Art and Culture/British - Ancient to 1066
Prehistoric
Early cultures: Clactonian. Langdale axe industry. Grimes Graves.
Stonehenge built 3000BC – 2000BC
Bronze Age (2200 – 750BC): Beaker culture and Wessex culture.
Iron Age (750BC to Roman Era): Maiden Castle, Cadbury Castle
Major Tribes:
Southern Britain – Catuvellauni, Trinovantes, Iceni, Atrebates, Belgae, Cantiaci Durotriges and Dumnonii
Middle Britain - Brigantes
Northern Britain - Caledonii
Western Britain – Ordovices and Silures
Roman Britain
Julius Caesar leads raids on Southern Britain in 55 and 54BC.
Claudius invaded Britain in 43.
Caractacus – a historical British chieftain of the Catuvellauni tribe, who led the British resistance to the Roman conquest in 43.
The legendary Welshman Caradog ap Bran may be based upon Caractacus
Londinium founded in 50.
Cartimandua was a queen of the Brigantes, in what is now Northern England, in the 1st century.
Brigantes – a British tribe (historically thought to be Celtic) who in pre-Roman times controlled the largest section of what would become Northern England, and a significant part of the Midlands. Their kingdom is sometimes called Brigantia, and it was centred in what was later known as Yorkshire.
Suetonius Paulinus – Roman governor in Britian who led an attack on the Druids in Angelsea in 60.
Romans took over land belonging to Iceni after the death of Prasutagus in 60.
Camulodunum (Colchester) – first Roman capital. Temple of Claudius destroyed by Bouddica in 61.
Bouddica was the wife of Prasutagus. Destroyed Camulodunum, Londinium and Verulamium (St. Albans) and slaughtered the 9th Roman Legion.
Battle of Mancetter (61) - Bouddica defeated and commits suicide (exact site unknown).
Agricola – General responsible for much of the Roman conquest of Britain, 77–84 (father-in-law of historian Tacitus).
Battle of Mons Graupius (83 or 84) – Romans led by Agricola defeated the Caledonians. Last Roman battle in Britain.
Hadrian’s Wall – begun in 122 and measuring 73 miles long by 15 feet high from Wallsend-on-Tyne to the Solway Firth.
Antonine Wall – stone and turf wall built after 142 on orders of Antoninus Pius. Located 100 miles north of Hadrian’s Wall, it was abandoned around 162.
Emperor Septimius Severus won a civil war against Clodius Albinus in 197, a war fought to determine who would be the next emperor. Severus divided the pre-existing province of Britannia into two parts – Britannia Inferior to the north with its capital at Eboracum (York) and Britannia Superior to the south, with its capital at Londinium, or what is today London.
Saint Alban was England’s first Christian martyr, in mid-200s.
When the Emperor Constantius died in 306, his son Constantine was made his successor in the Roman city of Eboracum (York).
Romans built Saxon Shore Forts to counter threat of raids by Angles, Saxons and Jutes.
In 367 Picts and Scotti took advantage of a rebellious garrison on Hadrian’s Wall to pour through into Britain.
Romans left Britain c410.
Anglo-Saxon Period
Hengist and Horsa were Germanic brothers who led the Angle, Saxon, and Jutish armies that conquered the first territories of Britain in the 5th century.
Vortigern was a 5th century warlord in Britain, a leading ruler among the Britons. He is said to have invited the Saxons to settle in Britain as mercenaries, only to see them revolt and establish their own kingdoms.
Saxon settlement of Sussex in 477.
Pope Gregory I sent 40 monks, led by Augustine, as missionaries to England, and they landed at 597 in Thanet. Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. King Ethelbert of Kent became the first English king to convert to Christianity.
Witenagemot (Witan) – The Witenagemot was an assembly of the ruling class whose primary function was to advise the king. It also had a say in the royal succession. It operated from before the 7th century until the 11th century.
The Heptarchy – Seven Kingdoms: Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex, and Wessex.
Northumbria was formed by Ethelfrith from union of Bernicia and Deira in the 7th century and the name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.
Lindisfarne (Holy Island) – monastery founded by St Aidan in 635.
Penda was a pagan king of Mercia. Died in 655.
Synod of Whitby in 664 – British Christians accepted Roman control and abandoned Celtic practices.
Venerable Bede died in 735 and is buried in Durham Cathedral.
Offa – King of Mercia from 757 to 796, called himself ‘King of All England’ and built the famous dyke.
The first recorded Viking landing was in 787, when three ships from Norway landed in Dorset.
First Viking raid was on Lindisfarne in 793.
Egbert – King of Wessex from 802 to 839.
Scotland: Kenneth MacAlpin, known in most modern regnal lists as Kenneth I (died 858), was king of the Picts and, according to national myth, first king of Scots.
Battle of Ashdown (871): Alfred the Great led the West Saxon army of his brother, King Ethelred, in a victorious battle against the invading Danes
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English narrating the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The annals were created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great (871–899).
Alfred was sent by his father to Rome, where he was anointed king by Pope Leo IV.
Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings.
Athelfled (who was also called the Lady of the Mercians) was the eldest daughter of Alfred the Great.
Alfred defeated Vikings at Battle of Edington in 878, and retook London in 886. He negotiated the division of England into two halves – the north and east under Danish control (the Danelaw), the rest (Wessex and English Mercia) under Saxon control.
