, yet British culture and society was Norman. Like the Romans, the 
Normans had a civilizing effect. The Saxons weren't barbarians in the same sense that the 
Iron Age tribes were barbarians, but they were uncivilized. Even after the Saxon 
kingdoms were unified there was decentralization. Saxon kings had weak control over 
their thanes and vassals. The Normans created a powerful centralized monarchy. Under 
the Normans, British society became more sophisticated than at any previous time. In 
1066, William the Conqueror had no idea what he was now king of, so he compiled the 
Domesday Book, completed in 1086, which was essentially a list of his property. Today, 
it's a source of pride to own property mentioned in the Domesday Book.
	When William the Conqueror died in 1087, his son William Rufus was king until 
he was assassinated in 1100, and his younger brother Henry I became king. When Henry I 
died in 1135, England plunged into civil war since had no heir. His nephew Stephen 
seized the throne. In 1153, Henry I's grandson, also named Henry, invaded England, and 
forced Stephen to make him his heir. Henry II was the first king of the House of 
Plantagenet.
	The Normans reintroduced the Latin alphabet which had degenerated under the 
Saxons. During Norman times, the upper class spoke French, while the lower class spoke 
English. This is evident in that words like "pork" and "mutton" are of French origin, 
while words like "pig" and "sheep" are of Anglo-Saxon origin. The Normans introduced 
stone castles into England. The Normans introduced cathedrals into Britain. They had a 
Romanesque style of architecture with rounded arches. The Normans built the Tower of 
London, although only 200 years later, and for about 500 years after that, the English 
thought that it was built by the Romans.
	The Normans introduced the first castles into Britain. Of course there were 
defensive structures during Iron Age, Roman times, and Saxon times, but these are not 
normally considered castles. The Iron Age earth works did not involve structures 
although there were probably buildings on them. The Roman built Hadrian's Wall, but 
did not build single buildings designed to keep people out. The Romans did have bases 
on the frontier from which garrisons patrolled the surrounding area, but the purpose of 
the bases was not to keep people out of the base itself. Roman forts were not defenses but 
bases to be fought from. The Saxons reapplied the Roman concept with the Saxon burh. 
The Saxon burh was supposed to be defensive, so you say that the Saxon burh was the 
first castle but this honor is usually ascribed to the Normans. The Normans introduced 
the famous motte-and-bailey castle into Britain. The motte was a raised hill surrounded 
by a wooden palisade, surrounded by a ditch and perhaps a moat. On one side was built a 
steeper hill with a better fortification called a bailey. The motte-and-bailey was superior 
to anything that existed previously, although keep in mind that they were made of wood. 
Oak was used most frequently. The lord and his knights would be up in the bailey while 
other soldiers, other people needed to keep the place running such as carpenters, 
blacksmiths, etc., as well as horses, were down in the motte. It's ironic that while the 
Normans had a more centralized government then the Saxons, the castles imply the 
opposite. The Saxon burhs were part of a national defense, while the Norman motte-and-
baileys were designed to protect the single lord inside. The proliferation of motte-and-
baileys in Norman times signal a subtle shift from field to siege warfare. In Saxon times, 
battles were fought with infantry. The army would line up forming a wall of shields. Two 
such armies would face each other, throw spears at each other, and hack each other with 
swords and axes. The Normans fought with cavalry, which was far superior, as evidenced 
by the Battle of Hastings. In Saxon times, if someone was going to attack you, you would 
go out to meet him on the battle field. In Norman times, if someone was going to attack 
you, you would load up on provisions, and seal yourself up in your castle.
	Castles in Wales, or near the Welsh border, saw the most warfare. Many castles 
near saw warfare at all, but served a social and political function as symbols of authority. 
After William conquered England, he allotted land to those who fought with him. These 
people would put up castles which were supported by taxing the local people. Often these 
barons would subdivide their land into smaller regions which they would then give to 
their knights. The knights would build manors supported by taxing the people further. 
You end up with a feudal hierarchy of tenancy. William had about 180 barons and about 
5000 knights, not all of which had their own manors of course. Through this feudal 
hierarchy, the peasants were often taxed to starvation.
	During Saxon times, the king had his thanes throughout the kingdom and his 
personal retainers. The vast majority of the army was personal retainers raised for a 
specific battle or war. The king's sheriff in each shire would raise an army of conscripts 
called a fyrd. In Norman times, the king had about 5000 knights throughout the kingdom. 
