I.

Roman Society in Britain

Highly classified Top: people associated with the legions

the provincial administration the government of towns wealthy traders commercial classes

At the lowest end: the slaves: many of them were able to gain their freedom might occupy important governmental posts

Women: rigidly circumscribed: not allowed to hold public office, limited property rights Achievements of the Roman Empire in Britain One of the greatest: its system of roads vital to link military headquarters, the isolated forts, for speedy movement of troops, munitions and supplies, for trade London chief administrative center They utilized bridges not known in Britain Communication with all parts of the country

Conclusion
The great mass of the British people did not become Romanized The influence of the Roman thought that survived in Britain was through the Church: Christianity had replaced the old Celtic Gods by the end of the 4th century

The Anglo-Saxon Conquest

The settlement of the Nordic Peoples is the governing event of British History The beginning of the first raids of Saxon pirates on the coast of Roman Britain took place well before 300AD

It ends about 1020 when Canute completed the Scandinavian conquest of England by reconciling on equal terms the kindred races of Saxon and Dane The attempt to Latinize the Celtic broke down because there were too few Romans The Nordic conquest of England had larger, permanent results because it was secured on a general displacement of Celtic by Nordic peoples in the richest agricultural districts of the island This distinctive character of the modern English is Nordic tempered by Welsh In Scotland the Celtic element is radically stronger, but here also the Nordic language and character have prevailed NORDIC the German, the Anglo-Saxon, and the Scandinavian peoples of the 5th century FEATURES in common: Common art of decorating weapons, jewelry Common customs of war and agriculture Allied languages Religion of Thor and Woden They had all originally come from the shores of the Baltic

The Jutes settled in Kent and the Isle of Wight

The Anglo-Saxons settled the greater part of Britain between Forth and the borders of Cornwall
Many of them were farmers, whalers, deep-sea fishermen, seal-hunters Fierce, courageous, loyal Followed their chief with great fidelity Form of government: autocratic kinship exercised by a member of the royal family Mutual aid to be rendered between all members of a wide clan Before their migration to Britain: Tribalism was yielding to individualism Kinship replaced by the relation between warriors and chief All these set the basis of aristocracy and the beginning of feudalism

The naval military organization based on the discipline of the crew There are no authentic chronicles of the Saxon conquest the regions seized by the newcomers were mainly those that had been most thoroughly Romanized, regions where traditions of political and military self-help were at their weakest The Britons in their refuge among the Welsh mountains relapsed into Celtic barbarism The Saxons had a Runic alphabet Saint Augustine and his monks brought the Latin alphabet and the custom of written record Britain became the country of Pilgrim Fathers

The Anglo-Saxons:
Were not city-dwellers Had no mercantile instincts Were bloody-minded pirates Destroyed a higher civilization than theirs The Roman roads helped to hasten the pace of conquest and destruction The first results: to destroy the peace and unity of the Roman province Wore boar-head helmet, had spears and wooden shields Desire to settle in large rural townships and toil the soil Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries: a fearsome chaos of warring tribes and kingdoms, public and private war was the rule the emergence of England as a nation did not begin as a result of a quick, decisive victory over the native Britons, but as a result of hundreds of years of settlement and growth

This is the sound basis of the new English civilization

Political Face of England

There were separate kingdoms in England, settled by Angles, Saxons and Jutes whose areas, bit by bit, extended into the Celtic regions: Northumbria in the north; Mercia westwards to the River Severn and Wessex into Devon and Cornwall. In the southeast, the kingdoms of Sussex and Kent had achieved early prominence.

Hengist and Horsa had arrived in Kent with a small fleet of ships in around 446 AD to aid the Britons in the defense of their lands. They had been invited by British chief Vortigern to fight the northern barbarians in return for pay and supplies, but more importantly, for land The invaders, who were Jutes, named the capital of their new kingdom Canterbury, the borough of the people of the Cantii the first Anglo-Saxon kingdom in Britain was an Anglo-Celtic kingdom, peopled by Anglo-Celts. The dynasty founded there by Hengist lasted for three centuries thirty years after the arrival of Hengist to Britain, another chieftain named Aelle came to settle. The leader of the South Saxons, Aella ruled the kingdom that became Sussex. Other kingdoms were those of the East Saxons (Essex); the Middle Saxons (Middlesex), and the West Saxons, (Wessex) destined to become the most powerful of all and one that eventually brought together all the diverse people of England (named for the Angles) into one single nation. after the conversion of the Saxon peoples to Christianity, written laws began to be enacted in England to provide appropriate penalties for offenses against the Church In Kent, King Aethelbert (601-04) was the first to set down the laws of his people in the English language; his laws constitute by far the earliest body of law expressed in any Germanic language The Danes came in a huge fleet to London in 851 to destroy the army of Mercia and capture Canterbury. They had begun their deprivations with the devastation of Lindisfarne in 793, and the next hundred years saw army after army crossing the North Sea, first to find treasure, and then to take over good, productive farm lands upon which to raise their families The turning point took place in 878. From the Chronicle, we learn of the decisive event that took place at Edington (Ethandune), when Alfred "fought with the whole force of the Danes and put them to flight, and rode after them to their fortifications and besieged them a fortnight the rise and fall of successive English kingdoms during the seventh and eighth centuries: Kent, Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex a Northumbrian nobleman, Benedict Biscop, founded two monasteries, Wearmouth (674) and Jarrow (681). Both were to play important parts in the cultural phenomenon. Biscop made six journeys to Rome, acquiring many valuable manuscripts "the Venerable Bede," - a monk who lived from 673-735. He entered Jarrow at the age of seven he became the most learned scholar of his time. Working in the library with the manuscripts acquired by Benedict Biscop, he added greatly to its store of knowledge through his voluminous correspondence.

His contemporary reputation rested on his biblical writings and commentaries on the Scriptures as well as his chronological works that established a firm system of calculating the date of Easter. Bede's greatest work was his Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation.

