Ancient period in the history of Britain, it became possible to elucidate thanks to archaeological research, which was especially developed in the 20th century. But even now much of the early history of the British Isles remains unclear.

During the Paleolithic era, Britain was not separated from the continent. Traces of a man - a hunter and a fisherman - are found in river sediments and caves in Britain.

In the period from 8000 to 6000 years. BC e. The British Isles began to separate from the continent. Some scientists believe that as early as the III millennium BC. e. there was an overland passage to Britain. The separation of the British Isles from the continent and climate change led to a change in their flora and fauna: tundra vegetation was replaced by dense forests. At the same time, traces of Neolithic man appear. Neolithic sites are found from about the middle of the III millennium on the chalk uplands of southern Britain. The population was engaged in hunting, fishing, cattle breeding, hoe farming (the cultivated areas were located on the slopes of the chalk hills).
The oldest roads in Britain, Icknild and the Pilgrim's Road, obviously originate from the same period. Megalithic burial grounds (made of large stones) also belong to this era.

Around 2000 BC e. Iberian tribes land in the west of the British Isles. These Neolithic hunters, fishermen, herdsmen are also engaged in hoe farming. In addition to megalithic burial grounds, they left oblong earthen mounds (burials over 60 meters in length). The Iberians mine flint, have bows and arrows, know how to make earthenware, and live in settlements surrounded by moats. They trade with Spain and other Mediterranean countries; gold mined in Ireland is famous.

Between 1800 and 1750 BC e. there was an invasion from the continent of the people of the Alpine group (“the people of bowls”). Alpines landed in the eastern and southeastern regions of Britain. The newcomers are characterized by round mounds and ceramics with a specific jagged ornament, which gave archaeologists reason to call them "the people of bowls." At this time, the first bronze tools appeared - flat axes.

The population in the British Isles is increasing, clearing of forests begins. The inhabitants of Britain already know how to make fabrics from wool and linen.

Neolithic period.

In the Neolithic era (about 1800 BC), megalithic structures became widespread: monoliths (menhirs), reaching 7 meters in height, marked burial places and borders between tribes; the purpose of alleys of large stones, up to 120 meters long, has not been fully clarified. But the most mysterious and interesting structures of this time are circles of large stones, apparently ancient pagan sanctuaries; their remnants have survived to this day mainly in the south and west of Britain. The most famous of them are Stonehenge and Avebury.

Stonehenge, the earliest structure of this type (about 2000 BC), is located in Wiltshire, on the Salisbury Plain, 12 kilometers from the city of Salisbury. The construction is a circle of vertically placed large stones, surrounded by a rampart and a moat. In the center of the circle are huge blue stones covered with heavy slabs. They stand, forming, as it were, a horseshoe, inside of which lies a stone, perhaps serving as an altar. Some modern scientists, notably the American astronomer Gerald Hawkins, suggest that Stonehenge may also have been the oldest observatory.

Even more impressive is the sanctuary at Avebury (near Marlborough). This building is in terms of two pairs of concentric circles located close to each other and connected by a curved alley of large stones. The first (main) structure is located on the raised bank of the river and is surrounded by a deep moat. An avenue of large stones curves south and descends to the River Kennet and then on to Overtonhill, where it ends with another sacred circle. This second circle is called the Sanctuary. Burials have been found on its territory. The monoliths that make up the circles reach 6-7 meters in height.

A mile from Avebury stands Silbury Hill, which looks like a giant pudding. This is an artificial embankment, inside which, however, the excavations did not find anything.

Stone structures similar to those described (menhirs, cromlechs, alleys of stones, etc.) are generally characteristic of Western Europe the end of the Neolithic - the beginning of the Bronze Age (Brittany). British monuments, while not exceptional, may be considered, however, very important examples of the oldest European civilization. These sanctuaries later (in the second half of the 1st millennium BC) may have been used as temples by the Celtic Druid priests.

Bronze Age.

In the period 1750-750. BC e. in Britain, the extraction of metals, in particular copper and especially gold (Ireland), has received significant development. Production of bronze weapons begins: axes and swords. Pottery characteristic of this time develops. Around 1000 BC. e. trade relations with the continent begin (Phoenicians).
At the end of the Bronze Age (middle of the 1st millennium BC), a wheel appeared, intensive clearing of the forest began, and large settlements grew in the lowlands. In inaccessible places, fortified points were built in large numbers, which played the role of shelters. An example of such fortifications would be Maiden Castle in the south of Britain. The appearance of fortresses is explained by the fact that about 800-700 years. BC e. The migration of Celtic tribes began to the territory of Britain.

Celtic period.

The first wave of Celtic settlers came to Britain around 700 BC. e. These were the Gaels (or Goidels). They spread throughout the British Isles, apparently peacefully mixing with the local population. True, the appearance of the fortified points mentioned above allows us to assume not only peaceful assimilation, but there are not enough data for judgments on this matter. At present, the Gaelic language has survived only in some areas of Ireland, in the north of Scotland and on the Isle of Man.

Around 400 BC e. Britons related to the Gaels migrate to the islands from Gaul. They act like conquerors. Around this time, iron tools and weapons, chariots, appear in Britain. There are fortified forts.

Around 200 BC e. Britain is invaded by the Belgae from northern Gaul. They settle south of the Thames and push back the local population, partly mixing with it.

Information about social order Celtic tribes who migrated to Britain are scarce. They are mainly obtained through archaeological excavations. Written evidence is separate information that has come down from travelers who visited the British Isles, and a description of the Celtic tribes made by Julius Caesar in his Notes on the Gallic War.

The life of the Celts of Britain in the II-I centuries. BC e. was in many ways similar to the life of the Celtic tribes that lived in Gaul. The Celts of Britain broke up into tribes. The alliances between these tribes were very fragile. The tribes were divided into clans. The relations of patriarchy dominated, although the remnants of matriarchy were still strong. The land was, as a rule, in communal ownership, but in more developed areas, large land holdings of the tribal and military nobility stood out. Already in the era of the appearance of the Gaels, one can speak of dependent people and of leaders and tribal nobility. Gaelic chieftains and nobles were strengthened by the exploitation of the native population of Britain. In the south and east of Britain, the population was engaged in agriculture. The land was cultivated with a light plow. The fields were square; they were plowed twice. Only towards the end of the Celtic period did the heavy plow appear. In the hilly regions of the north and west of the island, the population was mainly engaged in cattle breeding. The developed agriculture of the southeastern regions turned the latter into the granary not only of Britain, but of the continent: bread became one of the most important export items.

Cities appeared; less significant were just villages fortified with a palisade, but along with them were large urban centers: Londinium (London), Verulamium - approximately on the site of the future St. Albans, Camulodunum - on the site of Colchester. These cities had a developed handicraft and conducted trade. Iron, copper, tin (Cornwall), gold (Ireland), and lead were mined in Britain. Pearls were mined. Metals and pearls were exported from Britain first by the Phoenicians, then by the Greeks and Romans. The Romans called the country by the name of the Britons - Britain, and also Albion.

Britain had constant ties with Gaul, Londinius acquired great importance. The Celts of Britain had money in the form of bars of iron (like unfinished swords); the minting of a gold coin on the model of the Greek (Macedonian) also began.

A very large place in the life of the British Celts was occupied by the Druid priests, who had a single organization with the Druids of Gaul. The center of the Druids was on the island of Anglesey. Druidic deities lived, according to the Celts, in sacred groves, streams, mountains. The Druids were powerful: they had the highest authority in the field of law, morality, and education.

