ENGL 221 Online

Major British Writers I

British Invasions Timeline

Objectives
After completing the following interactive timeline, you should have a clearer
idea of key dates from the Middle Ages and the foreign powers (and
languages) which exerted a significant influence over Britain before the
Norman Conquest.

Introduction
– In the days leading up to World War II, Winston Churchill would remind
the British people, “We can still say that nearly a thousand years have
passed since a foreign invader has set his foot upon English soil.”
– Few survivors of German bombing raids over London and much of
southern England can forget how close they came to being occupied. It’s
easy for us to imagine how different Britain’s history and culture might
have been had Hitler’s invasion been successful.
– Churchill would later boast, “But since 1066, and all that, we have never
seen the camp fires of an invader from a hostile and foreign power
burning in our island home.”
– Though Churchill’s triumphant vision of the last millennium gave Britons
courage during the dark days of the Blitz, it also contrasts significantly
with the instability of Britannia’s first thousand years.
– As you explore the following interactive timeline, consider how Britain’s
history has been marked by invasions. How has each of these foreign
powers influenced the language, life, and literature of the English people?
– More specifically, why would Churchill choose 1066 as a turning point in
Britain’s history? Why would this date signal a shift in politics and culture
from the years that came before?

Timeline
– 55 BC, Julius Caesar invades Britain
We will fight on the beaches. . . The first historical account we have of
Britain comes from an invader. Julius Caesar led the Roman legions across
the channel in 55 and again in 54 BC but was twice frustrated by storms
near Dover. The Romans would not return until the emperor Claudius
invaded successfully in 43 AD.
<www.athenapub.com/caesar1.htm>
<www.gallica.co.uk/romans/caesar.htm>
– 43 AD, Roman occupation
Can anything good come out of Londinium? After invasion by Emperor
Claudius, Britannia becomes the northernmost Roman colony. Just after
the life of Christ, Britannia was comparable to Judea as a far-off province
paying tribute to the Empire but also developing ties of trade and culture
with Rome. Latin became the common language, and evidence of
achievements from the period can still be seen in Roman Bath or
Hadrian’s Wall.

Last printed 12/31/08

 ENGL 221 Online 2 ■

<www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/questions_01.shtml>
<itsa.ucsf.edu/~snlrc/encyclopaedia_romana/britannia/ruins/britanniamap.html>
– 312, Constantine converts to Christianity
By this sign you will conquer. In 306, Constantine the Great was
proclaimed emperor while in York on a military campaign. After a vision
of a cross that promised victory in battle, Constantine was converted and
Christianity became the official religion of Rome and its colonies.
<ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_constantine.htm>
<www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/conv-const.html>
– c. 420, Roman forces leave Britain
The Beginning of the End. In the years after 407, the Roman legions
withdrew from Britain to defend the capital in Rome against the attacks of
the Visigoths and then the Vandals. One effect of the power vacuum this
left behind was a sharp rise in the number of local tribes who began to
occupy different parts of the British Isles.
<www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/late_01.shtml>
<ancienthistory.about.com/cs/romefallarticles/a/fallofrome.htm>

OLD ENGLISH PERIOD (c. 450-1066)

From Brutus to Beowulf. After almost four centuries of Roman rule,
trade, and relative peace, the approach of a new wave of raiders to the
British coasts signaled an important shift. The “Old English Period”
covers over 600 years and includes piecemeal invasions by more than a
dozen Germanic and Scandinavian groups. Mediterranean culture and
civilization would be driven out by tribal allegiance, blood feuds, and
heroic sagas. Roman merchants and administrators were followed by
Anglo Saxon warlords and Viking raiders. The noble virtue of Virgil’s
Aeneid was finally replaced by the violence and retribution of Beowulf.
– c. 450, Anglo Saxon conquest
The Original Melting Pot. This invasion was hardly as unified as it
sounds. Following the Roman retreat, a number of Germanic tribes
converged on England, bringing widely divergent cultures and languages
with them. The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes were concentrated in England
while the Picts and Scots battled for the north and the Celts dominated
Ireland and Wales.
<www.angelcynn.org.uk/history%5Finvasion.html>
<www.rook.org/heritage/german/anglosaxon.html>
– 597, St. Augustine brings Christianity
A Peaceful Invasion. Perhaps the most significant landing force during
Britain’s first millennium came Easter of 597 in the form of 40 missionaries
sent from Pope Gregory I. As Bede says, “Gregory, prompted by divine
inspiration, sent a servant of God named Augustine and several more
God-fearing monks with him to preach the word of God to the English
race.” After converting King Ethelbert, Augustine became the first
archbishop of the English church at Canterbury.
<www.stcolumba.org.uk/JUBILEE/SAINTS/august.htm>
<www.britannia.com/history/docs/bedeconv.html>
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– 731, Bede’s Ecclesiastical History

