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English history (Part I), The first capital of Britain was Colchester,…
English history (Part I)
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Early Britain
Heptarchy (c. 500-825)
To deal with the Scots, the English hired Saxon mercenaries, but could not pay them, so the Saxons took land by force and invited other Germanic tribes.
Ambrosius Aurelianus stopped Saxon expansion at the Battle of Mons Badonicus (c. 500) and thus Britain remained divided between Britons and Saxons.
In 595, Saint Augustine arrived in Canterbury and convert Æthelberht of Kent to Christianity, who used his power as overlord of many Saxon lands to convert them too.
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Wessex and the vikings
Viking raids, which were already common, vastly increased in the 9th century, and the Great Heathen Army from Denmark managed to conquer many important Northern kingdoms by 870.
Alfred the Great of Wessex managed to stop Southern Dane expansion at the Battle of Edington (878) and made many reforms to prepare for future invasions, thus preserving Anglo Saxon culture and making the house of Wessex the first ruling house of England until 1066.
The Danes eventually settled in the territory they conquered, implementing their own costumes (Danelaw) and profiting from sea trade.
By 927, Wessex had managed to reconquer most of the Danish territory in the North, thus only leaving a few Norse controlled lands in Ireland and Scotland.
The viking raid on the monastry Lindisfarne (793) ushered the beginning of the Viking Age (793-1066).
Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria were the largest English kingdoms by the 9th century, though smaller ones existed.
Pre-Rome
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Religion
Druidism was the religion of England, with sacred caves and druids meeting in groves.
They worship gods such as Lud, Cirencester and Epona, and human sacrifice was common.
Foreigners
By 100BC when the Romans set their eyes on Britain, there were 15 large tribes with figures such as kings, and around 2 million inhabitants.
The Southern tribes were already very Romanised before the invasion, as they often engaged in trade.
Pytheas was a Greek sailor who landed in Britain in 345BC, calling it Brettaniai, which gave origin to the name Britain.
The first capital of Britain was Colchester, although only for a few years.
In the decade of 120AD, emperor Hadrian built his Hadrian’s wall separating Roman Britain and Scotland in order to tax travellers.
Aside from Roman Christianity, there was the local Britonnic Christianity. Overall, churches served as centers of learning in Britain.
Alfred started the Alfredian Renaissance, in which he invited many scholars from Dane occupied lands to Wessex, ushering an age of cultural flourishing, with translations of Latin works and cataloging of historical events.
Saint Augustine came to England to convert the Germanic people, for the natives were already mostly Christian.
By the end of the 7th century, all England was Christian.
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The Germanic word "Walh" means Celtic or Latin speaker, but it could also mean slave, as these people were below the Saxons in their hierarchy. From this came the name Wales, were the native Celts lived.