Much is unclear about the religion of the Druids, but the burials, especially the rich burials in barrows (for example, the supposed grave of Cunobelin), testify undeniably to the belief in the immortality of the soul. Funeral drogs made of wood and iron, many household items, weapons, and jewelry were found. All things are spoiled so that they are also dead and can serve the deceased behind the coffin. Druids also performed human sacrifices. Druidic religion has its roots in Bronze Age beliefs.

From the Celtic period, there are also such mysterious monuments as the "White Horse" in Effington, carved into the slopes of the chalk hills of Berkshire Down. This, obviously, is some kind of tribal or religious emblem, in all likelihood, the Belgians who fled from Gaul.

The things found in the burials allow us to imagine the art of Celtic artisans who worked on iron and bronze and created a very special ornament, by which one can judge the ethnicity of these objects.
Celtic tribes in the period II-I centuries BC. e. waged constant wars among themselves; their war chiefs were eager for new lands and booty. This is evidenced by the border ditches (more than 30 meters wide and 100 meters deep), as well as the presence of many fortified points, newly erected or built on the site of old military fortifications (Maiden Castle).

Caesar's campaigns in Britain.

Julius Caesar who conquered Gaul in August 55 BC. e. crossed over to Britain with an army of 10,000. The aim of the Romans was to conquer the Belgians, but their plans did not come true, as the Roman fleet was damaged on the coastal rocks, and the local tribes met the Romans with hostility. Caesar notes in his Notes that the Celts had horsemen and chariots. The rebuff met by the Romans forced Caesar to turn back. Thus, this first expedition was only of reconnaissance value.
In the summer of 54 BC. e. Caesar tried again to invade Britain, this time with a larger force. The Romans managed to take the Belgian fortress on a hill near Canterbury (Bigbury). Caesar tried to use the situation in Britain: the Belg tribes living on the territory of modern Kent united under the rule of the Celtic leader Cassivellan (his capital Camulodun), and the non-Belg tribes who were at enmity with him, who lived on the territory of present-day Essex, turned to Julius Caesar for help. Caesar defeated Cassivellan and imposed tribute on him, and also took a promise that he would leave the non-Belgic tribes (trinovantes) alone. But thanks to the resistance of Cassivellan, Caesar did not manage to conquer Britain this time either. The second expedition was only a kind of application for the future.

The Britons at this time were trading with Rome, highest value had Londinium. Bread, cattle, metals and slaves captured during the strife were exported from Britain. They imported colored glass, fine pottery, Jewelry. Many Roman objects have been found near medieval Colchester, among them gold and silver coins, the minting of which testifies to Roman influence.
Caesar relied on Commas, king or leader of the tribe of the Atrebates in Gaul, who enjoyed great honor both there and in Britain. But Commus betrayed Caesar and fled from Gaul to Britain (about 50 BC). The kingdom founded by Comm lay in the south of the country (coins with his name are found south of the middle Thames). The Belga Komma are rebuilding old and building new fortifications. After the death of Comm (20 BC), the power of the Belga kings in the south increased. But at the same time, the rivalry between the successors of Comm and the heirs of Cassivellan grew. Comm had three sons. Cassivelan's heir was Taskiowan. Taskiovan's son Cuno-belin (Cymbeline in Shakespeare), contrary to his promise to Caesar, attacked the Trinovantes and captured their capital, Camulodunum. The Thames separated the kingdom of Cunobelin from the dominions of Comm's successors. Camulodunum, a very important center of trade with Rome, was a large city protected by ramparts and moats.

The Belgae moved west of Britain towards Wales. Wars between the Celtic tribes became more and more frequent and fierce. Strong Belgic kingdoms absorbed smaller tribes. The kingdom of Cunobelin was especially strong, but after his death (40) troubles began there as well. The sons of Comm had to flee from the fury of Cunobelin's successors to Rome. It was then that the emperor Claudius decided that the situation was ripe for the invasion of Roman troops in Britain.

Roman conquest of Britain.

In 43 a strong Roman army landed on the coast of Kent. The sons of Cunobelin were defeated at the Medway, the settlements along the Thames were subdued, and Camulodunus surrendered. The Roman legions moved in three directions: west, northwest, and north. Moving west, a number of fortresses were taken, including Maiden Castle. In their movement to the north-west and north, by 47 the Romans had reached the north Wales-Humber line, from where it was already close to the mountainous regions. But here the movement of the Romans slowed down, as the tribes of Wales fought furiously and remained undefeated, although their leader, Cunobelin's son Caradoc, was defeated in 51 and was driven north. The queen of the Brigantes tribe betrayed Caradoc to the Romans, but the Brigantes themselves continued to fight. In 61, the Roman army approached the Irish Sea and fell on Snowdon, and then on the stronghold of the Druids - the island of Anglesey.

At the same time, an uprising of the Iceni tribe broke out in the southeast of Britain, caused by the excesses and robberies of the Romans. The rebellious Iceni were led by their queen, Boadicea (Budikka). The rebels defeated three largest cities, obviously, the most romanized are Londinius, Camulodunus, Verulamius. Up to 70 thousand people died there, which in itself already confirms big sizes these cities. In the end, the Romans won and crushed the rebels, and Queen Boadicea poisoned herself.

In the 70s and 80s, the Romans conquered Wales and launched an offensive against northern Britain. Between 80 and 84 years. The Roman general Agricola crossed the River Tyne and the Cheviot Hills and entered Perthshire. However, the conquest of this area was superficial; all areas north of Tweed after 85 were abandoned by the Romans.

In 115-120 years. there was an uprising in northern Britain. Emperor Hadrian suppressed it and established a border from Tyne to Solway. This border was fortified with a wall and fortresses in 122-124. About 140, part of Scotland was annexed to Roman Britain up to the line of Fort Clyde. This frontier line was also fortified with a wall and a series of fortresses. The new wall did not replace Adrianov, but was intended to protect the country located north of Hadrian's Wall.

In 158-160 years. a new uprising broke out throughout the northern part of Roman Britain, from what is now Derbyshire to the Cheviot Hills. In 183, another revolt followed, as a result of which the second Roman wall was practically abandoned by the Romans. This uprising continued until the arrival of Septimius Severus himself (in 208-211). He rebuilt the wall of Hadrian, which has since become the border of the Roman possessions.

Britain under Roman rule.

Until 85, four legions maintained calm in the conquered country, and then three with a certain number of auxiliary troops, which amounted to 35-40 thousand people. These three legions were located mainly in three large fortresses: Isca Silurum (Caerleon), Deva (Chester), Eburacum (York). Detachments were sent from here on various expeditions (to build fortresses, bridges, roads, to suppress minor uprisings).
In addition, there was a network of smaller fortresses with garrisons of 500-1000 people. These fortresses stood along the roads or at strategic points at a distance of 10-15 miles from each other. There were many strongholds along the seashore and in the northern part of Roman Britain as far as the Cheviot Hills, especially in present-day Derbyshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire. A whole series of fortresses went along the wall of Hadrian (their exact number is not known). In all the fortresses there were Roman garrisons (their soldiers were recruited from the Romanized provinces of the empire). Britons could also serve in the auxiliary troops, mainly recruited on the Rhine and in its vicinity. It cannot be assumed that all the Britons were sent to serve only on the continent.

To spread Roman culture, Roman garrisons of great importance did not have. Outside the fortress walls were Roman or romanized settlements of women, merchants, retired soldiers, but of these settlements, only a few turned into cities, such as York. It is a mere coincidence that Newcastle, Manchester, Cardiff stand on the site of former Roman forts. The number of Roman colonists should not be exaggerated: even in peacetime, no more than 1,000 people a year retired, and the state of peace was rare in Britain. But not all retired legionnaires remained in Britain.

