People of Ancient Britain History of Britain (стр. 3 из 4)

The slow breakdown of Rome coincided with the restless stirrings of more vigorous people. The fierce Huns were expanding westwards from central Asia, and others - Vandals, Goths, Franks, etc. - moved west ahead of them. Among them were the Saxons who came to Britain.

Roman civilization in Britain was dying for many years before the legions departed. Some towns, like Bath, were ruined and deserted before the Saxon invaders reached them. Coins and pottery, which provide such valuable clues for archaeologists, were becoming scarce before 400. Written records disappeared almost entirely. Looking back, we seem to see а gloomy northern mist falling on Britain. Through it we hear the cries and sounds of battle, while now and then some menacing figure looms dimly through the mist, bent on plunder.

However, Roman civilization did not suddenly disappear in 406, the year that the Roman legions suddenly disappeared for good. The Mildenhall treasure, discovered in Suffolk in the 1940s, is а dazzling witness to the wealth of some households at the time when Roman rule was collapsing. British leaders thought themselves better Romans than the citizens of sinful Rome for, influenced by Pelagius, they were critical of the Roman 'establishment' in both Church and State.

Without the legions Britain was almost defenceless against its various enemies, and Saxon raids increased. А British king, Vortigern (а title not а name), allowed some of the raiders to settle in Kent about 430. Не hoped these people, who were probably Jutes, would prevent further raids, but he soon fеll out with them himself. Almost the last direct word we hear from Britain for over а hundred years is а letter of about 446, which speaks of 'the groans of the Britons', whom 'the barbarians are driving to the sea'.

This was an appeal for help to Rome (never answered), and it probablу exaggerated the plight of the British. With so little historical evidence, we tend to think that Roman-British society was quickly wiped out. But that did not happen. We now know that cities like St Alban's and Silchester were still inhabited in the 6th century, and that there was а revival of Celtic art, probably resulting from the weakening of Roman influence in the late 4th century. We know too that the British succeeded, at least for а short time, in halting the Germanic invaders.

In the late 5th century, the British were led by а shadowy figure called Ambrosius Aurelianus (note the Latin, i.e. 'Roman', name). Не harassed the Saxons by fast-striking attacks at fords and crossroads. When he died, some time after 500, the leadership was taken over by his chief general, whose name was Arthur.

We are now in Round Table country: the stories of King Arthur, his Queen Guinevere and his noble Knights of the Round Table are well-known. But these beautiful stories are legends - made up by poets in the later Middle Ages. It was once thought that they were total fiction. But we now know that Arthur was а real general or king.

Не must have been а good commander, for he beat the Saxons twelve times before his greatest battle at Mount Badon, somewhere in the West County, about 516. Arthur's victory there not only stopped the Saxons, it persuaded some of them to go back to Gеrmany.

About twenty years later Arthur was killed, probably in а civil war. The Saxons advanced again, and before the end of the 6th century they had spread throughout Lowland Britain.

The arrival of the Anglo-Saxons History of Britain (историяБритании)

The Germanic invaders of Britain, who were to become the English, came from north-west Europe, between the mouth of the Rhine and the Baltic Sea. By Roman standards they were uncivilized people. They had never known Roman rule, and when they reached Britain they were startled by the Roman buildings. Only а race of giants, they thought, could have built them. They avoided the towns, preferring their own simpler settlements.

At first the Anglo-Saxons arrived in small groups. Then, liking the country, they came in larger bands, and began to move inland, finding their way to the heart of England up the Thames and other rivers. The England they found was not much like the England of modem times. То judge from Anglo-Saxon poetry it was а grim, cold place. Thorny forests and barren heaths covered much of the land, swamps and marshes covered more. Rivers were not neatly confined within banks but oozed over the fields. Bears, wolves and wild boar roamed the forests. There were pelicans in Somerset and golden eagles in Surrey.

When immigration was at its height in the 6th century, the Anglo-Saxon bands numbered many hundreds, perhaps thousands. But it was never а mass migration. Few large battles took place, but the Anglo-Saxons did not gain the land without violence.

