Narrative History of England

PENGANTAR SEJARAH INGGRIS

Compiled by:
Romel Noverino

Faculty of Letters
Gunadarma University

This compilation is used by and for internal parties only

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Narrative History of England
Introduction by Peter N. Williams, Ph. D.

Naturally, our study will be concerned with the lives of the men and women who
contributed to the history of their great nation, for good or for ill. We will look, at the
growth of England's political institutions, its Kings, Queens and chief ministers, and its
technical and scientific marvels (phenomena) that put Britain ahead of its contemporaries
in so many areas and gave the world the industrial and agricultural revolutions that
changed peoples' lives forever. We will also discuss the important battles that determined

the fate of the English nation.
We will look at the great men of literature who wrote in a language that is now being
understood and copied in almost every area of the world. And we mustn't forget those
who fought against the establishment in so many different areas, those men (and women)
whose revolutionary ideas helped change the face of government, brought down kings
and parliaments, and introduced modern democracy. Then there were those who were
responsible for advances in medicine, psychology, sanitation, road-building, military
reform, shipbuilding -- the list seems endless. Perhaps we should begin our account right
at the beginning, long before recorded history began.
Part 1: The Prehistoric Period by Peter N. Williams, Ph. D.

Pre-Roman Britain
Though the scribes (writers) that accompanied the Roman invaders of Britain gave us the
first written history of the land that came to be known as England, its history had already
been writ large in its ancient monuments and archeological findings. Present-day Britain
is riddled with evidence of its long past, of the past that the Roman writers did not record,
but which is etched in the landscape. Looking out on the green and cultivated land, where
it is not disfigured by the inevitable cities and towns and villages of later civilizations,
strange bumps and mounds; remains of terraced or plowed fields; irregular slopes that
bespeak ancient hill forts; strangely carved designs in the chalk; jagged teeth of

upstanding megaliths; stone circles of immense breadth and height and ancient,
mysterious wells and springs.
Man lived in what we now call the British Isles long before it broke away from the
continent of Europe, long before the great seas covered the land bridge that is now known
as the English Channel, that body of water that protected this island for so long, and that
by its very nature, was to keep it out of the maelstrom that became medieval Europe.
Thus England's peculiar character as an island nation came about through its very
isolation. Early man came, settled, farmed and built. His remains tell us much about his

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lifestyle and his habits. Of course, the land was not then known as England, nor would it
be until long after the Romans had departed.
We know of the island's early inhabitants from what they left behind on such sites as
Clacton-on-Sea in Essex, and Swanscombe in Kent, gravel pits, the exploration of which
opened up a whole new way of seeing our ancient ancestors dating back to the lower
Paleolithic (early Stone Age). Here were deposited not only fine tools made of flint,
including hand-axes, but also a fossilized skull of a young woman as well as bones of
elephants, rhinoceroses, cave-bears, lions, horses, deer, giant oxen, wolves and hares.
From the remains, we can assume that man lived at the same time as these animals which

have long disappeared from the English landscape.
So we know that a thriving culture existed around 8,000 years ago in the misty, westward
islands the Romans were to call Britannia, though some have suggested the occupation
was only seasonal, due to the still-cold climate of the glacial period which was slowly
coming to an end. As the climate improved, there seems to have been an increase in the
number of people moving into Britain from the Continent. They were attracted by its
forests, its wild game, abundant rivers and fertile southern plains. An added attraction
was its relative isolation, giving protection against the fierce nomadic tribesmen that kept
appearing out of the east, forever searching for new hunting grounds and perhaps, people
to subjugate and enslave.
The Neolithic Age
The new age of settlement took place around 4,500 BC, in what we now term the
Neolithic Age. Though isolated farmhouses seem to be the norm, the remarkable findings
at Skara Brae and Rinyo in the Orkneys give evidence of settled, village life. In both
sites, local stone was used extensively to make interior walls, beds, boxes, cupboards and
hearths. Roofs seem to have been supported by whale bone, more plentiful and more
durable than timber. Much farther south, at Carn Brea in Cornwall, another Neolithic
village attests to a lifestyle similar to that enjoyed at Skara Brae, except in the more
fertile south, agriculture played a much larger part in the lives of the villagers. Animal
husbandry was practiced at both sites.

Very early on, farming began to transform the landscape of Britain from virgin forest to
ploughed fields. An excavated settlement at Windmill Hill, Wiltshire shows us that its
early inhabitants kept cattle, sheep, pigs, goats and dogs. They also cultivated various
kinds of wheat and barley, grew flax, gathered fruits and made pottery. They buried their
dead in long barrows -- huge elongated mounds of earth raised over a temporary wooden
structure in which several bodies were laid. These long barrows are found all over
Southern England, where fertile soil allied to a flat, or gently rolling landscape greatly
aided settlement.
To clear the forests, it is obvious that stone-axes of a sophisticated design were produced
in great numbers. Many of these axes were obtained by trading with other groups or by
mining high-quality flint. Both activities seem to have been wide-spread, as stone-axes
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appear in many areas away from the source of their manufacture. At Grimes Graves, in
Norfolk (in the eastern half of Britain), great quantities of flint were mined by miners
working deep hollowed-out shafts and galleries in the chalk.
At the same time the Windmill people practiced their way of life and other farming
people were introducing decorated pottery and different shaped tools to Britain. The
cultures may have combined to produce the striking Megalithic monuments, the burial
chambers and the henges. The tombs consisted of passage graves, in which a long narrow

