Britain: Prehistory to Norman Era – Rapid Review

Prehistoric Britain

  • Period covers hundreds of thousands of years; divided into Stone, Bronze, Iron Ages based on tool material.

Stone Age

  • Ice Ages created land-bridge (Doggerland) linking Britain to Europe until 6200\,\text{BC}.
  • Early humans: nomadic hunter-gatherers using flint tools; temporary shelters.
  • Late phase (Neolithic Revolution): agriculture and animal domestication; permanent farms, long-barrow tombs, earliest stone circles.

Bronze Age (start \approx3000{-}2500\,\text{BC})

  • Iberian arrivals introduce bronze; stone gradually abandoned for tools/weapons.
  • Continued megalith building; Avebury & Stonehenge (oldest of \sim600 European henge sites).

Iron Age (from \approx700\,\text{BC})

  • Celtic migrations bring iron-smelting, tribal society, improved farming & trade.
  • Britain becomes major food exporter; Roman attraction.
  • Notable leader: Boudicca’s revolt \text{AD }61.
  • Cultural legacy in modern Highland Scots, Welsh, Irish, Cornish; Celtic languages persist.

Roman Conquest (main invasion \text{AD }43)

  • Julius Caesar raids 55{-}54\,\text{BC}; full annexation under Emperor Claudius.
  • Governance: Legate (military/judicial) & Procurator (finance) over local aristocracies.
  • Economy: coinage, 10{,}000-mile road grid, taxes; agriculture remains core.
  • Latin used by elites; Celtic survives in north & west.
  • Achievements: civitas towns (e.g., Londinium), forums, baths, Hadrian’s Wall, aqueducts, amphitheatres.

Anglo-Saxon Period ( 410{-}1066 )

  • Tribes: Jutes, Angles, Saxons; record in “Anglo-Saxon Chronicle”.
  • Government: King; Witan; Earldoms→Shires→Hundreds→Tithings.
  • Key king: Alfred the Great (victory at Edington 878; navy, Chronicle, Danelaw treaty).
  • Economy: arable & livestock farming, mills (\approx6000), silver coin trade.
  • Society: Thanes, Churls, Thralls; kinship solidarity; some female property rights.
  • Culture: Old English language foundation; Christianisation via St Augustine (6^{th} c.).
  • End: Harold Godwinson killed at Hastings 1066.

Viking Activity ( 9^{th} c.–1066 )

  • First major raid: Lindisfarne 793.
  • Great Heathen Army lands 865; captures York (capital); forms Danelaw after Edington defeat 878.
  • Second wave: Danish king Svein Forkbeard seizes throne 1013; son Cnut rules 1014, bringing peace.
  • Danelaw: regions—Northumbria, East Anglia, Five Boroughs; ‘Thing’ assemblies, Law-speaker.
  • Society: Jarls, Karls, Thralls; intermarriage spreads Old Norse vocabulary (e.g., “law”, towns ending -by).
  • Viking age ends with Stamford Bridge victory over Harald Hardrada 1066.

Norman Conquest (from Hastings 1066)

  • William, Duke of Normandy, wins at Hastings; depicted on Bayeux Tapestry.
  • Centralised rule; Curia Regis replaces Witan; castles secure control.
  • Feudalism: king→Tenants-in-chief→Under-tenants→Serfs; recorded in Domesday Book 1085 for taxation (geld).
  • Economy: agriculture + expanded wool trade with Europe; guilds regulate commerce.
  • Society: Anglo-Saxon elite replaced by Norman barons; French (Norman) official language; Old English absorbs vast vocabulary.
  • Church: Norman clergy installed; cathedral building surge.
  • Architecture: Romanesque stone castles, keeps, cathedrals.
  • Period ends when Henry II (Plantagenet) ascends 1154 after civil war (“Anarchy”).