Celtic Britons

TheBritons(*Pritanī,Latin:Britanni,Welsh:Brythoniaid), also known asCeltic BritonsorAncient Britons,were theindigenousCeltic peoplewho inhabitedGreat Britainfrom at least theBritish Iron Ageuntil theHigh Middle Ages,at which point they diverged into theWelsh,Cornish,andBretons(among others).They spokeCommon Brittonic,the ancestor of the modernBrittonic languages.

Great Britainand adjacent islands in the 5th century AD, before the invasion and subsequentfounding of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms:

Mainly (non-Pictish)Brittonicareas

MainlyPictishareas

MainlyGoidelicareas

The earliest written evidence for the Britons is fromGreco-Romanwriters and dates to the Iron Age.Ancient Britain was made up of many tribes and kingdoms, associated with varioushillforts.The Britons followed anAncient Celtic religionoverseen bydruids.Some of the southern tribes had strong links with mainland Europe, especiallyGaulandBelgica,andminted their own coins.TheRoman Empireconquered most of Britainin the 1st century AD, creating theprovince of Britannia.The Romansinvaded northern Britain,but the Britons andCaledoniansin the north remained unconquered andHadrian's Wallbecame the edge of the empire. ARomano-British cultureemerged, mainly in the southeast, andBritish Latincoexisted with Brittonic.It is unclear what relationship the Britons had with thePicts,who lived outside of the empire in northern Britain, however, most scholars today accept the fact that thePictish languagewas closely related to Common Brittonic.

Following theend of Roman rule in Britainduring the 5th century,Anglo-Saxon settlementof eastern and southern Britain began. The culture and language of the Britons fragmented, and much of their territory gradually becameAnglo-Saxon,while the north became subject to a similar settlement byGaelic-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 inBrittany(now part of France), theChannel Islands,andBritonia(now part ofGalicia,Spain).By the 11th century, Brittonic-speaking populations had split into distinct groups: theWelshin Wales, theCornishin Cornwall, theBretonsin Brittany, the Cumbrians of theHen Ogledd( "Old North" ) in southern Scotland and northern England, and the remnants of thePictish peoplein northern Scotland.Common Brittonic developed into the distinct Brittonic languages:Welsh,Cumbric,CornishandBreton.

Celtic warrior recreation, includingcarnyxand a replica of theWaterloo Helmet

Recreated Celtic village atSt Fagans National Museum of History,Wales

Name

Main article:Britain (placename)

InCeltic studies,'Britons' refers to native speakers of theBrittonic languagesin the ancient and medieval periods, "from the first evidence of such speech in the pre-RomanIron Age,until thecentral Middle Ages".

The earliest known reference to the inhabitants of Britain was made byPytheas,aGreekgeographer who made a voyage of exploration around theBritish Islesbetween 330 and 320 BC. Although none of his own writings remain, writers during the following centuries make frequent reference to them. The ancient Greeks called the people of Britain thePretanoíorBretanoí.Pliny'sNatural History(77 AD) says the older name for the island wasAlbion,andAvieniuscalls itinsula Albionum,"island of the Albions".The name could have reached Pytheas from theGauls.The Latin name for the Britons wasBritanni.

TheP-Celticethnonymhas been reconstructed as *Pritanī,fromCommon Celtic*kʷritu,which becameOld IrishcruthandOld Welshpryd.This likely means "people of the forms", and could be linked to the Latin namePicti(thePicts), which is usually explained as meaning "painted people".The Old Welsh name for the Picts wasPrydyn.Linguist Kim McCone suggests the name became restricted to inhabitants of the far north afterCymrydisplaced it as the name for theWelshandCumbrians.The Welshprydydd,"maker of forms", was also a term for the highest grade ofa bard.

The medieval Welsh form of LatinBritanniwasBrython(singular and plural).Brythonwas introduced into English usage byJohn Rhysin 1884 as a term unambiguously referring to theP-Celticspeakers of Great Britain, to complementGoidel;hence the adjectiveBrythonicrefers to the group of languages."Brittonic languages"is a more recent coinage (first attested in 1923 according to theOxford English Dictionary).

