Traces of the Roman Rule in Britain

Bronze head of Hadrian, the Emperor of Rome, fished up from the bed of the Thames at London Bridge.

There are today many things in Britain to remind the people of the Romans. The wells which the Romans dug give water today, and the chief Roman roads are still among the highways of Modern England. Watling Street still runs from London to Chester. Long stretches of Hadrian's Wall, the ruins of public baths and parts of the Roman bridges have remained to this day. The fragments of the old London wall built by the Romans can still be seen. Often, even now, when men are digging in England they find Roman pottery, glass, tiles, statues, armour, coins and other things that were used by the Romans in those old times. Many of these remains may be seen in British museums.

Besides, many words of Modern English have come from Latin. The words which the Romans left behind them in the language of Britain are for the most part the names of the things which they taught the Celts. For example, the word street came from the Latin strata which means "road", port from the Latin portus, wall from vallum.

The names of many modern English towns are of Latin origin too. The Roman towns were strongly fortified and they were called castra which means "camps". This word can be recognized in various forms in such names as Chester, Winchester, Manchester, Leicester, Gloucester, Doncaster.

THE ANGLO-SAXON CONQUEST OF BRITAIN

The fall of the Western Roman Empire, the largest slave-owning state in the ancient world, is regarded as the end of ancient history. The historical period between ancient times and modern times is called the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages lasted for twelve centuries, from the end of the ancient world in the latter half of the 5th century ^[1] till the beginning of modern history in the middle of the 11th century. Slavery predominated in the ancient states. In the Middle Ages a new social system – feudalism became predominant. It took six centuries for the new social system to become predominant in Western Europe. This chapter tells us about the gradual establishment of feudalism in Britain in the Early Middle Ages (5th-llth centuries).

The Romans protected their province of Britain against the barbarian tribes until they left which was at the beginning of the 5th century. In the middle of the 5th century the Anglo-Saxons, Germanic tribes, invaded Britain. The Anglo-Saxon conquest is regarded as the beginning of medieval history in Britain. The Anglo-Saxons were the ancestors of the English. As a result of the conquest they formed the majority of the population in Britain. Here is the story of the Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain.

After the Roman legions left Britain the Celts remained independent but not for long. From the middle of the 5th century they had to defend the country against the attacks of Germanic tribes from the Continent. In the 5th century, first the Jutes and then other Germanic tribes – the Saxons and the Angles began to migrate to Britain. The Saxons came from the territory lying between the Rhine and the Elbe rivers which was later on called Saxony. The Jutes and the Angles came from the Jutland Peninsula. At first they only came to plunder. They would land from their boats, drive off and slay the cattle, seize the stores of corn, and be off again to sea before the Celts could attack them. But after some time they returned again and again in larger numbers, and began to conquer the country.

In 449 the Jutes landed In Kent and this was the beginning of the conquest. The British natives fought fiercely against the invaders and it took more than a hundred and fifty years for the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes to conquer the country. Other Germanic tribes conquered the Roman provinces on the Continent without any serious resistance as the bulk of the population in the provinces occupied by the Romans welcomed the Germanic conquerors as their liberators. But the British Celts were free at the time and their resistance was often stubborn and prolonged. In the South-East the Celts were soon overwhelmed, but in the western parts of the country they offered stout resistance for many years. Now and then the Celts won and the invaders were forced back. As a result Britain held out longer than the other provinces of the Roman Empire. It was only by the beginning of the 7th century that the invaders managed to conquer the greater part of the land.

The final refuge of the Celts was Cornwall and Wales – the mountainous districts of the West – and the northern part of the island (Scotland) where the Celts were still living in tribes and, later on, some independent states were formed. The Celts of Ireland remained independent too. In the course of the conquest many of the Celts were killed, some were taken prisoners and made slaves or had to pay tribute to the conquerors. Some of the Celts crossed the sea to the North-West of France and settled in what was later on called Brittany after the Celtic tribes of Britons. Descendants of the ancient British Celts can be found in Brittany today.

By the end of the 6th and the beginning of the 7th century several kingdoms were formed on the territory of Britain conquered by the Germanic tribes. (This territory later on became England proper.) Kent was set up by the Jutes in the South-East. In the southern and the southeastern parts of the country the Saxons formed a number of kingdoms – Sussex (the land of the South Saxons), Wessex: (the land of the West Saxons) and Essex (the land of the East Saxons). Farther north were the settlements of the Angles who had conquered the greater part of the country. In the North they founded Northumbria, which has left its name in the present county of Northumberland; Mercia was formed in the Middle, and East Anglia – in the East of England, north of the East Saxon kingdom. These kingdoms were hostile to one another and they fought constantly for supreme power in the country.

The new conquerors brought about changes altogether different from those that had followed the conquest of the country by the Romans. The new settlers disliked towns preferring to live in small villages. In the course of the conquest they destroyed the Roman towns and villas. All the beautiful buildings and baths and roads were so neglected that they soon fell in ruins. Sometimes the roads were broken up, the stones being used for building material. Thus the art of road-making was lost for many hundreds of years to come.[2]

The Jutes, the Saxons and the Angles were closely akin in speech and customs, and they gradually merged into one people. The name "Jute" soon died out and the conquerors are generally referred to as the Anglo-Saxons.

As a result of the conquest the Anglo-Saxons made up the majority of the population in Britain and their customs, religion and languages became predominant. They called the Celts "welsh" which means foreigners as they could not understand the Celtic language which was quite unlike their own. But gradually the Celts who were in the minority merged with the conquerors, adopted their customs and learned to speak their languages. Only the Celts who remained independent in the West, Scotland and Ireland spoke their native tongue.