Not only did they fight the British, they fought among themselves. Saxons and Angles battled for possession of the Midlands, Saxons and Jutes for Surrey and Hampshire. Gradually, family groups came together to form larger, stronger tribes, and then kingdoms. By about 600, the newcomers controlled all England except the extreme north-west and south-west, plus south-east Scotland; but they did not hold Wales.

What, meanwhile, happened to the Celtic British? Here and there archaeologists have found evidence of the two peoples living side by side - or dying side by side - for at York there were Roman-style coffins buried next to Germanic funeral urns. Yet there are few signs of Roman or Celtic influence in Anglo-Saxon England. The British were driven back, into the more remote and mountainous parts of Britain which the Anglo-Saxons, like the Romans before them, hardly entered.

Although there is almost no evidence for such а thing, we can be sure that many of the ancient British remained. Certainly they had little in common with the newcomers, and failed, for example, to convert them to Christianity. But it does not seem likely that the whole native population was killed or driven away. Many of the British must have become slaves of the Anglo-Saxons, and many British women must have borne the children of Saxon fathers. But as far as history is concerned, in the regions settled by the Anglo-Saxons the old British society ceased to exist.

Прибытие англосаксов

Германцы, захватившие Британию, которым суждено было стать англичанами, прибыли из северо-западной Европы, области между устьем Рейна и Балтийским морем. По стандартам римлян они были нецивилизованными людьми. Они никогда не были под властью римлян, и когда они достигли Англии, они были поражены римскими зданиями. Только раса гигантов, думали они, могла бы построить их. Они избегали городов, предпочитая свои собственные, более простые поселения.

Сначала англосаксы прибывали малыми группами. Позже, полюбив страну, они начали прибывать большими отрядами, и стали перемещаться внутрь страны, найдя путь к сердцу Англии, к Темзе и другим рекам. Англия, которая предстала перед ними, не многим была похожа на Англию наших дней. Судя по англосаксонской поэзии, это было мрачное, холодное место. Тернистые леса и бесплодные пустоши покрывали многие земли, болота и топи покрывали и того больше. Реки не были аккуратно заключены в пределах своих берегов, а растекались по полям. Медведи, волки и дикие боровы бродили по лесам. В Сомерсете водились пеликаны, а в Суррее золотые орлы.

В самый пиковый момент иммиграции, в 6-ом веке, количество англо-саксонских отрядов насчитывало многие сотни, возможно тысячи. Но это никогда не было массовой миграцией. Имело место несколько больших сражений, но англосаксы не получали землю без применения силы.

Мало того, что они воевали с британцами, они воевали между собой. Саксы и Англы воевали за владение Центральными графствами, саксы и юты за Суррей и Гэмпшир. Постепенно, семейства соединялись, чтобы образовать более крупные, более сильные племена, а затем королевства. Примерно к 600-ому году, вновь прибывшие контролировали всю Англию кроме самого северо-запада и юго-запада, вдобавок к этому и юго-восток Шотландии; но они не овладели Уэльсом.

Что же, тем временем, происходило с британцами-кельтами? То здесь, то там археологи находят свидетельство того, что эти два народа жили бок о бок – или же умирали бок о бок – так в Йорке гробы Римского стиля были погребены рядом с германскими урнами. Все же есть некоторые признаки римского или же кельтского влияния на англосаксов в Англии. Британцы отступали назад, в более отдаленные и гористые части Британии, в которые англосаксы, как и римляне до них, почти не проникли.

Хотя тому нет почти никаких свидетельств, мы можем быть уверенными, что многие из древних британцев остались. Конечно, они имели немного общего со вновь прибывшими, и не смогли, например, обратить их в христианство. Но не кажется вероятным, что всё коренное население было уничтожено или изгнано. Многие из британцев должно быть стали рабами англосаксов, а многие британские женщины должно быть родили детей от англосаксонских отцов. Но с точки зрения истории в областях, заселенных англосаксами, старое британское общество перестало существовать.

