History of Anglo-Saxon England

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"Anglo-Saxon England" redirects here. For the academic journal of this name, see Anglo-Saxon England (journal)

The history of Anglo-Saxon England covers the history of England from the end of Roman Britain and the establishment of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the fifth century until the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. Anglo-Saxon is a general term that refers to tribes of German origin who came to Britain, including Angles, Saxons, Frisians and Jutes.

Sources

There is a wide range of source material that covers Anglo-Saxon England.

There are four main literary sources:

• Gildas' The Ruin of Britain (c. 540 AD) was written, as a polemic, concerned with criticising the Romano-British kings, rather than as an historical document although, in reality, has proved invaluable as an historical source.^[1][2]
• Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People was written in the early 8th century.^[3]
• Nennius The History of the British written about 800 AD.^[4]
• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle were a series of documents that charted Anglo-Saxon history from the mid-fifth century till 1066 although one version extends till 1154.^[5] They were commissioned during the reign of Alfred the Great in the 9th century.^[6]

7th Century Anglo-Saxon Church. Church architecture and artefacts provide a useful source of historical information.

Other written sources include:

• Law codes for example, there were four sets that originated in the seventh century; the first three sets were issued by the Kings of Kent Æthelberht I, Hlothhere and Eadric and Wihtred. The fourth was that of Ine of Wessex.^[7][8]
• The Charters was a series of legal documents that were primarily (though not exclusively) for the grant of land to individuals by the kings of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.^[9]
• Biographies, hagiography, letters and poetry.^[10][11][12]
• Toponymy - The study of place names.^[13]
• Henry of Huntingdon - English historian of the 12th century and archdeacon of Huntingdon.^[14]
• Roger of Wendover - an English chronicler of the 13th century.^[15]
• Geoffrey of Monmouth - a 12th century English chronicler.^[16]
• Domesday Book - although compiled in 1086 after the Norman Conquest one of it's functions was to ascertain who held what and the taxes due under Edward the Confessor.^[17]

None literary sources include:

• Archaeology Anglo-Saxon settlement can be traced by following burial patterns and land usage.^[18]
• Artefacts , Sculptures, Monuments and Churches.
• Linguistics, genetics.

Historical Context

As the Roman occupation of England was coming to an end, Constantine III withdrew the remains of the army, in reaction to the barbarian invasion of Europe.^{[19] [20]}The Romano-British leaders were faced with an increasing security problem from sea borne raids particularly by Picts on the East coast of England.^[21] The expedient adopted by the Romano-British leaders was to enlist the help of Anglo-Saxon mercenaries (known as foederati) to whom they ceded territory.^[21][22]In about 442AD the Anglo-Saxons mutinied apparently because they had not been paid adequately.^[23] The British responded by appealing to the Roman commander of the Western empire Aëtius for help (known as the Groans of the Britons) even though Honorius the Western Roman Emperor had written to the British civitas in about 409AD to look to their own defence.^[24][25][26]There then followed several years of fighting between the British and the Anglo-Saxons.^[27]The period of fighting continued till about 500AD, when at the Battle of Mount Badon, the Britons inflicted a severe defeat on the Anglo-Saxons.^[28]

Migration and the formation of kingdoms (400-600)

Kingdoms and tribes in England and Wales at about AD 600.

There are records of Germanic infiltration into Britain that date before the collapse of the Roman Empire.^[29] It is believed that the earliest Germanic visitors were eight cohorts of Batavians attached to the Legio XIV Gemina in the original invasion force under Aulus Plautius in 43AD.^[29][30][31] It was quite common for Rome to swell it's legions with foederati recruited from the German homelands. ^[32]This practice also extended to the army serving in Britain and graves of these mercernaries along with their families can be identified in the Roman cemeteries of the period.^[33] The migration continued with the departure of the Roman army when Anglo-Saxons were recruited to defend Britain and also during the period of the Anglo-Saxon first rebellion of 442AD.^[34]

