Celts 1200bc-43ad

The Celts lived during the Iron Age, from about 600 BC to 43 AD. This is the time when iron was discovered and used. The Iron Age ended when the Romans invaded Britain and set up their own civilisation and government. The people who lived in Britain during the Iron Age weren’t called ‘Celts‘ until the 1700s.

The Celts were a collection of tribes with origins in central Europe that shared a similar language, religious beliefs, traditions and culture. It’s believed that the Celtic culture started to evolve as early as 1200 B.C. The Celts spread throughout western Europe—including Britain, Ireland, France and Spain—via migration. Their legacy remains most prominent in Ireland and Great Britain, where traces of their language and culture are still prominent today.

The existence of the Celts was first documented in the seventh or eighth century B.C. The Roman Empire, which ruled much of southern Europe at that time, referred to the Celts as “Galli,” meaning barbarians.

However, the Celts (pronounced with a hard “c” or “k” sound) were anything but barbarians, and many aspects of their culture and language have survived through the centuries.

The Celts

By the third century B.C., the Celts controlled much of the European continent north of the Alps mountain range, including present-day Ireland and Great Britain.

It is these islands off Europe’s western coast in which Celtic culture was allowed to survive and thrive, as the Roman Empire expanded on the European continent. Beginning with the reign of Julius Caesar in the first century B.C., the Romans launched a military campaign against the Celts, killing them by the thousands and destroying their culture in much of mainland Europe.

Caesar’s Roman armies attempted an invasion of Britain at this time, but were unsuccessful, and thus the Celtic people established a homeland there. As a result, many of their cultural traditions remain evident in present-day Ireland, Scotland and Wales, even now.

Galatians

Several tribes made up the larger population of the Celtic people. Indeed, the Gaels, Gauls, Britons, Irish and Galatians were all Celtic tribes.

The Galatians occupied much of the Asturias region of what is now northern Spain, and they successfully fought off attempted invasions by both the Romans and the Moors, the latter ruling much of present-day southern Spain.

Evidence of Galatian tradition remains in the region today. Descendants of the Galatians still participate in ancient outdoor dances, accompanied by bagpipes, an instrument that is often associated with more well-known Celtic regions such as Scotland and Ireland.

In addition, a Celtic symbol called the “Cruz de la Victoria” (similar to a Celtic cross) adorns the regional flag.

The Galatians also settled in nearby Galicia, a region on the northwest coast of Spain.

Britons

Britons and Gauls settled in the northwestern corner of present-day France, the region known today as Brittany. Celtic tradition survived in the region as it was geographically isolated from the rest of France, and many festivals and events can trace their origins to Celtic times.

Many of the French “Bretons” also wear traditional Celtic hats called coiffes (which means “hats of lace”), and roughly one-quarter of the region’s residents speak Breton, a Celtic language similar to Welsh.

Although Caesar’s invasion of Britain was unsuccessful, the Romans eventually mounted a successful attack against the Britons following Caesar’s murder in the first century A.D. This incursion effectively pushed the Britons on the island west to Wales and Cornwall and north to Scotland.

In fact, the Romans built Hadrian’s Wall (remnants of which still stand today) near what is now the border between England and Scotland, in 120 A.D. The wall was designed to protect the conquering Roman settlers from the Celts who had fled north.

Celtic Languages

In Wales, called Cymru by the Celts, the native tongue—Welsh—is a Celtic language, and it is still widely spoken in the region. Similarly, in Cornwall (the westernmost county in England, and near Wales), many residents still speak Cornish, which is similar to Welsh and Breton.

And, in Scotland, the Celtic language Scots Gaelic is still spoken, although by a minority, and the local affiliate of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is known as BBC Alba, the Celtic name for the region.

Of course, the bagpipes, the musical instrument for which Scotland is arguably best known, can also trace their origin to Celtic times.

Celtic Religion

Neither the Romans nor the Anglo-Saxons, who took what is now England from the Romans in the fifth century A.D., were able to successfully invade Ireland. This enabled the Celtic tribes that had settled there—namely, the Gaels and the Irish—to survive, and allowed their culture to flourish.

