Celtic Britons

"Ancient Britons" redirects here. For the prehistoric inhabitants of Britain, see Prehistoric Britain. For other uses, see Briton (disambiguation).

Great Britain in the early–mid 1st millennium, before the founding of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

  Mainly Brittonic areas

  Mainly Pictish areas

  Mainly Goidelic areas

The Britons were an ancient Celtic people who lived on Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Roman and Sub-Roman periods. They spoke a language that is now known as Common Brittonic.

The earliest evidence of the existence of the Britons and their language in historical sources dates to the Iron Age. After the Roman conquest of Britain in the 1st century, a Romano-British culture emerged, and Latin and British Vulgar Latin coexisted with Brittonic. During and after the Roman era, the Britons lived throughout Britain south of the Firth of Forth. Their relationship with the Picts, who lived north of the Firth of Forth, has been the subject of much discussion, though most scholars accept that the Pictish language was related to Common Brittonic.

With the beginning of Anglo-Saxon settlement in the 5th century, the culture and language of the Britons fragmented and much of their territory was taken over by the Anglo-Saxons. The extent to which this cultural and linguistic change was accompanied by wholesale changes in the population is still a matter of discussion. During this period some Britons migrated to mainland Europe and established significant settlements in Brittany (now part of France) as well as Britonia in modern Galicia, Spain. By the 11th century, remaining Celtic-speaking populations had split into distinct groups: the Welsh in Wales, the Cornish in Cornwall, the Bretons in Brittany, and the people of the Hen Ogledd ("Old North") in southern Scotland and northern England. Common Brittonic developed into the distinct Brittonic languages: Welsh, Cumbric, Cornish and Breton.

Name

Gritstone bas-relief of Romano-British woman

Main article: Britain (placename)

Further information: Brittia

The earliest known reference to the inhabitants of Britain seems to come from records of the voyage of Pytheas, a Greek geographer who made a voyage of exploration around the British Isles between 330 and 320 BC. Although none of his own writings remain, writers during the time of the Roman Empire made much reference to them. Pytheas called the islands collectively ἁι Βρεττανιαι (hai Brettaniai), which has been translated as the Brittanic Isles, and the peoples of these islands of Prettanike were called the Πρεττανοί (Prettanoi), Priteni, Pritani or Pretani. The group included Ireland, which was referred to as Ierne (Insula sacra "sacred island" as the Greeks interpreted it) "inhabited by the race of Hiberni" (gens hiernorum), and Britain as insula Albionum, "island of the Albions". The term Pritani may have reached Pytheas from the Gauls, who possibly used it as their term for the inhabitants of the islands.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which was originally compiled on the orders of King Alfred the Great in approximately 890, and subsequently maintained and added to by generations of anonymous scribes until the middle of the 12th century, starts with this sentence: "The island Britain is 800 miles long, and 200 miles broad, and there are in the island five nations: English, Welsh (or British), Scottish, Pictish, and Latin. The first inhabitants were the Britons, who came from Armenia, and first peopled Britain southward." ("Armenia" is possibly a mistaken transcription of Armorica, an area in Northwestern Gaul.)

The Latin name in the early Roman Empire period was Britanni or Brittanni, following the Roman conquest in AD 43.

The Welsh word Brython was introduced into English usage by John Rhys in 1884 as a term unambiguously referring to the P-Celtic speakers of Great Britain, to complement Goidel; hence the adjective Brythonic referring to the group of languages. "Brittonic languages" is a more recent coinage (first attested 1923 according to the Oxford English Dictionary) intended to refer to the ancient Britons specifically.

Language

The Staffordshire Moorlands Pan

A flying rowan tree, considered magical by the ancient Britons

Britons migrated westwards during the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain

Main articles: Common Brittonic and Brittonic languages

The Britons spoke an Insular Celtic language known as Common Brittonic. Brittonic was spoken throughout the island of Britain. According to early mediaeval historical tradition, such as The Dream of Macsen Wledig, the post-Roman Celtic-speakers of Armorica were colonists from Britain, resulting in the Breton language, a language related to Welsh and identical to Cornish in the early period and still used today. Thus the area today is called Brittany (Br. Breizh, Fr. Bretagne, derived from Britannia).

Common Brittonic developed from the Insular branch of the Proto-Celtic language that developed in the British Isles after arriving from the continent. The language eventually began to diverge; some linguists have grouped subsequent developments as Western and Southwestern Brittonic languages. Western Brittonic developed into Welsh in Wales and the Cumbric language in the Hen Ogledd or "Old North" of Britain, while the Southwestern dialect became Cornish in Cornwall and South West England and Breton in Armorica. Welsh and Breton survive today; Cumbric became extinct in the 12th century. Cornish went extinct by the 19th century but has been the subject of language revitalization since the 20th century.

Archaeology and art

Main article: Celtic art

Ideas about the development of British Iron Age culture changed greatly in the 20th century, and remain in development. Generally cultural exchange has tended to replace migration from the continent as the explanation for changes, although Aylesford-Swarling Pottery and the Arras culture of Yorkshire are examples of developments still thought to be linked to migration.

Although the La Tène style, which defines what is called Celtic art in the Iron Age, was late in arriving in Britain, after 300 BC the ancient British seem to have had generally similar cultural practices to the Celtic cultures nearest to them on the continent. There are significant differences in artistic styles, and the greatest period of what is known as the "Insular La Tène" style, surviving mostly in metalwork, was in the century or so before the Roman conquest, and perhaps the decades after it. By this time Celtic styles seem to have been in decline in continental Europe, even before Roman invasions.