In theearly Middle Ages,followingthe Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain,theAnglo-Saxonscalled all BritonsBryttasorWealas(Welsh), while they continued to be calledBritanniorBrittonesinMedieval Latin.From the 11th century, they are more often referred to separately as theWelsh,Cumbrians,Cornish,andBretons,as they had separate political histories from then.

From the early 16th century, and especially after theActs of Union 1707,the termsBritishandBritoncould be applied to all inhabitants of theKingdom of Great Britain,including theEnglish,Scottish,and someIrish,or the subjects of theBritish Empiregenerally.

Language

Main articles:Common BrittonicandBrittonic languages

See also:British Latin

TheStaffordshire Moorlands Pan

The Britons spoke anInsular Celtic languageknown asCommon Brittonic.Brittonic was spoken throughout the island of Britain (in modern terms, England, Wales, and Scotland).According to early medieval historical tradition, such asThe Dream ofMacsen Wledig,the post-Roman Celtic speakers ofArmoricawere colonists from Britain, resulting in theBreton language,a language related toWelshand identical toCornishin the early period, and is still used today. Thus, the area today is calledBrittany(Br.Breizh,Fr.Bretagne,derived fromBritannia).

Common Brittonic developed from the Insular branch of theProto-Celtic languagethat developed in the British Isles after arriving from the continent in the 7th century BC. The language eventually began to diverge; some linguists have grouped subsequent developments asWesternandSouthwestern Brittonic languages.Western Brittonic developed into Welsh inWalesand theCumbric languagein theHen Ogleddor "Old North" of Britain (modern northern England and southern Scotland), while the Southwestern dialect becameCornishin Cornwall andSouth West EnglandandBretonin Armorica.Pictishis now generally accepted to descend from Common Brittonic, rather than being a separate Celtic language. Welsh and Breton survive today; Cumbric and Pictish became extinct in the 12th century. Cornish had become extinct by the 19th century but has been the subject oflanguage revitalizationsince the 20th century.

Tribal groups

Tribal groups in southern Britainc. 150 AD

Celtic Britain was made up of many territories controlled byBrittonic tribes.They are generally believed to have dwelt throughout the whole island ofGreat Britain,at least as far north as theClyde–Forthisthmus.The territory north of this was largely inhabited by thePicts;little direct evidence has been left of thePictish language,but place names and Pictish personal names recorded in the laterIrish annalssuggest it was indeed related to theCommon Brittonic language.TheirGoidelic (Gaelic)name,Cruithne,is cognate withPritenī.

The following is a list of the major Brittonic tribes, in both the Latin and Brittonic languages, as well as their capitals during the Roman period.

Tribe	Capital
Atrebatēs	Calleva Atrebatum
Brigantēs/Brigantī	Isurium Brigantum
Cantiacī	Durovernum Cantiacorum
Carvetīī (*Carwetīī)	Luguvalium
Catuvellaunī (*Catuwellaunī)	Verulamium
Corieltauvī (*Corieltauī)	Ratae Corieltauvorum
Cornovīī (*Cornowīī)	Viroconium Cornoviorum
Damnonīī	Vanduara (Loudoun HillorWalls Hill)
Deceanglī	CanoviumorClwydian hillforts
Demetae	Moridunum
Dobunnī/Bodunnī	Corinium Dobunnorum
Dumnonīī	Isca Dumnoniorum
Durotrigēs	Durnovaria;Maiden Castle
Īcenī/Ecenī	Venta Icenorum
Novantae (*Nowantī)	Rispain?
Ordovicēs (*Ordowicī)	Dinas Dinorwig?
Parisī	Petuaria
Reginī	Noviomagus Reginorum
Selgovae (*Selgowī)	Eildon Hill?
Silurēs	Venta Silurum;Llanmelin
Textoverdī (*Textowerdī)	Coria?
Trinovantēs (*Trinowantī)	Camulodunum
Votadīnī/Otadīnī	Traprain

Art

Main article:Celtic art

TheBattersea Shield,a ceremonial bronze shield dated 3rd–1st century BC, is an example of La TèneCeltic artfrom Britain.

