The Anglo Saxon period

The Anglo Saxon Period

The period from the end of Roman occupation to the Battle of Hastings (circa 410 – 1066AD) is often sadly overlooked when studying history.  Most modern books of Kings and Queens, for example, start with William the Conqueror, and forget that England had been ruled by a single monarch for over a hundred years before the Battle of Hastings.

Popularly called the Dark Ages, the early medieval period was the time when the country we now call England was born.  Previously a Roman territory with a predominantly Celtic population, the Anglo Saxon settlement changed everything: the language, the culture, the religion, and even the way society was organised.

Post-Rome anglo saxon migration

Roman occupation may have been good for some things, but it was terrible if you wanted to continue after it had gone.  Almost 400 years of “civilisation” was wiped away when the Roman army was called back home to help defend Rome against barbarian attacks.  While there is evidence that the Romano-British people attempted to carry on their Roman lifestyle for a while afterwards, the lack of infrastructure, trade networks, military support and flow of currency soon had the population abandoning the villas, amphitheatres and fora and returning to a more agrarian lifestyle.  Rome did not allow non-military people to train with or bear weapons, and so the country was also left painfully defenceless in the face of raiders from the north, east and west.

When Rome collapsed it left Europe in a mess.  The massive machine of the Empire that had ensured the flow of goods, services and protection throughout the continent was suddenly gone, leaving a massive power vacuum in its wake.  This was a period of mass migration: the Völkerwanderung (literally Folk-wandering).  Germanic, Slavic and even Eurasian groups filled the gaps, looking for new territory in the old Empire.  Whether opportunists or refugees from territorial battles, these migrants began what is now called the Migration Period.

One of the key groups to migrate were the Anglo Saxons.  From their homelands in modern Denmark and northern Germany the Angles and Saxons were joined by the Jutes (Denmark), Franks (who would come to populate France), Frisii (from the low countries) and probably even some tribes from southern Sweden.  The poorly protected island of Britain must have seemed like a goldmine for people whose wet, low lying homelands suffered often from both war and weather.  Even in Roman times the Essex and Kent coastlines into the Thames estuary were known as the “Saxon Shore” due to the influx of raiders from the east, but now they had opportunity to stay.

Invasion and Settlement

The Anglo-Saxons (the name coming to encompass all the disparate tribes arriving from mainland Europe), soon began to settle in East Anglia, but it wasn’t long before they moved westwards.  For a long time it was thought that they eradicated, displaced and pushed out the native Britons but from modern DNA evidence of English people today, it seems that might not be the entire story.  We still have such a high proportion of “Celtic” DNA that it now seems the Anglo Saxons took land by a combination of settlement, integration and rule.

One thing that did disappear quickly was the British or Celtic languages.  Now only preserved in the north and west – Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany in France – the ancestors of these languages were once spoken all over the British Isles.  That the local languages disappeared almost completely is a clue that the Anglo Saxon settlement may have included a class element.  Coming in as powerful new people from the continent, it may not have taken that much for the newly abandoned Britons to accept their protection, and start adopting their ways. 

One of the origin stories of the Anglo Saxons is that the Kentish King Vortigern invited a band of Anglo-Saxon mercenaries to Britain to help him defend against other raiders.  Led by two brothers, Hengist and Horsa, they gave the Kingdom their protection in exchange for food and land, but soon the King tried to short change them on the deal.  The brothers were not happy with this and ended up attacking the Kingdom and taking it for their own.

Whether this legend is true or not is the subject of ongoing debate, but there certainly appear to be elements of truth about it.  The migration seems to be less about a mass influx of people and more about opportunistic war bands and smaller domestic populations taking advantage of the natives where they could, and eventually settling down and integrating.

