England's story; a history for grammar and high schools

Front matter

0* *«^% *>

V •

ALFRED THE GREAT

Preface

To the Revised Edition

The purpose of England's Story is to give students in the upper grammar grades or the Junior High School a broad, simple basis for their later reading and study of history and literature.

In all the history of empire there is nothing more remarkable than the fact that part of one small island should in the course of ten centuries have become the ruler of more than 433,000,000 people and have acquired more than 1 2,000,000 square miles of territory, situated in Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Australasia. How this was brought about, a tale which is always new and always interesting, is the story told by the following pages.

The former edition has succeeded far beyond the author's hopes when the book was written. May this new edition, bringing the story down through the World War, serve to interest many more young people in the history of "our neighbors across the sea."

EVA MARCH TAPPAN

Worcester, Massachusetts January, 192 1

Contents

C**1PTER 'AOK

I. The Romans in Britain. S5 b - c - to 4'© a. d. . I

II. The Saxons and the Danes. 410-1066 ... 12

CHAPTER I THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN Julius C^sar

1. Caesar resolves to cross to Britain. About half a century before the birth of Christ, a great Roman general named Julius Caesar set out to subdue the various tribes living in the country that is now called France. The people nearest to Dover Straits resisted him longest, and he concluded that some one must be helping them. Who could it be ? The tribes on three sides of them would not dare to oppose him, and on the fourth side was the ocean.

At last Caesar conquered these people and went through their land to the sea. Off to the northwest there were dim, white cliffs far out on the horizon. As he stood looking at them, he remembered the aid that had come to his foes from some mysterious source. "That is it," he said to himself, "and if I am to hold the land that I have won, I must conquer that country afar off in the ocean."

2. Caesar's attempts to learn about Britain. Probably all that Caesar knew about the country was that it was thought to be an island, that it was called Britain, and that somewhere in Britain there were mines of tin.

He asked the people whom he had subdued about the land, but they said that they knew nothing of it except that merchants sometimes went back and forth between the two countries. Then Caesar sent for the merchants.

i

DOVER CLIFFS

"How large is this island? " he asked. "What kind of people live there ? When they go to battle, how do they fight ? What weapons do they use ? " But no help did the merchants give him, for they said that they went only to the coast of Britain, and that they knew nothing at all about what was inland. Caesar saw that if he wished to find out anything about this strange land with the white cliffs, he must get his own information ; so he sent one )f his officers across Dover Straits in a warship to see what could be learned about the country. This officer did not think it was wise to attempt to land ; and therefore, when he came back, he had little news to bring to his commander.

55 b. c] THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN 3

3. Caesar invades Britain, 55 B. C. Caesar determined to go to the unknown country to see for himself what kind of place it was, and to conquer these people who had been helping his foes ; so one night, just atter midnight, he set sail with eight or ten thousand men, and by the middle of the next forenoon they were close to the British coast and ready to land. Landing was not so easy, however, as he had thought it would be;

THE LANDING OF CESAR for the ships were so large that they could not go where the water was shallow ; hence the soldiers must jump out into the high waves and wade ashore as best they could. This would have been hard enough to do in any case, for they wore very heavy armor ; but worst of all, there were great numbers of men on the shore ready to fight. Some of them were in war-chariots, some were on horseback, and some were on foot. They were armed with lances and battle-axes and clubs and bows and

4 ENGLAND'S STORY [55 b. c.

arrows and great stones. It is no wonder that even the brave Roman soldiers hesitated.

At last the standard-bearer of Caesar's favorite company sprang overboard and called out: "Follow me, soldiers, unless you wish to give up your eagle !" The soldiers, fearing the disgrace of losing their standard, leaped out into the deep water and made their way to the shore. After a hard fight, the Britons retreated.

