Britons (Celtic people)

This article is about the ancient Celtic people of Great Britain. For other uses, see Briton.

Great Britain in the second half of the 5th Century AD - between the Roman withdrawal and the founding of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

  Mainly Goidelic areas.

  Mainly Pictish areas.

  Mainly Brythonic areas.

The Britons (sometimes Brythons or British) were a Celtic people who lived in Great Britain before and during the Roman period. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British.

The Britons are assumed to have diversified from the "Pritenic" group (the later Picts) during the final centuries BC, the later part of the British Iron Age. Their classification as "Celts" has two senses, one being the modern linguistic sense, "speakers of a Celtic language". The term "Celts" (Keltoi, Celtae) in ancient ethnography did not extend to the Britons, although some writers noted their culture was very similar to that of the Gauls (i.e. to Continental Celtic groups).

At the time of our historical records, the Britons lived throughout Britain south of the Firth of Forth. After the 5th century, under the pressure of the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain, some Britons migrated to mainland Europe and established settlements in Brittany (today part of France) and Britonia (today part of Galicia, Spain). Their relationship to the Picts north of the Forth has been the subject of much discussion, though most scholars accept that the Pictish language during this time was a Brythonic language related to, but perhaps distinct from, British.

The earliest evidence for 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 began to emerge. With the beginning of Anglo-Saxon settlement in the 5th century, however, the culture and language of the Britons began to fragment and much of their territory was taken over by the Anglo-Saxons. By the 11th century they had split into distinct groups: the Welsh, Cornish, Bretons, and the people of the Hen Ogledd ("Old North"). The British language developed into Welsh, Cornish, Breton, and Cumbric.

Name

Gritstone bas-relief of Romano-British woman.

Main article: Britain (name)

Further information: Priteni and 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 αι 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, the 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 probably 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.

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

Language

A Romano-British bronze bowl discovered in Bedfordshire.

A flying rowan tree, considered magical by the ancient Britons

Britons migrated westwards during the Anglo-Saxon invasion

Main articles: British language (Celtic) and Brythonic languages

The Britons were speakers of the Brythonic (or Brittonic) languages. Brythonic languages are believed to have been 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).

The Brythonic languages developed from Proto-Celtic, after it was introduced to the British Isles from the continent. The first form of the Brythonic languages is believed to be British. Some linguists have invented the terms Western and Southwestern Brythonic to classify subsequent developments of the British language. The Western and Southwestern developed into Cumbric, Welsh, Cornish, and Breton in Gaul. While Welsh, Cornish and Breton survive today, Cumbric became extinct in the 12th century.

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 other Brythonic languages. 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 430.

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 that of the Anglo-Saxons.^{[citation needed]} 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. By the end of the 1st millennium, the Anglo-Saxons and Gaels had conquered most of the British 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.

Notable Britons

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

• Arthur – Romano-British war leader of debatable historicity.
• 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.
• 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. 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
• 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 Alternative words for British Anglo-Saxons Armorica British British Isles British Isles (terminology) Britonia Brynaich Caledonia Celtic nations Corieltauvi Cornish people

Cornovii (Caithness) Cornovii (Cornish) Cornovii (Midlands) Devon Dumbarton Dumnonia Elmet English people Gododdin Hibernia History of the British Isles Irish people King of the Britons

Kingdom of Strathclyde List of Celtic tribes List of legendary kings of Britain Rheged Roman Britain Romance British Scottish people Selgovae Wales Welsh language Welsh people Votadini Yr Hen Ogledd

References

• Forsyth, Katherine (1997). Language in Pictland. 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