THE OLD

ENGLISH
PERIOD
THE LAND OCCUPIED BY A
PEACE LOVING, AGRICULTURAL
PEOPLE CALLED CELTS.
It was only A.D 43, when the Romans
under Emperor Claudius actually
conquered the island.
The invaders belonged to various Germanic tribes inhabiting the
shores of Danish Peninsula and the southern tip of Scandinavia.
These Teutonic tribes were the Jutes,
Angles, and Saxons.
EARL- The ruling class.

The earl was deeply loyal to his

king, who was brave and revered
leader in time of war, and in
times of peace, a wise judge and
generous giver of materials
reward for services rendered.
CHURL- who traced
his ancestry to some
war captive of the
tribe.
The social system was very simple.
Justice was founded on the spirit
of “an eye to eye and a tooth for a
tooth.” But this was softened by a
system of “blood money” whereby
a fine could be given by the killer
of the family of the man he killed.
•In those troubled times
when might was right, the
warrior was the most
important human being.
He was the man who
solved all problems. War
was the general way of life.
The churl tilled the soil,
hunted, and finished for his
earl to whom his services were
bound by a special favor.
He could attain the status of a
freeman, but the freemen were
few.
The churls far outnumbered the
earls and constituted the
submerged multitude who
toiled and lived and died in
silence.
Even less important in this
primitive society were the women,
who were considered valuable only
for domestic duties and as
marriageable commodities or
purely decorative elements of
society.
It was solely a man’s world;
the code followed was a
warrior’s code of pride,
loyalty, and courage to one’s
king. To this code, all the
earls and thanes (noble
followers) were bound.
•But early in the history
of England, another
individual came into
view-
one who was to affect the
life of England.
• This individual was a priest, who
was the bringer of this new world
of knowledge and culture.
Christianity was established in
Britain before A.D. 400. When
the Romans left, Christianity was
kept alive by the zeal of Irish
missionaries.
In 597, Pope Gregory the Great sent St.
Augustine as a missionary to England.