passage leads to a burial chamber in the very middle of the mound; and gallery graves, in
which the passage is wider, divided by stone partitions making stall-like compartments.
Some of these tombs were built of massive blocks of stone standing upright as walls, with
other huge blocks laid across horizontally to make a roof. They were then covered with
earthen mounds which have in many cases, completely eroded. One of the most
impressive of these tombs is New Grange in Ireland. They are the oldest manmade stone
structures known, older than the great Pyramids of Egypt.
Sometime in the early to middle Neolithic period, groups of people began to build camps
or enclosures in valley bottoms or on hilltops.
Perhaps these were originally built to pen cattle
and later used for defense, settlement or simply
meeting places for trading. Perhaps they were
built for religious purposes. Soon, these
enclosures began to evolve into more elaborate
sites that may have been used for religious
ceremonies, perhaps even for studying the night
stars so that sowing, planting and harvesting
could be done at the most propitious times of the year. Whatever their purpose, we call
these sites, most of which are circular or semi-circular in pattern, henges. They include
banks and ditches; the most impressive, at Avebury, in Wiltshire, had a ditch 21 metres

in width, and 9 metres deep in places.
Many of the timber posts that defined these henges have long disappeared, but many sites
still contain circles of pits, central stones, cairns or burials and clearly defined stone or
timber entrances. It was not too long before stone circles began to dot the landscape,
spanning the period between the late Neolithic and the early Bronze Ages (c 3370 - 2679
BC). Outside these circles were erected the monoliths, huge single standing stones that
may have been aligned on the rising or setting sun at midsummer or midwinter. Some of
these, such as the groups of circles known as the Calva group in present day Scotland,
were also used for burials and burial ceremonies. Henges seem to have been used for
multiple purposes, justifying the enormous expenditure of time and energy to construct
them.
The arrival of the so-called "Beaker people" named after the shape of their most
characteristic pottery vessel, brought the first metal-users to the British Isles. Perhaps
they used their beakers to store beer, for they grew barley and knew how to brew beer
from it. At the time of their arrival in Britain, they seem to have mingled with another
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group of Europeans we call the "Battle-axe people," who had domesticated the horse,
used wheeled carts and smelted and worked copper. They also buried their dead in single
graves, often under round barrows. They also may have introduced a language into

Britain derived from Indo-European.
Prehistoric Earthworks and the "Wessex Culture"
The two groups seem to have blended together to produce the
cult in Southern England that we call the 'Wessex Culture.'
They were responsible for the enormous earthwork called
Silbury Hill, the largest manmade mound in prehistoric
Europe. Silbury is 39 metres high and was built as a series of
circular platforms; their purpose still unknown. Nearby is the
largest henge of all, Avebury, consisting of a vast circular
ditch and bank, an outer ring of one hundred standing stones and two smaller inner rings
of stones. Outside the monument was a mile-long avenue of standing stones.
Stonehenge, in the same general area as Silbury and Avebury, is
perhaps the most famous, certainly the most visited and
photographed of all the prehistoric monuments in Britain. We can
only guess at the amount of labor involved in its construction, at
the enormous complexity of the task which included transporting
the inner blue-stones from the Preseli Hills in Wales and erecting
of the great lintelled circle and horseshoe of large sarsen stones, shaped and dressed. The
architectural sophistication of the monument bears witness to the tremendous
technological advances being made at the time of the arrival of the Bronze Age.

Grave goods also attest to the sophistication of the Wessex culture: These include wellmade stone battle axes, but also metal daggers with richly decorated hilts, precious
ornaments of gold or amber, as well as gold cups, amulets, even a sceptre with a polished
mace-head at one end. To make bronze, tin came from Cornwall; gold came from Wales,
and products made from these metals were traded freely both within the British Isles and
with peoples on the continent of Europe. Bronze was used to make cauldrons and bowls,
shields and helmets, weapons of war, and farming tools. It was at this time that the Celtic
peoples arrived in the islands we now call Britain.
The Celts
Before the arrival of the Celts in Britain, iron-working had begun in the Hittite Empire, of
Asia Minor. Those who practiced the trade kept it a closely guarded secret, but shortly
after 1200 BC, the Hittites were overthrown and knowledge of the miracle metal began to
leak out. In Central Europe, a culture known as "Urnfield" developed and prospered. It
quickly adapted the iron-working culture known as "Hallstatt," after a site in Austria.
One of the most significant elements in the new culture
was the system of burial. Important people were buried
along with their most precious possessions in timber built
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chambers under earthen barrows. The Hallstatt people were highly-skilled craftsmen,
who used iron, bronze and gold, and produced fine burnished pottery. At some time they

