The British History-Lecture Notes - ke zkoušce

10 000 BC – end of Ice Age

• hunters, fishermen

• ocean covered with ice → people could reach Britain

• matriarchal society (importance of having babies → the cult of feminity, pregnant woman)

• discovered how to preserve food

The Neolithic Age 3000 BC (much more precise info then ↑)

• Indo-Europeans brought new culture

• economic development

  • farming, agriculture → much more food (milk etc. → much more diverse →better life) → the necessity to store

• culture changed from matriarchal to patriarchal

  • problem of paternity → virginity (wedding)

Stonehenge (build without modern tools → ???); (henge = funeral; funeral monument)

• between 3000 – 2400 BC

• sacrifices were made here

• overpassed the level of daily needs

• humans realized the changes of seasons

  • sophisticated solar calendar (not arranged randomly)

  • they were worried that the sun wouldn't come back

700 BC The Celts

• originally from central Asia → through Europe → settled down in Ireland, Cornwall, Scotland... (also France)

• craftsmen, processing metals – iron, bronze → weapons

• they had horses → faster travelling

• druidic culture, druid – a priests of Celts

  • worship nature

    • living soul in each tree, mountain...

• oral culture (learned by heart long poems – mythological stories) – no written sources

  • only from their enemy – Romans

• appears in Irish mythology, Scottish legends, Welsh folklore

• didn't have cities, only villages

• kings/Q voted by their military skills

Boadicea’s revolt (queen Boadicea)

• warrior, strategist

• in the end defeated, humiliated (had to walk naked down the street) and killed

• Women could be warriors → shock for Romans called them savages, not civilized

  • Romans wanted to control them

Roman Conquest

• first attempt to conquer Brittany was under Julius Caesar (55BC)

• 43 AD Britain is occupied by the Romans under Caligula

• R build infrastructure (roads)→ info and goods can travel

• built towns (Londinium) - (on the mouth of river Thames, Leicester, Winchester, Chester, Lancaster)

• running water (aqueduct)

• high life standard in towns

  • (in villages) rich people lived in big houses called villas

• Celts had to identify with R

• 1st written records

Hadrian's wall 122 A.D. (England and Scotland)

• Northern England was inhabited by Scots and Picts

  • they attacked Romans → Romans built wall

• Romans brought Christianity

  • religion of poor

  • more and more popular

The Angles, The Saxons, The Jutes /dʒuːt/

• Before the Angles – country called Britain, after arriving Angles called "the country of Angles" (England)

• new conquerors were of German origin (tribes) – the Saxons, the Angles, the Jutes

  • from northern Germany

  • Saxon, Angles, Jutes had own religion – god Odin

  • they expended because there were no more sources (population ↑ etc.)

• defeated Celts were brought to Wales and Scotland

  • those who remained were assimilated

• Kingdoms

  • Essex, Sussex, Wessex, Middlesex, Mercia, East Anglia, Northumbria

  • Rivalry between kingdoms – fought each other

    • brought “Witan” – The Kings Council made of the best warriors = ancestor of the parliament