After the defeat of the Anglo-Saxons by the British, at the Battle of Mount Badon, in c.500AD, where according to Gildas the British resistance was led by a man called Ambrosius Aurelianus, Anglo-Saxon migration was temporarly stemmed.^[28] Gildas also said that it was "forty-four years and one month" after the arrival of the Saxons, and was the year of his birth.^[28] He said what followed was a time of great prosperity.^[28] But despite the lull the Anglo-Saxons took control of Sussex, Kent, East Anglia and part of Yorkshire,and the West Saxons founded a kingdom in Hampshire under Cerdic around 520AD.^[35] However it was to be 50 years before the Anglo-Saxons began further major advances.^[35] In the intervening years the Britons exhausted themselves with civil war, internal disputes and general unrest, which was the inspiration behind Gildas and his De Excidio Britanniae (The Ruin of Britain).^[36]

The next major campaign against the Britons was in 577AD, led by Cealin, king of Wessex, whose campaigns succeeded in taking Cirencester, Gloucester and Bath.^[37][35] This expansion of Wessex ended abruptly when the English started fighting amongst themselves, which resulted in Cealin eventually having to retreat to his original territory and then being being replaced by Ceol (possibly his nephew), Cealin was than killed the following year, the annals do not specify by who.^[38][39]

If the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles are to be believed, then the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that eventually merged to become England, were founded when small fleets of three or five ships of invaders arrived at various points around the coast of England to fight the Sub-Roman British and conquer their lands.^[40]As Margaret Gelling points out, when talking of place name evidence, what actually happened between the departure of the Romans and the coming of the Normans is subject to much debate by historians.^[41]

The arrival of the Anglo-Saxons into Britain can be seen in the context of a general movement of German people around Europe between the years 300 - 700 AD known as the Migration period (also called the Barbarian Invasions or Völkerwanderung). In the same time period there were migrations of Britons to the Amorican peninsula (Brittany and Normandy in modern day France) initially at around 383AD during Roman rule but also c.460AD and the 540s and 550s AD, the 460s migration is thought to be a reaction to the fighting during the Anglo-Saxon mutiny between about 450 to 500AD, as was the migration to Britonia (modern day Galicia, in northwest Spain) at about the same time.^[42]

The historian Peter Hunter-Blair expounded probably what is now regarded as the traditional view of the Anglo-Saxon arrival in Britain.^[43] That is of mass immigration and fighting and driving the Sub-Roman Britons off their land into the western extremities of the islands and the Breton and Iberian peninsulas.^[44] The more modern view is of co-existence between the British and the Anglo-Saxons.^{[18] [45]} Discussions and analysis still continues on the size of the migration and whether it was a small elite band of Anglo-Saxons who came in and took over the running of the country or was it indeed a mass migration of peoples who overwhelmed the Britons?^[46][47][48]

Heptarchy and Christianisation (600-800)

By 600AD a new order was developing of kingdoms and sub-Kingdoms, Henry of Huntingdon (a medieval historian) conceived the idea of the Heptarchy which consisted of the seven principle Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.^[49]

Anglo-Saxon England heptarchy

The four main kingdoms in Anglo-Saxon England were:

British kingdoms around about the year 800 AD

• Wessex
• East Anglia
• Mercia
• Northumbria, including sub-kingdoms Bernicia and Deira

Minor kingdoms:

• Kent
• Sussex
• Essex

Other minor kingdoms and territories

• Isle of Wight, (Wihtwara)
• The Meonwara The Meon Valley area of Hampshire
• Surrey
• Kingdom of the Iclingas, a precursor state to Mercia
• Lindsey
• The Hwicce
• Magonsæte
• Pecsæte
• Wreocensæte
• Tomsæte
• Haestingas
• Middle Angles

Throughout the seventh and eighth centuries, power fluctuated among the larger kingdoms. Bede records Aethelbert of Kent as being dominant at the close of the sixth century, but power seems to have shifted northwards to the kingdom of Northumbria, which was formed from the amalgamation of Bernicia and Deira. Edwin probably held dominance over much of Britain, though Bede's Northumbria bias should be kept in mind. Succession crises meant Northumbrian hegemony was not constant, and Mercia remained a very powerful kingdom, especially under Penda. Two defeats essentially ended Northumbrian dominance: the Battle of the Trent (679) against Mercia, and Nechtanesmere (685) against the Picts.

