Were the Britons Celtic?

Question

I was wondering can anyone tell me if the ancient Britons were a Celtic race? When i say ancient Britons I mean the people that populated England, Wales and to a lesser extent scotland when the Angles and the Saxons invaded.

Answer 1

The Britons who lived in what is now England when the Anglo-Saxons came over were Celtic, but they were very heavily Romanised. Instead of worshipping the old gods like their forebears had done, they were Christian, and had many old Roman customs, but they did still speak welsh, which is a Brythonic language. The Scots, who originally came from Ireland, were also Celtic but Goidelic rather than Brythonic, with a cognate but different language. They weren't Britons as such as Britons was the name for the Brythonic inhabitants of Britain.

So, in summary, the Britons were Celtic.

Answer 2

Most are mixed. The east of England has more anglo-saxon and viking ancestry but in much of England, the dna shows a strong relationship to aboriginal peoples,both post ice-age hunters and neolithic farmers (celts is not actually a very accurate term; the celts were an iron age people in central Europe who in fact DON'T have a close genetic match to britain/Ireland, just a cultural one.) The whole of western England is primarily aboriginal-you'll notice more people with darker hair/eyes as you go west.. Wales and Cornwall have the oldest genes; Scotland has some old genes too, but also strong viking heritage esp on the isles--and a part of the lowlands is,in fact, more English (Anglo-saxon) that most of England! The Jutes were a Danish tribe; it's almost impossible to sort out Anglo saxon dna from that of Danes. You description of the 'celts' was amusing but oh so fluffy--believe me,the ancient pre-Roman people of the isles weren't dancing around wearing pretty spirally jewellery and exhorting love n' peace. they were in fact headhunters who loved nothing more than a good battle! Their biggest weakness was that they fought so much amongst each other, they could never come together as one--this was most likely how the Saxons and other tribes got such a firm foothold.

Answer 3

A Briton is often referred to in broad terms as being an inhabitant of the geographical region of Great Britain or a person of British ethnic extraction, including those who identify themselves as English, Welsh, Scottish, Cornish and many from Northern Ireland (particularly Ulster Scots).
The word's use in an historical context refers to:

* Brythons, the indigenous inhabitants of most of Great Britain in the times before the Roman occupation.
* Native speakers of the Brythonic languages.
* Their descendants in Roman Britain, and the period up to the Norman Conquest, including the indigenous inhabitants of southern Scotland at this time (referring to Brythonic Celtic speakers, as distinguished from Romans, Gaels, Picts and Anglo-Saxons).

In a modern context it is also used as a synonym for British, either in the sense of:

* A resident and/or citizen of the United Kingdom
* A person who lists their ethnic group as British.
* A person indigenous to Great Britain.
The use of the term is sensitive in some areas, particularly in Northern Ireland, and can vary in exact meaning depending on context and the author's personal prejudices. Some people prefer to identify their nationality as exclusively English (17%), Scottish (31%), Cornish (N/A), or Welsh (21%) not British, referring to aspects of their own culture and history which distinguish the nations of Britain from each other. Whether someone refers to their nationality as English, Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish, it does not necessarily mean that they do not also consider themselves British, or cannot be classified as a Briton, as most people do not exclusively identify with a single nationality.The use of the word in this respect remains highly subjective. The term British is also used by naturalised immigrants and their descendants. Thus Black British is common usage, particularly in England, though less so in Scotland where such groups can be, for example, Pakistani Scots.
for more visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Briton

Answer 4

The people of England were not Celts. The Celts originated in Scotland, and some sailed over to Ireland to colonise there. A lot of Celts ended up in England as they were notorious for being bloodthirsty and so were hired by armies and rebels of England to cause mass destruction and to try and usurp authority and hopefully the throne. Which didn't work!