The Five Burghs or more usually The Five Boroughs or The Five Boroughs of the Danelaw were the five main towns of Danish Mercia. These were Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham (chief town of Danelaw) and Stamford.
Edward the Elder became king in 899 upon the death of his father, Alfred the Great. He captured the eastern Midlands and East Anglia from the Danes in 917 and became ruler of Mercia in 918.
Edward the Elder united Merica and Wessex. His court was at Winchester
Most of the Danelaw was recaptured between 910 and 920
Athelstan assumed the title ‘King of the whole of Britain’ after 927
Battle of Brunanburh was an Anglo-Saxon victory in 937 by the army of Athelstan, King of Angle-Land, and his brother, Edmund, over the combined armies of Olaf III Guthfrithson, Norse-Gael King of Dublin, Constantine II, King of Scots, and Owen I, King of Strathclyde.
Athelstan died in 940 and was buried in Malmesbury Abbey.
Edgar the Peaceful – king from 959 to 975
Edward the Martyr was king of the English from 975 until he was murdered at Corfe Castle in 978. Edward was the eldest son of King Edgar, but not his father's acknowledged heir.
Ethelred the Unready (‘ill-advised’) – king from 978 to 1016. He was the son of Edgar. Paid off the Vikings in Danegeld (‘Dane gold’, which was actually paid in silver) and to raise it he imposed crippling taxes.
Battle of Maldon in 991 took place during the reign of Eethelred the Unready. Earl Byrhtnoth and his thegns led the English against a Viking invasion. The battle ended in an Anglo-Saxon defeat but is celebrated in a Saxon epic poem.
St Brice’s Day massacre – the killing of Danes in the Kingdom of England on 13 November 1002, ordered by King Ethelred the Unready. The name refers to St Brice, 5th century Bishop of Tours, whose feast day is 13 November.
Swein Forkbeard conquered England, and in 1013 Ethelred was forced into exile in France. King of England from 25 December 1013 until his death on 3 February 1014 at Gainsborough, Lincolnshire.
Ireland: Brian Boru – High King of Ireland from 1002 to 1014.
Battle of Clontarf (1014) was fought between the forces of Brian Boru and the forces led by the King of Leinster. Boru’s forces won, but he was killed in the battle.
Edmund Ironside or Edmund II was king of the English from 23 April to 30 November 1016. The name ‘Ironside’ refers to his efforts to fend off a Danish invasion led by King Canute (Cnut), the son of Swein Forkbeard.
Cnut’s court was based in Winchester and was King of England from 1016 to 1035. His second wife was Emma of Normandy, widow of Ethelred the Unready.
Canute died in 1035 in the monastery at Shaftesbury, Dorset. He was buried in the Old Minster in Winchester.
Harold Harefoot (Harold I) was king from 1035 to 1040. He was the son of Cnut and his first wife, Ælfgifu of Northampton.
Hardicanute. He was King of Denmark from 1035 to 1042 as well as King of England from 1040 to 1042. He was the last UK Danish king and was the son of Cnut and Emma of Normandy
Scotland: Saint Margaret (c. 1045–1093), canonised by Pope Innocent IV, was the sister of Edgar Etheling, the short-ruling and uncrowned Anglo-Saxon King of England. She married Malcolm III, King of Scots, becoming his Queen consort. Known as ‘The Pearl of Scotland’
Macbeth killed by Malcolm III in 1057 at a battle fought at Lumphanen.
Edward the Confessor (son of Ethelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy). He reigned from 1042 to 1066. Crowned in Winchester in 1043 and is the only English king to be canonized. His brother Alfred was killed in England in 1036 after being captured by Earl Godwin. He rebuilt Westminster Abbey.
Godwin was one of the most powerful lords in England under the Danish king Canute the Great and his successors. Cnut made him the first Earl of Wessex. Godwin was the father of King Harold Godwinson (Harold II), Tostig and Edith of Wessex, wife of King Edward the Confessor. Banished by Edward the Confessor in 1051 but returned and reinstated in 1052. He died in 1053 and his earldom passed to his son Harold.
Harold visited Normandy in 1064 (precise reason unknown) and crossed paths with Duke William. May or may not have sworn an oath to support William’s claim to the English throne.
Harold’s brother Tostig, Earl of Northumbria, was banished in 1065 and eventually joined forces with Harald Hardrada.
1066
Normans maintained that Edward the Confessor had promised the throne of England to William, Duke of Normandy. On his deathbed Edward declared Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex, his heir. King Edward died 4/5 January 1066. He was buried in Westminster Abbey 6 January (a.m.) and Harold was crowned there the same afternoon.
Battle of (Gate) Fulford took place at the village of Fulford, near York in England on 20 September 1066, when King Harald III of Norway Hardrada and Tostig Godwinson, his English ally, fought and defeated the Northern Earls Edwin and Morcar.
Battle of Stamford Bridge (over River Derwent), English under Harold II defeated the Vikings under Harald Hardrada of Norway and Earl Tostig on 25 September 1066. Harold immediately marched south to face Duke William.
William’s fleet landed at Pevensey Bay. The Battle of Hastings (Saturday, 14 October 1066) fought around Senlac Hill (now Battle). Harold II was defeated, killed and is buried at Waltham Abbey.
Edith Swanneck – the unwedded consort of King Harold II identified Harold’s body.
Edgar the Etheling was proclaimed, but never crowned, King of England in 1066. The English leaders surrendered at Berkhamsted. Duke William was crowned King William I on Christmas Day 1066.
