Christopher LEE – THIS SCEPTRED ISLE
CHAPTER ONE (55 BC-AD 448)
- 55BC: Julius Caesar (Proconsul of Gaul) came to Britain
he kept a journal, extract describes the Britons he knew about:
- the inland part of Britain is inhabited by native tribes
- the coastal parts by tribes from Belgium
- the most civilized are those who live in Kent
(all the Britons dye themselves with woad, which produces a blue colour)
→ in Caesar’s time the people of Britain were not the English (they didn’t arrive until hundreds of years later)
- these people were Celts - common language: Celtic
- there were also Druids in pre-Roman Britain
- some of the tribes sent envoys to Caesar; they didn’t want to fight
- Caesar: army of ten legions (less than 50000 soldiers)
The Romans forced the Britons to flight. The Britons wanted to negotiate, but seeing the plight of the enemy (bad weather, extreme tides), they broke off the negotiations and attacked.
→ Caesar never pretended that his expedition had been a success
- he prepared a new fleet – in fact designed the first landing craft (it is simpler to get stores, horses & men ashore)
- 54 BC: Caesar returned to Britain
- the Britons (or some of them) had united under a leader called Cassivellaunus
The Catuvellauni were the strongest of the southern tribes.
Cassivellaunus had many enemies, though:
- Trinovantes (Essex) + other tribes entered into a pact with Caesar.
Eventually peace was negotiated and Britons were taken hostage.
→ Caesar left Britain (revolt in Gaul) – this time he proclaimed a conquest
20 large tribes, some became famous:
- Iceni – East Anglia
- Catuvellauni – East Midlands and Essex
- Parisi – Yorkshire
- Silures – Wales
- Brigantes – probably in the Pennines
- 43 AD: Emperor Claudius conquers Britain
- internal situation: Cunobelinus [Shakespeare’s Cymbeline] – established an overlordship over the South East of the Island (with his capital at Colchester) → dissensions
on his death the kingdom was ruled jointly by his sons Caractacus and Togodumnus
- Roman commander, Plautius arrived
The Britons hid in the forests and the swamps. Plautius first defeated Caractacus and then Togodumnus.
Claudius captured Camulodunum [Colchester], the capital of Cynobellinus.
- in Rome the Senate gave him the title of Britannicus
but: Caractacus resisted for 6 years → defeated by a new general, Ostorius → C. had became a hero, he was freed, but he was not to return to Britain (remained in honourable captivity)
→ the centre of Roman Britain was Camulodunum, or Colchester
idea: Britain should become a province within the Roman Empire – this was difficult to achieve
- in 54AD Claudius died → Nero became emperor
- the king of the East Anglian Iceni had died → his widow, Boadicea (Boudicca) became the head of a numerous army → she went for Colchester (massacre), London (Suetonius abandoned London)
- ca 70000 Roman citizens died
→ battle: Boadicea ↔ Suetonius – he won; massacred the Britons
- the Romans ruled Britain for 500 years and they gave the Britons their first written historical descriptions
- 410 AD: Romans left Britain – no further contemporary written accounts of what was going on in Britain for many years
- monk: middle of the 6th century - Gildas the Wise – glimpses of history in his writings
→ rising of a tyrant: probably Vortigern (he is not named) – he was on the side of the Britons
- he hired mercenaries to defend the Britons against the Anglo-Saxons (led by Hengist and Horsa)
- great victory at Mons Badonicus → it brought peace for perhaps half a century
The Anglo-Saxon conquest was, for the bulk of the British community, mainly a change of masters.
