Britain?
- 7th c. BC Brythons,
Celtic people moved from continental Europe to British Isles.
- 2006 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland
(Great Britain: England,
Scotland, and Wales)
- 1603 union of crowns of England (included Wales)
and Scotland
- 1707 Act ofUnion unification of the states of
England and Scotland
- 1st century BC Roman “Britannia”
(largely England and Wales); Scotland was "Caledonia"; Ireland, "Hibernia"
Britons/Celts?
- Celtic language group
- date of arrival in British Isles unknown
- British Isles inhabited for 200,000+ years
Paleolithic
hunters and gathers
Neolithic
peoples (first farmers) ca. 4000 BC (Salisbury Plain)
Celts in several
waves over long period
introduced use of iron
traded with the Continent
used gold coinage (by 1st c. BC)
Social and Political Organization
of Celtic Britain
- dominated by warrior aristocracy and priests
(Druids)
- ruled by small tribal kingdoms
- experienced intertribal warfare (fortified settlements
on hilltops)
- Belgae created unified kingdoms in Hertfordshire
and Essex (1st c. BC on)
Cunobelin
(Shakespeare's Cymbeline) entitled "rex Britannorum"
introduced
heavy plow (grain major exporters)
Kingship
Celtic and A-S concepts of kingship similar
- oldest political institution in Britain
- word king OE cyning/cyng
(title
used for A-S chiefs 5th and 6th c. AD)
means scion or offspring of race or tribe
- A-S leaders warlords
- personal bond between man and man main cement
First King?
Modern concept of kingship – one who has chief authority
over a country or people
- 7th c. Edwin, A-S leader in Northumbria, Bretwealda
or lord of the Britains
- 8th c. Mercian ascendancy (kingdom stretched from Trent
River to Wales)
- 9th c. Alfred the Great first used title King
of English (ruled Wessex 871 to 901) - 10th c. Danes
conquered N. England -- first real King of England probably King Swein
of Denmark 1013-14
Nature of A-S Kingship
- A-S kings selected (in theory)
- defend people and maintain law and order
- promulgated law (with Witan ); law lay in memory of
folk
- was commander-in-chief; called fyrd
(peasant fighters commanded by retainers)
- thanes owed king service in army, maintained roads,
and built military fortresses
- one tax – the danegeld
(to restrain the Danes), a tax on land (dated from 991)
- king was expected to live off his own
Nature of A-S Government
Most government local, not central
- shire was main political,
judicial, and military unit
some shires
were boundaries of ancient states (e.g., Kent, Essex, Sussex);
others referred
to settlements (Norfolk, Suffolk);
shires in
midlands were Alfred's garrison towns;
northern shires
were Norman administrative units
- shires were subdivided into hundreds
originated
in frith or peace guild
tribe grouped
in tens or tithings
ten tithings
were combined under Hundred Man
King Edgar’s
(959-75) Law of the Hundred made system compulsory
- shire and hundred had own moots
shire court
met two times a year
hundred met
every four weeks
- procedures reflected folkish view that crime was offense
against group
- guilty party had to pay bot or
damages to injured party and wite or fine
to court
- justice lay in the lands of God (Oath and Ordeal)
Royal Justice
- initially dealt only with greatest men and offenses
committed in precincts of court - but “Justitia
est magnum emolumentum”
king’s
frith or peace
oferhynes
or special fines to king (crimes against the king, not the group)
- enforced by ealdorman (alderman) and shire reeve (sheriff)
Ealdormen
were wealthy landowners;
filled important
offices of royal household in rotation;
attended meetings
of Witan;
carried out
the king’s personal business in the region;
title changed
to Earl (continental equivalent of a Count)
under Canute
Sheriffs
were lesser men in shire (easier to control);
by 11th c.
became chief administrators in shire;
collected
revenues from royal estates;
presided over
shire and hundred courts
An Anglo-Saxon democracy?
- government employed 2 percent of adult male population
- most peasants unfree tenants or slaves
- free peasants or ceorls
served in the fyrd but were small proportion of the peasantry and primary
occupation was farming