Early National Poetry

English literature is considered either medieval or modern The medieval literature belongs to the era that formed the bridge over which the world advanced from the confusion following the collapse of Rome to the complex modern world. There are 2 periods: 1. the Anglo-Saxon period (670-1050) deals with legendary literature of an ancient Northern people 2. the Middle English period (1050-1400) deals with the experimental literature of an amalgam of races

The Old English Period

The Old English period is generally grouped in 2 main divisions: national and Christian To the former are assigned those poems of which subjects are drawn from English, or rather Teutonic tradition and history or from the customs of the English life To the latter those which deal with Biblical matters, ecclesiastical traditions and religious subjects of Christian origin Most of earlier national poems are anonymous and belong to times anterior to unification of England under King Alfred (AD 886) work of minstrels rather than of literary men The earliest English poem written while the Anglo-Saxons were still on the continent is Widsith the Song of a Traveler a kind of travel journey in which a vagrant minstrel tells us of the people he has visited and places to which he has been Another of these poems is Deors Complaint a lyrical cry of one bard about another and more successful rival The most important Beowulf which has been presented practically complete in a manuscript in West Saxon dialect round AD1000

It developed orally and achieved its present form during the 8th century in Mercia or Northumberland. The setting is southern Scandinavia in the Age of Migration of the 5th and 6th century It is an epic recording of great deeds of the heroic warrior Beowulf The action of the poem is attached at many points to the history of Germanic Europe There is a Homeric greatness about the atmosphere of the poem The historical background is drawn with clear actuality and the character of Beowulf is pictured vigorously and impressively - one of the most important monuments of Anglo-Saxon literature It paints simply and clearly the social customs of ancestors how they lived in peace and war, how their towns and country places looked like, their pleasures and their hardships

II Beowulf

The typical Anglo-Saxon freeman had his house with its long hall where he ate and slept with his comrades on the floor The women kept the house, spinning and weaving garments for the men and also took part in public affairs In social life there was a Minstrel in each household who sang songs of ancient tradition mingled with verse of his own making CAEDMON - the first native maker of verse in the English language - a non-scholar monk who was forced to become the father of English poetry Paraphrase a collection of stories from the Bible, in verse, was written about 670 and became very famous The paganism merged into the Christian sentiment of the time this religious note in the English verse persisting through the Middle Ages and continued until Victorian times CYNEWULF another Old English poet who wrote at the end of the 8th century - wrote four poems: Juliana, The Fates of the Apostles, Christ and Elene The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle the most interesting piece of prose

- an early history of the country - King Alfred - had a great influence on this work he brought different writings into some kind of order - he translated a number of Latin books into Old English, so that his people could read them

THE PROSE
Bede had a passion for learning - studied every department of human thought Wrote in Latin

Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum we are indebted for our knowledge of the England
of his time Traces the development of Christianity in Britain from barbarous and heathen groups left after the withdrawal of the Roman Empire through the conversion of British, the unification and consolidation of their Christian faith under the influence of Saint Patrick and Saint Augustine As a historian, he was thorough, collecting evidence and accounts and verifying his facts whenever possible Produces a lively account, giving many insights into daily life in the 7th century The father of the English history

THE SECOND NORDIC INVASION

The heathen Danes and Norsemen - destroyed the higher civilization of the island collected in its monasteries - increased its disunion by establishing the Danelaw - have strengthened the forces of progress: kindred to the Saxons, more full of energy, independence of character, am aptitude for poetry and learning

DANELAW The Anglo-Saxons: - had forgotten their sea-craft - had never developed town life

- Northumbria : isolated, decadent, torn by feuds - no garrison forts, no standing army The Vikings - warrior - fur-traders, whalers, fishermen, merchants, pirates, tillers of soil amphibious people - raiders- came in long ships: Wessex, Northumbria, Scotland, Ireland and Wales the beginning of the Viking movement

THE NORMAN INVASION

William Duke of Normandys 7,ooo soldiers landed at Pavensey on the morning of 28th September, 1066 they fought from the saddle King Harold rushed South he marched 90 miles so fast that the majority of his army, already weakened by battle, were left far behind - Housecarls - without waiting for reinforcements he faced the invaders lost by lack of discipline The armies met near Hastings on the 14th of October and the battle lasted most of the day By Christmas William had taken control of most of the South On Christmas day he was crowned King He owned all the land in England He lent much of it to the barons - dotted them around the country in order to make it difficult for them to get together an army and fight the king He made everyone swear an oath of loyalty to him

THE CONQUEST
It was unlike that involving massive immigrations of people seeking new lands in which to settle and farm as marked by the Anglo-Saxon and Danish invasions It was an overnight affair, Williams victory was swift, sudden and self-contained, no new wave of people came to occupy the land, only a small, ruling aristocracy WHO WERE THE NORMANS The Norman state was unique Norman feudalism - strictly territorial: the barons owed military service to the Duke on account of the lands they held from him

- they were bound to ride under the Dukes banner, each led his quota of knights this system was imposed upon England The knights held land from the barons by the same military tenure The feudal relation of lord to man in Normandy was fixed, territorial and heritable The peasant was a serf bound to the soil and to his lord as owner of the soil Norman society: less free than Scandinavian or even Anglo-Saxon, but it was more stable, and more efficiently organized for peace and war The political system was less feudal: the Duke began to impose on his barons an authority which the kings of strictly feudal countries could never hope to wield The Norman Duke had real administrative officers who exercised functions properly public vicomtes : collected the revenues, commanded the troops, held his courts, maintained his peace The sheriff the chief pillar of the medieval English monarchy The Church in Normandy was in league with the Ducal power Norman prelates were of higher type

CONCLUSIONS
- England was attacked by the most highly organized continental state of the day - brought institutions capable of rapid development - most important; the habits of mind and action brought over with them - the Normans were not a civilized people ignorant of letters, there were no professional men except clergy

Meant a new dynasty for England Meant a new aristocracy It brought feudalism Introduces changes in the ecclesiastical hierarchy Linked England with France The outbreaks at rebellion against his rule prevented William from undertaking any attempt to cooperate with the native aristocracy in the administration of England He ruled with ruthless severity

The years 1066-1075 were a period of trial and experiment with serious attempts at cooperation between the Saxons and the Normans, but these were entirely given up in favour of a thoroughly Norman administration By the time of Williams death in 1087 English society had been profoundly changed The great Saxon earldoms were split Wessex, Mercia, Northumbria and other ancient kingdoms were abolished forever The great estates of England were given to Norman and Breton landowners Williams insistence: the prime duty of any man holding land from the king was to produce on demand a set quota of mounted knights produce a new ruling class in England It constituted a total revolution Those at the bottom of society suffered most, losing all their rights as free men and coming to be regarded as mere property assets belonging to a manor Which are the effects on architecture and language?