TheLa Tène style,which covers BritishCeltic art,was late arriving in Britain, but after 300 BC the Ancient British seem to have had generally similar cultural practices to the Celtic cultures nearest to them on the continent. There are significant differences in artistic styles, and the greatest period of what is known as the "Insular La Tène" style, surviving mostly in metalwork, was in the century or so before the Roman conquest, and perhaps the decades after it.

A recreation of acarnyx(war trumpet)

Thecarnyx,a trumpet with an animal-headed bell, was used by Celtic Britons during war and ceremony.

History

Origins

There are competing hypotheses for when Celtic peoples, and the Celtic languages, first arrived in Britain, none of which have gained consensus. The traditional view during most of the twentieth century was that Celtic culture grew out of the central EuropeanHallstatt culture,from which the Celts and their languages reached Britain in the second half of the first millennium BC.More recently,John KochandBarry Cunliffehave challenged that with their 'Celtic from the West' theory, which has the Celtic languages developing as a maritimetrade languagein theAtlantic Bronze Agecultural zone before it spread eastward.Alternatively, Patrick Sims-Williams criticizes both of these hypotheses to propose 'Celtic from the Centre', which suggests Celtic originated inGauland spread during the first millennium BC, reaching Britain towards the end of this period.

In 2021, a majorarchaeogeneticsstudy uncovered a migration into southern Britain during theBronze Age,over a 500-year period from 1,300 BC to 800 BC.The migrants were "genetically most similar to ancient individuals from France" and had higher levels ofEarly European Farmersancestry.From 1000 to 875 BC, their genetic marker swiftly spread through southern Britain,making up around half the ancestry of subsequentIron Agepeople in this area, but not in northern Britain.The "evidence suggests that rather than a violent invasion or a single migratory event, the genetic structure of the population changed through sustained contacts between mainland Britain and Europe over several centuries, such as the movement of traders, intermarriage, and small-scale movements of family groups".The authors describe this as a "plausible vector for the spread of early Celtic languages into Britain".There was much less migration into Britain during the subsequent Iron Age, so it is more likely that Celtic reached Britain before then.Barry Cunliffe suggests that a branch of Celtic was already being spoken in Britain and that the Bronze Age migration introduced the Brittonic branch.

TheAnglo-Saxon Chronicle,which was originally compiled by the orders of KingAlfred the Greatin approximately 890, 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 possibly a mistaken transcription ofArmorica,an area in northwesternGaulincluding modernBrittany).

Roman conquest

Main articles:British Iron Age,Roman Britain,andSub-Roman Britain

A reconstruction drawing ofPagans Hill Romano-British temple

In 43 AD, the Roman Empire invaded Britain. The British tribes opposed the Roman legions for many decades, but by 84 AD the Romans had decisively conquered southern Britain and had pushed into Brittonic areas of what would later become northern England and southern Scotland. During the same period,Belgictribes from the Gallic-Germanic borderlands settled in southern Britain. Caesar asserts theBelgaehad first crossed the channel as raiders, only later establishing themselves on the island.122 AD, the Romans fortified the northern border withHadrian's Wall,which spanned what is nowNorthern England.In 142 AD, Roman forces pushed north again and began construction of theAntonine Wall,which ran between the Forth–Clyde isthmus, but they retreated back to Hadrian's Wall after only twenty years. Although the native Britons south of Hadrian's Wall mostly kept their land, they were subject to theRoman governors,whilst the Brittonic-Pictish Britons north of the wall probably remained fully independent and unconquered. The Roman Empire retained control of "Britannia" until its departure about AD 410, although parts of Britain had already effectively shrugged off Roman rule decades earlier.

Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain

Main article:Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain

Britons migrated westwards during theAnglo-Saxon settlement of Britain

Thirty years or so after the time of the Roman departure, theGermanic-speakingAnglo-Saxonsbegan a migration to the south-eastern coast of Britain, where they began to establish their own kingdoms, and theGaelic-speakingScotsmigrated fromDál nAraidi(modernNorthern Ireland) to the west coast of Scotland and the Isle of Man.

At the same time, Britons established themselves in what is now calledBrittanyand theChannel Islands.There they set up their own small kingdoms and theBreton languagedeveloped from BrittonicInsular Celticrather thanGaulishorFrankish.A further Brittonic colony,Britonia,was also set up at this time inGallaeciain northwesternSpain.

