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Let's Go to York!
Clifford's Tower
The history of York is the history of England The city has passed through the hands of Romans, Saxons, Vikings, and Normans.
Read the following words. You will remember many of them. You can also use the dictionary (below)
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Work in groups of four.
Before
the Roman invasion of Britain in 43 AD, the area that is now northern
England was controlled by a confederation of tribes known as the
Brigantes. So important did York become in Roman Britain that a royal
palace was built in the city, and the emperor Septimus Severus stayed
here with his imperial court in the years 209-211. The Romans left York
some time around 410 AD, and the city, like much of Roman Britain, fell
into a period of decay and decline. A new invader fell upon the city;
the Anglo-Saxons.
The Saxons
originally came to Britain as mercenaries in the Roman army. Under the
Saxons the city was renamed Eoferwic. Little remains of Saxon York,
however, for their wooden buildings have not survived. York enjoyed
prosperity and a prominent place in the Anglo-Saxon world, but its
destiny changed again with the appearance in the 9th century of a fierce
new invader, the Danes.
The prosperity of the city made it an
obvious target for the Danish Vikings. The Vikings changed the name of
the city from the Saxon Eoforwic to the Danish "Jorvik". The Danes left
a legacy of street names. The Viking influence lasted less than a
century. Many local rebellions and invasions from Norway kept the north
of England in a state of confusion in the 11th century. An invasion in
1066 left England and York in the hands of the Normans.
