What should you know about early Britain, from the Romans to the Vikings?

What should you know about early Britain, from the Romans to the Vikings?

Learn early Britain as a line of arrivals, in order. Each group came from across the sea, stayed, and left something behind, such as buildings, laws, a language or a religion.

The order is Stone Age people, Bronze Age and Iron Age people, the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons, the Vikings, and last the Normans in 1066.

Who lived in Britain before the Romans?

The first people were hunter-gatherers in the Stone Age. Britain was joined to the continent by land for a long time and became separate about 10,000 years ago. The first farmers arrived 6,000 years ago. They built houses, tombs and monuments. Stonehenge in Wiltshire is one, probably a place for seasonal ceremonies. Skara Brae on Orkney is the most complete prehistoric village in northern Europe and shows how people lived near the end of the Stone Age.

About 4,000 years ago people learned to make bronze. They lived in roundhouses and buried their dead in round barrows. Then came iron. Iron Age people lived in larger settlements, sometimes with hill forts such as Maiden Castle in Dorset. They spoke a Celtic language and minted the first coins in Britain. This is where British history begins.

A simple hook is that the age names follow the metal: stone, bronze, iron.

What did the Romans do?

Julius Caesar led an invasion in 55 BC but it failed. In AD 43 Emperor Claudius led a new invasion and the Romans took almost all of Britain. Boudicca, queen of the Iceni in eastern England, fought against them. There is a statue of her on Westminster Bridge.

The Romans never conquered much of Scotland. Emperor Hadrian built a wall in the north of England to keep out the Picts, who were ancestors of the Scottish people. Parts of it, with the forts Housesteads and Vindolanda, can still be seen.

The Romans stayed about 400 years. They built roads and public buildings, set up a structure of law and brought new plants and animals. The first Christian communities appeared in the 3rd and 4th centuries.

Remember: 55 BC failed, AD 43 worked, AD 410 left.

Who came after the Romans?

The army left in AD 410 to defend other parts of the empire. Tribes from northern Europe, the Jutes, the Angles and the Saxons, then invaded. Their languages are the basis of English. By about AD 600 there were Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, mostly in what is now England. Much of Wales and Scotland stayed free of their rule. A king was buried at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk with treasure and armour, inside a ship under a mound of earth.

The Anglo-Saxons were not Christian at first. Missionaries came from Ireland and from Rome. St Patrick, who became patron saint of Ireland, and St Columba, who founded a monastery on Iona, spread the faith in the north. St Augustine came from Rome to the south and became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. People mix the two routes up, so remember: Ireland worked in the north, Rome in the south.

What did the Vikings change?

The Vikings came from Denmark, Norway and Sweden. They first raided coastal towns in AD 789 and took goods and slaves. Later they began to settle, in the east of England and in Scotland. King Alfred the Great united the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and defeated them. Even so, many Vikings stayed in the Danelaw, in the east and north of England. Some converted to Christianity.

For a short time Danish kings ruled England, the first being Cnut. In the north the threat of Vikings pushed people to unite under one king, Kenneth MacAlpin, and the word Scotland began to be used.

What was the Norman Conquest?

In 1066 William, Duke of Normandy, defeated the Saxon King Harold at the Battle of Hastings. Harold was killed. William became king and is known as the Conqueror. The Bayeux Tapestry, about 70 metres long, shows the battle and is in France.

This was the last successful foreign invasion of England. Norman French influenced the English language. William had every town, village, owner and animal listed in the Domesday Book, which still exists.

For what happened next, read the Middle Ages. For the fights of this time, see battles and wars. The chapter is on the history chapter page, and there is a free practice test too.

Check yourself

Put these in order without looking: Vikings, Romans, Normans, Anglo-Saxons, Iron Age.

For each group, say one thing it left behind in Britain.

Why did the Romans build a wall in the north of England, and who was it meant to keep out?