THE DOMESDAY BOOK 1086

It is a geld book a collection of facts made for a fiscal purpose The book presents to the king the exact account of the power and resources of his feudatories and of their vassals in every shire Takes full cognizance of one organ of Saxon life the shire, everything is grouped under the shire or county for it is through the shire organization that the king intends to act

CHURCH
William effected a revolution hardly less important than in the state Foreign clergy replaced native Englishman in Bishoprics and Abbacies Limits to the Papal power were set by the king, acting in defence of his own authority The king and his successors, down to the Reformation, used a large part of the wealth and patronage of the church to pay for services rendered to the State

III.Norman England
Effects on Architecture
There are physical reminders of the Norman presence Military strongholds: castles about every town Cathedrals, abbeys, monasteries Churches Romanesque style On the border of Wales and Scotland a combination of church and castle, abbey and town

Effects on Language
The outcome of the Norman Conquest was the making of the English language The Anglo-Saxon tongue was exiled from hall, from court and was despised as a peasants jargon, the talk of ignorant serfs It almost ceased to be a written language The learned lost all interest in its forms: the clergy talked Latin and the gentry talked French The tradesmen and the craftsmen were bilingual: English and French The language adapted itself in the mouth of plain people to the needs and uses of life The grammar which was clumsy could be altered much more easily During the following three centuries the English language lost its inflexions and elaborate genders and acquired its suppleness and adaptability which are among its chief merits It was enriched by many French words relating to war, politics, justice, hunting, religion, art, cooking Many French words became part of the English vocabulary, many continuing side by side with their English equivalent:

sacred-holy legal-lawful stench-aroma The feudal landlords added their name to the old English name : Rodney Stoke, Stoke Rochford The castles of the noblemen received the name of their castles in France: Montgomery, Caus

Ordinary people
Most population lived in villages in southern and eastern parts of England In the north and west there were fewer people and they lived apart from each other Most people lived in the simplest houses: the walls were made of wooden beams and sticks filled with mud, the roofs were made of thatch They ate cereals and vegetables most of the time They worked from dawn to dusk every day The poor were divided from their master by the feudal class system its basis was the exchange of land for labour The Doomsday Book three quarters of the country people were serfs The manorial system was in fact Anglo-Saxon and the Normans developed it to its fullest extent The story of Robin Hood 1230 The landlords obtained their income from the home farm, from letting out some or all of their land the word farm comes from this period: firma a fixed or settled agreement 1300 the population increased, effects on life in the country: harder to grow enough food for all, the peasants tried to farm more land so they drained the marshland and used high ground and poor land The soil was too poor consequently the effort did not match the need for food, so as a result we see a decline in the life of family, an increased number of landless labourers, greater poverty and hunger

Conclusion: many people starved to death, increase in the value of land, sharp rise in prices, an
inflation that weakened feudal ties, many knights with smaller estates became indebted Exchequer of the Jews (money lenders)

The Jewish lenders would sell the knights property to big landowners lead to the growth in power of the greater nobility Edward I feared it so called the knights to be represented in the Parliament and forced the Jewish community to leave the country Feudalism was dying out Those who could not pay rent and lost their land went to town

The Making of a Nation

Medieval Ages a distinct period from the Dark Ages Feudalism is the characteristic institution It implies a fixed and legal subordination of certain classes of society to certain others to obtain civilized order Feudal society divided up the surplus product of the labour among Barons and Knights, Bishops and Abbots By regularizing the inequality of incomes derived from the land it enabled wealth to accumulate in the hands of lords and prelates It stimulated the rich mans demand for luxuries - it determined the growth of the trade, higher arts and crafts of the merchant cities Barbarism grew into civilization but not on the path of liberty and equality It organized military, political and judicial power on local basis the barony or the manor was the unit of power Over this society stood the pan-European Church organized from Rome The clergy enjoyed a complete monopoly of learning and clerkship the control of church over State was very great Britain, reorganized after the Norman Conquest, became strong enough to defend herself The Norman overlords became identified with their English neighbours, particularly after the loss of Normandy in the reign of John Britain began, before any other European state to develop a nationhood based upon peculiar characteristics, laws and institutions When William died in 1087, he left the Duchy of Normandy to his elder son Robert and England to William (Rufus)

William II died in a hunting accident Henry, his younger brother, took charge of the kings treasury and crowned king 3 days later The Norman nobles chose Henry as he was in London In 1106 Henry invaded Normandy and captured Robert England and Normandy were reunited under the same ruler Henry I Married his daughter, Matilda to Geoffrey Plantagenet, heir to Anjou When Henry died, he left the succession in question Stephan of Blois, his nephew, raced to England to claim the crown He was good at fighting and little else Matilda invaded Britain 4 years after terrible civil war: villages were destroyed and many people were killed In 1153 they agreed that Stephan could keep the crown if Matildas son, Henry could succeed him A year later Stephan died and Henry II became king A period of destruction and disorder Henry IIs empire stretched from the Scottish border to the Pyrenees, controlled a greater area than the king of France Married Eleanor of Aquitaine, had 2 sons Richard and John Followed by Richard I Englands most popular king: brave, good soldier Lionheart Everyones idea of the perfect feudal king: courage, honour In 1199 Richard was killed in France Followed by his brother John unpopular as he was greedy In 1204 invaded Normandy and the English nobles lost their lands there