- Venerable Bede: Ecclesiastical History of the English People: few traces of Saxon heritage
(Edward the Confessor, his son Harold; King Arthur and Camelot – greatest mystery of all Anglo-Saxon history)
9th century AD: Welsh scholar: Nennius: the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
(later these tales would be retold and embellished by the genius of Mallory, Spenser and Tennyson)
12 battles → last battle: Mount Badon - btw. 490 and 503
• another figure of the time: Columba, a monk – he came to Britain to preach the word of God to the provinces of the northern Picts
- king at that time: Bridius, son of Meilochon (king of the Pictish) – he converted his people to Christianity (Scottish king)
• the southerners had already been converted by a Briton, Bishop Ninian
- Easter – most important event
→ any crime could be compounded by a money payment
’wergild’ = exact value of every man
- atheling (prince): 1500 shillings /1 shilling – value of a cow or sheep/
- eorl (nobleman): 300 shillings
- ceorl (yeoman farmer): 100 shillings
- laet (agricultural serf): 40-80 shillings
- slave: Ø
CHAPTER TWO (449-884)
- 449: Angles, Saxons, Jutes arrived in Britain (3 most powerful nations of Germany)
Saxons – cruellest nation (name is derived from the use of a weapon, the seax – short one handed sword)
- first bretwalda /ruler of Britain/: Aelle (Bret – Britain; Walda – ruler)
’common overlord’ + underlords
→ Christian and heathen traditions together
- 595: Pope Gregory sent Augustine to Britain with monks – they wanted to turn back – the Pope’s letter persuaded them to fulfil their quest. They needed the protection of the local king (in Kent) – Æthelberht (Ethelbert) – he worshipped Thor /god of thunder/
- his wife was a Frankish princess: Bertha (Christian) → for political reasons he wanted to convert
- Augustine converted him to Christianity
- 2 conferences /British Christian bishops / - both failed
- Augustine began the training of the clergy
question: whose version of Christianity should rule: Augustine’s or the northern Celtic?
→ How should Easter be observed? Should the tonsure – a symbol of church doctrine – be worn?
- Redwald, King of the East Angles helped Edwin to gain the crown of Northumbria
- overlord of all English kingdoms except Kent
- Paulinus converted Edwin (+ the kingdom of Northumbria) to Christianity
- 633: King Penda of Mercia (heathen) + Cadwallon (British king of North Wales ; Christian) made an alliance
→ battle against Edwin – he was slain
- Edwin’s successor Oswald – destroyed Cadwallon and his British forces /last pitched battle btw. the British and the Saxons/
- 663: Synod of Whitby → chose the Church of Rome
- the leadership of Saxon England passed to Mercia
2 Mercian kings – each reigned for 40 years: Æthelbald /murdered by his own bodyguard → civil war in the Midlands/ new king: Offa (contemporary of Charlemagne) – powerful king
- Offa had his son anointed as King of Mercia; he was consecrated - first time that an English king was consecrated!
- he caused an immense dyke (wall) to be built btw. converted Saxon England and the still unconquered British
- 789: Vikings arrived (at Portland in Dorset) → Swedes, Norwegians, Danes
They killed many and withdrew, then returned in 793. They landed on the north of Scotland, set up encampments. They went on to Ireland – it is thought that the Viking king, Olaf, founded Dublin.
- 865: the great invasion started /East coast of England/
Ragnar Lodbrok was killed – his 4 sons swore vengeance (Blood-Red Eagle) - Ivar the Boneless took the oath -the most seriously – he planned the great campaigns – siege to York
the Vikings defeated the Northumbrians – the North of England never recovered its ascendancy
century of Alfred the Great /849-899/
- ’Danegeld’ – he payed the Danes so that they would not fight him
- father of the British navy
- grandson of King Egbert
- younger brother of King Æthelred (not A. the Unready) → they both fought the Vikings
- 871: Alfred became King /his brother died/ - fights with the Vikings, horrible losses, they were bought off with the Danegeld
- the Vikings moved to London → coins with the Danish king, Halfdan on one side and the monogram of London on the other
- 878: Alfred was on the run from the Danes; in today’s terms he became a guerrilla fighter
Then he gathered his Saxons together.
- battle of Edington – the largest and culminating battle of Alfred’s wars
- Guthrum, king of the Viking army → Alfred made peace with him → converted to Christianity, A. godfather
→ new Viking army came
- by 886 - Alfred took London by burning and slaughter & then rebuilt it
London became the centre for resistance to England’s enemies.
