THE ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD

Anglo-Saxon England
Sources:
The British writer Gildas (c. 516-70) – England in the 5th and 6th century
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Saints’ lives
poetry
Archeological findings
Place-name studies

Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms
The invaders were Angles, Saxons, Frisians, Jutes, Franks
called Britons the wealas (OE slave or foreigner)
By the middle of the 6th century most kingdoms had been founded:
Dumonia (Devon and Cornwall)
Wales (Wealas)
Strathclyde
Northumbria (Nord-an-hymbro-ron gens =people living north of the Humber)
Mercia
East Anglia
Essex (Eastseaxe)
Wessex
Sussex
Cantware (Men of Kent)
The Middle Angles
Bernicia (7th)
Deira (7th)
Lindsay (7th)

The Anglo-Saxon invasions and the kingdoms they established (the Heptarchy)

Anglo-Saxon Society
were characterized by
strong kinship groups,
feuds,
customary law,
a system of money compensations (wergeld)
traditional polytheistic religions,
lacked written language,
agriculture, hunting, and animal husbandry

The discovery of the burial ship, at Sutton Hoo
Measuring 85 feet (27 meters) long, and 15 feet (4.5 meters) at its widest, the Anglo-Saxon ship was placed into the ground sometime during, or shortly after, 625 AD.
The burial ship remained undisturbed until area excavations in 1939.

Sutton Hoo

Sutton Hoo Helmet
From the ship burial at Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, early 7th century AD

Sutton Hoo Helmet

Detail of the Sutton Hoo sceptre
it may have been the personal sceptre of Raedwald, king of the East Angles and one of the English Bretwaldas (over-kings)

Ship burial at Sutton Hoo, Suffolk
one of a pair of gold shoulder –clasps 7th century

Reintroduction of Christianity
two directions
In 596 Pope Gregory I sent a group of missionaries under a monk named Augustine to Kent
King Ethelbert and Bertha, a Christian Frankish princess
Augustine became the first archbishop of Canterbury
the southern kingdoms became Christian

Reintroduction of Christianity (2)
In Northumbria Celtic Christianity
brought from Ireland to Scotland by Saint Columba
to Northumbria by Saint Aidan, who founded the monastery of Lindisfarne in 635
At the Synod of Whitby in 664, Northumbria's King Oswy chose Rome
a common religion
The Venerable Bede, a Northumbrian monk wrote Ecclesiastical History of the English People
made popular the use of BC and AD to date historical events

The opening page of St Lukes Gospel, made at Lindisfarne c. 698

the political unification of England
by means of warfare
Bretwalda, or ruler of Britain
in the 7th century the kings of Northumbria
in the 8th of Mercia Ethelbald and Offa c.757-796
in the 9th, to Egbert of Wessex
defeated the Mercians at Ellendun in 825
In the next century his family ruled all England

The House of Wessex (802-1066)

the Danes
The Danes, the Viking raiders began to raid the English coasts in the late 8th century
VIII-IX centuries Danish raids on the British Isles

The Oseberg Viking Ship
made in c. 800, 21 m long for 35 men

King Alfred the Great of Wessex (849-99) and the Danes
victory at Edington in 878
he forced the Danish king Guthrum to accept baptism
divided England into two parts, Wessex and the Danelaw (Essex, East Anglia, and Northumbria)

King Alfred the Great of Wessex (849-99)
created an English navy
reorganized the Anglo-Saxon fyrd, or militia
Built strategic forts, captured London
issued a set of dooms, or laws
promoted, and assisted in, the translation of Latin works into Old English
encouraged the compilation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

The statue of Alfred the Great at Winchester, where he is buried

Anglo-Saxon royal ring
Ring of Queen Ethelswith of Mercia (853-89), sister of Alfred the Great, decorated with the agnus dei, 9th century, Yorkshire

The Fuller Brooch, detail
Silver disc brooch with a design representing the Five Senses, 9th century
SIGHT, HEARING, SMELL, TASTE AND TOUCH

The conquest of the Danelaw
was completed by Alfred's son, Edward the Elder, and by his grandson Athelstan, who won a great victory at Brunanburh in 937
the creation of a unified government
The king ruled with the witenagemot, a council of wise men
issued dooms and oversaw the selection of kings
About 40 shires (counties) were created out of former kingdoms
Each had a shiremoot, or court (free males) met twice a year, presided over by an alderman (later an earl),then by a shire reeve, or sheriff.
Smaller administrative, tax, and military units, called hundreds, had courts or folk moots, which met every four weeks

Anglo-Saxon government

The House of Wessex (802-1066)

England under Danish rule
In the reign of Ethelred (II) the Unready (978–1016) the Danes struck again.
the country was invaded
Ethelred, by means of danegeld bought off the invaders for a time
In 1002 he ordered a massacre of Danish settlers
provoked an invasion led by Sweyn I of Denmark
In 1013 Ethelred was forced to flee to Normandy
He was briefly restored on Sweyn's death in 1014
Sweyn's son Canute invaded England in 1015–16
on the deaths of Ethelred and his son Edmund II Ironside in 1016 Canute was proclaimed king
He was succeeded by his two sons, Harold I Harefoot (ruled 1035–40) and Hardecanute (ruled 1040–42).

