The Celtic Kingdoms WALES By the eighth century the Celts have been driven into the Welsh

peninsula. They lived in the crowded valleys. Society was based on family groups. In each group a strong men made himself king. He must have been a tribal chief to begin with, who later managed to become an overlord. Every king tried to conquer the others. The early kings travelled with their army around the kingdoms to control the people. In 1039 Gruffydd was the first king strong enough to rule over all Wales. He was killed in a battle against the Saxons. After his death, the Welsh kings were able to rule, only after they promised loyalty to Edward, the Confessor. IRELAND Ireland was never invaded by either the Romans or the Anglo-Saxons. Ireland was a land of monasteries with a good developed Celtic culture. As in Wales, the society was based on the family groups. The kings were chosen by election. Just the strongest men could lead. There were five kingdoms in Ireland: Ulster, Munster, Leinster, Connaught and Tara. Christianity was brought to Ireland around AD 430. The message of Christianity was spread by Patrick, a British slave, who became the patron saint of Ireland. This period in the history of Ireland was called the golden age, there were no invasions and culture flourished. This period ended when the Vikings came and took over the monasteries. Viking raids forced the Irish to unite. In 859 Ireland chose its first high king. From 1002 to 1014 the king, Brian Boruy, tried to create a united Ireland. He died in battle against the Vikings. SCOTLAND Scotland had two different societies: the one in the north of the Highland Line, and the one in the south and the east of the Line. Scotland was populated by four separate groups of people. The Picts were the earliest inhabitants of the land. They lived in the north and northeast, they spoke Celtic and another language, completely unconnected. They inherited their rights, names and propriety from their mother, not from their fathers like the Celts. The Non Pictish were mainly Scots, Celtic settlers for the fourth century. In 843 a Scotish King united the Pictish and Scotish kingdoms. The Britons inhabited the Lowlands and had been part of Romano-British world. Unity of these three groups was achieved for several reasons, among which, the most important, were that they had in common the Celtic culture and their economy depended on growing animals. The spread of Celtic Christianity helped unite the people. In 563, Columba, known as the Dove of the Chuch, came to Scotland and brought Christianity to the Scots and Picts. In 663 Britons had been brought to Christianity, too.

The Angles were different from the Celts. They lived in family groups, but they began to accept authority from people outside their own family. They kept animals and grew crops, each man working his own field. Also, in Scotland, foreign invaders increased the political change. Vikings attacked the country, but when the people could not push them out, they had to deal with them politically. In time the Vikings accepted the king of Scot as their overlord. As the Welsh had discovered, the English were a greater danger than Vikings. In 934 the Scots were defeated by a Wessex army, so they decided to seek the friendship of the English. They hoped that if they were reasonably peaceful, the Saxons would leave them alone. Scotland remained a difficult country to rule, the control of the Highlands and of the islands were a great problem.