Historical Background
The Conquest of Britain
- Between 800 and 600 B.C. two groups of Celts from Southern Europe invaded the British Isles.
- The next conquerors were the Romans in 55 B.C..
- The Roman rule of Britain lasted more than 300 years.
The Coming of Christianity
- By the fourth century, the Romans had accepted Christianity and had introduced it to Britain.
- A century later, the Celts fled the Anglo-Saxons and took their Christianity faith with them.
Danish Invasion
- Alfred’s achievements went far beyond the field of battle.
- Edwards death in 1066 lead to the end of the Anglo-Saxon period of history.
The Norman Conquest
- The Normans were descendants of Vikings who had invaded the coast of France in the ninth century.
- In return for their services, knights usually received smaller parcels of land, called manors.
- The peasants who worked the manors were the lowest class in the feudal system, the serfs.
The Reign of the Plantagenets
- Although Norman influnece continued for centuries, Norman rule ended in 1154 when Henry Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, came to the throne as Henry II.
- Henry founded the royal house of Plantagenet and established a record as one of England’s ablest kings.
The Magna Carta
- In the Magna Carta, the king promised not to tax land without first meeting with the barons.
Lancasters, Yorks, and Tudors
- In 1399, the House of Lancaster replaced the Plantagenets on the throne. The kings were Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI.
- Through the fifteenth century the House of York contested Lancastrian rule.
- Tudor, crowned Henry VII, later married Richard’s niece, uniting the houses of York and Lancasters and ending the War of the Roses.
Decline of the Feudal System
- While royal families struggled for supremacy, the social structure of England was changing.
- Gradually, a free peasantry replaced the serfs of the Middle Ages. However, the question of social justice for the lower classes would arise again.
Literature of the Period
- Anglo-Saxon literature began not with books , but with spoken verse and incantations. The reciting of poems often occurred on ceremonial occasions, such as the celebration of military victories.
- Beowulf is an epic which tells the story of a great legendary warrior renowned for his courage, strength and dignity.
- Before the reign of Alfred the Great, all important prose written in the British Isles was composed in Latin.
Literature of the English Middle Ages
- During this period, the first true dramas emerged, the poet Geoffrey Chaucer created a vivid picture of medieval life, romances portrayed the deeds of knights, and anonymous balladeers sang of love and deeds of outlaws.
- In 1454, a German silversmith, Johann Gutenberg, perfected a process of printnig from movabe type.
- Although Chaucer completed only 22 of the 120 tales that scholars think he planned to write, the 22 have a great variety.
- Another popular poetic form was the ballad, a folk song that told a story.