When Christianity arrived in Ireland with St. Patrick in 432 A.D., many Celtic traditions were incorporated into the “new” religion. In fact, it’s said by some historians that Catholicism was able to take over as the dominant religion on the island following the mass killing of Druids, the religious leaders of the Gaels.

However, even with Christianity’s new-found prominence, traces of Celtic culture remain. Ireland’s national symbol, the shamrock (a green, three-pronged leaf) represents the “Holy Trinity” of Catholic tradition—the Father (God), son (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit.

The Celtic cross represents the region’s unique take on the Catholic cross. In addition, many Celtic folklore stories, such as the legend of Cu Chulainn, are still told in Ireland.

Like Welsh, the Irish language of Gaelic is a Celtic language. Gaelic largely disappeared in the 19th century, when the English colonized Ireland, but the language is still spoken in the western part of the country.

Celtic Designs

Across Europe, the Celts have been credited with many artistic innovations, including intricate stone carving and fine metalworking.

As a result, elaborate Celtic designs in artifacts crafted from gold, silver and precious gemstones are a major part of museum collections throughout Europe and North America.

Vikings, 800-1066 Danes in UK

Overview: The Vikings, 800 to 1066

The story of the Vikings in Britain is one of conquest, expulsion, extortion and reconquest. Their lasting legacy was the formation of the independent kingdoms of England and Scotland.

Viking raids

Raids by seaborne Scandinavian pirates on sites in Britain, especially largely undefended monastic sites, began at the end of the eighth century AD.

By the end of the ninth century there were large-scale settlements of Scandinavians in various parts of Britain, and they had achieved political domination over a significant territory.

Early in the 11th century the king of Denmark became king of England as well. And in 1066 there were separate invasions by the king of Norway, Harald Hardrada, and duke of Normandy, William, the latter the descendant of Scandinavian settlers in northern France.

Many monasteries in the north were destroyed, and with them any records of the raids.

Yet the most significant development of the period was an indirect result of Scandinavian involvement in the affairs of Britain – the emergence of two kingdoms of newly unified territories, England and Scotland.

In 793 AD, an anguished Alcuin of York wrote to the Higbald, the bishop of Lindisfarne and to Ethelred, King of Northumbria, bemoaning the unexpected attack on the monastery of Lindisfarne by Viking raiders, probably Norwegians sailing directly across the North Sea to Northumbria.

It is clear from the letter that Lindisfarne was not destroyed. Alcuin suggested that further attack might be averted by moral reform in the monastery.

Over the next few decades, many monasteries in the north were destroyed, and with them any records they might have kept of the raids. We know no historical details of the raids in Scotland, although they must have been extensive.

Iona was burnt in 802 AD, and 68 monks were killed in another raid in 806 AD. The remaining monks fled to Kells (County Meath, Ireland) with a gospel-book probably produced in Iona, but now known as the ‘Book of Kells’.

Other monasteries in Scotland and northern England simply disappear from the record. Lindisfarne was abandoned, and the monks trailed around northern England with their greatest possession, the relics of St Cuthbert, until they found a home in Durham in 995 AD.

England and Scotland

We cannot be sure of the impact the Vikings had on Scotland due to a real scarcity of written material from the area. But the surviving place names show us that the Orkneys and Shetlands, and the mainland of Caithness and Sutherland, were heavily settled by Norwegians.

Those Norwegians were probably involved in the greatest political upset in the north – the disappearance of the kingdom of the Picts.

The Vikings began to assemble larger armies with the clear intent of conquest.

In the eighth century, the Picts had one of the most important kingdoms in Britain. By the end of the ninth century they had vanished. In their place was a kingdom of Scotland, controlled by the Scots, who were the descendents of immigrants from Ireland in the fifth and sixth centuries.

The Scots took advantage of the presence of the Vikings, and, above all under King Cináed mac Alpín (Kenneth MacAlpine), they did so with considerable aggression and intelligence. They promoted themselves as the kings of all those in northern Britain, or ‘Alba’.