There were also about 1000 knights loyal to the church, which the king had access to. 
The king therefore had access to about 6000 knights. The enormous burden of taxation 
on the people can be understood in light of the expense of maintaining a single knight. 
The knight had a long coat of chain mail called a hauberk. It was composed of hundreds 
of individually forked and interlinked tiny iron rings. The knight also needed a trained 
war horse. Both of these were incredibly expensive. In addition he needed a helmet, 
shield, spear, and sword. In the 12th Century, the mail shirt had an attached hood, full 
length sleeves, and mittens. Mail chausses protected the legs. The mail of one knight 
might contain 250,000 rings and weigh 25 pounds. In the 13th Century, they started 
wearing plate mail breastplates, and guards on the arms and shins. It wasn't until the 14th 
Century that they developed full suits of armor, where the knight was entirely encased in 
armor.
	The Normans developed the motte-and-bailey a few decades before the invasion. 
There are a few examples in France. Actually, there were a few built in Britain before the 
invasion, by Normans living there, such as Osbern, a Norman warrior brought in to 
secure the Welsh frontier in the 1050's. The motte predated the bailey. The motte 
probably originated a nothing more than a fortified horse corral. As time went on, the 
outer walls gradually became thicker and were topped with wide battlemented parapets. 
Motte-and-baileys existed until the 12th Century. The problem with these castles was that 
they were made of wood, and thus could be set on fire. Oak, despite its advantages, such 
as being malleable when green, hard when dry, watertight, and in abundance, was highly 
flammable. In the 12th Century, wooden castles were torn down and replaced with stone 
castles. They usually weren't torn down all at once. Parts would be replaced by stone, bit 
by bit, until they were completely stone. The first stone structures added to the castles 
was the keep. The masonry keep, called a donjon, was inside the bailey. The keep was 
about 50 feet tall, had thick walls and small windows. The White Tower, within the 
Tower of London, is an example of a Norman keep. By the 13th Century, all castles were 
made of stone. At first, they were built with square corners, but it was realized that 
attackers could hide in blind spots near the corners that people inside could see, and they 
were changed to have round corners. There was a continual arms race between the 
defensive design of castles and the offensive arts of siege warfare.
	William the Conqueror's youngest son, Henry I, like a later king by that name, 
was cursed by having a daughter but no son. He declared his daughter Matilda to be his 
heir. Unfortunately, people were less willing to accept this than they would be centuries 
later. When Henry died in 1135, his nephew Stephen de Blois seized control. Matilda 
fled to Normandy, which she still held, with her husband Geoffrey of Anjou. Later in 
1153, Matilda's son Henry invaded England and forced Stephen to make him his heir. 
Henry II was lucky enough to be strategically positioned genealogically to inherit land 
from a wide variety of people. This is similar to the fact that King James VI of Scotland 
inherited the English crown when Elizabeth I died in 1603. Henry II inherited England 
from Stephen, who died in 1154, Normandy from his mother Matilda, and Anjou, 
Touraine, and Maine from his father Geoffrey of Anjou. Henry II had married Eleanor, 
divorced wife of the French King Louis VII, in 1152, and gained control of her 
possession, the duchy of Aquitaine. At that point Henry II ruled England and more than 
half of France. One of Henry's most loyal servants was Thomas Becket. Henry rewarded 
his friend by making him Archbishop of Canterbury. Unfortunately, this was a time of 
political tug of war between the church and the crown. Both the church and the monarchy 
wielded enormous but equivalent amounts of power. Many European countries struggled 
with the odd situation of almost having two parallel coexisting governments, one ruled by 
the king and the other ruled by the Pope. Henry and Becket continually alternated 
between being friends and enemies. No sooner would they reconcile than they would find 
themselves at odds once more over some dispute of authority. In 1170, Henry idly asked 
who would rid him of "this turbulent priest." Four of his knights overheard and in 
misguided obedience, murdered Becket on the alter of Canterbury Cathedral. It had long 
been established that to kill someone in a church was the worst possible crime. 
Murderers would seek refuge in churches, since they couldn't be touched within. The 
crime was so horrific that Becket was canonized and Canterbury Cathedral became a 
famous shrine and destination for pilgrims. Henry II's father wore a sprig of a type of 
plant called planta genista in his cap. Thus the family name Plantagenet.