The most serious result of Roman rule was the defense of the interior of Britain from attacks from without.

Roman culture spreads in the south, in the center and in the east of the island. In these areas, to some extent, we can talk about Romanization, which may have begun even before Claudius, immediately after the campaigns of Caesar. After 43, Roman influence penetrated in two ways: the first was Romanization through administration, the establishment of colonies with Roman citizens, although there were few of them; the second is the romanization of cities due to the arrival of Roman merchants. The uprising of Budikka was precisely directed against such a Romanization of cities; it led to a mass massacre of the Romans and the Celts loyal to Rome. According to Tacitus (80s), the Britons adopted the language, dress and customs of the Romans. Among the Romanized cities, in addition to the above-mentioned Londinia, Camuloduna and Verulamia, also Kaleva Attrebatum (Silchester), Venta Silurum (Kerwent), Aqua Solis (Bath), Lindum (Lincoln), Glenum (Gloucester), as well as some others ( the names of the cities in "chester" and "caster" speak of their connection with the Roman camps).

By the end of the 1st century the successes of colonization were great, but then things went more slowly. West of the Severn and north of the Trent, colonization did not penetrate at all. The mountainous regions were not affected by Romanization.

When Hadrian's Wall was built, it turned out that to the south of it lies the Roman province, and to the north - prehistoric Britain.

It is characteristic of the development of Roman Britain, first of all, that Roman trade and money poured into it. Britain became a market for handicrafts, especially for the pottery of Roman Gaul. The Romans built roads and ports for both military and commercial interests. Cities were an unwalled cluster of village-type buildings. The exception was Roman stone temples. In these cities, as a rule, handicraft and trade life went on even before the Romans. With the advent of the Romans, it became more intense, but handicrafts lost their national character; only in Wales and in the north did the original Celtic ornament survive. The extraction of metals is developing: tin, lead, silver, gold (mines in Carmarthenshire, II century), copper (in north Wales and Shropshire), iron (in Sussex Weld, Forest of Dean, Midland and in the north); work is going on in the salt mines. Slaves are working everywhere. The proceeds from all this flow into the imperial treasury.

Romanized Britain - a typical province of the empire - was subject to a viceroy. Each Roman municipality and colony was governed independently. Some areas belonging to the imperial fiscus were headed by imperial officials; these were areas of lead mines. Much of Britain was divided among tribes, organized in the Roman fashion, each tribe having a council, a magistrate and a capital.

In the lowlands of southeastern and central Britain in the II-III centuries. the Roman system of farming, based on the exploitation of slaves and columns, is being introduced, Roman-style outbuildings appear. Romanized villas (estates) reach greatest development at the end of III - beginning of IV centuries. There were rich and luxurious villas, but there were also simple farms. These villas are distributed irregularly throughout Britain: there are more of them in North Kent, West Sussex, Somerset, Lincolnshire. There are very few to the north. Even in villages inhabited exclusively by Celtic peasants, Roman utensils and clothing are found during this period. But only the wealthy Celts lived in Roman-style houses, while the peasants lived in prehistoric huts. Roman-style houses were first built of wood and then of stone, always rectangular in plan with separate rooms, sometimes with baths and central heating.

The land was plowed with heavy plows, the fields were therefore stretched out in strips in length, but the heavy plow appeared before the Romans; it was brought by the Belgae, so that in fact there was a continuation of the Celtic development.

The Romans built excellent roads. The most important roads that diverged from London were: through northern Kent to the Kentish ports; west to Bath and on to south Wales; to Verulamium, Chester, with a branch to Wales; northeast to Camulodunum; to Bath (Aque Solis) and Exeter. In Wales, there were military roads along the entire coast. There were three roads in the north: from York north, with a branch to Carlisle, from Chester north. Communication with the continent was carried out through Kentish ports: from Rutupie (Richborough) to Boulogne and from Camulodun (Colchester) to ports at the mouth of the Rhine. The sea was monitored by the Roman fleet (Classic Britannica). From the middle of the 1st to the end of the 3rd c. his camp was in Boulogne.

Thus, in practice, Roman Britain was divided into two regions: peaceful, Romanized (southeast and center of Britain) and military, where the dominance of the Romans was supported by a system of military fortresses connected by roads and having strong garrisons that could quickly suppress any uprising. In addition, the Romans had to protect the Scottish border, maintaining Hadrian's wall, forts and garrisons, since behind this wall to the north lived the Celtic tribes of the Picts and Scots, always ready for raids and robberies.

At the end of the III century. Roman Britain entered a period of great upheaval: the Saxons and other barbarians of Germanic origin from the continent had long been waiting for an opportunity to attack the east coast of the island. Security was achieved only at the cost of maintaining the mentioned fleet, which carried out guard duty and pursued pirates.

The commander of the Roman fleet in Britain, Belg Carausius, having made an alliance with the pirates, declared himself co-ruler of the emperors Maximian and Diocletian, and in 287 achieved some recognition in Rome. However, in 293 he was killed, and his successor Allectus was defeated by the imperial troops in 296. After the story of Carasius, nothing more is heard about the Roman fleet off the coast of Britain. Perhaps he was no longer sent there, fearing new complications. Instead, a coastal defense system was created from the Wash Bay to the Isle of Wight: 9 forts in the harbors had horse-foot garrisons to repel pirate attacks. It was the "Saxon Shore" (Litus Saxonicum). Saxon raids stopped. In the first quarter of the 4th c. everything was relatively calm, but from 343 the Picts began to raid in the north and the Scots from Ireland. This was the beginning of the first phase of the fall of Roman Britain (343-383).

In the 60s of the IV century. the empire sent additional troops to Britain, and in 363 Theodosius (father) arrived in Britain with large forces and cleared the south of the barbarians, restored the cities and the border rampart (Hadrian's wall). For the next few years, information about what happened in Britain is very scarce. According to archaeological excavations, a number of rural houses were ruined and abandoned around 350, although most of them remained inhabited until 385 and even later. Ammianus reports that from Britain around 360 grain was regularly exported to northern Germania and Gaul.

The second stage in the fall of Roman rule in Britain falls on 383-410. In 383, an officer of the Roman troops in Britain, Magnus Maximus, declared himself emperor, crossed over with troops to Gaul, captured it in 387, and then conquered Italy. He was deposed in 388, but some historians believe that no more Roman troops returned to Britain after that. This is still hardly true: subsequent events show that there were troops in Britain. The news of the Visigoth invasion of Rome caused panic in Britain, where the troops elected their own emperor; first it was Mark, soon killed by the soldiers, after him Gratian, and then Constantine. In 407, Constantine left Britain with the Roman legions and went to Gaul, where he stayed for four years. In any case, this time the legions did not return to Britain, and the Britons organized self-government to protect against barbarian raids. The Britons considered themselves Romans and as early as 446 turned to the Roman commander Aetius for help. The last period in the history of Roman Britain is known chiefly from archeological evidence; surviving Roman fortresses, roads, temples in cities, the remains of villas, votives, altars, tombstones (mostly Latin) speak of it. Most often, inscription temples and altars are Roman (pagan), but sometimes there are altars to gods with Celtic names. There are few traces of Christianity, although sometimes Christian symbols and inscriptions are found. Famous Christian basilica in Silchester. There is no information about the date of the Christianization of Britain under the Romans. 8th century historian Bede Venerable in this connection speaks of the year 180 and of King Lucius of the Britons, there is vague information about the protomartyr Saint Alban, who suffered under Diocletian. But in general one can think that Christianity spread to Britain in the third century, although much of the history of its spread remains obscure.