The England of the Anglo-Saxons History of Britain (историяБритании)

Anglo-Saxon England settled into a pattern of seven kingdoms. The three largest, Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex eventually came to dominate the country, each at different times. First it was Northumbria (the only time in English history when the centre of power has been in the north). Northumbria stretched as far as Edinburgh and for a time included part of the kingdom of Strathclyde, in south-west Scotland.

Offa's Dyke

During the 8th century, Northumbrian leadership was replaced by the midlands kingdom of Mercia. The greatest of Mercian kings, Offa (757-796), corresponded with the mighty Charlemagne, emperor of the Franks; he minted his own coins - the first nationwide currency since Roman times. He is remembered also as the builder of Offa's Dyke (ров), an earth rampart over 190 kilometres long which marked the border of Mercia with Wales. It can still be seen, but it was much higher in Offa's time.

On his coins, Offa called himself 'king of the English', and his power stretched far enough for him to have a rebellious king of East Anglia beheaded, and to give estates to his subjects in Sussex. He even had some influence in Northumbria.

However, neither Northumbria nor Mercia succeeded in making their kings the rulers of all England. That honour was to fall to the House of Wessex, made great by King Alfred.

But what was this office of kingship, and how did it work in Anglo-Saxon England?

The idea of kingship was not invented in England. The Anglo-Saxons knew it in Germany. Kings grew from simple tribal chiefs who were leaders successful in war, and therefore conquest of land. As time went by, the king became a grander, more exalted figure, and when England became Christian again in the 7th century reverence for kingship was encouraged by the Church.

The king was elected; he did not gain his crown by right of inheritance. Or not at first. In time it became the custom to elect a member of the royal family. Still the king's power was not total. He ruled with the advice of his council - the great men of the kingdom. He had no permanent capital and was always on the move. It must have been quite difficult for visitors hoping for a royal interview to track him down.

The later Anglo-Saxon kings received a constant stream of visitors, from overseas and from other parts of Britain. In 973 King Edgar was visited by no less than eight sub-kings at the same time. They manned the oars of his boat as a gesture of loyalty.

Such visitors brought expensive gifts, or tributes. But for his regular income the king relied on the profits of his own estates. which were large and widely scattered, and. on rent, usually paid 'in kind' - i.e. as goods, not cash. Receipts from tolls of various kinds and fines from the law courts added something. His subjects gave him free labour and military service: in an emergency that meant every male who could swing a sword. Special expenses, like bribing the Vikings not to attack, were met by special taxes, and various persons or places owed special duties to the king. Norwich, for example, supplied a bear and six dogs for the sport of bear-baiting.

Anglo-Saxon kings were less worried by money problems than their successors in medieval and modern times, but from Alfred's time maintaining the fleet became a costly business.

In return for the support of his subjects, the king gave them protection and rewarded them with grants of land.

Besides their loyalty to the king, men were also bound by obligations to their own relations: the bond of kinship. If someone were murdered, it was the duty of his relations to avenge him: to die unavenged was a terrible thing. Fear of family vengeance helped to prevent crime at a time when there was no better way of enforcing the law. Everyone had a wergild ('man-price'), the sum payable in compensation to his family by those responsible for his death. Sometimes wergild was refused by the injured family, who preferred violent revenge. Then tremendous feuds began, with one act of vengeance following another. We know of one feud in Northumbria which began in 1016 and was still going strong nearly seventy years later. But kinship also meant cooperation in everything within the clan, looking after orphans, and even protecting the interests of a young woman who married outside the family.

The amount of a man's wergild was a sign of his position in society. A nobleman's wergild was larger than a peasant's.

To be classed as a nobleman, or thegn, a man had to have at least five hides of land (a hide was the amount needed to support one household). The nobleman lived in a windowless, barn-like hall, built of wood, surrounded by smaller houses and protected by a stockade. (Stone buildings appeared in the 9th century.) The furniture was simple - trestle tables, benches, and straw mattresses on the floor. In this hall, much heavy drinking and telling of stories took place after a day's hunting. Anglo-Saxon poetry is full of fighting, feasts and falconry - the main activities of the thegns. Before Alfred's time, few could read.