reached the British Isles and their culture began to infiltrate those foggy, wet, but
mineral-rich islands off the Continent.
From their contact with Mediterraneans, the Hallstatt people had advanced their
technology and culture developing into what is called "La Tene" after a site in
Switzerland. The La Tene style, with its production of beautiful, handsomely-made and
decorated articles, came into existence around the middle of the fifth century BC. It was
produced by the Celts, the first people in the islands of Britain whose culture and
language survive in many forms today.
Of the Celtic peoples, Hermann Noelle wrote:
The Celtic culture as a whole, developing very early on about 1000 BC, and reaching its
finest expression around 500 BC, is a fundamental part of Europe's past. This is not to
underrate the subsequent influence of the Latin and Germanic peoples on this part of
Europe. But the Celtic foundation was already present. Thus, European culture is
inconceivable without the Celtic contribution. Even when the presence of the Celts in
their original territory is no longer obvious, we must acknowledge the fact: they are at the
root of the Western European peoples who have made history. (Die Kelten und Ihre Stadt
Manching, cited in Cunliffe, 214)
The arrival of people into the British Isles from the Continent probably took place in
small successive waves. The Greeks called these people Keltoi, the Romans Celtai. In
present-day Yorkshire, "the Arras Culture" with its La Tene chariot burials attests to the

presence of a wealthy and flourishing Celtic society in Northeast Britain. In the
southwest, cross-Channel influence is seen. Here, a culture developed that was probably
highly involved in the mining and trading of tin; it is characterized by a certain type of
hill fort that is also found in Britanny.
Hill Forts
Hill Forts from the Iron-Age, the age of the Celts, are found everywhere in the British
Isles. Spectacular relics from prehistoric times, hill forts had as many purposes as sites.
They varied from shelters for people and livestock in times of danger, purely local
settlements of important leaders and their families, to small townships and administrative
centers. Long practiced in the art of warfare, the people of these isolated settlements were
responsible for some of the finest known artistic achievements. In addition to their
beautifully wrought and highly decorated shields, daggers, spears,
helmets and sword, they also produced superb mirrors, toilet
articles, drinking vessels and personal jewelry of exquisite form
and decoration.
The Celts in Britain used a language derived from a branch of
Celtic known as either Brythonic, which gave rise to Welsh,
Cornish and Breton; or Goidelic, giving rise to Irish, Scots Gaelic
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and Manx. Along with their languages, the Celts brought their religion to Britain,
particularly that of the Druids, the guardians of traditions and learning. The Druids
glorified the pursuits of war, feasting and horsemanship. They controlled the calender and
the planting of crops and presided over the religious festivals and rituals that honored
local deities.
Many of Britain's Celts came from Gaul, driven from their homelands by the Roman
armies and Germanic tribes. These were the Belgae, who arrived in great numbers and
settled in the southeast around 75 BC. They brought with them a sophisticated plough
that revolutionized agriculture in the rich, heavy soils of their new lands. Their society
was well-organized in urban settlements, the capitals of the tribal chiefs. Their crafts
were highly developed; bronze urns, bowls and torques illustrate their metalworking
skills. They also introduced coinage to Britain and conducted a lively export trade with
Rome and Gaul, including corn, livestock, metals and slaves.
Of the Celtic lands on the mainland of Britain, Wales and Scotland have received
extensive coverage in the pages of Britannia. The largest non-Celtic area, at least
linguistically, is now known as England, and it is here that the Roman influence is most
strongly felt. It was here that the armies of Rome came to stay, to farm, to mine, to build
roads, small cities, and to prosper, but mostly to govern.
Part 2: The Roman Period by Peter N. Williams, Ph. D.

Changes in Empire and at Home
The first Roman invasion of the lands we now call the British Isles took place in 55 B.C.
under war leader Julius Caesar, who returned one year later, but these probings did not
lead to any significant or permanent occupation. He had some interesting, if biased
comments concerning the natives: "All the Britons," he wrote, "paint themselves with
woad, which gives their skin a bluish color and makes them look very dreadful in battle."
It was not until a hundred years later that permanent settlement of the grain-rich eastern
territories began in earnest.
In the year 43.A.D.an expedition was ordered against Britain by the Emperor Claudius,
who showed he meant business by sending his general, Aulus Plautius, and an army of
40,000 men. Only three months after Plautius's troops landed on Britain's shores, the
Emperor Claudius felt it was safe enough to visit his new province. Establishing their
bases in what is now Kent, through a series of battles involving greater discipline, a great
element of luck, and general lack of co-ordination between the leaders of the various
Celtic tribes, the Romans subdued much of Britain in the short space of forty years. They
were to remain for nearly 400 years. The great number of prosperous villas that have
been excavated in the southeast and southwest testify to the rapidity by which Britain
became Romanized, for they functioned as centers of a settled, peaceful and urban life.