Anglo Saxon Religion

The Britons, as part of the Roman Empire, had long been Christian.  That all changed with the influx of pagan invaders bringing their Germanic Gods like Woden and Thunor – although you might know them better from their Viking versions: Odin and Thor.  The Anglo Saxon Gods shared roots with the Viking Gods, but unfortunately for us their myths were never recorded in writing.  Unlike the Viking myths which were written down in 12th Century Iceland, little evidence of the Anglo Saxon Gods or their stories remain.

It did not take long for the Christian church to set about converting the heathens, however, and in 597 a monk by the name of Augustine arrived from Rome to set the Anglo Saxons back on a Christian track.

By 700 AD, all the seven Anglo Saxon Kingdoms (known as the Heptarchy) had converted to Christianity and were well established.  Over the next hundred years, turf wars would amalgamate the seven Kingdoms to just four: Wessex, East Anglia, Northumbria and Mercia.  Christianity was going strong and the English language (with its many dialects) was finally being written down along with Latin, thanks to the literate Christian monks.  After all it’s no good having a Holy Book if no-one can read it!

It wasn’t reading materials that interested the next set of invaders to Britain, however.  In 793 AD came the first documented attack on a British monastery by the Vikings.

1066 (and all that)

Between Athelstan and the end of the Anglo Saxon age in 1066, it wasn’t all plain sailing.  Scandinavia was also unifying and would soon convert away from their heathen ways, becoming Christian at various times from the end of the 10th to the beginning of the 12th centuries.  Wars, marriage alliances, political wrangling and questionable succession crises would dog the next hundred years, with the throne being passed back and forth between the English House of Wessex and the Danish Kings.  The greatest of these – King Cnut – ruled England as part of a North Sea Empire that also included Norway, Denmark and parts of Sweden.  Eventually Cnut’s line would fail putting the throne was firmly back in the hands of Wessex, but it would not stay there for long.  King Edward the Confessor, who had been sent to Normandy as a child by his French mother, died in 1066.  Edward had not produced an heir (preferring piety over procreation) and had promised the throne, on his deathbed, to one of his nobles, Harold Godwinson.  Or so Harold said.  Unfortunately Edward also seemed to have promised the throne to one of his cousins in France:  The Duke of Normandy, one William the Conqueror (although of course he wasn’t called that yet on account of not having conquered anything).  William learned of Edward’s death and readied his forces to take the throne from Harold.

Meanwhile, in Norway, Godwinson’s little brother Tostig was doing what little brothers do: causing trouble.  Due to being a violent and heavy handed Earl when in charge of Northumbria, Tostig’s subordinate Lords had petitioned the King to sort him out. Godwinson, on the King’s duty, was charged with the deed and realising that Tostig was bad for the family’s position, had him exiled.  Tostig persuaded King Harold Hardrada of Norway to take the throne based on a shaky claim dating back to Cnut’s North Sea Empire. 

Before Godwinson could face William on the south coast (he went south and waited around a bit but bad weather stopped the Normans crossing the channel), he heard of Hardrada and Tostig’s arrival in the north.  Quickly gathering his troops he marched north and faced the invaders at Stamford Bridge (not the football ground) in Yorkshire, defeating them and killing Hardrada.

As is often the way, you wait around for a battle and then two come at once.  The Normans had now reached England and were setting up camp, so Godwinson again marched south and met William’s forces at Senlac Hill, just outside Hastings.  Despite the Normans having superior numbers, and using cavalry and archers (which wasn’t very sporting), Godwinson came close to winning the battle.  The English troops had the high ground and were able to fend off the Norman attacks with their shield wall.  

Unfortunately for Godwinson, two things then happened in quick succession: a cry went up that William had been killed, and a section of the Norman wall broke away and started a retreat.  Thinking they had won, some of the English began to chase the Normans, breaking the shield wall.  Then William rode out of the fray, being very definitely not dead, and the Normans quickly used the English folly to their advantage, breaking the rest of the wall and flanking those who had pursued the retreat.

Whether or not Harold took one in the eye is still unknown, but by the end of the battle he very definitely was dead and William had gained a new epithet.

They thought it was all over?  It was now.