A Pocket Essentials Short History of the Anglo-Saxons

Giles Morgan

• Publisher: Oldcastle Books
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780857301666
• eBook ISBN: 9780857301673
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

But who were the Anglo-Saxons, and where did they come from? A Short History of the Anglo-Saxons traces the fascinating history of this era and its people, from the early European migrants from tribes such as Angles, Saxons, and Jutes who traveled mainly to Britain after the end of Roman rule in 410, to the dramatic end of the Anglo-Saxon period following the victory of William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings. It covers their various kingdoms, such as Wessex and Mercia, as well as the numerous attacks on the prosperity and successes of the Anglo-Saxons by peoples such as the Vikings. From popular fiction such as The Hobbit to Game of Thrones to the world language of English, the continuing influence of the Anglo-Saxons can be found in many modern societies today. This Pocket Essential guide provides an indispensable introduction to everything you need to know about the Anglo-Saxon period.

Chapter One

The First Anglo-Saxon Settlers in Britain

Roman Britain

During the third and fourth centuries the Roman Empire underwent a series of invasions and attacks from barbarian tribes and was also badly weakened by internal leadership conflicts. In Roman Britain during the fourth century there was an increasing wave of raids from the Saxon tribes on the east coast and also from the Irish to the west of the island. A critical event in this period of increased pressure from external peoples was the so-called ‘Barbarian Conspiracy’ or ‘Great Conspiracy’ of 367-368. The Great Conspiracy involved a combined attack on Britain by Saxons, Picts, Scotti, Attacotti, Franks and Roman deserters. They were able to capitalise on a depleted Roman military presence in the province in the aftermath of the Battle of Mursa Major which took place in 351. The battle followed a conflict between the usurper Magnentius, who had overthrown and killed the Western Emperor Constans, and the ruler of the Eastern Empire Constantius II. Constantius II was the son of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great and the brother of Constans and he inflicted a severe defeat on Magnentius at the Battle of Mursa Major. However, both sides suffered heavily in the fighting, resulting in an estimated 50,000 casualties at a time when the empire was under pressure from external barbarian forces. The chaos and disorder of the Great Conspiracy was ended by a force led by Count Theodosius in 368 which restored order, drove out the invaders and recaptured Hadrian’s Wall. However, in 383 another rebellion took place involving Magnus Maximus who attempted to claim the title of Western Emperor and took troops from Britain across the English Channel into Europe to support his bid for power. It is thought that many of these troops never returned to Britain, leaving it once again vulnerable to attack. Further raids took place in 396 which were met by Roman actions against them and control was regained for a few years.

Another usurper of the imperial throne emerged in 407 when Constantine III was declared emperor in Britain by the army. He also crossed the Channel to Europe to confront the Emperor Honorius, taking most if not all of Britain’s troops with him. Following a serious Saxon attack on Britain in 408 which was repelled by the Romano-British population, Roman magistrates representing Constantine III were expelled from the province by its inhabitants who felt that they had been abandoned by the empire and resorted to their own defence. The ancient historian Zosimus records that the Britons appealed for aid to the embattled Emperor Honorius who was fighting the Visigoths and their leader Alaric at the time. His conflict with the Visigoths would ultimately lead to the sacking of Rome on 24 August 410. He advised them to look to their own defences against the barbarian raids. (However, some historians think that Honorius may have actually been addressing the region of Bruttium in southern Italy and not Britain.) The sixth-century monk and historian Gildas states in his historical work De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae (On The Ruin and Conquest of Britain) that, in 446, the Britons made a further appeal to the Roman general Aetius for military aid which was never answered. This appeal is often referred to as ‘The Groans of the Britons’ and concerns raids which were being made on Britain by the Picts, Scots and Saxons.

