English History

§1. Brief Geographical Outline.

The British Isles lie to the north-west of the continent of Europe. They consist of a large island, Great Britain, a smaller island, Ireland, and over five hundred very small islands: the Shetlands, the Orkneys and the Hebrides in the north, the Isle of Man between Great Britain and Ireland and the Channel Islands in the south near France.

Great Britain is divided into three countries: England, Scotland and Wales.

Ireland is divided into two countries: Eire, or The Republic of Ireland, and Northern Ireland or Ulster.

The Atlantic Ocean lies to the west of the British Isles and to the east there is the North Sea. Between Great Britain and Ireland there is the Irish Sea and, to the south, between Great Britain and France, there is the English Channel, which is only 32 kms wide at its narrowest point.

The English Channel is thought to have been created between 450,000 and 180,000 years ago by two catastrophic glacial lake outburst floods caused by the breaching of the Weald-Artois Anticline, a ridge which held back a large proglacial lake, now submerged under the North Sea [1].

§2. The Pre-Celtic Period.

§2.1 The Scots and Picts.

In prehistoric times Britain was joined to the rest of the continent. The first human inhabitants of Britain, and many of its animal inhabitants, came there over dry land. The present English Channel was formed towards the end of the Ice Age.

The first inhabitants of the British Isles were nomadic Stone Age hunters. They probably lived in the dry caves of the limestone and chalk hills. The ancient population, unable with their stone tools to cope with the impassable woods that covered nearly the whole of the land, had to rely entirely on the bounty of nature. They must have lived on what the woods, the ocean and the rivers had to offer. Historians refer to the original population as the Scots and Picts with whom newcomers started merging.

Pictish society was typical of many Iron Age societies in northern Europe, having "wide connections and parallels" with neighbouring groups [2, pp.11-13].

Archaeology gives some impression of the society of the Picts. While very little in the way of Pictish writing has survived, Pictish history since the late 6th century is known from a variety of sources, including Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, saints' lives such as that of Columba by Adomnán, and various Irish annals. Although the popular impression of the Picts may be one of an obscure, mysterious people, this is far from being the case. When compared with the generality of Northern, Central and Eastern Europe in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, Pictish history and society are well attested [3, pp. 17].

The archaeological record provides evidence of the material culture of the Picts. It tells of a society not readily distinguishable from its similar Gaelic and British neighbours, nor very different from the Anglo-Saxons to the south [3].

As with most peoples in the north of Europe in Late Antiquity, the Picts were farmers living in small communities. Cattle and horses were an obvious sign of wealth and prestige, sheep and pigs were kept in large numbers, and place names suggest that transhumance was common. Animals were small by later standards, although horses from Britain were imported into Ireland as breed-stock to enlarge native horses. From Irish sources it appears that the élite engaged in competitive cattle-breeding for size, and this may have been the case in Pictland also. Carvings show hunting with dogs, and also, unlike in Ireland, with falcons. Cereal crops included wheat, barley, oats and rye. Vegetables included kale, cabbage, onions and leeks, peas and beans, turnips and carrots, and some types no longer common, such as skirret. Plants such as wild garlic, nettles and watercress may have been gathered in the wild. The pastoral economy meant that hides and leather were readily available. Wool was the main source of fibres for clothing, and flax was also common, although it is not clear if they grew it for fibres, for oil, or as a foodstuff. Fish, shellfish, seals, and whales were exploited along coasts and rivers. The importance of domesticated animals argues that meat and milk products were a major part of the diet of ordinary people, while the élite would have eaten a diet rich in meat from farming and hunting [4].

The early Picts are associated with piracy and raiding along the coasts of Roman Britain. Even in the Late Middle Ages, the line between traders and pirates was unclear, so that Pictish pirates were probably merchants on other occasions. It is generally assumed that trade collapsed with the Roman Empire, but this is to overstate the case. There is only limited evidence of long-distance trade with Pictland, but tableware and storage vessels from Gaul, probably transported up the Irish Sea, have been found. This trade may have been controlled from Dunadd in Dál Riata, where such goods appear to have been common. While long-distance travel was unusual in Pictish times, it was far from unknown as stories of missionaries, travelling clerics and exiles show [5].

Early Pictish religion is presumed to have resembled Celtic polytheism in general, although only place names remain from the pre-Christian era. When the Pictish elite converted to Christianity is uncertain, but traditions place Saint Palladius in Pictland after he left Ireland, and link Abernethy with Saint Brigid of Kildare [6, pp. 82-83].

