Textbook Pgs. 4-14 Notes

From Legend to History (A.D. 449 - 1485) 

Historical Background:

The Conquest of Britain

-Celts invaded British Isles

  -Brythons settled in Britian

  -Gaels settled in Ireland

-Roman rule followed for 300 years.

-Anglo-Saxons began to dominate more and more of England. 

The Coming of Christianity

-With the instigation of monasteries and spread of Christian faith, Augustine set the religious standards for future rulers to rely on the Church

Danish Invasion

-The Norse and the Danes were Vikings who invaded northern, eastern, and central England.

-Alfred the Great took the Wessex throne and settled peace so that the the Danish ruled in the easy and north while the Danes agreed to accept Saxon rule in the south.

The Norman Conquest

-Once Edward the Confessor died, Harold II took the throne but William of Normandy claimed the dead king promised his throne.

  -At Battle of Hastings, Harold II died, William took over.

-Feudal system began to form

  -king to barons to lords to knights to serfs

The Reign of the Plantagenets:

-Henry II took the throne

  -appointed friend Thomas Becker as the archbishop after conflict with the church, Becker instead sided with the Pope

  -The king's knights misunderstood and killed Becket.

  -pilgrimage to Becket's shrine at Canterbury became a symbol of religious devotion

The Magna Carta

-King Richard I signed document promising to not tax land without talking to the barons, marked the beginning of a constitutional government in England.

Landcasters, Yorks, and Tudors

-War of Roses: Yorks vs Landcasters united under Tudor's marital ties to 

Richard's niece (Yorkist)

Decline of the Feudal System

-Serfs began to revolt against discriminatory laws and taxes, in result, replaced with free peasantry.

Literature of the Period:

Anglo-Saxon Literature

-Began with spoken verse and incantations 

-Most prose written in Latin but monks began to transcribe into the language of common people.

Literature of the English Middle Ages

-Geoffrey Chaucer described medieval life.

-Morality play depicted the lives of ordinary people and taught moral lessons.

-Johann Gutenberg perfected printing of the movable type.

-Geoffrey Chaucer took the common themes of courtly love and knightly adventure by adding passionate humor and lively realism.

-Medieval romances were about knight adventures

-Lyrics came from the harp instrument lyre.

-Ballads were folk songs that told a story