American Reacts HOW WAS ENGLAND FORMED? Reaction 

Fun fact: In Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves Kevin Costner and his pal walked from Dover (on the South Coast) to Loxley (in Yorkshire) and somehow managed to pass Hadrian's Wall along the way. This means they walked about 300 miles further north than they needed to, and somehow managed it in one afternoon.

Its not that Wales were like "nobody is messing with us" but that Wales consisted of several Kingdoms and rulers at the time, the most powerful being Hywel Dda ("Howell the Good" in English). Hywel was actually a strong ally of Aethelstan and marched and fought alongside the English King in the campaign against Constantine II of Alba

Carry on doing these types of videos. It’s interesting to hear your reactions on British history.

Still reckon you should take a look at more Jay Foreman, esecially "Map Men". Informative and amusing!

Fun Fact: Sweyn Forkbeard was King of Denmark from 986 to 1014, also at times King of the English and King of Norway. But his father, Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson was a king of Denmark and Norway; the 'Bluetooth' technology is named after him and the 'Bluetooth' symbol/logo is made up of his initials (H&B) in a Scandinavian “bind-rune” - this simply means that it's an image made up of two runes (ancient letters of the alphabet) merged together.

This is a good introductory video, but skips over several important things. In particular: 1) King Alfred the Great without whom England would never have been created. Alfred was the 5th son, so was never expected to rule, however his older brothers all died leaving him as the unexpected king of Wessex. Shortly after he came to power the Danes invaded Winchester, the capital of Wessex. Alfred was forced to flee and hid in the marshes of the Somerset Levels around Glastonbury. At this time the Danes controlled all four Saxon kingdoms (Northumbria, East Anglia, Mercia and Wessex). From being a fugitive in the marshes Alfred united the Saxons and pushed the Danes out of Wessex and parts of Mercia after the battle of Edington in 878, mentioned in the video, amongst others. He was the person who came up with the concept of England, a kingdom incorporating all four Saxon realms which his son Edward, daughter Aethelflaed and grandson Athelstan continued. Alfred was highly intelligent and very pious. he visited Rome and the court of Charles the bald (King of the Franks). He changed military tactics, made many legal reforms, introduced schools and encouraged the conversion of the pagan sections of the population to Christianity, including Danish rulers he defeated. One tactic he used was the creation of 'Burhs', fortified towns that the local population could retreat to during viking raids and a muster point for the 'Fyrd' (militia) and a beacon system to warn the population when the ships of viking raiders were spotted. The vikings main tactic was hit and run raids against rich poorly protected targets and they had no siege equipment, so this was a very effective strategy against them and they started to avoid Wessex and go for easier targets elsewhere. He also created a navy to help guard against the raiders. Before that there were few British ships apart from poorly armed coastal traders. 2) The Vikings (Danes and Norse): Danes are from what's now Denmark. Genetically they were the same as the Saxons, but culturally they were more akin to the Norse of what's now Norway and Sweden (who are genetically different). The Danes comprised the bulk of the viking raiders of what's now England, though Norse vikings also joined in. The Norse mainly raided the islands and coast of Scotland and Ireland. They established settlements in the Scottish islands, especially Orkney, the Isle of Mann and the coast of Ireland including Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Wexford and Waterford. It's worth noting the vikings weren't a national army. Instead they were boatloads of opportunistic hit and run raiders each led by a Jarl after loot, including slaves and they looked for easy targets with rich pickings such as monastaries. Some Jarls might lead a single small ship of 30-40 men. Powerful ones might have half a dozen ships which might carry up to 60-80 men each. Jarls sometimes banded together or lesser ones were recruited by the most powerful with promises of loot to form an army under his loose control. The Danes and Norse tended to be well equipped, trained warriors whereas as the bulk of the Saxon army was the Fyrd, basically poorly trained and equipped militia, bolstered by the housecarls (trained warriors) of individual lords. Whilst the South of England quickly kicked out the Danes the North remained under Danish rule for several generations with the Saxon population becoming integrated and adopting a lot of Danish culture, including elements of language. Even after the area came back under Saxon rule it had become culturally different to the South. It was the start of the North/South divide which remains to this day. 3) Scotland. This was a video about England, but a bit of information about the formation of Scotland is worth knowing. The original occupants were the britonic/pictish tribes. After the Romans left England/Wales in the 4th century they left a power vacuum. The subdued British tribes (celts) had been largely passified and were relatively easy pickings for Pictish raiders, Irish tribes and the Saxons, Jutes and Angles. Around this time The Scotti tribe located in the north of Ireland were under pressure from the southern Irish tribes. They emigrated en masse to the Hebrides (islands of western Scotland) in the 5th/6th centuries. Over time they pushed Eastwards into mainland Scotland and integrated with the Picts with Scotti culture becoming pre-eminent. In the 8th/9th centuries Norse raiders raided the Scottish coast and islands establishing settlements as mentioned above bringing their own cultural influences. N.B. Modern British people are genetic and cultural mongrels with DNA and culture from the ancient Britons (celts/picts), Romans, Saxons/Jutes/Angles, Danes, Norse, Normans (french based Norse) and numerous others over the centuries including many fleeing religious persecution such as Jews from Spanish Granada, French Hugeonots (ironically Nigel Farrage's ancestors), Dutch protestants, West Indians, Asians, Africans, etc, etc. Again all the above is an oversimplification, but should provide a bit more background.