An undercurrent of British influence is found in some artefacts from the Roman period, such as the Staffordshire Moorlands Pan, and it appears that it was from this, passing to Ireland in the late Roman and post-Roman period, that the "Celtic" element in Early Medieval Insular art derived.

Territory

Main articles: British Iron Age, Roman Britain and Sub-Roman Britain

Throughout their existence, the territory inhabited by the Britons was composed of numerous ever-changing areas controlled by tribes. The extent of their territory before and during the Roman period is unclear, but is generally believed to include the whole of the island of Great Britain, as far north as the Clyde-Forth isthmus. The territory north of this was largely inhabited by the Picts; little direct evidence has been left of the Pictish language, but place names and Pictish personal names recorded in the Irish annals suggest it was related to the Common Brittonic language; indeed their Goidelic Irish name, Cruithne, is cognate with Brythonic Priteni. Part of the Pictish territory was eventually absorbed into the Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata. The Isle of Man was originally inhabited by Britons also, but eventually it became Gaelic territory.

In 43 the Roman Empire invaded Britain. The British tribes initially opposed the Roman legions, but by 84 the Romans had decisively conquered southern Britain and had pushed into what is now southern Scotland. In 122 they fortified the northern border with Hadrian's Wall, which spanned what is now Northern England. In 142 Roman forces pushed north again and began construction of the Antonine Wall, which ran between the Forth-Clyde isthmus, but they retreated back to Hadrian's Wall after only twenty years. Although the native Britons mostly kept their land, they were subject to the Roman governors. The Roman Empire retained control of "Britannia" until its departure about AD 410.

Around the time of the Roman departure, the Germanic-speaking Anglo-Saxons began a migration to the Eastern coast of Britain, where they established their own kingdoms. Eventually, the Brythonic language in these areas was replaced by the Old English of the Anglo-Saxons. At the same time, some Britons established themselves in what is now called Brittany. There they set up their own small kingdoms and the Breton language developed there from Insular Celtic rather than Gaulish. They also retained control of Cornwall and Northwest England, where Kingdoms such as Dumnonia and Rheged survived for some time. A further colony, Britonia, was set up in Gallaecia in northwestern Hispania. By the end of the 1st millennium, the Anglo-Saxons and Gaels had conquered most of the Brittonic territory in Britain, and the language and culture of the native Britons had largely been extinguished, remaining only in Wales, Cornwall, parts of Cumbria and Eastern Galloway.

Britons

Main articles: King of the Britons and List of legendary kings of Britain

• King Arthur – Romano-British war leader of debatable historicity.
• Ambrosius Aurelianus (Emrys Wledig) - Romano-British War leader.
• Boudica – Queen of the Iceni, who led the failed rebellion against Roman occupation in 60 AD.
• Bonosus - a Romano-British military general and imperial pretender in 280 AD
• Cadwallon ap Cadfan - King of Gwynedd, fought against the Anglo-Saxons.
• Caratacus – a leader of the defence against the Roman conquest of Britain.
• Cartimandua – Queen of the Brigantes during and after the Roman invasion.
• Cassivellaunus – led the defence against Julius Caesar's second expedition to Britain in 54 BC.
• Conan Meriadoc - legendary founder of Brittany.
• Coel Hen - the "Old King Cole" of the popular nursery rhyme.
• Cogidubnus – a British client-king, later made a citizen of Rome and awarded Fishbourne Roman Palace.
• Commius – historical King of the Belgic nation of the Atrebates, initially in Gaul, then in Britannia, during the 1st century BC.
• Cunedda – post-Roman King and progenitor of the Kingdom of Gwynedd.
• Cunobelinus – historical King of southern Britain between the first and second Roman invasions,ruling from the stronghold of Camulodunon (modern Colchester).Called "King of the Britons" by Suetonius. The basis for Shakespeare's Cymbeline.
• Gratianus - a Romano-British aristocrat and imperial usurper in 407
• King Lot - grandfather of St Kentigern, and eponymous king of Lothian.
• Mailoc - Bishop of Britonia (Galicia) in the 6th century AD
• Marcus Cunomorus - King Mark of Cornwall and Brittany
• Saint Patrick - a Romano-Briton and Christian missionary, who is the most generally recognized patron saint of Ireland or the Apostle of Ireland,
• Pelagius – an influential Christian monk and theologian, whose thought was branded heresy later in life.
• Prasutagus – husband of Boudica.
• Togodumnus – a leader of the defence against the Roman conquest of Britain.
• Urien – King of Rheged (modern Lancashire and Cumbria).
• Vortigern – warlord and King in the 5th century AD. Best known for inviting the Jutes to Kent.

See also

• Albion
• Bretons
• British Isles
• British Isles (terminology)
• British Latin
• Britonia
• Caledonia
• Celtic nations

• Cornish people
• Devona
• Elmet
• English people
• Genetic history of the British Isles
• Gododdin

• History of the British Isles
• Kingdom of Strathclyde
• List of Celtic tribes
• Rheged
• Scottish people
• Welsh people
• Yr Hen Ogledd

References

• Forsyth, Katherine (1997). Language in Pictland (PDF). De Keltische Draak. ISBN 90-802785-5-6. 
• Koch, John T. (2006). Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. 
• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 

External links

• BBC - History - Native Tribes of Britain
• DNA from ethnic Britons found in Ireland