Some History

1
Some History

• Facts from Mists

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Historical Evidence Rome

• Rome invades Britain in about 43 BCE
• Rome deserts Britain around 420 CE
• With Rome in Britain
• Celts were protected from invaders
• Relative peace, stability, technological
  improvements

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Historical Evidence Rome

• Without Rome Celts needed to replace
• civic administration
• military administration
• military personnel
• technological maintenance

4
Quick Timeline

• 43 Rome invades
• 60/61 Boudica revolts
• 122 Hadrians wall begun
• 364 Picts, Saxons, Scots, and Atacotti raise hell
• 401/402 Roman troops withdrawn
• 408-410 Saxons raid
• 410 Visigoths sack Rome Honorius tells Britons
  to defend themselves

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At Same Time

• Patrick active in Ireland
• Vortigern (high king?) invites Saxons to defend
  against northern invaders
• begins strife with Germanic peoples
• Ambrosius Aurelianus fights against Saxons

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Historical Evidence Germanic Tribes

• 449 Anglos, Saxons, and Jutes begin invasions
• Tribes from Northern Europe
• Germanic
• Originally raiders
• Eventually settled
• Devastated Celticpeoples

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Historic Events Northern Invasions

• Germans werent only problem
• Irish tribe from North
• Scots
• Conquered
• Scotland as well

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Celtic British Response

• Seem to have elected supreme ruler in time of war
• High king
• rex bellorum
• literally, king of war
• Vortigern (ca 425-450)
• Caused major problems

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Vortigern

• High king
• Threatened from North
• Scots
• Picts
• Hired Saxon and Jute Mercenaries
• Led by Hengist Horsa
• Payment lands to settle (447ish)
• Germans stayed

10
Anglo-Saxons

• Initially settled on coasts
• Rebelled against Britons (442)
• Expanded holdings
• Drove Celts into Wales, Cornwall, Ireland,
  Brittany (NW France)
• 449 more invasions from continent
• Joined with resident Anglo-Saxons

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Anglo-Saxons

• Celts fought back
• Launched campaign against Anglo-Saxons
• 500 Celtic victory at Mt. Badon
• 540 De Excidio Britanniae (The Fall of Britain)
• Gildas
• Laments fall of Britain to Anglo-Saxons

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Anglo-Saxon Dominance

• By end of 6th Century
• Anglo-Saxons dominated Britain
• Pushed Celts to
• Wales
• Cornwall
• Brittany
• Ireland
• Scotland
• 597 Gregory the Great sends St. Augustine to
  Christianize Anglo-Saxons

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Anglo-Saxons Celts
14
Excalibur

• Fabled sword of Arthur
• Cover of Mists
• anything wrong with this?
• This type of sword didnt exist in the 6th
  century world

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Excalibur
Typical Medieval Swords
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Excalibur
Viking Sword
Celtic Sword