I’m English and I love history but to be honest I can’t name the kings before Alfred the great, there are too many Ethel’s and wulfs and even ethelwulf!

History reactions are awesome. I hope you do more.

15:00 that top left part is Cumbria aka the lake district which is one of the most beautiful part of England

Mercia is now known as Midlands and East Midlands. Mercia got dissolved roughly around 918 AD. Great reaction 👑

East Anglia is Norfolk and Suffolk, meaning the North folk and the South folk. It is still called East Anglia today. I lived in Norfolk for a lot of years. I am from Yorkshire and now live in Derbyshire in the peak district which means hills its very beautiful and many films are made here especially at chatsworth house and Haddon Hall, Derbyshire is in the Midlands next to Yorkshire.

That was a good video and told the tale really well. It was hard to get into Wales back then as there were only two entrances along the border, at North and South, with mountainous - or at least very hilly - countryside in between. I'm sure there were lots of conversations amongst my ancestors over those few hundred years about our Saxon/Viking/English neighbours, like "The neighbours are being noisy again" and "That's the third different king they've had this month over there". Of course, then the bloody Normans turned up and...well, the rest is history.

The place names in the North of England often reflect their Viking roots. For example place names ending in -by or -thorpe are unheard of in the South. York itself is from the Viking settlement of Jorvik. The North still uses dialect words that can be traced back to Scandinavian roots. For example the word bairn to describe a child. The Scandinavians use the word barn for a child. There's loads of examples in Yorkshire and Northumbria.

11:14 all of the red is modern day England & half of the yellow area (now Cumbria, formally Westmorland) is also in England. England generally ends at Carlisle in the west & Berwick upon tweed in the east. Everything north of that is Scotland. Hadrians wall is generally the marker but the wall isn’t close to being straight across the country, it ascends diagonally from south west to north east.

If you want to learn more about this period you could do worse than check out The Last Kingdom, a series of books and TV series by Bernard Cornwell. It is a fictional but very well researched account of the period of Alfred and the Vikings. Definitely worth a binge watch sometime. By the way, the Vikings were called "disrespectful" because they would attack easy targets like churches and monasteries that were full of gold. They were heathens after all. Mostly, the Vikings were colonists. They bought their wives and families over to farm this new land they discovered but the locals weren't very impressed.

