The AngloSaxon Period 4501100

1
The Anglo-SaxonPeriod (450-1100)

• Background, Beowulf, and More!!!

2
From Cave Dwellers to Celts

• Cave dwellers - 250,000 years ago
• Invaders from Iberian peninsula (modern Spain and
  Portugal) create a society sophisticated enough
  to erect Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain
• Celtic peoples reach the British Isles around 600
  B.C.
• Celtic tribes war with each other while their
  priests, called druids, conduct sacrifices in
  forest shrines

3
Invasion of an Island
4
The Invasions Continue

• 55 B.C. Rome first tries to conquer Britain and
  Julius Caesar raids the land to punish the
  Britons for helping the Continental Celts in
  their struggle with the Romans
• 43 A.D. Roman emperor Claudius successfully
  invades the island and drives the defeated tribes
  into the highlands of Wales and Scotland

5
Roman Britain Prospers

• Population of 3-4 million people
• Large buildings and elaborate sanitation systems
• Straight, well-made roads
• Primarily a rural society

6
The Good Times End

• 410 A.D. the city of Rome falls to an army of
  German barbarians and the emperor Honorius sends
  a letter to the Roman Britons announcing that
  they must defend themselves
• Britain is weak and divided, standing open to
  foreign aggression
• Angles, Saxons, and Jutes Germanic tribes
  spreading throughout eastern, central, and
  southern Britain

7
A Legend Arises

• Celtic inhabitants flee west into the highlands
  of Wales
• Among these people the legend of King Arthur and
  his Round Table arises

8
Anglo-Saxon England

• Beowulf heroic poem that tells of the Germanic
  settlers and their first decades in England
• Tribal society in which warrior kings led a group
  of fighting men, called thanes, into battle
• Defeat and capture meant death so battle was
  fierce and unyielding
• Gang warfare bloodshed was common and any
  offense of one thane had to be avenged

9
Drinks and Entertainment

• Mead-hall where the king, thanes, wives, and
  servants gathered together, and where the
  warriors slept
• While the king and his court feasted, the scop, a
  singing poet, entertained
• The scop recounted both past history and present
  events while also preserving record of their
  achievements for future generations

10
Kings, Kings, and More Kings

• Country was divided into a number of petty
  kingdoms
• More ambitious kings began to assert an authority
  over other rulers each claiming to be a ruling
  king, or bretwalda
• Aethelbert first bretwalda who ruled from 560
  to 616 and dreamed of bringing unity and a
  measure of peace to the land

11
Converting A Nation

• St. Patrick began converting Celtic Ireland to
  Christianity in the 430s, but Anglo-Saxon Britain
  remained pagan
• St. Augustine sent from Rome in 597 to convert
  England, established the first archbishopric at
  Canterbury
• During the next 40 years missionaries were able
  to convert most of the Anglo-Saxon kings and
  their people to Christianity

12
The Terrible Vikings

• Crossed the North Sea from Denmark and Norway
• Between 867 and 877 they took over most of the
  northeast and central portions of England
• Danelaw a region where Danish law was in force

13
England Fights Back

• Alfred the Great ruled the one surviving
  Anglo-Saxon kingdom, Wessex, and prevented the
  Vikings from seizing it the way they had the
  Danelaw ( built the first English navy)
• Defeated the Vikings and was able to foster a
  second great era of Anglo-Saxon literary culture
• Struggle for control was halted for good by
  another invasion, the last one, by the
  French-Norman, William the Conqueror

14
The Rest Is History

• Anglo-Saxons dominated the history of England for
  600 years
• Provided its language, began its literature and
  established traditions in law, government, and
  religion
• First English people