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Years before Christ the Celts spread throughout Europe, they were dominated by Gauls, Britons and Gaels, they spoke a language older than English. They practiced druidism with the most important divinity attributed to the sun god
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one hundred years after the raids of 55 and 54 BC the Romans conquered the island but unable to overcome the Picts of Caledonia they built a wall to defend themselves under the emperor Hadrian. The Romans brought their civilization to Britain with their language (Latin) and their religion (Christianity) as well.
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For about 400 years the island was part of the Roman world, the last Roman soldiers left Great Britain in 410 CE, but new invaders arrived, they were German tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes who spoke the "old English" language to date. of which there are few traces.
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the Germanic invaders fought for territories until England was divided into seven kingdoms; this period is called "Heptarchy"
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Viking raids began in the eighth century in fact in 793 they attacked the monastery of Lindisfarne and in the following decades many monasteries were destroyed.
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the Celtic renonversion saw churches and monasteries founded in the north of England where the monks copied old manuscripts and wrote new ones, one of these is the Venerable Bede who wrote in Latin an ecclesiastical history of the English people, these invasions coverted the Anglo-Saxons to the Christianity. -
King Alfred united the Anglo-Saxon people against the Danes who retained possession of north-eastern England, the Danelaw. After Alfred's death, England continued to prosper.
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The Battle of Hastings Harold, the last Anglo-Saxon king, defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in northern England in 1066. He was forced to move his army to face a Norman invasion. "William the Conqueror", Duke of Normandy, landed with a massive army and defeated the Anglo-Saxons at the Battle of Hastings. Harold was killed and the Anglo-Saxon reign came to an end. -
William, Duke of Normandy, was crowned king in 1066. With William as king of England, Normandy became an English territory. The Normans introduced the feudal system and built castles to defend their conquest, they also brought their language, French. In 1085 William commissioned a survey of land and wealth in England so that he could calculate how much money could be raised in taxes. This survey was published in a book.
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William I was succeeded by his son William II. The new king, who proved very unpopular, was succeeded by his younger brother Henry I. Henry was the first Norman king born in England and the first to speak English as well as French. Henry I died in 1135. He had no male heirs and was succeeded by his nephew Stephen, a weak king who lost control of much of England.
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On Stephen's death in 1154 the throne passed to Henry Plantagenet, Henry II of Anjou became the first king of the French Plantagenet line. Henry II was a strong king and skilled soldier and dominated much of France.
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Henry II succeeded his son Richard in 1189. I Riccardo spent only six months of his reign in England. During Riccardo's absence, his younger brother Giovanni who was an unpopular figure reigned in his place. On Richard's death in 1199, Giovanni became king. He continued to fight unsuccessfully wars in France until England lost all of its French possessions.
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Henry II's murder is also remembered for his struggle with church power and his quarrel with the Archbishop of Canterbury. Henry is held responsible for Becket's murder in Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December 1170.
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Angered by John's reign, his loss of French territories and the pressure of taxes to be paid, the barons rebelled against their king. In 1215 they forced the king to sign the Magna Carta: an important document that established freedom under the rule of law for all men (except servants) and declared that the king himself was subject to the law of the country. -
The Hundred Years War with France began in 1337, trying to regain lost territories in France. The war did not continue uninterrupted; but rather with pauses. Under Edward II, the British achieved important victories such as: the victory that came during the reign of Henry V in Agincourt. In the following years, the French reconquered their territories and in 1453 the only English possession left in France was the port of Calais.
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The Black Plague, a plague that swept across Europe, reached England in 1348. This was the worst plague the nation had ever suffered: nearly half of the English population died. -
This dramatic reduction in population shook the social structure of England. Although a peasant revolt demanding freedom and wages was curbed in 1381, the structure of the feudal system was beginning to crumble.
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After the foreign wars, England was torn apart by the quarrel over the crown between two branches of the royal family. This 30-year dynastic struggle was known as the Wars of the Roses. The conflict ended with the Battle of Bosworth Field where Tudor of Lancaster defeated the last of the kings of York, Richard III. Henry VII became the first Tudor king and united the two families through marriage.
This marked a period of growth in England and marked the end of the medieval period.