The Anglo-Saxons (Christianity, the raids of the Danes, Alfred the Great)

The last Roman soldiers left Britain in 410. New people came in ships across the North Sea – the Anglo-Saxons. The Anglo-Saxon age in Britain was from around AD410 to 1066.

They were a mix of tribes from Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. The three biggest were the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes. The land they settled in was 'Angle-land', or England.

If we use the modern names for the countries they came from, the Saxons were German-Dutch, the Angles were southern Danish, and the Jutes were northern Danish.

For a long time the tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes fought with one another for supreme power.

Britain split up into seven kingdoms: Kent, Sussex, Essex, Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia, Northumbria.

The jutes landed in Kent (the south-east) somewhere in 450. They were followed by the Angles and the Saxons so that by the end of the 5^th century the greater part of the country (with the exception of Wales, Cornwall and Scotland) became occupied by the invaders. The Angles settled mainly to the north of the Thames, and quite soon the country began to be called “the land of the Angles”, later “England” and as you easily see England. The Saxons settled in the south, south-west and partially east forming the ancient Kingdoms of Wessex, Sussex and Essex. The Anglo-Saxons and Jutes were close to each other in speech and customs, and they gradually formed into one people referred as Anglo-Saxons.

The Anglo-Saxons lived in small villages. Round each village there was a ditch and an earthen wall with a wooden fence on top. The earthen wall and fence served to defend the village against robbers and wild beasts.

The Anglo-Saxons were tall, strong men, with blue eyes and long blond hair. They were dressed in tunics and cloaks which they fastened with a brooch above the right shoulder. On their feet they wore rough leather shoes. Their usual weapons were a spear and a shield. Some rich men had iron swords, which they carried at their left side. The women wore long dresses with wide sleeves. Their heads were covered with a hood.

In their villages the Anglo-Saxons bred cows, sheep and pigs. They ploughed the fields and grew wheat, rye or oats for bread and barley for beer.

Although the German invaders occupied most of the British Isles, certain areas remained unconquered. They were Wales, Cornwall, the northern part of Britain, Ireland. Many of the Celts who survived after the attacks of the Germanic tribes fled to these parts of the country. Thus Celtic culture continued to exist in the parts of Britain which were mentioned above. The northern part of Britain was the home of the Picts and Scots. After the conquest of the Picts by the Scots in the 9^th century this northern territory came to be called Scotland and a united Scottish Kingdom was formed in the 11^th century. In the course of a struggle of the Celts against the Anglo-Saxons many legends and stories came to light of which most are the Tales of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. The Anglo-Saxons were pagans and worshipped different gods. Their names are reflected in the names of the days of the week: Tiu (Tuesday) was the god of war, Woden (Wednesday) was the supreme god and the god of kings. Thor (Thursday) was the god of storm. Frigga (Friday), Woden’s wife was the goddess of nature and of love. Anglo-Saxons folklore, the greatest monument of which is The Poem of Beowulf created in the seventh century, reflected the life of the society and its traditions.

The Anglo-Saxons settled in small tribal villages or townships. Saxon villages consisted of about 20 to 30 families, all faithful to their leader. Local rules were made by the ‘moot’, which was a small meeting held on a grassy hill or under a tree. Sometimes it judged cases between the people of the village. The many villages were, as time went by, grouped into “hundreds”, and the “hundreds” were grouped into “shires”. Each “hundred” had an open-air court of justice, and the judges were called aldermen. Important cases were judged by the sheriff of shire or by a king’s representative called a reeve. These cases were discussed at a shire moot or meeting, which was a kind of local parliament which met usually twice a year. The King’s council was called the Witan, which was a kind of parliament of wise men. It could make laws and choose, or elect new kings.

The Saxon kingdoms fought one against the other, at times one kingdom would become stronger, then another, but at the beginning of the 9th century Wessex became the leading kingdom and united the rest of England in the fight against the Danes, who came from present-day Denmark. Since 829 the greater part of the country was united under the name England.

An important event which contributed to the unification of the country and the development of culture was the adoption of Christianity in England in 664. Christianity began to spread in England much earlier. It is connected with the name of St. Augustine who founded the Church of England in 597. Legend claims that Joseph of Arimathea, the uncle of Virgin Mary, brought Jesus to Britain when he was a boy of about 12, and that Jesus visited Britain as a young man and stayed some time at Glastonbury, where he put up for himself a small use of mud. No wonder Glastonbury has always been a place of Pilgrimage. Moreover, at Glastonbury you can see the Holy Thorn, a tree which according to legend was planted by Joseph of Arimathea when he came to Britain after Christ’s death. He planted a staff, which may have been used by Christ as a stick. The staff began to grow and eventually turned into a beautiful tree becoming widely known as the Holy Thorn. It blossoms twice a year in spring and at Christmas, and a bunch of flowers from the tree is sent to the Queen at Christmas every year. With the adoption of Christianity many churches and monasteries were built. Among them Glastonbury later became the largest abbey in Britain. The monasteries also served as centres of education in Wessex. But in the 9th century the country had to struggle with new invaders. They were the Danes who attacked England, and the Northmen from Scandinavia who invaded Scotland and Ireland.

