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The islanders started metalworking, producing pottery and salt, and manufacturing leather and cloth, which they also traded overseas.
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Harold managed to defeat the Danes in the north of England but then had to march south to fight William, Duke of Normandy, who was claiming the English throne. There, Harold was killed and the Anglo-Saxons were conquered by the Normans. William ruled the dukedom of Normandy. His rule was based on the ownership of the land, which he gave to his barons in return for military service, in the spring of 1066 William gathered his barons to claim the English crown.
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In 1015 there was another Danish invasion and the Viking Empire now extended from Wessex through Denmark to the north of Norway. This marked the beginning of the collapse of Saxon England.
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In 991 the Vikings organised a further attack but the English responded by paying money, or Danegeld, to be left alone.
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When Alfred died in 899, his son Edward and then his grandson Athelstan (924939) succeeded to the throne. In 927 Athelstan created a kingdom by establishing the idea of royal authority, law and coinage.
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Latin texts were translated into Anglo-Saxon and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was commissioned in 890. Church schools were opened and a new legal code was created.
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King Alfred defeated the Danish commander Guthrum at the Battle of Edington in 878. He reorganised the army of Wessex by demanding one soldier from each freeman’s farm as a tribute. He built fortresses and planned a navy with longships. He established his capital at Winchester and invited scholars from the continent.
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By the beginning of the 7th century the boundaries of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, known as the Heptarchy, or Seven Kingdoms, had formed. They continued without changing until 829, when the kingdom of Wessex became the most important.
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In 793 they sacked Lindisfarne, destroying hundreds of manuscripts and taking the monks as slaves. By the early years of the 9th
century the Viking invasion of Britain became an occupation. The Vikings began to settle and intermarry. They established Danelaw, which was a code of Danish laws but also came to describe the area administered by the Danes in northern and eastern England. -
Around 700 BC the Celts began to arrive from northwest Germany and gradually settled in the country.
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In 685 a new monastery was founded on the River Tyne at Jarrow where the scholar Venerable Bede wrote The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which was completed in 731.
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In the monastery of Lindisfarne, founded in 635 off the northeast coast of England, the monks produced illuminated Gospels, which are now on display at the British Library in London.
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Augustine's mission of Christianisation was successful. The cathedral of Canterbury was founded in 602 and Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury, which was and still is the most important role within the Church in England. As a consequence of Christianisation, England joined Europe’s ecclesiastical culture. The monasteries became important cultural centres, the Church educated the people and offered them efficient public administration.
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Over the course of the 5th and 6th centuries the
British were overwhelmed by peoples coming from the North Sea Region of Northern Europe, including Jutes, Angles and Saxons. These peoples are referred to as Anglo-Saxons and they settled south of Hadrian’s Wall because they were lowland rather than upland people and were looking for farming land. -
In 597 Pope Gregory I the Great sent a monk, Augustine, to bring Christianity back to England. Augustine’s mission of Christianisation was successful.
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They settled in the country between 500 and 100 BC. Today their language remains in Welsh in Wales, and Gaelic in Scotland and Ireland They were farmers, hunters, fishermen and metal workers. They introduced the iron plough which made the cultivation easier.
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Roman control of Britain came to an end in 409 AD as soldiers were withdrawn to defend Rome against the Barbarian raiders. The Romanised Celts were left alone to fight against the Saxon invaders from the North Sea Region of Europe.
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tain’s strategic importance as an offshore base. The Romans, however, did not control the whole island. In 122 AD Emperor Hadrian ordered a wall to be built to mark the border between the conquered Britons and the unconquered Scots and Picts in the North. This was one of the greatest engineering projects of the ancient world. The Romans built over 9,600 kilometres of paved roads in Britain, which remained in use for centuries.
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Julius Caesar led a Roman invasion of Britain.
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The country was conquered in 43-47 AD under Emperor Claudius. For about fifteen generations Britain was part of the Roman Empire.
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William was later crowned William I (1066-87) in Westminster Abbey, in London, on Christmas Day, 1066.
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‘Britain’ was already inhabited. The population began to burn and cut down the forests, to grow cereals like wheat, barley or oats, and to breed cattle, pigs and sheep. Over the course of four centuries they changed the landscape, and from about 3000 BC they built ritual sites, large, enclosed spaces used both for ceremonies and for defence. The most famous of these is Stonehenge in southwest England.