The idea of a unified “England” did not appear until the eighth century when the “Venerable” Bede, a Northumbrian Benedictine monk, wrote his famous Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (or “Ecclesiastical History of the English People”), a Latin book completed around 571 AD which ostensibly gives an account of the Christian churches on the English isle, but which, in truth, serves to highlight the growing tensions between Celtic and Catholic interpretations of Christianity across the isle.
Prior to Bede’s publication, England was an island of almost mythic proportions, populated with varying tribes but with no unifying culture or people. The idea of England was dubious, mysterious, haunting, foreign, and yet tantalizing to the peoples of mainland Europe. For example, in the fourth century BC, a seafaring Greek explorer named Pytheas published an account of his expedition northward, which included a visit to the British isles. His adventure was a popular tale in antiquity. However, latter-day writers have since doubted the authenticity of his claims and Pytheas’s book has not survived into the modern era. Instead, we find only fragmentary quotes of Pytheas buried in the writings of Strabo, Pliny, Diodorus, and others. Another early exploration was undertaken by Himilcus, a Carthaginian navigator who may have landed in England, but this text is also now lost to us.
Despite the mysterious nature of the early English peoples, contemporary archaeological evidence points us to a political world of tribal chieftains (mainly Celtic and Welsh groups) with hillside castles and an economy founded upon commerce across the English Channel with mainland Europe, particularly the seafaring trade of ores like tin mined in southwest England. This was the era of the much-maligned Druids, a pagan Celtic religion characterized by Tacitus many centuries later as a group of forested people who sacrificed captives upon strange altars while searching for hidden messages found in human entrails. Thankfully this gruesome practice died out in the Saxon wars, but nevertheless the early Celtic Britons left their lasting mark upon the isle with important geographic names: London, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dover, Kent, and York; in addition to rivers like the Thames and the Severn (the longest river in Britain).
We can only imagine what life might have been like for these early fiefdoms of England, and fascination has continued to entice writers for the past two thousand years, including writers like Geoffrey of Monmouth, a Welsh cleric who wrote his Historia Regum Britanniae (“History of the Kings of Britain”) around AD 1136. The book offers a popular, mythological account of the early kings of Britain in which Brutus, the great-grandson of Aeneas, is said to be the founder of Britain (hence why he renamed the island from ‘Albion’ to his own name ‘Britannia’). The book tells of King Leir and his three daughters, a harrowing tale incomparably re-imagined in Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy, King Lear, and lastly Geoffrey’s book paints a picture of the legendary King Arthur, one of the last great kings of the Britons prior to the Saxon invasions. These early stories present an age of chivalry, timocratic kingdoms, and a deep cultural fascination with swords like “Excaliber.” Our earliest and best glimpse of Britain comes down to us from Julius Caesar’s Commentarii de Bello Gallico (“Commentaries on the Gallic Wars”).
Of course, the English isle was once populated by a mysterious scattering of peoples for thousands of years. Their politics, languages, hopes, dreams, and prayers are all lost to us today. But out of the mist and twilight of this ancient humanity we can slowly piece together a “likely story” of their world. Archaeological digs uncover spears and arrowheads, grave mounds and cave art, as well as early examples of farming and political activity. However, all roads ultimately lead to Stonehenge. Today, Stonehenge looms large over the history of ancient England. It is an impressive monument, likely a ritualistic burial site composed of several thirteen-foot Sarsen stones carefully arranged in a semi-circle. The mysteries of Stonehenge continue to yield fertile theories of what life may have been like in prehistoric England.
For this reading I used Winston Churchill’s essential History of English Speaking Peoples, David Starkey’s Crown and Country, Peter Ackroyd’s Foundation: The History of England From Its Earliest Beginnings To The Tudors, and a variety of sources from the Venerable Bede, Tacitus, and Geoffrey of Monmouth.
Fascinating! 🙂