The British Isles

• Britannia

  Conquered by the Romans in the 1st century and incorporated into the Roman Empire
• Capital city of Britannia

  Londinio, then the equivalent of York
• No word describing blue in Latin and the word today comes from Germanic language
• The Picts painted in blue did not want to conquer Britannia
• Under Hadrian's reign


  1. A big wall was built to defend the province from the Caledonians

  2. The Romans showed intentions to conquer Caledonia but never succeeded

  3. They never wanted nor tried to conquer Ireland
• Romani-British culture

  • Emerged as the Romans introduced improved agriculture, urban planning, industrial production, and architecture
  • The Roman influence eventually exceeded the boundaries of Britannia
• Late antiquity in the British Isles

  A very specific moment that saw the deeply Romanised provinces of Britannia become something new that is now called England
• Beda Venerabilis (Bede the Venerable)

  • Considered the father of British History
  • Wrote the chronicle "Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum" which is the most important source used to understand the creation of England
  • One of the greatest teachers and writers during the Early Middle Ages
• Following the invasion of Gaul by Germanic groups in 406

  1. Emperor Constantine III withdrew the remains of the Roman army settled in Britain

  2. The Picts began to raid the cities of East coast of Britain, and the Irish on the west coast

  3. In 410, Emperor Honorius told the British cities to look to their own defences
• The solution adopted by Romano-British leaders

  1. Enlist German mercenaries belonging to Angles, Saxons and Jutes

  2. Around 442, those mercenaries mutinied and waged war against the Romano-British people

  3. During the 460s, many Romano-British fled Britain to settle into the continent
• Fighting and wars went over

  1. Until around 500 and the battle of Mount Badon/Badon Hill

  2. By that time, the Western Roman Empire had vanished
• Scenarios for the number of Anglo-Saxons

  • A small elite band who came and took control
  • Mass migration of people who overwhelmed the Britons
• Old English came over the next few centuries to predominate through what is now England, to the expense of British Celtic and British Latin
• According to the Welsh monk Gildas, the beginning of the 6th century was a time of great prosperity
• The Anglo-Saxons were taking control of vast parts of Britain decades after decades
• The territories that we know as Wales resisted well to the Anglo-Saxons, which is why Celtic culture is still flourishing there
• Heptarchy


  The medieval idea of the "seven kingdoms" of Anglo-Saxon England, although the number fluctuated rapidly
• King Offa of Mercia


  • Probably the most renowned king of those centuries
  • Succeeded in conquering the southern part of Britain
  • Led several campaigns against Wales and built Offa's Dyke
  • Maintained diplomatic relationships with the pope and Charlemagne
  • Proclaimed himself as Rex Anglorum in 774, the first to do so
• Christianity has been introduced into the British Isles during the Roman rule

  1. Pagan Anglo-Saxons are said to have almost totally uprooted Christianity from Britain

  2. Pope Gregory I sent the monk Augustine to Britain in 597 to restore the influence of the Christian faith

  3. The north of England was Christianised through Irish influence

  4. Sussex and the Isle of Wight remained mainly pagan until the end of the 7th century

  5. There was friction between the followers of the Roman rites and the Irish rites, until 664 when the Roman rites were officially adopted by the English church
• Recorded Irish history begins

  1. With the introduction of Christianity and Latin culture in the 5th century

  2. In 431, Pope Celestine I sent Palladius as the 1st bishop of the Irish Christians, and also sent Patrick to preach Christianity

  3. Christianity became popular in Ireland, Latin too

  4. Kings of Ireland are said to be Christians around the midst of the 6th century

  5. The monastic movement, headed by abbots, began at the same time and experienced great success in Ireland
• By 700, Ireland was at least nominally a Christian country, with the Catholic church fully part of Irish society
• From the 7th century, Irish churchmen such as Columbanus were active in continental Europe, and in Britain, converting the north and the east of the island
• Scholars from other nations were many to came to Irish monasteries for learning purposes, as their Latin was very good and they were last in the West to understand Greek
• Irish monks created the "insular" style of art represented by treasures like the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Book of Kells and many carved stone crosses
• Two waves of pandemic diseases hit Ireland in the 660s and the 680s
• The Vikings appeared in Ireland at the very end of the 8th century, settled there and founded Dublin in 840
• The Vikings' presence stirred up a situation of endless war with the Irish, as well as among Irish themselves
• Towards the end of the 8th and beginning of the 9th century

  1. Mercia and Northumbria declined, while the kings of Wessex increasingly dominated the other kingdoms of England

  2. In 827, King Egbert of Wessex became the 1st to reign over a united England, but this did not last long

  3. Throughout the years, less and less kingdoms remained in England
• The Vikings invasions began soon after

  1. They upset the balance of power between the English kingdoms

  2. They were looking for loot and then lands

  3. They got Normandy in France and started to invade England, which led it to unite
• King Alfred of Wessex (Alfred the Great)

  • Used his victories against the Vikings to acquire legitimacy
  • Took the title of "King of the Anglo-Saxons" in 886
  • That same year, he took London, reoccupying and refurbishing the nearly deserted Roman walled city, building quays along the Thames, and laying new city streets
• While fighting the Danish Vikings, as well as the Kingdom of Scotland

  1. The Anglo-Saxon Kings gathered one last time at Eamont on July 12, 927

  2. There, they recognized Aethelstan of Wessex as "King of England", ending a process of Unification that took almost a century

  3. England has remained in political unity ever since