They wove a new national history, which emphasised (or invented) many links between the Scottish and Pictish dynasties. They also promoted the idea that St Columba, the founder of the monastery of Iona, was the apostle of all those in the north.

The Viking raids in England were sporadic until the 840s AD, but in the 850s Viking armies began to winter in England, and in the 860s they began to assemble larger armies with the clear intent of conquest.

In 865 AD they forced the East Angles to help supply an army, which in 866 AD captured York and in 867 AD took over the southern part of the kingdom of Northumbria.

Later traditions saw Ragnar Hairy-Breeks and his son Ívarr the Boneless as the two main Viking leaders, responsible not only for killing Ælla, King of Northumbria in 867 AD but also Edmund, King of the East Angles in 869 AD, and for destroying Dumbarton, the fortress of the British kings of Strathclyde.

The normally reliable ‘Annals of Ulster’ recorded Ívarr’s death in Ireland in 873 AD and described him as ‘king of the Northmen in the whole of Ireland and Britain’.

The man we then see more clearly in the sources as the Viking leader, Hálfdan, was later believed to be Ívarr’s brother. He led the Viking army to a conquest of Mercia in 874 AD, organised a parcelling out of land among the Vikings in Northumbria in 876 AD, and in 878 AD moved south and forced most of the population of Wessex to submit.

The Vikings had conquered almost the whole of England.

Alfred’s dynasty

An excerpt from the ‘Parker Chronicle’, the oldest surviving manuscript from the ‘Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’ (890 AD)  ©

The idea that the Vikings had forced Wessex to submit may have been invented to magnify the achievement of its king, Alfred, the only English king to be called ‘the Great’.

Famously, he hid in the marshes near Athelney (Somerset) in 878 AD, but then emerged, re-formed his army, and defeated the Vikings later that year at Edington (Wiltshire).

After the peace that Alfred forced on the Vikings, the Viking army seems to have moved across the Channel (it established winter quarters in Paris in 886 AD), giving the king some time to organise for war.

Æthelstan’s victory did not end the Viking threat or the slow expansion by the Scots.

He built fortresses, established a defensive strategy, and built up a navy. By the time the Vikings returned in the 890s, the West Saxons were able to resist, leaving Alfred, at his death in 899 AD, king of the only independent English kingdom.

Thanks to Alfred’s own propaganda machine, we know more about him than about most early medieval kings in Britain. He ordered the compilation of the ‘Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’, a major source of information that was continued as contemporary chronicles in various centres until the 12th century.

Under Alfred’s auspices, the Welshman Asser prepared a ‘Life of Alfred’, after the model of Einhard’s ‘Life of Charlemagne’. Like Charlemagne, Alfred was deeply interested in promoting literacy and learning, and he sponsored (and perhaps even took part in) the translation of various Latin works into English.

Alfred was succeeded by his son Edward the Elder (899-924 AD) and grandson Æthelstan (924-939 AD). Both these rulers were in many ways even more important in the history of England than Alfred himself.

In a few expeditions Edward (with the direct military help of his sister Æthelflæd, widow of the Mercian king) conquered the south of England from the Danes, and incorporated Mercia itself into his kingdom.

The ‘Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’ tells us that Edward built a fortress at Bakewell (Derbyshire), and there he was chosen ‘father and lord’ by the king of the Scots, the king of the Strathclyde Welsh, and the people of Northumbria.

All of them were perhaps in need of protection from aggression by the Vikings of Dublin.

There was a similar submission to Æthelstan in 927 AD, at Eamont (Cumbria), when Welsh kings as well as the Scottish king submitted to him. The great Welsh king Hywel Dda (Hywel the Good) was apparently a close ally. In fact, he was so Anglophile that he named one of his sons Edwin, and sponsored a written law code after the English model.

