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The Celts' existence in Britain was first noted by Greek traders and explores who described them as tall blonde warriors. The Celts practiced animism lead by druids, built Stonehenge, had a very rich oral mythology, and produced beautiful artifacts.
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In 55 B.C., Julius Ceasar led a Roman invasion of Britain. He was ultimately successfull and large parts of Britain were held under Roman control.
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The Romans built advanced roads, bathhouses, and other infrastructure typical of what would be found in italy. Today, right next to a medieval castle in England, you might find the ruin of a Roman spa from hundreds of years before!
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The Romans were never able to occupy Wales and northern England and Scotland, but those parts they held were built up greatly with Roman bath houses, theatres, villas, roads, water systems and more. Many Celtic became Roman citizens but others remained hostile and fought the Romans. The Romans eventually built Hadrian's Wall to defend the territory from invading Celts from the north. Hadrian's Wall is pictured
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The Anglo Saxons ruled over England as pagan warrior clans and eventually were united by Alfred the Great in the 880s as an "English" nation. Christian monks left over from the Roman ocupation eventually convert the Anglo Saxons to Christianity and use the Latin alphabet to write down the Anglo Saxon's language. For the first time something that could be called English was written. Beowulf, a story brought orally from Denmark, is recorded in Enlish.
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An animated view of the Bayeux Tapestry which tells the story of and behind the Norman InvasionWilliam of Normandy Invades England becasue he feels he is the rightful King. William is from France and speaks French. When The normans are victorious, French becomes the language of the ruling class in England and the Feudal system is also brought over the channel. Eventually the Anglo Saxon's Old English combines with French to become Middle English, which sounds a bit like our language today.
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William is from France and speaks French. When The Normans are victorious, French becomes the language of the ruling class in England and the feudal system is also brought over the channel. Eventually the Anglo Saxons' Old English combines with French to become Middle English, which sounds a bit like our language today. Williams was a fantastic king and built The Tower of London seen in this picture.
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Consider the development of the English Language to this point: Celtic+Latin+Anglo-Saxon+French. Everytime a new group arrived they spoke their own tongue but added many words from the language existing on the Isles. This helps to explain many of our odd, contradictory grammatical structures, spellings, and etcetera.
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As the Roman Empire sturggled to defend Italy from invading Mongols, financial troubles, and corruption, Roman troops and citizens were pulled out of the far-away Britain. Think of the way the body protects itself against hypothermia; blood is pulled from the extremities to keep the core warm... even if that means you loose a finger to frostbite; Britain was a finger.
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After the Romans left, the British countryside offered easy pickings to marauding "barbarians." Eventually, three groups of people from what is now Denmark and Germany settled the region. These three groups were the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. Eventually the three groups blended in Britain and became the Anglo-Saxons. It is from this that we get the name England (Angle-land) and English (Angle-ish).
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