Page XXXI. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION and NapoleON XXXII. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION XXXIII. CROWN AND PARLIAMENT. THE REFORM BILL CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES THIRTY IMPortant DatES - 200 - 206 - 218 226 - 233 - 242 - 251 - 253 - 272 - 278 A BRIEF SURVEY OF BRITISH HISTORY. I. THE RACES OF BRITAIN. The history of Britain, so far as it is written, begins with invasions of the Romans under Julius Cæsar. But although the Roman writers record the Celts, Britons, movements of the legions and the battles and Gaels. they won, they tell us little of what is of much more interest to us now, namely, what sort of people dwelt in our island in these early days. Still, what ancient writers did not know, or have not told us, has been supplied by the learning of modern days. Those who study races and languages teach us that before the Romans came Britain was inhabited by Celts; that the race of Celts were divided into two branches, the Gaels-from whom are descended the Irish and the Highlanders-and the Britons, whose descendants now inhabit Wales. As we are to observe especially those events which have been not only striking in themselves, but which have borne fruit, so to speak, and have produced great effects on the history of our island, we may dismiss the Roman occupation of it very Roman shortly, for almost all that the Romans did Invasions. perished when they left. After Julius Cæsar's expeditions (55-54 B.C.), it was close on a hundred years before they sent another. The Britons could not resist them. Piece by piece they subdued most of the island, although one violent British revolt, led by Queen Boadicea, nearly destroyed the Roman power. It was put down and the queen slain, but not before she had sacked and burned the three chief Roman towns-Colchester, St. Albans, and London. The Romans never subdued the north, which was inhabited by the Picts,-" painted men as the Romans called them, from their habit of painting their bodies with blue dye. The Emperor Hadrian fixed the northern limits of the Roman conquest by the great wall which stretched from the Solway to the Tyne, parts of which still exist. Yet, when, after 350 years of occupation, the Romans withdrew, their power soon crumbled away. It perished in France and Spain too, but not so completely, for the language of these countries is derived from Latin. But the Romans in Britain left no trace on our language, except in a few names, such as Chester, Gloucester, and Lincoln, which indicate Roman camps or colonies. The Britons were not long left in peace. They were attacked by the Picts from beyond Hadrian's Picts and wall, and by the Scots, a people who came Scots. first from Ireland, but afterwards settled in the south-west of Scotland, giving their name to the country. The unwarlike Britons, in order to drive them back, invited the help of a band of warriors from the northern shores of Germany. This led to new invasion, that of the Saxons, much more terrible than that of the Romans. It is said that the first comers were commanded by two leaders, Hengist and Horsa. Horsa was killed in battle just after their arrival, but Hengist established himself in Kent. He was followed by other 449. leaders and other bands, some being Jutes from JutThe Invasion land or Denmark, others Saxons from the of the Saxons, land by the mouth of the Elbe, and others Angles from Schleswig. But these were all similar in race and language; they spoke what has turned by degrees into our own tongue-English. They were fierce warriors, and the Britons could not stand before them. They worshipped heathen gods; they hated and destroyed towns; they spared none, and took no captives. We read of the Saxon chiefs who stormed the fortress of Anderida: "Ælla and Cissa beset Anderida, and slew all that were therein; nor was there afterwards one Briton left". The Britons fled westwards before them, leaving behind little trace of their habits or their language. As each piece of the country was torn from them, it was formed into a new Saxon kingdom. The names of our shires tells us this: Essex, Sussex, Wessex are the settlements of the East, South, and West Saxons; Norfolk and Suffolk, of the North and South folk of the Angles; Northumbria, the realm north of the Humber; Mercia, the "march" or border country next to the Britons. Battles of The first invaders had come in 449; it was not till 120 years later that the Britons were driven completely to the west. A great victory at Dyrham, Dyrham, 577; in Gloucestershire, let Ceawlin, King of and Chester, the West Saxons, reach the Severn; and 613. another at Chester, some thirty years later, extended the power of Ethelfrith, King of Northumbria, to the western sea. Henceforward the Britons or Welsh ("foreigners"), as the invaders called them, were split into three separate parts, dwelling in Cornwall, Wales, and Strathclyde, the last being most of the western coast between the Ribble and the Clyde. |