Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM

Offshore Islands

After the Arminius Revolt, Rome decided to not abandon Germany. Instead they drove the frontier eastwards; this gave both additional manpower and security headaches. Consequently, the British Isles were bypassed. Instead of occupying it, Augustus and his successors elected to

1. station a legion along with auxiliaries on the north Gaul coast

2. recruit clients amongst the tribes

3. make the occasional sortie across the English Channel and North Sea with marines

The Julian strategy (named after Julian Caesar who first “adopted” it) was highly successful. British allies were used to crack the heads of tribe likely to sally across the channel. Any Emperor who wanted a cheap victory for a triumph led a raid on some unsuspecting target on the English Channel coast, sacked their villages and came back with exotic prisoners to march through Rome. Furthermore, they got the benefits of trading the Celts without the costs of full occupation.

Their principal allies (at first the Iceni and the Atrebati but later also the Dobuni) became substantially richer than their enemies the Belgic Confederation in the south and those in the north. They also became highly Romanised. To quote Tacitus who visited Britain in AD44 “There is little difference between the Gallic nobles who have been under our dominion for a hundred years and the Iceni who live beyond our borders. They live in villas, drink fine wine and wear dyed linen. Nowhere is there any sign of the malignancy of Druidism.”

Eventually, goaded by the High Druid in Mona, the Confederation went to war with its neighbour in AD 68. In its favour were its large numbers and a centralised leadership. However, it has the disadvantage of fighting a better equipped enemy as well as some of its allies being geographically isolated from it. Even then it might have won except for the intervention by the Roman general in Germany who not only landed a large force on the south coast, but sent three legionary cohorts to reinforce the Iceni. Even then, the honours were even. Historians have since speculated that but for the Jewish Revolt and the Civil War, this could have the advance party of a full-scale invasion.

In any event, a peace treaty was negotiated and the Roman troops withdrawn. The fighting did not end there though. Over the next two hundred years, more wars were fought between the pro- and anti-Roman British in which neither gained a significant advantage. What the process did was consolidate the several factions into a number of multi-tribal confederacies. The Belgic Confederation held the south west spur of Britain plus a strip of former Dobunni land linking it to its western Silure and Demetae allies in what is now called Wales. Holding the south and east were the pro-Roman Four Nations of the Iceni, Dobunni, Atrebati and Cantii led by the Warlord of Britain. In the centre was the Briganti Kingdom whilst at the far north a confederacy was starting to form around the Votadini. Small tribes either attempted to maintain their independence or were absorbed into the larger conglomerates.

The impartially of the Druids depended on that of the High Druid in his sanctum of Mona, the island now recognised as his personal fiefdom. Some encouraged the Belgae Confederation and the Briganti Kingdom to attack the Four Nations, usually to the detriment of the attacker because neither invader co-ordinated with the other and the Warlord was able to call upon the Romans for assistance.

By the middle of the third century, the balance of power had shifted in favour of the Four Nations (are now known as the Five Nations after the conquest of the Parsisii). To recompense itself for the loss of territory of that tribe, the Briganti occupied a swath of territory further north at the expense of the Votadini. The very far north had still yet to coalesce into a larger state as the tribes continuously bickered amongst themselves.

As for the continent, as the Roman Empire became engulfed by civil wars, many British warriors would sojourn on the continent in one of various armies and come be with a belt loaded with gold. As well as Britain became wealthier, it also became more peaceful as the more aggressive elements stayed away from home longer and longer.

There had been some Christians in Britain since the early second century, they had followed the trade routes north. However, they were a very small minority. Constantine the Great changed all that. When the Roman Empire embraced the new religion, the Five Nations immediately imitated them. They then proceeded to launch a holy war against the Druids in general and Mona in particular. Not withstanding that their way was barred by Confederation territory, the Nations’ army drove to Mona, leaving a trial of destruction behind them. On arrival, they slaughtered the Druids and looted their temples.

Although it was partially Christianised, the Confederation took umbrage at this invasion and declared war on the Nations as did the almost totally pagan Briganti Kingdom. For the first time in decades, the Nations had to face both of their enemies at the same time, In addition, due to a revolt in Germania Orientica (Roman territories between the Wesser and Niessa), there were no Roman troops available to aid it. In fact, Rome was forced to reduce the garrison on the northern Gallic coast to reinforce its eastern frontier.

What saved the Nations was that a substantial number of Christians in the Confederation refused to follow up its retreating army. Defending their homeland was one thing, invading that of their brothers in Christ in the name of Druidism was another. The action triggered a civil war with pagans attempting to drive out the Christians whilst the latter did their level best to hold onto their lands.

As the Confederation degenerated into chaos, the Nations’ turned on the Kingdom and forced it at sword point to also become Christian. In response to this, the Druids fled to the far north and across the sea to Ireland. However, missionaries were now starting to penetrate that island as well as the far north gaining influence there too. There would be pagans for another five hundred years, but their numbers would gradually decline over that time. Eventually, all of the British would become Christian

As the Roman Empire continued shake under the blows from the German tribes east of the Elber, more British took advantage of the chaos to sojourn on the continent. They also stepped up their activities by launching seabourne expeditions.. Using ships similar in design to those built by the Venetii, maritime warriors from both the Confederation and the Nations (who now turned don their erstwhile ally) alternated raiding along the coast from the Pyrenees to the Wesser to trading or serving as mercenaries fighting their countrymen or Germanic invaders.

In response, the Romans fortified ports along their English Channel and North Sea coast and formed their own fleet, the Classis Britannica. However, given the strategy of the British of hitting easy targets, there was no major sea battle between two naval Titans, only a series of skirmishes.

In the mid fourth century, Germania Orientica collapsed under the hammer blows from peoples such as the Alamanni, Vandals and Goths and the Romans fell back to the Rhine. Here, emperors attempted to draw the line. However, local governors and usurpers recruited German troops to fight their rebellions and in the chaos, northern Gaul and the remainder of Germania fell to the invading hordes.

With the Classis Britannica gone and with the Saxons and Jutes having only a nascent capacity, the British fleets were supreme. They swept the Channel, North Sea and Bay of Biscay clear of any enemy warship or merchant vessel not sailing under their protection. They also rowed down the rivers of Northern Europe sacking both cities such as Lutetia and any German village ill advised to be built close to one. The loot was shipped back to Britain to be recycled in trade with Hispania.

Attempts by the Irish to raid Britain to harvest its wealth as well as muscle in on the continental harvest were met with mixed success. Being the one to take the brunt of this activity, the Belgae Confederation took to capturing any Irish ship seen at sea as well as raiding their homeports. In the late fifth century, they took this a step further by seizing territory on the east coast at Dun Laoghaire.

The fear of further occupation caused the Dalriadians of north-east Ireland to desert their homes and invade the far north west. After some resistance, they settled on the flat lands south of the Highlands. Then, by a mixture of diplomacy and tenacity, they began to carve out a mini empire. The Votadini tried to respond by expanding their territory. However, a constitutional crisis plus a religious war with the Briganti Kingdom (the Votadini were still pagan) cost them dear. Dalriadia (the colonist named their conquest after their homeland) became the dominant state in the far north and almost equal in status to the Five Nations, Belgae Confederation and Briganti Kingdom.

With the consolation of the Alamanni on the south coast of the Channel, there was less raiding by British warriors. Furthermore, improvement in agricultural techniques gave way to a drive to producing crops of Britain that hitherto had been limited to pastoralism. Internecine strife between the various states dropped as a golden age flowered.

These halcyon days lasted about two centuries. Then the Norsemen from Scandinavia arrived.

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