Æthelstan’s greatest success was the victory at Brunanburh, somewhere in the north. A Viking army led by Olaf Guthfrithson, allied with the kings of Scotland and Strathclyde, invaded Northumbria in 937 AD. Our source tells us that five kings and seven of Olaf’s earls died on the battlefield, as well as the son of Constantine II of Scotland.

Æthelstan’s reputation was immense on the continent, and an Irish monk called him ‘the pillar of the dignity of the western world’. But his victory did not put an end to the Viking threat in the north, nor to the slow expansion of the power of the Scots.

The last Viking king of York, Eric Bloodaxe, was only expelled from Northumbria in 954 AD, after Æthelstan’s rule. In that same year the Scots took Edinburgh from the English.

Danegeld

After 955 AD there was a generation of peace on the island of Britain. As the ‘Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’ says of Edgar, King of England (959 – 975 AD) ‘without battle he brought under his sway all that he wished’.

He issued laws for ‘all the nations, whether Englishmen, Danes, or Britons’, an interesting recognition of the multi-ethnic character of England at the time.

Edgar took advantage of his strong position to foster the reorganisation of the church that is generally known as the ’10th-century Reformation’. New bishoprics were established in the areas conquered from the Vikings.

Raids were on a large scale and their object was extortion.

But above all this reformation was about the re-establishment and strict reform of monasticism.

Edgar relied on three men in particular – Dunstan (archbishop of Canterbury, 960 – 988 AD), Oswald (bishop of Worcester, 961 – 992 AD, and archbishop of York, 971 – 992 AD) and Æthelwold (bishop of Winchester, 963 – 984 AD).

The process was sealed by the ‘Regularis Concordia’ of 973 AD, a document of monastic reform that relied heavily on continental models. It was cemented by the building of some magnificent churches (mostly replaced by the Normans) and some lavish illuminated manuscripts, such as the ‘Benedictional of St Æthelwold’.

After Edgar’s death, his successor Edward I reigned briefly. He was murdered in 978 AD at Corfe (Dorset), possibly by the followers of his young half-brother Æthelred, and possibly by his stepmother.

Edgar’s half-brother, Æthelred II, who later would acquire the nickname ‘the Unready’, started his long reign (978-1016 AD) at the same time as the emergence of Denmark.

The country was newly converted to Christianity and newly unified under Harald Bluetooth. It was becoming a major power.

This was the dawning of the ‘second Viking age’, and it was very different from the first. Raids were on a large scale, frequently organised by royal leaders, and their object was extortion. In 991 AD the Danes acquired 4,500 kg of silver in return for going home.

By 1012, payments to the Danes, known as ‘Danegeld’, had increased to 22,000 kg. England was wealthy, and it developed a taxation system that was probably more sophisticated than any other in Europe, which was both a cause and a consequence of the raiding.

Conquest and fall

Silver penny of Cnut (Canute)  ©

The extortion came to an end in 1013, when Harald’s son, Swein Forkbeard, decided to conquer England. He forced Æthelred into exile, although the definitive conquest of England was only achieved under his son Cnut (or Canute).

In 1016, Cnut became king of England, and after further campaigns in Scandinavia he could claim in 1027 to be ‘king of the whole of England and Denmark and Norway and of parts of Sweden’.

William won and the last English royal dynasty perished.

Cnut was a strong and effective king. He introduced some Danish customs to England, but England also influenced Denmark. For instance, Cnut appointed several Englishmen as bishops in Denmark, and even today most of the ordinary Danish words of church organisation are English in origin.

In an attempt at reconciliation with the English he had conquered, Cnut married Emma, the widow of Æthelred. She was the daughter of the duke of Normandy, himself the descendant of Vikings or Northmen (Normans).

She bore Cnut a son, Harthacnut, but she had also had a son by Æthelred, who succeeded Harthacnut as Edward II, the Confessor (1042 – 1066).

When Edward died without children, it was natural that Emma’s great-nephew, Duke William, should lay claim to the throne. It was just as natural that this claim should be resisted by Harold, the son of Godwin, Edward’s most powerful noble.