If you like historical stories try the life story of Christopher Lee. The actor its absolutely unbelievable what that man achieved

I also love these kind of history videos, the visuals make it lot easier to follow and understand

The school i went to is literally called "The Kings Of Wessex" as its built by an old anglo saxon ruin, a massive treaty with the vikings was "The treaty of Wedmore" which was about 4 miles from where I grew up 😂 our history is insane, sometimes I forget how lucky we are to have a history so rich with different things

you should watch "The Last Kingdom" it's set in this period of history and although it's not completely historically accurate it's still good. And many of the names in this video are characters in the show

Nice you are keeping up with your history. you should check out the netflix series Last Kingdom, which loosely references alot of the events from pre King Alfred and onwards too . also - ref hadrian's wall, although vast and amzing, many belive it have been more of a trade/tax controlling and prestige 'line' rather than a real defensive line (although still useful in that)

Fun fact. Whenever you see England play cricket, it's actually the England and Wales cricket team. Scotland and Ireland have their own teams, but England is actually England and Wales combined.

It’s Alba - the BBC have BBC Alba which is just a Scottish BBC channel

It's pronounced 'Alba' as it's spelled, I'm not sure why he put an additional 'a' in the middle. He also says Æthelstan incorrectly, the Æ is pronounced as an 'a' sound, not an 'e' sound.

Hey King boomer! I come from East Anglia, it is still a place today. Even though im not in England right now im very proud of the area i come from, would highly recommend a visit to that quiet part of the UK when you visit.

As an aside KB, if/when you head over there you MUST put York in your list seeing as you like the Viking stuff, visit the Jorvik Viking Centre.

As a Northumbrian Hadrian's wall wasn't built to keep anyone out it was built as the edge of the Roman empire there was nothing to gain venturing into Scotland at that time the wall was used to keep the troops busy and to make money from trade passing through there would have been a need to keep order and attacks but it wasn't there to keep anyone out

I for one enjoyed the video and I’m from Northumbria , England . I love history and think these videos are informative . I think the fact you show a variety of things is great . Keep em coming , all stuff you do is good , comedy or not .

The history reacts looks great, you seem to have great pasion for it

I really enjoyed the video, would like to see more history based ones in the future. Perhaps one about the crusades or the Knights Templar/Hospitallers? Anyway keep up the good work

Yes more history content would be great, really enjoyed this one and learned something new

Brunanburgh battle is supposed to be lower than the X on the map outside of the Chester area and Helsby river Dee there's archaeological digs in the area looking for the exact place of battle. I went to a dig at Heronbridge where 300 bodies were buried, all killed by bladed weapons (violent deaths & not the flu) a few years ago and it's still ongoing.

Talking about Vikings, most people are not aware that Bluetooth gets it's name from the Norse king Harold Bluetooth. He was one of the first Norse kings to unite the clans of Denmark and Norway. Hence the word Bluetooth was used for the ability to link gadgets together wirelessly. Bit of random info for you.

I live in Mercia and am a member of the Mercia Liberation Front

It's funny. I live right on the border of the old kingdoms or Mercia and the Danelaw, and the old roman road (Watling Street) separates my hometown in Warwickshire (Mercia) from Hinckley in Leicestershire (Danelaw) and to this day there is a rivalry and big differences between the two towns, which are only around 4 miles apart. Firstly, the place names change from old Anglo-Saxon names on my side like, Fillongley, Astley , Arbury, Anstey, Ansley etc, all Anglo-Saxon names, yet across the road they have old place names of the Vikings like Kirkby Mallory , Ashby Parva, Odstone, Littlethorpe etc..all Danish names. Secondly the accent changes in the 4 miles between the two towns, not much, but just enough to remind us of our origins. In Nuneaton we say things like "lovely" pronounced as "love-lee" , but in Hinckley they say "love-leh".

Fun Facts: Queen Elizabeth II was the 32nd Great Grandaughter of Alfred The Great. England is from Engle land, Angle Kand, Land of the Angles. Harold Godwinson was the last King of the English. All monarchs after the Norman invasion were titled King/Queen of England.

Yes mate thats pretty much the modern english scottish border as for the welsh they were and are amongst the last remnants of the ancient britons which werent covered in this video.

The Anglo in Anglo Saxons were the Angles who primarily settled in what is now known as East Anglia,mainly comprising the present day counties of Norfolk & Suffolk. Norfolk - North folk & Suffolk -the South folk ! . There were also the Jutes who settled in what is now Kent. . Wessex, Essex & Sussex were where the West , East ,& South Saxons settled.

