Anglo-Saxon Britain 450-1066 A.D. - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Anglo-Saxon Britain

450-1066 A.D.

Slide2

In 410 A.D., Rome was sacked by Alaric and the Visigoths

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Anglo-Saxon Invasion of

Britian

Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and other Germanic tribes

Seafaring warriors

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Vengeance and Bloodshed

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Anglo-Saxon Settlement

of

Britian

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Ancestral Tribes of Clans

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Living Quarters—Mead Halls

A reconstructed Anglo-Saxon home located in West Stow in Sussex, England

Mead Hall

center of life

sleeping quarters

dining area

meeting place

Slide8

Located in Woodbridge, Suffolk, England

Discovered in 1939

Burial ship of an Anglo-Saxon king

Burial site contained 41 items of solid gold and 37 gold coins

Sutton Hoo

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7

th

century helmet

Reconstructed from hundreds of corroded iron fragments

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Anglo-Saxon pendant probably made in the 7th century AD

found in garden soil at Sacriston, County Durham.

made of solid gold with a goldwire or filigree decoration.

Anglo-Saxon Brooch

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Additional Anglo-Saxon Artifacts

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King Offa’s Dyke

approximately 170 miles long running north and south

continuous wall except for river crossings

built in the late 8

th

century

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Earth Embankment

No fancy stonework

No garrisoned posts

12 foot wide ditch on Welsh side

Height ranges from 10 to 60 feet

Construction

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Monument to Power

Perhaps this dyke was a defense against raiders from Wales.

Perhaps it served as a permanent boundary between Mercia and Wales.

Perhaps it was a boundary monument to remind the Welsh of King Offa’s power and control.

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Anglo-Saxon Cross Shaft

Location: St. Peter Advincula Church, Glebe Street, Stoke

Re-erected on its modern base in 1935, the fragment of 10th Century Anglo-Saxon stone cross shaft had been used as a door lintel in the church until its discovery by a gravedigger in 1876.

The square sectioned top of the cylindrical shaft has a different decorative motif on each face. However part of the side key pattern has been cut away, probably to allow its use as the church's door lintel.S

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5

th

century British kingdoms, after the departure of the Romans

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Invasions of Germanic tribes—the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes—began in 450 A.D.

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By 600 A.D., Germanic tribes controlled the southeastern part of Britain.

Roman-Celtic Britons still held the north and west.

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By 700 A.D., Celtic culture survived only in present-day Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall—areas where the Celtic language continues today.

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The medieval legends of King Arthur and his Round Table may have originated in the Saxon period.

Arthur may have been a Roman-Celtic leader named

Ambrosius Aurelianus

who led an assault on the German invaders.

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An aerial view of a hillfort known as Bradbury Rings

Aurelianus led the Britons in victorious battle against the Saxon invaders at Mount Badon (never accurately identified),

c. 500 A.D.

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Legend holds that “Arthur’s” grave is here, at Glastonbury Abbey, in Somerset.

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Roman writer, Sidonius Apollinaris, described the Germanic invaders as “scruffy, blond, giants.”

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By the 7

th

C., Anglo-Saxon England included 7-8 major kingdoms.

Together they were called the

Heptarchy

.

Northumbria

Mercia

East Anglia

Essex

Sussex

Kent

Wessex

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All Anglo-Saxon kingdoms shared these characteristics:

1. A king, whose leadership position depended not on birth, but on his leadership in war.

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One of the kings of the seven kingdoms was acknowledged as the “ruler of Britain,” or

Bretwalda

.

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The Sutton-Hoo treasure from East Anglia, 6

th

C.

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In the 7

th

C., Northumbria became the site of a revival of Celtic culture—the Northumbrian Renaissance.

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In the 8

th

C., Mercian King Offa defeated the other kingdoms, and proclaimed himself “King of the English.”

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To centralize control of “England,” he built the earthwork that still bears his name—Offa’s Dyke, stretching 150 miles along the border between England and Wales.

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Ultimately, Wessex would become the nucleus of a united England, and its West Saxon monarchy evolved into the English monarchy.

The “winged griffin” of Wessex is still part of the British royal coat of arms.

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2. Strong kinship groups duty-bound to protect the honor and welfare of their kin.

As strong kings united England, blood feuds were replaced by a system of money compensation (

wergeld

) for death, personal injury, and theft.

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Customary law: neither the king nor his council (the

Witan

) could

make law

.

Instead, they

declared a custom

.

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Polytheistic religion:

Germanic tribes worshipped the old Norse gods—Odin, Thor, Woden.

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5. No written language

Epic poems, like

Beowulf

, were oral traditions.

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6. Anglo-Saxon society had a mixed economy of agriculture, hunting, and animal husbandry.

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Between 600-900 A.D., two forces—the development of a strong monarchy and the return of Christianity—encouraged the unification of England.

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Celtic Chrisitianity center around large, autonomous monasteries.

Lindisfarne Priory

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Page from the illuminated manuscript of the

Book of Kells

, produced at Iona monastery.

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Celtic Christianity differed from Roman Christianity:

Monks followed a stricter rule; but monasteries were less regulated.

Celtic monks shaved the front of their heads, not the tonsure.

Celtic Christians used a different method of calculating the date of Easter.

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Merovigian King Clovis

On the continent of Europe, Roman Christianity had begun to convert the Germanic tribes.

