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British Culture, History & Society (VO 1 & 2)

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British Culture (History and Society) # 1 March 16

Beginnings: Prehistory to the End of the Anglo-Saxon Period


Britanni” = tattooed

Picti” = painted


Quiz 1: In which late C 19 English novel does the heroine, who has killed her seducer in order to be re-united with her husband, and who is now fleeing from the constables, spend the night among the pillars of Stonehenge, only to be captured in the morning?


Early History

  • first settlement – date unknown

  • Probably moved in from Mediterranean

  • Neolithic relics from Young Stone Age around 4000 BC

  • Stonehenge (Salisbury Plain) dates back to 3000 BC

  • its use remains a mystery

  • Bronze Age, 800 BC: the beaker people

  • 700 BC: first Celts arrive

  • Britain first enters written history by the voyage of Pytheas of Marseille (330 BC) who circumnavigated the island of Britain

  • Celts lived in wooden huts, silos

  • no records until arrival of the Romans

  • Celts were agricultural people who lived on hilltops (e.g. on Maiden Castle, Dorchester)

  • society divided in three classes

    • nobles (fight)

    • druids: judges, priests, …

    • majority of population, had a slightly better life than slaves

  • Julius Caesar crossed the Channel around 55-54 BC

  • he did not pursue the conquest of Britain

  • Britons were left in peace for a century

  • Romans fighting it out against themselves

  • Britain was irrelevant

  • Aulus Plautius

  • soon Britannia became a province of Roman Empire

  • Boudicea, Queen of the Iceni

  • 122 AD: Hadrian arrived in Britain

  • Hadrian’s Wall (80 miles from Clyde to Solway Firth)

  • Romans brought their civilization (infrastructure, theaters, …)

  • introduced new vegetables, cats, roses, baths, but most importantly towns

  • Celts had lived in isolated settlements

  • London soon became administrative capital

  • has a long history as the capital of Britain

  • 5th largest town north of the Alps

  • highways in all directions

  • Christianity sole religion from 391 AD

  • threats from Picts, Scots, Germanic peoples increased in 4th century

  • Roman legions withdrawn, needed elsewhere

  • 410: Emperor Honorius called last of the legions home, end of Roman settlement in Britain

  • withdrawal of Romans led to Anglo-Saxon age

  • 449: Vortigern called on a group of Anglo-Saxons to fight on his behalf

  • brothers Hengist and Horsa

  • Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum by the Venerable Bede (731) – most important document

  • when first Germanic people arrived is far from certain

  • very little is known from that period: “The Dark Ages”

  • Celtic population pushed from Anglo-Saxons to Wales, Ireland and across the sea to Bretagne

  • myth of King Arthur, Christian king who resisted Bavarians

  • Romans called everyone a Bavarian who was not Roman, Anglo-Saxons came from Lower Germany and Jutland (now Denmark)

  • Jutes settled down in Kent, Angles in East Anglia

  • ceorl” (--> German: Kerl, Karl)

  • ceorls were farmers

  • Sutton Hoo ship burial – grave of Saxon king around 625

  • Beowulf: about Norwegian king Beowulf, written by monks in 10th century

  • embroidered in Canterbury

  • gigantic comic strip with pictures and comments in Latin

  • begins with Edward the Confessor sending Harold to his distant cousin William

  • comet was observed earlier that year, considered sign of evil

  • Normans lived like an army of occupation

  • English-speaking were an oppressed majority in their own country

  • five years after invasion William had completed invasion

  • Anglo-Saxon aristocracy wiped out, new one established

  • Norman power ensured by castles and towers, e.g. Tower of London


    European Feudal System

    • feudal system enforced: Pyramid King (lord – vassal, feud (fief))-Nobles(tenants-in-chief/barons)-Knights (lords of the manor)-Peasants (villains, serfs)

    • lord promised protection and granted land to vassal, while vassal promised loyalty and military service

    • King was warrior

    • the more knights a king had, the more powerful he was

    • he gave land to the nobles, the so-called tenants-in-chief (in England called barons), in turn they would provide him with knights

    • struggle for power between King and barons

    • knights were lords of the manor (=economic unit in feudal system), peasants worked for them

  • bottom of the pyramid were agricultural laborers that did not have a piece of lands

  • villains and serfs not allowed to move, had to ask for permission to marry

  • static social structure, everyone knew his place

  • every man was bound to others in terms of loyalty and service

  • church was one of the greatest medieval landowners


    • new ruler spoke Norman French

    • English is rich in vocabulary, words derive from several languages (Old English, Scandinavian, French, Latin)

    • e.g. German “groß”: great (OE), big (Scand.), grand, large (Fr.), tall (origin not clear), derivations from Latin root magn- as in “magnify”

    • Synonyms, e.g. hearty-cordial, help-aid, child-infant, free.....

  • English changed from Old English to Middle English


    • The Domesday Book: all land and property there was in England

    • Doomsday = day of the last judgment, everybody’s deeds would be laid open

    • wanted to find out wealth of kingdom

    • 400 double-sided pages, gives unique social panorama at the end of 11th century

    • William considered first “database king”

  • in following centuries English kings continued

  • 1154: new dynasty – the Plantagenets (Latin: planta genista)

  • 1152: Henry married Elenor of Aquitaine

  • became King Henry II in 1154

  • Empire comprised England, Normandy, Brittany, Anjou and Aquitaine

  • he did not even speak English

  • set up new court system

  • first legal text book, father of Common Law, basis of British law

  • played dubious role in murder of Saint Thomas Becket (Archbishop of Canterbury)

  • Becket defender of rights of the church, .....

  • 1628: Petition of Rights: Magna Carta held against claim of divine right by the Stuart kings (James I and Charles I)

  • 1689: Bill of Rights (William of Orange) established the basis for parliamentary monarchy. It linked succession to the throne with the preservation of people’s rights and liberties.

  • 1701: Act of Settlement: further breach with hereditary right of succession (Elector of Hanover becomes King George I. of Britain)


    The beginnings of Parliament

    • successor of John: Henry III (1216-1272)

    • chancery (administrative) – chancellor

    • exchequer (financial affairs) – treasurer

    • barons wanted to have a say in appointment of chancellor and treasure

    • this was laid in the Great Council (comprised all clerical and lay leaders of the country)

    • king had his own Royal Council (men of the king’s choosing)

    • --> Which one more influential?

  • led to Civil War in 13th century

  • Simon de Montfort

  • Battle of Lewes

  • Battle of Evesham

  • meetings of Great Council were called parliament (Fr. parler) – conference or parley

  • despite all this, Henry’s reign was at times of stability


    Church

    • Cathedrals built in Gothic style, imported from France

    • English cathedrals mostly on margins of town .....

    • men of prayer (oratores), i.e. those who had taken religious vows

    • belonged to international fraternity

    • Archbishops of Canterbury and York leaders of English church

    • feudal nobility and knights (bellatores)

    • knights: loyalty to king, bravery, loyalty to church, loyalty to a lady, not necessarily wife

    • those who worked on the land (laboratores)

    • social order unquestioned

    • The Medieval Model of the Universe: social order reflected in structure of universe – concentric circl.....



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