Summing up, we can say that Britain under the Romans was part of the Roman civilized world, if, of course, we talk about the Romanized part of Britain and take into account the different degrees of Romanization of different parts of Britain and especially the different degrees of Romanization of urban and rural residents, peasants, nobility, etc. If we talk about the majority of the population of the country, then we have to admit that the country has completely retained its Celtic foundation and Romanization was of a rather superficial nature, which was clearly revealed after the departure of the Roman legions. After 407, Roman customs continued for some time, the sense of belonging to the empire did not completely disappear even in the sixth century; Roman names are often found, a number of Latin words entered the language of the Britons. However, the duration and strength of Roman influence was prevented by the Celtic revival, and from the middle of the 5th century. - Anglo-Saxon conquest.

The so-called Celtic revival was caused by the fact that from 407 Romanized Britain was cut off from Rome. Roman colonists hurried to leave Britain after the legions. Romanized Britain remained in a purely Celtic environment: the Celts lived in Cornwall, Ireland, in the north of the island. In addition, the migration of the Celts from Ireland to Britain began, in particular the migration of the Scots from northern Ireland to Caledonia. Having settled in Caledonia, the Scots were sent from there to Roman Britain. The Celts of Ireland also invaded the southwest of Wales, they also settled in Cornwall. Often they came as enemies of the Romans, not of the Romanized Celts. All this contributed to the oblivion of Roman customs and the restoration of the Celtic way of life. In this regard, it is interesting to point out the Celtic (Gaelic) Ogham inscription dating back to the 6th century BC. and found in Silchester. But the beginning of the Anglo-Saxon conquest, which fell upon Romanized Britain, especially contributed to the oblivion of everything Roman and the revival of everything Celtic. Romanized Celts were exterminated, enslaved, and some of them went to the continent, to the north and west of Britain. Some part of the Celtic nobility tried to maintain Roman traditions, but the Celtic element took over, and the Roman tradition was actually lost at the beginning of the 6th century.

After the departure of the Romans in 407, the Celts of Roman Britain were effectively left to their own devices for half a century. This was the time when the Celtic nobility strengthened, adopting Roman methods of farming with the help of the labor of slaves, who were also Celts, and columns or peasants, whose position was close to that of the columns. The Celtic nobility began to turn into land magnates, fighting for land and slaves. This struggle led to bitter feuds between the Celtic land magnates, especially between the descendants of the Celtic military leaders and the kings of various tribes. The strife took on a particularly violent character due to the absence of any central authority that could restrain the rival magnates. In the midst of these strife in Britain, the squads of the Angles and Saxons fell upon.

After the murder at 41 new era Gaius Caligula was ascended to the Roman throne by his uncle Claudius. Excommunicated at one time from all state affairs and, moreover, at an advanced age, the new ruler decided to glorify himself and his empire by a campaign in Britain, which at one time did not succumb to the great. Implementing a plan for the conquest of Britain by the Romans, Claudius in 43 sends forty thousand soldiers to conquer the British Isles. The Roman troops that landed in Kent easily captured the southeastern territories of the country. In the summer of the same year, Claudius arrived in Britain to personally accept the surrender of twelve English rulers of the local lands.

Roman conquest of Britain in 43-45, it went on simultaneously with the suppression of uprisings in its various regions. The Romans were not immediately able to defeat the Celtic fortress of Maiden Castle in Dorset. In addition, the recalcitrant druids on the island of England offered them staunch resistance. After the capture of the island, the Romans razed all the fortifications and structures to the ground, leaving no one alive. The tangible damage to Roman rule was caused by the troops of Queen Boudicca, who was the leader of the Iceni tribe. After the insults inflicted by the Romans on her and her daughters, the queen rose in revolt. Advancing with her troops from East Anglia, she conquered the cities of Camulodunum, Londinium and Verulamium, where she did not spare a single Roman. In response to these actions, the Romans sent all their troops to suppress the rebellion undertaken by Boudicca. During a fierce battle, the Roman army won, despite the numerical superiority of the Iceni army.

As a result of her defeat, the queen took poison and died. This sad event ended the riots and uprisings in the south-east of England. During the conquest of Britain by the Romans in 43-45, the greatest danger was represented by the Celts, located in the north of England and in Scotland. In 119, they were able to unite the early warring tribes and raise an uprising against the Roman army. The information that they were able to destroy the Ninth Legion turned out to be a fictional myth. Embodying the ideas of the policy of the new emperor Hadrian, the Roman Empire abandoned further aggressive and began to strengthen its position in the previously occupied territories. By his order, a defensive wall was erected, stretching along the northern bank of the Tyne River to the Solway Firth.

For a long six years, Roman soldiers built fortresses, of which there were 16. The fortified forts were located in a Roman mile in close proximity to each other. Hadrian's Wall, the so-called defensive wall, built at the behest of Emperor Hadrian, has preserved its remains to this day. Twenty years after the events described, during the reign of Antoninus Pius, the Roman troops undertook a campaign to the north. A rampart was erected at the new frontiers, which started from the Firth of Forth and ended at the Clyde. But in 164 the Romans were forced to retreat to their old positions. Therefore, it is Andrian's Wall that is considered the limit to which the Roman conquerors in the British Isles could reach.

II. Britain in the Middle Ages (5th - late 15th century)

2. The era of the developed Middle Ages:

2.1. Norman conquest, strengthening of the feudal system,

2. 2. The formation of a class-representative monarchy in England.

2.3. England in the 15th century: the Hundred Years' War, the Wars of the Roses

III. England in the Modern Age

1. Henry VIII and royal reformation

2. The reign of Elizabeth I Tudor and the era of the English Renaissance

3. English bourgeois revolution XVII V. Cromwell's protectorate and the restoration of the monarchy.

4. England at the end of the 17th - 18th centuries: the triumph of landlordism, colonial expansion.

5. Great Britain (1815-1850): Chartist movement, Victorian era

6. England in the last third of the XIX century: economic development.

IV. Britain in the 20th century.

1. The First World War.

2. British society between the two wars, the Great Depression

3. World War II in British History

4. Great Britain in the second half of the 20th century.

V. Great Britain in modern world: the beginning of the XXI century.

I. The oldest period in the history of the British Isles

Prehistory of Britain- this is the history of the settlement of the territory of the islands by the most ancient population, the formation of human society, the migration of different peoples from the European continent. Archaeologically, this era is divided into the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages. The onset of the Iron Age roughly coincided with the appearance of the first written references to Britain.

1. Stone Age(Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic), Bronze Age, Early Iron Age: Celtic Britain

The most ancient traces of the settlement of the country date back to the Paleolithic, when the British Isles were not yet separated from the continental part of Europe, i.e. until the 5th century BC In the III-II millennium BC. e. various megalithic structures were built, which have survived to this day, such as the world-famous Stonehenge, as well as Avebury Henge, Seahenge, and others. Currently, there are many versions of their origin and purpose, from an astronomical laboratory and a place of ritual burials to a version of their alien origin.

(Megaliths (from the Greek “huge stone”) are structures made of large stone blocks intended for various functions (burials, cult complexes, etc.), common during the New Stone Age on the Eurasian continent.

