Celtic Britons

The Britons , also known as Celtic Britons or Ancient Britons, were the <a href="/facts/Celts/eMCVYAFz">Celtic people</a> who inhabited <a href="/facts/Great_Britain/TNgGQRPj">Great Britain</a> from at least the <a href="/facts/British_Iron_Age/pp33u4nv">British Iron Age</a> until the <a href="/facts/High_Middle_Ages/uPRGYdE6">High Middle Ages</a>, at which point they diverged into the <a href="/facts/Welsh_people/gWY430zy">Welsh</a>, <a href="/facts/Cornish_people/zxGlI9jK">Cornish</a>, and <a href="/facts/Bretons/0yN9dlNg">Bretons</a> (among others). They spoke <a href="/facts/Common_Brittonic/YnFau4up">Common Brittonic</a>, the ancestor of the modern <a href="/facts/Brittonic_languages/9MPYrKUG">Brittonic languages</a>.
The earliest written evidence for the Britons is from <a href="/facts/Greco-Roman_world/17Wzn8n0">Greco-Roman</a> writers and dates to the Iron Age. Ancient Britain was made up of many tribes and kingdoms, associated with various <a href="/facts/Hillforts_in_Britain/4xdQahR5">hillforts</a>. The Britons followed an <a href="/facts/Ancient_Celtic_religion/FKgV8XEV">ancient Celtic religion</a> overseen by <a href="/facts/Druid/BVkmDmtJ">druids</a>. Some of the southern tribes had strong links with mainland Europe, especially <a href="/facts/Gaul/fSpNpRqy">Gaul</a> and <a href="/facts/Gallia_Belgica/5coB0w10">Belgica</a>, and <a href="/facts/Celtic_currency_of_Britain/8kKTggrq">minted their own coins</a>. The <a href="/facts/Roman_Empire/l4E1aUuV">Roman Empire</a> <a href="/facts/Roman_conquest_of_Britain/cs1bj1qo">conquered most of Britain</a> in the 1st century AD, creating the <a href="/facts/Roman_Britain/1Ez37u7L">province of Britannia</a>. The Romans <a href="/facts/Scotland_during_the_Roman_Empire/6RfKuCUR">invaded northern Britain</a>, but the Britons and <a href="/facts/Caledonians/je1osTms">Caledonians</a> in the north remained unconquered, and <a href="/facts/Hadrian%2527s_Wall/tsvxXKxH">Hadrian's Wall</a> became the edge of the empire. A <a href="/facts/Romano-British_culture/UaymRQWR">Romano-British culture</a> emerged, mainly in the southeast, and <a href="/facts/British_Latin/34RtYejG">British Latin</a> coexisted with Brittonic. It is unclear what relationship the Britons had with the <a href="/facts/Picts/Y2M50Ulj">Picts</a>, who lived outside of the empire in northern Britain; however, most scholars today accept the fact that the <a href="/facts/Pictish_language/PM5zpEkM">Pictish language</a> was closely related to Common Brittonic.
Following the <a href="/facts/End_of_Roman_rule_in_Britain/6Ek65dAR">end of Roman rule in Britain</a> during the 5th century, <a href="/facts/Anglo-Saxon_settlement_of_Britain/gCVMx2eP">Anglo-Saxon settlement</a> of eastern and southern Britain began. The culture and language of the Britons fragmented, and much of their territory gradually became <a href="/facts/Anglo-Saxons/qWLes0LP">Anglo-Saxon</a>, while the north became subject to a similar settlement by <a href="/facts/Gaels/Vm9XaXpL">Gaelic</a>-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 in <a href="/facts/Brittany/XvquwmIg">Brittany</a> (now part of France), the <a href="/facts/Channel_Islands/JWuJ3Ups">Channel Islands</a>, and <a href="/facts/Britonia/2Qj7bMsd">Britonia</a> (now part of <a href="/facts/Galicia_(Spain)/9gQqlueg">Galicia</a>, Spain). By the 11th century, Brittonic-speaking populations had split into distinct groups: the Welsh in Wales, the Cornish in Cornwall, the Bretons in Brittany, the Cumbrians of the <a href="/facts/Hen_Ogledd/mlYFsYxS">Hen Ogledd</a> ("Old North") in southern Scotland and northern England, and the remnants of the Pictish people in northern Scotland. Common Brittonic developed into the distinct Brittonic languages: <a href="/facts/Welsh_language/4Pz8r6yk">Welsh</a>, <a href="/facts/Cumbric/unDG8K3c">Cumbric</a>, <a href="/facts/Cornish_language/DtPyMKHv">Cornish</a> and <a href="/facts/Breton_language/e0Rpgyvf">Breton</a>.

Celtic Britons open-in-new

Celtic Britons