Cheddar Man - is the name given to the remains of a human male found in Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, England. The remains date to approximately 7150 BC, and it appears that he died a violent death. It is Britain’s oldest complete human skeleton.
Newgrange - is a prehistoric monument located in County Meath, on the eastern side of Ireland, about one kilometre north of the River Boyne.It was built around 3200 BC, during the Neolithic period.
Stonehenge- is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire, about 2.0 miles (3.2 km) west of Amesbury and 8 miles (13 km) north of Salisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of a circular setting of large standing stones set within earthworks. It is at the centre of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred burial mounds.
Scara Brae - is a large stone-built Neolithic settlement, located on the Bay of Skaill on the west coast of Mainland, Orkney, Scotland. It consists of ten clustered houses. Europe's most complete Neolithic village, Skara Brae gained UNESCO World Heritage Site status as one of four sites making up "The Heart of Neolithic Orkney."a Older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids, it has been called the "Scottish Pompeii" because of its excellent preservation.
Beaker Folk - Beaker folk, Late Neolithic–Early Bronze Age people living about 4,500 years ago in the temperate zones of Europe; they received their name from their distinctive bell-shaped beakers, decorated in horizontal zones by finely toothed stamps. (Their culture is often called the Bell-Beaker culture.)
Picts - The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval Celtic people living in ancient eastern and northern Scotland.
Druids - a member of the priestly class in Britain, Ireland, and Gaul (France), and possibly other parts of Celtic Europe and Galatia during the Iron Age and possibly earlier.
Boudicca - was queen of the British Iceni tribe who led an uprising against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire. Romans raped her daughter and treated her kingdom as if it was conquered.
Hadrian’s Wall - was a defensive fortification in Roman Britain. Begun in AD 122, during the rule of emperor Hadrian, it was the first of two fortifications built across Great Britain, the second being the Antonine Wall, lesser known of the two because its physical remains are less evident today.
Ogham - is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the Old Irish language, and the Brythonic language. Ogham is sometimes called the "Celtic Tree Alphabet", based on a high medieval Bríatharogam tradition ascribing names of trees to the individual letters.
Earl - a member of the nobility. The title is Anglo-Saxon, akin to the Scandinavian form jarl, and meant "chieftain", particularly a chieftain set to rule a territory in a king's stead.
Witenagemot - also known as the Witan (more properly the title of its members) was a political institution in Anglo-Saxon England which operated from before the 7th century until the 11th century. The Witenagemot was an assembly of the ruling class whose primary function was to advise the king and whose membership was composed of the most important noblemen in England, both ecclesiastic and secular.
Shire (sheriff) - The chief administrative and judicial officer of a shire was known as a sheriff. The office evolved from that of the Anglo-Saxon reeve, (the magistrate of a town or district); the sheriff was the reeve for the whole shire, or "shire reeve."
Heptarchy - is a now discredited collective name applied to the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of south, east, and central Great Britain during late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, conventionally identified as seven: Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex and Wessex. The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms eventually unified into the Kingdom of England.
Bretwalda - is an Old English word, the first record of which comes from the late 9th century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. It is given to some of the rulers of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms from the 5th century onwards who had achieved overlordship of some or all of the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. It is unclear whether the word dates back to the 5th century and was used by the kings themselves, or whether it is a later, 9th-century, invention.
Gildas - was a 6th-century British cleric. He is one of the best-documented figures of the Christian church in the British Isles during this period. His renowned learning and literary style earned him the designation Gildas Sapiens (Gildas the Wise).
Venerable Bede - was an English monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow, both in the Kingdom of Northumbria. He is well known as an author and scholar, and his most famous work, (The Ecclesiastical History of the English People) gained him the title "The Father of English History".
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle - a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great. Multiple copies were made of that original which were distributed to monasteries across England, where they were independently updated. In one case, the chronicle was still being actively updated in 1154.
Hengest and Horsa - Hengest (d. 488?) was a semi-legendary ruler of Kent in southeast England. His name is Anglo-Saxon for "stallion". Horsa, Hengest's brother, was a 5th century warrior who took part in the settlement of Britain.
Offa’s Dyke - a great earthen barrier that runs approximately along the border between England and Wales. In places, it is up to 65 feet (19.8 m) wide (including its flanking ditch) and 8 feet (2.4 m) high
Futhorc - a runic alphabet, extended from the Elder Futhark from 24 to between 26 and 33 characters. They were used probably from the 5th century onward, recording Old English and Old Frisian.
Sutton Hoo - county of Suffolk, is the site of two 6th- and early 7th-century cemeteries. One contained an undisturbed ship burial including a wealth of Anglo-Saxon artifacts of outstanding art-historical and archaeological significance, now held in the British Museum in London.
Ruthwell Cross - is a stone Anglo-Saxon cross probably dating from the 8th century, when Ruthwell was part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria; it is now in Scotland. It is both the most famous and elaborate Anglo-Saxon monumental sculpture, and possibly the oldest surviving "text" of English poetry, predating any manuscripts containing Old English poetry.
St. Patrick - was a Romano-Briton and Christian missionary, who is the most generally recognized patron saint of Ireland or the Apostle of Ireland, although Brigid of Kildare and Colmcille are also formally patron saints. Well known from legends.
St. David - was a Welsh Bishop during the 6th century; he was later regarded as a saint and as the patron saint of Wales. David was a native of Wales, and a relatively large amount of information is known about his life. However, his birth date is still uncertain, as suggestions range from 462 to 512. He has his death at 601, which would move his birth date forward.
