Storia dell'Inghilterra: Celti, Romani, Anglo-Sassoni, Normanni e Guerre Civili, Sintesi del corso di Inglese

Scarica Storia dell'Inghilterra: Celti, Romani, Anglo-Sassoni, Normanni e Guerre Civili e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! CELTING AND ROMAN BRITAIN Pre-Celtic Britain The original inhabitants of Britain were a Celtic-speaking people called Britons, from the Neolithic period. Pre-Celtic people built Stonehenge, on Sallabury Plain, between 5,000 and 4,500 years ago, to mark the passing of the seasons. The Celts The Celts (Keltoi or barbarians) were Indo-European tribes from Europe and Asia Minor in pre-Roman times. Those who settled in England lived in clans, each raied by a leader who was chosen among the men sharing blood relationship. They made iron weapons, wove their clothes, were farmers and hunters. They lived in hill forts surrounded by strong walls. The Celts believed that every natural element had a little deity living in it. Druids acted as judges and doctors and could predict the future and heal the sufferings. Celtic art in Britain doesn't survive in literary form. Roman Britain In 54BC Julius Caesar made military expeditions to Britain. The Roman conquest of Britain began in 43AD under the Emperor Claudius. The Romans built the Hadrian's Wall in the north of modern England in 121 A.D to defend Britain from Celts. The Celtic tribes in Britannia adapted to Roman civilization, and became Christian the 4th century. The Roman presence in Britain can still be traced in the names of some towns ending in -chester and -cester, in road systems, in the major cities and the latinate part of the English vocabulary. The Roman armies managed to oppose the first Saxon raids in the late 3rd century, but then Britain fell prey to the invasion by Germanic tribes on the coast of northern Europe. ANGLO SAXON BRITAIN AND THE GERMANIC HERITAGE The Anglo-Saxon invasion After the Romans left in 410, northern tribes began to invade Britain and settle there. The Angles, Saxons and Jutes came to Britain in 449. The Britons at first fought against the Anglo-Saxons, but then retreated to the Welsh interior. Their fight against the invaders produced stories centred around King Arthur, that became England's first legendary king and Anglo Saxons' national hero. The Germanic element The northern tribes that invaded Britain after the fall of the Roman Empire all shared a common Germanic heritage. They were a hardy, warlike race and placed a very high value on the ideal of kingly behaviour. The king and his fellow lords had to be willing to risk their lives in battle. Germanic society was totally ruled by men: women are only mentioned if they are the wives or daughters of kings. The best surviving records of Anglo-Saxon court life are to be found at Sutton Hoo, in Suffolk, the site of two 6th and 7th-century cemeteries containing a ship burial from which many Anglo-Saxon artifacts have been recovered. Anglo-Saxon society The Angle-Saxons believed in Independence rather than grouping into bigger confederations, and this explains why for centuries there were several sall kingưoms in England, such as Northumbria, Mercia, Kent and Wessex. It was from Canterbury, in Kent, that Christianity spread from the 6th century. Winchester was an influential literary and artistic centre and was also the city where the Norman kings later held court. The Christian influence Since England was largely a Christian country, churches and monasteries were essential for the illumination of manuscripts, sculpture, painting and architecture and latin written literature, the common language. St.Augustine was sent by the pope to Britain during the Anglo-Saxon influence. The Viking invasions The Anglo Saxons settlement of Britain had to face a military challenge from the Vikings in c. 800, attracted by the wealth of monasteries' treasures. They came from Scandinavia on their famous long, fast and strong ships. They were great sailors, traders, fishermen and farmers. King Alfred the Great of Wessex fought them to a drawe and divided England with them, giving them the North and the Midlands (Danclaw). The Viking presence in Britain can still be traced in the names of some towns ending in -by. THE NORMANS The Norman Conquest Duke William of Normandy conquered England after the Battle of Hastings. The Normans were Vikings who had settled on the north coast of France a century and a half before. William I the Conqueror (1066-87) introduced the Norman organization of the state into England, which was a feudal system. The clash between Crown and Church: Thomas Becket Besides the feudal system, there was the Church, organized hierarchically, from the Pope to the bihops to the priests. The power of the Church in the Middle Ages was both spiritually and temporally immense. Under Henry II (114-19) there came the first great clash between the Crown and the Church in England. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket opposed the king's attempt to rule the Church and spent six years in France in self-imposed exile.When he came back he was murdered by the king's knights in Canterbury Cathedral. He was made a martyr and saint by the Roman Catholic Church. Magna Carta and Parliament Henry II's eldest son Richard I (the Lionheart), was celebrated for his courage and personal charm. He first joined the Thind Crusade, and then went to France to defend his land from the French king Philip II and died there. John I (Lackland) succeeded his brother as king of England. He imposed heavy taxation to the feudal nobility, the citizens of London and the high clergy. In 1215 he was forced to grant the Magna Carta, or Great Charter of Liberty, which was to be the foundation of all future rights and freedoms of the English people. Under the reign of Henry III (1216-72) the parliament (meeting in order to talk, from the French parler) was a feudal assembly composed of noblemen and high clergy alone. But in 1264, two representatives from each borough were also called to Parliament, forming the House of Commons, made up of representatives of the common people. They were elected by the people. Only few people had the right to vote and they did not include women. WARS AND SOCIAL REVOLT The Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) War with France broke out in 1337 when Edward III (1327-77) claimed the throne of France as the grandson of the French king Philp he Fair. Henry V(1413 22) won at Agincourt in 1415, but they didn't gain any advantage. The conflict was interrupted by the bubonic plague known as Black Death which wiped out about one third of the popalation. Under the king Henry VI (1422-71) the French obtained victories thanks to Joan of Arc, or pucelle d'Orleans. In the end they managed to drive the English out of France in 1453. Religious and social revolt The leadership John Wycliffe (c.1328 84) developed oppositions to the Church. He was the first to translate parts of the Bible from Latin into English to spread knowledge of it among the common people. Wycliffe inspired the Lollard heresy and the social Peasants' Revolt, in 1381. The revolt was caused by the Poll Tax, that asked for three groats (= 12 pennies) from every male in the family over fifteen. In the end the revolt was finally suppressed. The Wars of the Roses (1454-85) In the Middle Ages a devastating civil war broke out in 1454 between the two noble houses of York and Lancaster. It was called the Wars of the Roses, because of the white and red roses that figured in the two families coats of arms. The wars were finally won by Henry Tudor, of the Lancastrian dynasty, who defeated Richard III the Yorkist king, at the battle of Bosworth in 1485, and became Henry VII of England. THE FRENCH INFLUENCE A new culture and a new literature in English The Norman Conquest had important consequences for Englislh culture. The new masters brought to England a refined civilization and the French language. The old Anglo-Saxon literature disappeared. Common people started to speak Old English, a French dialect, spoken by the upper classes and Latin, the language of the Church, of culture, govermert and law. Works written in English exemplified new forms and genres, showing French and Italian influences: they were also written in Middle English. OLD ENGLISH: it reappeared in the 12th c with a new form of literature inspired by french and italian literature and written in middle English The ideal of chivalry The social and cultural life of Medieval England was dominated by a code of chivalry, a therme that comes from the medieval Latin word caballerius (a knight or a horseman equipped for battle). It denotes the religious, moral and social code and practices of the knightly system. These may be summed up as: loyalty between the knight and his sovereign, courage in battle and a highly formalised code of love involving the knight's absolute devotion to a woman, for whom he usually sets out on adventures. Traces of this are still used today, for example in the concept of the gentleman, the good manners, courtesy to women, and the idea that love is the most powerful and important of emotions.