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In 597 A.D., Pope Gregory sent St. Augustine and 40 monks to evangelize in Britain.

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Augustine established a base at Canterbury, in Kent.

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Canterbury became the mother-church of Roman Christianity in Britain, and Augustine became the first

Archbishop of Canterbury

.

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At the urging of Augustine, King Ethelbert issued the first written laws in England (called

dooms

).

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Roman and Celtic Christian advocates debated before King Oswy at the

Synod of Whitby

in 664 A.D.

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Christianity proved to be a force for peaceful unification.

It settled the problem of which Christian tradition England would follow.

It brought Britain in line with the rest of Europe.

The English church adopted the Roman

episcopal

structure.

Spiritual unity could now lead to political unity.

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The Northumbrian Renaissance

The Venerable Bede

(c. 673-735),

History of the English Church and People

A historian!!!

-questioned accuracy of sources.

-sense of historical structure

-first historian to date from the birth of Christ

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King Alfred the Great of Wessex

King Alfred (r. 871-899) was the greatest of the Wessex Bretwaldas and is considered the first true King of England.

King Alfred’s jewel

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Accomplishment of King Alfred’s reign:

1. Created a national army, the

fyrd

, to fight the Danes.

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Accomplishment of King Alfred’s reign:

2. He built a line of fortifications—the

burghs

—that soon became towns.

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3. He began construction of a navy to fight the Danes on the sea.

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4. He made the Anglo-Saxon laws—the

dooms

—apply uniformly over England.

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He encouraged the monks to keep the

Anglo-Saxon Chronicles

In 900 A.D., the

Chronicles

described Alfred as King over the entire English people.

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The Danelaw, A.D. 880

6. He forced the Danish king to accept the division of Britain into two kingdoms, Wessex and the

Danelaw

(Essex, East Anglia, and part of Northumbria).

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King Alfred’s reign marked a turning point in English history:

It was the climax of the trend to political unification.

It was the first stage in the development of English royal government.

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Under Ethelred, “the Unready,” England lost the gains achieved by King Alfred.

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Danish Vikings assailing a Burgh.

It is thought that this image from a 12th century manuscript was illuminated at Bury St. Edmunds, and shows Thetford under attack.

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A Dane,

Cnut

(or

Canute

), held the English throne from 1016-1035.

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Edward, called “the Confessor,” succeeded Cnut.

He was the last Anglo-Saxon King of England.

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Edward built the first Abbey at Westminster, which was completed only eight days before his death in January of 1066.

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Life in Anglo-Saxon England

“Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and

short

! –

Thomas Hobbes

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A “nucleated” village

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Smallest villages were the

vills

.

Slightly larger were the

tuns.

A

burgh

(or

borough

) was larger than the tun.

A

city

was the site of a cathedral and the seat of a bishop.

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Anglo-Saxon Government

Based on Germanic tribal organization.

Kings were chosen from a royal family by a small group of men, the wisest and strongest in the tribe.

Monarchy was not truly hereditary.

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Anglo-Saxon society was

not

egalitarian.

Hierarchy of Society:

King or

Bretwalda

2.

Atheling

: a prince of the royal house.

3.

Eorl

: a noble by birth, given land by the king in return for military service. Both land and nobility was inherited.

4.

Thegn

: a lesser noble, given land in return for military service. But land and title was not inheritable.

5.

Ceorl

: a freeman; an independent landowner

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Anglo-Saxon society was

not

egalitarian.

Hierarchy of Society:

4.

Serf

: an agricultural laborer bound to the land.

5.

Slave

: a person personally owned by another.

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The Anglo-Saxon

Fyrd

Military service owed by Eorls, Thegns, and Ceorls formed the primary defensive force, the

fyrd

.

Slide70

A Saxon shield wall, by re-enacters.

Slide71

Manuscript illustration of a Saxon spearman

King Alfred had made the fyrd into a true standing army, with members required to serve on a rotating basis year-round.

Even though this policy was abandoned by his successors, the right of the king to call upon “every able-bodied man” for military service remained.

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The King and the

Witan

(or

Witenagemot

) dispensing justice.

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One important role for the Witan was the selection of the ruling monarch.

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Anglo-Saxon Local Government

Basic unit of land = the

hide

, the amount of land needed

to support one family.

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For purposes of tax assessment and military service, hides were grouped together in units called

hundreds

, comprised of approximately 100 hides.

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The Hundreds were grouped together into approximately 40

shires

, or counties.

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Each shire held a court, called the Shire Moot, that met twice a year. All free men participated.

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A local official, the

shire reeve

, presided over the Shire Moot.

The Sheriff was the key link between the king and local administration.

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England had the most advanced government in western Europe, especially at the local level.

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Anglo-Saxon Legal System

Based on custom and tradition.

Recognized the intervention of God.

Principal court was the Hundred-Moot.

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Oath-takers or Compurgation

A group of twelve freemen who could swear that the defendant was truthful.

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Anglo-Saxon Burghs

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Most domestic structures were built of wood, chinked with mud.

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Roofs were usually made of thatch.

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Easton Church

Churches and monasteries were built of stone.

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Anglo-Saxon churches were generally small in scale, with few decorative elements.

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Church towers began as defensive structures, enabling inhabitants of villages to watch for invaders.

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Another common element in Anglo-Saxon churches were stone crosses.

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The Church was a vital part of Anglo-Saxon society.

Efficient farmers

Influenced English foreign policy

Provided education