Chapter 3: A Long and Illustrious History

Early Britain

آخر تحقق: 15 July 2026

• 1The first people in Britain were Stone Age hunter-gatherers.
• 2Britain was connected to the European continent by a land bridge; it became permanently separated by the Channel about 10,000 years ago.
• 3The first farmers arrived in Britain around 6,000 years ago; their ancestors probably came from south-east Europe.
• 4The first farmers built houses, tombs and monuments; Stonehenge (in the English county of Wiltshire) was probably a special gathering place for seasonal ceremonies.
• 5Skara Brae on Orkney (off the north coast of Scotland) is the best-preserved prehistoric (Stone Age) village in northern Europe.
• 6The Bronze Age began around 4,000 years ago, when people learned to make bronze.
• 7Bronze Age people lived in roundhouses, buried their dead in round barrows, and were skilled metalworkers in bronze and gold.
• 8The Iron Age followed the Bronze Age; people made weapons and tools of iron and often lived in defended hill forts — a famous example is Maiden Castle in Dorset.
• 9Iron Age people spoke languages of the Celtic family; related languages are still spoken today in parts of Wales, Scotland and Ireland.
• 10The first coins minted in Britain date from the Iron Age, some inscribed with the names of Iron Age kings — conventionally marking the start of recorded British history.
• 11Julius Caesar led a Roman invasion of Britain in 55 BC — it was unsuccessful.
• 12The successful Roman conquest came nearly a century later, under Emperor Claudius, in AD 43.
• 13Boudicca, queen of the Iceni (a tribe in eastern England), led a famous revolt against Roman rule; her statue stands on Westminster Bridge in London, near the Houses of Parliament.
• 14The Romans never conquered Scotland; Emperor Hadrian built a wall (Hadrian's Wall) across the north of England to keep out the Picts (ancestors of the Scottish people).
• 15Hadrian's Wall includes the forts of Housesteads and Vindolanda; it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a popular walking route.
• 16The Romans remained in Britain for about 400 years; they built roads, public buildings, created a legal structure, and introduced new plants and animals.
• 17The first Christian communities appeared in Britain in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD.
• 18The Roman army left Britain in AD 410 to defend other parts of the Empire and never returned.
• 19After the Romans, tribes from northern Europe — the Jutes, Angles and Saxons — invaded and settled; their language is the basis of modern English.
• 20By about AD 600, Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were established in Britain, mainly in what is now England.
• 21Sutton Hoo in Suffolk is a famous Anglo-Saxon burial site, where a king was buried in a ship with treasure and armour.
• 22Wales and Scotland were largely outside Anglo-Saxon rule.
• 23Christian missionaries from Ireland spread Christianity in the north: St Patrick (patron saint of Ireland) and St Columba, who founded a monastery on the island of Iona off the coast of Scotland.
• 24St Augustine came from Rome, spread Christianity in the south, and became the first Archbishop of Canterbury.
• 25The Vikings came from Denmark and Norway; their first visit was in AD 789, to raid coastal towns.
• 26Vikings later stayed and settled, especially in the east and north of England, in an area known as the Danelaw — place names like Grimsby and Scunthorpe come from the Viking languages.
• 27King Alfred the Great united the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and defeated the Vikings.
• 28England was briefly ruled by Danish kings; the first of these was Cnut (also called Canute).
• 29In the north, the Viking threat encouraged people to unite under one king, Kenneth MacAlpin; the term "Scotland" began to be used for that country.
• 30In 1066, William, Duke of Normandy (William the Conqueror), invaded England and defeated King Harold, the Saxon king, at the Battle of Hastings; Harold was killed in the battle.
• 31The Battle of Hastings is commemorated in the Bayeux Tapestry, a huge embroidery that can still be seen in France today.
• 32The Norman Conquest was the LAST successful foreign invasion of England.
• 33The Normans spoke Norman French, which greatly influenced the development of the English language.
• 34William sent people all over England to compile the Domesday Book — a survey listing towns, villages, who lived there, and who owned the land.
• 35The Norman Conquest led to changes in government and social structure; Norman French became the language of the ruling classes.
• 36The Normans conquered only parts of Wales (border areas); the Welsh gradually won territory back; Scotland remained unconquered by the Normans.