FROM PRE-CELTIC TO ROMAN BRITAIN

PRE-CELTIC BRITAIN:

Six thousand years ago the Britain was inhabited.
The population born whit the deforestation,breeding and the agricolture.
Over the course of four centuries everything changed.

There are many places when they used to ritual or the ceremonies

The most famous is Stonehenge

During the bronze-age the islanders started producing POTTERY

CELTS:

Around 700BC the Celts began to arrive from northwest Germany.
They were farmers, hunters, fisherman and metal workers

They introduced the iron PLOUGH

The celts built massive hill forts on top of hills surrounded by ditches sometimes filled with water

The ceremonies were made in the forest because worshipped the natural elements

When they died,they put tham in the caves,hills of lakes

ROMANS:

For about fifteen generations Britain was part of Roman Empire.
Romans were attracted by the rich agriculture of the South,Tim and lead in the west

The Emperor Hadrian ordered a wall to be built to mark the border.
The Romans built over 9,600 kilometres of paved roads in Britain, which remained in use for centuries

Many towns were originally army camps, the most important was LONDINIUM

The Romans imposed their culture, the Latin language and Christianity to Britain

THE ANGLO-SAXON

Over the course of the 5 and 6 in the Britain arrived the Anglo-Saxon and they settled south of Hadrian’s Wall

Their society was founded on loyalty and family
were organized into clans…
The Anglo-Saxon reintroduced pagan values

THE DANES

Next to the Anglo-Saxon, were the Vikings or “Danes”.
They were navigators and they had colonies and creating a “Norseman” culture round the coasts of Europe
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 Danelawp

THE KING WAS ALFRED

• He reorganised the army.
• He built fortnesses and planned a navy with longships.
• He established the capital at Winchester
• When Alfred died his son Edward and his grand son Athelstan succeded to the throne

THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS

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 (because there were the Anglo-Saxon)
won the Normans

HENRY II

Military reform During Henry II's reign, his main concerns were the insecurities of his French territories and the desire to re-establish the legal order in England. The feudal duty of military service was replaced with a tax known as “scutage”

1162 Henry appointed one of his favourites, Thomas Becket(Archbishop). Thomas tried to assert the independence of Church from State. But in 1164 Henry had the Constitutions of Clarendon written: these stated that the king was supreme in civil matters and that all people in England, including the clergy. Thomas does not accept it and there was a conflict between Becket and the king continued until 29th December 1170, when Becket he was assassinated

FROM MAGNA CARTA TO THE PEASANT’S REVOLT

King Richard spent less than a year in his kingdom in England because he started with the Crusades. When he died, his brother John came to the throne. He was a bad king. Seized lands illegally etc... all the people rebelled and asked the king to sign MAGNA CARTA
A charter demanding specific liberties

HENRY III

• Henry was crowned
• Magna Carta was issued again in its final version in 1225
• Were built the Palace of Westminster and new Westminster Abbey
• In the 1261 the king renounced the agreement and civil war broke out

EDWARD I

• Respected the tems of Magna Carta
• Conquered Wales and tried to win Scotland, buy was opposed by the Scottish hero William Wallace

EDWARD III

• He was crowed at the age 14
• He participated in the 100 year war because the French threatened the Flanders, the main British wool market
• Introduced the idea of “chivalry “ a nome given to a set of values which to had respect
• When Edward died the crown passed to Richard II

THE WARS OF THE ROSES

• between the families York and Lancaster. Developed a civil war for 30 years. The name comes from family symbols. York had a white rose and Lancaster had a red rose

ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE

Anglo-Saxon literature was anonymous and oral. The poet, called a 'scop’, entertained the noblemen in the halls of kings, often accompanied by harp
Anglo- Saxon poetry was formed in a long process of collective memorisation, in the 12th century, it was written down by church clerks.
The main formal aspects of Anglo-Saxon poetry were stress and alliteration. Each line was divided into two halves by a break or caesura and had four stresses

THE MEDIEVAL LYRIC

During the Middle Ages the lyric became a popular form
Expressed intense personal emotions and was accompaniment of a musical instrument

THE EPIC POEM

The word “epic” means “oral exposition “. The two major poems are the Iliad and Odyssey. The epic poem is a long narrative poetical composition. The scene is occupied by supernatural creatures and the society is aristocratic and military.
The narrative of the epic poem represents the banquet, the battle, the voyage and the funeral, All to bring the man to glory
The style is elevated and the vocabulary is rich and vivid

THE MEDIEVAL NARRATIVE POEM

A narrative poem contains a description of characters, such as the sitting in time and place etc...
In the Middle Age the stories they had to entertaining and instructing.
The example is Geoffrey Chaucer’s THE CANTERBURY TALES

BEOWULF: A NATIONAL EPIC

BEOWULF

• Is the oldest surviving epic poem in the English language
• at the beginning did not have the name
• The hero and the story are fictions
• it was written down in the 11th century

SETTINGS:

Beowulf succeeds in mortally wounding a monster that has been terrorising the king and his man.
The last part take place in the land of the Greats in Sweden

The poem is divided into Three parts and this is the presence of the same hero.

Beowulf describes a warrior society
The poem is an epic because the setting of the story takes place in a vast lands and far off places.
The poem describes classic scenes between good and evil

Beowulf contains the typical elements of the epic style. There is a lot of repetition.
The language is elevated and there are long lists
Lots of alliteration, parallelism and antithesis

GEOFFREY CHAUCER

Geoffrey Chaucer was born about 1343 the son of a rich wine merchant in London.
When he was young, he was taken prisoner. Chaucer grew up in close contact with the royal family and travelled freely between England and France.
During the 1370s his journeys also took him to italy where he became interested in Dante, Petrarch Boccaccio and Virgil. did some prestigious work.
When he was dismissed he began to work on his masterpiece Tales. He died in Westminster

Firstly, he is one of the first English poets to be known by name. Secondly, his language, the dialect of his native London, gradually became standard English, thus becoming the basis of Modern English. Thirdly, in his masterpiece The Canterbury Tales, he was able to give a portrait of the English society of his time. Chaucer's works are usually divided into three periods: the French, the Italian and the English.

THE CANTERBURY TALES

The Canterbury Tales is set in spring and tells the story of thirty people, who are going on a pilgrimage. They are travelling to Canterbury in Kent to the shrine of Thomas Becket.

They meet at the Tabard Inn in London. The host of the inn suggests that every pilgrim should tell two stories while going to Canterbury, and two coming back. He says that there will be a prize for the best story as well as penalty for anyone who gives up. All the pilgrims agree and set off.

The Canterbury Tales is a long narrative poem
There are ten-syllable lines alternating unstressed and
stressed syllables. is composed of 24 tales.
The tales often have realistic elements, but in almost every case they have a strong ideal and moralising base

The most important are London and Canterbury.
Canterbury represent the Holy City.