- Believes: immortality, transmigration of the soul

- Life after death: spent on the Earth in caves, hills or lakes

RELIGION: Sacrifice

- Communication with the spiritual world

- Offering of precious objects: human, animal sacrifice

ROMAN CONQUEST

- When: 55 B.C.

- Why: - the British Celts were helping Celts of Gaul against Romans

- agricultural and commercial prosperity

- When: from the ancient classical era to the Renaissance

UNIFYING FEATURES

- Christianity:

• Gave rise to new imperial systems (that of Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Empire, Tsars of Moscow)
• The Pope became temporal and spiritual leader

- Feudalism:

• Had a hierarchical structure: sovereign, vassals, serfs
• Gave power to local kings and weakened ecclesiastical authority

FACTORS OF CHANGE

- Invasions:

• Nordic populations and the Mongols
• Left trails of destruction but gave rise to new settlements

- Crusades:

• Who: the Pope
• When: 1095
• Why: to free Jerusalem and the Holy Land from infedels
• Ravaged many countries through which Crusaders travelled
• Opened the Eastern Mediterranean to trade and travel

- Travel:

• For trade, pilgrimage or professional reasons → hard
• Marco Polo travels to China, India and South East Asis

EMERGENCE OF CITIES AND THE MIDDLE CLASS

- Cities develops:

• When: by the 12^th century
• Where: in several regions of Europe, along trade routes
• Why: for economic and political reasons

- Middle-Class:

Merchants and artisans formed a new social class → bourgeoisie (laid between nobles and peasants)

 

MIDDLE AGES: BRITISH SCENE

 

MAIN FACTS:

- Britain had remained under Roman control from 43 AD to 410 AD

- Angles, Saxons and Jutes invasions:

• When: in the 5^th-6^th century
• Invaded and settled in Britain

- Anglo-Saxon England:

• When: by the 6^th century
• Seven kingdoms were established → by the 9^th century England was unified under one Anglo-Saxon (King of Wessex)

  - Spread of Christianity in England:

  • Who: Augustine, some Benedictine monks
  • When: in 597
  • Why: to convert to Christianity the heathen British → three bishops were appointed and more missionaries were brought to England

- Viking invasion:

• When: from 787
• Viking tribes raided British coasts → by 872 the Danes established themselves in East Anglia
• Viking raids continued until the 10^th century

- Famous Anglo-Saxon and Danish Kings:

• Alfred the Great (871-899): dealt with political and military affairs
• Cnut: a Danish king who ruled until 1035
• King Edward (1042-1066): Anglo-Saxon king → earned the title the Confessor for his religious pietyNorman invasion (1066) → William of Normandy claimed the throne

  - The Historical MacBeth:

  • When: 11^th century
  • Where: in Scotland (the Scots)
  • Unlike the Shakespearian hero he defeated his predecessor and took the throne

  THE ANGLO-SAXONS

  - The Saxon invaders: brought in Britain their religion, military organisation,a code of values based on a sense of honour and fidelity to their chiefs, their farming and fishing methods

  - Society and Life:

  • Hierarchical structure:

                      - The king/chief: assumed power, military leader

                      - The "earls": nobles by birth

                      - The "thegns": personal companions of the king

                      - "freemen": helped maintain roads, bridges, forts and provided military service
  • They lived in villages where all were owned communally

  - Early towns:

  • When: in the 8^th and 9^th century
  • Anglo-Saxon formed communities → "boroughs" (towns)
  • Founded as military bases and centres of trade
  • They hadn't any walled fortress and were inhabited by soldiers, merchants and their families

  - Language:

  • The Old English → the English spoken today
  • The Celtic languages survived in Wales, Ireland and North-West Scotland

  - Influence of Christianity:

  • When: the end of the 6^th century
  • Christianity unified the kingdom and opened England to Europe
  • Introduced the writing