Romans

In 55 BC the Romans were fighting in Gaul (France). The Britons were helping the Gauls
against the Romans and the Roman leader, Julius Caesar, decided to teach the Britons a
lesson. Caesar gathered 12,000 men and set sail for Britain. He landed in Kent and
went as far as 7 miles inland before he left, taking some Britons as slaves.
In 43 AD Emperor Claudius saw his chance to win a great victory and sent 40,000 men
to defeat the British tribes. The tribes were defeated after some fierce fighting. One
battle lasted two days and Claudius even had to send extra men and elephants to help
his soldiers.
Claudius left Britain after 16 days and returned to Rome a hero. The Romans had just
added a new country to their empire.

Reasons they invaded Britain:

War to give our Roman
Army more opportunities to
practise their skills by
fighting lots of Britons and
taking their lives.

Inventions The Britons are

very clever and have
invented lots of ways we can
make peoples lives easier
back in Rome.

To improve the lives of the

people in Britannia by
showing them to how to
build towns, better houses
and water supplies.

Farming to get more land

to raise sheep and cows on.

Food Britannia will send

plenty of food to feed the
people of Rome.

Slaves to work in Rome to

make Romans lives easier
and build great buildings.

To win fame, riches and

power.

To bring peace and order to

Britannia.

To collect taxes from the

Britons and make Rome
even richer!

What happened when they arrived?

Positives

Negatives

Gave fresh water

Invented coins
Made trade easier
Named Londinium

Have to pay taxes

Tribe leaders have less respect
Men were taken as slaved

By the 5th Century AD tribes in Germany were attacking the Romans and the emperor decided that he
needed the legions he had in Britain to return to Rome.
He sent a letter to the people of Britain telling them the soldiers had to leave. The Anglo-Saxons would
have to fight invaders on their own.

Vikings
Vikings were also known as
the Norsemen. They were
great travellers and sailed to
other parts of Europe, where
they traded, raided, and often
settled
They were also farmers,
fishermen, trappers and
traders. Viking craftsmen
made beautiful objects out of
wood, metal and bone; Viking
women were skilful weavers,
produced fine, warm textiles.

Why did the Vikings invade Britain?

The winds tended to blow towards Britain in Spring so it was easy to sail there.
Britain had many wealthy monasteries, which contained gold and rare items.
There was not enough space in their homeland so sons of families would leave seeking
adventure, fortune and land.
A combination of better boat technology and calmer seas meant long-distance travel
was possible.
In 793 AD, an anguished Alcuin of York
wrote to the Higbald, the bishop of
Lindisfarne and to Ethelred, King of
Northumbria, bemoaning the unexpected
attack on the monastery of Lindisfarne by
Viking raiders, probably Norwegians
sailing directly across the North Sea to
Northumbria.
It is clear from the letter that Lindisfarne
was not destroyed. Alcuin suggested that
further attack might be averted by moral
reform in the monastery.
Behold the church of St Cuthbert spattered with
the blood of the priests of God, despoiled of all its
ornaments; a place more venerable than all in
Britain is given as a prey to pagan peoples. Letter
from Alcuin of York to Ethelred, king of
Northumbria, 8 June, 793

Over the next few decades, many

monasteries in the north were destroyed,
and with them any records they might
have kept of the raids. We know no
historical details of the raids in Scotland,
although they must have been extensive.

Normans
The Normans invaded
Britain in 1066 when
William the Conqueror
beat Harold Godwinson at
the Battle of Hastings.

Who spoke French in England?

The French language was only spoken by the lords that King
William brought over to England.

How many Norman castles were built in Britain?

1,000 Norman castles were built in the space of 40 years.

How did architecture change in Britain?

A new style of church was introduced the Romanesque
style.

What was the Domesday book?

The Domesday Book recorded everyone who lived in Britain,
where they lived and how much money they had.

The Normans brought the feudal system:

Change

Long-term Impact

Language

Expanded and changed the way

some people spoke over the next
few centuries.

Domesday
Book

This organised the country allowing

the king to rule more effectively.

New
Architectur
e

Altered the style of buildings for

about 100 years until the Gothic style
was invented.

Castles

Made England stronger, helping it

defend itself and eventually conquer
places like Wales.

1,000 Norman castles were built in the space

of 40 years.
A new style of church was introduced the
Romanesque style.
The Domesday Book introduced the idea of
landholding, which meant people in power
could give land to their followers.

Jews
In Medieval Europe, Christians could
not lend money.
When William invaded in 1066 he
needed money to be lent to his new
subjects. He invited Jews to Britain to
solve this problem

Below are 4 reasons the Jews were

persecuted:
Christians owed
lots of money to
Jewish money
lenders and were
not always able
to pay it back.

Crazy stories
were spread,
that Jews held
rituals in which
they sacrificed
Christian
children.

The Jews became

the scapegoats
of their
communities:
A bad harvest or
illnesses was the
fault of the Jews.

Jews dressed
differently to
Christians and
took part in
ceremonies that
Christians found
strange and
intimidating.

In Europe, during the Middle Ages, almost everyone

was Christian.
But there were some Jewish people, who lived in
small communities across Europe.
They had been expelled from Israel by the Romans
in 153AD.
It was not easy being Jewish the Jews were always
seen as outsiders.

Jews have been the victims of mistreatment

since Roman times, as their different religion
and their success in business attracted
hatred and jealousy. Laws were sometimes
passed against them, such as the 1215 ruling
by the Catholic Church that Jewish men had
to wear spiked hats to identify them. At
other times they have been made to wear
stars on their clothing or change their names.
At the time this roll was written Jews in
England were subjected to heavy taxes, had
property stolen or confiscated and were
sometimes attacked. The most serious attack
on a Jewish community was the York
Massacre in 1190 in which 150 Jews were
killed as they took refuge in Clifford's
Tower, one of the city's castles. The 12th
century historian William of Newburgh
accused the townspeople of an attempt at
'sweeping away the whole race in their city'.

Gypsies
In 1530 Henry Viii passed
the Egyptian Act which
gives all Romani people 16
days to leave the kingdom
before they are arrested.

Todays images of Gypsy Travellers seem to be between vilification and

isolation, - Historian Becky Taylor

Irish
Irish peasants relied exclusively on potato crops for food and income, and in 1845 potato blight
decimated these crops. It is estimated that one million people died of starvation in Ireland
between 1845 and 1851, as a result of the crop failure.
As starving people fled to the cities to look for work, epidemics
such as cholera broke out, killing many.
Around one and one half million people emigrated from Ireland,
mostly to Canada, England and the United States.
Many emigrants died of typhus on 'coffin ships'.
Most Irish who left their home country because of the famine settled
in the industrial cities of Liverpool and Manchester.
By 1851, Irish immigrants in Manchester comprised around 15 per
cent of the city's poor.

Afro-Carribean
The Empire Windrush's voyage from the
Caribbean to Tilbury took place in 1948. Believe
it or not, very few of the migrants intended to
stay in Britain for more than a few years.
If it hadn't been for the Second World War, the
Windrush and her passengers might not have
made the voyage at all. During the war,
thousands of Caribbean men and women had
been recruited to serve in the armed forces.
When the Windrush stopped in Jamaica to pick
up servicemen who were on leave from their
units, many of their former comrades decided to
make the trip in order to rejoin the RAF. More
adventurous spirits, mostly young men, who had
heard about the voyage and simply fancied
coming to see England, 'the mother country',
doubled their numbers.