Toponymy Prehistory and antiquity

Main article: Etymology of London In 1300 the City was still confined within the
Roman walls.
The name London may derive from the
River Thames Although there is evidence of scattered
Brythonic settlements in the area, the first
The etymology of London is uncertain. It is major settlement was founded by the
an ancient name and can be found in Romans in 43 AD. This lasted for just
sources from the 2nd century. It is recorded seventeen years and around 61, the Iceni
c. 121 as Londinium, which points to tribe led by Queen Boudica stormed it,
Romano-British origin. The earliest burning it to the ground. The next, heavily
attempted explanation, now disregarded, is planned, incarnation of the city prospered
attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in and superseded Colchester as the capital of
Historia Regum Britanniae. This had it that the Roman province of Britannia in 100. At
the name originated from a supposed King its height during the 2nd century, Roman
Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city London had a population of around 60,000.
and named it Kaerlud. By the 7th century, the Anglo-Saxons had
From 1898 it was commonly accepted that created a new settlement called Lundenwic
the name was of Celtic origin and meant over a mile (2 km) upstream from the old
place belonging to a man called *Londinos; Roman city, around what is now Covent
this explanation has since been rejected. Garden.
Richard Coates put forward an explanation It is likely that there was a harbor at the
in 1998 that it is derived from the pre-Celtic mouth of the River Fleet for fishing and
Old European *(p)lowonida, meaning 'river trading, and this trading grew, until the city
too wide to ford', and suggested that this was overcome by the Vikings and forced to
was a name given to the part of the River move east, back to the location of the
Thames which flows through London; from Roman Londinium, in order to use its walls
this, the settlement gained the Celtic form for protection. Viking attacks continued to
of its name, *Lowonidonjon; this requires increase, until 886 when Alfred the Great
quite a serious amendment however. The recaptured London and made peace with
ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the the Danish leader, Guthrum. The original
Latin form Londinium with the modern Saxon city of Lundenwic became Ealdwic
Welsh Llundain, which should demand a ("old city"), a name surviving to the present
form *(h)lōndinion (as opposed to day as Aldwych, which is in the modern City
*londīnion), from earlier *loundiniom. The of Westminster.
possibility cannot be ruled out that the
Welsh name was borrowed back in from Two recent discoveries indicate that London
English at a later date, and thus cannot be could be much older than previously
used as a basis from which to reconstruct thought. In 1999 the remains of a Bronze
the original name. Age bridge were found on the foreshore
north of Vauxhall Bridge. This bridge either
Until 1889 the name "London" officially only crossed the Thames, or went to a (lost)
applied to the City of London but since then island in the river. Dendrology dated the
it has also referred to the County of London timbers to 1500BC. In 2010 the foundations
and now Greater London. of a large timber structure, dated to
4500BC, were found on the Thames
foreshore, south of Vauxhall Bridge. The
function of the Mesolithic structure is not Day 1066. William constructed the Tower of
known. Both structures are on South Bank, London, the first of the many Norman
at a natural crossing point where the River castles in England to be rebuilt in stone, in
Effra flows into the River Thames. the southeastern corner of the city, to
intimidate the native inhabitants. In 1097,
Middle Ages William II began the building of
The Lancastrian siege of London in 1471 is Westminster Hall, close by the abbey of the
attacked by a Yorkist sally. same name. The hall became the basis of a
new Palace of Westminster.
With the collapse of Roman rule in the early
5th century, London ceased to be a capital During the 12th century, the institutions of
and was effectively abandoned. However, central government, which had hitherto
from the 6th century, an Anglo-Saxon accompanied the royal English court as it
settlement known as Lundenwic developed moved around the country, grew in size and
slightly to the west of the old Roman city, sophistication and became increasingly
around what is now Covent Garden and the fixed in one place. In most cases this was
Strand, likely rising to a population of 10– Westminster, although the royal treasury,
12,000. In the 9th century, London was having been moved from Winchester, came
repeatedly attacked by Vikings, leading to a to rest in the Tower. While the City of
return to the location of Roman Londinium, Westminster developed into a true capital
in order to use its walls for protection. in governmental terms, its distinct
Following the unification of England in the neighbor, the City of London, remained
10th century, London, already the country's England's largest city and principal
largest city and most important trading commercial center, and it flourished under
center, became increasingly important as a its own unique administration, the
political center, although it still faced Corporation of London. In 1100, its
competition from Winchester, the Anglo- population was around 18,000; by 1300 it
Saxon capital of England and traditional had grown to nearly 100,000.
center of the kingdom of Wessex. Disaster struck during the Black Death in
In the 11th century, King Edward the the mid-14th century, when London lost
Confessor refounded and rebuilt nearly a third of its population. London was
Westminster Abbey, and Westminster, a the focus of the Peasants' Revolt in 1381.
short distance upstream from London,
became a favored royal residence. From
this point onward, Westminster steadily
supplanted the City of London itself as a
venue for the business of national
government.
Westminster Abbey is a World Heritage Site
and one of London's oldest and most
important buildings as seen in this painting
(Canaletto, 1749)
Following his victory in the Battle of
Hastings, William, Duke of Normandy, was
crowned King of England in the newly
finished Westminster Abbey on Christmas