So who were the first to live in England then since I am reading that the Celts were in Scotland and Irealand

Question

I hear that Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man, and Wales were a mix of Celts and Picts. So who were the ones in England?

Answer 1

Celts inhabited the British Isles coming in the late stone age.

There were Picts in Scotland but they were defeated by the Scots who came to settle there. The Scots had come from what is now known as Ireland. The Scots assimilated the Picts.

In England there were Celts, known now as "Ancient Britons".

They were subdued by the Romans. When the Romans left England, the native Celts were attacked by germanic tribes from the west of Europe. These were the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. Then Vikings invaded the country and ruled the north and eastern parts of it until the Saxons reasserted themselves and took the country back. Then in 1066 the Normans came and conquered it. The dominant language was French until the mid fourteenth century when the court switched to English  which has been the dominant language ever since, although there are traces of old languages remaining in the various dialects which are still used. It is still possible for a northerner to speak to a Norwegian and make himself understood, in simple terms.

Answer 2

The first people to live in Scotland were Picts actually, but that's splitting hairs.  As for what you call modern day England then what race do you think Boudicca was from?  She was a Celtic Warior Queen of the Iceni tribe.

Answer 3

Wessex culture

Answer 4

The Celts are the native peoples of both Ireland and Scotland, aka Erin and Caladonia respectively.

Answer 5

A simple question with a complicated answer.  There are no "pure" races anywhere on earth.  The English are certainly not one.  The name itself is derived from the Angles who, along with the Saxons and the Jutes, settled the island known as Britannia from the fifth century onward - ie just after the Roman legions left.  The Anglo-Saxons mingled with the Romano-British (the product of Romans mingling with Celtic tribes such as the Belgae and the Brigantes) and formed seven kingdoms in what came to be known as England.

Then came the Danes and the Norse (the former from Denmark, the latter from Norway, via Ireland), and the land was split between Wessex and the Danelaw.  Later (we're talking ninth and tenth centuries here), the Danelaw was re-conquered, and out of this was born a new kingdom called England.

Two more points - The Celts were not the original inhabitants of these islands.  They invaded circa 1300 BC and over-ran a pre-celtic civilisation (who built Stonehenge).

And the Scots came from Ireland, under their king, Fergus.

Answer 6

Celts too. Most of Europe and even part of Asia (Turkey) was once populated by celts.

Answer 7

Lomax has the best answer.

Answer 8

The first people in England arrived after the Ice Age,primarily from the basque areas of Spain/France (just like the peoples in Scotland & Wales). They were followed by agriculturists in about 4000 BC,who probably travelled up the western seaboard and had their ultimate origins in the near East.

    These latter people MAY have spoken an early form of celtic but that is only supposition. If it did not emerge in the islands then, it may have been brought by Beaker people from middle Europe in about 2500 BC along with a cultural package that included building and adding to earlier monuments (such as Stonehenge and Avebury.)

It is now believed by most archaeologists that there was no huge 'celtic' invasion at  the beginning of the Iron Age.Simply there  is no evidence for anything but trade with the continent and perhaps a few small groups of settlers.

  Dna testings on all areas of the British Isles have shown that the dominant dna is still that of the post Ice Age peoples,followed by the neolithic farmers,despite all those who have come here afterwards. Often ANY pre-Roman people  are referred to as 'celts' because people associate ancient Britain with celts and because they may have,as mentioned earlier,spoken a form of celtic. However, genetically they do not match the criteria of a celt if you believe that celts originated in Middle Europe.

Answer 9

The island of Great Britain formed at the end of the Pleistocene ice age when sea levels rose due to isostatic depression of the crust and the melting of glaciers. The island was first inhabited by people who crossed over the land bridge from the European mainland. Its Iron Age inhabitants are known as the Britons, a group speaking a Celtic language.