Harold II successfully beat off the invasion by Harald Hardrada of Norway, defeating him at Stamford Bridge near York in September 1066. Even when he and his troops arrived, exhausted, at Hastings three weeks later to face William’s Norman invaders, he nearly prevailed.

But William won, and the last English royal dynasty perished.

---

The Last Kingdom is a British historical fiction television series based on Bernard Cornwell‘s The Saxon Stories series of novels.^[

The year is 872, and many of the separate kingdoms of what we now know as England have fallen to the invading Danes, leaving the great kingdom of Wessex standing alone and defiant under the command of King Alfred. Against this turbulent backdrop lives our hero, Uhtred. Born the son of a Saxon nobleman, he is captured by the Danes and raised as one of their own. Forced to choose between the country of his birth and the people of his upbringing, his loyalties are ever tested. What is he? Saxon or Dane? On a quest to reclaim his birthright, Uhtred must tread a dangerous path between both sides if he is to play his part in the birth of a new nation and, ultimately, recapture his ancestral lands.

The setting is a historical one of England roughly around 800-900 A.D. The conflict involves the vikings who are eager to take more ground and the native English peoples or more correctly the Saxons who desire to hold the ground they have and repel the Vikings from England. The main protagonist is a fictional character although his birth place and enemies who contest him; Ubba (Ubbe Lothbrok) and Guthrum are real figures.

Crimean War 1853-56

The Crimean War (1853-1856) stemmed from Russia’s threat to multiple European interests with its pressure of Turkey. After demanding Russian evacuation of the Danubian Principalities, British and French forces laid siege to the city of Sevastopol in 1854. The campaign lasted for a full year, with the Battle of Balaclava and its “Charge of the Light Brigade” among its famous skirmishes. Facing mounting losses and increased resistance from Austria, Russia agreed to the terms of the 1856 Treaty of Paris. Remembered in part for Florence Nightingale’s work for the wounded, the Crimean War reshaped Europe’s power structure.

The Crimean War was a result of Russian pressure on Turkey; this threatened British commercial and strategic interests in the Middle East and India. France, having provoked the crisis for prestige purposes, used the war to cement an alliance with Britain and to reassert its military power.

Anglo-French forces secured Istanbul before attacking Russia in the Black Sea, the Baltic, the Arctic, and the Pacific, supported by a maritime blockade. In September 1854 the allies landed in the Crimea, planning to destroy Sevastopol and the Russian Fleet in six weeks before withdrawing to Turkey. After victory on the River Alma, they hesitated; the Russians then reinforced the city and attacked the allied flank at the battles of Balaklava and the Inkerman. After a terrible winter, the allies cut Russian logistics by occupying the Sea of Azov; then, using superior sea-based logistics, they forced the Russians out of Sevastopol, which fell on September 8–9, 1855.

In the Baltic, also a major theater, the allies captured the Åland fortress of Bomarsund in 1854, and destroyed Sveaborg, the Helsinki dockyard, in 1855. These operations detained 200,000 Russian troops in the theater. The British prepared to destroy Cronstadt and St. Petersburg in 1856, using armored warships, steam gunboats, and mortar vessels.

Forced to accept defeat, Russia sought peace in January 1856. It had lost 500,000 troops, mostly to disease, malnutrition, and exposure; its economy was ruined, and its primitive industries were incapable of producing modern weapons. Allied war aims were limited to securing Turkey, although for reasons of prestige Napoleon III wanted a European conference to secure his dynasty.

The Peace of Paris, signed on March 30, 1856, preserved Ottoman rule in Turkey until 1914, crippled Russia, facilitated the unification of Germany, and revealed the power of Britain and the importance of sea power in global conflict. It had a major influence on the conduct of the American Civil War. The use of the term Crimean and a fascination with striking events such as “the Charge of the Light Brigade,” have obscured the scale and significance of the conflict.

