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The original inhabitants of Britain were a bit of mistery: Pre-Celtic. In Silbury Hill we found the largest man-made burial mound, Stonehenge, and it was a sort of astronomical clock that was used to mark the passing of the seasons.

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The Celts were Indo-European tribes from Europe and Asia Minor who settled in England and were split into many different clans. They were an advanced society: they made iron weapons and were experimented farmers and hunters. In their society women could fight as well as men, in fact queen Boudicca was one of famous Celtic warriors. The religious leaders of the Celts were called Druids and they also acted as judges and doctors.

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Julius Ceasar made military expeditions to Britain. The Roman conquest began in 43 A.D. under Emperor Claudius. To defend Britain from the Celts, they built a long wall named Hadrian’s Wall. The Celtic tribes adapted to Roman civilization. The Roman presence in Britain can still be traced in the names of some towns, for example Manchester and Leicester. The Celtic adopted the Roman way of life. Starting in the late 4th century, Britain gradually fell prey to invasion by Germanic tribes from across the North Sea.

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Anglo saxons invaded Britain in 410. They give a great importance to the idea of noble. They were divided in small kingdoms and in the 7 century they converted to the Christianity. In the Anglo saxons’ pyramid we have to the bottom the slaves, then peasants, thengs, earls and on the top we have the monarch. The social organization was based on loyalty while in the rest of Europe it was based on heredity.

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Anglo saxons poetry came from a rich oral tradition. The poets were called scops and they had a great memory. The epic poetry like Beowulf celebrated heroics deeds and mitical adventures. Beowulf was the first great example of English literature and it records a Germanic legend: the deeds of the hero Beowulf, who kills the monster Grendel. It expresses the heroic ideal of

Germanic society, with an emphasis on strength, courage and loyalty. The epic tone is sometimes softened by Christian ideals.

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Vikings invaded anglo-saxons britain in 800 expert sailors from scandinavia and they had strong ships.

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The Norman Conquest (1066): After the Battle of Hastings, Duke William of Normandy conquered England and introduced a feudal system similar to the European one. The Normans, of Viking origin but French in language and culture, took control of the country by 1100.

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Under Henry II, there was a clash between the Crown and the Church. Archbishop Thomas Becket was killed in 1170 for opposing the king. Henry's son, Richard the Lionheart, was a brave king, participated in the Third Crusade and died in the war. After him, John Lackland signed the Magna Carta in 1215, limiting the power of the king and guaranteeing rights to citizens. With Henry III, a Parliament with representatives of the people was born: it is the beginning of the House of Commons.

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The war between England and France began in 1337, when Edward III claimed the French throne. The English won a major victory at Agincourt in 1415 under Henry V, but the war continued without a clear winner. The Black Death (1348–1351) hit Europe hard, killing millions. Under Joan of Arc, the French won major victories and, in 1453, drove the English out of France, except Calais.

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In the 14th century, John Wycliffe criticized the Church and translated the Bible into English. His followers, the Lollards, spread his ideas among the poor. There was also a peasant revolt in 1381 against taxes, which was later suppressed, but revolts continued for centuries to come.

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A civil war between the noble families of York (white rose) and Lancaster (red rose) marked the end of the English Middle Ages. Henry Tudor (Lancaster) defeated Richard III (York) in 1485 at Bosworth. He ascended the throne as Henry VII and united the two families by marrying Elizabeth of York

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Geoffrey Chaucer is the father of modern English literature, he established the East Midlands and London dialect (Middle English) as the dominant form of literary language. The son of a wealthy merchant family from London, he brought Italian culture (Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio) to England.

French phase: he translated Le Roman de la Rose, an influential allegorical poem on courtly love.

Italian phase: a series of works that reflect the influence of Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio.

English phase: The Canterbury Tales

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The Canterbury Tales is a collection of 24 verse tales told by a group of pilgrims (including Chaucer himself) on their way to the shrine of St Thomas Becket in Canterbury. The characters are both individuals and stereotypes; they represent the 'three estates' of English society: the nobles, the clergy and the common people. The Canterbury Tales is a

combination of allegory and realism that focuses on vivid and realistic stereotypes, the poem is wrote in couplets of iambic pentameters.

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The renaissance is a period of rebirth after the darkness of the Middle Age. It’s the rebirth of arts, culture and economy. After the Battle of Bosworth Henry was crowned King Henry VII of England and laid the foundations of English Humanism and promoted an artistic programme of a Renaissance character. With Henry VIII there was the beginning of a new Golden Age. His allegiance to the Catholic cause against Martin Luther was so strong that he was proclaimed defensor fidei. Things rapidly changed, however, when Pope Clement VII refused to grant Henry a divorce from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, who had failed to give him a male heir, in order to marry Anne Boleyn, a young and wealthy noblewoman. With the Act of Supremacy (1534) the Church of England was declared independent and its bishops became subject to the authority of the king, who was formally proclaimed Head of the Church. He had 6 wives and only with Jane Seymour did he have a son, Edward VI. Protestantism was strong under Edward VI, the young and sickly son of Henry VIII. This led to a Catholic reaction under Mary I. These two reigns thus witnessed first the persecution of Catholics then of Protestants: many were put to death. The Catholic queen, for her intolerance in religious matters, became popularly known as 'Bloody Mary'.