Magna Carta and the Decline of Feudalism

In 1215 John hoped to recapture Normandy, called his lords to fight, they marched to London where they were joined by angry merchants and together they forced the king to sign a new agreement Magna Carta, the great Charter, - a symbol of political freedom

The king promised all freemen protection from his officers, and the right to a fair and legal trial Gave no freedom to the majority of people Purpose: to make sure John did not go beyond his rights as a feudal lord Every king recognized Magna Carta Marks a clear stage in the collapse of English feudalism The nobles acted not as vassals but as a class The king was forced to pay soldiers to fight for him Vassals changed into tenants Church and state: Henry II Thomas Becket Johns son, Henry III, was 9 years old when his father died His heavy spending and foreign advisers upset the nobles In 1258 the nobles acted as a class: under the leadership of Simon of Montfort, they took over the government and elected a council of nobles: parliament or parlement. - discussion meeting Took control of the treasury and forced Henry to get rid of his advisers Could make statutes, written laws, political decisions Supported by the towns which wished to be free from Henrys heavy taxes In 1265 Simon of Montfort was killed and Henry had again full authority In 1272 his son, Edward I took the throne Edward I brought together the first real parliament He created a representative institution which could provide the money he needed became the House of Commons contained a mixture of gentry (knights and freemen from the shires) and merchants from towns In 1275 Edward commanded each shire and each town to send two representatives to his parliament Englands parliament was special During the next 150 years the agreement of the Commons became necessary for the making of all statutes and all special taxation additional to regular taxes

Government and Society

William the Conqueror had governed England by travelling from one place to another The kings household was the government and it was always on the move There was no real capital the treasury stayed in Winchester Could work well only for a small kingdom When the kings of England ruled a great part of France they sent nobles and knights from the royal household to act as sheriffs The administration - the people who could administer taxation, justice was based in Winchester 1290 it had moved to Westminster it is still here today The capital in the kings saddle The officials in Westminster had to watch the economy of the country this lead to the important changes in taxation between 1066-1300 The administration grew very quickly 1050 only Edward the Confessor had a seal By Edward I even the poorest man was expected to have a seal in order to sign official papers, even if he could not read The amount wax gives an idea of the rapid growth of the administration: in 1220 1,5 kg of wax was used every week; in 1260 14kg weekly

Law and Justice

The king was responsible for law and justice He had to leave it to someone who lived close to the place where a crime was committed In Saxon times every district had had its own laws and customs After the Norma Conquest the nobles were allowed to administer justice they had freedom to act as they liked They dealt both with crimes and disagreement over property

Henry I introduced the idea that all crimes, even those inside the family, were no longer a family matter, but a breaking of the kings peace He appointed a number of judges who travelled from place to place administering justice (still exists today) At first the kings judges had no special knowledge or training they were trusted to use common sense Many of them were nobles or bishops who followed the orders of the king Henry II - the most powerful English king of the 12th century was known in Europe for his high standards of his law court The convincing proof of our kings strength is that whoever has a just cause wants to have it tried before him, whoever has a weak one does not come unless he is dragged. By the end of the 12th century the judges were men with real knowledge and experience of law common law as it was used everywhere In this respect England was unlike the rest of Europe Common law used later in the North American colonies and other British colonies and accepted when these became nations in their own right In other parts of Europe the legal practice was based on the Civil Law of the Roman Empire and the Canon Law of the Church English lawyers referred to these as examples of legal method and science, but they created an entirely different system of law based on custom, comparisons, previous cases, and previous decisions The new class of judges was also interested in how the law was carried out and what kind of punishment were used From Anglo-Saxon times there had been two ways of deciding difficult cases 1.the accused man could be tested in battle against a skilled fighter 2. a typical ordeal: to put a hot iron on the mans tongue if the burn mark was still there 3 days later he was thought to be guilty God would leave the burn mark

Trial by ordeal was replaced with trial by jury This idea dated back to the Danes of Danelaw Henry II had already introduced the use of juries for some cases in the second half of the 12th century

In 1179 he allowed an accused man in certain cases to claim trial by jury. He had to choose 12 neighbours who would help him prove that he was not guilty During the later Middle Ages the work of these juries changed from giving evidence to judging the evidence of others They were ordinary people using ordinary common sense they needed guidance law schools grew up during the 13th century

IV.THE Later middle ages 1290-1485

The 14th and 15th centuries were a dangerous, turbulent and decadent age Englands civil and foreign wars lasted longer, extended further, cost more and involved larger number of men than any it had fought since the Viking Age In 1330s England began a long struggle against the French Crown The Hundred Years War (1337-1453) the first European war that can be called national England on account of her insular and remote position and her strong kings was passing from feudalism to nationhood The king and the Parliament endowed her with administrative machinery and national selfconsciousness so she exercised her powers at the expense of the French feudal Kingdom The war was a question of political dynamics England passed through a phase of expansionist militarism, profitable at first, in the end disastrous The English army better disciplined,, more dependable and flexible, proficient use of longbow, employed defensive tactics in battle brought resounding victories against all the odds in the early decades of war (Crecy and Poitiers) Expeditions were organized with impressive regularity

The lives and occupations of thousands of Englishmen, Welshmen and Irishmen were disrupted by war service: supplies of food, materials, and equipment were diverted to operations that were entirely destructive Important personalities in this period: Edward III, Henry V, Joan of Arc The English power was worn away by the Fabian tactics and siege craft of the Dunois era In 1453 after the last battle in Gascony the Hundred Years War drew to a close Two years later the Wars of the Roses began at St. Albans. The gain: a period of anarchy and moral prostration The gain: great memories and traditions, a belief in the island qualities

Wars of the Roses

Quarrel between Lancaster and York On each side there was a group of great nobles with its clientele of knights, gentry, captains, lawyers and clergy Changing of sides was more frequent in this civil war then in others Villages, towns, even London remained neutral The nobles were savage in their treatment of the other

