Anglo-Saxon Colonization of Britain

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In a time of collapse of once great Roman Empire there are barbaric invasions along the empire border (limes). Britain was not spared of such destiny. Roman governments in many provinces were coming to the end.

When Roman army left Britain defenseless in middle 5th century, several Germanic tribes crossed over the North Sea and settled eastern England. Jutes have colonized Kent, Angles the eastern coast from Eastern Anglia to North Umbria and Saxons settled Sussex, Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire (449 A.D.).

England was divided among seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms: Wessex (western Saxons), Sussex (southern Saxons), Essex (eastern Saxons), Kent (Jutes), East Anglia, Mercia and North Umbria.

Native Britons were resisting the newcomers. They were under the leadership of their “war king” or “dux bellorum”. In the early 6th century an ancient scripts are mentioning Arthur as that Briton war king (the legend of King Arthur).

Arthur defeated Anglo-Saxon army in Battle on Mount Badon (516 A.D.) and slowed their colonization for a few decades. Since then the Anglo-Saxons organize their armies under the supreme commander which they called “bretwalda” (master of Britain). The first bretwalda was Aelle – king of Sussex.

Britons and Arthur were defeated in the Battle at Camlann (537 A.D.). For a long time it was considered that Britons vanished after that defeat and Anglo-Saxon invasion. But the various researches like DNA analyses and bone analyses proved that was wrong assumption.

Those researches showed that only the Briton aristocracy suffered extinction in mentioned conflicts and was replaced by new one, while the rest of the natives survived and have been assimilated.

In eastern England the most of the toponyms were replaced with Germanic ones. Anglo-Saxon toponyms could be recognized by extensions: -ing, -ham, -ton, -fold, -den, -hurst.

In late 8th century Vikings started their offensive on Britain threatening to destroy Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. War with Vikings lasted almost a hundred years.

At last in 878 A.D. king Alfred decisively defeated the Vikings and enabled future unification of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. That unification occurred in 954 A.D. and since then England was never divided.

The other kingdoms in Europe were created in a similar way and had similar history. Fall of the Roman Empire and barbaric invasions formed a new political map of Europe in Middle Ages.