Historical Background
*The Conquest of Britain (800-600 B.C.)
-Celts: farmers and hunters
Brythons/Britons settled on largest island, Britain and Gaels settled on second largest, Ireland
-Druids: class of priests who settled Celts' disputes
-Second conquerors of Britain: Romans
-Julius Caesar made hasty invasions in 55 B.C.
- Roman rule lasted 300 years until northern European tribes invaded Italy
-Anglo-Saxons: deep-sea fishermen and farmers who existed in Germany, but took over more of England, today
*The Coming of Christianity
-accepted by Romans beginning in the fourth century
-Columba: gained converts to Christianity in sixth century and established monasteries in the north
-Saint Augustine: (597) converted King Ethelbert of Kent, England, to Christianity and set up monasteries
-Church: promoted peace and helped unify English people
*Danish Invasion
-Pirates: Norse of Norway invaded Northumbria, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland whereas the Danes targeted eastern and southern England
-by mid 199th century, most northern, eastern, and central England fell to invaders
-King Edward (aka: The Confessor) because he was deeply religious
*The Norman Conquest
-aka: "north men" were descendants of Vikings who invaded coast of France in 19th century
-William killed Harold at the Battle of Hastings to claim crown
-William suppressed the Anglo-Saxon nobility and confiscated their lands
-Feudal System: exchange of property for personal service. All land belonged to King
*The Reign of Plantagenets
-Henry Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, came to thrown as Henry II
-Henry's concern with legal matters created problems with the Church and Pope sided with Becket
-Henry's knights murdered Becket in his cathedral
*The Magna Carta
-Richard I: staged military expeditions overseas
-Content: restrictions on royal power in magna carta marked the beginning of constitutional government in England
*Landcasters, Yorks, and Tudors
-Landcastrian Kings: Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI
-Wars of the Roses (1455-1885): House of York contested Lancastrian rule
-Henry Tudor: distant cousin and supporter of the Landcastrian Kings, led a rebellion against the unpopular Yorkist King, Richard II, and killed him
*Decline of the Feudal System
-Great Plague (aka: Black Death) from 1348-1349
-labor shortage increased value of peasant's work after plague
-Free peasantry replaced the serfs of Middle Ages
Literature of the Period
*Anglo-Saxon Literature
-began with spoken verse and incantations
-Anglo Saxon Poetry: heroic poetry and elegiac poetry
Ex) Beowulf and "The Wanderer"
-Beowulf: epic. long heroic poem of a great legendary warrior renowned for his courage, strength, and dignity
- -unknown author, Christian ideas and Latin classic references
-Anglo-Saxon Prose
-first written in Latin and vernacular/"vulgar tongue."
*Literature of the English Middle Ages
-Medieval Drama: first performed in churches and then began as miracle plays/mystery plays that retold sories from the Bible of dealt with Saint stories. Morality plays offered moral lessons to ordinary people's lives
-An Emerging National Identity: Johann Gutenberg perfected the printing process to a movable type in 1476. William Caxton began movable printing type in England.
-Geoffrey Chaucer: poet and administrator in London. He wrote The Canterbury Tales
-Romances, Lyrics, and Ballads
The Changing English Language: The Beginnings of English
-English: Teutonic plunderers invaded Britannia and brought with them a Low Germanic tongue/Old English
-Middle English: Norman French conquered English after Egbert ruled, invaded England, and English was flooded by the French-spoken Normans
The Seafarer. The Wanderer. The Wife's Lament
-Scops: traveling storytellers who memorized, adapted, and passed along an oral tradition of stories and songs
-Exeter Book: collection of manuscripts that includes pieces of this oral tradition
-Anglo-Saxon Culture: expert seafarers who sailed the ocean to raid or settle other lands. They settled in England in the 500s, converted to Christianity, and retained a pagan conviction in the power of fate and retold Germanic and Scandinavian tales of heroes and monsters.
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