The most ancient ethnic groups that influenced the formation of the English nation were the Celtic tribes that came from the continent (Picts, Belgae, Cymry, Britons). They began to settle from 700-1000 BC, and in the 1st century BC. occupied almost the entire territory of the British Isles. From the Britons (according to one version) came the name Britain.

The origin and early history of the Celts is a problem of historical science, since the Celts were the bearers of an oral cultural tradition. Customs, social norms and religious traditions were inherited by ordinary oral transmission from generation to generation with the help of druid priests. Therefore, it is possible to restore Celtic history only on the basis of episodic, one-sided evidence from ancient authors.

Often, Celtic tribes entered into temporary alliances to conduct military operations. Tribal centers arose, which later turned into cities - so Londinium is now London. Wars undermined the unity of the Celtic tribes, created the ground for the enslavement of Britain by a powerful enemy - the Roman Empire.

2. Roman conquest. Britain as a province of the Roman Empire.

In 55 BC The troops of Julius Caesar landed on the shores of present-day England. The first time the Romans stayed on the island was only about three weeks. The second invasion took place in the summer of 54 BC, this time with a powerful army.

The real conquest of Albion by the Romans began under the emperor Claudius in 43 AD, about 40 thousand Roman soldiers took part in it. One of the main leaders in the struggle against the Romans was Caractacus.

The Celts put up fierce resistance, but the superiority of the military force of the Romans and the lack of unity among the Britons invariably led to the defeat of the rebels. Inhabited by Celtic tribes, the territory modern UK became a Roman colony of Britain in 43 under Emperor Claudius. Yet the Romans failed to completely subjugate the entire territory of the British Isles. The tribes of Ireland and Scotland remained unconquered, while Wales and other western regions were kept in obedience only by methods of military occupation. In the southeast of the island of Great Britain were the main Roman settlements: Camulodin (Colchester), Londinium (London) and Verulamius (St. Albans). Not being able to subdue the northern and western tribes, the Romans built huge ramparts on the borders of Scotland (the so-called Roman ramparts) with the hands of slaves. In the III century, the crisis of the Roman Empire began and in 410 Roman rule in Britain was officially terminated.

II. Britain in the Middle Ages (1066 - late 15th century)

1. Early Middle Ages: Anglo-Saxon conquest, Viking raids

Started at the end of the 3rd c. raids on Britain by the Scandinavian tribes, and then the German ones - the Angles and Saxons - put an end to Roman domination in 411. The Roman conquerors were replaced by the Germanic tribes of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, who pushed the Celts to the western and northern parts of the island, to the mountains and to the island of Ireland. The resistance of the Britons was so stubborn that the process of the Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain dragged on for more than a century and a half and ended only in early VII century. Huge territories of the country, which later became England proper, were conquered and settled by the Anglo-Saxons. At the same time, the Danes settled in the northeast, and the Norwegians settled on the Shetland, Orkney Islands and the coast of Scotland and Ireland.

The Anglo-Saxon (German) conquest of Britain was fundamentally different from the Roman one. Unlike the Romans, the Germans did not spare the local population. By the middle of the 7th century almost the entire area modern England was cleared of the Celts and settled by the Angles, Jutes and Saxons. The native population of Britain was pushed west of the Carlisle-Chester-Cardiff-Plymouth line into Cornwall, Wales and Strathclyde. In these areas, especially in Wales, the remains of the Celtic culture are best preserved, and the Welsh language, which is spoken in the Principality of Wales, developed on the basis of the language of the ancient Britons and is nothing like English, which belongs to the group of Germanic languages ​​and developed from the languages ​​of the Anglo-Saxon conquerors. .

For a long time, the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes kept to themselves. The Angles were divided into two branches - the northern (North Folk) and the southern (South Folk). The names of the modern English counties Norfolk and Suffolk originate from here. The Saxons also divided into southern, western, eastern and middle (central), giving the names of the modern counties Sussex (southern), Wessex (western) Essex (eastern) and Middle Saxons (middle Saxons). In the 5th century in the Thames River basin, the kingdom of the Jutes of Kent arose.

Having forced the Celts to the west of the country, the Angles and Saxons formed during the 5th-9th centuries. seven kingdoms (heptarchy) that adopted Christianity from the 6th to the 8th century. (in the north - the kingdom of Northumbria, to the south, in the center of the country - Mercia, to the east of it - East Anglia and Essex, to the south of Essex - Sussex, bordering the small kingdom of Kent in the east and Wessex in the west). Heptarchy is a term often applied to political system England before Egbert and expressing the erroneous idea that in England in the 5th-9th centuries there were always seven independent states, while in reality there were often more, and even more often less than seven. Writers who use this term usually have in mind the states: Wessex, Sussex, Kent, Essex, East Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria. The Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons lasted for almost a century - from 597, when missionaries sent by the pope convinced the King of Kent to be baptized, until the end of the 7th century. Christianity already at that time left its mark on the life, customs, culture of the Anglo-Saxon society. The monasteries built in different regions of the country, the monastic schools that arose during them, became important centers of culture and education in the Middle Ages. In the 7th century Old English writing emerged. In the ninth century Wessex kings subjugated not only Mercia, but also the rest of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. So the Wessex king Egbert in 828 became the first king of England.

Yet the events immediately following Caesar's invasion weren't too bad for Britain, patriotic feelings aside. Roman rule civilized Gaul, and its people fared much better under Roman rule than under their own petty tribal leaders.

It turned out that the Britons could trade with the Gauls as before. Moreover, they did it even more profitably, since the benefits of civilization now penetrated into Gaul, and from there to Britain. Indeed, the southern tribes of the Britons began to be imbued with Roman influence, and Latin inscriptions appeared on their coins.

The difficulty was that this situation could not last long. The Britons considered themselves independent and free, but the Romans believed that Caesar's second military expedition had made Britain something of a Roman protectorate, and they were always tempted to seize the land.

Soon after the assassination of Caesar, Rome became a kind of monarchy, led by Caesar's great-nephew Augustus. Augustus took the title "emperor", which in Latin meant "leader", and from that moment we can speak of the Roman Empire.

Augustus had some vague plans for the conquest of Britain, but in the Roman possessions torn apart by fifteen years of civil war, he already had something to do. Moreover, the Romans had to confront the Germanic tribes on the eastern border of Gaul, and this seemed to be a matter of much more importance than the problems of a distant island. For all these worries, Augustus never managed to come to grips with Britain. Neither did his successor Tiberius.

The third emperor, Caligula, finally took some real action - but he was pushed to this by events on the island itself.

The most influential leader of southern Britain during this period was Cunobelinus, who managed to establish friendly relations with Rome and make an alliance with Augustus. (Another version of his name is Kimbeline. William Shakespeare wrote a play with that name, its action takes place at this time, but the plot, of course, is completely unreliable.)

However, no ruler, no matter how prudent he may be, can not guarantee himself from intrigues in his own house. Cunobelin's son Admin rebelled against his father, was defeated and sent into exile. In 40 AD e. he arrived in Gaul and apparently offered the Romans that he would surrender Britain if the Roman troops brought him to his native country and put him on the throne. In this case, he apparently was ready to become a Roman puppet.

Emperor Caligula was a vain youth who, after another nervous breakdown, became dangerously crazy. It seemed to him amusing to send an army into northern Gaul, but difficult task crossing the strait and waging war on the island did not inspire him much. He was satisfied with a simple gesture.