Pictish art appears on stones, metalwork and small objects of stone and bone. It uses a distinctive form of the general Celtic Early Medieval development of La Tène style with increasing influences from the Insular art of 7th and 8th century Ireland and Northumbria, and then Anglo-Saxon and Irish art as the Early Medieval period continues. The most conspicuous survivals are the many Pictish stones that are located all over Pictland, from Inverness to Lanarkshire. An illustrated catalogue of these stones was produced by J. Romilly Allen as part of The Early Church Monuments of Scotland, with lists of their symbols and patterns. The symbols and patterns consist of animals including the Pictish Beast, the "rectangle", the "mirror and comb", "double-disk and Z-rod" and the "crescent and V-rod," among many others. There are also bosses and lenses with pelta and spiral designs. The patterns are curvilinear with hatchings. The so-called cross-slabs are carved with Pictish symbols, Insular-derived interlace and Christian imagery, though interpretation is often difficult due to wear and obscurity. Several of the Christian images carved on various stones, such as David the harpist, David and the lion, or scenes of St Paul and St Anthony meeting in the desert, have been influenced by the Insular manuscript tradition [7, pp. 87-113].

The Pictish language has not survived. Evidence is limited to place names, the names of people found on monuments, and the contemporary records. The evidence of place-names and personal names argues strongly that the Picts spoke Insular Celtic languages related to the more southerly Brythonic languages [8].

In Iron Age Scotland, based on Celtic tribal society, warfare was common. First millenium BC Scots built hillforts, great duns (stone hill fortresses), crannogs (forts and houses built on stilts in lochs, and, unique to Scotland, brochs. Brochs are round stone towers, tapering inward as they rise from the ground. Hundreds may be found all over north and west Scotland and the Isles.

When the Romans arrived in ancient Britain, they found numerous fierce tribes which they grouped under some general headings: Britons in England, Scotti in Ireland, and Picts in Scotland. It is believed that all these groupings were fundamentally Celtic. The Gaelic language of the Britons survives in Wales, Scots Gaelic (derived from Irish Gaelic) in western Scotland.

Many scholars believe the Picts spoke a version of Gaelic, related to Welsh but unknown to the later Scots (St. Columba required a translator when he converted Brude, the Pictish king). Other scholars claim evidence of a prior, non-indo-european language, related to Basque. The Pictish script found on stone monuments appears to use similar letter forms to the Irish Ogham, but remains as yet untranslated.

Another area of debate concerns the word Picti, meaning "painted" in Latin. Rather than painting themselves, other historical records suggest they actually tattooed their faces and bodies. Irregardless, they were mighty warriors, holding off Romans, Angles, and Vikings before their culture was absorbed by the Scots. The Hadrian and Antonine Walls are a tribute to the fear they instilled in Roman hearts.

Pictish society was one of the very few matrilineal societies of ancient Europe (setting them quite apart from the Irish and British), with kingship conferred through the mother. This is how Kenneth McAlpin, first Scottish King of the Scots and the Picts, came to the throne - his mother was a Pictish princess.

Remarkably, Pictish culture seems to have completely disappeared into legend and myth by the end of the 10th century, leaving behind a wide-open field of lively debate among present-day scholars [9].

Northern Ireland is "nae so far" from Scotland, and as early as 258 AD the Romans complain of Scots from the north sweeping down upon them. The ancient Irish kingdom of Dalriada (race of Riada) traces its legendary lineage from the High Kings of Tara. About 500 AD, the sons of Erc, King of Dalriada, Fergus, Loarn, and Angus, established kingdoms in the Western Isles and Argyll, with their seat at Dunadd.

The kings of Scotland are descended from one of Fergus Mor's sons, Gabhran. In the mid-500s, St. Columba established a monastery on the Isle of Iona. From there, he acted not only as missionary to the Picts, but diplomat as well, helping to unite the Scots under Gabhran's son, King Aidan. Nevertheless, the Scots did not fare too well their first three centuries in Scotland, losing to the Britons in the south, and the Picts in the west. Indeed, the Picts continued as the strongest force in the land for 300 years more, both numerically and politically.

There are a great many legends surrounding Kenneth McAlpin, Scotland's first Scottish king. They say he killed the members of all seven Pictish royal houses to secure the throne. Such ruthlessness paid off, though. While some future kings were styled "King of the Scots" or "King of the Picts", all were buried on Iona as Scottish kings and the name of the country became "Scotia".

So Pictish power gave way to Scots, and the kingdom of the Gaels stretched from the Western Isles to the eastern coast. But there were Vikings in the north, and Britons and Angles in the south. Future kings would have the task of expanding Scotland's borders to their present extent and preserving her independence.