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Medieval
Britain
"Mediæval
Britain"
is a term used to suggest that there is a unity to the history
of Great Britain from the 5th century's withdrawal of Roman
forces and Germanic invasions until the 16th century Reformations in
Scotland and England. Major historical events in Mediæval British
history include the Christianisation of England and
Scotland, the Norman Conquest, England's participation in the
Hundred Years' War and the Wars of the Roses.
The Mediæval period can be dated from the Anglo-Saxon conquest
of the legendary Hengest and Horsa, when the Celtic powers
of Romanized Britain were conquered by Germanic tribes from
the contemporary Jutland area. Similarly, the end of the
mediæval period is ordinarily dated by the rise of what is often
referred to as the "English Renaissance" in the reign of Henry
VIII and John Knox's Reformation in Scotland. From a linguistic
and political point of view, the Norman Conquest of England
divides Mediæval Britain in two distinct phases of cultural and
political history.
A further problem comes from the term "Britain". During the mediæval
period, Britain, the island, was a number of kingdoms. At the
height of English mediæval power, a single English king ruled
from the border with Scotland to the border of Wales, while Scotland
and Wales were themselves ruled variously by kingdoms of various
sizes. After the Norman Conquest, English power intruded into
Wales with increasing vigour, but the process of consolidation
was continuous from William to Oliver Cromwell and is
not a mediæval feature.
Early Mediæval: Languages
and Origins
Around 400 AD, Roman forces
withdrew from the island of Britain. The Celtic forces that had
fought the Romans to a standstill for decades and been conquered
only with great effort were, by this point, very weak. They had
relied upon Roman force to protect them from Scottish and Welsh
Celtic marauders and invaders, and when the Roman troops left, the
Britons had no effective defence.
According to the Venerable Bede, the British king called upon two
Germanic tribal leaders from Europe to help defend Romanised Britain
(i.e. Britain south of Hadrian's Wall). These two kings were named
Hengest and Horsa, and they led a coalition of Angles and Saxons.
The Anglo-Saxons rapidly repelled the Celtic invaders and pacified
the land. After this, there was a vast victory banquet, where the
participants were seated Celt and Saxon alternatingly around the
table. At a certain point, Hengest announced "nemet eora saxa" (take
out your saxas). Each Saxon drew out his saxa (a long dagger
whose name was associated with the tribe) and stabbed the Celtic
ruler beside him. With the entire leadership of Celtic Britain dead,
the Anglo-Saxons were able to take over the country in a matter
of three to four years.
Whether Bede is completely accurate or not is in some doubt. "Hengest"
and "Horsa" both mean "horse," so it is possible that only one person
is indicated. Also, while the Saxons and Angles are well attested,
some of the other tribes supposedly involved in the conquest are
very difficult to locate. In general, however, Bede's evidence is
accepted as the best account available.
The Anglo-Saxon kings divided up the nation into a number of different
areas, each operating more or less independently of the others.
These kings were like other Germanic princes and brought with them
the tales, religion, and traditions of the continent, including
the worship of Odin (as Woden), the practice of weregild, the
comitatus code, and the distribution of wealth in battle to
thanes and retainers. They also brought with them the culture of
scaldic poetry and alliterative verse. Their language is
called Anglo-Saxon or Old English.
England
and Wales at the time of the Saxon kingdoms
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Christianity
The Welsh maintained the Christian traditions inherited
from Roman times. The Anglo-Saxon tribes in England retained their
pagan traditions.
In the Kingdom of Kent, King Ethelbert's wife Bertha, a Christian
Merovingian princess, had brought a chaplain with her and built
or restored a church in Canterbury and dedicated it to St Martin
of Tours, a major patron of the Merovingians. Probably under influence
of his wife, the pagan Ethelbert asked Pope Gregory I to send
missionaries. A reluctant Augustine of Canterbury was sent;
in 597 he landed in Kent.
Ethelbert held the largely honorific title of among the kingdoms,
and the re-Christianisation of England spread in the south from
Canterbury.
In 563 Saint Columba, exiled from his native Ireland, founded
a monastery on the island of Iona in the Hebrides, and from
there Christianity spread to the rest of Scotland and the north
of England.