Cunobelinus died in 43 and was succeeded by two sons who were far less friendly to Rome than their father. At least that's what they thought in Rome. The Romans found a handy puppet that could be used as a weapon in the fight against the sons of Cunobelin, a Kentish leader named Verica. He lived among the Romans for a long time and took it upon himself to send them a formal request for help. This gave the Romans an excuse to invade Britain under the guise of fulfilling allied obligations. Under the emperor Claudius, the fourth Roman emperor, who succeeded Caligula in 41, the final conquest of Britain began at last.

In the year of Cunobelinus's death, the Roman general Aulus Plautius, with forty thousand legions, crossed the strait at about the same place as Caesar had done a century before, and landed at Kent. The Romans quickly overran the lands south of the Thames, killing one of Cunobelin's sons and leaving the other, Caractacus, to fight alone.

They intended to settle firmly in these lands and, having crossed the Thames, they built a fortified fort at the crossing. It subsequently developed into a city that the Romans called Londinium and the British called London. Surely none of the legionnaires could have imagined that over time the fort would grow into the greatest of the cities in the world and become the capital of an empire whose territory was three or four times larger than all the possessions of Rome ...

Claudius personally arrived in Britain (the first Roman emperor to visit the island) to accept submissions from several tribes.

Caractacus had to leave his capital at Camulodunum, forty miles north of London. Camulodunum then became the capital of the new Roman province of Britannia and was called Colchester (from the Latin "colonial camp").

Caractacus fled to what is now south Wales, but was finally caught in 51 and sent as a prisoner. He was accompanied by his family, and Claudius, who was quite a decent emperor, treated him quite well.

Step by step, the Romans purposefully expanded their conquests, building their own forts with garrisons of several hundred legionnaires in each newly captured area.

Conquest is always quicker and easier if the invaders treat the population well and if it does not disturb the usual routine of life too much. True, as a rule, such behavior is difficult to expect. Warriors naturally hate enemies who do not want to surrender, and when they are defeated in battle, they set up ambushes and attack stealthily. Often soldiers do not distinguish between those who resist and those who are quite friendly.

Something similar happened in 60, to everyone's misfortune. At that time, the Iceni tribe, who lived north of the Roman capital of Colchester, was ruled by a leader who considered himself a friend of Rome and recognized his dominance. He died without a male heir, but he was survived by his wife Queen Boudica (better known to later generations as Boadicea) and two daughters. Before his death, his father, wishing to ensure the family's favor with the emperor and power over their ancestral lands, bequeathed part of his wealth to the emperor Nero, the successor of Claudius.

The Roman governor of the province, however, felt that since there were no male heirs, the entire territory should come under Roman rule. All the property was taken away from the unfortunate, and the daughters of the old leader were also brutally abused. When Queen Boadicea tried to intervene, she was, so the legend goes, flogged.

Offended by such injustice (and one cannot help but sympathize with her), Boadicea waited until most of the legions went to conquer the tribes that inhabited the western hills, and revolted against the Romans.

The rebellious Britons burned Colchester and completely destroyed London, killing all the Romans they came across, as well as the friendly Britons. In the reports of the Roman military leaders, the death toll (perhaps exaggerated) is estimated at seventy thousand people.

In the end, the returning Roman legionaries defeated the army of Boadicea, she committed suicide, but the very foundation of Roman power in Britain was shaken. The peace that reigned on the island was only an appearance, and everything had to be started all over again. This task proved all the more difficult because at that time, at the end of the reign of Nero, internal turmoil began in Rome itself, which made further conquests impossible.

Order in Rome was restored in 69 when Vespasian seized power and declared himself emperor. He was an experienced commander and even during the first conquest campaign in Britain he served under the command of Aulus Plautius, so he knew the island well.

However, it was not until 77 that he had sufficiently consolidated his position on the Continent to send a large army to Britain. He sent Gnaeus Julius Agricola there. He was also an experienced commander, who also had experience with the islanders, as he participated in the suppression of the Boadicea uprising.

Agricola found the situation in Britain quite calm and tried to continue its Romanization and extend the power of the Romans to the north. He conquered all the western tribes and reached with his army to the River Tay, in the central part of present-day Scotland.

Only the tribes that lived in the very north in the meager and inhospitable Scottish hills remained unconquered. These hills covered a small area, and Agricola was well aware of this, since he had previously sent a fleet with the task of sailing Britannia by sea.

Agricola himself intended to complete the conquest of all of Britain and even neighboring Ireland, but Domitian, the youngest son of Vespasian, who became emperor in 81, thought otherwise. The northern hills, he believed, were almost impossible to control (all subsequent experience showed that he was right), and even if they could be conquered, it would do little for Rome. In addition, there were problems with the barbarians on the Danube, and they just demanded an urgent solution.

In 84, Domitian ordered Agricola to withdraw from the still unconquered northern heights and switched to a purely defensive policy.

The northern tribes were called Caledonians (the name Caledonia is preserved as poetic title northern third of the island to the present day). By origin, these were pre-Celtic tribes, although by that time they had already quite thoroughly mixed with the Celts.

Agricola defeated the Caledonians in 84 in a battle near Mount Graup, the exact location of which we do not know. Its name was incorrectly rendered as Grump, which in turn gave its name to the Grampian Mountains, which stretch from east to west seventy miles from Edinburgh.

This defeat only drove the Caledonians deeper into the mountains, and they remained a constant threat to the Romans. Despite the fact that three-fifths of the territory of the island was conquered, the Romans had to keep almost forty thousand warriors in the north in constant combat readiness.

Gradually, this situation began to suit Rome less and less, as various kinds of unrest increasingly arose in the continental empire. Of course, Emperor Trajan conducted many military campaigns in the east and won impressive victories, adding vast new territories to the Roman possessions. This, however, was the last rise, and the Roman army in Britain was reduced, as more and more new forces were required for the eastern campaigns. Keeping the Caledonians at bay became even more difficult than before.

Trajan's successor Hadrian visited Britain in 122 to inspect the situation on the spot.

Hadrian's policy was the exact opposite of Trajan's. He was a peaceful man and wished to fortify the empire's borders in such a way that their defense would require minimal effort.

As a result, in Britain, he decided to strengthen the northern border of the Roman possessions in the truest sense of the word. He built a rampart, blocking off the island, and for simplicity he did it in the narrowest place. The rampart ran from east to west from what is now the city of Carlisle to what is now the city of Newcastle. The shaft was about seventy-five miles long. It ran about a hundred miles south of the northern border of Agricola's conquests.

This fortification - Hadrian's Wall - truly made an impression. It was built of stones six to ten feet across and up to fifteen feet high, and had a wide ditch dug in front of it. Watchtowers stood at intervals along the entire length of the rampart, and behind it were sixteen forts. For a while this new strategy turned out to be extremely successful. The attacks of the Caledonians did not reach their goal, and behind the rampart the Britons lived in peace and quiet. Cities began to grow, and the population of London, which became the main port and shopping center island, reached fifteen thousand people. Roads built by the Romans with a total length of five thousand miles led from London in different directions, and representatives of the nobility began to build villas in the Italian style with wash basins and patios. (Archaeologists have discovered the remains of five hundred such villas.)

The Romans felt so confident that they decided to launch a new offensive to the north. Under Hadrian's successor, Antoninus Pius, the legions marched again.

Ninety miles north of Hadrian's Wall, two sea inlets, the Firth of Forth and the Clyde, cut deep into the island. Between them lies a thirty-five-mile strip of land that stretches from the location of present-day Glasgow to Edinburgh. In 142, this strip of land was blocked by a new rampart (Antoninov rampart). It was not as solid a structure as Hadrian's Wall, and was built for the most part from pressed earth, and not from stones. However, there was also a moat in front of it, and forts behind it.