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The highlands and moorlands of the northern and western regions, present-day Scotland
and Wales, were not as easily settled, nor did the Romans particularly wish to settle in
these agriculturally poorer, harsh landscapes. They remained the frontier -- areas where
military garrisons were strategically placed to guard the extremities of the Empire. The
stubborn resistance of tribes in Wales meant that two out of three Roman legions in
Britain were stationed on its borders, at Chester and Caerwent.
Major defensive works further north attest to the fierceness of the Pictish and Celtic
tribes, Hadrian's Wall in particular reminds us of the need for a peaceful and stable
frontier. Built when Hadrian had abandoned his plan of world conquest, settling for a
permanent frontier to "divide Rome from the barbarians," the seventy-two mile long wall
connecting the Tyne to the Solway was built and rebuilt, garrisoned and re-garrisoned
many times, strengthened by stone-built forts as one mile intervals.
For Imperial Rome, the island of Britain was a western breadbasket. Caesar had taken
armies there to punish those who were aiding the Gauls on the Continent in their fight to
stay free of Roman influence. Claudius invaded to give himself prestige, and his
subjugation of eleven British tribes gave him a splendid triumph. Vespasian was a legion
commander in Britain before he became Emperor, but it was Agricola who gave us most
notice of the heroic struggle of the native Britons through his biographer Tacitus. From
him, we get the unforgettable picture of the druids, "ranged in order, with their hands
uplifted, invoking the gods and pouring forth horrible imprecations." Agricola also won
the decisive victory of Mons Graupius in present-day Scotland in 84 A.D. over Calgacus
"the swordsman," that carried Roman arms farther west and north than they had ever
before ventured. They called their newly-conquered northern territory Caledonia.
When Rome had to withdraw one of its legions from Britain, the thirty-seven mile long
Antonine Wall, connecting the Firths of Forth and Clyde, served temporarily as the
northern frontier, beyond which lay Caledonia.. The Caledonians, however were not
easily contained; they were quick to master the arts of guerilla warfare against the
scattered, home-sick Roman legionaries, including those under their ageing commander
Severus. The Romans abandoned the Antonine Wall, withdrawing south of the betterbuilt, more easily defended barrier of Hadrian, but by the end of the fourth century, the
last remaining outposts in Caledonia were abandoned.
Further south, however, in what is now England, Roman life prospered. Essentially
urban, it was able to integrate the native tribes into a town-based governmental system.
Agricola succeeded greatly in his aims to accustom the Britons "to a life of peace and
quiet by the provision of amenities. He consequently gave private encouragement and
official assistance to the building of temples, public squares and good houses." Many of
these were built in former military garrisons that became the coloniae , the Roman
chartered towns such as Colchester, Gloucester, Lincoln, and York (where Constantine
was declared Emperor by his troops in 306 A.D.). Other towns, called municipia ,
included such foundations as St. Albans (Verulamium).

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Chartered towns were governed to a large extent on that of Rome. They were ruled by an
ordo of 100 councillors (decurion ). who had to be local residents and own a certain
amount of property. The ordo was run by two magistrates, rotated annually; they were
responsible for collecting taxes, administering justice and undertaking public works.
Outside the chartered town, the inhabitants were referred to as peregrini , or non-citizens.
they were organized into local government areas known as civitates , largely based on
pre-existing chiefdom boundaries. Canterbury and Chelmsford were two of the civitas
capitals.
In the countryside, away from the towns, with their metalled, properly drained streets,
their forums and other public buildings, bath houses, shops and amphitheatres, were the
great villas, such as are found at Bignor, Chedworth and Lullingstone. Many of these
seem to have been occupied by native Britons who had acquired land and who had
adopted Roman culture and customs.. Developing out of the native and relatively crude
farmsteads, the villas gradually added features such as stone walls, multiple rooms,
hypocausts (heating systems), mosaics and bath houses..The third and fourth centuries
saw a golden age of villa building that further increased their numbers of rooms and
added a central courtyard. The elaborate surviving mosaics found in some of these villas
show a detailed construction and intensity of labor that only the rich could have afforded;
their wealth came from the highly lucrative export of grain.
Roman society in Britain was highly classified. At the top were those people associated
with the legions, the provincial administration, the government of towns and the wealthy
