449-1485

449-1485

The Middle Ages

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Time of enormous upheaval and change in England. Some of most famous and infamous kings in the history of England. Disastrous wars, both internal and external Foreign invasions Reconsolidation and emergence of England as an important nation.

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During the middle ages, England moved slowly from the oral tradition of scops and gleemen of the AngloSaxon period, to Geoffrey Chaucer, the “father of English literature”, to the printed word.

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Little is known about the Britons, the early Celtic people that inhabited Britain. The were part of the Roman Empire from the first century A.D. When Romans returned home in 410 the people of Britain were left unprotected and fell prey to looting and raiding from neighbors on the Continent.

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The Jutes were the first group from the great North Germanic Plain to invade in southeastern Britain. The Angles and Saxons followed the Jutes, pushing the Britons into Wales. The legendary King Arthur may have been the leader of the Celtic people driven into Wales.

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The invading Germanic tribes brought with them a language which is the ancestor of present-day English, which we call Old English or Anglo-Saxon. Anglo-Saxon England lasted until 1066 when the Duke of Normandy invaded the country.

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During the AngloSaxon period, England was divided into several smaller kingdoms. Towards the end of this period, the kingdoms, under King Alfred of Wessex, united to fight the Normans in 1066.

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Although there was much in-fighting among the kingdoms, they shared a common language and a heroic ideal and set of traditional heroes. Outstanding courage  Loyalty to one’s leader and tribe  Fierce personal valor 

An impersonal, irresistible fate determined most of life, but heroic and human will and courage allowed individuals to control their own response to fate and thus to win fame and become models for others to follow.

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Kingdom Clan or Tribe Family unit Held meetings in which people could openly express what they thought or felt. Early democracy

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Hardy and brave Highly developed feeling for beauty Created beautiful jewelry of exquisite design and workmanship Vigorous minds Europeans sent to England to learn

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Certain names of days of the week are derived from the Anglo-Saxon gods; Tuesday, from Tiw, the god of war. Law Conduct Language Literature

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Christianity came early to Britain in A.D. 314. Spread by missionaries from the Continent (Europe) In 597, Saint Augustine came and established a monastery at Canterbury, becoming the first Archbishop of Canturbuy.

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Anglo-Saxon poetry was an oral art Poems were sung, frequently accompanied by a harp Poets, or scops, recited well-known poems from memory and were known as the historians of their tribes

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Anglo-Saxon poetry’s two most important traditions were that it was  

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Heroic Elegiac, which mourns the passing of earlier, better times Christian beliefs were added gradually replacing pagan ones

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Monks were the ones who eventually committed the oral poetry to writing. The rhyme in English verse may be attributed to the rhyme in Latin church hymns which were what the monks first wrote. In the late 900s, King Alfred the Great became the patron of scholars and educators and began the trend of writing in English rather than Latin. Alfred the great founded the first English “public schools”