King Vortigern

Gildas also recorded that the British invited a group of Saxons to settle in Britain. Gildas is thought to have been born in 500 and died in 570 in Rhuys in Brittany. In De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae, he describes events happening during the early decades of the fifth century. According to his account a group of councillors and their leader, whom Gildas terms a ‘usurper’, offered the Saxons a place to settle in return for military aid in fighting the Scots and the Picts. Gildas writes that they settled on the ‘east of the island’ which has led to considerable speculation about where he actually meant. However, the initial group offered settlement in Britain became larger as more of their countrymen joined them until eventually they demanded greater payments to serve as mercenaries and were refused by the leaders of the British. They then reneged on their agreements and began to attack and plunder the lands and property of their former employers. Gildas describes the leader of the British as being unlucky and lacking in judgement. He goes on to describe the raids of the Saxons as becoming like a devastating fire that burned from one side of Britain to the other, even reaching the west coast of the island.

Gildas’s account of the history of the beginnings of the Saxon invasion and settlement of Britain was to prove an important source for the writings of the Venerable Bede who wrote his own history of the period during the eighth century. This work, entitled Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum or the Ecclesiastical History of the English People and completed in 731, is the first account of this period to give a name to the leader of the British. Bede calls him Vurtigernus even though Gildas does not specifically name him. Importantly, Bede also gives names to the leaders of the Saxons who were invited to Britain, calling them Hengist and Horsa. He also states that the tribes that they represent are the Saxons, the Angles and the Jutes. Gildas also states that Vurtigernus (or Vortigern as he is better known today) was the king of the British and claims that these events took place in 449, a view which is now largely contested. Bede stated that Hengist and Horsa were the sons of a man called Wictgils and that he could trace his ancestry back to the god Woden. According to Bede, Horsa was killed during fighting with the British and his body was buried somewhere in east Kent.

In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, written during the ninth century, Hengist and Horsa are described as having sailed to Britain at the request of Vortigern in order to help him fight the Picts. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states that they arrived at Ebbsfleet on the Isle of Thanet in Essex and, like Bede, it records these events as taking place in 449. The Chronicle describes Hengist and Horsa as being successful in their work as mercenaries fighting against the Picts and that they were contemptuous of the British, sending word to Germany and the tribes living there to come and settle in Britain. The different tribes are described by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as being the Saxons, the Angles and the Jutes. The Jutes are said to have settled in Kent and Hampshire and the Saxons in Sussex, Wessex and Essex. East Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria were colonised by the Angles. Like Bede the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle has Horsa die during fighting with the British and gives the year 455 as the date of the battle against Vortigern at Aylesford in which he was killed. Two years later a force led by Hengist defeated the British at Crayford and as a result the Britons were pushed out of Kent and travelled to London. The final time that the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle refers to Hengist is in the entry for the year 473 when it is recorded that the invaders have captured a huge amount of plunder and that the British fled from them.

According to the Historia Brittonum or The History of the Britons, written by Nennius during the ninth century, Vortigern is said to have attended a feast with Hengist and Horsa when they were still serving him as mercenaries. During the feast Vortigern met the beautiful daughter of Hengist and, under the influence of drink supplied by his hosts, promised to give Hengist the Kingdom of Kent in return for her hand in marriage. However, Vortigern made his promise without consulting the British ruler of Kent. Hengist and Horsa sent for reinforcements from Germania intent on taking more land and power from the Britons. As relations soured between the incoming tribes and the British (as in the earlier accounts), war broke out between them. Vortigern’s own son Vortimer is said by Nennius to have fought against Hengist and Horsa. Vortimer pushed them back to the Isle of Thanet and fought four battles against them. During the third battle Horsa was killed, as was Vortimer’s brother Catigern. Finally, Vortimer defeated the Saxons and pushed them back to the sea where they fled in their ships. However, Vortimer died shortly afterwards and later the Saxons returned. Hengist then extended an offer of peace to Vortigern, suggesting that they hold a meeting and feast together. Hengist proved to be untrustworthy. He ordered his men to conceal their knives under their feet during the feast and then shouted for them to get their weapons and seize the British. Many were killed but Vortigern was spared in return for agreeing that the Saxons could have lands including Sussex, Essex and Middlesex.