traders and commercial classes who enjoyed legal privileges not generally accorded to
the majority of the population. In 2l2 AD, the Emperor Caracalla extended citizenship to
all free-born inhabitants of the empire, but social and legal distinctions remained rigidly
set between the upper rank of citizens known as honestiores and the masses, known as
humiliores. At the lowest end of the scale were the slaves, many of whom were able to
gain their freedom, and many of whom might occupy important govermental posts.
Women were also rigidly circumscribed, not being allowed to hold any public office, and
having severely limited property rights.
One of the greatest achievements of the Roman Empire was its system of roads, in Britain
no less than elsewhere. When the legions arrived in a country with virtually no roads at
all, as Britain was in the first century A.D., their first task was to build a system to link
not only their military headquarters but also their isolated forts. Vital for trade, the roads
were also of paramount important in the speedy movement of troops, munitions and
supplies from one strategic center to another. They also allowed the movement of
agricultural products from farm to market. London was the chief administrative centre,
and from it, roads spread out to all parts of the province. They included Ermine Street, to
Lincoln; Watling Street, to Wroxeter and then to Chester, all the way in the northwest on
the Welsh frontier; and the Fosse Way, from Exeter to Lincoln, the first frontier of the
province of Britain.
The Romans built their roads carefully and they built them well. They followed proper
surveying, they took account of contours in the land, avoided wherever possible the fen,
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bog and marsh so typical in much of the land, and stayed clear of the impenetrable
forests. They also utilized bridges, an innovation that the Romans introduced to Britain in
place of the hazardous fords at many river crossings. An advantage of good roads was
that communications with all parts of the country could be effected. They carried the
cursus publicus, or imperial post. A road book used by messengers that lists all the main
routes in Britain, the principal towns and forts they pass through, and the distances
between them has survived: the Antonine Itinerary.. In addition, the same information, in
map form, is found in the Peutinger Table. It tells us that mansiones were places at
various intervals along the road to change horses and take lodgings.
The Roman armies did not have it all their own way in their battles with the native
tribesmen, some of whom, in their inter-tribal squabbles, saw them as deliverers, not
conquerors. Heroic and often prolonged resistance came from such leaders as Caratacus
of the Ordovices, betrayed to the Romans by the Queen of the Brigantes. And there was
Queen Boudicca (Boadicea) of the Iceni, whose revolt nearly succeeded in driving the
Romans out of Britain. Her people, incensed by their brutal treatment at the hands of
Roman officials, burned Colchester, London, and St. Albans, destroying many armies
ranged against them. It took a determined effort and thousands of fresh troops sent from
Italy to reinforce governor Suetonius Paulinus in A..D. 6l to defeat the British Queen,
who took poison rather than submit.
Apart from the villas and fortified settlements, the great mass of the British people did
not seem to have become Romanized. The influence of Roman thought survived in
Britain only through the Church. Christianity had thoroughly replaced the old Celtic gods
by the close of the 4th Century, as the history of Pelagius and St. Patrick testify, but
Romanization was not successful in other areas. For example, the Latin tongue did not
replace Brittonic as the language of the general population. Today's visitors to Wales,
however, cannot fail to notice some of the Latin words that were borrowed into the
British language, such as pysg (fish), braich (arm), caer (fort), foss (ditch), pont (bridge),
eglwys (church), llyfr (book), ysgrif (writing), ffenestr (window), pared (wall or
partition), and ystafell (room).
The disintegration of Roman Britain began with the revolt of Magnus Maximus in A.D.
383. After living in Britain as military commander for twelve years, he had been hailed as
Emperor by his troops. He began his campaigns to dethrone Gratian as Emperor in the
West, taking a large part of the Roman garrison in Britain with him to the Continent, and
though he succeeded Gratian, he himself was killed by the Emperor Thedosius in 388.
Some Welsh historians, and modern political figures, see Magnus Maximus as the father
of the Welsh nation, for he opened the way for independent political organizations to
develop among the Welsh people by his acknowledgement of the role of the leaders of
the Britons in 383 (before departing on his military mission to the Continent) The
enigmatic figure has remained a hero to the Welsh as Macsen Wledig, celebrated in
poetry and song.
The Roman legions began to withdraw from Britain at the end of the fourth century.
Those who stayed behind were to become the Romanized Britons who organized local
10

