Dark Ages in England

1. Dark Ages in England Anglo-Saxon Period 440-1066 C.E.

2. Timeline • England becomes part of Roman territory in 52 B.C.E. by Julius Caesar. • Many Roman towns and technologies are incorporated into English life including: aqueducts, roads, and forts. • Hadrian’s Wall is built to keep the Scots isolated in the north.

3. Timeline Contd. • 410 C.E: Rome taken by the Goths and Roman power declines. • 455 C.E: Crisis in Roman Church on the continent. Rome is sacked over and over by invaders and cannot communicate with England for 100 years. • Roman Legions leave England thus making it susceptible to invasion. The believed time period of Arthur and his knights.

4. Timeline Contd. • 560’s: Angles drive all Celts into Cornwall and Wales. • 597 C.E: Anglo-Saxon’s converted to Christianity. • 620 C.E: Burial at Sutton Hoo

5. The Invaders • Saxons: Came from present day Holland and Belgium. They settle in Southern England (Sussex, Essex, and Wessex). • Angles: Came from N. Germany and Denmark. Settled in Northumbria. These people are more primitive than the Saxons.

6. Invaders • Jutes: Less organized than the Angles and the Saxons. May have been a mixture of Germanic peoples. Eventually, marry into and are absorbed by the Angles and Saxons. The Jutes settled in the area of Kent. • Eventually, these Anglo-Saxon people become stronger and became kings.

7. Invaders Contd. • These invaders were all organized into tribal units: • Eorls or earls were the ruling class • Freeman were the second class who owned land and engaged in commerce • Thanes were early barons. They were granted status based on military service.

8. Invaders Contd. • Churls or serfs were bonded servants who worked the land for military protection. • Thralls or slaves were military prisoners. In terms of loyalty the family or clan was the most important followed by the tribe and the kingdom.

9. Customs and Beliefs • The center of social life was the mead hall. Here scops, or bards, entertained the crowd with songs and stories. • Until the 6th century Anglo-Saxons were pagans. • In 597 CE Pope Gregory sent Augustine to convert the leader of Kent, King Ethelbert. By 650 most of England was Christian.

10. Customs Contd. • Blood price or man price: Every person in society had a monetary value. If you killed a man it was that families right to kill you or a member of your family. To avoid this you could pay the price of the man that was killed.

11. The Seven Kingdoms • The period of the Heptarchy: • Kent, Sussex, Essex, Wessex, E. Anglia, Mercia, and Northumbria. • A Bretwalda, or high king, was developed. An over lordship, one king over the other six. This title passed from one king to the next.

12. Sutton Hoo • Anglo-Saxon burial ground for kings. • Discovered in 1936 • Ship burial of an Anglo-Saxon bretwalda. • Burial was probably around 620 C.E. • Buried in his ship with armor, jewelry, and many kinds of tools.

13. Anglo-Saxon Literature • Anglo-Saxon literature was spoken in stories and incantations. It was an oral based literature. • The purpose of the oral tradition was to pass along tradition, tribal history, and values to its members.

14. Lit. contd. • The oral tradition focused on brave and heroic deeds of the warriors. • Today there are only 30,000 lines of A/S verse in existence. Almost all 30,000 lines are found in 4 works of literature.

15. Lit. Contd. • The only surviving full-length epic of Old English tradition is Beowulf. • Versions of this poem were probably recited as early as the 6th century, the text we know was probably composed around the 8th century. It was not written down on paper until the 11th century.

16. Beowulf A story of great contrasts. The tale was begun as a pagan story to show the values of a warrior society. Christianity and its values and beliefs are found throughout the poem. This happens because it is the monks who are educated and who write the story down.