The Age of Chivalry

Edward III and his son, the Black Prince, were greatly admired for their courage on the battlefield and for their courtly manners They became symbols for the code of chivalry the way in which the perfect knight should behave According to the code of chivalry the perfect knight fought for his good name if insulted, served God and the king, and defended any lady in need Order of the Garter

The Century of Plagues

1348 brought the terrible plague known as the Black Death 1348-1349 reached almost every part of England killing one third of the population

Whole villages and hamlets disappeared After the Black Death there were so few people to work on the land that workers could ask for more money this lead to the end of serfdom The landlords returned to letting out their land to freeman farmers as a way of avoiding losses These smaller farmers slowly became a new class the yeomen There were certain economic changes: Agricultural production shrank Peasants life became more comfortable they had enough money to build more solid houses, in stone where it was possible Wool was replaced by finished cloth as Englands main export

The Poor in Revolt

Richard II became a king at the age of 11 His advisers introduced a tax for every person over 15 In 1381 this tax was enforced for a third time and also increased to three times the previous There was a revolt in East Anglia and in Kent The leader of the revolt Wat Tyler was the first to call for fair treatment of Englands poor people He claimed We are men formed in Christs likeliness Revolutionary rhyme:

When Adam delved, and Eve span, Who was then the gentlemen? the Peasants Revolt lasted for four weeks the peasants took control of much of London a number of townspeople also revolted Wat Tyler was killed the revolt was a warning to the king and wealthy nobles

Government and Society

1485 is usually taken to mark the end of the Middle Ages in England Society was based on ranks: At the top were dukes, earls, and other lords Below were the knights, then esquires Next to the gentlemen were the ordinary freemen of the towns they controlled the life of a town The guilds formed to protect the production or trade of a town, then to protect those who were members The poorer skilled workers tried to join together to protect their own interests the first efforts to form a trade union Guilds declined in importance because of the merchants established trading stations, factories, in different parts of Europe became important at national level One of the most important Company of the Staple in Calais staple an international term used by merchants and governments meaning that certain goods could only be sold in particular places Calais became the staple for all English wool An arrangement that suited the merchants and the Crown In towns a new middle class was developing By 15th century most merchants were educated The lawyers another town class in London they were considered equal to big merchants and manufacturers By the end of the Middle Ages the more successful of lawyers, merchants, esquires, cloth manufacturers and yeomen farmers were forming a single class of people They created a new atmosphere in Britain - they were the literate class They questioned the way in which Church and the state were organised, the value of feudal system They disliked serfdom unchristian and not economic

When Edward III asked for money his parliament asked for the royal accounts The Parliament the poor could not qualify to be members

The Condition of Women

Little is known Marriage was the single most important event The decision was taken by the family for financial reasons The wife of a noble had responsibilities: when he was away she was in charge of the manor and the village lands, the servants, the harvest and the animals She had to defend the manor if attacked The family home was dark and smelly

Language and Culture

Plays were performed at important religious festivals mystery plays Edward III had forbidden the speaking of French in his army a way of making the army aware of its Englishness By the end of the 14th century English was again a written language very different from the Anglo-Saxon William Langland - a priest, wrote a poem Piers Plowman a dreamer-narrators search for the path of salvation, in which he describes the times in which he lived A religious allegory in alliterative verse The poem manifests concern with the corruption of society His importance in the English prose: the chief translator of the Bible Geoffrey Chaucer he found English brick and left it marble His masterpiece The Canterbury Tales

The Tudor Age

Population changes Demographic and economic changes: rapid recovery of population after the Black Death

Famine and epidemics disrupted the Tudor economy The expansion both of the area of land and of consumer demand stimulated the commercialization of agriculture and the rise of entrepreneurs, encouraging urban renewal, enhancing the material culture; Merchant classes invested in voyages of exploration

Labouring families and urban dwellers were wrecked by poverty Inflation, speculation in land by investors, unemployment, vagrancy were the evils of the period 1590s the size of the workforce exceeded available employment Average wages and living standards declined accordingly

Material culture, Art and Literature

1530-1569 a yeomans house was three rooms 1570 and after 6,7,8 rooms Poorer families preferred ground floor extensions: kitchen, second bedchamber Higher echelons of society the Tudor manor houses were characterized by increased luxury Architecture: combined late medieval and classic styles, but aimed to show off the wealth: Hardwick New Hall, Derbyshire acres of glass and towering Tall brick chimneys the arrival of fireplaces and kitchen within the main house The long gallery hung with historical portraits The art of painting and portraiture transformed in Henry VIIIs reign by Hans Holbein the Younger Before his coming to England the art objects were the tapestries Henry VIII ordered a life-size wall painting at Whitehall to create visual propaganda He was made to appear more imperial, richly decorated with jewellery Prince Edward was depicted as a toddler wearing a fine red tunic decorated with shimmering gold thread Caused the market for luxury goods and art works to boom anyone who mattered wanted a portrait

Hilliard the painter of Elisabeth I miniature Musical development: organists, lute England visited by Flemish, Italian and Spanish musicians The influence of Venice, Florence, Mantua and Rome - madrigalists

V.THE TUDORS
The Birth of the Nation State
The century of Tudor rule (1485-1603) is thought of as the most glorious period in English history Henry VII built the foundations of a wealthy nation state and a powerful monarchy Henry VIII kept a magnificent court and broke the English Church from the Roman Catholic Church Elisabeth I defeated the powerful Spanish navy England experienced one of the greatest artistic periods in its history

Less Glorious Facts

Henry VIII wasted the wealth saved by his father Elisabeth I weakened the quality of government by selling official posts in order to avoid asking Parliament for money Her government tried to deal with the problem of poor and homeless but its laws and actions were cruel in effect