Antonin's shaft, however, was erected somewhat to the north than it should have been. It was not easy to hold, and the Caledonians managed to break through it and inflict considerable damage on the Romans.

After the assassination of the emperor Commodus in 192, a civil war broke out in Rome, as happened a century earlier, after the assassination of Nero. But this time the war was longer and more severe and directly affected Britain.

The commander-in-chief of the Roman legions in Britain, Decimus Clodius Albinus, was one of the contenders for the imperial throne. He led his troops to Gaul, trying to seize power by force, but there he was met by another applicant - the commander Septimius Severus. Severus was victorious and became emperor in 197, while the northern lands of Britain (since most of the Roman army had gone to Gaul) were in total chaos. For the last half century, since the construction of the Antoninov Wall, no one has followed the state of the Adrian Wall; it gradually collapsed, and now the Caledonians could easily penetrate both fortifications.

In 209, Severus with his sons was forced to equip a punitive expedition against Caledonia. The old commander himself was convinced with his own eyes that in this case it was better for the Romans to humble their pride. Antonin's rampart was abandoned forever. Severus ordered the repair and strengthening of Hadrian's Wall and once and for all to establish the border of Roman possessions here.

Following the execution of his orders, Severus, exhausted and sick, returned to Eborac (modern York) and died there in 211. He was the first Roman emperor to die in Britain.

After the reign of the North, the Caledonians disappear from the pages of history. Their place was taken by a people called the Picts. This name apparently comes from the Latin word for "painted", and some historians believe that it was their custom to tattoo and paint their bodies and faces. Perhaps, however, this is just a Latinized form of self-name with a meaning unknown to us. It is also possible that the Picts and the Caledonians were of the same origin, but one tribe ceded the headship to another, resulting in a change of name.

In addition, Celtic tribes from the north of Ireland invaded the northern part of Britain around this time. The Romans called this new people the Scots, and Scotland is named after them.

As a result of all this, the onslaught of the northerners on Roman Britain weakened, and she enjoyed peace for about a century. Peace was all the more valuable because the Roman Empire entered a long period of anarchy, when rival generals tore the empire apart, and barbarians ravaged the frontier lands. The sea barrier again saved Britain from these misfortunes.

The part of Britain that was under the rule of the empire became more and more Roman in spirit. Things went so far that centuries later the inhabitants of the island kept a vague memory that their land was not only among the Roman possessions, but was part of Rome itself. The Romans tried to identify themselves with the higher Greek civilization by inventing a legend that they were the descendants of Aeneas, a native of Troy. Many centuries after the departure of the Romans from Britain, a legend arose on the island that the great-grandson of Aeneas, named Brutus, fled from Italy and arrived in Britain, which got its name from him. He allegedly founded the city and called it New Troy: this city was then renamed London.

This, of course, is pure fantasy, inspired by the memory of the Romans and the desire to associate oneself with famous ancestors, especially since the name "Britons" and latin name Brutus have a similar sound.

It is important to remember that the Romanization of Britain was more of an appearance. In other Celtic provinces, such as Spain and Gaul, the process went much further. The Celtic languages ​​and culture disappeared without a trace, and when the Germanic barbarians crushed the western empire centuries later, Roman customs and the Latin language continued to exist in these lands for many more centuries. (Even today French and Spanish are heavily influenced by Latin and are referred to as Romance languages.)

Britain was farther away from Rome and was separated by the sea. There were almost no foreign colonists here. Moreover, unlike Spain and Gaul, directly beyond its borders lived stubborn independent Celts who kept their language and traditions intact and whose very existence seemed to serve as a constant reproach to the Britons who had forgotten their nationality.

Therefore, it is not surprising that Romanization affected mainly the urban population and the upper strata of society. As usual, most of the historical evidence tells about them, but apart from them there were villagers, and among them the traditions of the Celts continued to live: here was the second, inner border of Roman influence.

"Celtic resistance" even used religion for its own purposes. The local religion of the Druids, as everywhere, was eradicated, Roman cults were planted as its replacement; in some places Eastern religions were also practiced, such as Mithraism, borrowed from the Persians, or the cult of Serapis and Isis, originally practiced in Egypt. However, there was one Eastern religion that was not popular with the Roman authorities, and perhaps for this reason attracted some of the Britons. It's about Christianity.

The origins of British Christianity are completely hidden in the mists of legend. In accordance with the tradition of later centuries, St. Paul and St. Peter visited Britain, but this story can be ignored.

Another, more detailed legend tells of Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy Jew who revered Jesus. In the New Testament, he is mentioned in a single episode, when, after the crucifixion of Christ, he asks Pontius Pilate to allow him to remove the body of Christ from the cross. With the permission of the procurator, Joseph shone the body, wrapped it in linen and buried it in his own tomb.

There are other legends about this man. It is said that he spent forty-two years in prison and all this time remained alive thanks to the miraculous properties of the Holy Grail. This is the cup from which Jesus drank wine at the Last Supper and into which Joseph collected the blood of Jesus during the crucifixion.

In the end, Emperor Vespasian freed Joseph (the legend tells). In addition to the Holy Grail, Joseph also had a spear, which was used to stab Jesus during the crucifixion. In Britain, he founded Glastonbury Abbey and began the conversion of the Britons to Christianity.

Naturally, in this legend, invented many centuries after the events described in it by the monks of Glastonbury, there is not even a grain of truth. However, this abbey is indeed one of the oldest (if not the oldest) Christian centers in Britain, whether or not it was founded by Joseph of Arimathea. It is interesting that it was Glastonbury, once a powerful Celtic settlement, who played this role; the idea suggests itself that the foreign religion rejected by Rome became for the Celts another way to express their disagreement with Rome.

The troubled period in the history of the Roman Empire, covering most of the 3rd century, ended in 284, when the commander Diocletian came to power, proclaiming himself emperor. To facilitate the difficult task of ruling the empire, he decided to divide it into two parts - eastern and western - under the rule of two emperors, each of whom had to have his assistant and successor, who bore the title of Caesar.

Constantius Chlorus was appointed Caesar in the west. To begin with, he was instructed to return Britain to Rome, which by that time had already been under the rule of a certain rebellious commander for ten years. Constantius Chlorus coped with the task entrusted to him in 297 and since then actually settled on the island.

At the time of his appointment to the office of Caesar in 293, he was married to a woman named Helena whom he met in Asia Minor and who was a servant there. From her he had a minor son named Konstantin. One of the conditions for the appointment of Constantius was a divorce from Helen and marriage to the stepdaughter of the Western emperor. He did just that.

Constantius in every possible way avoided all sorts of extremes, and thanks to him, Britain happily passed the ordeal. In 303, Diocletian undertook the last and most severe persecution of Christians during the entire existence of Rome. By this point, Christians made up almost half of the population in the east, and the pagans understood that they either had to get rid of them or hand over power to them.

In the West, however, Christianity was much less widespread, and in Britain the adherent new religion was only one in ten. Constantius Chlorus, himself not a Christian, was a tolerant person and therefore simply ignored the edict of Diocletian. Britain did not know persecution.

Partly for this reason, Constantius was warmly remembered on the island. According to legend, his first wife Elena later entered the host of saints and, in her old age, visited Jerusalem and found the very cross on which Jesus was crucified. Another British legend says that Helena was a Briton princess, the daughter of that same old King Kohl - a very impressive career as a servant from Asia Minor.