Many of the old Brittonic kingdoms began to disappear in the centuries after the Anglo-Saxon and Scottish Gaelic invasions; Parts of the regions of modernEast Anglia,East Midlands,North East England,Argyll,andSouth East Englandwere the first to fall to the Germanic and Gaelic Scots invasions.

The kingdom of Ceint (modern Kent) fell in 456 AD. Linnuis (which stood astride modern Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire) was subsumed as early as 500 AD and became the English Kingdom of Lindsey.

Regni(essentially modernSussexand easternHampshire) was likely fully conquered by 510 AD.Ynys Weith(Isle of Wight) fell in 530 AD,Caer Colun(essentially modern Essex) by 540 AD. TheGaelsarrived on the northwest coast of Britain from Ireland, dispossessed the native Britons, and foundedDal Riatawhich encompassed modernArgyll,Skye,andIonabetween 500 and 560 AD.Deifr(Deira) which encompassed modern-day Teesside, Wearside, Tyneside, Humberside, Lindisfarne (Medcaut), and theFarne Islandsfell to the Anglo-Saxons in 559 AD and Deira became an Anglo-Saxon kingdom after this point.Caer Went had officially disappeared by 575 AD becoming the Anglo-Saxonkingdom of East Anglia.Gwentwas only partly conquered; its capitalCaer Gloui(Gloucester) was taken by the Anglo-Saxons in 577 AD, handingGloucestershireandWiltshireto the invaders, while the westernmost part remained in Brittonic hands, and continued to exist in modern Wales.

Caer Lundein,encompassingLondon,St. Albans and parts of theHome Counties,fell from Brittonic hands by 600 AD, and Bryneich, which existed in modern Northumbria and County Durham with its capital of Din Guardi (modernBamburgh) and which included Ynys Metcaut (Lindisfarne), had fallen by 605 AD becoming Anglo-Saxon Bernicia.Caer Celemion (in modern Hampshire and Berkshire) had fallen by 610 AD. Elmet, a large kingdom that covered much of modern Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Cheshire and likely had its capital at modern Leeds, was conquered by the Anglo-Saxons in 627 AD.Pengwern,which coveredStaffordshire,Shropshire,Herefordshire,andWorcestershire,was largely destroyed in 656 AD, with only its westernmost parts in modern Wales remaining under the control of the Britons, and it is likely that Cynwidion, which had stretched from modern Bedfordshire to Northamptonshire, fell in the same general period as Pengwern, though a sub-kingdom of Calchwynedd may have clung on in the Chilterns for a time.

Novant,which occupied Galloway and Carrick, was soon subsumed by fellow Brittonic-Pictish polities by 700 AD.Aeron,which encompassed modernAyrshire,was conquered by the Anglo-Saxonkingdom of Northumbriaby 700 AD.

Yr Hen Ogledd(the Old North)

Main article:Yr Hen Ogledd

Yr Hen Ogledd(the Old North) c. 550 – c. 650

Some Brittonic kingdoms were able to successfully resist these incursions:Rheged(encompassing much of modernNorthumberlandandCounty Durhamand areas of southern Scotland and theScottish Borders) survived well into the 8th century AD, before the eastern part peacefully joined with the Anglo-Saxon kingdom ofBernicia–Northumberlandby 730 AD, and the west was taken over by the fellow Britons ofYstrad Clud.Similarly, the kingdom ofGododdin,which appears to have had its court atDin Eidyn(modernEdinburgh) and encompassed parts of modernNorthumbria,County Durham,LothianandClackmannanshire,endured until approximately 775 AD before being divided by fellow Brittonic Picts, Gaelic Scots and Anglo-Saxons.

TheKingdom of Cait,covering modernCaithness,Sutherland,Orkney,andShetland,was conquered by Gaelic Scots in 871 AD.Dumnonia(encompassingCornwall,Devonshire,and theIsles of Scilly) was partly conquered during the mid 9th century AD, with most of modern Devonshire being annexed by the Anglo-Saxons, but leaving Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly (Enesek Syllan), and for a time part of western Devonshire (includingDartmoor), still in the hands of the Britons, where they became the Brittonic state ofKernow.TheChannel Islands(colonised by Britons in the 5th century) came under attack fromNorseandDanishVikingattack in the early 9th century AD, and by the end of that century had been conquered by Viking invaders.

