and made up the majority of the population in Britain. Their customs, religion and language became predominant. Only the Celts who remained independent in the West, Scotland and Ireland spoke their native tongue. The conquerors called them ‘welsh’ which means foreigners.
In 829 under the rule of King Egbert all the small Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were united to form one kingdom which was called England from that time on.
Soon Anglo-Saxons had to defend their country against new enemies. The enemies were the Vikings who came from Scandinavia. In the 9th century they settled the extreme north and west of Scotland and some coastal regions of Ireland. King Alfred, Saxon king of Wessex fought them in the battle, but he couldn’t drive them away and had to let them have part of the country, called Danelaw.
2.6 The Norman Invasion
In the 11th century the Normans, a mixed Scandinavian and French people, living in the North of France, began to attack the coasts of England from Normandy. The English king who died in 1066 had no children and William, the Duke of Normandy, being a relative of the died king, wanted to become the king of England. So he began preparation for a war to fight for the Crown.
The Normans’ army was much larger than Anglo-Saxon forces and they were greatly superior in quality. The Anglo-Saxon army consisted mainly of free peasants who fought on foot. Not all of them had weapons, many had pitchforks and axes. The Normans were well armed.
The Normans crossed the Channel in big sailing-boats and landed in the south of England, fought with Anglo-Saxons and won the victory. The battle between the Normans and the Anglo-Saxons took place on the 14th of October 1066 at a little village Hastings. William, Duke of Normandy, became the king of England and was called William the Conqueror, who ruled England for 21 years.
2.7 The medieval period (1066 – 1485)
Unlike the Germanic invasions, the Norman invasion was small-scale. There was no such thing as a Norman village or a Norman area of settlement. Instead, the Norman soldiers became the owners of some patches of land – and of the people living on it. A strict feudal system was imposed. Great nobles, or barons, were responsible directly to the king; lesser lords, each owing a village, were directly responsible to a baron. Under them were the peasants, tied by a strict system of mutual duties and obligations to the local lord, and forbidden to travel without his permission. The peasants were the English-speaking Saxons. The lords and the barons were the French-speaking Normans. This was the beginning of the English class system.
The Normans introduced the strong system of government that’s why the Anglo-Norman kingdom was the most powerful political force in the British Isles. The authority of the English monarch gradually extended to other parts of these islands in the next 210 years. By the end of the thirteenth century, a large part of eastern Ireland was controlled by Anglo-Norman lords in the name of the English king and the whole of Wales was under his direct rule (at which time the custom of naming the monarch’s eldest son the ‘Prince of Wales’ began). Scotland managed to remain politically independent in the medieval period, but was obliged to fight occasional wars to do so.
The cultural story of this period is different. Two hundred and fifty years after the Norman Conquest a Germanic language (Middle English) but not the Norman (French) language became the dominant one in all classes of society in England. Furthermore, the Anglo-Saxon concept of common law, but not Roman law, formed the basis of the legal system.
Despite English rule, northern and central Wales was never settled in great numbers by Saxon or Norman. As a result the (Celtic) Welsh language and culture remained strong. The Anglo-Norman lords of eastern Ireland remained loyal to the English king but, despite laws to the contrary, mostly adopted the Gaelic language and customs.
By the end of this period there was a cultural split in Scotland between the lowlands, where the way of life and language was similar to that in England, and the highlands, where (Celtic) Gaelic culture and language prevailed.
Parliament appeared in this period in England. The word ‘parliament’ comes from the French word parler (to speak), and was first used in England in the thirteenth century to describe an assembly of nobles called together by the king. In 1295, the Model Parliament set the pattern for the future by including elected representatives from urban and rural areas.
2.8 Exercises
Exercise 1 Can you answer these questions?
1) Who were the first to inhabit the British Isles?
2) Which part of the British Isles was named Britain and why?
3) When did the army of Julius Caesar first invade Britain?
4) What was the function of ‘Hadrian's Wall’ during the Roman conquest?
5) What kingdoms were formed by the Germanic tribes?
6) When did the Norman invasion to Britain begin?
7) When did the first Parliament appear?
Exercise 2 Test yourself: choose the most suitable answer.
1 What ancient tribes inhabited the British Isles B.C.?
a) the Celts;
b) the Saxons;
c) the Angles;
d) the Vikings.
2 Which part of the British Isles was named Britain?
a) Southern;
b) Northern;
c) Western;
d) Eastern.
3 Together with a high civilization the Romans brought… to the country.
a) Slavery;
b) Culture;
c) Destruction;
d) Christianity.
4 The Saxons formed several kingdoms in the… part of Britain?
a) north-eastern;
b) south-eastern;
c) south-western;
d) western.
5 What led the Anglo-Saxons kingdoms to unification?
a) idea about wealth;
b) task of defending the country;
c) cold weather;
d) good relations.
6 When did the Norman invasion to England begin?
a) 1066;
b) 829;
c) 1576;
d) 1606.
7 Who became the king of England after the Norman invasion?
a) William the Conqueror;
b) King Egbert;
c) Henry IV;
d) Henry