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When Elizabeth I, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, came to the throne, the country desperately needed a period of internal peace. She managed to steer the Church of England between the two poles of Catholicism, on the one hand, and radical forms of Protestantism. This compromise ensured England's internal peace, increasing its wealth and commercial power. England was supporting Dutch Protestants in their fight against the Spanish and was also sending ships to the American coasts to fight against the Spanish ships of Philip II. In 1588 this conflict finally broke into open war, when Philip II prepared a huge fleet, named the 'Invincible Armada', for the invasion of England. In the English Channel, however, the light English ships easily outmanoeuvred the heavy Spanish galleons, sinking many of them and the rest of the Armada was finished off by heavy storms. England's victory immensely increased her prestige in Europe and her self-confidence.

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The Armada Portrait contains lots symbol and themes. This portrait is a propaganda for Elizabeth first power and her victory against the Invincible Armada. The Armada Portrait it’s not just a painting, it’s a piece of a strategic propaganda of Elizabeth victory of Spanish Armada. For example her dress is a dripped with pearls and jewels that the symbolized wealth and prosperity. The pearls symbolized her chastity in fact she was know as the Virgin Queen.

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Elizabethan theatre united all social classes. The most importante theatres are the Globe, the Rose and the Swan. The Globe is Shakespeare’s theatre. Performances were held in the afternoon. Actors were considered vagabonds, placed themselves under the protection of nobles or the king. The companies took the name of their patron, such as The Lord Chamberlain’s Men or The King’s Men, Shakespeare’s company. Female roles were played by boys in drag.

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William Shakespeare was born in Stratford upon Avon. He went to London to worked in theatre and became the co-owner of “The Globe”. At the end of his life he retired to Stratford and died. He wrote sonnets with no title between 1593 and 1598. The most important sonnets are: The Darklady and The Rival Poet and the main theme was love seem as spiritual and physical. Shakespeare’s plays was:

The Masterpiece with Romeo and Juliet, the tragedy of love, and a Midsummer night dream.

The Historical Plays and Comedies with Henry IV and As You Like It.

The Great Tragedies with J. Ceasar, the tragedy of trayment, Hamlet, the tragedy of revenge, and Othello, the tragedy of jealousy.

Shakespeare’s female characters defied the norms of their time for example Lady Macbeth, with her ambition and ruthlessness were unmatched. Or consider Portia from The Merchant of Venice, who wins a legal battle proving she’s as sharp as any lawyer in the courtroom. These women are forces of nature, they are strong, clever, full of wit and complexity. Their stories still resonate today and remind us of strength and resilience.

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Shakespeare's wife was Anna Hathaway and a fun fact is that he promised his wife that they will meet again in a next life. Today there is an actress called Anna Hathaway and she is married to a man who looks like Shakespeare.

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The setting is Bosworth, where Richard III and the future king, the Earl of Richmond, fight their last battle. As is usual in Elizabethan history plays, the battle is not realistically acted out on the stage. Shakespeare concentrates on Richard and Richmond, and their duel symboling the outcome of the whole conflict. Catesby's reference to the fact that the king’s horse is killed and it prepares us for Richard’s stormy entry and one of Shakespeare’s most famous phrases: ‘A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!’

The scene (and the play) ends with Richmond’s speech of reconciliation, sanctioning the end of the Civil War and promising England's future peace and prosperity.

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Prince Hamlet wants to avenge the murder of his father by his uncle Claudius, who married his mother Gertrude. He feigns madness, rejects Ophelia (who then commits suicide), and with a theatrical performance unmasks the culprit. After a duel with Laertes, all the main characters die.

Key themes:

• Revenge and justice.

• Conflict between thought and action.

• Ambiguity between appearance and reality.

• Female condition (Gertrude and Ophelia), Hamlet is disappointed by both: he despises his mother for her hasty marriage and suspects.

• Crisis of Renaissance man.

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The central theme of the monologue is the dilemma between action and inaction as Hamlet struggles with avenging his father’s death. Hamlet is torn between these two ideals:

• To live and suffer passively (stoicism).

• To die and be free from everything but with the fear of what comes after death (which frightens and stops him).

This contrast is the core of his dilemma: to be or not to be. Hamlet’s language reflects deep pessimism and highlights human suffering. Though he interrupts his thoughts when he sees Ophelia, his inability to act remains clear in the final lines.

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Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) on European political and philosophical thought and literature, had a great popular for his “Il Principe”. Il Principe was officially condemned by the Church at the Council of Trent (1545) because of its supposed atheism and anti-religious doctrines. Machiavelli's doctrines in fact caused great scandal both among Protestants and Catholics because he was the first to separate politics from ethics or religion. In Il Principe he portrayed not an ideal ruler but the kind of ruler that emerged from a study of past and present history.

The most perfect type of Machiavellian villain is Shakespeare's Richard III where the protagonist puts into practice Machiavelli's famous saying: 'the end justifies the means'. Many of Shakespeare's other villains clearly possess Machiavellian traits: in Othello, lago for his duplicity and ability to hide his real intentions; in Macbeth, Lady Macbeth for the decision with which she takes the opportunity to kill the King of Scotland when the occasion presents itself.