TheKingdom of Ce,which encompassed modernMarr,Banff,Buchan,Fife,and much ofAberdeenshire,disappeared soon after 900 AD.Fortriu,the largest Brittonic-Pictish kingdom which coveredStrathearn,MorayshireandEaster Ross,had fallen by approximately 950 AD to the GaelicKingdom of Alba(Scotland). Other Pictish kingdoms such asCircinn(in modernAngusandThe Mearns),Fib(modernFife),Fidach(InvernessandPerthshire), andAth-Fotla(Atholl), had also all fallen by the beginning of the 11th century AD or shortly after.

The Brythonic languages in these areas were eventually replaced by theOld Englishof the Anglo-Saxons, andScottish Gaelic,although this was likely a gradual process in many areas.

Similarly, the Brittonic colony ofBritoniain northwesternSpainappears to have disappeared soon after 900 AD.

The kingdom ofYstrad Clud(Strathclyde) was a large and powerful Brittonic kingdom of theHen Ogledd(the 'Old North') which endured until the end of the 11th century, successfully resisting Anglo-Saxon, Gaelic Scots and later also Viking attacks. At its peak it encompassed modern Strathclyde,Dumbartonshire,Cumbria,Stirlingshire,Lanarkshire,Ayrshire,Dumfries and Galloway,Argyll and Bute,and parts ofNorth Yorkshire,the westernPennines,and as far as modernLeedsinWest Yorkshire.Thus the Kingdom of Strathclyde became the last of the Brittonic kingdoms of the 'old north' to fall in the 1090s when it was effectively divided between England and Scotland.

Wales, Cornwall and Brittany

The Britons also retained control ofWalesand Kernow (encompassingCornwall,parts ofDevonincludingDartmoor,and theIsles of Scilly) until the mid 11th century AD when Cornwall was effectively annexed by the English, with the Isles of Scilly following a few years later, although at times Cornish lords appear to have retained sporadic control into the early part of the 12th century AD.

Wales remained free from Anglo-Saxon, Gaelic Scots and Viking control, and was divided among varying Brittonic kingdoms, the foremost beingGwynedd(includingClwydandAnglesey),Powys,Deheubarth(originallyCeredigion,SeisyllwgandDyfed),Gwent,andMorgannwg(Glamorgan). These Brittonic-Welsh kingdoms initially included territories further east than the modern borders of Wales; for example, Powys included parts of modernMerseyside,Cheshireandthe Wirraland Gwent held parts of modernHerefordshire,Worcestershire,SomersetandGloucestershire,but had largely been confined to the borders of modern Wales by the beginning of the 12th century.

However, by the early 1100s, the Anglo-Saxons and Gaels had become the dominant cultural force in most of the formerly Brittonic ruled territory in Britain, and the language and culture of the native Britons was thereafter gradually replaced in those regions,remaining only in Wales, Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly andBrittany,and for a time in parts of Cumbria, Strathclyde, and eastern Galloway.

Cornwall(Kernow,Dumnonia) had certainly been largely absorbed by England by the 1050s to early 1100s, although it retained a distinct Brittonic culture and language.Britoniain SpanishGaliciaseems to have disappeared by 900 AD.

Wales and Brittany remained independent for a considerable time, however, with Brittany united withFrancein 1532, and Wales united withEnglandby theLaws in Wales Acts 1535–1542in the mid 16th century during the rule of theTudors(Y Tuduriaid), who were themselves of Welsh heritage on the male side.

Wales, Cornwall, Brittany and the Isles of Scilly continued to retain a distinct Brittonic culture, identity and language, which they have maintained to the present day. TheWelshandBreton languagesremain widely spoken, and theCornish language,once close to extinction, has experienced a revival since the 20th century. The vast majority of place names and names of geographical features in Wales, Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly and Brittany are Brittonic, and Brittonic family and personal names remain common.

