History of London
Where To See Historic London
I. Romans &Vikings
London has been inhabited in one form or another
for over two thousand years. When Julius Caesar's
Roman army invaded England in 55 BC, a small settlement
of Celtic tribesmen lived on the north bank of the
River Thames. Less than a century later - following
the conquests of the Emperor Claudius' armies - the
Romans had established the garrison port of Londinium
nearby. The port was soon to become a bustling city
of merchants, soldiers, and citizens.
This early London got off to an inauspicious start,
being razed to the ground by Queen Boadicea of the
local Iceni tribe less than 20 years after it's foundation.
The town soon recovered from this setback however,
as the Romans consolidated their hold on England
and established an infrastructure to administer this
new province of the Empire.
The riverside port of Londinium soon gained in
prominence as Roman galleys sailed up the Thames
with goods from the outer reaches of the empire and
left on the return voyage laden with the produce of
the British Isles. Baths, temples, and a spacious
forum (market place) were constructed to service the
growing population- which by 200 AD had reached 50,000.
The next two centuries in the story of Londinium
were largely uneventful, although occasional civil
strife and increasing incursions by 'barbarian' tribes
were placing some pressure on the Roman garrisons
in Britain. By the early years of the fifth century
the Roman Empire was under threat from all sides,
eventually disintegrating and being divided up by
various tribal groupings. London was deserted to
the invading Saxon tribe of central Europe.
London became a backwater town over the succeeding
centuries, as tribalism replaced the civilizing influence
of the Romans, and trade diminished. The 'Dark Ages'
had descended on Europe.
In the ninth century the Viking invaders emerged
from the cold lands of Scandinavia and grabbed large
chunks of the British Isles from the Anglo-Saxon inhabitants.
The Vikings established their own towns in the north
(Jorvik - modern day York being most notable), but
London too was conquered by this new wave of occupiers.
Norman Conquest & The Growth of a Capital
City
London's long period of stagnation came to an end
in the eleventh century, when the last successful
invasion of Britain took place at the hands of William
of Normandy. Crowning himself King of England,
William set about consolidating his kingdom with a
series of initiatives designed to establish a lasting
dynasty.
As the seat of a new kingdom, London again flourished.
The merchant classes became more influential as trade
again became the lifeblood of the city, setting up
their own guilds and institutes to regulate and oversee
commercial activity. By this time, London was appointing
its own mayor, and the first national parliament sat
in Westminster in 1240.
Life in medieval London was not easy - disease and
poverty were common, and the Plague of 1348 decimated
half of the population in one awful summer. However,
even this setback could not halt the growth of the
city for long, nor its influence spreading.
By the sixteenth century London had become the heart
of a budding world power, being a key player in
the areas of trade and commerce, leader of expeditions
to the New World, and host to a flourishing cultural
and scientific community. The careers of explorers
Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh, and playwrights
William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe blossomed
at this time, while England's position on the world
stage was skilfully manipulated during the long reign
of Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen.
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