4. Caesar's description of the Britons. Caesar stayed only three weeks ; but the next year he went again with more soldiers ; and this time he fought his way beyond the Thames. He was writing a book about his campaigns ; and, of course, he described this far-away land and its strange inhabitants. Most of the fighters that had met him on the shore had blue eyes and long, light hair. They wore short cloaks of skins; and, in order to make themselves look as terrible as possible, they had stained their bodies with a deep blue dye. These men were so tall and large that when Caesar looked at them, he could not help wishing that they were in his army. Farther north the Britons lived on their flocks and herds and on the wild animals that they killed, but in the south

they knew something of agriculture. Most of houses 0! their houses were round; and when a man

wished to build one, he first marked out on the ground the size that he meant the house to be. Then he set down poles close together and made them firm by weaving in pliant twigs. For the roof he fastened other poles to the top of the first and brought them together in a point. When he meant his house to be especially handsome, he peeled the poles. There were no windows, and the only way for the smoke to get out was through the little hole in the point of the roof.

5. What the Britons could do. In spite of their

THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN uncomfortable way of living, the Britons were very fond of ornaments ; and they made beads and bracelets and necklaces, some of which are exceedingly pretty. They

WICKER WORK CORACLES OF EARLY BRITONS knew how to make wagons with wheels, and they were particularly skilful in weaving wicker work. They made very simple boats by hollowing out logs, and very light ones by covering wicker work with the skins of wild beasts ; but they also understood how to build boats of planks fastened together by metal nails.

6. Druidism. Their religion was called Druidism. It was a fierce, strange belief. Part of it was exceedingly cruel, for the priests, or Druids, taught the people to make wicker-work enclosures outlining the cruelty of shape of some animal, and in these enclosures Drul,llsin - to offer up sacrifices of human beings. They took criminals when there were any ; but if the supply of criminals failed, they then took innocent persons.

Part of their religion was very superstitious, for they

6 ENGLAND'S STORY [55 b. C

worshipped serpents, streams, and trees, especially the oak tree ; and when an oak was found with a

Superstl- . , . . .

tionsof mistletoe growing on it, they were overjoyed. They marched to the tree in a procession, the Druids going first with their long beards and trailing robes. The other people followed, and when they came to the oak tree, they circled around it, the common people farthest off ; for an oak that bore a mistletoe was too holy for any one but a priest to touch. Then the Druids sacrificed two white bulls ; and, after much chanting and many strange ceremonies, one of the priests cut away the plant with a golden knife.

This reverence may have been shown to the mistletoe

STONEHENGE because of its possessing some medicinal value, for the Druids were doctors as well as teachers and priests. They really knew a great deal about the use of herbs in disease, though they had all sorts of queer notions about gathering them. Sometimes the herbs must be cut by moonlight, and sometimes when the sun was bright ;

55 B.C.] THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN 7

sometimes the priest who went for them must wear a white

robe or go barefooted or cut them with a golden knife.

Some parts of the teaching of the Druids were good ;

for instance, the people were told not to be afraid to die,

since they were going to live forever. They whatwas

were taught much about the different coun- good in

° , , . r Druidism.

tries of the world, the stars, the cause of night and day and thunder and lightning. The teaching was not very accurate, but it was better than nothing, because it set the people to thinking, and noticing what was around them. On Salisbury Plain in southern England are massive stones arranged in two circles, one within the other. This place is called Stone- ^

r . . Stonehenge.

henge, or the Hanging Stones, and it is thought

that they may be the remains of a Druid temple.

7. The Romans at home. When Caesar went back

to Rome and told of his invasion of Britain, the senate

ordered a thanksgiving of twenty days in honor of what

they called a glorious victory. The Romans were the

greatest nation in the world in those times, though the

"world" meant little more than the territory about the

Mediterranean Sea. They built handsome temples, they

made beautiful statues, and they had great poets and

orators and historians. They were fond of good roads,

and wherever they went, one could be sure of finding

smooth, firm highways. They liked pure water, and

they spent large sums of money to bring it into Rome.

They were the wisest makers of laws that the world had

ever seen. To be a Roman citizen was an honor, and

gave a man many privileges. In the days of Saint Paul,

when the chief captain bound him and was about to

scourge him, the prisoner asked quietly, "Is it Actsxxh.

lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Ro- 25,

man, and uncondemned ? " Then the chief captain was

8 ENGLAND'S STORY [43 A. t>.

badly frightened because he had ventured even to bind a Roman citizen without a trial.

