In this short essay you are going to read and learn about the most important peoples who settled in Britain from 700 B.C. to 1066 AD, and what influences they had on it.

The essay is made up of three pages, every page is about a people. In the first one there is a short introduction about structure and contents of the essay,  then, one people a page, the Celts, the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons come one after the other.

        
The Celts    

Before the Celts there was a period when the Iberians settled in Britain. They arrived from the Iberian peninsula, in the south Europe. There are no evidences but archaeological remains: mainly pottery and megalith structures, that are constructions made up of big stones.

The Celts settled in Britain around 700 B.C. They came from the North-West of current Germany. They had a Celtic language that lives today in "Welsh" in Wales and in "Gaelic" in Scotland.

The Celts were farmers, hunters, fishermen and metal workers but when circumstances required, they had to be good warriors, as wars and fights were very frequent in their society.

Their society was organised into tribes. Every tribe had a leader who was a warrior. This kind of organization was the result of needs of the population. The leaders of the tribes could take decisions immediately after some special events, like floods or fires.

Society was helped even by religion. The Celtic religion was Druidism. It was based on Druids: their priests. They were important not only in religion but also in justice, education and medicine, so they could help tribal leaders in their decisions. The Druids held ceremonies in middle of the forest that included sacrifices, even human ones. They worshipped natural elements (Sun, Moon, water, trees) as they had to secure their life against the forces of nature, and they believed in immortality and in the transmigration of the soul from one person to another.

Even if the Celtic language did not survived in England, it had some influences on current English, mostly in the names of the cities, such as the prefix -bre or -pen (hill).


The Romans

The Romans invaded Britain in 55 B.C. but they did not conquered it. Only in 43 AD the Emperor Claudius conquered it, since it was trying to get military prestige.

The Romans introduced the Latin, their language, and so introduced a new kind of culture, a written culture, while the Celtic one was oral. This way the amount of evidences in Britain grew up, even helped by the work of some Latin and Greek historians.

The Romans had an empire and so a hierarchical social structure that they introduced in Britain, distinguishing the Romans from who had not the Roman citizenship. Observing this organization they created three different kind of towns: the "coloniae" peopled by Roman settler, the "municipia" where the inhabitants were given Roman citizenship, the "civitates" which were the old Celtic tribal capitals.

The Romans had a polytheistic religion like the inhabitants of Britain, and this made possible the integration of the religions.

The Romans built many towns and connected them with roads. The towns had their origin as Roman army camps, they were planned and had stone structures. In the cities there were some infrastructures which were usual to see in Roman cities, such as baths. They were very important in Roman society and the city Bath got its name from its Roman Baths complex. Since Britain was not completely conquered, there were raids from the North. The Romans built many defensive wall to counter the enemies, defend themselves and mark the border between them and other peoples, such as the Scots and the Picts. The most important walls were Hadrian's Wall, built by Emperor Hadrian, and Antonine's Wall, built by Emperor Antonine, both in the North of Britain (the Hadrian's Wall is placed at the border between England and Scotland). Some parts of the walls still exist and you can see them.

The Romans had some influences on British culture, language and society. Nowadays you can still see the remains of Roman constructions like walls, baths or cities. Many cities have got a name ending in "caster", "chester" or "cester", which comes from the Latin name "castrum" (army camp).

The Romans left Britain in 410 AD, for they had to deal with conflicts in other parts of the empire.





The Anglo-Saxons

In the fifth and the sixth centuries, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes invaded and settled in Britain. They came from the current Germany. By the end of the sixth century seven kingdoms were established, the most important were Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex. In the ninth century they were unified and had recognised the King of Wessex as Anglo-Saxon king.

The Anglo-Saxons language was the Old English. It was imposed in Britain and through several modification it became the English spoken today.

The Anglo-Saxons had a strong military organisation and a code of values based on a high sense of honour and fidelity to their chiefs. Their society was organised in a hierarchy, it was ruled by a chief or a king who was usually a military leader. Then came the "earls", who were nobles by birth, and the "thegns", who were the personal companions of the king. All the other people were "freemen" and they had to help maintain infrastructures and provide military service. Their social structure was based on the family unit and overall on the clan or the tribe.  People lived in country villages where properties where owned communally.

The Anglo-Saxons had a polytheistic religion, its aim was to placate the adverse natural forces around them. Their major gods were Tiw, Woden, Thor, but they venerated even trees, stones and wells. Later, in 597, Augustine and other monks were sent from Rome to spread Christianity in Britain. They built monasteries, that became important centres of culture, and bishops were appointed.  The first known Christian coronation was that of King Offa of Mercia in the eight century. Christianity changed Anglo-Saxon culture, which was based on oral tradition, to a written one.

The Anglo-Saxons influenced Britain mainly because they introduced their language which still exists nowadays.

In 1066 William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, defeated the English at Hastings and was crowned King of England.