The House of Wessex (802-1066)

Cnut
Under Canute, England was part of an empire that also included Denmark and Norway

The end the Anglo-Saxon rule
On the death of Hardecanute in 1042, the old Saxon dynasty was restored (Edward the Confessor)
the power lay in the hands of his father-in-law, Godwin, Earl of Wessex, and later of Godwin's son, Harold.

King Edward the Confessor receives Earl Harold on his return from Normandy

The end the Anglo-Saxon rule
Edward was most interested in the building of Westminster Abbey, completed in time for his burial in January 1066.
Edward's death left the succession in doubt.
The witenagemot chose Harold, Earl of Wessex,
Other aspirants were King Harold III (the Hard Ruler) of Norway and Duke William of Normandy.
William declared that Edward had promised him the crown

The coming of Normans
Harold was confirmed king of England by the Witan as Harold II
His brother Tostig, deprived of his earldom of Northumbria as a result of a local revolt in 1065, invaded England and fought together with Harald (III) Hardrada of Norway against Harold II at the Battle of Stamford Bridge on September 25, 1066.
Duke William and the Normans landed at Pevensey in the south of England
In October 14, 1066 Harold was defeated and killed by the Normans at the Battle of Hastings
on 25 December William was crowned king of England as William I
The end the Anglo-Saxon period of English history

The Norman Conquest

The coronation of William the Conqueror

The coronation of William the Conqueror
The shouts of acclamation in English and French alarmed the Norman guards outside the abbey
They set fire to the neighboring houses
The crowds rushed outside to fight the flames or go looting
Only the monks and bishops remained before the altar
The king was trembling violently

The Norman Conquest
brought England into the mainstream of Western European civilization, away from its traditional links with Scandinavia
broke the thread of development of Anglo-Saxon society and civilization
was accompanied by the granting of land, confiscated from the English
all levels of government were dominated by Normans
Normans filled all major ecclesiastical offices
the English fell to the bottom of the social scale

The Norman Conquest
The risings against Norman rule from 1067 to 1070
About 10 000 Normans lived in the midst of a hostile population of 1-2 m
A new royal family
A new ruling class
A new culture and language

The Bayeux Tapestry
A panorama embroidered on a band of linen in wools
8 colours
72 scenes of the conquest
70 m by 50 cm
commissioned by Odo of Bayeux
made in a Canterbury workshop c. 1088-92

The Norman occupation
Labourers at work on a castle at Hastings (earth and timber fortifications)

The Norman fleet in the Channel

Harold the King is killed with an arrow in his eye

Norman and Plantagenet 1066-1327

Norman and Plantagenet 1066-1327

the Domesday (Book) Survey
a census for tax purposes
William appointed Lanfranc, an Italian clergyman, as archbishop of Canterbury
promoted church reform by the creation of separate church courts

The Norman monarchs
When William died in 1087 England and Normandy were temporarily separated during the reign of his third son William (II) RufusWhen William died in 1087 England and Normandy were temporarily separated during the reign of his third son William (II) Rufus (ruled 1087–1100), but were reunited under his youngest son, Henry I. Henry was the first of the Norman kings actively to encourage the fusion of the peoples, he himself marrying a princess of Saxon descent. In 1120 his only son, William, was drowned in the wreck of the White Ship, and the greater part of the rest of Henry's life was taken up in the attempt to get his daughter, Matilda, the Empress Maud, recognized as the heir to the throne.
Henry had coerced the barons into promises to recognize Matilda, but, upon Henry's death in 1135, Stephen of Blois, a grandson of William the Conqueror, was acclaimed king. With the accession of Stephen, civil war broke out and continued throughout most of his reign. The barons were able to exercise their power unchecked and the people, crushed between the forces of the king and of Matilda, suffered a great deal. Finally, in 1153, the Treaty of Wallingford was signed by Stephen and Henry, the son of Matilda and Geoffrey of Anjou. By the terms of this treaty Stephen was to reign until his death, when he was to be succeeded by Henry.

The Anglo-Norman Realm 1066-1154