The so-called 'Mercian Supremacy' dominated the 8th century, though again was not constant. Aethelbald and Offa, the two most powerful kings, achieved high status; indeed, Offa was considered the overlord of south Britain by Charlemagne. That Offa could summon the resources to build Offa's Dyke is testament to his power. However, a rising Wessex, and challenges from smaller kingdoms, kept Mercian power in check, and by the end of the 8th century the 'Mercian Supremacy', if it existed at all, was over.

Christianity was introduced to the British Isles during the Roman occupation.^[50] The emperor Constantine (306-337AD), in the Edict of Milan in 313 AD granted official tolerance to Christianity and in the reign of Theodosius "the Great" (378-395AD), Christianity was made the official state religion.^[51][52] It is not entirely clear how many Britons would have been Christian when the pagan Anglo-Saxons arrived.^[53]

Christianisation of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms began in 597 AD, influenced by Celtic Christianity from the northwest and by the Roman Catholic Church from the southeast. The first Archbishop of Canterbury, Augustine, took office in 597. In 601, he baptised the first Christian Anglo-Saxon king, Aethelbert of Kent. The last pagan Anglo-Saxon king, Arwald of the Isle of Wight, was killed in 686.

Viking challenge and the rise of Wessex (9th century)

Map of England 878AD showing the extent of Danelaw.

Between the eighth and eleventh century raiders, conquerors and colonists from Scandinavia, mainly Danish and Norwegian plundered western Europe and the British Isles.^[54] These raiders became to be known as the Vikings; the name was believed to have been derived from Scandinavia where the Vikings originated.^[55][56]The first raids in western Europe were in the late eighth century and were on the monasteries in the British Isles.^[55] The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles report that the holy island of Lindisfarne was sacked in 793AD.^[57]

After a time of plunder and raids, the Vikings began to settle mainly on the eastern side of England almost as far south as London, the area that was under Danish control became known as Danelaw. An important Viking centre was York, called Jorvik by the Vikings. Various alliances between the Viking Kingdom of York and Dublin rose and fell. Danish and Norwegian settlement made enough of an impact to leave significant traces in the English language; many fundamental words in modern English are derived from Old Norse, though of the 100 most used words in English the vast majority are Old English in origin. Similarly, many place-names in areas of Danish and Norwegian settlement have Scandinavian roots. For example, Howe, Norfolk ‎ and Howe, North Yorkshire‎, both topographic place names derived from the Old Norse word haugr meaning hill, knoll or mound.^[58][59]

The Danish expansion continued with regular campains by an enlarged army that the Anglo-Saxons described as the Great Heathen Army, then in March of 878AD the Anglo-Saxon King of Wessex, Alfred and and a few men built a fortress at Athelney, in Somerset.^[60]. He used this as a base to attack the Vikings, and in May 878AD he put together an army with people from Somerset, Wiltshire and Hampshire and fought the Viking army at Edington^[60]. The Viking army retreated to their stronghold and Alfred laid seige.^[60] Ultimately the Danes capitulated and their leader Gunthrum agreed to being baptised and also to withdraw from Wessex, the formal ceremony was completed a few days later at Wedmore.^[61][60].

At about the same time Northumbria had devolved into Bernicia and a Viking kingdom, Mercia had been split down the middle, and East Anglia ceased to exist as an Anglo-Saxon polity. The Vikings had similar effects on the various kingdoms of the Irish, Scots, Picts and (to a lesser extent) Welsh. Certainly in North Britain the Vikings were one reason behind the formation of the Kingdom of Alba, which eventually evolved into Scotland.

An important development of the ninth century was the rise of the Kingdom of Wessex. Though not without setbacks, by the end of Alfred's reign (899) the West Saxon kings came to rule what had previously been Wessex, Sussex and Kent. Cornwall (Kernow) was subject to West Saxon dominance, and several kings of the more southerly Welsh kingdoms recognised Alfred as their overlord, as did western Mercia under Alfred's son-in-law Æthelred.