At first the Anglo-Saxons spoke various dialects but gradually the dialect of the Angles of Mercia became predominant. In the course of time all the people of Britain were referred to as the English after the Angles and the new name of England was given to the whole country. The Anglo-Saxon language, or English, has been the principal language of the country since then although it has undergone great change.

THE MIDDLE AGES.

(The Norman Conquest. William the Conqueror. Feudalism.

THE COMING OF CHRISTIANITY

In 597, with considerable trepidation, but urged on by his formidable and demanding superior in Rome, an Italian bishop, Augustine, landed in Kent with a small party of fellow-missionaries. His task, set by Pope Gregory the Great, was to convert the inhabitants to the Christian religion, and to establish a church within the ambit of Roman control. The Franks were already Christian, and Bertha, wife of the Kentish king, Ethelbert, was a Frankish princess; diplomacy had already ensured that Augustine would not be turned away or martyred. At this time, too, the Kentish king was the most powerful monarch in the country. Ethelbert accepted the new faith and Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. But he failed to accomplish Gregory's desire to establish London and York as twin metropolises of the church. To many of the Anglo-Saxons, the religion that preached peace and universal brotherhood was a contemptible thing.

Relations between the Canterbury mission and the long-established Celtic church were uncertain or hostile; an early meeting between Augustine and a group of Welsh bishops was wrecked when the archbishop received his visitors sitting down. For a time the candle of Christianity flickered perilously. In 625, Paulinus, one of Augustine's first companions, accompanied a Kentish princess to Northumbria, where she was to marry the king, Edwin. He had killed Aethelfrith and exiled that ruler's sons. Edwin converted to Christianity, but in 632 he was killed in battle. Under Oswald, a son of Aethelfrith, who had learned his Christianity in exile on Iona, the Northumbrian forces were regrouped. Oswald sent to Iona for a bishop to teach Christianity to his pagan kingdom, and the saintly Aidan came and established his base on Lindisfarne. The example of the bishop and the energy of the king established the new religion with great success, and missionary monks of the Celtic church spread far and wide across England while the Roman settlement at Canterbury was still struggling to expand its work. Irish and Northumbrian monks established Christianity in East Anglia, Essex, Sussex and Wessex, and finally, around the mid-seventh century, in the great heathen kingdom of Mercia.

Baptism and the acceptance of the Creed were the necessary conditions for conversion to Christianity. When a king took the new religion it was politic or compulsory for his people to do so too. For Anglo-Saxon kings, the church offered valuable support. It had to do so, in order to induce men who considered themselves god-descended to forsake their lofty pedigrees and join the human ranks of sinners. Instead it offered them the consecration of Christian kingship, a special role under God. Perhaps more important, it brought them into an international context in which they shared the prestige of greater kings like the Frankish monarchs and even that of the far-off emperor in Constantinople. The people did not forget their ancient beliefs or superstitions and there is no doubt that pagan traditions persisted for many centuries, and indeed some have never died out. Churchmen would fight a constant battle against charms, omen-reading, nature-worship, and rituals aimed at promoting fertility, witchcraft and sorcery. But through the latter half of the seventh century an internal struggle went on in the church itself. The Northumbrian church, from its first base on Lindisfarne, was established on the Celtic model by its first bishop, St Aidan. But by the middle of the seventh century it had shaken off its Celtic aspects and conformed to the rule and doctrines of Rome.

The spread of Christianity brought about important changes in the life of the Anglo-Saxons. Many new churches and monasteries were built all over the country. The kings and nobles granted much land to the bishops and monasteries, and that promoted the growth of the big landed estates. The kings also granted them the right to collect dues from the population and to administer justice on their estates. Thus alongside with the lay landlords the churchmen became great landowners too.

Besides, the spread of Christianity was of great importance for the growth of culture in Britain. The Roman monks who were converting the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity helped to spread Roman culture in the country again. The Roman monks brought many books to Britain. Most of them were religious books and they were all written in Latin and Greek. The church services were also conducted in Latin.

The Latin language was again heard in Britain. Latin was of international importance at that time, as it was used by learned men in all countries. They wrote their books in Latin so that they could be understood by the learned men of other countries.

The Anglo-Saxons spoke quite a different language of Germanic origin and did not understand Latin. The Anglo-Saxon nobles were ignorant, many of them were quite illiterate and could not even sign their own names. No one except the monks knew Latin and the monasteries became centers of knowledge and of learning in those early times. The first libraries and schools for the clergy were set up in monasteries. The monks copied out many handwritten books and even translated some books from Latin and Greek into Anglo-Saxon. Some monks were chroniclers – they kept a record of the important events of each year. Psalters, chronicles and other manuscripts written by the medieval monks are very important historical documents today. Monks often illuminated their manuscripts with miniatures and drawings which are also of great interest for they portray many scenes of contemporary life.

The learned men lived and wrote their books in monasteries. They wrote in Latin and some of their books were well known in Europe. The most famous writer was the monk named Bede who lived from 673 to 735. The Venerable Bede[3], as he was known in Europe, was brought up and educated in the monasteries of Northumbria where he lived all his life. He wrote Ecclesiastical History of the English People which was studied carefully by educated people in Europe as it was the only book on Anglo-Saxon history. From this book we learn much of what happened in Britain thirteen centuries ago. A copy of Bede's book can be found at the British Museum in London.

Another early-medieval scholar Alcuin[4], who lived from 735 to 804, was also an Anglo-Saxon monk from the kingdom of Northumbria. He got his education in the monastic school of York where later on he himself began to teach. As a teacher he became famous all over England. Many young monks would come to the school in York from faraway places to be taught by Alcuin. He was the author of the school text-books that were very popular in the 8th-9th centuries not only in England but on the Continent too. For more than twenty years Alcuin lived on the Continent where he organized monastic schools and many pupils of his became well-known teachers.