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Great Britain and adjacent islands in the 5th century AD, before the invasion and subsequent founding of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
Mainly (non-Pictish) Brittonic areas
Mainly Pictish areas
Mainly Goidelic areas
The Britons (*Pritanī, Latin: Britanni), also known as Celtic Britons[1] or Ancient Britons, were an indigenous Celtic people[2] who inhabited Great Britain from at least the British Iron Age until the High Middle Ages, at which point they diverged into the Welsh, Cornish, and Bretons (among others).[2] They spoke Common Brittonic, the ancestor of the modern Brittonic languages.[2]
The earliest written evidence for the Britons is from Greco-Roman writers and dates to the Iron Age.[2] Ancient Britain was made up of many tribes and kingdoms, associated with various hillforts. The Britons followed an Ancient Celtic religion overseen by druids. Some of the southern tribes had strong links with mainland Europe, especially Gaul and Belgica, and minted their own coins. The Roman Empire conquered most of Britain in the 1st century CE, creating the province of Britannia. The Romans invaded northern Britain, but the Britons and Caledonians in the north remained unconquered and Hadrian's Wall became the edge of the empire. A Romano-British culture emerged, mainly in the southeast, and British Latin coexisted with Brittonic.[3] It is unclear what relationship the Britons had with the Picts, who lived outside of the empire in northern Britain, however, most scholars today accept the fact that the Pictish language was closely related to Common Brittonic.[4]
Following the end of Roman rule in Britain during the 5th century, Anglo-Saxon settlement of eastern and southern Britain began. The culture and language of the Britons fragmented, and much of their territory gradually became Anglo-Saxon, while the north became subject to a similar settlement by Gaelic-speaking tribes from Ireland. The extent to which this cultural change was accompanied by wholesale population changes is still debated. During this time, Britons migrated to mainland Europe and established significant colonies in Brittany (now part of France), the Channel Islands,[5] and Britonia (now part of Galicia, Spain).[2] By the 11th century, Brittonic-speaking populations had split into distinct groups: the Welsh in Wales, the Cornish in Cornwall, the Bretons in Brittany, the Cumbrians of the Hen Ogledd ("Old North") in southern Scotland and northern England, and the remnants of the Pictish people in northern Scotland.[6] Common Brittonic developed into the distinct Brittonic languages: Welsh, Cumbric, Cornish and Breton.[2]
Celtic warrior recreation, including carnyx and a replica of the Waterloo HelmetRecreated Celtic village at St Fagans National Museum of History, Wales
^Graham Webster. (1996). "The Celtic Britons under Rome". In Green, Miranda (ed.). The Celtic World. Routledge. p. 623.
^ abcdefKoch, John (2006). Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. pp. 291–292.
^Sawyer, P.H. (1998). From Roman Britain to Norman England. Routledge. pp. 69–74. ISBN 0415178940.
^Forsyth, p. 9.
^"The Germanic invasions of Britain". www.uni-due.de.
^Scottish Archaeological Research Framework (ScARF), Highland Framework, Early Medieval (accessed May 2022).
The Britons (*Pritanī, Latin: Britanni), also known as CelticBritons or Ancient Britons, were an indigenous Celtic people who inhabited Great Britain...
other cultural similarities. Major Celtic groups included the Gauls; the Celtiberians and Gallaeci of Iberia; the Britons, Picts, and Gaels of Britain and...
Proto-Celtic, p. 413. Brill, Leiden-Boston. ISBN 978-90-04-17336-1 Coates, Richard, ‘Invisible Britons: The View from Linguistics’, in Britons in Anglo-Saxon...
CelticBritons, both before and after the period of Roman Britain up until the Norman invasion of Wales and the Norman conquest of England. Britons were...
western Germany, Luxembourg and northern Italy. They spoke Gaulish. The CelticBritons inhabited most of the island of Great Britain and spoke Common Brittonic...
Britain and Sub-Roman Britain. They included the CelticBritons, the Picts, and the Gaels. The Insular Celtic languages spread throughout the islands during...
archaeology. Most surviving Celtic mythology belongs to the Insular Celtic peoples (the Gaels of Ireland and Scotland; the CelticBritons of western Britain and...
there is a narrative in which Vortigern (Welsh: Gwrtheyrn), King of the CelticBritons from Powys is interrupted whilst attempting to build a fort at Dinas...
largest city is Cardiff. A distinct Welsh culture emerged among the CelticBritons after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, and Wales...
Wales and appears on the national flag of Wales. Ancient leaders of the CelticBritons that are personified as dragons include Maelgwn Gwynedd, Mynyddog Mwynfawr...
especially by the time of the Gallic Wars. Historical Celtic groups included the Belgae, Bituriges, Boii, Britons, Celtiberians, Gaels, Galatians, Gallaeci, Gauls...
conquest of most of the island of Britain, which was inhabited by the CelticBritons. It began in earnest in AD 43 under Emperor Claudius, and was largely...
finally being defeated by Suetonius Paulinus and his legions. Although the Britons outnumbered the Romans greatly, they lacked the superior discipline and...
peoples (Frisians, Jutes, Angles [whence "English"]) and assimilated CelticBritons populations. Their earliest weapons and clothing south of the Thames...
church and Christianity. By the sixth century AD, the languages of the CelticBritons were rapidly diverging into Neo-Brittonic: Welsh, Cumbric, Cornish,...
(like the Welsh and Bretons) can trace its roots to the Brittonic Celtic ancient Britons who inhabited Great Britain from somewhere between the 11th and...
languages descended from Common Brittonic Britons (Celtic people), or CelticBritons, the Celtic people of Great Britain in ancient times This disambiguation...
following the withdrawal of the Romans, and the partially Romanised CelticBritons who already lived there. Collectively known as the Anglo-Saxons, they...
of the Britons was Brutus of Troy and that the island of Britain was named after him. Lucius was a legendary 2nd-century king of the Britons traditionally...
Celtic Christianity is a form of Christianity that was common, or held to be common, across the Celtic-speaking world during the Early Middle Ages. Some...
and evidence shows that it was an Insular Celtic language related to the Brittonic spoken by the CelticBritons to the south. Pictish was gradually displaced...
The Cornovii is the name by which two, or three, tribes were known in Roman Britain. One tribe was in the area centred on present-day Shropshire, one was...
throughout the British Isles CelticBritons, an ancient ethno-linguistic group Brittonic languages, a branch of the Insular Celtic language family (formerly...
centuries AD by Romano-Britons. Britonia is therefore similar to Brittany, in Gaul (present-day France), by being settled by expatriate Britons at roughly the...
to nearby different ethnic groups. An alliance of Britons fought against another alliance of Britons at the Battle of Arfderydd. Áedán mac Gabráin of Dál...
developed by the CelticBritons elsewhere before the end of the first millennium. As in most of the predominantly oral societies Celtic mythology and history...
Dowbridge Kirkham, Lancaster. University of Lancaster (2000) Rhys, John (1901). Celtic Folklore: Welsh and Manx (2004 reprinted ed.). University Press of the Pacific...
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