English Unification (10th century)

Alfred of Wessex died in 899 and was succeeded by his son Edward the Elder. Edward, and his brother-in-law Æthelred of (what was left of) Mercia, fought off Danish attacks and began a programme of expansion, seizing territory from the Danes and establishing fortifications to defend it. Upon Æthelred's death, his wife (Edward's sister) Æthelflæd ruled as "Lady of the Mercians" and continued expansion in conjunction with Edward. By 918 Edward had gained control of the whole of England south of the Humber. In that year Æthelflæd died, and Mercia was fully integrated with Wessex into a single kingdom. Edward's son Æthelstan was the first king to achieve direct rulership of the whole of England, following his conquest of Northumbria in 927. The titles attributed to him in charters and on coins suggest a still more widespread dominance. He defeated an attempt to reverse the conquest of Northumbria by a combined Scottish-Viking army at the Battle of Brunanburh. However, after his death the unification of England was repeatedly contested. His successors Edmund and Eadred each lost control of Northumbria to fresh Norse attacks before regaining it once more. Nevertheless, by the time of Eadred's successor Edgar, who ruled the same expanse as Æthelstan, the unification of England had been permanently established.

England under the Danes and the Norman Conquest (978-1066)

There were renewed Norse attacks on England in the final decade of the 10th century, coinciding with the start of the reign of Æthelred. Æthelred ruled a long reign (in all, 38 years), but ultimately lost his kingdom to the Viking Sweyn of Denmark, though he recovered it following the latter's death. However, Æthelred's eldest son Edmund II Ironside died shortly after him, allowing Cnut the Great, Sweyn's son, to become king of England, which then became part of a Viking empire stretching from Denmark to Ireland. It was possibly in this period that the Viking influence on English culture became ingrained, although Vikings had been settled in the Danelaw (England north of Watling Street) for at least a century earlier.

Rule over England fluctuated between the descendants of Æthelred and Canute for the first half of the 11th century. Ultimately this resulted, by 1066, in several people having a claim to the English throne. The most powerful Earl in England, Harold Godwinson, claimed the crown on 5 January, within a day of the death of Edward the Confessor, and was confirmed by the English witan. However William of Normandy, who was a relation of Æthelred's second wife Emma, and also Harald Hardrada of Norway (who invaded Northumbria in 1066, two weeks before the Battle of Hastings, aided by Harold Godwinson's estranged brother Tostig) laid claim to the crown. Another claimant, Edgar the Ætheling - the grandson of Ironside - was prevented by his youth from playing a large part in the struggles of 1066.

Invasion was the result. Harold Godwinson defeated Harald of Norway and Tostig at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in October 1066 (the death of Harald Hardrada and the massacre of the Viking army was such a devastating defeat that England was never again menaced by the Vikings); but he fell in battle against William of Normandy at the Battle of Hastings a few days later.

William began a programme of consolidation in England, being crowned on Christmas Day 1066. However, his authority was always under threat in England, where there were repeated rebellions until 1071. The little space given to Northumbria in the Domesday Book is testament to the troubles there during William's reign.

See also

• Anglo-Saxons for Anglo-Saxon culture and society.
• Anglo-Saxon architecture
• Anglo-Saxon monarchs
• Anglo-Saxon warfare
• Anglo-Saxon polytheism
• England in the Middle Ages
• Kingdom of Cornwall
• Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England
• States in Medieval Britain
• Staffordshire Hoard
• Timeline of Anglo-Saxon England
• English historians in the Middle Ages