St. Augustine of Canterbury - was a Benedictine monk who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 597. He is considered the "Apostle to the English" and a founder of the English Church.
Lindisfarne - is a tidal island off the north-east coast of England. It is also known as Holy Island and constitutes a civil parish in Northumberland. In 793, a Viking raid on Lindisfarne caused much consternation throughout the Christian west, and is now often taken as the beginning of the Viking Age.
Iona - is a small island in the Inner Hebrides off the western coast of Scotland. It was a centre of Irish monasticism for four centuries and is today renowned for its tranquility and natural beauty. It is a popular tourist destination and a place for retreats. On the island remained stone carved Celtic cross, so-called "high crosses" from the eighth century.
Winchester - is a historic cathedral city and former capital city of England. It is the county town of Hampshire, in South East England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government district, and is located at the western end of the South Downs, along the course of the River Itchen.
Fyrd - tribal militia-like arrangement existing in Anglo-Saxon England from approximately ad 605. Local in character, it imposed military service upon every able-bodied free male. It was probably the duty of the ealderman, or sheriff, to call out and lead the fyrd. Fines imposed for neglecting the fyrd varied with the status of the individual, landholders receiving the heaviest fines and common labourers the lightest. The fyrd was gradually superseded by the gathering of the thanes (feudal lords) and their retainers, but it was occasionally called out for defensive purposes even after the Norman Conquest.
Burghs - was an autonomous corporate entity in Scotland and Northern England, usually a town. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when King David I created the first royal burghs. Burgh status was broadly analogous to borough status, found in the rest of the United Kingdom. Following local government reorganisation in 1975 the title of "burgh" remains in use in many towns, but now has little more than ceremonial value.
Lady Godiva - was an 11th century Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who, according to legend, rode naked through the streets of Coventry in order to gain a remission of the oppressive taxation imposed by her husband on his tenants. The name "Peeping Tom" for a voyeur originates from later versions of this legend in which a man named Tom had watched her ride and was struck blind or dead.
Hereward the Wake- the son of Lady Goviva. It is said by the legend that he led the final major rebellion against William the Conqueror and the Normans. Hereward the Wake was seen as an English hero and as a symbol of resistance to oppression.
Bayeux Tapestry - is an embroidered cloth—not an actual tapestry—nearly 70 metres long, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England concerning William, Duke of Normandy and Harold, Earl of Wessex, later King of England, and culminating in the Battle of Hastings. The tapestry consists of some fifty scenes with Latin tituli (captions), embroidered on linen with coloured woollen yarns.
Tower of London - Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It played the role of prison with no possibilities to escape from (famous prisoners: Ann Boleyn, Thomas Moore, Thomas Cromwell..)
Windsor Castle - is a medieval castle and royal residence. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Is one of the main official residence of British monarchs. Queen Elizabeth II spends many weekends at the castle during the year. The biggest inhabited castle in the world.
Welsh Marches - is a term which, in modern usage, denotes an imprecisely defined area along and around the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom. The precise meaning of the term has varied at different periods. The English terms Welsh March, were originally used in the Middle Ages to denote a more precisely defined territory, the marches between England and the Principality of Wales, in which Marcher lords had specific rights, held to some extent independently of the king of England.
The Chancery - in public administration, an office of public records or a public archives. The chancery was an early development of the Normans in 11th-century England, when William I the Conqueror recognized the importance of written records to a strong, centralized government. Under William the chancery became the working establishment of the lord chancellor. By the time of William’s youngest son, Henry I (1100–35), the chancellor was in charge of the royal seals and responsible for the composition of documents.
The Exchequer - a government department of the United Kingdom responsible for the management and collection of taxation and other government revenues. It was named after the chequer-patterned table used in the medieval period for financial calculations.
The Angevin Empire - The term Angevin Empire is a modern term describing the collection of states once ruled by the Angevin Plantagenet dynasty.
The Plantagenets ruled over an area stretching from the Pyrenees to Ireland during the 12th and early 13th centuries, located north of the kingdoms of Navarre and Aragon.
Thomas Becket - was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion. He engaged in conflict withHenry II of England over the rights and privileges of the Church and was murdered by followers of the king in Canterbury Cathedral. Soon after his death, he was canonized by Pope Alexander III.
Strongbow - Richard FitzGilbert, 2nd earl of Pembroke, byname Richard Strongbow, also called Richard De Clare, Anglo-Norman lord whose invasion of Ireland in 1170 initiated the opening phase of the English conquest.
The Pale - was the part of Ireland that was directly under the control of the English government in the late Middle Ages. It had reduced by the late 15th century to an area along the east coast stretching from Dalkey, south of Dublin, to the garrison town of Dundalk.
Robin Hood - Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes. The origin of the legend is claimed by some to have stemmed from actual outlaws, or from ballads or tales of outlaws.
Simon de Montfort - was an Anglo-Norman nobleman. He led the barons' rebellion against King Henry III of England during the Second Barons' War of 1263-4, and subsequently became de facto ruler of England.During his rule, de Montfort called the first directly elected parliament in medieval Europe. For this reason, de Montfort is regarded today as one of the progenitors of modern parliamentary democracy.
Provisions of Oxford – in English history, a plan of reform accepted by Henry III, in return for the promise of financial aid from his barons. It can be regarded as England’s first written constitution.