The British History-Lecture Notes - ke zkoušce

Augustine 579 AD

• Roman monk was sent to re-Christianise the island

  • established his residence in Canterbury, the most important religious place today (archbishop)

• Another form of Christianity brought by the Celtic monks

  • Irish monks travelled by foot and spread Christianity – sober life, copies of Bible

• Saxon kings and the Church supported each other

  • Kings wanted to increase their authority - "it comes from the God"

The Vikings 865 AD

• invaders, people from the North

  • they plundered Europe

    • climate in their area was bad, there wasn’t enough food (before age of potato) so they didn’t have a choice than went to look for food elsewhere

  • in the South people lived

• invasion on boats

• good sailors

• came unexpected

• attacked England and France (settled in Normandy)

  • in autumn when there was a harvest

• many V settled down in Anglo-Saxon Kingdom → influenced the lang.

king Alfred (871 - 899) (Saxon)

• fought against the Vikings

• not a good warrior

• educated (Latin, Greek)

• encouraged schools

Danish King Canute /kəˈnjuːt/

• succeeded in conquering the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom (lasted for about 100 years)

• built an empire, it united Denmark, Sweden, Norway and England

• controlled it by quick ships

• fell apart after his death

The Normans 1066, The Battle of Hastings

• Normans conquered England, the last successful invasion to England (Filip II., Hitler didn't make it)

William of Normandy (the duke of Normans)

• attacks E, crosses the channel → becomes the king of E

• good politician, intelligent, warrior, married a woman of high prestige

  • his wife Matilda made a tapestry (now in France) - images representing the military success of her husband

• ordered censors to count the people´s property, he needed taxes, money – Doomsday Book

• One of the cause of The Hundred Years’ War – William was a king of England but also the duke of the Normandy, as a duke he was subordinate to the French king, sovereign X vassal, William was a vassal of a French king, but William had a better army and was actually richer (but not according to the law)

• lang dualism

  • William brought with him Normans who spoke French – it become a language of nobility (Normans - dominant and rich class, many French words in English now)

  • English speaking people – either integrated or became poor

• William supported the Church → reinforcements of the feudal relationship

Feudal System

• importance of the parliament → power of the king decreases

  • made up of the most important representatives from the church, aristocracy and from towns

  • e.g. taxes couldn't be changed without the the parliament's approval