CHAPTER THREE (885-1065)
- one final war
Alfred persuaded the Viking king Haesten to have his 2 sons baptized
Alfred gave way to a younger leader: Edward /his son/
he had an ally: the young Mercian prince - Æthelred
- the Vikings broke their oaths of peace → war
(in 899 Alfred died → Edward succeeded him)
- quarrel btw. Edward and his cousin Ethelwald
Ethelwald & the Danish king - Eric ↔ Edward
→ Ethelwald and Eric both died perished on the field
the new king, Guthrum II made peace with Edward
the Danes broke the treaty in 910 → new war → the Danes were defeated
Edward’s sister: Æthelfleda married the Mercian Æthelred → he died
- the legend of the Lady of Mercians was born → with Edward she conquered the 5 boroughs of Danelaw
Edward pressed North → he died in 924
→ his son Athelstan – first king of all England
- 933: general rebellion and renewed war
- 937: Athelstan’s victory at Brunanburh (first patriotic verse was written in Old English)
England and Germany became tied (marriage and political interest)
Athelstan died → half bother: Edmund - died → brother: Edred
→ most fearsome new Viking leader appeared: Eric Bloodaxe /Norwegian/ - he united the Vikings of Dublin & York; he was killed in the Battle of Stainmore
- 955: Edgar became King of Mercia
Eadwig /his brother/ became King of Wessex → died
- Edgar became king of Wessex, Mercia & Northumberland → first coronation that had written Order of Service
→ reconstruction of England /shires were reorganized – each with a sheriff/reeve, hundreds (subdivision of the shire) were created, courts, taxation was reassessed
- great re-birth of monastic life and learning & the beginning of the native English language
- St Dunstan – Abbot of Glastonbury, Archbishop of Canterbury
→ there was a literary English – a King’s English
→ civilization had been restored to the Island
973 – coronation of Edgar (he was 30, he could be ordained a priest) - died soon after the coronation
terrible times were to come…
Edgar had 2 wives – 1. son: Edward → murdered by his step-mother’s servants
– 2. son: Æthelred the Unready /mother: Ælfthryth ↑/ - he was crowned after Edward’s death
- 980: serious raids began again → Vikings
most shameful period of Danegeld – Æthelred used money instead of arms (+ took Danish mercenaries)
- 1002: St Brice’s Day → massacre of Danes
→ Sweyn /King of Denmark/ took revenge – carnage and massacres
Æthelred paid more bribes (price – 3 years of the national income!)
- 1013: Sweyn + his son Canute came to England
- Sweyn was proclaimed King of England – died in 1014
there was another respite (short period of rest) – the English turned again to Æthelred – they declared him their lord ’if he would rule them better than he had done before’
- Æthelred married Emma /sister of Richard, Duke of Normandy/ (the future mother of Edward the Confessor)
his son: Edmund Ironside → was acclaimed King → died in 1016
- the chiefs of England abandoned the descendants of Æthelred – recognized Canute as King
(the family of Æthelred was excised from the royal line)
→ Canute became king, married Emma (Æthelred’s wife!) – Emma and her sons were not allowed to live in England – by 1016 they were living in Normandy
- he was King of Denmark & conqueror of Norway
- he ruled according to the laws; he built churches; honoured the memory of St Edmund & St Alphege
- he developed a system – ’devolved government’ - title of earl emerged /appointed by the King/
- chief advisers: Godwine & Leofric (both Anglo-Saxon - rivalry btw. the two families)
- 1035: Canute died, 2 sons by a former wife + Hardicanute by Emma (ignorant and boorish Vikings)
→ many thoughts turned to Alfred and Edward, sons of Æthelred and Emma (in exile in Normandy)
(Alfred was blinded)
- Canute wanted his son, Hardicanute, to succeed him - Emma & Godwine supported him
but Leofric proposed Harold to be king → Harold I. (Harefoot) → Godwine now supported him too → died
Harold died, Hardicanute arrived to claim the throne - died in 1042
- 1043: Edward /later: Confessor/ was crowned King of England /kindly, weak, chubby albino…/
(Norman prelates appeared in the English Church, N. clerks in the royal household, N. landowners in the shires)
as Edward grew older his outlook was increasingly that of a monk (hence his name, the Confessor)
→ Godwine grew more powerful
- 1051: crisis → the Norman party drove Godwine into exile
→ William of Normandy’s official visit → King Edward (very likely) promised him that he should be his heir
→ Godwine returned with his son Harold [who was to become Harold of Hastings] + force
→ they obliged King Edward to take them back into power
→ Godwine died → Harold was for 13 years the virtual ruler of England
- Edward died in 1066 and with him the line of the Saxon Kings
CHAPTER FOUR (1066-1087)
- origins of Normans – they weren’t French → their origins were in Scandinavia
- under king Rollo the Vikings had settled in Northern France 150 years before William the Conqueror was born
→ in England: Harold ↔ Tostig half-brother (T. hated him)
↔ William of Normandy (he believed the English crown belonged to him)
- Tostig + King Harold Hardrada set forth to conquer the English crown with a large fleet and army in the late summer of 1066 – battle: Harold of England won
- William, Duke of Normandy landed on a Sussex beach in September, 1066
(the story in told in the tapestry chronicle - Bayeux Tapestry – designed under the guidance of Odo, Bishop of Bayeux → Norman version)
1066: Battle of Hastings – Harold ↔ William
- Harold died
→ the English still believed they could hold London and raise another army – leader: Edgar the Æthling
He stopped William entering London. But then they gave in.