Notes

References

• Morris, J. (1973). The Age of Arthur. London: Phoenix. ISBN 1-84212-477-3. 
• J.N.L.Myers (1989). The English Settlements. ISBN 0192822357. 
• "Standard English words which have a Scandinavian Etymology". The Viking Network. http://www.viking.no/e/england/e-viking_words_2.htm#H. Retrieved 15 January 2010. 
• (pdf) Guide to Scandinavian origins of place names in Britain. Ordnance Survey. http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/freefun/didyouknow/placenames/docs/scandinavian_guide.pdf. Retrieved 15 January 2010. 
• J.Hines, ed (2003). The Anglo-Saxons from the Migration Period to the Eighth Century: An Ethnographic Perspective.. London: Woodbridge: Boydell Press. ISBN 1843830345. 
• N.J.Higham (1994). English Conquest: Gildas and Britain in the fifth century. Manchester: Manchester United Press. ISBN 0719040809. 
• Ken Dark (2000). Britain and the End of the Roman Empire. Stroud: NPI Media Group. ISBN 0752414518. 
• Stuart Laycock (2008). Britannia - The Failed State: Tribal Conflict and the End of Roman Britain. Stroud: The History Press. ISBN 0752446142. 
• Martin Welch (1992). Anglo-Saxon England. London: English Heritage. ISBN 0713465662. 
• Peter Hunter Blair (1963). Roman Britain and Early England 55BC-- AD871. London: W W Norton. ISBN 0393003612. 
• Magaret Gelling and Anne Coles (2000). The Landscape of Place-Names. Stamford: Tyas. ISBN 1 900289 26 1. 
• S.E.Kelly et al, ed (1973 - 2007). Anglo-Saxon Charters Volumes: I - XIII. Oxford: OUP for the British Academy. 
• Asser (2004). Keyne Lapidge tr. ed. Alfred the Great. Penguin Classic. ISBN 978-0-14-044409-4. 
• Gildas. s:The Ruin of Britain. (1848). Translation based on Habington & J. A. Giles
• Bede. s:Ecclesiastical History of the English People..Translation based on L.C. Jane (1903); A. M. Sellar (1907).
• Nennius. s:History of the Britons..Translation based on Rev. W. Gunn & J. A. Giles (1848)
• s:Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Commissioned in the reign of Alfred the Great
• "The Anglo Saxon Dooms, 560 - 975AD". Internet Medieval Source Book. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/560-975dooms.html. Retrieved 25 January 2010. 
• J.F.Webb and D.H.Farmer, ed (1983). The Age of Bede. London: Penguin. ISBN 014044378. 
• Leo Sherley-Price and D.H.Farmer, ed (1990). Bede:Ecclesiastical History of the English People. London: Penguin. ISBN 014044565. 
• Bryan Ward-Perkins (2005). The fall of Rome: and the end of civilization. Oxford: OUP. ISBN 0192805649. 
• Geoffrey of Monmouth. s:History of the Kings of Britain.- Translation based on Aaron Thompson (1718), revised and corrected by J. A. Giles (1842)
• Roger of Wendover (1848). J.A.Giles tr.. ed. Flowers of History. London: Henry Bohn. 
• Henry of Huntingdon. s:History of the English.: (1853) Translation by Thomas Forrester,
• F.M. Stenton (1971). Anglo-Saxon England 3rd edition. Oxford: OUP. ISBN 978192801395. 
• Michael Wood (1985). The Domesday Quest. London: BBC. ISBN 0153522747. 
• Andrew Bell (2000). Andrew Bell-Fialkoff. ed. The Role of Migration in the History of the Eurasian Steppe:Sedentary Civilization vs. 'Barbarian' and Nomad . New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0312212070. 
• Henry of Huntingdon (1996). Diana E. Greenway. ed. Historia Anglorum: the history of the English. Oxford: OUP. ISBN 0-19-822224-6. 
• Cassius Cocceianus Dio (1924 latest edition. 2000). E. Cary. ed. Roman History: Bk. 56-60, v. 7. Harvard: LOEB. ISBN 0674991931. 
• Charles Thomas (1981). Christianity in Roman Britain to AD 500. Berkeley: UC Berkeley. ISBN 0520043928. 
• R.Malcolm Errington (2006). Roman Imperial Policy from Julian to Theodosius. Durham, NC: University of North Carolina. ISBN 0807830380. 
• Michael E. Jones (1998). The End of Roman Britain. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801485305. 
• Rev. James Ingram tr. (1912). Ernest Rhys. ed. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle. London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd. 
• Peter Sawyer (2001 3rd Edition). The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings. Oxford: OUP. ISBN 0192854348. 

Further reading

• Anne Savage, "The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles" ISBN 1-85833-478-0, pub CLB, 1997
• David Howarth, "1066 The Year of the Conquest", ISBN 0-14-005850-8, pub1981
• J. Campbell et al., The Anglo-Saxons, (Penguin, 1991)
• R. Lacey & D. Danziger, "The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium" (Little Brown & Company, 1999)

External links

• Medievalists.net - extensive resources on the medieval period.
• C. P. Biggam's Anglo-Saxon Studies: A Select bibliography

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