Focus on Britain today (cultural studies for the language classroom), Clare Lavery, Prentice Hall Elt, chapter 1, 4, 12.

SEMINAR 1

HISTORY & ITS INFLUENCE

Your task is not so much to know the exact data (though you are to be aware of the major figures, dates and events) but to understand the influence upon the present day Anglo-Saxon cultural heritage. As the seminar goes along you’re to draw a “historical line”: period (people, events) and what traces of the period are found in British life today.

1. Prehistory of GB

Britain has not always been an island. It became one only after the end of the last Ice Age (around 5000 BC). The temperature rose and the ice camp melted, flooding the lower-lying land that is now under the North Sea and the English Channel.

Around 10,000 BC the Ice Age drew to a close, Britain was peopled by small groups of hunters, gatherers and fishers, few had settled homes, and they seemed to have followed herds of deer for food and clothing. By about 5,000 BC Britain had finally become an island, and also heavily forested. For wander-hunter culture it was a disaster, for cold-loving deer and other animals largely died out.

Mention other tribes that inhabited the British Isles up to the 1^st wave of invasion – that of the Celts.

PROJECT WORK

CELTS - from Greek Keltoi = inhabitants of the forest or people that lived beyond the mountains. This name is given by Greek and Roman writers to fair, tall people whose 1st known territory was an area in the basin of the upper Danube and South Germany.

Who were these people? What kind of life did they lead? What were their religious beliefs? What happened to them in the course of history? What have they left behind?

PROJECT WORK

The megalithic ruin known as Stonehenge stands on the open downland of Salisbury Plain two miles west of the town of Amesbury, Wiltshire, in Southern England. It is not a single structure but consists of a series of earth, timber, and stone structures that were revised and re-modelled over a period of more than 1400 years.

Who built it? What are the possible reasons for building?

dates	Events & people	Important facts to mention	What is left behind in 2013?

2. Historical invasions:

Who were the invaders? When did they come? Which of the invading tribes constitute the core of the British nation?How was life changed during these invasions?

dates	Events & people	Important facts to mention	What is left behind in 2013?
	the Romans
	The Germans
	The Vikings
	The Normans

Make sure that you can interpret such notions:

The Romans: pantheon, the Roman calendar or the British calendar, baths, Hadrian wall.

The Germans: The Volkerwanderungen, folk, war band, wergild, “Ecclesiastical History of the English People”, “The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle”, the thanes, the churls, thralls, witenagemot, shire, shiremoot, alderman, shire reeve.

The Vikings:Superbus tyrannus or Vortigern, the Danelaw, Dane-geld.

The Normans:Edward the Confessor, Harold, Earl of Wessex, William Duke of Normandy, the battle at Hastings, castles the Domesday Book, Plantagenet kings, barons or tenants-in-chief, lords, vassals, Magna Carta, The Hundred Years’ War, Knights, jousting, The Black Death.

PROJECT WORK: The greatest men of their epochs: Queen Bouedica, Alfred the Great, King Arthur, William the Conqueror

3. The 16^th century – towards a nation

The Plantagenet kings were closely connected and thus greatly influenced by France; there was always rivalry between French and English claimants to the English throne. But nevertheless the English people was moving towards a nation and national identity was continuously strengthened. And the 16^th century was a decisive period.

The War of the Roses - The Yorkist symbol was the white rose and the Lancastrian symbol was the red rose. Speak about the war and its consequences.

A new dynasty began with Henry Tudor - crowned Henry VII on 30 October 1485. PROJECT WORK: King Henry VIII, his wives, Reformation

PROJECT WORK: Queen Elizabeth I: the policy of the Virgin Queen: social reforms, cultural life, geographical discoveries and the extension of borders and royal treasury

4. The 17^th century

Elizabeth I died childless in 1603, and the English Crown was passed to her cousin James Stuart, the King of Scotland. He firmly believed in the “Divine Rights of Kings” and didn’t take the Parliament’s decisions into account. But as he was left a huge debt by Elizabeth I, the king and the country in general had to face serious reorganization.

the Civil War – reasons, the fate of monarchy, Lord Oliver Cromwell

Charles II and the restoration of monarchy

SOURSES: 1. Britain (the country and its people: an introduction for learners of English), James O’Driscoll, Oxford University Press, chapters 1-3.

Focus on Britain today (cultural studies for the language classroom), Clare Lavery, Prentice Hall Elt, chapter 1, 4, 12.

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