Britannia
86124
225005699
2008-07-11T12:33:10Z
Philip Stevens
411183
fixed caption
{{otheruses|Britannia (disambiguation)}}
[[Image:Britannia-Statue.jpg|thumb|A statue of Britannia in [[Plymouth]]]]
'''Britannia''' was the term originally used by the [[Roman Empire|Romans]] to refer to the island of [[Great Britain]]. The term was later used to describe a [[Roman province]] covering much of the island, apart from the area beyond the [[Antonine Wall]] belonging to the [[Picts]] in the north, which was known as [[Caledonia]]
The name itself derives from ''Pretannia'', [[Diodorus]]'s Greek rendering of the indigenous name ''[[Pretani]]''. Britannia was personified as a Goddess by the Romans, and in more recent times has become a figure of [[national personification]] of the [[United Kingdom]].
==Roman period==
{{Seealso|Roman Britain}}
The Romans originally described the group of islands off north-west Europe as the '''''Britanniae''''', in the plural, consisting of ''Albion'' (Great Britain), ''Hibernia'' (Ireland) and many smaller islands. Over time, Albion came to be known as ''Britannia'', and the name for the group was subsequently dropped. The island was first invaded by [[Julius Caesar]] in 55 BC. At the height of [[Roman Britain]], the Empire included most of the island of [[Great Britain]]. The Romans built [[Hadrian's Wall]] close to today's border between [[England]] and [[Scotland]]. The province was named Britannia, and the unincorporated area of northern Britain was called [[Caledonia]]. A southern part of what is now known as Scotland was occupied by the Romans for about 20 years in the mid-second century AD, keeping in place the [[Picts]] to the north of the [[Antonine Wall]]. The Romans never completely occupied the island of Great Britain, and the Celtic tribes even prevented full consolidation of the southwest. People living in the Roman province of Britannia were called '''''Britanni'''''. [[Ireland]] was never conquered and was called [[Hibernia]].
There was a Celtic goddess called [[Brigid]] who is one of the many sources of the personification of Britain. The Emperor [[Claudius]] paid a visit while Britain was being conquered and was honoured with the [[Roman naming convention|agnomen]] ''Britannicus'' as if he were the conqueror, but Britannia remained a place, not a female personification of the land, until she appeared on coins issued under [[Hadrian]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.24carat.co.uk/britanniaframe.html |title=Britannia on British Coins |publisher=Chard |accessdate=2006-06-25}}</ref> which introduced a female figure labelled <small>BRITANNIA</small>.
Britannia was soon personified as a [[goddess]]. Early portraits of the goddess depict Britannia as a beautiful young woman, wearing the helmet of a [[centurion]], and wrapped in a white garment with her right breast exposed. She is usually shown seated on a rock, holding a spear, and with a spiked shield propped beside her. Sometimes she holds a [[Standard-bearer|standard]] and leans on the shield. On another range of coinage, she is seated on a globe above waves: Britain at the edge of the 'known' world. Similar coin types were also issued under [[Antoninus Pius]].
==British revival==
[[Image:Britannia.jpg|thumb|Britannia]]
===Medieval use===
Britannia remained the Latin name for [[Great Britain]]. After the [[fall of the Roman Empire]], variations on the term appear in the titles of the 9th century ''[[Historia Britonum]]'' and the 12th century ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae]]'' which became tremendously popular during the [[High Middle Ages]]. At this time the term Britannia also came to be used for the [[Armorica|Armorican peninsula]] in France, because of the large scale migration to the area by Romano-Celtic Britons from Cornwall. The modern French name for the area, "Bretagne", or [[Brittany]] in English, is a variant of "Britannia". The term "Grand Bretagne" (Greater Britannia, or Great Britain) was used to distinguish the island of Britain from the continental peninsula.
===British empire===
It gained new symbolic meaning with the rise of British influence, and later the [[British Empire]], which at its height ruled a quarter of the world's population and landmass. With the death of [[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth I]] in 1603 came the succession of her Scottish cousin, [[James I of England|James VI of Scotland]] to the English throne. He became [[James I of England]], and so brought under his personal rule the Kingdoms of [[Kingdom of England|England]] (and the dominion of [[Wales]]), [[Kingdom of Ireland|Ireland]] and [[Kingdom of Scotland|Scotland]]. On 20 October 1604 King James proclaimed himself as "King of Great Brittaine, France and Ireland", a title that continued to be used by many of his successors.<ref>[http://www.heraldica.org/topics/britain/britstyles.htm#1604 Proclamation styling James I King of Great Britain on October 20, 1604]</ref> With the constitutional unification of England and Scotland in 1707 and then with Ireland in 1800 Britannia became an increasingly important symbol and a strong rallying point among Britons.
[[Image:Battle of Trafalgar Poster 1805.jpg|thumb|right|''Britannia Triumphant'', poster celebrating the [[Battle of Trafalgar]].]]
British power, which depended on a liberal political system and the supremacy of the [[Royal Navy|navy]], lent these attributes to the image of Britannia. By the time of [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Queen Victoria]], Britannia had been renewed. Still depicted as a young woman with brown or golden hair, she kept her [[Corinthian helmet]] and her white robes, but now she held [[Poseidon]]'s three-pronged [[trident]] and often stood in the ocean, representing British naval power. She also usually held or stood beside a Greek [[hoplite]] shield, which sported the British [[Union Flag]]: also at her feet was often the British [[Lion]], the national animal of [[England]] which also appears on the Arms of [[Scotland]]. Another change was that she was no longer bare breasted, due to the modesty of Victorian society. (The less puritanical French, in the same period, had no problem with the bare breasts of the famous "[[Liberty Leading the People]]").
