Anglo-Saxon Invasion

Roman control of Britain came to an end as the empire started to collapse. Significant signs were the attacks by Scottish Celtic Picts from Caledonia in a. d. 367. Despite their elaborate fortifications, the Roman legions found it more and more difficult to repulse raiders from crossing Hadrian’s Wall. The same was occurring on the European continent as Germanic groups, Goths, Franks, Alamans and other tribes began to attack the empire. Around a. d. 409, Rome withdrew her last soldiers out of Britain and the Romanized and Christianized Romano-British Celts were left to fight alone against the Scottish and the Irish raiders from the north, and against the Angle, Jute, and Saxon invaders coming by sea from Denmark and north Germany in the mid-5th century. These invaders were more or less identified with each other, forming people of mixed stock but with a number of common characteristics, and therefore termed by historians Anglo-Saxons for convenience. At first gangs of Germanic warriors came as mercenaries to help Britain against attacks from Scotland and Ireland. They soon sent word to their homelands of the easy pickings and larger groups combined to raid Britain, and after the Romans’ withdrawal whole tribes began to occupy the country. The Jutes settled mainly in Cantium (Kent), the Isle of Wight, and part of Hampshire; the Saxons and the Angles controlled the east and the north Midlands, and the Angles gave the larger part of Britannia its new name, England, “the land of the Angles.” The Christianized Celtic Britons fought the invaders in the early 6th century, with such brave leaders as a certain King Arthur — a legendary warlord who, according to medieval histories and romances, led the defense of Britain against the Saxons. Whether or not there was a historical individual on whom the Arthurian legends are based we do not know, and may never know. What is for sure is that the Saxons were steadily pushed westward by the advancing Germanic invaders in the 5 th and 6th centuries. Some fled into the mountains of Wales and Scotland, as well as across to Ireland, where their Celtic languages— Welsh, Gaellic

Originated from what today is Belgium. The Angles came from Denmark, and the Saxons from Lower Saxony in northern Germany. Other possible invaders were Frisians, who came from present day Netherlands, as well as some Flemings and perhaps a number of Franks from Belgium and some German Swabians.

Left: Anglo-Saxon kingdoms c. a. d. 886. The thick dashed lines indicate the Danelaw (Scandinavian sphere of influence).

And Erse — are still spoken today. Some Brytonic Celts (or Bretons from south Wales and Cornwall) went into exile in Armoricae in Gaul, giving the French western province the name Britanny (Breizh in Breton).

Romano-Briton warrior c. a. d. 400. The depicted man wears a Roman helmet without a crest, and is armed with a spear and a gladius.

The Romano-British were almost wholly unable to make use of Roman fortifications and fared better when they fell back on the traditional hill forts of their ancestors. There is evidence that many of these came back into use after the Romans had departed, at least in the southwest, for example at South Cadbury in Somerset and at Castle Dore in Cornwall. In a few cases new hill forts were erected, such as the large earthworks of Dinas Emrys in Gwynedd.

By the beginning of the 7th century, the Romano-British were defeated and reduced to subjugation. Hardly anything was left of Roman language and culture, and England, at least until the Norman conquest of 1066, became a culturally oriented Scandinavian/Ger-manic land. By then Roman urban centers were partly abandoned or completely deserted, and buildings, towers and walls in many cases became stone quarries.

The Angles, Saxons and other invaders took possession of all the land and divided it into a number of small kingdoms, e. g., Essex, Sussex, Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia, Kent. One of the strange ironies of history is that having established a reputation as fearsome sailors and conquerors, the Anglo-Saxons rapidly settled down and became farming landlubbers. Or perhaps that is another of the myths of history. Perhaps only a few were ever adventurous sea raiders, the arrival of their families abruptly curbing their roving habits.

Although they had a Witan (council summoned by Anglo-Saxon kings, composed of aldermen, thanes and bishops discussing royal grants of land, church matters, charters, taxation, customary law, defense and foreign policy, and the succession of a king), and although they were religiously united, the Anglo-Saxon realms were politically divided and could make no organized resistance to the next wave of northern invaders, the Vikings (Norwegians and Danes), who eventually attacked the rocky coasts of Scotland and northern England.