Despite the moderation of Constantius, the first stories of British martyrs date back to this time. There is a story about a converted Alban, who was born in Verulamia, a city twenty miles north of London. Verulamium was one of the important Roman cities, it was burnt down by Boadicea. It is said that Alban suffered during the persecution of Diocletian. Next to his grave in Verulamia, a church was built, and then a monastery, from which the modern city of Saint-Aubans originates.

The tradition of St. Alban is also doubtful, but shortly after the events described, British Christianity emerges from the twilight of legends into the pages of history. In 314, bishops met in southern Gaul at Arles, meeting to resolve some contentious issues of Christian doctrine. Documents clearly show that Britain by this time was divided into dioceses, since at least three British bishops were present at the meeting - from London, from Lincoln and from York.

In 305 Diocletian and his co-ruler in the west retired. Constantius Chlorus tried to take part in a desperate struggle for power, but he was old and sick and died in York in 306, like Septimius Severus a century before him.

The son of Constantius Constantine lived at the imperial court, partly as a hostage, which guaranteed reasonable behavior his father. He managed to escape, however, and arrived in Britain just before Constantius' death. Roman troops immediately proclaimed him emperor.

He returned to the continent with his army and, having won several brilliant victories in a row, by 324 became the sole ruler of all Roman possessions. He made Christianity the official religion of the empire and in 330 founded the new imperial capital of Constantinople.

During the 4th century, Rome steadily lost its power, but it still managed to resist and hold back the onslaught of the Germanic barbarians, who from their kingdoms east of the Rhine and north of the Danube constantly threatened the empire. And even Britain, seemingly protected from invasion from the continent, suffered from the raids of the Picts and Scots, who broke through Hadrian's Wall and, moreover, ravaged her coasts and from the sea.

Rome found the strength to make one last attempt to stabilize the situation in Britain. In 367, Emperor Valentinian sent one of his most skilled generals, Theodosius, there. Theodosius defeated the Picts, reorganized the Roman army and marched triumphantly into London. During his stay on the island, Theodosius established the government of Britain, and then departed for other places. He was executed in Africa as a result of petty intrigue, but his son, also Theodosius, became emperor in 379. He turned out to be the last great emperor of the united Roman Empire.

The death of Emperor Theodosius in 395 was followed by the final collapse of the Western Empire. The impetus for it was the invasion of Italy by the German hordes.

The desperate Roman rulers managed to repulse the first onslaught, but for this they had to withdraw the legions from the provinces, leaving them defenseless in the face of other conquerors.

In 407, the Roman legions stationed in Britain (the last organized Roman force remaining outside Italy) sailed for Gaul. This was not so much an attempt to save the empire as a conspiracy of the commander who commanded these legions, who wanted to proclaim himself emperor on the sly.

His attempt failed, but for Britain it did not matter. The important thing was that the Roman troops left Britain, never to return there. Five and a half centuries after the first Roman emperor set foot on the Kentish coast under the banner of Julius Caesar, the last Roman soldier left Britain ingloriously.

The Britons, abandoned to the mercy of fate, fought off the Picts and Scots as best they could. Entire regions of the former Roman province fell into desolation one by one, and the superficial Roman civilization was cast aside like an old snakeskin. When the wild tribes of the Celts poured into Britain, old customs, abandoned but not forgotten, began to revive again.

Latin gave way to British. Civilized habits fell into disuse, and even Christianity gave way; Britain has returned to its beginning as if there had been no Roman episode in its history at all.

Notes:

According to a later legend, the old king Kol, who became the hero of nursery rhymes, ruled in these parts, and the city was named after him, but this is only a legend.

The Roman conquest of Britain is a long process during which the Romans conquered the island and the Celtic tribes that inhabited it. This process began in 43 AD. e. Roman emperor Claudius. We will talk about this, as well as the role of the Roman conquest in the history of Britain.

The situation in Rome

In 41 AD during palace coup the closest associates killed the emperor-tyrant Caligula. His place on the throne was taken by Claudius, uncle of Caligula, who ruled from 41 to 54 years.

The new ruler was not respected in the imperial household. He came to power by chance, when the people, in fear of civil strife, demanded a sole emperor.

• A question related to prestige, since even Julius Caesar himself did not manage to securely gain a foothold in this distant area.
• The second reason was the economic benefits offered by the Roman conquest of Britain. Indeed, among its supplies to Rome were: slaves, metal, grain, hunting dogs.

Before the campaign of Claudius

Briefly about Britain before the Roman conquest, we can say the following. By 43 AD e. The Iron Age continued on the island. In agriculture, plows with iron tips were used, and the forest was cut with iron axes. In addition to weapons made of bronze, as well as tools, artisans made gold jewelry.

The British lived in tribes ruled by chiefs. Intertribal wars were fought, which contributed to the construction of settlements - fortified settlements. locals produced wheat in industrial scale and exported grain. They traded it with continental Europe. In addition, minerals were an important export item, which, in particular, attracted the Roman Empire, which began to expand to the north. In 55 and 54 BC. e. G. Yu. Caesar undertook campaigns in Britain, but could not conquer it.

Island conquest

The Roman conquest of Britain began with the landing of four legions on the island in 43. One of them was commanded by Vespasian, the future emperor. The landing took place in Kent. In the course of a rather short period, the southeastern part of the island territory was captured.

The Roman army was much stronger than the Celts, and therefore the first resistance of the latter quickly came to an end. In June of the same year, Emperor Claudius arrived in Britain in person to accept the surrender signed by twelve local rulers.

The process of conquering the British lasted about forty years. Some lands, such as Dorset, resisted conquerors for a long time. There were also frequent uprisings in the occupied territories. Their reason was the cruel treatment by the invaders and the introduction of military service for the Celts.

Rise of Queen Boudicca

One of the large-scale performances was an uprising led by Queen Boudicca, which broke out during the reign of This queen was the wife of the leader of one of the tribes called "iceni" - Prasutag, which was dependent on the Romans. After the death of the leader, the Roman army seized the lands of the tribe.

By order of another steward appointed by Rome, Queen Boudicca was flogged and her two daughters dishonored. This was the reason for the uprising that took place in 61. The Romans and their Celtic supporters were killed by the rebels, who captured several cities, including the current London, which was then called Londinium.

The Iceni failed to resist Roman power, and the uprising was defeated, and the queen, in order not to fall into enemy hands, committed suicide.

In 60, the Romans captured the island of Anglesey, which at that time was the main stronghold of the Druids. They offered stubborn resistance, but their territory was captured and the Celtic fortifications destroyed.

Agricola's conquests

In 78, Gnaeus Julius Agricola was appointed to Britain as a consular legate; Both of these territories are in Scotland, a significant part of which was then conquered. Then the Romans called it Caledonia.

But the advantage of the Britons was a good knowledge of the surrounding landscape, as well as a great superiority in numbers. Therefore, the struggle took place in constant battles, in which Agricola's army was battered more than once. It took a long time to replenish the legions and develop new military tactics.

In 83, a battle took place in the Graupia Mountains, where Agricola won a landslide victory. Under his command, roads were built and protective structures were erected against the Celtic tribes who did not want to submit.

End of dominion

After the Roman conquest of Britain, it remained part of the empire for several hundred years, until it split in two. In 407, the invaders were forced to leave the island. Despite the long period of dominance, the impact of the Roman conquest in Britain was not global.

Romanization of Britain did not go smoothly. The rebels rose again and again. The island was too far from Rome, and he had to build Hadrian's Wall to protect against attacks from the north. It was quite difficult to protect her. Britain for centuries absorbed both human and material resources, and when Rome fell, she was the first to return to a barbaric state.