ANGLO SAXON INVASION

WHO WERE ANGLO SAXONS AND THEIR ORIGINS[REFER NB]?

Anglo-Saxon, term used historically to describe any member of the Germanic

peoples who, from the 5th century CE to the time of the Norman
Conquest (1066), inhabited and ruled territories that are today part
of England and Wales.

The Anglo-Saxon period in Britain spans approximately the six centuries from
410-1066AD. The period used to be known as the Dark Ages, mainly because
written sources for the early years of Saxon invasion are scarce. However, most
historians now prefer the terms 'early middle ages' or 'early medieval period'.

It was a time of war, of the breaking up of Roman Britannia into several separate
kingdoms, of religious conversion and, after the 790s, of continual battles against a
new set of invaders: the Vikings.

Climate change had an influence on the movement of the Anglo-Saxon invaders to

Britain: in the centuries after 400 AD Europe's average temperature was 1°C
warmer than we have today, and in Britain grapes could be grown as far north as
Tyneside. Warmer summers meant better crops and a rise in population in the
countries of northern Europe.

At the same time melting polar ice caused more flooding in low areas, particularly
in what is now Denmark, Holland and Belgium. These people eventually began
looking for lands to settle in that were not so likely to flood. After the departure of
the Roman legions, Britain was a defenceless and inviting prospect.

When Roman legions left, the local population proved to be defenceless.

Under constant attacks of Scots and Picts a king of Britons named
Vortigern invited two Anglo-Saxon leaders, brothers Hengest and Horsa,
to serve as mercenaries. This was the beginning of the Anglo-Saxon
invasion.

The first armed conflict of Hengest and Horsa with Vortigern took place in
455. About the same time Horsa was killed in battle, while Hengest carried
war on the Britons. By 473 he founded the first Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the
kingdom of Kent. His successors were Esc, Octa and Eormenric of Kent
(relationships in this line of kings and exact dates of their rule are not
clear).
The next stage of the conquest was led by the Saxon war-lord Ælle, who
landed with his three sons on the Sussex shore in 477. In 491 he besieged
and took the shore fort Anderida. Bede mentions Ælle as the king over all
the provinces south of the river Humber. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
lists Ælle as the first of the eight bretawaldas (a term that designated
“rulers of Britain”), which may indicate that the king of the South Saxons
was recognized as the ruler by other Anglo-Saxon leaders.

Wessex was founded in 495 by Cerdic, who landed in Hampshire “in three
keels”. The Chronicle also attributes to Cerdic the conquest of the Isle of
Wight, which was later given to West Saxons Stuf and Wihtgar. Cerdic
was succeeded by his son Cynric.

During the first half of the 6th century Anglo-Saxons extended their lands
westward and northward, but their efforts did not prove very successful,
despite the arrival of new Anglo-Saxon armies from the continent.
Between 490 and 517 Anglo-Saxons were defeated by the Britons at the
Battle of Mount Badon. The Celts were able to unite against them and
delay the advance of invaders for some time.

The onslaught of the Anglo-Saxons was recommenced in the second half

of the 6th century. In 571 and 577 three kings of Britons were killed,
Gloucester, Cirencester and Bath were captured. During 584–592 the Celts
were completely defeated in Wiltshire. By the beginning of the 7th century
Anglo-Saxon conquest of the south-western and central parts of Britain
was accomplished.

At least twelve early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms existed at the period. On the

eastern coast there lay the kingdom of Lindsey, comprising the lands
between the Humber and the Wash; the kingdom of the East Angles,
which consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk; the kingdom of Essex and the
kingdom of Kent. The kingdom of Sussex was on the southern coast.
Northern part of the central England was divided between Mercia and
Middle Anglia. To the south, along the border with Wales, two small
kingdoms were situated: Magonsætan and Hwicce.

The largest early Anglo-Saxon kingdom was Wessex, the kingdom of the
West Saxons. Northern territories were later known as Northumberland or
lands to the north of the Humber. At times Northumberland was divided
into Bernicia and Deira.

These kingdoms, once created, waged war against each other until the first
half of the 9th century. This period of the Anglo-Saxon history is known
as the Age of Heptarchy.
The Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain is the process which changed the language and culture
of most of what became England from Romano-British to Germanic. The Germanic-speakers in
Britain, themselves of diverse origins, eventually developed a common cultural identity as Anglo-
Saxons. This process principally occurred from the mid-fifth to early seventh centuries, following
the end of Roman rule in Britain around the year 410. The settlement was followed by the
establishment of the Heptarchy, Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the south and east of Britain, later
followed by the rest of modern England, and the south-east of modern Scotland.[1]
The available evidence includes the scant contemporary and near-contemporary written record,
archaeological and genetic information.[a] The few literary sources tell of hostility between
incomers and natives. They describe violence, destruction, massacre, and the flight of the
Romano-British population. Moreover, little clear evidence exists for any significant influence
of British Celtic or British Latin on Old English. These factors suggested a mass influx of
Germanic-speaking peoples. In this view, held by most historians and archaeologists until the
mid-to-late 20th century, much of what is now England was cleared of its prior inhabitants. If this
traditional viewpoint were to be correct, the genes of the later English people would have been
overwhelmingly inherited from Germanic migrants.
However, another view, the most favoured among 21st-century scholars,[3] is that the migrants
were fewer, possibly centred on a warrior elite. This hypothesis suggests that the incomers
achieved a position of political and social dominance, which, aided by intermarriage, initiated a
process of acculturation of the natives to the incoming language and material culture.
Archaeologists have found that settlement patterns and land use show no clear break with the
Romano-British past, though changes in material culture were profound. This view predicts that
the ancestry of the people of Anglo-Saxon and modern England would be largely derived from
the Romano-British.
Even so, if these incomers established themselves as a social elite practising a level
of endogamy, this could have allowed them enhanced reproductive success (the 'apartheid
theory', named after the 20th-century apartheid system of South Africa). In this case, the
prevalent genes of later Anglo-Saxon England could have been largely derived from moderate
numbers of Germanic migrants.[4][5] This theory, originating in an early population genetics study,
has proven controversial, and has been critically received by many scholars. More recent genetic
studies have tentatively supported the conclusion that the Germanic-speaking incomers, while
contributing substantially to the current English gene pool, did not replace the pre-existing British
population.

The Timeline of conflict in Anglo-Saxon Britain is concerned with the period of history from
just before the departure of the Roman Army, in the 4th century, to just after the Norman
Conquest in the 11th century.
The information is mainly derived from annals and the Venerable Bede. The dates, particularly
from the fourth to the late sixth centuries, have very few contemporary sources and are largely
later constructions by medieval chroniclers.[1] The historian Diana Greenway described one such
12th-century chronicler, Henry of Huntingdon, as a 'weaver' compiler of history, and the
archaeologist Martin Welch described the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as "a product of the West
Saxon court... concerned with glorifying the royal ancestry of Alfred the Great. Manipulation of
royal genealogies, in this and other sources, to enhance the claims of contemporary rulers was
common. Literary formulas associated with original myths are a common feature of earlier
entries."[2][3] Although the timeline uses the annals for this period of history, information provided
by these sources can be problematic, particularly with the earlier dates.