Invasions of the British Isles

The British Isles have been subject to several waves of invasion and settlement since humans began inhabiting the region approximately 900,000 years ago during the Paleolithic.

"[1] This scenario has been questioned by British archaeologist Julian Thomas, who proposes a two-stage model of Neolithization, with the later second stage resulting in a more significant population transfer than the first.

[2] Starting around 2400 BC, the Bell Beaker complex arrived in Britain, probably from the lower Rhine, an archaeological culture characterised by a new bell-shaped pottery style, and grave goods that included copper daggers and items associated with metallurgy and archery.

[3][4] An earlier study by Cassidy et al. (2015) notes a "great wave of change" at the end of the Neolithic in Ireland, including the introduction of copper mines, metallurgy, tool and weapon production, and distinctive Food Vessel pottery.

The 11th-century Lebor Gabála Érenn describes successive invasions and settlements of Ireland by a variety of Celtic and pre-Celtic peoples; how much of it is based on historical fact is debated.

While the governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus was pursuing a campaign on the isle of Anglesey, Boudicca, angered by maltreatment at the hands of the Romans, urged her people to rise up.

Welsh legend holds that Gwynedd was established by Cunedda Wledig and his family, who invaded from the Old North, variously understood as Pictland or the Romanized tribes around York or Hadrian's Wall.

The majority of these served in the army and helped the Romans fight Saxon pirates who raided the southern and eastern coasts of Britain from the 3rd century onwards.

Following the collapse of Roman rule, the British rulers seemed to have hired the Saxons as mercenaries to counter the threat of invasions from the Picts in the first half of the fifth century.

It is said that Ragnar's enraged sons, taking advantage of political instability in England, recruited the Great Heathen Army, which landed in the Kingdom of East Anglia that year.

There is no proof that this legend has any basis in history; however, it is known that several of the Viking leaders grouped their bands together to form one great army that landed in the kingdom of East Anglia to start their attempted conquest of England in 866.

He was unsuccessful; the annals for the year says that Ælla was killed during the battle, but according to legend he was captured by the Vikings, who executed or 'blood eagled' him as punishment for Ragnar's murder.

[29] Edgar Ætheling, the last remaining male member of the House of Wessex, fled to Scotland, in 1068, seeking protection from their king, Malcolm III.

The influence of Margaret and her sons brought about the anglicization of the Lowlands and also provided the Scottish king with an excuse for forays into England which he could claim were to redress the wrongs against his brother-in-law.

The two kings negotiated the Treaty of Abernethy (1072), where Malcolm became William's vassal, and one of the conditions of the agreement was the expulsion of Edgar Ætheling from the Scottish court.

Later however, a succession of disputes, including the imprisonment of Llywelyn's wife Eleanor, daughter of Simon de Montfort, culminated in the first invasion by Edward I.

With Llywelyn's death and his brother prince Dafydd's execution, the few remaining Welsh lords did homage for their lands to Edward I. Anglo-Scottish relations were generally poor throughout the Late Middle Ages.

Since King Henry was in France campaigning, Queen Catherine of Aragon organized an English army and placed it under the command of the elderly Earl of Surrey.

The garrison came to an agreement that they would surrender if not relieved by Michaelmas and du Guesclin sailed back to Brittany, leaving a small force to carry on the siege.

[52] From December 1385, Charles VI of France began to prepare for an invasion of England, assembling ships in the Low Countries and Brittany.

Originally intending to attack in August, Charles put back the date to October, and early in the month joined his fleet in Flanders.

[64] In exile in Brittany, Henry Tudor, a distant relation of the Lancastrians, gathered a small, mainly mercenary army and mounted an invasion of Wales in 1485.

Welshmen, Lancastrians, and disaffected Yorkists rallied behind Tudor, whose forces encountered Richard and the royal army at Bosworth Field on 22 August.

[68] The Raid on the Medway, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War in June 1667, was a successful attack conducted by the Dutch navy on English battleships at a time when most were virtually unmanned and unarmed, laid up in the fleet anchorages off Chatham Dockyard and Gillingham in the county of Kent.

At the time, the fortress of Upnor Castle and a barrier chain called the "Gillingham Line" were supposed to protect the English ships.

In 1688 the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau landed an army in Devon at the invitation of a group of Protestant nobles who were dissatisfied with what they perceived as the absolutist tendencies of the reigning Catholic King James II.

After securing French military backing, James attempted to re-invade by mustering troops in Ireland, but was defeated decisively at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

Following the disputed succession of the Scottish crown on the death of Alexander III, Edward I led an English invasion in 1296, sacking Berwick upon Tweed and subjugating Scotland.

After another campaign in 1303/1304, Stirling Castle, the last major Scottish held stronghold, fell to the English, and in February 1304, negotiations led to most of the remaining nobles paying homage to Edward and to the Scots all but surrendering.

The Treaty of Norham ended hostilities in 1551, although the French remained until the Siege of Leith in 1560, when they were ejected by combined Protestant Scottish and English forces.