Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain
After the departure of the Romans (407) the Celts retained their independence for a short period of time. From the middle of the 5th century they were subject to the attacks of the Germanic tribes of the Jutes, the Saxon and the Angles. The Jutes and the Angles came from the Jutland peninsula (southern Denmark) and the Saxons from the territory between the Rhine and the Elbe rivers (northern Germany). By the 5th century the German tribes were expanding into the Roman Empire, as well as into Britain. The Angles, Saxons and Jutes turned their special attention to the British Isles.
At first they came to plunder. They would land from their boats, drive off and slay the cattle, seize the stores of corn, and be off again to sea before the Celts could attack them. But after some time they return again and again in larger numbers and began to conquer the country.
In 449 the Jutes landed in Kent and this was the beginning of the conquest. The British natives fought fiercely against the invaders and it took more than a hundred and 50 years for the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes to conquer the country. The Germanic tribes conquered the Roman provinces on the Continent without any serious resistance as the bulk of the population in the provinces occupied by the Roman welcomed the Germanic invaders as their liberators. But the British Celts were free at the time and their resistance was often stubborn and prolonged. In the South-East the Celts were soon overwhelmed, but in the western parts of the country they offered stout resistance for many years. Now and then the Celts won and the invaders were forced back. As a result Britain held out longer than the other provinces of the Roman Empire. It was only by the beginning of the 7th century that the invaders managed to conquer the greater part of the land.
The final refuge of the Cells was Cornwall and Wales - the mountainous districts of the West - and the northern part of the island (Scotland) where the Celts were still living in tribes and, later on, some independent states were formed. The Celts of Ireland remained independent too.
In the course of the conquest many of the Celts were killed, some were taken prisoners and made slaves or had to pay tribute to the conquerors. Some of the Celts crossed the sea to the North-West of France and settled in what was later on called Brittany after the Celtic tribes of Britons.
By the end of the 6th and the beginning of the 7th century several kingdoms were formed on the territory of Britain conquered by the Germanic tribes. Kent was set up by the Jutes in the South-East. In the southern and the south-eastern parts of the country the Saxons formed a number of kingdoms — Sussex (the land of the South Saxons), Wessex (the land of the West Saxons) and Essex (the land of the East Saxons). Farther north were the settlements of the Angles who had conquered the greater part of the country. In the North they founded Northumbria, which has left its name in the present county of Northumberland; Mercia was formed in the Middle, and East Anglia — in the East of England, north of the East Saxon kingdom. These kingdoms were hostile to one another and they fought constantly for supreme power in the country.
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The new conquerors brought new changes altogether different from those that had followed the conquest of the country by the Romans. The new settlers disliked towns preferring to live in small villages. In the course of the conquest they destroyed the Roman towns and villas. All the beautiful buildings and baths and roads were so neglected that they soon fell in ruins.
The Jutes, the Saxons and the Angles were closely akin in speech and customs. The name “Jute” soon died out and the conquerors were referred to as the Anglo-Saxons.
As a result of the conquest the Anglo-Saxons made up the majority of the population in Britain and their customs, religion and languages became predominant.
At first the Anglo-Saxons spoke various dialects but gradually the dialect of the Angles of Mercia became predominant. In the course of time all the people of Britain were referred to as the English after the Angles and the new name of England was given to the whole country. The Anglo-Saxon language, or English, has been the principal language of the country since then although it has undergone great change.
The conquest must have been ruthless in its character. The barbaric invaders not only annihilated all the remnants of Roman culture, they killed and plundered and laid the country waste.
Life in Anglo-Saxon village
The Anglo-Saxons came in family groups and in tribes with wives and children immediately following in the wake of the warriors with personal effects, household possessions and agricultural implements. The ancient organization of blood-relations as a social unit was beginning to decay since the military group was growing in importance through the military leader still surrounded himself with blood-relations: the migrants of kinship groups and tribes quickened this process of decay, since family groups were liable to be scattered and intermixed in the process. Besides, side by side with the family group appeared another unit of society, a territorial one – the village or the township as it was called. The prevailing form of landownership was characteristic of a free village community: land was common property.
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Most of the Anglo-Saxons settled far away from the Roman towns. They would find a suitable place in the valley of some river, where the soil was good and there was a good water supply. They often used the lands round the Roman villas, but as a rule they lived neither in the villas themselves nor in the Roman towns – they were essentially an agricultural people. Besides arable-farming, the Anglo-Saxons continued their old occupations of cattle-breeding, hunting and fishing.
Each village was self-sufficient, that is most of the necessities of life were produced in the village itself. The needs of the villagers were few and simple. Food, clothing and shelter were their basic needs. Arable-farming and cattle-breeding satisfied the needs of the people in the way of foodstuffs, clothing and footwear.
The peasants of the village formed a little society - a community. The land of the village belonged to the whole community and each villager had a right to a share of it. From the village meadows the members of the community had a share of hay to feed their cattle in winter-time, in the common forests they cut branches for winter-fuel; they grazed their cattle on the common pasture and fished in the rivers and lakes. However, harvest, cattle, implements of labour and the house with a garden round it were the villager's private property.
All the disputes of the community members were settled at the folk-moots. The community united the peasants as they used the pastures, meadows and forests in common, cultivated the land in one and the same way according to the old customs and tackled all other problems in common.
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