If you draw a line from the river mersey to london you can see the extent of the viking settlements by the town/ village names. A example being places ending in 'by' selby,kirkby,whitby'

The last Saxon King is buried in Waltham Abbey

I believe that Hadrian's Wall was built as a solid border of the land controlled by the Romans. It wasn't only a physical border to halt any attacks from the Scots because there were many entrances on the wall. Which was a way of herding people through the gates, controlling and 'taxing' them at the same time. Twenty years later, the Romans did build a wall further north, the Antonine Wall. Which was to be their later boundary, but they realised that this conquered land wasn't fiscally worth defending.

The Kingdom of Northumbria went well into what is now Scotland, Edinburgh was in Northumbria for instance and it also extended to the River Humber so also included York. There is a theory that Hadrian's wall was not just about keeping Scots out but to control who DID get through for trading purposes.

Hadrian's Wall is a famous landmark... but there was another Roman Emperor after who actually tried to build a wall further north. The Antonine wall was built about 20 years after Hadrian's wall.. and tried to cut off a narrow part of Scotland. The difference between the two is Antonine's wall was built using turf, with a stone base, so it is largely eroded... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonine_Wall

You never heard of "Alfred the Great," as well as fighting the Danes (Vikings) he was the one infamous who let the cakes burn. Around 1,000 A.D. the English built castles to stop the Vikings. I live five miles in between Warwick castle (1068) and Kenilworth castle (the 1120s). It wasn`t called wales until 1536, around this time it would have been called Cymru.

Towards the start you asked if that is the modern day border between England and Scotland and it is except for the town of Berwick-Upon-Tweed in the North East part which flipped / flopped between England and Scotland for centuries and is currently in England but their football team plays in the Scottish League.

Its Alba and literally means Scotland in Scottish Gaelic (pronounced Gallick), its our native language after the time of the Britons whose influence was mostly in Cornwall, Wales, the yellow part on the map (modern day Cumbria and southern Scotland, mostly Dumfrieshire) and a lot of the islands off the west coast of Scotland who had their own language, Bretonic

Angleterre is French for "England" The Angles, East Anglia etc

Yes that is pretty much the border as we know it today, i come from Newcastle in northern England and right at the top of that map of England is Berwick the most northern English town .

Have you watched the TV series - The last kingdom? Although the lead character isn't real, alot of the story and plot is based on real events and teaches you a fair bit about how England was formed and about king Alfred.

Bede's History of the English Church and People is the classic, basic, book you need.

You need to watch Vikings , both series. Until I saw your reaction I didn't realise how accurate the series are. The Welsh built a dike the lengh of their border to keep the English out it was called Ofers Dyke , I don't know all the facts about this but might be interesting to find out. It was sometime around the 700s AD

Being from Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 I really would like you to do the history of Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 . You'll be blown away. Please grovel grovel. Stay safe and sane from Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 x

Loved the video and reaction. Next the video featuring the events of 1066,,

The pronunciation of Alba in the commentary is the Gaelic pronunciation… sounds like Alaba

Series 1 & 2 of the show Vikings on Netflix covers this era, it's really quite good.

His pronunciation of Alba (Al-uh-buh) was correct - it's the Gaelic (Gah-lick) name for Scotland

There are lots of videos on here about the Plantagenets. My favourite period of English history. Utterly insane

The old name for England is Albion , which is still used in poems and songs etc From Europe they can see the white cliffs of Dover , so Albion ment white land , The Irish also knew the land to the East as Alba ..... The latern for white is Album .... Words like Albino , Alps , and Albania derive from Album ....

I think you should check out a DVD series by a chap called Simon Schama entitled a History of Britain

Yeah, it's Alba. Pronounced just like it's spelt. Æthelflæd was Alfred's daughter (Stephen's sister); Alfred married her off to the ælderman of Mercia, which is how you form alliances between kingdoms. When the ælderman died (I forget his name without looking it up), the Mercians loved her so much they made her Queen (though the Saxons didn't do Queens, only Kings) and were prepared to fight for her. This is why she was so successful.

