History - The Germanic Invasions (410 - 1066)

14 important questions on History - The Germanic Invasions (410 - 1066)

During the 5th century, Britain was invaded and settled by a number of tribes from the European continent. Give the names of two of these tribes.

The Angles and the Saxons.

Which European tribes ivaded Britain in the fifth century and where did they settle?

The Agles and the Saxons, which settled in the South-East of the country. They where temporarily halted by King Arthur and his army of Celtic Britons but soon occupied all of present-day England.
Secondly The North was invaded by Vikings (Norsemen or Danes) who came from Scandinavia. They settled in the islands around Scottland and the coastal regions of Ireland.

What did the Anglo-Saxons use more? The country side or the towns and cities.

the country side
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Who was King Arthur? 

In folklore and myth, he is a great English hero. He and his knights of the Round Table are regarded as the perfect example of medieval nobility and chivalry. 

In fact, he lived long before the medieval times and was a Romanized Celt who tried to hold back the advances of the Anglo-Saxons who later became 'the English'.

The Anglo-Saxons had a great effect on the countryside – which two things especially did they introduce?

New farming methods and thousands of self-sufficient villages which formed the basis of English society for the next thousand or so years.

Are there cultural differences between the Anglo-Saxons and Danes? What was the result?

The differences were small; they led roughly the same way of life and spoke different varieties of the same Germanic tongue. 

Therefore, it made political unification easier. By the end of the tenth century, England was a united kingdom with a Germanic culture throughout. 

How was the conquest of England by the Vikings (also called Norsemen or Danes) halted?

They were defeated by King Alfred of the Saxon kingdom of Wessex.

In what century did Britain had an invasion by the Germanics and who where they?

eighteenth century by the Norsemen, Vikings and Danes

How did Christianity reach Britain in the sixth and seventh centuries?

It came from two different directions:
  1. It was introduced by Roman missionary St. Augustine in the south of England.
  2. It had already been introduced in Scotland and northern England from Ireland, which had become Christian 150 years earlier.

What happened in 793 with the great monastery of Lindisfarne?

It is destroyed by the Vikings. All the monks were killed.

What starts the end of the Celtic culture in England?

The invasion of the Anglo-Saxons

How did christianity reach Britain?

It was spread from two directions: in the South by the Romans (through the missionary St. Augustine, who settled in Canterbury) and in the North, some 150 years earlier by the Celts from Ireland (St. Patric converted Ireland into Chistianity in 432)

How did the devision of the North and South develop in these days?

Their differences soon dissapearde mostly. Danes converted to christianity. Anglo-Saxons and Danes spoke varieties of the same germanic tongue. By the end of the tenth century England was a kingdom with German culture and Scotland was a united (Celt) Gaelic kingdom

Important dates in The Germanic Invasion (410-1066)

  • 432 = St. Patrick converts Ireland to Christianity
  • 597 = St. Augustine arrives in Britain in Canterbury
  • 793 = A great monastery on the eastcoast of Britain is destroyed by Vikings and its monks killed
  • 878 = The peace of Edington partitions territories between  King Alfred's Saxons and the Danes
  • 973 = Edgar -a grandson of Alfred - becomes king of nearly all the present-day England.

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