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Summary
Dear students, I don’t know if this summary will be of any use to you, but since there are many topics to be studied, I decided I might call your attention to some details which I find of greater importance. I was only able to talk about the first three classes. Today, the damn Internet Explorer decided not to run. I have three computers at home. It didn’t work in any of them. Neither did Google Chrome. I even called one of my sisters and in her house they weren’t running ‘conteúdo on line’ either. So the choices of topics I’ve made are the ones I considered the most relevant ones. It doesn’t mean that everything I wrote here is going to be in the test. Some of the information may not even be in ‘conteúdo on line’. Anyway, I hope it works.
ƒÞ You do not necessarily need to read it, but I hope you will.
As we all know, the Roman Empire spread all over most of the European countries and Britain was no exception, that is to say it was also invaded by the powerful Romans who long remained in Brittany. These invasions started when Julius Caeser in 55 and 54 BC tried to invade Britain for the first time. Warfare was endemic among British and Roman tribes but the superior weapons, armour, training and discipline of the Roman army created an uneven contest. But the British guerrilla tactics, employed by some of the British tribes, somehow delayed the inevitable outcome. 
The Romans remained in Britain for almost 100 years. In their art, language and religion, the native Britons shared in the Celtic culture common to most of western Europe before the Roman conquest. As a result of the Roman conquest, and as the Romans were generally tolerant of other people’s gods, Christian values were slowly introduced and Christianity was finally established in the last hundred years of Roman government, even though the rural peasantry continued to worship their native gods, and to speak the Celtic language.
With the decline of the Roman Empire, most of the Romans left Britain. When Christian values started losing part of their importance, monks came to the country to try to reinforce the Christian values once more. They were mainly interested in convincing the rulers of the country of the importance of Christian values and bringing them (the rulers) to the Christian faith. They thought that if they convinced the rulers of the importance of Christianity, the peasantry would follow the king’s orders. Augustine, in 601, was an Archbishop who led the monks in this endeavor knew that since the king’s needed God’s approval to be accepted as an authority, the country needed to be a Christian one. 
The Church is often seen as the ideal instrument by which the kings could counter the power of aristocracy in the late old English state.
The Church was so successful in the battle against paganism that the ones who had come to these islands as pagans, in two hundred years, had become Christians to such effect that England turned out to become the center of missionary endeavor and, for a time, the heart of European civilization.
The Anglo-Saxons – 449- 1066 (these dates differ according to different historians)
English history from the Anglo-Saxons settlements to the Norman Conquest represents a development from a “Heroic Age” to a state. This is not to deny an administrative system earlier, nor important elements of administrative and urban continuity between Roman Britain and the Anglo-Saxons. But the island became filled with Germanic warriors, adventurers, who fought to display personal bravery and win fame. 
The two finest expressions of heroic-age ideals in early Britain are the Gododdin and Beowulf. The literature of this period was basically oral and the oral traditions would travel on horseback from town to town and the gleeman would tell these poems in the Mead Halls. The Gododdin is a series of poetic laments for the warriors who fell some years before 600, in the great last stand of the men of Edinburgh against the rising power of the Anglo-Saxons in what came to be called Northumbria. Beowulf is an Anglo-Saxon epic poem whose hero is mythical and who struggles against monsters. He is seen as a superhero because he is able to free the Danes from the ruling of Grendel (a monster) using his bare hands. Some people say it must have been written by a monk because of the number of religious references in the poem, however no one can prove that because, as during the Anglo-Saxon Period the monks were the only ones who could read and write, an ordinary man may have gone to one of the monasteries and asked the monks to write it down for him and the monks may have added religious references besides the pagan ones which are found in the poem. 
Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.
Alfred successfully defended his kingdom against the Viking attempt at conquest, and by his death had become the dominant ruler in England. He is the only English monarch to be accorded the epithet "the Great". He was able to capture London after having been able to defeat the Vikings years before. Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to entitle himself "King of the Anglo-Saxons".
In 1066, the Anglo-Saxon history came to an end as they were defeated by the Normans led by William, the Conqueror. The Normans, who came from Normandy and, by destroying everything they could between Durham and York, they were able to win the fight. This was an important historic fact because William the Conqueror organized his English kingdom according to the feudal system which had already begun to develop in England before his arrival. The word “feudalism” comes from the French word feu, which the Normans used to refer to land held in return for duty or service to a lord. The basis of feudal society was the holding of land, and its main purpose was economic. The central idea was that all land was owned by the king but it was held by others, called “vassals”, in return for services and goods. The king gave large estates to his main nobles in return for a promise to serve him in war for up to forty days. The nobles also had to give him part of the produce of the land. So, Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labor.
The Magna Carta
King John, the youngest son of Henry II, succeeded his brother Richard I in 1199.
His reign was marked by a string of unsuccessful military campaigns, a prolonged struggle with the church and the baronial rebellion which led to the granting of Magna Carta in 1215.
John exploited his feudal rights beyond all customary limits to extort money from the barons: he set taxes at unprecedentedly high levels, exacted punitive fines and took possession of baronial estates. He used this income to fund his expensive battles in France, but still failed to hold together the vast Angevin empire created by his father.
John was an efficient and able administrator, but was also capricious and aggressive. He disregarded justice when dealing with opponents, imposing punishments on rebels.
His conflict with the church led to his excommunication.
The granting of Magna Carta in June 1215 is the event for which John is best remembered. The Magna Carta was a document of written promises that defined some of the King’s power and the subjects’ judicial rights.
This limitation of royal authority through a written grant was the barons’ most radical and enduring achievement. It established the principle that the king was subject to and not above the law.
The fact that King John didn’t keep his promises which had been sealed in Magna Carta was one of the facts which led to the foundation of the English Parliament.
King Arthur and the knights of the round table
Some people say King Arthur is a legend and so far, despite all the effort, the researchers have not been able to prove if Arthur ever lived. If it is a legend ornot, it is not up to us to decide, but in fact what really matters is the importance it had for the British at that time since it was associated with the idea of hope. The Middle Ages were a time of too many wars and having a hero like King Arthur as an example of how knights should behave was of great importance for Englishmen. 
The stories of King Arthur have been written in different languages and by different authors. In some of them, the Graal, a magical pot which has its origin in the Celtic legends, is included. In some others, it is not even mentioned.
Thomas Mallory tells the story of King Arthur and his Knights at the Round Table in his book Morte D’Arthur. Arthur, who is son of King Uther Pendragon but was raised by another family, takes his rightful place as king when, as a young man, he is able to pull the sword called Caladfwick (also known as Excalibur, depending on the writer) from the stone. Although he rules wisely and is counseled by Merlin the magician, Arthur makes enemies of other kings and is often at war.
This is a typical example of what is known in literature as a chivalry romance. The perfect knight should follow the code of honor by means of which he should be loyal to his King and to God, defend the ones in need and fight for his good name if provoked.
It was typical of the chivalry romance that the knight should fall in love with the most beautiful lady and fight for her love, the hero was always the best one you could find while the enemies were the worst and the fight between good or evil is always a reality one can’t deny.
These are some of the characters in this chivalry romance.
Arthur Son of Uther Pendragon and Igrayne, Arthur is given to Merlin the magician, who later counsels him in all matters. When Arthur becomes a King he lived in Camelot which was his headquarter.
Merlin The magician who counsels King Arthur.
Guinevere Arthur''s wife and Launcelot''s lover. Guinevere encourages moral and chivalrous behavior from the knights, and she dearly loves and is loved by both Arthur and Launcelot.
Laucelot Ban''s son, who is considered the greatest knight in the world and remains devoted to Guinevere throughout his life.