During the 19th century, many Welsh farmers migrated toPatagoniainArgentina,forming a community calledY Wladfa,which today consists of over 1,500 Welsh speakers.

In addition, a Brittonic legacy remains in England, Scotland and Galicia in Spain,in the form of often large numbers of Brittonic place and geographical names. Examples of geographical Brittonic names survive in the names of rivers, such as theThames,Clyde,Severn,Tyne,Wye,Exe,Dee,Tamar,Tweed,Avon,Trent,Tambre,Navia,andForth.Many place names in England and Scotland are of Brittonic rather than Anglo-Saxon or Gaelic origin, such asLondon,Manchester,Glasgow,Edinburgh,Carlisle,Caithness,Aberdeen,Dundee,Barrow,Exeter,Lincoln,Dumbarton,Brent,Penge,Colchester,Gloucester,Durham,Dover,Kent,Leatherhead,andYork.

Genetics

Further information:Celts § Genetics

See also:Bell Beaker culture § Genetics,Urnfield culture § Genetics,Hallstatt culture § Genetics,La Tène culture § Genetics,Gauls § Genetics,andCeltiberians § Genetics

Schiffels et al. (2016) examined the remains of three Iron Age Britons buried ca. 100 BC.A female buried inLinton, Cambridgeshirecarried the maternal haplogroupH1e,while two males buried inHinxtonboth carried the paternal haplogroupR1b1a2a1a2,and the maternal haplogroupsK1a1b1bandH1ag1.Their genetic profile was considered typical forNorthwest Europeanpopulations.Though sharing a common Northwestern European origin, the Iron Age individuals were markedly different from laterAnglo-Saxonsamples, who were closely related toDanesandDutch people.

Martiano et al. (2016) examined the remains of a female Iron Age Briton buried atMeltonbetween 210 BC and 40 AD.She was found to be carrying the maternal haplogroupU2e1e.The study also examined seven males buried in Driffield Terrace nearYorkbetween the 2nd century AD and the 4th century AD during the period ofRoman Britain.Six of these individuals were identified as native Britons.The six examined native Britons all carried types of the paternalR1b1a2a1aand carried the maternal haplogroupsH6a1a,H1bs,J1c3e2,H2,H6a1b2andJ1b1a1.The indigenous Britons of Roman Britain were genetically closely related to the earlier Iron Age female Briton, and displayed close genetic links to modernCeltsof theBritish Isles,particularlyWelsh people,suggesting genetic continuity between Iron Age Britain and Roman Britain, and partial genetic continuity between Roman Britain and modern Britain.On the other hand, they were genetically substantially different from the examinedAnglo-Saxonindividual and modernEnglishpopulations of the area, suggesting that theAnglo-Saxon settlement of Britainleft a profound genetic impact.

See also

• Albion
• Bretons
• British Latin
• Celtic nations
• Celtic language decline in England
• Cornish people
• Cumbric
• English people
• Fortriu
• Genetic history of the British Isles
• Gododdin
• History of the British Isles
• Kingdom of Cat
• Kingdom of Ce
• Kingdom of Strathclyde
• List of Celtic tribes
• Scottish people
• Welsh people
• Yr Hen Ogledd

Bibliography

• Martiniano, Rui; et al. (19 January 2016)."Genomic signals of migration and continuity in Britain before the Anglo-Saxons".Nature Communications.7(10326).Nature Research:10326.Bibcode:2016NatCo...710326M.doi:10.1038/ncomms10326.PMC4735653.PMID26783717.
• Forsyth, Katherine(1997).Language in Pictland(PDF).De Keltische Draak.ISBN90-802785-5-6.
• Koch, John T. (2006).Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia.ABC-CLIO.
• Schiffels, Stephan; et al. (19 January 2016)."Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon genomes from East England reveal British migration history".Nature Communications.7(10408).Nature Research:10408.Bibcode:2016NatCo...710408S.doi:10.1038/ncomms10408.PMC4735688.PMID26783965.
• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.Archived fromthe originalon 26 August 2014.Retrieved30 June2011.

External links

• BBC – History – Native Tribes of Britain
• DNA from ethnic Britons found in Ireland
• Scottish Archaeological Research Framework (ScARF)