According to Nennius, Germanus the Bishop of Auxerre then became the leader of the Britons. As a result of his appeals to God and a fightback against the invaders by the Britons, the Saxons were forced to take to their ships once again. Germanus then travelled to the castle in which Vortigern was taking refuge and prayed to God for three days and nights until the Almighty rained down fire on the occupants. Vortigern and his several wives including Hengist’s pagan daughter were said to have all been killed. But the Saxons returned and in greater numbers and when Hengist died they were led by his own son Ochta.

King Arthur

Perhaps no other figure in early British history has caused greater controversy and speculation than King Arthur. Opinion has been divided as to whether King Arthur ever actually existed as a Romano-British leader or was essentially a mythological figure that emerged from folklore and was transformed into a literary tradition. The earliest recorded reference to him can be found in the Historia Brittonum which, as we have seen, is credited to the Welsh cleric Nennius and was written during the ninth century. In the pages relating to the history of Britain during the fifth century Nennius writes:

‘At that time the English increased their numbers and grew in Britain. On Hengist’s death, his son Ochta came down from the north of Britain to the kingdom of the Kentishmen, and from him are sprung the kings of the Kentishmen. Then Arthur fought against them in those days, together with the kings of the British; but he was their leader in battle.’

(Nennius, Historia Brittonum, p.35).

Nennius goes on to say that Arthur fought twelve separate battles against the Anglo-Saxons. He is described as a Christian war leader who carries the image of the Virgin Mary on his shield as he fights against the heathen Anglo-Saxon invaders. The most famous of the twelve battles listed by Nennius is the Battle of Mount Badon during which it is claimed that Arthur personally killed 960 men. Nennius tells us that Arthur was victorious in all his campaigns against the Anglo-Saxons.

However, it is now widely thought that Nennius’s account of British history is unreliable. Arthur is not mentioned by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle or in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written during the eighth century. However, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle does record that, in 519, Cerdic and Cynric obtained the kingdom of the West Saxons and fought a battle against the British at a place called Cerdicesford. That battle appears to have ended with a truce between the two sides that lasted for around 30 years. The truce was briefly interrupted in 530 when the Saxons captured the Isle of Wight. This period may possibly be the basis for the accounts of the Battle of Mount Badon. However, it is not clear exactly where in Britain the battle is meant to have taken place. Bede does refer to the Battle of Mount Badon in his work and placed it in the last decade of the fifth century. The earliest mention of the Battle of Mount Badon can be found in Gildas’s De Excidio et Conquest Britanniae (On The Ruin and Conquest of Britain), written during the early to mid-sixth century. Gildas tells us that the British were led into battle by a man named Ambrosius Aurelianus and that he won a significant victory against the Anglo-Saxons. He is described as born of a noble Romano-British family and Gildas also tells us that his parents were slain by the Anglo-Saxons but that he was able to galvanise and reorganise the British in the defence of their country. Gildas also says that he won his victories ‘with God’s help’ and so was presumably a Christian.

It is possible that the figure of King Arthur could have been based on Ambrosius Aurelianus as there are a number of clear parallels between them. Interestingly, neither Nennius’s Historia Brittonum nor the later Annales Cambriae, written during the tenth century, describes Arthur as a king. Nennius describes him as ‘dux bellorum’ which translates as a ‘leader of battles’ and the Annales Cambriae refers to him as ‘miles’ meaning soldier. It seems likely that the title of king was added later to the story of Arthur which appe...

Table of contents

• A Short History of the Anglo-Saxons
• About the author
• Introduction
• Chapter One
• Chapter Two
• Chapter Three
• Chapter Four
• Chapter Five
• Chapter Seven
• Chapter Eight
• Bibliography
• Web Pages
• Copyright