WORDS
- Anglo-Saxon Chronicles: are a collection of annals narrating the history of the Anglo-Saxons and their settlement in Britain. Much of the information in these documents consists of rumours of events that happened elsewhere and so may be unreliable.
A chronicle is a record or
register of events in chronological order. The Anglo Saxon chronicles geban to
be written at the ened of the 9th century under King Alfred the Grate. It was
written earlier than the Spanish "crónica General".
Each chronicle covered the period
of King´s reign. In the whole, they give the reader information aboy different
aspects, for example about the invasion of the Germanic Tribes and their
settlement in
- Celtic: It was the language
used in Britain which did not disappear under the Roman rule: Many British
place/river names are still of Celtic Origin Or the element -CUMB
"a deep valley"
in DUNcombe, HolCOMBe..
The term Celts (pronounced "kelts") refers to any of a number of ancient peoples in Europe using the Celtic languages, which form a branch of Indo-European languages, as well as others whose language is unknown but where associated cultural traits such as Celtic art are found in archaeological evidence. Historical theories were developed that these factors were indicative of a common origin, but later theories of culture spreading to differing indigenous peoples have recently been supported by genetic studies.
Though the spread of the Roman empire led to continental Celts adopting Roman culture, the development of Celtic Christianity in Ireland and Britain brought an early medieval renaissance of Celtic art between 400 and 1200. Antiquarian interest from the 17th century led to the term Celt being developed, and rising nationalism brought Celtic revivals from the 19th century in areas where the use of Celtic languages had continued. Today, "Celtic" is often used to describe the languages and respective cultures of Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Cornwall, the Isle of Man and the French region of Brittany, but correctly corresponds to the Celtic language family in which are still spoken Scottish, Irish and Manx (Gaelic languages) and Welsh, Breton and Cornish (Brythonic languages).
- Bede: His Historia
ecclesiastica gentis anglorum (731) is basically a history of Christianity
in England, it also deals with political events. The author incorporated
Gildas´account; but modified it by adding exact chronology and location of
events. Bede was the first to name the superbus tyrannus as Vortigerns; he also
mentions hengest and Horsa as the Germanic leaders who came to help Vortigern.
Furthermore, he mentions the fact that Horsa was burried in Kent.
According to Bede, the first
landing of Germanic mercenaries took place in 449: First, the Jutes settled in
Kent and on the Isle of Wight.
They were followed by the Saxons,
who settled west of Kent and South of Thames. And finally came the Angles, who
invaded and took the territory north of the Thames.
- Jutes : they came from the
northern of Jutland and settled in Kent, the Isle of wight and main land
opposite isle of Wight.
Bede mentions them only one
[later in his Historia]
He places them in an area not
favouring their settling in Kent
Cementeries in Kent have yielded
material of Continental Germanic origin, other than the Jutes.
These reasons have led some
historiand to suggest that the Jutes did not exist, that Britain was invaded by
racially mixed groups and that Bede presents in the state of affairs reflecting
political division of the country in the 7th or even the 8th century.
- Angles: They were one of the
three Germanic tribes that invaded Britain. They originally inhabited the
country called Angulus, which was the area south of the Jutes and North-East of
Schleswig. Afterwards, they settled north of the Thames, and from them stemmed
the East Anglians, the Middle Anglians, the Mercians and the Northumbrians.
- Saxons: they were one of the 3
Germanic tribes that invaded Britain. They came from a Continental area to the
south of the Angles that stretched from the Baltic coast to the Weser.
Afterwards, they settled south of the Thames and west of Kent. They gave origin
to the east Saxons, the South Saxons and the West Saxons.
- Romanization: it is the process
which started in the Early Old English when the romans invaded Britain under
the power of Caesar. The conquest took 4 years.
It consisted on several changes
of Britain under the hand of Roman people: construction of roads, cities,
temples, theatres...
Houses and villas (standard of
living) had all the luxuries usual for Roman villas: water, heating...
Archeological findings testify to
a common use of Roman glass and pottery
Culture bassed on the classical
mythology: mosaics, etc.
Language: Celtic in the
countryside. Many bilingual graffiti prove that artisans wrote Latin.
- Britons They were also called
Romano-Britons. They were Roman people who had settled in
- Gildas: it is a Britanic
sourced within the written sources of information for language History.
Gildas liber querulus de excidio
Britanniae (548) was written by an author who was more a preacher and a pseudo
prophet than a historian and therefore, his work contains obvious errors. The
information he offers us could be summarized as follows:
There was a threat of invasion
from the north of the island.
Three shiploads of them landed
somewhere in the eastern part of
These were later followed bu
further contingents who also settled and performed the same mercenary functions
After some time, the Saxons revolted
against the British, fought them and destroyed much of the country
After prolonged fighting, the
British finally defected their former defenders - at Mons Bodonius - and
established a period of peace and prosperity which Gides himself witnessed.
- Tacitus: Publius or Gaius
Cornelius Tacitus (ca. 56–ca. 117), Roman orator, lawyer, and senator, is considered one of
antiquity's greatest historians. His major works—the Annals and the Histories—took for their
subject the history of the Roman Empire's first century, from
the ascension of the emperor Tiberius to the death of Domitian.
Tacitus's political career was
largely spent under the emperor Domitian; his experience of the tyranny,
corruption, and decadence prevalent in the era
(81–96) may explain his bitter and ironic political analysis. He warned against
the dangers of unaccountable power, against the love of power untempered by
principle, and against the popular apathy and corruption,
engendered by the wealth of the empire, which allowed such
evils to flourish. The experience of Domitian's tyrannical reign is generally
also seen as the cause of the sometimes unfairly bitter and ironic cast to his
portrayal of the Julio-Claudian emperors.
- The Frisians: It was a group which
invaded Britain with Jutes and Franks. In the archaeology there ir signs of
some influence of them due to either pre or post invasion contacts. But the
fact that Franks and Frisians did not survive as tribes and languages confirms
the supremacy of the Jutes.
- Vortigern: He was a Britanic
leader. In the period of the decline of Roman rule in
- The Scots: they were a Celtic
tribe that attacked Roman Britain in 367.
- Deviant: