The Britons PDF
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the Britons The Peoples of Europe General Editors: James Campbell and Barry Cuncliffe This series is about the European tribes and peoples from their origins in prehistory to the present day. Drawing upon a wide range of archaeological and historical evidence, each volume presents a fresh and absorbing account of a group’s culture, society and usually turbulent history. Already published: The Etruscans The Goths Graeme Barker and Thomas Peter Heather Rasmussen The Franks* The Normans Edward James Marjory Chibnall The Russians The Norsemen in the Viking Age Robin Milner-Gulland Eric Christiansen The Mongols The Lombards David Morgan Neil Christie The Armenians The Basques* A. E. Redgate Roger Collins The Britons The English Christopher A. Snyder Geoffrey Elton The Huns The Gypsies E. A. Thompson Second Edition The Early Germans Angus Fraser Malcolm Todd The Bretons The Illyrians Patrick Galliou and Michael Jones John Wilkes In preparation: The Scilians The Spanish David Abulafia Roger Collins The Irish The Romans Francis John Byrne and Michael Herity Timothy Cornell The Byzantines The Scots Averil Cameron Colin Kidd The Serbs The Picts Sima Cirkovic Charles Thomas * Denotes title now out of print t he Britons Christopher A. Snyder © 2003 by Christopher A. Snyder 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148,USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK 550 Swanston Street, Carlton South, Melbourne, Victoria 3053, Australia Kurfürstendamm 57, 10707 Berlin, Germany The right of Christopher A. Snyder to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. First published 2003 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Snyder, Christopher A. (Christopher Allen), 1966– The Britons / Christopher A. Snyder. p. cm. — (The peoples of Europe) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–631–22260–X (alk. paper) 1. Britons. 2. Great Britain—Civilization—To 1066. 3. Great Britain—Antiquities, Celtic. 4. Great Britain—History—To 449. 5. Celts—Great Britain. 6. Druids and Druidism. 7. Arthur, King. I. Title. II. Series DA140 .s73 2003 941¢.004916—dc21 2002011113 A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. Picture Research by Judy Lehane Set in 10 on 12 pt Sabon by Ace Filmsetting Ltd, Frome, Somerset Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by T. J. International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall For further information on Blackwell Publishing, visit our website: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com To my King this service is rendered Contents List of Plates xi List of Figures xii List of Maps xiii List of Tables xiv Preface xv Abbreviations xvii 1 Who are the Britons? 1 Britons and the Great Celtic Debate 1 Historiography and Methodology 6 Part I Romans and Britons 9 2 The Late Pre-Roman Iron Age 11 The Earliest Britons 12 Hallstatt and La Tène 13 The Belgae 16 Oppida and Proto-urbanism in Britain 17 Caesar and the Britons 19 British Tribes and the Rise of the Catuvellauni 24 3 The Roman Period 29 The Claudian conquest 30 British Client Kings 34 Caratacus 36 Boudica 39 Military expansion and Romanization 43 Organizing the Britons 47 Farming and Rural Settlement 49 viii Contents Language in Roman Britain 49 Religion 52 4 Late Roman Britain 54 Military and Political Events 54 Towns Great and Small 63 Hill-forts and the Native Aristocracy 65 Forts and Foederati 66 The Picts and the Scots 67 Britons Abroad 70 The British Tyrants 71 Part II The Brittonic Age 73 5 Britons and Saxons 75 Sources and Evidence 76 An Historical Narrative? 78 A New Model for the Adventus Saxonum 85 The Historical Arthur Debate 93 Towns and Hill-forts 94 Kings and Tyrants 100 6 The British Church 105 The Origins of Christianity in Britain 105 The Late Roman Church 107 Pelagius and Pelagianism in Britain 113 Patrick 116 Gildas 121 Monasticism and the Penitentials 125 The Age of the Saints 128 Postscript: The Synod of Whitby 134 Part III A People Divided 139 7 Brittany and Galicia 141 Galicia 142 From Armorica to Brittany 145 Riothamus and Sidonius 149 The Breton Church 151 Bretons and Franks 152 Brittany and the Carolingian Empire 153 Redon and Local Administration 154 Ducal Brittany 155 Contents ix 8 Cornwall and the Southwest 157 The Southwest 157 The Cornovii and the Dumnonii 160 Tintagel and Dumnonian Kingship 163 Æthelstan and West Saxon Expansion 168 The Cornish Saints 170 9 Wales and the Isle of Man 175 Historical Narrative 175 Welsh Kings and Kingdoms 184 The Llandaff Charters and Roman Survival in Southern Wales 191 Hill-forts and Trade 192 The Irish in Wales and Man 193 The Welsh Church 195 10 Northern Britons 198 The Parisii 199 The Brigantes 199 The Carvetii 203 Britons beyond the Wall: the Novantae, the Selgovae, the Damnonii, and the Votadini 205 British Survival along Hadrian’s Wall 206 Elmet 207 Deira and Bernicia 210 Rheged 213 Gododdin 217 Strathclyde 219 The ‘Heroic Society’ of the North 221 Part IV Conquest, Survival, and Revival 225 11 Normans and Britons 227 Bretons and the Norman Conquest 228 The Marcher Lords and the First Welsh Rebellions 229 Geoffrey of Monmouth 231 Arthur and the Plantagenets 236 Gerald of Wales 239 Welsh Nationalism and the Two Llywelyns 241 Edward I and Wales 244 Owain Glyn Dw^r 246 12 Language and Literature 250 The Development of the Brittonic Languages 250 x Contents British Latin Writers 256 The Bard in the Early Middle Ages 256 The Cynfeirdd 258 ‘The Great Prophecy of Britain’ 262 The Welsh Triads 263 The Mabinogi 263 The Breton Lais 266 Welsh Chronicles and Histories 268 The Last of the Royal Bards 269 Dafydd ap Gwilym 270 13 Conclusion 272 The Loss of Sovereignty 272 Antiquarian Revival 276 Nationalism, Separatists, and Devolution 281 The Britons in Perspective 283 Chronology of Events 289 Bibliography 297 Index 318 Contents xi Plates 2.1 La Tène objects from Britain 15 2.2 An artist’s reconstruction of an Iron Age British warrior and his wife 21 3.1 The still standing walls of the Roman fort at Richborough 33 3.2 The ramparts of Maiden Castle, a massive Iron Age hill-fort 37 3.3 Queen Boudica (here ‘Boadicea’) recast by the Victorians 41 3.4 The Ty Mawr hut-group, on the southern slopes of Holyhead Mountain 51 4.1 A hoard of Roman silver discovered at Traprain Law 69 5.1 Reconstruction drawing of the timber complex at Wroxeter 98 8.1 The ‘Arthnou stone’ 171 9.1 Reconstruction drawing of a large crannog built in Llangorse Lake 190 10.1 Reconstruction drawing of the post-Roman timber hall at Birdoswald 208 10.2 A long-cist burial from the early medieval cemetery at Bamburgh 211 11.1 An artist’s rendering of the excavation of Arthur’s grave at Glastonbury 238 13.1 Ancient Britons, as imagined by sixteenth-century artists 278
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