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ОглавлениеPUBLIC SCHOOL HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
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THE COMING OF THE ENGLISH.
[Hints to the Teacher.—Give a brief account of the Romans, their character and conquests, referring especially to the causes of their invasions of England. Give fuller details of British customs, religion, and civilization. Tell the pupils something about the Teutonic, Keltic, and Slavonic races. Go more fully into the changes and improvements made by the Romans in Britain, drawing attention specially to the introduction of Christianity. Explain why the Britons, when the Roman soldiers were withdrawn, could not defend themselves. State clearly the peculiarity of the English conquest of Britain; and tell what kind of men the English were physically, mentally, and morally. Enumerate the names given to the British Islands, and explain their origin. Call the attention of the pupils to Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, and the tales about King Arthur. Show clearly that the Anglo-Saxons had many of the customs that we now have. In connection with the introduction of Christianity, relate the story of Pope Gregory and the English slaves; also other interesting incidents, such as Cowper’s “Boadicea” (4th Reader), and the story of Caractacus at Rome.
References:—Freeman’s “Old English History,” Green’s “History of the English People,” Maclear’s “The Celts,” and Scarth’s “Roman Britain.”]
1. Roman Conquest.—When the British Isles first become known to history the Romans were the great conquering people of Central Europe. So much were they dreaded, and so well had they learned the trade of war, that many countries were subject to them. About the years 58 to 54 before the birth of Christ Cæsar’s Invasions, B.C. 55-54. their armies had overrun Gaul, which we now call France; and their leader, Caius Julius Cæsar, was eager to extend his conquests to Britain. This he did in the years 55 and 54 before Christ; and from Cæsar’s account of his invasions we get our first exact knowledge of the country. The great Roman general made a brief stay in the island, and then withdrew to Gaul, after punishing the Britons for giving aid to their kinsmen on the continent in fighting him. Nearly a The Invasion under Emperor Claudius, A.D. 43. hundred years afterwards the Romans again landed on its shores; and in spite of the resistance of the Britons, under their leader Caractacus, the invaders overran the whole south-eastern portion of England and conquered the country as far north as the Firth of Forth and the Clyde. For over three hundred years the Romans were now to rule Britain.
2. Character and Customs of the Britons.—The inhabitants of Britain were mainly of Keltic origin: their language is still spoken by many of the Welsh, Irish, and Highland Scotch of our day. They were a warlike people, and their bravery was well shown in the defence of their country, particularly under Caractacus and Queen Boadicea. The latter headed a native army which for a time was the scourge of the Roman troops; but in the end the Queen was defeated and some 80,000 Britons were slain. Grieved at the loss of so many of her people, Boadicea put an end to her life by poison. The Britons were an idolatrous people, worshipping the oak and mistletoe, whose priests, called Druids, offered human sacrifices to their gods. The Southern tribes cultivated the soil, were familiar with the use of metals, and had acquired some knowledge of trade from the people of the mainland, who came to the mines of Devon and Cornwall to get supplies of tin and lead. The tribes of the interior were hunters, and lived on what they could kill or trap. They dressed themselves in the skins of wild beasts, and at night sheltered themselves in caves or in wicker huts in the great forests that clothed the land. Like the Indians of America, the British tribes were governed by their own chiefs, and were often at war with one another.
3. Roman Rule, (A.D. 43-410).—First among the results of the Roman occupation of Britain was the opening up of the country. Great military roads were cut through the dense forests, north as far as Scotland, and west into Wales. These roads are still highways of communication in England. With the building of the roads, adjoining lands were tilled, swamps were drained, towns laid out, homesteads reared, and an advance made in agriculture. Another, though a later, result of Roman rule in Britain was the introduction of Christianity. With its coming, churches were built and monasteries founded, and a learned class sprang up whose influence was refining. But if we except the introduction of Christianity, the influence of Roman civilization did not extend very far. It produced little effect on the rude life of the people. In the cities alone was the Roman or Latin tongue spoken, and there, only among the higher classes.
4. Departure of the Romans.—Though Britain had been under Roman rule for over three centuries, many of its western and northern tribes were far from being subjugated. The fiercest enemies of the Romans were the barbarous tribes of the north, called Picts and Scots, the former living in what is now Scotland, and the latter in the north of Ireland. To secure themselves from surprise, The Roman Walls under Hadrian and Antoninus. and to keep these tribes in check, the Romans erected two immense stone walls across the island, and built at least fifty walled towns, numerous inland military stations, and several fortresses on the coast. But these precautions did not prevent the inroads of the Picts and Scots; nor did they save the Romans from the attacks of their other enemies who roamed the sea. Towards the close of the third century, the frontiers of the Roman provinces on the continent were similarly threatened, and to save these more important possessions the Roman troops gradually left Britain, the last of the garrisons being withdrawn from the country in A.D. 410.