The New Monarchy

Henry VII was far more important in establishing the new monarchy

- he had the same ideas as the growing classes of merchants and gentlemen farmers - he based royal power on good business sense - he believed that war and glory were bad for business and that business was good for the state -therefore he avoided quarrels with Scotland and France During the War of the Roses, Englands trading position had been badly damaged The strong German Hanseatic League, a closed trading society, had destroyed the English trade with the Baltic and northern Europe Only after the victory of Bosworth in 1485 Henry VII made an important trade agreement with the Netherlands which allowed English trade to grow again Many of the old nobility had died or had been defeated in the wars and their lands had gone to the king Henry had more power and more money The authority of the law had been almost completely destroyed by the lawless behaviour of the nobles and local justice had been broken down Henrys aim was to make the Crown financially independent the land and fines he took from the nobility helped him do this He was careful to keep the friendship of the merchant and lesser gentry classes and they wanted peace and prosperity When he died in 1509 he left 2 million pounds as he spent money only on building of ships for the merchant fleet Henry VIII

- was cruel, wasteful with money and interested in pleasing himself - he wanted to become an important influence in European politics - he wanted to hold the balance of power between France and Spain he allied himself with Spain and then changed sides - he spent money on maintaining a magnificent court and on useless wars and soon his fathers money was gone - he reduced the quantity of silver used in coins lead to a rise in prices and to a reduction of the English coinage to a 7th of its value in 25 years

The Reformation
Henry disliked the power of the Church who was a huge landowner He wanted to divorce Catherine of Aragon but the Pope didnt agree In 1531 he persuaded his bishops to make him the head of Church it became law after the Act of Supremacy in 1534 It was a political act, Henry remained in the Catholic faith Fidei Defensor 1536-1539 he closed 560 monasteries and religious houses and sold their land the greatest act of official destruction in the history of Britain

Elisabeth I

- she wanted to bring together those parts of English society which were in religious disagreement - she wanted to make England prosperous - she made the Church a part of the state machine the parish became the unit of state administration, she arranged for a book of sermons to be used in church - she carried Henry VIIs policy much further encouraging merchant expansion - she recognized Spain as her main trade rival and enemy - she helped the Dutch Protestants by allowing their ships to use English harbours from which they could attack Spanish ships, then helped them with money and soldiers - English ships attacked Spanish ships on their return from America and the treasure was shared with the queen - in 1587 Philip decided to conquer England, built a great fleet Armada to move his army across the English Channel destroyed by Francis Drake - in 1588 Philip started again but was defeated, mostly by weather

A New Empire
Elisabeth followed two policies: 1. encouraged English sailors to attack and destroy Spanish ships 2. encouraged English traders to settle abroad and to create colonies this lead to Britains colonial empire

The first colonists sailed to America at the end of the century Sir Walter Raleigh brought tobacco back to England The settlers tried to start profitable colonies in Virginia England began selling West African slaves for the Spanish in America More chartered companies were established the right to all the business in its particular trade or region they had to give part of the profits to the Crown: the Eastland Company, the Levant Company, the Africa Company Competition with the Dutch for the spice trade with East Indies lead to three wars before the end of the 17th century

Government and Society

A period of far reaching changes, mostly in ideas as a result of the rebirth of intellectual attitudes known as the Renaissance Tudor parliaments - the kings didnt like to govern through Parliament, they seldom called it together -Henry VIII invited Parliament to make laws, thus giving it an authority it never had before Parliament strengthened its position during Edwards reign by ordering the new prayer book to be used in all churches 2 things which persuaded the Tudor kings not to get rid of the Parliament: they needed money and the support of the merchants and landowners Parliament only met when the monarch ordered it in the first 44 years of Tudor reign it met only 20 times During the century the power moved from the House of Lords to the House of Commons because they represented richer and more influential classes The size of the Commons doubled as a result of the inclusion of Welsh boroughs and counties and the inclusion of more English boroughs Parliament did not really represent the people monarchy used its influence to make sure that many MPs support royal policy In order to control discussion in Parliament the Crown appointed a Speaker

Parliament was supposed to do 3 things:

1. agree to the taxes needed 2. make the laws which the Crown suggested 3. advise the Crown but only when asked to do so The kings tried to obtain money in different ways: Elisabeth sold monopolies her Parliament complained about its bad effect on free trade

VI.THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Definition: a process of change from an agrarian, handicraft economy to one dominated by industry and machine manufacture - it began in England in the 18th century and spread to other parts of the world - the term was popularized by Arnold Toynbee to describe Englands economic development from 1760 to 1840

Main features: technological, socioeconomic and cultural

Technological changes: 1. the use of iron and steel, 2. the use of new energy sources including both fuels and motive power such as coal, steam engine, electricity, petroleum, internal combustion engine 3.the invention of new machines: spinning jenny. The power loom increased production 4.factory system a new organization of work which lead to the division of labour 5.transportation and communication: steam locomotive, steamship, automobile, airplane, telegraph, radio 6.application of science to industry Other developments: agricultural improvements, wider distribution of wealth,

the decline of land as source of wealth in the face of the rising industrial production Increased international trade Political changes new state policies Social changes: growth of the cities, working class movements, the emergence of new patterns of authority Cultural transformations Psychological change: mans confidence in his ability to use resources and master nature 1760-1830 - revolution confined to Britain -the first country it went to was Belgium Railroad systems first to transport coal 1820; first commercial line Liverpool-Manchester 1830 Urbanization villages grew into cities: Manchester A new work ethic promoted by the new middle-class: no idleness and frivolity 1820 liberal agitation revived in Britain, France and the Low Countries Liberals wanted stronger parliaments, wider protection of individual rights the Reform Bill in 1832 set the framework for additional liberal legislation Corn Laws a series of statutes enacted between 1815 and 1845 kept corn prices at a high level Trade more than industry characterized the British economy 1842 marks the victory against the Corn Law 1815-1832 After the Napoleonic wars there was no longer need for factory-made goods and many people lost their jobs Unemployment grew with 300,000 men from Britains army and navy Because of the cheaper imported corn the landowners income went down and asked for a corn law rose in he cost of bread 1830 starving farm workers in the South of England rioted 1834 a new poor law was intended but the government did not provide the necessary money The workhouses were full and dirty

The Whigs understood better than the Tories the need to reform the law in order to improve social conditions

