Early British history

Early British History

In the year 55 B.C. Julius Caesar invaded Britain, but this was only a show of power, and there was no permanent settlement. The next Roman invasion came in 43. A.D.. The emperor Claudius wanted to stop raids on Gaul from Britain, and so he started the process of invasion which lasted many years. In 61 A.D., the Romans were checked (aufgehalten) for a time by the British queen Boadicea who sacked (plündern) London and the Roman capital of England Camulodonum (now Colchester, in Essex). However, her rebellion was short-lived and by 120 A.D. most of England was under the control of the Romans. In 123 A.D., Hadrian`s Wall was built to keep out the tribe (Stamm) of the Picts who were the fiercest enemies (grimmigste Feinde) of the Romans in Scotland.

Although the Romans stayed until after 400 A.D., there was little immigration; the only Roman settlers were soldiers, officials and merchants. They left their mark, however in place (Orts) names: all those place names ending in "-cester, -caster, or -chester" go back to the Latin word for camp, "castra". By this time the Marshland was drained for agriculture and the Romans brought Christianity. In the 3rd century, the first missionaries arrived in Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Complete Romanization came in the fourth century.

In around 400 A.D., the Roman legions began leaving Britain because the central part of the empire began to be invaded by Germanic tribes. Within a few years England was invaded once more by three Germanic tribes: The Angles, The Saxons and the Jutes (Denmark). They were very different from the Celts- they were tall, fair-haired and they were good seamen. Soon they had conquered (erobert) The whole country: The Angles gave their name to the language and the country itself. The Britons (the original Celtic inhabitants) were driven back to the mountainous areas in the west, were the Celtic languages Welsh and Gaelic are still spoken. The words Wales and Welsh come from the Saxon word for foreigner (cf. [confare:for instance] die Welschen). The Anglo-Saxons divided the country into shires (Grafschaften). The Normans later called shires counties.

These Germanic invaders (eindringling) were still heathens (Heiden) and believed in the old Germanic gods. But during the sixth century, Irish missionaries landed in Northunmbria and in 597 England was converted (bekehrt) to Christianity by St. Augustine, who became the first Archbishop (erzbischof) of Canterbury. At this time, there bwere seven kingdoms, which were all loosely (locker) connected with each other: Kent, Sussex, Wessex, Mercia, Essex, East Anglia and Northumbria.

In the eight century, northumbria was the ventre of English culture because there were many monasteries (Klöster), and the monks were the only literate (schriftkundig) people oin a largely illiterate population. The Venerable Bed (673-735) was a Northumbria monk, and he wrote the first history of England. These monasteries were the basis for the civilisation of the middle Ages.

In 789, the Danes or Vikings began to invade Britain. They conquered every kingdom except Wessex, and one of the Wessex kings, Egbert, after defeating (besiegen) the Danes was the first king of all England. The Danes invaded Britain often, and they would demand (fordern) a payment of "Danegeld" from the English before they would go away again.

The greatest king of England during the so-called "dark Ages" was Alfred the Great, Egbert´s grandson. At first he continued to pay Danegeled, but eventually he succeeded in dividing England with the Danes: the "Danelaw". Alfred built castles and forts, he created the first English navy, and he encouraged (fördern) Anglo-Saxon literature (Anglo-Saxon Chronicles). His capital was Winchester.

After Alfred's death, the Danes were driven out from Britain, but they still kept up the attacks, and in 1013, they gained (erlangen)control of the country. Canute, king of England, Denmark and Norway, reigned from1017 to 1035. The Saxons regained power in 1042, when Edward the Confessor, a descendant of Alfred came to the throne: Edward was brought up at the court of Normandy. He spoke French and tried to introduce French customs (Sitten).

William, Duke(GRAF) of Normandy, claimed the English throne because both Endward and Harold, an Anglo-Sachsen nobel man, had promised (versprechen) to make him Edward's successor, and because he was a relative of Edward's family. He defeated Harold at the Battle of Hastings: Harold was hit in the eye by an arrow and William became king.

The Normans were Vikings who had settled in Normandy. They were good fighters, and nable rulers. They spoke French, whicj became the language of the aristrocracy and of Parliament for the next 300 years: the English language has an enormous number of words originating from French, although most of the basic words are from Anglo-Saxon.

Willdects of a lord promised to be loyal (treu) to him, if he, in returngave them the use of his land). The head of the feudal system was the King, who granted (zulassen)land to the barons, and it reached down to the lowest peasant ( ), or worker on the land. In 1086 the Domesday Book (tag des jüngsten Gerichtes Buch) was written. This was the first census, every man was expected to state how much Lnd he had, how many cattle, and so on. From this information, the people were taxed (steuer) according to their wealth.

William the first died in 1087, his son William II was killed in a hunting accident in 1100, and then Henry I ascended the throne. He was succeeded in 1135 by Stephen, who gave way to Henry II in 1154. Henry II, also French speaking, was the ruler of England and western France, and overlord ofItreland, Scotland and Wales. In 1154 (elevenfiftyfour) he made his friend Thomas a BecketChancellor, and then Archbishop of Canterbury. Becket began to oppose (gegen) the King, and his influence grew, Henry became angry. After he had expressed his impatience ( ) over Becket's opposition, Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral. But he was made a saint ( ) three years later and Canterbury became a place of pilgrimage. During Henry's reign, the English law system began to take shape, for instance the jury system (geschworenen). After Henry's death in 1189, Richard I (Richard the Lionheart) came to the throne. He spent most of his time on the Crusades in the Middle East. On the way back from the third one he was imprisoned by Leopold V, Duke of Austria. Later freed( ), he died in the Middle East. He is the model of the fighting soldier; in his time he was famous for his bravery ( )and also for his chivalry( ).

In 1199, one of England's most unpopular kings ever ruling succeeded Richard. John was arrogant, cruel, and could not be trusted ( ). He was hated by his subjects, and was moreover a weak ruler. So he lost most of the English possessions in France, and in 1215 he was forced by the barons to grant the Magna Carta. This was a document whicj gave much more power to the barons and to the common people. It said that the law of the country is more important than the ruler's personal will.