5. The Coming of the English.—After the Romans abandoned Britain, its inhabitants, being unfitted for self-government, fell back into their savage ways, and their country became a prey to the pirate Saxons of the Northern Sea. The Saxons were a race of hardy seamen who inhabited the northern coasts of Germany, and were at first called in by the Britons to aid them in driving back the turbulent tribes of the north. But these rovers of the sea were not content to be hirelings. They, too, became the enemies of the Hengist founds the Saxon Kingdom of Kent, A.D. 457. Britons. The Saxon tribes that first secured a foothold in the country were under the leadership of two brothers, Hengist and Horsa. They came from Jutland, the peninsula of Denmark, and, with their wives and families, settled in Kent about the year A.D. 451. Later on, these Jutes, as they were called, were followed by the two other branches of the same family, the Saxons and the Angles—the common home of all being the low-lying lands around the Baltic and the North Sea. The Saxons founded settlements in Sussex and Wessex; while the Angles took the land on the east coast from the Thames to the Firth of Forth. All these tribes—Jutes, Saxons, and Angles—were afterwards known as the English.
6. Nature and Scope of the English Conquest.—The English Conquest, though gradual, was complete. The Britons were either destroyed or driven back into Cornwall and the highlands of Wales. Almost every trace of the Roman occupation of the country disappeared. Even the cities were deserted or laid waste; but English settlements sprang up rapidly over the country, for the invaders came in hordes and overpowered all opposition. As time passed, these settlements grew into kingdoms. Within the space of one hundred and thirty years (A.D. 457-582), seven Saxon kingdoms were founded, each in turn striving for the sovereignty of the whole. These were named Kent, Sussex, Wessex, Essex, Northumbria, Union of the Saxon kingdoms under Egbert, A.D. 827. East Anglia, and Mercia. At the close of the eighth century three of the kingdoms had absorbed the others; and by the year A.D. 827, after much war and bloodshed, the supremacy passed to the Kingdom of Wessex, and what is called the Saxon Heptarchy came to an end. This happened in the reign of Egbert, in whose day the country became known as England, the land of the Angles, the most numerous of the Saxon tribes. To this period belongs the legendary King Arthur, of whom Tennyson, the poet laureate, has written in his Idylls of the King.
7. Customs and Character of the English.—Clinging to their old ways, and not mixing at all with the Britons, the English maintained in their new home the laws and the customs which they had brought from their German fatherland. The tribes settled at first under their chiefs, or leaders, in village communities generally apart from one another. The land upon which they settled was parcelled out among the different families that composed the tribe. As the several tribes spread over the country, the necessity arose for combining together for conquest and protection. This in time led to their formation into political communities. The first demand was for a leader in war; the after demand was for a ruler and counsellor. When the leader arose he became, first, the ealdorman, as he was termed, and, as the communities knit together and formed petty kingdoms, he became the overlord, or king. The succession to the Crown, however, was not yet hereditary: at first the nation chose for king him who seemed most fitted for that honour and trust. In this way had the Saxons been accustomed to make choice of their Wise Men, or Councillors, and of those who led them to battle. This mode of election lives on in our day in the choice we make of our representatives to parliamentary and municipal office. In many ways has Anglo-Saxon custom come down to us. Our limited monarchy, our parliament, and our county and township systems, are all of Anglo-Saxon origin. In character, also, we inherit much from our Anglo-Saxon forefathers. In large measure we possess their steadiness, industry, energy, enterprise, love of freedom, and dislike of arbitrary restraint. In other ways, happily, we have not copied them. The Anglo-Saxons were fierce, bloodthirsty, and revengeful.
8. Introduction of Christianity among the English.—The Saxons for some time after they came to England held to their idolatries; for they were a pagan people, though they believed in a Future State, and in a Paradise where bravery would be rewarded by unstinted carousing. They had numerous gods, the names of some of whom are preserved to us in the days of the week. Wednesday, for instance, is Woden’s day, from Woden, the chief god of the Saxons. At the request of Pope Gregory, Augustine came, in A.D. 597, to the Court of King Ethelbert
“To break the heathen and uphold the Christ.”
There he met with marked success in his missionary work, the influence of which on the barbarian English was early seen in the growth of their civilization, and especially in the elevation of their condition and the advancement of learning among them.
[Examination Questions.—1. Why did the Romans invade Britain?
2. Describe the character, religion, and customs of the Britons.
3. Point out clearly the effects produced by the Roman occupation of Britain.
4. Give an account of the “coming of the English,” and their conquest of Britain. In what respect did this conquest differ from other conquests?
5. Describe the character, customs, and mode of government of the Anglo-Saxons.]
