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22. 2.

Beginning of English history

• Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem

• The sea protect England

• The sea turned British to a nation

• We don’t know much about the first inhabitants – they hunted, fished, collected fruit

• The first inhabitants of Britain left some interesting monuments – for instance Stonehenge – an astronomical observation of great precision, it was built around 3000 BC (Henge = round circle)

Celts

• Next inhabitants – Celts – they settled down in western France, in the British islands, they didn’t have culture, their laws, legends and so on – it was only memorised

• We have information about them from their enemies

• Warriors and druids – druids were intellectuals, they organised religious ceremonies

• They didn’t built temples like others, they loved nature

• The position of women – women could be warriors (Romans were very shocked to see women fight – in roman culture the presence of woman in the army was unbelievable)

• Celts were good at processing metal → weapons

• Celts had religion of their own – trees, water, sun…

• Roman Britain – they made a wall, they tried to conquest (dobít) Scotland – but they never succeeded

• The native Celts had to face alone the Anglo-Saxon invasion

Romans

• Romans built the first cities - inhabitants used to live in villages

• They built London, Chester, Lester…

• They brought written culture – in Latin

• Life in Roman city was different than in Celtic village

• The Romans liked bath, spa – water is very good relaxing factor, good for your health

• They built aqueducts

• The centre in Roman property was a villa

• Romans built roads – roads were important for messengers, for the faster transport of the army

• Romans were really practical

Vikings

• The land was divided into 3 parts

• Vikings were the inhabitants of the north – Sweden and so on

• They were led by king Hadrian

• They built round towers – there was food

• There were several kingdoms – east Anglia, Wessex, Sussex, Mercia

• King Alfred the Great – king of Wessex, he loved culture, he built fortresses (pevnosti), he is known because of his defence against the Vikings

Channels of Christianity

1. The number of Christians slowly increased but in a certain moment in 6th century the pope decided that Christianity in British islands must be reinforced – he sent Britain a monk and the mission was to reinforce Christianity

• The wife of Anglo-Saxon king was Christian – he allowed her to have a small chapel

• The ruling Anglo-Saxon class noticed that Christianity was useful – submit, pay taxes and god will love you – very good tool to control people

1. Irish monks left island barefooted with small backpack – there was the Bible – they read from the Bible when they reached a village

William the Conquer – censorship - it was called Dooms Day Book – it still exists

• He was the initiator of a new culture

Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

The Stuarts

• Queen Elizabeth died childless

• The son of her cousin, king of Scotland was the closest male relative – Stuart

• James I – was the king of Scotland, in 1603 he became also king of England

• He was very well educated, he was fluent in Latin, in French

• His mother was Mary Stuart , he contributed a lot to culture

• 1605 Gun Powder Plot – a group of Catholics, supported by the Vatican, wanted to kill James I. the day he went to the parliament, the plot was discovered. This shocked the people. It was kind of terrorist attack (because innocent was going to die)

• 1607 Jamestown – it was the first British colony in America – Columbus - he founded colonies for the Spanish kingdom

• First colonies wanted to take advantages of the place and make money – economic colonies. They wanted to make money with tobacco

• Translation of Bible 1611 – very important event – the Bible was the most popular book – practically in any home

  • It gave the opportunity to ordinary people to read it (they cannot read it before because they can’t speak Latin) and they could interpret it in their own way – new interpretations appeared