In the [[Renaissance]] tradition, Britannia came to be viewed as the personification of [[United Kingdom|Britain]], in imagery that was developed during the reign of Queen [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth I]]. When [[James I of England|James I]] came to the throne, some elaborate pageants were staged. One pageant performed on the streets of [[London]] in 1605 was described in [[Anthony Munday]]'s ''Triumphs of Reunited Britannia'':
[[Image:50PREVISEDBRITANNIA.jpg|thumb|Britannia on a 50p coin.]]
<blockquote>On a mount triangular, as the island of Britain itself is described to be, we seat in the supreme place, under the shape of a fair and beautiful nymph, Britannia herself...</blockquote>
Britannia first appeared on the [[History of the farthing|farthing]] in 1672, though earlier pattern versions had appeared in 1665, followed by the [[History of the halfpenny|halfpenny]] later the same year; the model used, then and later, was the future [[Frances Teresa Stuart|Duchess of Richmond]]. Stuart was famous at the time for refusing to become the mistress of Charles II, despite the King's strong infatuation with her. She then appeared on the [[British halfpenny coin]] throughout the rest of the 17th century and thereafter until 1936. She also appeared on the [[History of the English penny|penny]] coin between 1797 and 1970, occasional issues such as the fourpence under [[William IV of the United Kingdom|William IV]] between 1836 and 1837, and on the [[British coin Fifty Pence|50 pence]] coin between 1969 and 2008 <ref>{{cite web|url=http://politics.guardian.co.uk/gordonbrown/story/0,,2247910,00.html |title=Brown blamed as Britannia gets the boot |publisher=Guardian Unlimited |accessdate=2008-01-28}}</ref>. See External Links below for examples of all these coins and others. In the spring of 2008, Britannia will be replaced with a design, according to the royal mint, "reflecting a more modern twenty-first century Britain".<ref>[http://www.royalmint.com/PackedSets/UKL8SPS.aspx 2008 Emblems of Britain Silver Proof Collection<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> When the [[Bank of England]] was granted a charter in 1694, the directors decided within days that the device for their official seal should represent 'Brittannia sitting on looking on a Bank of Mony' (sic).
[[Image:Triple Entente.jpg|thumb|right|200px|1914 Russian poster depicing the [[Triple Entente]] - [[Britannia]] and [[Marianne]] in the company of [[Mother Russia]]. In this depiction, Britannia's association with the sea is provided by her holding an [[anchor]], an attribute usually not appearing in British depictions]].
Perhaps the best analogy is that Britannia is to the [[United Kingdom]] and the [[British Empire]] what [[Marianne]] is to [[France]] or perhaps what [[Lady Liberty]] is to the [[United States of America]]. Like Lady Liberty, Britannia became a very potent and more common figure in times of war, and represented British liberties and democracy.
During the 1990s a new term, '''Cool Britannia''' (a pun on the poem '[[Rule Britannia]]' by James Thomson [1700 - 1748], and the song adapted from it, which is often used as an unofficial [[National Anthem]]), was used to describe the contemporary United Kingdom. The phrase referred to the fashionable [[London]], [[Glasgow]], [[Cardiff]] and [[Manchester]] scenes, with a new generation of pop groups and style magazines, successful young fashion designers, and a surge of new restaurants and hotels. [[Cool Britannia]] represented late-1990s Britain as a fashionable place to be.
In 2008, [[Gordon Brown]] announced that Britannia would not feature on the next run of new 50p coins, and that she would be replaced by modern symbols of [[Great Britain]]. The decision courted some controversy, with tabloid press campaigns, in particular the Daily Mail, launched to ''Save Britannia''. The government has said however that Britannia will return on future editions of the 50p coin.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7326491.stm Royal Mint unveils coin designs]</ref>
==Namesakes==
Today '''Britannia''' lives on in British symbols and British patriotism such as:
* [[Britannia silver]], a high-grade [[alloy]] of [[silver]] introduced in Britain in 1697.
* [[Britannia coin]]s, a series of [[United Kingdom|British]] [[gold]] [[bullion]] coins issued since 1987, which have nominal values of 100, 50, 25, and 10 [[Pound sterling|pounds]].
* [[HMS Britannia|HMS ''Britannia'']], eight vessels of the [[Royal Navy]].
* [[Britannia Royal Naval College]], the Royal Navy's officer training college.
* [[Pugnaces Britanniae]], war dog of Britain.
* The former [[Royal Yacht Britannia]], the Royal Family's personal yacht, recently retired in [[Leith]], [[Edinburgh]] Scotland.
* The patriotic song "[[Rule Britannia]]", set to music in 1740.
* Company names such as [[Britannia Building Society]].
* The "''Britannia'' Class", an alternate name for the [[BR Standard Class 7]] series of steam locomotives produced between 1951 and 1954, the first of the BR "standard" classes. Preserved [[BR standard class 7 70000 Britannia|Class 7 locomotive No. 70000]], built in 1951, was also named ''Britannia''.
==References==
<!--See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Footnotes for an explanation of how to generate footnotes using the <ref(erences/)> tags-->
{{reflist}}
==External links==
*[http://www.romanbritain.freeserve.co.uk/britannia.htm Britannia on British coins and medals] - [[Guy de la Bedoyere]]'s website
==See also==
*[[National personification]], lists personifications for various nations and territories
{{celtic mythology (ancient)}}
[[Category:National personifications]]
[[Category:National symbols of the United Kingdom]]
[[ang:Bryten]]
[[br:Britannia]]
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[[ja:ブリタニア (女神)]]
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