BRITISH HISTORY AND CIVILISATION(curs nr 1 )

Elective Course . Associate Professor Gabriela Iuliana Colipc, PhD.

Course Contents
British Insularity. Invasions and Patterns of Settlement in the British
Isles
British Monarchy: from the Anglo-Saxon Kings to the Twenty-first
Century House of Windsor
Main Developments in Britains Political Life
Selected Bibliography
Dascal, R. (2000) British Topics, Timisoara: Eurostampa.
Deac, L. and A. Nicolescu (1983) British Life and Civilisation,
Bucuresti: Editura Didactica si Pedagogica.
Gavriliu, E. (2001) British History and Civilisation. A Student-friendly
Approach through Guided Practice, Galati: Universitatea Dunarea
de Jos.
McDowall, D. (1995) An Illustrated History of Britain, Essex:
Longman.
Mohor-Ivan, I. (2002) Glimpses of Britain. A Cultural Studies
Perspective, Braila: Evrika.
Musman, R. and A.-V. dArcy (1989) Britain Today, Essex: Longman.
Oakland, J. (1991) British Civilisation. An Introduction, London and
New York: Routledge.
Room, A. (1991) An A to Z of British Life, Oxford University Press.
I.
British Insularity
Great Britain:
England (the South, the Midlands and the North): from the Channel
to the Scottish Border (the Cheviot Hills);
Scotland (united to England in 1707): the Highlands; the Lowlands
and the Islands (the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Orkney Islands,
the Shetland Islands);
Wales (united to England under the first Tudors, Henry VII and Henry
VIII).
Northern Ireland (Ulster);
the Isle of Man and Anglesey (in the Irish Sea);
the Isle of Wight, Jersey and Guernsey (the Channel Islands); the
Scilly Islands (SE of Cornwall).

Consequences of British Insularity

Britains peculiar geographical position has influenced its climate, its
people and its history in more than one direction.
Climate: temperate, benefited by the warm Atlantic Current (Gulf
Stream), with mild winters and warm summers;
People: restrained, reserved, with a conservative mentality marked
by a preference for traditional habits and structures (e.g. talking
about the weather; carrying an umbrella and a jacket on a warm
day because it might rain or turn cold; the five oclock tea; etc.);
History: The sea has turned the English into a sea-faring nation, able
to roam the oceans of the world and to build up a great maritime
empire. The sea provided potential security from foreign invasions
from the continent, but also imminent danger from enemies from
the north (and not only).
II. Invasions and Patterns of Settlement in the British Isles
III. Ancient Britain:
a.Stone Age: the Megalithic Men;
b.Bronze Age: the Beaker people;
c.Iron Age: the Celts;
d.The Romans.
IV. Middle Ages:
a.The Anglo-Saxons;
b.The Vikings;
c.The Normans.
V. Battles for Britain:
a.The Renaissance: the Spanish Armada;
b.The Second World War: the German Luftwaffe.
Ancient Britain: the Megalithic Men
Stone Age (about 3,000 BC):
The first settlers probably coming from the Iberian Peninsula (the
Iberians) or even from the North African coast:
small, dark, long-headed people (probably the ancestors of the darkhaired inhabitants of Wales and Cornwall);
They kept animals, grew corn and knew how to make pottery.
This first wave of invaders settled in the western parts of Britain
and Ireland, from Cornwall all the way to the far north.

 Remains that reveal the huge organisation of labour in prehistoric

Britain:
the henges: centres of religious, political and economic power made
of great circles of earth banks and ditches inside which there were
wooden buildings and stone circles; e.g. Stonehenge in Salisbury
Plain: made of monumental circles of massive vertical stones topped
with immense horizontal slabs (megaliths the name of these
prehistoric people, i.e., Megalithic Men); other (earth or stone)
henges were built in many parts of Britain as far north as the Orkney
Islands and as far south as Cornwall.
Ancient Britain: the Beaker People
Bronze Age (after 2,400 BC):
New groups of people came from Europe (France and the Low
Countries) and settled in south-east Britain.
Characteristics:
round-headed, strongly built, taller than Neolithic Britons;
speaking an Indo-European language;
skilled in working metal (bronze) and in making pottery; bringing a
new cereal from Europe, i.e. barley;
introducing the first individual graves to replace the former
communal burial mounds (barrows); their graves were furnished
with pottery beakers (the Beaker people).
Ancient Britain: the Celts
Iron Age (around 700 BC):
From the sixth century BC over the next seven hundred years, the
Celts swept into the British isles, coming from central Europe or
further east, in three successive waves, kindred indeed but
mutually hostile and each with a dialect of its own:
The Goidelic/ Gaelic Celts settled in Ireland whence they spread to
Scotland and the Isle of Man. Their linguistic heritage is represented
by: Gaelic (the national language in Ireland), Erse (in the Highlands
and the Islands of Scotland) and the now extinguished Manx (only in
the Isle of Man).
two centuries later, the Brythonic Celts/ Britons settled in England
and Wales. Their linguistic heritage is represented by: Welsh (in
Wales) and Cornish (spoken in Cornwall up to the end of the
eighteenth century, to be revived nowadays).