defences against the onslaught of the Saxon hordes. The famous letter of A.D.410 from
the Emperor Honorius told the cities of Britain to look to their own defences from that
time on. As part of the east coast defences, a command had been established under the
Count of the Saxon Shore, and a fleet had been organized to control the Channel and the
North Sea. All this showed a tremendous effort to hold the outlying province of Britain,
but eventually, it was decided to abandon the whole project. In any case, the
communication from Honorius was a little late: the Saxon influence had already begun in
earnest.
Part 3: Arthurian Britain by Peter N. Williams, Ph. D.

The Dark Ages
From the time that the Romans more or less abandoned Britain, to the arrival of
Augustine at Kent to convert the Saxons, the period has been known as the Dark Ages.
Written evidence concerning the period is scanty, but we do know that the most
significant events were the gradual division of Britain into a Brythonic west, a Teutonic
east and a Gaelic north; the formation of the Welsh, English and Scottish nations; and the
conversion of much of the west to Christianity.
By 4l0, Britain had become self-governing in three parts, the North (which already
included people of mixed British and Angle stock); the West (including Britons, Irish,
and Angles); and the South East (mainly Angles). With the departure of the Roman
legions, the old enemies began their onslaughts upon the native Britons once more. The
Picts and Scots to the north and west (the Scots coming in from Ireland had not yet made
their homes in what was to become later known as Scotland), and the Saxons, Angles,
and Jutes to the south and east.
The two centuries that followed the collapse of Roman Britain happen to be among the
worst recorded times in British history, certainly the most obscure. Three main sources
for our knowledge of the Anglo-Saxon permeation of Britain come from the 6th century
monk Gildas, the 8th century historian Bede, and the 9th century historian Nennius. From
them, and from archeological evidence, it seems that the Anglo-Saxon domination of
Britain took place in two distinct phases. I have hesitated to use Bede's term of
"Conquest" for sound reasons.
One analogous situation with events in Britain as recorded by its English historians can
be found by looking at the history of Israel. Recent archeological discoveries in the
troubled land have cast into doubt the veracity of the Biblical accounts of the conquest of
Canaan. Let's face it, history is written by the victors anxious to boast of their triumphs,
to magnify their successes, and to denigrate the enemy. The Israelite bards and scribes
certainly telescoped the events of the gradual subjugation of the Canaanite kingdoms,
transforming what modern archaeologists have recognized as a gradual recrystallization
of settled life into a great literary epic of conquest.
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Referring to Israel, but in general terms, Neil Silberman wrote: "Archeology's real
contribution has been, and will continue to be, the recognition that our biblical heritage is
drawn from a complex mosaic of cultures, ideologies, and economies, and that some of
our most profound spiritual and cultural traditions were forged in the vibrant diversity of
the ancient Near Eastern world." As far as British history is concerned, we find English
historians, especially Bede, doing the same thing as the biblical scribes. No matter how
reliable an historian, Bede's bitter prejudice against the native Britons was honed by his
religious beliefs and his praise of the English peoples' successes in colonizing the island
of Britain.
Bede (672-735) spent his life at Jarrow, in Northumbria. In many ways a trustworthy
historian, he was also a theologian. Acting as a bard of his own tribe in Northumbria, hIs
intense hostility made him a partisan witness when he wrote of the British people, for
they had retained a form of Roman Christianity which was anathema to him. He called
members of the Celtic Church "barbarians," " a rustic, perfidious race," and is thus
regarded by many modern historians (but especially Welsh writers) as a "fancy monger"
especially for his account of the year of 708 that has been slavishly followed by countless
generations of English historians throughout the centuries with nary a question. Nor do
Nennius and Geoffrey of Monmouth escape censure, certainly not the writers of the
English Chronicle., all of whom subscribe to the notion that the British people were
driven out of their homelands into Wales and Cornwall as a result of a catastrophic event
known as "the Anglo-Saxon conquest."
The heritage of the British people cannot simply be called Anglo-Saxon; it is based on
such a mixture as took place in the Holy Land, that complex mosaic of cultures,
ideologies and economies. The Celts were not driven out of what came to be known as
England. More than one modern historian has pointed out that such an extraordinary
success as an Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain "by bands of bold adventurers" could
hardly have passed without notice by the historians of the Roman Empire, yet only
Prosper Tyro and Procopius notice this great event, and only in terms that are not always
consistent with the received accounts.
In the Gallic Chronicle of 452, Tyro had written that the Britons in 443 were reduced "in
dicionen Saxonum" (under the jurisdiction of the English). He used the Roman term
Saxons for all the English-speaking peoples resident in Britain: it comes from the Welsh
appellation Saeson ). The Roman historians had been using the term to describe all the
continental folk who had been directing their activities towards the eastern and southern
coasts of Britain from as early as the 3rd Century. By the mid 6th Century, these peoples
were calling themselves Angles and Frisians , and not Saxons.
In the account given by Procopius in the middle of the 6th Century (the Gothic War,
Book 1V, cap 20), he writes of the island of Britain being possessed by three very
populous nations: the Angili, the Frisians, and the Britons.. "And so numerous are these
nations that every year, great numbers . . . migrate thence to the Franks . . ." There is no
suggestion here that these peoples existed in a state of warfare or enmity, nor that the
British people had been vanquished or made to flee westwards. We have to assume,
12

therefore, that the Gallic Chronicle of 452 refers only to a small part of Britain, and that it
does not signify conquest by the Saxons. According to a recent study, the Institute of
Molecular Biology, Oxford (reported in Realm, March/April, 1999) has established a
common DNA going back to the end of the last Ice Age which is shared by 99 percent
from a sample of 6,000 British people, confirming that successive invasions of Saxons,
Angles and Jutes (and Danes and Normans) did little to change that make-up.
Thus we have to agree with Professors John Davies and A.W. Wade-Evans that the
Saxons did not sweep away the entire population of the areas they overran. The myth was
especially promulgated by 19th century historians in their attempts to stress the essential
teutonic nature of the English people, and their attempts to disassociate what they
considered to be the politically mature, emotionally stable, enlightened English from their
unreliable, untrustworthy Welsh, Scottish and Irish neighbors who apparently shared
none of the former's redeeming characteristics.
It was not only Bede of course, who contributed to the confusion concerning the
momentous events of the years 400 to 600, for the most influential document written
during the period was that of the monk Gildas written about 540: De Excidio Britanniae
(Concerning the Fall of Britain). Here, in some 25, 000 words, Gildas gives us a sermon
that pours scorn on his contemporaries, the kings of Britain. He tells us that the coming of
the Saxons was an act of God to punish the native Britons for their sins. As we discover
from reading Gildas, there is a great lack of reliable written evidence from the period,
and we have to turn to literature to inform ourselves of its important events, literature
written before Bede's prejudiced history. Much of this literature was produced in what is
now Scotland.
The Britons of the North produced two great poets Taliesin and Aneirin, both of whom
lived in the area now known as Strathclyde in Scotland, but whose language is
recognizable as Old Welsh Their poems are part of the heroic tradition that praise the
warrior king and his brave followers in their constant battles against the Germanic
invaders.. They also celebrate honor in defeat. Taliesin's poetry praises the ideal ruler
who protects his people by bravery and ferocity in battle but who is mangnanimous and
generous in peace. Aneirin is best remembered for Y Gododdin, commemorating the
feats of a small band of warriors who fought the Angles at Catraeth and who were willing
to die for their overlord. the poem is the first to mention Arthur, described as a paragon of
virtue and bravery. In the Annales Cambriae, drawn up at St.David's in Wales around
960, Arthur is recorded as having been victorious at the Battle of Badon in 5l6 against the
Saxons.
Another collection of stories collected around 830 that relate the events of the age is the
Historia Brittonum (History of the Britons) ascribed to Nennius. Arthur is also
mentioned, as is Brutus, described as the ancestor of the Welsh. Perhaps the most
authentic of the early Arthurian references is the entry for 537 in the Annales that briefly
refers to the Battle of Camlan in which Arthur and Medrawd were killed. Prose accounts
of the enigmatic British leader are entirely tales of fancy. It was not until the highly