The Romans were greatly interested in Caesar's stories of the new country, but they had much to attend to at home ; and that is why nearly one hundred years passed before they landed again on the shores of Britain.

The Later Romans. 8. The Romans settle in Britain. The Romans had not forgotten the far-away land, however, and when they

went there again, a century later, they founded colonies, and fought until they conquered the people who opposed the new rule. The Britons were good fighters, but they had not the military drill and training of the Roman soldiers ; and although they often rebelled, the Romans were at last the victors. The conquerors built fortyorfiftywalled towns ; and, wherever a town has to-day a name ending in Chester or cester or caster, like Dorchester or Worcester or Lancaster, we may be sure that it is on the site of an old military set-

43-4i°] THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN 9

tlement, because the Roman word for camp was castra. If the modern name of a place ends in coin, like Lincoln, that, too, is of Roman origin, because the Roman word for colony was colonia.

The Romans built large, handsome country houses. The walls were beautifully painted, and the floors were paved with marble of many colors. Around these houses were spacious gardens, adorned of the with statues and rich in all kinds of fruit that Romans • could be made to grow on the island. Even to-day, in digging in different parts of England, people often find pieces of statuary and vases, and ornaments of gold or of silver, that were once used to beautify the British homes of the Romans.

The conquerors were living in luxury, but the native Britons were obliged to pay enormous taxes to support all this comfort and elegance. Many of them Homes of had to work in the mines or on the roads, and tne Brltons - to live in little mud hovels. Thousands were made to enter the Roman army, and some few, who were sons of chiefs, learned the Roman language and became officers.

The Romans wished to be able to send troops quickly wherever there was need of them, and so they built two long roads across Britain in the shape of an X,

. r Roman

besides several shorter ones. They were often roads and troubled by the attacks of the Scots from the forts ' north of Ireland, and the Picts, or "painted people," who lived in what is now Scotland, and also by the coming of the Saxons from Denmark and the countries near it. To shut off the Picts, they built a line of forts across Scotland from the Forth to the Clyde ; but before many years they found that they could not defend their pos. sessions so far north, and then they built a solid wall extending from the Tyne to Solway Firth. On this wall

IO there were stone strongholds and watchtowers, and once in every four miles there was a fort where soldiers were always stationed. To keep away the Danes, there was a whole line of forts built, extending around the southeastern coast of Britain.

9. The Romans leave Britain in 410 A. D. If the Romans could have given all their attention to Britain,

A ROMAN WALL they would have been able to overcome the whole island, but there was trouble in Rome. The barbarous tribes that lived to the north and east were pressing nearer and nearer to the city, and the Romans must defend their own country. Every year fewer Romans came to Britain, and every year some of the conquerors had to return to Italy. At last, in 410, soldiers and commanders departed from the island, and never again did they set foot on British soil.

410] THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN II

While the Romans had been in Britain, the conquered people had learned from them much that was good. They had learned how to make excellent roads and

Gain from

how to drain the swamps. They had seen that the Roman

houses could be built that would be far more rule '

comfortable than huts of poles. They had found that

it was not enough for soldiers to be brave and fearless ;

they must also be drilled and know how to obey their

commander, so that an army could be managed as if it

were a great machine. The most valuable thing of all

that they had learned, however, was that there were

other people in the world who knew more than they,

and other ways of living that were better than theirs.

With this gain there was also a loss, for many of them

had begun to feel that the way to be happy was to live in

luxurious houses and be waited upon by slaves „

r J Loss from

instead of working for themselves. Then in the Roman their fighting, although they were just as brave as ever, they had become accustomed to thinking that their leaders must be Romans ; and when, a few years later, the time came that they must both fight and lead, they felt helpless and wished that the Romans were with them again.

Julius Caesar first led the Romans into Britain. He found a people that were warlike, of some mechanical ability, and with a slight knowledge of agriculture. Rome celebrated the invasion, but made no immediate attempts to conquer the country.

One century later, the Romans subdued Britain as far north as the Solway, made settlements, and ruled in the land for nearly four hundred years. Their dominion may be traced by remains of roads, walls, and villas, and by the presence of a few Roman words in the English language.