How the Anglo-Saxons Emerged in the Fifth Century

At the turn of the 5^th century much of western Europe was in a state of upheaval as the Roman empire began to splinter and recede. Whilst it was technically its zenith in terms of land controlled by the Roman Empire, such vast tracts proved difficult to rule, even after the empire split in two. Its outermost borders were neglected as troops were withdrawn from the frontiers to help defend Rome from ‘barbarian’ invasion from the east.

Britain lay at the very edge of the Roman Empire. Previously, Roman rule – and armies – had guaranteed some degree of peace, stability and prosperity for citizens. The increasingly under-funded and unmotivated army led to an increase in chaos and disorder, and it wasn’t long before Britons revolted and tribes from across the sea eyed up Britain’s almost unprotected shores as prime pickings.

Was there really a fifth-century warrior king at war with the Angles and Saxons? Did he have a round table of knights? Where was Camelot? Now, twenty-first century forensic archaeology allows us to suggest new answers to these age-old questions.

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The end of Roman Britain

The Angles, Jutes, Saxons and other Germanic peoples of north-western Europe began to assail Britain in increasing numbers, the Britons reportedly fought off a sizeable Saxon incursion in 408 AD, but the attacks grew more frequent.

By 410, the native Britons were facing invasions on multiple fronts. To the north, the Picts and Scots took advantage of the now unmanned Hadrian’s Wall; to the east and south, tribes from mainland Europe had landed – either to pillage or settle Britain’s fertile lands. Increasingly weak Roman authority coupled with the social disorder of attacks made Britain a soft target for invaders.

Hoards – like the one found at Hoxne – are seen as ‘barometers of unrest’. People would bury their valuables with the intention of coming back for them should they have to flee suddenly. The fact that several hoards have been found suggests that these people never returned and the social structures of the time were heavily disrupted.

The Britons appealed to Emperor Honorius for aid, but all he sent was a message which bid them ‘look to their own defences’. This marks the official end of Roman rule in Britain.

Gold coins featuring a profile of Honorius from a Roman hoard.

The arrival of the Saxons

What came next was a new period in the county’s history: the epoch of the Anglo-Saxons. How this came about is still subject to disagreement by historians: the traditional assumption was that, without the strong military presence of the Romans, Germanic tribes took swathes of the country by force which was soon followed by a massive migration. More recently, others have proposed that in fact, this was an ‘elite transfer’ of power from a handful of powerful men who imposed a new culture, language and custom on the native people of Britain from the top down.

It seems that the most likely event was actually somewhere between these two. Mass migration – particularly by sea – would have been logistically difficult, but numbers of men, women and children did make the arduous journey. Saxon culture did become the norm: whether through imposition or simply because there was little of British culture left after years of raids, attacks and chaos.

A map charting Anglo Saxon migration in the 5th century.

Forming a new identity

There was already a permeation of Germanic culture in many of the trading ports of the south-east of Britain. The prevailing theory now is that a gradual cultural shift occurred in the place of a dwindling Roman presence.

The stronger and more immediate Germanic influence, coupled with a gradual migration of smaller groups of mainland Europeans, led to the eventual formation of an Anglo-Saxon Britain – divided into the kingdoms of Mercia, Northumbria, East Anglia and Wessex along with other smaller polities.

For 600 years the Anglo-Saxons came to dominate England. This period of English history has sometimes been perceived as one of little cultural development and the Anglo-Saxons as an unsophisticated people. However, there is plenty of evidence to negate this view, as Dr Janina Ramirez explains.

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This does not mean that the Saxons never clashed with the Britons. Records show that some enterprising Saxons, like the aforementioned group in 408, who aimed to take land by force, encountered fierce resistance. Some of these raids did succeed, creating a foothold in certain areas of the island of Britain, but there is little evidence to suggest a full scale invasion.

The Anglo-Saxons were a mixture of many different peoples, and the term itself is a hybrid, one which references the gradual unification of multiple different cultures to produce something new. The Angles and the Saxons, of course, but also other Germanic tribes including the Jutes, as well as the native Britons. It took several hundred years of kingdoms expanding, shrinking, fighting and assimilating before any form of widespread cultural practices began to take hold, and even then regional differences remained.