A Potted History of Hampshire
Archaeological evidence indicates that what became southern Britannia was colonised by
humans long before the rest of the British Isles because of
its more hospitable climate between and during the various ice ages of the distant past.
Stonehenge in Wiltshire, right next to Hampshire, is thought to have been erected
around 2500-2000 BC.
There is widespread evidence of prehistoric settlements, Iron Age hillforts and burial mounds
throughout
Hampshire. Flint played a significant role
in the development of life as flint tools were used to clear woodland by
early Neolithic farmers. Towards the end of the Iron Age, and through the Roman periods,
Hampshire was noted for its exports of cereals and wool,
an economy that boomed until the end of the Roman occupation.
Roman Invasion
In the Roman invasion of Britain, Hampshire was one of the first areas to fall to the invading
forces.
Julius Caesar invaded southern Britain in 55 and 54 BC and
wrote in De Bello Gallico that the population of southern Britannia was extremely large.
Until the Roman Conquest of Britain, Britain's British population
was relatively stable, and by the time of Julius Caesar's first invasion, the British population of
what was 'old Britain' was speaking a Celtic language generally thought to be the forerunner of the
modern Brythonic languages. Caesar wrote in De Bello Gallico that the population of southern
Britannia was extremely large.
The Romans began their second conquest of Britain in 43 AD, during the reign of Claudius. They
annexed the whole of modern England and Wales over the next forty years.
In common with other regions on the edge of the empire, Britain had enjoyed diplomatic
and trading links with the Romans in the century since Julius Caesar's expeditions in 55
and 54 BC, and Roman economic and cultural influence was a significant part of the
British late pre-Roman Iron Age, especially in the south.
At the time of the Roman occupation, the region was inhabited by the Regni in the south-east
and the Belgae (who formerly inhabited northeast Gaul and areas of southeast England)
towards the south-west, and the Atrebates in the north. The Roman advance,
undertaken by Vespasian, was early and occupation thorough. There were two major towns,
Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum) in the north and Winchester (Venta Belgae) in the south.
Tacitus (a senator and historian of the Roman Empire) wrote that there was no great
difference in language
between the people of southern Britannia
and northern Gaul.
Roman rule lasted
until about 410, when Julius Caesar abandoned Britain, at which time the Romano-British formed various independent kingdoms
and it fell back into the hands of the
Britons.
The population of Britain dramatically decreased after the Roman period. The reduction seems to have
been caused mainly by plague and smallpox. It is known that the plague of Justinian entered the
Mediterranean world in the 6th century and first arrived in the British Isles in 544 or 545,
when it reached Ireland.
Invaded by Anglo Saxons
In the wake of the breakdown of Roman rule in Britain, present day England was
progressively settled by Germanic groups. Collectively known as the Anglo-Saxons, these included
Jutes from Jutland together with larger numbers of Frisians, Saxons from northwestern Germany and
Angles from what is now Schleswig-Holstein.
They first invaded Britain in the mid 5th century, continuing for several decades.
The Jutes appear
to have been the principal group of settlers in Kent,
the Isle of Wight and parts of coastal
Hampshire, while the Saxons predominated in all other areas south of the Thames and in Essex and
Middlesex, and the Angles in Norfolk, Suffolk, the Midlands and the north.
Saxon settlement was relatively easy
and Winchester became the capital of
Wessex (Silchester
was abandoned). The Isle of Wight and the eastern valley of the Meon were areas of
Jutish settlement
and for a while formed part of the kingdom of Sussex. By the 8th century, a harbour of
Hampton had
developed near the site of the small Roman port of Bitterne Clausentum (the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle referred to Hampton-shire). As Wessex
flourished, Winchester became the capital of England -
Edward the Confessor was crowned there and many kings, including Alfred and Cnut, buried there.
The
Anglo-Saxons gradually gained control of England and became the chief rulers of the land.
By the end of Alfred's reign in 899 he was the only remaining English king, having reduced
Mercia to
a dependency of Wessex, governed by his son-in-law Ealdorman Aethelred. Cornwall (Kernow)
was subject
to West Saxon dominance, and the Welsh kingdoms recognised Alfred as their overlord.
The Domesday Book & The Middle Ages
Depiction of the Battle of Hastings in 1066 on the Bayeux Tapestry 'The Norman Conquest' led to
change. William ordered the compilation of the Domesday Book,
a survey of the entire population and their lands and property for tax purposes, which reveals that
within twenty years of the conquest the English ruling class had been almost entirely dispossessed
and replaced by Norman landholders, who also monopolised all senior positions in the government and
the Church. William and his nobles spoke and conducted court in Norman French, in England as well as
in Normandy. The use of the Anglo-Norman language by the aristocracy endured for centuries and left
an indelible mark in the development of modern English.
In the course of the 12th century, the capital was removed from
Winchester to Westminster,
but Winchester retained
importance as a bishopric: the new cathedral, the longest in Europe, was begun in 1079.
The connection with Normandy and the continent enhanced Southampton's trade. In the west
of the county, the New Forest
was appropriated by William I as a game reserve.
In the Domesday survey of 1086, Winchester and
Southampton were clearly important towns, and
Basingstoke, Christchurch,
and Stockbridge were of local significance. Portsmouth is not mentioned
by Domesday but was granted a charter in 1194. Its prosperity rose with the establishment of the
Royal Navy. By 1801 it was the ninth largest town in England with more than four times the
population
of Winchester. Andover developed
as a centre for the north-west of the shire and Basingstoke
for the north-east: each was far enough
from Southampton and
Portsmouth
to have its own sphere of
influence.
Later On
Though relatively little touched by the industrial revolution, Hampshire changed considerably
in the
19th and 20th centuries. Bournemouth because of the popularity of seaside holidays and
the Isle of Wight
also profited, partly no doubt because of the publicity given to
Osborne House. An equally spectacular growth was in the north-east of the county.
The army began
building barracks at Aldershot in 1854, transforming a hamlet into a sizeable town,
and Basingstoke's
population grew rapidly having been chosen for urban development in 1963.
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