The Reform Bill Scotlands voters increased from 5, 000 to 65,000; England with 54% of British
population had over 70% of MPs it is a recognition that Britain had become an urban society 1824 the workers are allowed to join together in unions 1840 the introduction of cheaper postage system enabled them to organize themselves across the country far better than before 1838 the Chartist Movement: rights for all adults, the right for a man without a property of his own to be a MP, voting in secret, payment for MPs, an election every year Robert Peel the Prime Minister weakened the Chartist movement, abolished the Corn Law in 1846 He established a regular police force for London in 1829, followed by all other towns in the following 30 years Crime was pushed out of cities, towns, villages and country Family life

- stricter ideas of family life - people no longer married for economic reasons - the return to authority exercised by the head of the family Scotland women were more independent Britain became powerful because it had enough coal, iron and steel and could even export them to other countries It produced new heavy industrial goods, machinery for woolen and cotton cloth Owned more than half of the worlds total shipping The industrial empire was supported by a strong banking system The railway by 1840 2,400 miles of track had been laid, by 1870, it was almost complete

The Victorian Age

Great Britain was a powerful island nation, the center of the global empire that fostered British contact with a wide variety of other cultures

By the end of the 19th century one quarter of the earths land surface was part of the British Empire. More than 400 million people were governed from Great Britain Strongly connected to the nature and role of woman: Womens political rights: suffrage petitions to Parliament advocating it were introduced as early as 1840s To allow married women to own and handle their own property culminated in the passing of the Married Womens Property Acts (1870-1908) The growth of the textiles industry brought hundreds of thousands of wome ninto factory jobs

The new kinds of labour and poverty that arouse with the Industrial Revolution - a challenge to traditional ideas of womans place Florence Nightingale famous for organizing a contingent of nurses to take care of sick and wounded soldiers during the Crimean War

Cultural Contexts
In the wake of the Napoleonic wars British political energies were redirected towards domestic issues The empire had not become the focus of public attention The growth of industrialization Exacerbated political unrest Offered new opportunities for workers Created stress

Displaced workers migrated to expanding industrial towns 1829 Parliament ratified Catholic Emancipation removed the restrictions on the political rights of Catholics 1830 Reform Bill All these nurtured an unusual sense of historical self-consciousness John Stuart Mill claimed it a time of change 1830 Byron embodied aristocratic luxury and privilege which appeared I contemporary fiction Walter Scott

A new genre appeared silver-fork novels preoccupation with the particulars of aristocratic opulence (often imaginary) the central figure here is the dandy who incarnates a sardonic, detached elegance loosely derived from the model of Byron Middle-class attacks on aristocracy deemed unworthy of its power were focused on antithetical developments of late 18th century thought: utilitarianism thinker John Stuart Mill argued that the morality of an action was to be gauged by its usefulness, utility The second: Evangelicalism: insisted on the need of divine salvation that could be attained only through piety They saw human life as an arena of constant moral struggle, resisting temptation and mastering desire A great impact on legislation: spearheaded the abolition of the English slave trade and laws governing factory conditions Self-discipline became a crucial engine of social progress and individual stature But: schemes of economic and political progress threatened this order The idea of woman: an angelic devotion to the needs of others, a moral influence on which refined those around her The technological revolution had a profound effect on literature 1820 the development of machine-made paper and the rotary steam reduced the cost of printing and monthly journals began to proliferate Reading became politically charged Radical journalists pressed for greater working-class political rights To regulate their writings Parliament passed the Seditious Publication Act - tax on publication Source of solidarity printing of poetry aligned with radicalism: Shellys Queen Mab

19th Century Poets

The first reaction to the orderly and polished poetry of the 18th century was the first edition of Lyrical Ballads (1798) the sign of the beginning of the romantic age The authors were the poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge known as the Lake poets together with Southey

Wordsworth

love for nature, simple language, returns to scenes in the past best sonnets: Westminster Bridge, an emotional view of London asleep, and London, 1802 Coleridge

- The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, an old sailor describes strange misfortunes that happened on a ship Christabel (1816) one of the most beautiful poems in English; Kubla Khan George Gordon, Lord Byron

- romantic poet - much influenced by the classical form of Pope - work: Childe Harold, The Giaour, The Bride of Abydos, Don Juan Percy Bysshe Shelley

- a greater poet of good family, rich and restless - he struggled against the causes of human misery, he saw goodness in the whole of nature and wanted all men to be free Work: - Alastor , or The Spirit of Solitude, Blank verse, Expresses joy in the universe and sorrow for the violent feelings of men The Revolt of Islam A cry at the cruelty of the world Adonis an elegy on the death of Keats -lyrics: The Cloud, To a Skylark, Ode to the West Wind

VII.CULTURE
Definition -is concerned with beliefs and values on the basis of which people interpret experiences and behave, individually or in groups -refers to a group or community with which you share common experiences that shape the way you understand the world -is the lens through which you view the world More definitions The quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits A particular form or stage of civilization, as that of a certain nation or period: Greek culture A development or improvement of the mind by education or training More definitions The behaviours and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic or age group: the youth culture Culture, then, is a study of perfection, and perfection which insists on becoming something rather than in having something, in an inward condition of the mind and spirit, not in an outward set of circumstances Matthew Arnold The fundamental element or building block of culture is the culture trait. Traits assume many forms varying from material artifacts tools, house structures, art works to behaviourial regularities family interrelationships, economic exchanges, and legal sanctions to abstract concepts and beliefs. All these complex and diverse manifestations share one feature in common; they are symbols and as such express meaning Cultural elements as symbols assume their meanings in relationship to other symbols within a broader context of a meaning system To interpret a symbol, therefore, anthropologists must investigate the interrelatedness of elements and the presence of unifying principles that connect symbols to form larger patterns and cultural wholes

 Culture traits and broader cultural patterns inclusive of language, technology, institutions, beliefs, and values are transmitted across generations and maintain continuity through learning, technically termed enculturation Accordingly, learning abilities and intelligence are essential assets for all human groups and have replaced the role of biologically based genetic transmission of instincts

