Ancient Britain

This page covers the history (and archaeology) of Britain, before the Norman Conquest of 1066 AD.

Stonehenge

Stonehenge built		3100–1800 BC
The 56 pits that form one of the outermost circles of Stonehenge (but the innermost circle of the earliest phase of building) – named after the 17th century antiquarian who is thought to have identified them		Aubrey holes
Range of hills in Pembrokeshire from which the 80 "blue" stones of Stonehenge (not the largest Sarsen stones) were quarried		Preseli
Type of sandstone from which the five trilithons of Stonehenge (and many other megalithic monuments) are made		Sarsen

Roman Britain

Julius Caesar landed in Britain (he failed to conquer it, having to return to Gaul to quell a revolt)		55 BC, 54 BC
The Roman conquest of Britain began with the invasion that began in (year)		AD 43
Emperor at the time of the Roman conquest of Britain – came to accept the surrender in person		Claudius
Roman senator who led the Claudian invasion of AD 43, and became the first Roman governor of Britain		Aulus Plautius
Roman general who served in Britain periodically from AD 58, was made governor in AD 77, and was responsible for much of the Roman conquest of Britain (completed with the defeat of the Caledonians at the Battle of Mons Graupius in AD 83 or 84); his daughter Julia married the historian Tacitus		Gnaeus Julius Agricola
Second largest town in Roman Britain (after London) – now a market town in Gloucestershire		Cirencester
The Romans finally left Britain around		410 AD

Built in AD 122–128, from the Roman fort at Segedunum (now Wallsend, Tyne & Wear) to Bowness–on–Solway in Cumbria		Hadrian's Wall
Hadrian's Wall: length		73 miles
Roman wall from the Forth to the Clyde – built in AD 142–154		Antonine
Roman road from London to the Humber and York (via Lincoln)		Ermine Street
Roman road from Lincoln to Exeter, via Leicester, Cirencester and Bath		Fosse Way
Ancient track following high ground from The Wash to Berkshire		Icknield Way
Roman road from Dover to Wroxeter (Shropshire), via London; Edgware Road is built on a section of it		Watling Street

Wife of King Prasutagus; rebelled against the Romans c. AD 60; said to have invoked Andraste, the British goddess of victory, by releasing a hare from her skirts before fighting the Romans; captured Colchester, St. Albans and London; slaughtered 70,000; eventually defeated somewhere in the Midlands. Buried, according to an urban myth dating at least to a 1937 biography, under King's Cross Station; but this is based on a misunderstanding and possibly a hoax – her actual burial place is unknown

Boudicca (Boadicea)

Leader of the British tribes against the Roman invasion of AD 43–87		Cara(c)tacus (Caradoc)
His father		Cymbeline (Cunobelinus)
His capital, captured by the Romans in AD 43		Colchester (Camulodunum)

Other

The oldest known name for Britain, derived from the Celtic word for "earth" or "world"		Albion
Collection of annals created in the reign of Alfred the Great		Anglo–Saxon Chronicle
Welsh king who used the leek as his badge when fighting the Saxons, c. AD 640		Cadwallader
Son of Sweyn (Forkbeard), King of Norway; became King of England by defeating Edmund Ironside (son of Ethelred the Unready) at the Battle of Assandun in 1016		Canute
Stone circle near Keswick, Cumbria: described as "one of the most visually impressive prehistoric monuments in Britain"; named after the fell (hill) on which it stands		Castlerigg
Gaelic kingdom that covered parts of western Scotland and (Northern) Ireland, at its height around AD 600		Dalriada
9th Century tax raised as protection money to pay off the Vikings, or to fund forces to oppose them		Danegeld
Land ceded by King Alfred to King Guthrum of Denmark in 878 (consisting of eastern England from the Thames to the Wear, and modern Lancashire and Cumbria)		Danelaw
Priestly and learned classes of the Celts		Druids
Major seaport of Suffolk, engulfed by the sea as a result of storms and coastal erosion in the 13th to 16th centuries		Dunwich
Wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia (born c. 1040 – the famous legend probably has no basis in fact)		Lady Godiva
Neolithic flint mining site near Brandon, Suffolk (near the Norfolk border)		Grimes Graves
The seven Anglo–Saxon kingdoms, prior to AD 900		The Heptarchy
Popular name locally for the long barrow near Uley, Gloucestershire		Hetty Pegler's Tump
Anglo–Saxon nobleman who led a revolt against the Norman conquest in 1070, from his base on the Isle of Ely; reputedly the last Saxon leader to hold out against the Normans		Hereward the Wake
Boudicca's tribe		Iceni
Earl of Mercia and lord of Coventry (968–1057) – husband of Lady Godiva		Leofric III
Famous Bronze Age relic near Penrith, Cumbria (the largest stone monument in Northern England): a 12–foot–high red sandstone monolith overlooks a nearby stone circle, 100m wide on its long axis		Long Meg and her Daughters
Anglo–Saxon kingdom that eventually covered the English Midlands, extending between the estuaries of the Wyre, Humber, Severn and (almost) the Thames; Offa and Penda were Kings of		Mercia
Bronze Age stone circle on Stanton Moor (Peak District)		The Nine Ladies
8th–century earthwork through the English–Welsh borders, from the Dee at Prestatyn to the Severn Estuary at Chepstow – named after the King of Mercia (757–796)		Offa's Dyke
Reputedly the father of St. Helena and hence grandfather of Constantine the Great		Old King Cole
Neolithic Orkney village, buried under a sand dune until 1850		Skara Brae
Mediaeval tax based on one–tenth of a person's possessions		Tithe
Name used in Yorkshire and other northern counties for a sub–division of the county – similar to the southern Hundred – originating from the Danish occupation		Wapentake
King Alfred's first kingdom		Wessex

© Haydn Thompson 2017–24