Out of the Cloister. The Venerable Bede wrote the first comprehensive
history unifying these disparate groups. His Ecclesiastical History of the
English People defined Britain as a single nation now unified by the
learning and literacy of Roman Christianity: “At the present time, there
are five languages in Britain, just as the divine law is written in five books
. . . These are the English, British, Irish, Pictish, as well as the Latin
languages; through the study of the scriptures, Latin is in general use
among them all.” Much of what we know of Britain’s early invaders and
missionaries comes from Bede’s History.
<www.bedesworld.co.uk/academic-bede.php>
<www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/bede-book1.html>
– 787, First Danish invasions
Something Rotten from the State of Denmark. For over a hundred years,
Scandinavian invaders would attack the coasts of England, starting in the
north with important towns and monasteries like Bede’s home in Jarrow
and Lindisfarne near the Scottish border. By 872 the Vikings had
penetrated major port cities further south, including the ancient capital of
London.
<www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions/lindisfarne/tour.html>
<www.yorkarchaeology.co.uk/piclib/photos.php>
– 886, King Alfred creates Danelaw
A Civil Peace. After skirmishes with the Vikings that freed London from
Danish control in 886, Alfred the Great signed a treaty with the Danish
king Guthrum which divided England along the Thames creating a
territory for Scandinavian settlers called the Danelaw.
<www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/angsax-chron1.html>
<www.britainexpress.com/History/Alfred_the_Great.htm>
– 1066, Norman Conquest
1066 and All That. After so many invasions and truces, it was Duke
William of Normandy who would change English culture most radically.
After his victory at Hastings over the son of the late English king, William
the Conqueror ensured his hard fought victory by building castles across
Britain. In strongholds like Windsor Castle or the Tower of London, he
placed faithful Norman barons who would control local lands and
churches, establishing French as the official language of government, law,
and literature.
<www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/normans/index.shtml>
<www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/bayeux.htm>

MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD (1066-1485)

The End of a Millennium. With 1066, we come to the end of the “Old
English Period.” The Germanic past of the Angles and Saxons was
replaced by the continental culture of the new French court. Though the
effects of this political change may have been less immediately felt by
common laborers and craftsmen, a more gradual transition from a world
of pagan violence to one of Christian forgiveness can be found in the
literature on either side of 1066.
 ENGL 221 Online 4 ■

The age that followed—though as Churchill notes free from the

threat of invasion—was hardly a time of peace and stability. The foreign
wars, epidemics, and uprisings that succeeded the Norman Conquest
created new anxieties and opportunities for the English people. In a few
days we will return to this interactive timeline to learn more about the
latter half of the Middle Ages and the figures and events that shaped
them.
To Be Continued. . .
– 1095, First Crusade begins
<www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/crusades.htm>
<www.newadvent.org/cathen/04543c.htm>
– 1170, Thomas Becket murdered
<www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/becket.htm>
<www.loyno.edu/~letchie/becket/texts.htm>
– 1215, Magna Carta signed
<www.bl.uk/collections/treasures/magna.html>
<www.archives.gov/exhibit_hall/featured_documents/magna_carta/>
– 1290, Expulsion of the Jews
<www.us-israel.org/jsource/vjw/England.html>
<www.bbc.co.uk/history/timelines/britain/mid_eng_jews.shtml>
– 1348, Black Death arrives in England
<www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/plague.htm>
<www.britainexpress.com/History/medieval/black-death.htm>
– 1380, Wycliffe translates English Bible
<www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/church_reformation/lollards_01.shtml>
<www.hfac.uh.edu/gbrown/philosophers/leibniz/BritannicaPages/Wycliffe/Wyclif
fe.html>
– 1381, Peasant’s Revolt
<www.britannia.com/history/docs/peasant.html>
<www.themediadrome.com/content/articles/history_articles/first_person/peasants
_revolt.htm>
– 1400, Chaucer dies
<www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/>
<hosting.uaa.alaska.edu/afdtk/ECT_Main.htm>
– 1476, Caxton prints Canterbury Tales
<home.vicnet.net.au/~neils/renaissance/caxton.htm>
<www.bl.uk/treasures/caxton/homepage.html>
– 1485, Henry VII crowned
<www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon40.html>
<www.bbc.co.uk/history/timelines/england/tud_henry_vii.shtml>