About 100 BC, the Belgic tribes settled in the south-east of

Britain.
Ancient Britain: the Celts
General characteristics:
tall, fair or red-haired men; wearing shirts and breeches, and stripped
or checked cloaks fastened by a pin (possibly the origin for the
Scottish tartan and dress); of an impressive cleanliness and neatness.
skills: They knew how to work with iron, hence they could make better
weapons and introduce more advanced ploughing methods to farm
heavier soils. They built hill-forts which remained economic centres for
local groups long after the Romans came to Britain (e.g. the tradition
of organising annual fairs). They traded across tribal borders and trade
was probably important for political and social contact between the
tribes inside and beyond Britain.
religion: polytheistic. Their priests, the Druids could not read or write,
but they memorised all the religious teachings, the tribal laws, history,
medicine, and other knowledge necessary in the Celtic society.
Religious rituals (which sometimes included human sacrifice) were not
performed in temples but in sacred (oak) groves, on certain hills, by
rivers or by river sources.
gender roles: Women, especially from the upper strata, had more
independence and they were respected for their courage and strength
in battle. (Roman writers leave an impression of a measure of equality
between the sexes among the richer Celts.) Actually, when the
Romans invaded Britain two of the largest tribes were ruled by women
who fought from their chariots. The most powerful Celt to stand up to
the Romans was a woman, Boadicea (61 AD).

Ancient Britain: the Celts

Cultural heritage:
The very name Britain comes from Pretani, the name which the
Greeks called the Celtic inhabitants of Britain, mispronounced by the
Romans into Britannia.
Celtic survivings in English: names of rivers and places (e.g. Avon,
Thames; York, Kent, London); first syllables in Winchester,
Manchester, Gloucester, Exeter; words (e.g. brat, cradle, down,
mattock, etc.)

 In literature: legends and sagas imbued with a sense of mystery, a

dramatic conception of mans existence at grip with fate, sung by
bards at the accompaniment of the harp:
The Cycle of Ulster (the oldest literary attempts of the Irish epic
recording the deeds of king Conchobar and the brave hero
Cuchulainn);
The Cycle of Munster (focused on the heroic figures of Finn and his son
Ossian, a gifted bard).
In the late eighteenth century, the interest in the old Celtic literary
tradition was revived by the Pre-Romantic movement. James
Macphersons alleged translations from the legendary Irish bard Ossian
brought about the emergence of a new literary fashion in almost the
whole Europe, known as Ossianism.
With the rise of nationalistic feelings in present-day Britain,
Britishness originally a general term denoting national identity for
the inhabitants of England, Scotland and Wales has come to evoke
the Celtic origin of Scotland and Wales as opposed to Englishness,
evocative of Englands Anglo-Saxon roots and her ruling position.
Ancient Britain: the Romans
The Roman invasion:
reasons: 1. the Celts of Britain supported the Celts in Gaul against the
Romans (sending them food and allowing them to hide in Britain). 2.
Under the Celts, Britain became an important food producer because
of the mild climate and the advanced ploughing technology. The
Romans needed British food for their own army fighting the Gauls.
the Roman invasion:
55-54 BC: Julius Caesar raided Britain to stop the support the British
Celts offered to the Celts in Gaul.
43 AD: Britain was conquered by Emperor Claudiuss legions.
Actually, the Romanised area stretched across the southern part of
Britain, from the River Humber to the River Severn. The Romans also
extended their control in Wales (the towns of York, Chester, etc.) but
did not develop their culture there. Therefore, the area of Roman
occupation was divided into two sharply contrasting regions: the
Latinised south and east, and the barbarian north and west.

The Romans could not conquer Caledonia (i.e. Scotland). They

built a strong wall along the northern border (Hadrians Wall) to keep
out the raiders (Scots and Picts) from the north.
409 AD: Rome withdrew its last legions from Britain, as Rome itself
was under fierce siege by the Germanic tribes. (Rome itself was
sacked by the Goths in 410.) The Romanised Celts were left to fight
alone against the Scots, the Irish and the Anglo-Saxon raiders from
Germany.
Ancient Britain: the Romans
Benefits of the Roman rule:
prosperous towns which were the basis of Roman administration and
civilisation (e.g. Colchester a seat of the imperial Cult, meant to
focus the loyalty of the province, where a temple of the deified
Claudius was erected; London the business centre of the province,
a supply port and the centre of the system of Roman roads);
stone-paved highways which continued to be used long after the
Romans left and became the main roads of modern Britain;
glass windows, central heating, running water, Roman baths;
large farms (villas) outside the towns, belonging to the richer
Britons who had become more Roman than Celt in their manners (as
opposed to the huts and villages in which most of the Celtic
population continued to live);
the introduction of figurative styles particularly in sculpture, wallpainting and mosaic, but also in the minor arts and crafts (jewellery,
pottery, furniture, household goods);
the introduction of reading and writing (Latin alphabet): Latin
speaking town-dwellers and rich landowners/ vs./ the illiterate Celtic
peasantry. However, with the coming of the Anglo-Saxons, Latin
completely disappeared both in its spoken and written forms.
Consequently, it is difficult to say how many Latin words penetrated
the English vocabulary through Celtic. E.g.s of authentic borrowings
from Latin to Celtic: caester, chester (castrum in Chester,
Doncaster, Gloucester, etc.); coln (colonia in Lincoln, Colchester);
port (portus in Porchester, Davenport, Portsmouth); wick/ wich
(vicus in Wickham); pool (padulis in Liverpool); street (strata),
wall (vallum), wine (vinum);

 the introduction of Christianity in 313 under Emperor Constantine the

Great (his mother, Helen, was a Celtic princess from Britain). Saint
Patrick first brought Christianity to Ireland (he became the islands
patron saint).