13

imaginative works of Geoffrey of Monmouth (1090-1155) that the Arthurian romances
provided the basis for a whole new and impressive tradition of European literature.
It is the coming of Christianity, however, that overshadows the literary achievements of
the age. In most of lowland Britain, Latin had become the language of administration
and education, especially since Celtic writing was virtually unknown. Latin was also the
language of the Church in Rome. The old Celtic gods had given way to the new ones
such as Mithras introduced by the Roman mercenaries; they were again replaced when
missionaries from Gaul introduced Christianity to the islands. By 3l4, an organized
Christian Church seems to have been established in most of Britain, for in that year
British bishops were summoned to the Council of Arles. By the end of the fourth century,
a diocesan structure had been set up, many districts having come under the pastoral care
of a bishop.
In the meantime, however, missionaries of the Gospel had been active in the south and
east of the land that later became known as Scotland (It was not until the late tenth
Century that the name Scotia ceased to be applied to Ireland and become transferred to
southwestern Scotland) The first of these was Ninian who probably built his first church
(Candida Casa: White House ) at Whithorn in Galloway, ministering from there as a
traveling bishop and being buried there after his death in 397 A.D. For many centuries his
tomb remained a place of pilgrimage, including visits from kings and queens of Scotland.
It was during the time of the Saxon invasions, in that relatively unscathed western
peninsular that later took the name Wales, that the first monasteries were established (the
words Wales and Welsh were used by the Germanic invaders to refer to Romanized
Britons). They spread rapidly to Ireland from where missionaries returned to those parts
of Britain that were not under the Roman Bishops' jurisdiction, mainly the Northwest..
Though preceded by St Oran, who established churches in Iona, Mull and Tiree, Columba
was the most important of these missionaries, later becoming a popular saint in the
history of the Christian Church, but even he built the nave of his first monastery facing
west and not east. For his efforts at reforming the Church, he was excommunicated by
Rome. His banishment from Ireland became Scotland's gain.
The island of Iona is just off the western coast of Argyll, in present-day Scotland. It is
been called the Isle of Dreams or Isle of Druids. It was here that Columba (Columcille
'"Dove of the Church" ) with his small band of Irish monks landed in 563 A.D. to spread
the faith, and it was here that the missionary saint inaugurated Aidan as king of the new
territory of Dalriata (previously settled by men from Columba's own Ulster). Iona was
quickly to become the ecclesiastical head of the Celtic Church in the whole of Britain as
well as a major political center. After the monastic settlement at Iona gave sanctuary to
the exiled Oswald early in the seventh century, the king invited the monks to come to his
restored kingdom of Northumbria. It was thus that Aidan, with his twelve disciples, came
to Lindisfarne, destined with Iona to become one of the great cultural centers of the early
Christian world.

14

In 574, Columba is believed to have returned to Ireland to plead the cause of the bards,
about to be expelled as trouble-makers. According to legend, he sensibly argued that their
expulsion would deprive the country of an irreplaceable wealth of folklore and antiquity.
He also refused to chop down the ancient, sacred oak trees that symbolized the old
druidic religion. Although the bards were allowed to remain, they were forced to give up
their special privileges as priests of the old religion (Some modern writers, such as
Robert Graves have seen the old traditions underlying much Celtic literature throughout
the long. long years since the 6th century).
In this period, the 5th and 6th Centuries, numerous Celtic saints were adopted by the
rapidly expanding Church. At the Synod of Whitby in 664, however, the Celtic Church,
with its own ideas about the consecration of its Bishops, tonsure of its monks, dates for
the celebration of Easter and other differences with Rome, was more or less forced by
majority opinion of the British bishops to accept the rule of St.Peter, introduced by
Augustine, rather than of St.Columba. From this date on, we can no longer speak of a
Celtic Church as distinct from that of Rome. By the end of the seventh century we can
also begin to speak of an Anglo-Saxon political entity in the island of Britain, and the
formation and growth of various English kingdoms.
Part 4: The Anglo Saxon Period by Peter N. Williams, Ph. D.

Commonly ascribed to the monk Gildas, the "De Excidio Britanniae" (the loss of
Britain), was written about 540. As previously mentioned, it is not a good history, for it is
most mere polemic. Closely followed by Bede, the account is the first to narrate what has
traditionally been regarded as the story of the coming of the Saxons to Britain. Their
success, regarded by Gildas as God's vengeance against the Britons for their sins, was a
theme repeated by Bede isolated in his monastery in the north. We note, however, that
Gildas made the statement that, in his own day, the Saxons were not warring against the
Britons. We can be certain that the greater part of the pre-English inhabitants of England
survived, and that a great proportion of present-day England is made up of their
descendants.
To answer the question how did the small number of invaders come to master the larger
part of Britain? John Davies gives us part of the answer: the regions seized by the
newcomers were mainly those that had been most thoroughly Romanized, regions where
traditions of political and military self-help were at their weakest. Those who chafed at
the administration of Rome could only have welcomed the arrival of the English in such
areas as Kent and Sussex, in the southeast.
Another compelling reason cited by Davies is the emergence in Britain of the great
plague of the sixth century from Egypt that was particularly devastating to the Britons
who had been in close contact with peoples of the Mediterranean. Be that as it may, the
emergence of England as a nation did not begin as a result of a quick, decisive victory
over the native Britons, but a result of hundreds of years of settlement and growth, more
15