They forgot the danish king Knut the great

East Anglia is still in place and a bit bigger, it's where i live lol

Yes, Wales are the Britons, pushed west by the English. It remained an independent principality until the late Middle Ages.

Did Ludlow, Shropshire, England, also called Salop used to be in Wales? Ludlow remained in royal ownership for more than 350 years. During the early 16th century it effectively became the administrative capital of Wales. There is now a visitor centre in the converted Elizabethan Porter's Lodge, within the outer bailey castle walls. Salop is an old name for Shropshire, historically used as an abbreviated form for post or telegrams, it is thought to derive from the Anglo-French "Salopesberia". It is normally replaced by the more contemporary "Shrops" although Shropshire residents are still referred to as "Salopians". Wikipedia. Wales is mountainous as can be seen in the video, so that helps to keep invaders on their toes.

I'm from an area in England called the Black Country, it has the most Germanic , Anglo Saxon dialect in all the Country, its the area known as mercia

Nice change of pace, KB, and very interesting to watch.

King Alfred (Alfred the Great) was born in the town where I live in Wantage. which is in the county of Oxfordshire. There’s a statue in the town centre and a secondary school named after him.

The top is now Northumbria.

The Gaelic name for what he call, in English, Scotland was and is, Alba.

I'm from Sheffield, which was in the centre of the Danelaw, I recently paid for a DNA analysis. I'm about 30% Scandinavian, 30% Germanic, 15% Celt... and then it gets weird with 3% East African etc. Anyway.. The language and dialects in UK reflect all of this perfectly, for example: The English language has about 600 old Danish/Norse words, the South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire (middle of the old Danelaw) dialects have roundabout 2500 Danish/Norse words. The point is... I don't really know *lol*.. Maybe it's proof that racism is pointless, we're all the same race.

Yeah definitely do more of these. I enjoyed it

I highly recommend The Last Kingdom. It’s not totally accurate. It’s on Netflix and there’s 5 seasons of 10 episodes each so far.

If you've see Montry Python and The Holy Grail, you've heard of Mercia. It's where King Arthur found the coconuts.

There's another idea, comedy and history at the same time. Drunk History narrated by Jimmy Carr, lol.

Yes you are right that the northern border does not match the modern-day border. This video explains the formation of the first iterations of England but not the development of its borders to the modern day, which especially on the Scottish frontier, have changed many many times throughout history. Berwick-Upon-Tweed is now the most northerly town in England, establishing the land to the north of the town as the most northern extent of England in 1482.

You should check out Epic History especially the episodes about the Napoleonic Wars. They are excellent and the narration superb.

Hadrian's wall wasn't a defensive structure & there is no archeological evidence of any battles around it. It's thought that the wall was built as a guide to the markets at Carlisle... the Scots would head south until they reached the wall & then follow it to the town

By the way, the name Northumbria comes quite simply from the land that lay North of the River Humber .

"It wouldn't be long before the Anglo-Saxons faced an invasion of their own from the vikings." Sure, if by "not long" we appreciate we're talking about nearly 400 years! For context, if we go back the same "short period" of time from the present day, European settlement in what would become the present day USA consisted of: * a Spanish mission at Santa Fe and the long-established fort at Saint Augustine, a precarious English settlement at Jamestown fighting with the locals, a couple of Dutch forts at Albany and New York (New Amsterdam), the final coat of paint just about drying on Fort Christina in New Sweden, the tiny brand new settlements at Boston, Providence, New Haven and St Mary's, and a massive thousand people at the expanding Plymouth colony. And... that's pretty much it! That's how long it was between the retreat of the Roman Empire and the appearance of the longships at Lindisfarne. The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms formed a pretty stable and well-established political environment, integrated within the wider European political landscape, when the Norse newcomers encountered them. You shouldn't be imagining some roving warbands who had only just unpacked their backpacks before the vikings came and took over. Northumbria, for example, had long been famous not just within "England" but the whole of Europe as a centre of learning and Christianity, the Anglo-Saxons kingdoms had strong links with Rome (including a well-respected 'English quarter' within the city) and many of the missionaries engaged in converting the low countries and Germany were Northumbrians.