Conclusion
Culture refers to the following ways of life, included but not limited to: Language: the oldest human institution and the most sophisticated medium of expression Arts and Sciences: the most advanced and refined forms of human expression Thought: the ways in which people perceive, interpret and understand the world around them Spirituality: the value system transmitted through generations for the inner well-being of human beings, expressed through language and actions Social activity: the shared pursuits within a cultural community, demonstrated in a variety of festivities and life celebrating events Interaction: the social aspects of human contact, including the give-and-take of socialization, negotiation, protocol, and convention

MEANS OF EXPRESSING CULTURE

Pictures Writing Books Printing Newspapers Telegraph Radio Cinema Television Internet

CULTURAL AND SYMBOLIC PRODUCTION

-international tourism -thematic parks -fashion -cuisine -culture of the body -video game market Growing entertainment industry( Disney, AOL-Time Warner, Fox, Vivendi Universal) CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION Culture is at the root of communication challenges To open channels for cross cultural communication one must explore the historical experiences and the identity of the interrelating groups Identity cannot exist without Alterity, each human being relates himself to the Other in the process of defining the difference National identity strongly related to culture and its symbols

CULTURAL IDENTITY
Criteria to define the Other: Religious Political Ideological Economic Cultural

More Culture Definitions

Culture is learned, shared and transmitted from one generation to the next Culture is primarily transmitted from parents to children, but at the same time, by school, church, social organizations, even by governments or special interest groups

 Social pressure influences culture due to its power of reinforcing ways of human thinking

Aim of this course

The presentation of a specific culture, the British culture Understand it To acquire basic knowledge on the life and thinking of the British society with its language, customs, shared manners, attitudes and feelings, religion, aesthetics, education, social and political institutions, geographical environment and historical events

Cultural Universals
Elements included in all cultures Represent general values characteristic of the manifestations representing the worldwide way of life of any group Include: etiquette, the concept of family, family rituals and celebrations, gestures, mealtime, music, artifacts (clothes, cars) trade customs

Civilization
AT A CERTAIN MOMENT OF ITS EXISTENCE, EACH SOCIETY OR SOCIAL GROUP FINDS ITSELF AT A CERTAIN LEVEL OF DEVELOPMENT, REGARDING SOCIAL, MATERIAL OR SPIRITUAL LIFE THE LEVEL OF MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT OF A SOCIAL ECONOMIC GROUP A PROCESS OF IMPROVING INSTITUTIONS, EDUCATION, LEGISLATION

definition
A relatively high level of cultural and technological development Specifically: the stage of cultural development at which writing and the keeping of written records is attained The culture characteristic of a particular time or place Refinement of thought, manner, taste

More definitions
The people or countries that have reached an advanced stage of human development marked by a high level of art , religion, science, and social and political organization

 Life in a place which has all the comforts of the modern world The beginning of a people Has not always been an island it became one after the end of the last ice age First evidence of human life dates about 250,000 BC stone tools Around 10,000 BC Britain was peopled by small groups of hunters, gatherers and fishers About 3000 BC Neolithic people crossed the sea from Europe in small boats. They came either from the Iberian peninsula or North Africa They were small, dark, and long-headed people, the forefathers of dark-haired inhabitants of Wales and Cornwall They settled in the Western parts of Britain and Ireland, from Cornwall at the southwest end of Britain all the way to the far north After 3000 BC people started building great circles of earth banks and ditches centers of religious, political and economic power Most spectacular: Stonehenge built over a period of more than 1000 years The purpose remains a mystery Suggests: the political authority of the area surrounding Stonehenge was recognized over a very large area, probably over the whole of the British Isles After 2400BC new groups of people arrived in southeast Britain from Europe They were round-headed and strongly built became leaders of British society They spoke an Indo-European language

Stonehenge

The Celts
From the 7th century to the 3rd century BC they were moving across Europe in many directions One great body settled in France element in the racial content of the Galish nation A southern wing settled in the Valley of Po put an end to the Etruscan hegemony in Italy Others pushed into Spain and the Balkans

 A northern wing of this great world movement overran the British Island and imposed the Celtic rule and language on its inhabitants They came in successive tribal waves, each with a dialect of its own Wave after wave of Celts entered Britain by lowlands of south and east, slaughtered, subdued or chased across the island not only the Iberians, but also their own kinsfolk that preceded them

Characteristics
Tall, light-haired warriors, skillful in iron Imposed themselves as an aristocracy on the conquered tribes throughout Britain and Ireland They remained tribesmen bound together by legal and sentimental ties of kinship as the moral basis of society They didnt develop any territorial or feudal organization Hunting, fishing, herding, weaving, bee-keeping, metal work, and above all fighting preoccupied them most of their time Highly successful farmers suggested by the increasing number of hill forts filled with houses They remained local economic centres long after the Romans came to Britain and long after they went For money they used iron bars Men wore shirts and breeches and a striped or checked cloak fastened with a pin (Scottish tartan and dress) Very clean and neat Women more independent than hundreds of years later the Romans found women who ruled the tribes and fought on chariots The most powerful woman who stood up to the Romans - Queen Boadicea she almost drove them from Britain in 61 AD

The Roman Britain

The name Britain comes from the Greco-Roman word Pretani for the inhabitants of Britain The Romans mispronounced the word and called the island Britannia Why did they invade?

 the Celts of Britain were working with the Celts of Gaul against them - important food producers - came to exploit and govern by right of superior civilization The Roman conquerors effort was to induce their western subjects to assimilate Latin life in all its aspects Their success with the Gauls was permanent and became the starting point of modern European history 55 BC the first invasion under Julius Caesar - the need of tributes and slaves to enrich his partisans and to pay the soldiers - quite a failure 43 AD emperor Claudius sent an army of 40,000 men and the Romans settled for the next 400 years The highlands and moorland of the northern and western regions (present -day Scotland Caledonia - and Wales) were not as easily settled, they remained the frontier They built a strong wall along the northern border - Hadrian Roman control came to an end when the empire began to collapse 409 AD Rome pulled its last soldiers out of Britain