settlement and growth, sometimes peaceful, sometimes not. If it is pointed out that the
native Celts were constantly warring among themselves, it should also be noted that so
were the tribes we now collectively term the English, for different kingdoms developed in
England that constantly sought domination through conquest. Even Bede could pick out
half a dozen rulers able to impose some kind of authority upon their contemporaries.
So we see the rise and fall of successive English kingdoms during the seventh and eighth
centuries: Kent, Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex. Before looking at political
developments, however, it is important to notice the religious conversion of the people
we commonly call Anglo-Saxons. It began in the late sixth century and created an
institution that not only transcended political boundaries, but created a new concept of
unity among the various tribal regions that overrode individual loyalties.
In 597, St. Augustine was sent to convert the pagan English by Pope Gregory, who was
anxious to spread the Gospel, and enhance papal prestige by reclaiming former territories
of Rome. Augustine received a favorable reception in the kingdom of Ethelbert, who had
married Bertha, daughter of the Merovingian King and a practicing Christian. Again, it is
to Bede that we owe the story of the conversion of England to the new faith (the older
Roman Christian Church remained in parts of Britain, notably Wales and Scotland as the
Celtic Church). Augustine's success in converting a large number of people led to his
consecration as bishop by the end of the year.
Pope Gregory had drawn up a detailed plan for the administration of the Church in
England. There were to be two archbishops, London and York (each to have 12 bishops).
As the city of London was not under the control of Ethelbert, however, a new See was
chosen at Canterbury, in Kent. It was there that Augustine, promoted to archbishop, laid
down the beginnings of the ecclesiastical organization of the Church in Britain. It was
Gregory's guiding hand, however, that influenced all Augustine's decisions; both Pope
and Bishop seemed to know little of the Celtic Church, and made no accommodations
with it.
The establishment of the Church at York was not possible until 625; the immense task of
converting and then organizing the converted was mostly beyond the limited powers of
Augustine, well-trained in monastic rule, but little trained in law and administration.
Edwin of Northumbria's wife chose Paulinus as Bishop and the See of York was
established, though later attacks from Penda of Mercia meant that only a limited kind of
Christian worship took place in the North until around the middle of the eighth century.
In 668 when a vacancy arose at Canterbury, the monk Theodore of Tarsus was appointed
as archbishop. His background as a Greek scholar meant that he had to take new vows
and be ordained in custom with the Church in the West. He then attacked his work with
vigor. Assisted by another Greek scholar Hadrian, he set up the basis of diocesan
organization throughout England and carried out the decisions made at Whitby.
When Theodore arrived at Canterbury, there was one bishop south of the River Humber
and two in the North: Cedda, a Celtic bishop and Wilfred of Ripon, who had argued
16

successfully for the adoption of the Roman Church at Whitby. Theodore consecrated new
bishops at Dulwich, Winchester and Rochester, and set up the Sees of Worcester,
Hereford, Oxford and Leicester. Wilfred of Ripon reigned supreme in Northumbria as the
exponent of ecclesiastical authority, but when he quarreled with King Ecgfrith, he was
sent into exile. Theodore seized his opportunity to break up the North into smaller and
more controllable dioceses. Over the next twenty years bishoprics were established at
York, Hexham, Ripon and Lindsey. Theodore also re-established the system of
ecclesiastical synods that disregarded political boundaries.
One of Theodore's great accomplishments was to create the machinery through which the
wealth of the Celtic Church was transferred to the Anglo-Saxon Church. This wealth was
particularly responsible for the late seventh century flowering of culture in Northumbria,
which benefitted from both Celtic and Roman influences. In that northern outpost of the
Catholic Church, a tradition of scholarship began that was to have a profound influence
on the literature of Western Europe. It constituted a remarkable outbreak with equally
remarkable consequences.
It all began with a Northumbrian nobleman, associated with monastic life, Benedict
Biscop, who founded two monasteries, Wearmouth (674) and Jarrow (681). Both were to
play important parts in this cultural phenomenon. Biscop made six journeys to Rome,
acquiring many valuable manuscripts and beginning what can be termed a golden age in
Northumbria. Its greatest scholar was Bede.
Known to posterity as "the Venerable Bede," the monk lived from 673-735. He entered
Jarrow at the age of seven. Never traveling further than York, he became the most
learned scholar of his time. Working in the library with the manuscripts acquired by
Benedict Biscop, he added greatly to its store of knowledge through his voluminous
correspondence. His contemporary reputation rested on his biblical writings and
commentaries on the Scriptures as well as his chronological works that established a firm
system of calculating the date of Easter. Bede's greatest work was his Ecclesiastical
History of the English Nation.
Bede's audience was a newly-forged nation; the English were anxious to hear of their past
accomplishments and of the lives of their g