- William the Conqueror became king of England
→ Tower of London was built + taxes → start of his steady conquest of the islands
→ he wanted for a short period to return to Normandy, so he made Bishop Odo /his half-brother/ Earl of Kent
Odo was installed in Dover Castle with William fitz Osbern
- the Saxon resistance died hard (Hereward the Wake - today’s term: freedom fighter) /legend: his mother - Lady Godiva, father - Leofric of Mercia/ → Hereward’s name became a symbol of resistance to evil authority
- 1075: revolt of Norman knights in the Midlands + Waltheof /surviving Saxon leader/ - executed → martyr
- castles were built
- French culture and language
- intermarriages
- 1086: Domesday Book (name: ‘It spared no man, but judged all men indifferently, as the Lord in that great day will do’) Salisbury Oath
- development of feudalism
- Robert (William’s son) /Crusading knight/ - claimed his Norman inheritance → combat btw. father & son
for a time there was reconciliation
Robert also broke with his 2 brothers – William (later W. Rufus) and Henry (one day would also be King)
- 1077-1080: William was not in England at all
Scottish king: Malcolm the Bighead → he beat Macbeth in 1057
William got injured → sons William & Henry came to him
William was named to succeed his father (→ Robert became Duke of Normandy)
- 1087: William the Conqueror died
CHAPTER FIVE(1087-1165)
- 1087: new King is William Rufus (or William the Red)
Archbishop Lanfranc (an Italian) (Archb. of Canterbury) – responsible for the education of William the C’s sons
- 1088: conspiracy → Bishop Odo, Bishop Geoffrey, William Bishop of Durham, Earl Roger → wanted Robert to be King
- Robert, William & Henry fought each other
- 1096: Robert decided to go on a Crusade, an expensive business
- 1100: William Rufus died in a hunting accident (Walter Tirel, an attendant shot him)
→ Henry crowned himself → married Matilda (to the suspicion of the Norman barons)
She became known as Good Queen Maud (granddaughter of Edmund Ironside, son of Æthelred the Unready)
- he guaranteed that the rights of the baronage and the Church should be respected
- he promised the conquered race good justice and the laws of Edward the Confessor
- this marriage neatly tied a knot with the Scottish kings (she was Scottish)
But: family difficulty – Robert wants his blood
- 1106: Battle at Tinchebrai → Robert & Henry – Henry won; Normandy acknowledged his authority
- the control of Anglo-Norman policy passed from Rouen to London
(for the Saxons this battle was sort of a military revenge for Hastings)
- 1120: Henry’s son and apparent heir (17 years old) was drowned (White Ship disaster)
- the King ‘never smiled again’
- the forces of anarchy grew – problem of succession
- the Scots claimed territories: David (King of Scotland)
- Henry wanted his daughter Matilda to become his heir
- Matilda (25) married Geoffrey Martel (14!) /this marriage displeased all the French and all the English/
→ they had 3 children → one of them became Henry II (Plantagenet)
- Laws of King Henry I
→ Edward the Confessor was canonized, became the patron saint of the English peoples (until the Hundred Years’ War – St George)
- Exchequer → ’department of royal administration’ / Pipe Rolls (important documents)/
under his reign: relative peace
- 1135: Henry I. died → his nephew Stephen became King
→ opponent: Henry’s bastard son: Robert of Gloucester & Matilda
- Constitutio Domus Regis – the Establishment of the King’s Household: describes a twelfth-century royal court and its attendant costs
→ uprisings against Stephen (Scots, the Welsh + Rober of Gloucester)
→ Stephen lost the support of: the baronage, the novel civil service, the Church
- King David of Scotland laid claim to Northumbria → in the battle of Northallerton the Archbishop of York slaughtered the invaders (prelude to civil war)
- 1139: Matilda arrived in England to claim her rights → the Church supported her
- 1141: general rebellion against his rule → king was taken prisoner /at the Battle of Lincoln/
→ for nearly a year, Matilda, uncrowned (!) was in control of England