The Welsh for modern day Scotland is Yr Alban.

Something that wasn't mentioned in this video; the primary reason the Vikings attacked was because Catholic priests (etc) were trying to get the Vikings to turn to Christianity and they didn't want to do that. They were quite happy as they were and rejected it (or tried to).

You noticed that Wales didn't get a mention, they were busy tending their sheep no doubt 😉

I think Alba is Albion later. Very interesting video

For your own interest check the series called BBC COAST, particularly the 1st season. A really interesting history of Britain.

Does it blow your mind that there are pubs over there that have been pouring ale and serving food the same time the American continent was only discovered by Columbus?

At 14.56, that's close to the modern border, the modern line curves a tiny bit lower though, it's just quickly drawn for this video I think. At about 11.00, when you asked about the border looking like it was too far into modern Scotland, it was mostly because it looked too lopsided cos the last part of modern England on the left was still part of Strathclaid (in yellow). You might also be getting confused by the location of Hadrians Wall, from the Solway Firth in the west (that bit where the water goes a way into the England-Scotland border on the left) straight across to Wallsend (near Newcastle) in the east. Unlike a lot of people believe, the Wall is only on the border at the west edge (left on the map), the border slants upwards and gets further north of the Wall the further east you go. Many people (some even in this country) seem surprised to learn that. 😀 As for 'Alba', it's Al-ba' like in the subtitles, but regional accents can make it sound like 'al-buh' or 'al-a-ba'.

Its Alba, he's pronouncing it wrong. Alba - Scotland Albion - England This is how wiki has it... Albion (Alouion in Ptolemy) is the most ancient name of Great Britain. It sometimes is used to refer to England specifically. Occasionally, it refers to Scotland, or Alba in Gaelic, Albain in Irish, and Yr Alban in Welsh[1]. Pliny the Elder in his Natural History (iv.

England is basically a mix of ancient Celtic, Saxons, frisians, Norse - vikings, all thrown into one

Hi King Boomer! I worked as a Flash developer for several years. Adobe Flash is really good for beginners to throw stuff together quickly and easily. Don't get into the programming (unless you want to) as that is more complicated. Animations over time (with graphics, text etc.) are pretty easy to do and you might enjoy it!

The yellow bits on the map are the english lake district and southern scotland.The presenter mispronounces alba.

I think Alba used to make Hi-fi systems xD

The Picts were not much of a problem to the Romans. Hadrians Wall was more of the control or choke point, and was built to be defended from both sides. Scotland is a creation of the Northumbrian English and the Irish Scoti tribes. The reason they speak English is that Northumbria, at its inception, stretched right up to central Scotland.

I would like to see more like this

Alba is pronounced ‘Alaba’ in Scotland and is still used today.

Yea the border is near enough as it shows in the video, throughout the wars between england and scotland different parts were conquered and lost on both sides but the final split is near enough the same as it is shown here

Ah yes the real game of thrones . Bloody love this stuff .

I live in the town that was the ancient capital of Mercia.. We have a castle, it's small but rather lovely. There are the occasional things that are reminders of that time, road names and statues of The Lady of Mercia, Ethelfleda, the daughter of Alfred the Great.

King Boomer. Well spotted on the border! It’s close to the modern border but looks like Berwick, Hawick, Kelso and Galashiels were all part of England then. It’s flip flopped around many times over the centuries. Berwick switched sides 14 times!

Need to watch the last kingdom episodes it's basically the story of how the Britain's won

Yeah you wouldn’t mess with Elizabeth 1st she had her fathers temper lmao 🤣

there's a set of videos I've been watching they are pretty long and each one goes through each Stange of Britain worth a watch time from the beginning of man so there's a few of them but they are long worth a watch on your own maybe too long to react to though