Dr Tomasz Skirecki, IFA, UAM

History of Britain and the USA – 1 BA, 2011-12

LECTURE FOUR

Anglo-Saxons 400-800 AD

1

Chronology

449-1066 - Anglo-Saxon times

409-597 - Sub-Roman Britain

450-600 - “Dark Ages”

7

th

-9

th

cent. - Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy

c. 400 – 800 Early Christian Ireland

c. 800 – beginning of the Viking age in the British Isles

•

historical evidence mixed legends and myths

•

insular culture develops in greater separation from mainstream Europe than in Roman
times

Chronicles

1.

Gildas - De excidio et conquestu Brittanniae (540s)

2.

The Venerable Bede - Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (731)

3.

Nennius - Historia Britonum (9

th

cent.)

4.

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (891-1154)

Roman Britain 409 – 449

•

migrations of peoples all over Europe

•

employment of Germanic mercenaries in the Roman army

•

legions withdrawn

•

constant raids of the Picts and the Irish

•

local British rulers, e.g. Vitalinus who declares himself the VORTIGERN, i.e.
Overlord of All Britain

Anglo-Saxon invasion

According to Bede, Vortigern invites Germanic Jutes led by legendary Hengest and Horsa
to Kent (449) to help him against invading Picts. Having defeated the Picts they start their
expansion in Britain, followed then by the Angles and the Saxons.

•

Jutes - Kent

•

Saxons - along the Thames toward Cornwall

•

Angles - Midlands, northward

Dr Tomasz Skirecki, IFA, UAM

History of Britain and the USA – 1 BA, 2011-12

LECTURE FOUR

Anglo-Saxons 400-800 AD

2

450-600 Dark Ages (Sub-Roman Britain)

•

constant expansion and of Anglo-Saxons westward and northward, destruction
of the Romano-British civilization and foundation of numerous tribal kingdoms

•

Anglo-Saxons bring their own pagan culture and LANGUAGE – Britons submit
under Anglo-Saxon social and linguistic influence, Roman cities are abandoned –
some evidence of annihilation of the Britons but not as extensive as once imagined

British resistance by Ambrosius Aurelianus

(King Arthur?)

dux bellorum - Battle of

Mount Badon 500 or 515 - Anglo-Saxon invasion is stopped for some decades in the 6

th

century

Between the 5

th

and 7

th

century, two broad cultural zones are established in post-Roman

Britain

I. Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the south-east.

II. Britons in the west and the north.

1.

west: Wales (WEALLAS -'land of foreigners')

2.

south-west: – Dumnonia/Cornwall

3.

south: some Cornish Britons flee across the English Channel to settle in Brittany

4.

north: Cumbria (Rheged)

5.

north-west: Strathclyde

Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy

From late 7

th

to 9

th

century - fluid consolidation of numerous Anglo-Saxon kingdoms into the

Heptarchy:

Saxons: ESSEX, SUSSEX, WESSEX
Angles: EAST ANGLIA, NORTHUMBRIA, MERCIA
Jutes: KENT

In constant conflict over supremacy and against the neighboring British kingdoms

Breatwaldaships

Since the 7

th

c. tendency to gain supremacy over other kingdoms of Heptarchy

A ruler who gains supremacy (overkingship) over the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms is called
Bretwalda - the “Lord of Britain”

Bretwaldaship order:

Dr Tomasz Skirecki, IFA, UAM

History of Britain and the USA – 1 BA, 2011-12

LECTURE FOUR

Anglo-Saxons 400-800 AD

3

I.

6

th

cent. – Sussex and Kent

II.

7

th

cent. - Northumbria

III.

8

th

cent. – Mercia

•

King Offa of Mercia (757-796)

•

Offa's Dyke c. 789

North of Hadrian’S Wall (“Scotland”) 5

th

-8

th

century

Four main groups:

•

Picts – to the north

•

Irish Dalriadans (Scotti) – in Argyll

•

Britons – Strathclyde

•

Angles – Lowlands – 630s - Edwin of Northumbria overtakes the ancient British
kingdom of the Gododdin, whose capital Dunedin is renamed Edinburgh

By 800 the nations of England, Scotland and Wales begin to crystalize

ANGLO-SAXON LEGACY

-

English language

-

NAMES: ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, IRELAND, WALES

-

Place names ending in -ing, -ington, -ingham, -burgh or –bury, wic or wich, etc.

-

The Futhorc – Anglo-Saxon runic alphabet

-

the RUTHWELL CROSS with inscription being part of the poem The Dream of the
Rood (8

th

cent.)

-

Sutton Hoo, Woodbridge, Suffolk

-

Beowulf, Widsith and other literary pieces

-

Names of weekdays after Germanic gods:

Sunday - Old English sunne - day of sun
Monday - OE mona - day of moon
Tuesday - (Tiw - Germ. god of war)
Wednesday - (Woden - Germ. head god)
Thursday - (Thor - Germ. god of thunders)
Friday - (Frigg - Germ. goddess of marriage)

Name of Easter - (Eostre - Germ. goddess of dawn)