The Anglo-Saxons were a people who inhabited Great
Britain from the 5th century. They included people from Germanic tribes who
migrated to the southern half of the island from continental Europe, and their
descendants; as well as indigenous people who adopted the Anglo-Saxon culture
and language. The Anglo-Saxon period denotes the period of British history
after their initial settlement, until the Norman conquest, between about 450
and 1066.
The Anglo-Saxon
period includes the creation of an English Nation, with many of the aspects
that survive today including regional government of shires and hundreds; the
re-establishment of Christianity; a flowering in literature and language; and
the establishment of charters and law. The
term Anglo-Saxon is also used for the language, more correctly called Old
English, that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons in England and eastern
Scotland between at least the
mid 5th century and the mid 12th century.
The history of the
Anglo-Saxons is the history of a cultural identity, and how this developed from
divergent groups, grew with the adoption of Christianity, was used in the
establishment of various kingdoms, and, in the face of a threat from Danish
settlers, re-established itself as one identity until after the Norman Conquest. The outward appearance of Anglo Saxon
Culture can be seen in the material culture of buildings, dress styles,
illuminated texts and grave goods. Behind the symbolic nature of these cultural
emblems there are strong elements of tribal and lordship ties, and an elite
that became kings who developed burhs, and saw themselves and their people in
Biblical terms. Above all, as Helena Hamerow has observed, "local and
extended kin groups remained...the essential unit of production throughout the
Anglo-Saxon period".
Use of the term
Anglo-Saxon assumes that the words Angles, Saxons or Anglo-Saxon have the same
meaning in all the sources. Assigning ethnic labels such as
"Anglo-Saxon" is fraught with difficulties and the term itself only
began to be used in the 8th century to distinguish "Germanic" groups in
Britain from those on the continent.
The history of
Anglo-Saxons broadly covers early medieval Britain: from the end of Roman rule and the establishment of numerous
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the 5th century, until after the Norman conquest of
England in 1066, when Anglo-Saxon
culture began to fuse with Norman culture. A different structure to this
history was suggested by Norman Davies, who sees the period in terms of
"Germanico-Celtic Isles" - the period from the migration until the
first Viking raids - and "Isles in the West" - the period of
"Norseman" and Norman invasions. This provides an interpretation
structure for Anglo-Saxon period in Britain; one that is set in the context of
cultural and political links, both with the Celtic world around the Irish Sea
and the Norse and Danish world around the North Sea. However, the Anglo-Saxons
would continually interpretate their world in both biblical and classical
terms.
Around AD 400,
southern Britain – that is Britain below Hadrian’s Wall – was a peripheral part
of the Roman Empire in the west, occasionally lost to rebellion or invasion,
but until then always eventually recovered. Eventually around 410, Britain
slipped beyond direct imperial control into a phase which has generally been
termed "sub-Roman"
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