At first they acted as pirates attacking the country and robbing it but later they came in great numbers conquering one territory after another. The kingdom of Wessex alone was left to resist them. It was lucky for Wessex to have a very talented king who organized the struggle against the Danes. This was Alfred who ruled from 871 to 901, and who eventually defeated the Danes making them sign a peace agreement. Though the country was divided into two parts - one under the Saxons, Saxons, and the other - the north-east - under the Danes, peace was won, and later the English took over the land occupied by the Danes. Danish influence is still felt in some place-names ending in -by, -toft such as Appleby or Lowestoft, as well as in the presence of some words in the English language. Alfred was also a great lawgiver and a patron of learning. He is considered to be the founder of the English fleet. He translated the Church history and parts of the Bible from Latin into Anglo-Saxon. He started the Famous Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which is the first history of England: it begins with the history of the early Britons. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was continued by various authors for 250 years after the death of Alfred.

Wales

By the eighth century most of the Celts had been driven into the Welsh peninsula. They were kept out of England by Offa's Dyke, the huge earth wall built in ad 779. These Celts, called Welsh by the Anglo-Saxons, called themselves cymry, " fellow countrymen".

Because Wales is a mountainous country, the cymry could only live in the crowded valleys. The rest of the land was rocky and too poor for anything except keeping animals. For this reason the population remained small. It only grew to over half a million in the eighteenth century. Life was hard and so was the behaviour of the people. Slavery was common, as it had been all through Celtic Britain.

Society was based on family groupings, each of which owned one or more village or farm settlement. One by one in each group a strong leader made himself king. These men must have been tribal chiefs to begin with, who later managed to become overlords over neighbouring family groups. Each of these kings tried to conquer the others, and the idea of a high, or senior, king developed.

The early kings travelled around their kingdoms to remind the people of their control. They travelled with their hungry followers and soldiers. The ordinary people ran away into the hills and woods when the king's men approached their village.

Life was dangerous, treacherous and bloody. In 1043 the king of Glamorgan died of old age. It was an unusual event, because between 949 and 1066 no less than thirty-five Welsh rulers died violently, usually killed by a cymry, a fellow countryman.

In 1039 Gruffyddap (son of) Llewelyn was the first Welsh high king strong enough to rule over all Wales. He was also the last, and in order to remain in control he spent almost the whole of his reign fighting his enemies. Like many other Welsh rulers, Gruffydd was killed by a cymry while defending Wales against the Saxons. Welsh kings after him were able to rule only after they had promised loyalty to Edward the Confessor, king of England. The story of an independent and united Wales was over almost as soon as it had begun.

Ireland

Ireland was never invaded by either the Romans or the Anglo-Saxons. It was a land of monasteries and had a flourishing Celtic culture. As in Wales, people were known by the family grouping they belonged to. Outside their tribe they had no protection and no name of their own. They had only the name of their tribe. The kings in this tribal society were chosen by election. The idea was that the strongest man should lead. In fact the system led to continuous challenges.

Five kingdoms grew up in Ireland: Ulster in the north, Munster in the southwest, Leinster in the southeast, Connaught in the west, with Tara as the seat of the high kings of Ireland.

Christianity came to Ireland in about ad 430. The beginning of Ireland's history dates from that time, because for the first time there were people who could write down events. The message of Christianity was spread in Ireland by a British slave, Patrick, who became the " patron saint" of Ireland. Christianity brought writing, which weakened the position of the Druids, who depended on memory and the spoken word. Christian monasteries grew up, frequently along the coast.

This period is often called Ireland's " golden age". Invaders were unknown and culture flowered. But it is also true that the five kingdoms were often at war, each trying to gain advantage over the other, often with great cruelty.

This " golden age" suddenly ended with the arrival of Viking raiders, who stole all that the monasteries had. Very little was left except the stone memorials that the Vikings could not carry away.

The Vikings, who traded with Constantinople (now Istanbul), Italy, and with central Russia, brought fresh economic and political action into Irish life. Viking raids forced the Irish to unite. In 859 Ireland chose its first high king, but it was not an effective solution because of the quarrels that took place each time a new high king was chosen. Viking trade led to the first towns and ports. For the Celts, who had always lived in small settlements, these were revolutionary. Dublin, Ireland^'s future capital, was founded by the Vikings.

As an effective method of rule the high kingship of Ireland lasted only twelve years, from 1002 to 1014, while Ireland was ruled by Brian Boru. He is still looked back on as Ireland^'s greatest rule. He tried to create one single Ireland, and encouraged the growth of organisation - in the Church, in administration, and in learning.

Brian Boru died in battle against the Vikings. One of the five Irish kings, the king of Leinster, fought on the Viking^'s side. Just over a century later another king of Leinster invited the Normans of England to help him against high king. This gave the Normans the excuse they wanted to enlarge their kingdom.