Anglo-Saxon Invasion of Britain History
In the 5th century AD, Britain was the last bastion of Celtic culture in Europe. But even this island stronghold would soon be under threat, and the Britons of the Age of Arthur would soon find themselves swept up in an era of chaos, invasion, heroism, and loss. That same year, the crippled Empire pulled the last of their legions out of Britain, never to return, and for the first time in400 years, all of Albion, for better or worse, was free.
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Anglo-Saxon Invasion of Britain History |
Ancient Origins of the Celts
From Cornwall to the Forth-Clyde, the language of Queen Boudicca survived as a variety of P-Celtic dialects broadly classified as “CommonBrythonic.” Meanwhile, the Q-Celtic tongue of Gaelic continued to thrive in Ireland. Finally, in the Scottish Highlands, the Pictshowled their war cries with words that distantly related to the tongues to their South.
It is also likely that in more urbanized areas, a form of Latin was still in use as one of the many remnants of Britain's recent Imperial past. Indeed, many Britons had grown exceedingly accustomed to Roman comforts and those habits persisted even after Rome’s departure. But how ‘Roman’ was sub-Roman Britain?
Robin Fleming, author of Britain after Rome, poignantly describes this post-Imperial world to us: “In the year 420, there were still people in Britain who had been born in a world shaped by the structure of Empire, people whose early lives had been ordered by Rome’s material culture.
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There were those whose childhood dinners had been served on pewter and glass and middle-aged men who had been raised in heated villas.” Britain had once been connected to a continent-spanning Empire whose infrastructure brought them the luxuries of Italy, Egypt, and Syria, allowing many Romanized Britons to enjoy an aristocratic station in countryside villas and wealthy cities.
But when Rome left, so too did the means to make this way of life possible. Archaeological evidence suggests that in the the5th century, the old world order began rapidly collapsing, as former Roman cities either drastically shrunk in size or became ghost towns, while the majority of the island villas were abandoned.
As Romanitas decayed, older Celtic traditions emerged from its carcass. Some Britons seem to have moved back into ancient Celtic hill forts, which had stood abandoned for centuries during Roman rule. This massive shift in the standard of living probably hit the south and east the hardest.
The transition was probably easier for the Britons of the north and the west, who had never been particularly Romanized. It also stands to reason that the Picts and Gaels, who for the most part had always been on the outside looking in, experienced barely any change to their daily lives in this era.
However, we should be mindful of the possibility that the Roman lifestyle did not vanish from Britain as quickly as previously thought. The archaeological record suggests that in the 5th century, traders from as far away as Byzantium and North Africa still braved the long journey, most likely due to the Islands’ valuable tin deposits.
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It, therefore, is likely that, for a time, some romano-Britons used this limited foreign trade to maintain a pale imitation of Roman life. Material culture was not the only aspect of a Celtic society undergoing a metamorphosis. In centuries past, Roman Britain had been a land of many gods. Native Celtic deities were worshipped alongside eco-Latin ones, while Gods from the furthest edge of the known world established mystery cults in Britain.
These included Isis, an Egyptian goddess, and Mithras, an Iranian god who became popular among Romano-British soldiers. However, by far the most successful religion the Romans introduced to Britain was that of the Levantine carpenter. Christianity arrived on the isle as early as the 200sAD, and by the time Rome abandoned Britain, had become the dominant religion.
While the cross spread rapidly through the British isles, those who lived there never truly forgot their polytheist roots. Even under the pressure of increasing Christianzealotry, pagan cults probably survived throughout and beyond the 5th century. There may even have been some Druidic circles still practicing their occult rites in secluded groves, longing for a return of the old ways.
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Many Celts also incorporated the rituals of their ancestors into their new Christian lives. One example of this lies in Ireland, where the Spring Goddess Brigid was rebranded as the exalted St. Brigid, patron of Ireland. Her feast day coincides with Imbolc, a pagan festival celebrating the coming of Spring.
Other pagan rites survived Christianizationas well, such as the balefires of Beltane and Samhain, where Brythonic and Gaelic peoples alike would thin the lines between themselves and the otherworld, known either as Annwnor Tír na nÓg: the land where the faerie folk dwelled. In the wake of Roman departure, Britain became a patchwork of petty kingdoms.
Remarkably, many of these Kingdoms appear to have been formed upon pre-Roman tribal lines, as ancient iron-age identities re-emerged. Most of these realms are poorly represented in the historical record, but others, such as Powys, Dumnonia, Gwynedd, and Strathclydeare better attested to under having endured well into the middle ages, as opposed to the ones extinguished much earlier on by a certain wave of Germanic migrations.
Our main primary source on the wars of this era comes from an early 6th-century monk known as Gildas. His work, titled De Excidio et Conquestu Britaaniae, or “On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain”, tells a vivid story of chaos and invasions. De Excidio was not written by a trained historian, but by a devout Christian, clergyman writing a religious polemic.
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