Norman conquests
The thirteenth century
The fourteenth century
Sir William Wallace |
The struggle
for mastery of Scotland continued into the next century. In
1305 William Wallace was executed by the English, but in 1307 Robert
the Bruce had himself crowned king. The same year
Edward I died, leaving the throne to his son Edward II. The
young Edward turned out to be a far less capable commander than
his father, and suffered a decisive loss at the Battle of Bannockburn in
1314. Robert's death in 1329 gave the English an opportunity
to restore the subservient Edward Balliol, and true independence
was only reached with Balliol's death and the accession of David
II. The Scottish victory at Bannockburn however, along with the
1320 Declaration of Arbroath, was in the long run to secure
Scottish independence for the next three centuries.
Meanwhile the weak kingship of Edward II was causing troubles in
England. His tendency for favouritism several times brought him
into conflict with his nobles. After suppressing a rebellion by
his cousin Thomas of Lancaster, at the Battle of Boroughbridge in
1322, he fell victim to a coup by his wife Isabelle and her
lover Roger Mortimer. In 1327 Edward was dethroned and murdered,
and a protectorship was set up for his son, Edward III. Three years
later, in 1330, Edward III in turn made a coup against his protectors,
and started his personal rule.
In 1337 Edward made a claim to the French throne, by this
effectively starting the Hundred Years' War. The war was initially
highly successful for the English. Edward and his son, Edward the
Black Prince, won resounding victories at Crecy and Poitiers.
Then success in France abated toward the end of Edward's reign,
and that of his grandson Richard II. Richard reverted to Edward
II's custom of favouritism, and grew highly unpopular. In 1399 he
was deposed by his cousin, Henry of Bolingbroke, who proclaimed
himself Henry IV.
Edward Bruce, Robert's brother, invaded Ireland in 1315. While Edward's
invasion was unsuccessful, it weakened the English position on the
island, a tendency only intensified by the Black Death and
English involvement on the continent. Beyond the Pale, English control
became precarious; local tribes took over more and more of the territory,
while the English living there gradually became Gaelicised.
The fifteenth century
The Battle of
Agincourt, 15th century miniature
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As a result
of Henry IV's usurpation, his years on the throne were marked by
plots and rebellions, and continental campaigns had to be put on
hold. The English did, however, have some success in the struggles
with their neighbours, much due to the military skills of Henry,
Prince of Wales, who suppressed the Welsh rebellion led by Owen
Glendower in 1400-15. The younger Henry, as King Henry V, was
also to resume the war in France, winning a decisive victory at
Agincourt in 1415. Henry married the daughter of the French
king, Charles VI, and was recognised as heir to the French throne
in 1420. Unfortunately for the English, however, Henry died in 1422,
two months before the French king.
Henry left as heir the eight-months old Henry VI. Henry's long minority,
and subsequent incompetence, resulted in the loss of most of the
French possessions. The ascendancy of Joan of Arc was to decide
the conflict in favour of the French, and by 1453 the Hundred
Years' War was in reality over. The loss of France, combined
with Henry's general failings as king, led to internal conflict
in England. The conflict was primarily between the dukes of Somerset,
who acted more or less as the king's regent, and York, a competent
commander whom many thought had a stronger claim to the throne than
Henry himself. The conflict escalated to the level of civil war
in 1455, in what to posterity has been known as the Wars of the
Roses. After York's death in 1460, his son Edward defeated the Lancastrians
the next year in the Battle of Towton, and usurped the throne as
Edward IV. The conflict did not end by this, however. Edward's main
supporter - the Earl of Warwick, known as the Kingmaker - became
disgruntled with the king's politics, and briefly managed to restore
Henry VI in 1470. Only by Warwick's death in the Battle of Barnet in
1471, was Edward's position secured.
Wars of the Roses: Dukes York and Lancaster
choose roses in the Temple Gardens
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Edward's
premature death in 1483, at 40, again raised the spectre of a
long royal minority, as his son Edward V was only 12 years
old. The new king's uncle, Richard of Gloucester, became regent,
but conflict ensued with the king's family on his mother's side
- the Woodvilles. Richard saw himself forced to usurp the throne,
as Richard III, and probably also to have young Edward murdered.
The general perception of Richard as a regicide made him
so unpopular that the rather weak claim to the throne by the exiled
Henry Tudor gained wide support. Henry invaded England in 1485,
and Richard was defeated and killed at the Battle of Bosworth.
Henry was crowned king as Henry VII, thereby establishing the
Tudor dynasty.
Internal conflict in England enabled the Irish to continue
their path towards virtual independence. The Lordship of Ireland was
effectively delegated to the Earl of Kildare. Meanwhile, the Stewarts continued
their process of consolidating the kingdom. The capture of James
I by the English in 1406 was a serious setback to the
Scots, but at his return in 1424 he set about strengthening
central authority, a process continued by his descendants.
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