h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Ginger, wonderfully elaborate history of this ancient city! I gonna be putting a link to this Entry in the History of England Wing of the h2g2 Historical Society, which has links to lots of other historical English Entries on the Guide.

http://www.h2g2.com/A261631

See ya,

Mustapha

Before linking it to a history site you might wish to double-check one or two points.

1) The Romans supposedly held the city until 577 AD. This seems odd as I thought the Roman Empire withdrew from Britain in the early 400's. I would imagine that the British controlled it from that time until 577 AD.

2) You say that the Saxons 'regained' the city. This again seems odd as the Saxons only turned up in large numbers in Britain at the time the Romans left. They were not indigenous peoples and would not have held it in the first place. I would imagine that the Saxons took control of the city from the local British.



The site was indeed strategically very important throughout history as it linked the western uplands of Wales to the SouthWestern uplands. If you control this area then you can split the people in both areas to the West and limit their interaction, making them easier to control and conquer.
The Normans understood this strategic importance. To this day the titles relating to Gloucester and also to the equally strategically important Chester are held by people close to the English monarch (e.g. Prince Charles is the Earl of Chester).

Should get on to the sub about those ones, Huw.

But just thinking about your first point, while it's true the Roman armies withdrew from Britain, it's entirely possible that some settled Romans as well as Romano-Britons stayed on. A well-to-do Roman family with good local alliances could hang on to power for quite some time.

Yes. In practice it was Roman control that was withdrawn from Britain, not the Romans per se. I would imagine that many Romans would have stayed behind. Indeed I would imagine that there would be few 'pure' Romans in Britain at that point; most would have been integrated into British life and the population. The British may have been Roman more in the sense that the population of India was British under the Roman Empire.

Similarly, it is false to see the Anglo-Saxon population of England as going from 0% in 400 AD to 'pure' 100% in 850 AD. You just can't stop those damn humans from breeding with each other!

Not often enough in my case.