A. D. Lambert

The Reader’s Companion to American History. Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, Editors. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Margaret Thatcher 1925-2013

Margaret Thatcher sworn in  1979

Margaret Thatcher, leader of the Conservative Party, is sworn in as Britain’s first female prime minister. The Oxford-educated chemist and lawyer was sworn in the day after the Conservatives won a 44-seat majority in general parliamentary elections.Margaret Hilda Roberts was born in Grantham, England, in 1925. She was the first woman president of the Oxford University Conservative Association and in 1950 ran for Parliament in Dartford. She was defeated but garnered an impressive number of votes in the generally liberal district. In 1959, after marrying businessman Denis Thatcher and giving birth to twins, she was elected to Parliament as a Conservative for Finchley, a north London district. During the 1960s, she rose rapidly in the ranks of the Conservative Party and in 1967 joined the shadow cabinet sitting in opposition to Harold Wilson’s ruling Labour cabinet. With the victory of the Conservative Party under Edward Health in 1970, Thatcher became secretary of state for education and science.

In 1974, the Labour Party returned to power, and Thatcher served as joint shadow chancellor before replacing Edward Health as the leader of the Conservative Party in February 1975. She was the first woman to head the Conservatives. Under her leadership, the Conservative Party shifted further right in its politics, calling for privatization of national industries and utilities and promising a resolute defense of Britain’s interests abroad. She also sharply criticized Prime Minister James Callaghan’s ineffectual handling of the chaotic labor strikes of 1978 and 1979.

In March 1979, Callaghan was defeated by a vote of no confidence, and on May 3 a general election gave Thatcher’s Conservatives a majority in Parliament. Sworn in the next day, Prime Minister Thatcher immediately set about dismantling socialism in Britain. She privatized numerous industries, cutback government expenditures, and gradually reduced the rights of trade unions. In 1983, despite the worst unemployment figures for half a decade, Thatcher was reelected to a second term, thanks largely to the decisive British victory in the 1982 Falklands War with Argentina.

In other foreign affairs, the “Iron Lady” presided over the orderly establishment of an independent Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) in 1980 and took a hard stance against Irish separatists in Northern Ireland. In October 1984, an Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb exploded at the Conservative Party conference in Brighton. The prime minister narrowly escaped harm.

In 1987, an upswing in the economy led to her election to a third term, but Thatcher soon alienated some members of her own party because of her poll-tax policies and opposition to further British integration into the European Community. In November 1990, she failed to received a majority in the Conservative Party’s annual vote for selection of a leader. She withdrew her nomination, and John Major, the chancellor of the Exchequer since 1989, was chosen as Conservative leader. On November 28, Thatcher resigned as prime minister and was succeeded by Major. Thatcher’s three consecutive terms in office marked the longest continuous tenure of a British prime minister since 1827. In 1992, she was made a baroness and took a seat in the House of Lords.

In later years, Thatcher worked as a consultant, served as the chancellor of the College of William and Mary and wrote her memoirs, as well as other books on politics. She continued to work with the Thatcher Foundation, which she created to foster the ideals of democracy, free trade and cooperation among nations. Though she stopped appearing in public after suffering a series of small strokes in the early 2000s, her influence remained strong. In 2011, the former prime minister was the subject of an award-winning (and controversial) biographical film, “The Iron Lady,” which depicted her political rise and fall. Margaret Thatcher died on April 8, 2013, at the age of 87.

Hundred Years’ War 1337-1453

THE HUNDRED YEARS‘ WAR. ONE of the signs that the Middle Ages were coming to an end was the long war between France and England. It lasted altogether from 1337 to 1453, and is called the Hundred Years‘ War. When William the Conqueror became King of England, he did not cease to be Duke of Normandy.

The name the Hundred Years’ War has been used by historians since the beginning of the nineteenth century to describe the long conflict that pitted the kings and kingdoms of France and England against each other from 1337 to 1453. Two factors lay at the origin of the conflict: first, the status of the duchy of Guyenne (or Aquitaine)-though it belonged to the kings of England, it remained a fief of the French crown, and the kings of England wanted independent possession; second, as the closest relatives of the last direct Capetian king (Charles IV, who had died in 1328), the kings of England from 1337 claimed the crown of France.