Celts Archives - New Historian

New Research on Highland Identity

Historical Research. Initially focused on the history of the Celtic people, philology and culture, the magazine became devoted to securing a solution to the Highland land question. In the late nineteenth century, Britain was becoming an industrial behemoth on the back of the spoils of empire. Most imperial profits ended up in the hands of lords and businessmen who used their wealth to buy large estates. Stewart notes that James Matheson, a Scottish trader with Mackintosh & Co., bought the entire Isle of Lewis when he returned from China in 1844. On Lewis, he built Lews castle, near Stornoway. In contrast, however, the majority of Highlanders had a very different experience of the period. Recurrent famine and land clearances inflicted mass suffering on the population and led to widespread emigration from the Highlands. Importantly, the Celtic Magazine was concerned with the plight of Highlanders. Implicit in the magazine’s conception of an idealised Celtic Highland past pre 1745, Stewart argues that the magazine internalised the racial stereotypes of Highlanders made by Lowlanders and the English. By promoting Celticism as an ideal, rather than having negative connotations, the Celtic Magazine gave a voice to the Highlanders by setting them apart from the others. It must be noted that the idea of a ‘Celt’ is very problematic. What it means, precisely, is hotly debated. Often, the Celts are understood to have been a European tribe that swept into Britain before the Roman conquests. Subsequently, the Celts were pushed to the fringes of the British isles by invasions from the continent. Stewart does not address this complicated history of precisely what a ‘Celt’ was. Rather, he is examining what a Celtic identity came to mean for the Highland population, expressed through a popular magazine. Celtic identity was a means of giving voice to a large group of Scottish people who were distinct from the wealthier and more vociferous Lowlanders. For more information: www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons user: Flickr upload bot]]>

Britain's Long History of Immigration

Geography providing the basis of much our knowledge. The Roman Conquest, starting from 43 CE, led to a significant increase in diversity. Traders from across the Roman Empire were drawn to the Roman colonies in England, and soldiers from as far away as Africa were deployed there. Following the Roman withdrawal many of these people left Britain, but there is little doubt that the years of Roman occupation led to a diversification of the inhabitants of the British Isles. After the Romans abandoned their colonies in Britain, several centuries of colonisation by Germanic Tribes followed. These groups, the Angles, Jutes and Saxons, settled in the south of England, and slowly became the ‘English’. This was followed by Viking influences, starting from the eighth century. Initially raiders who attacked and pillaged Anglo-Saxon communities, Norse armies began to settle in the north of England from the ninth century. Again, the Vikings ultimately left the British Isles, but they undoubtedly left a mark on the population. The final major invasion of the British Isles in the early medieval period came in 1066, with the Norman Conquest. The story of William the Conqueror is well known, but it is important to acknowledge the long term impact the Normans had on English culture. French influence permanently altered the largely Germanic language, and can still be heard in modern English. Norman traditions also filtered through into British politics and law, with traces that can still be seen to this day. The Norman, Viking and Roman immigration to Britain was largely facilitated though invasion and military expansion. In the centuries since, immigration has remained a central part of British history, one far too complex to discuss here. As politicians debate ideas of immigration and British identity, it is important to remember just intertwined foreign influence is with the country’s past.]]>