Views Of The Anglo Saxons And Vikings

The withdrawal of the Roman legions in the early 5th century left Britain less well defended against invaders from Scotland and those from the sea routes.

- David Villanueva

These sea borne invaders consisted of bands of Angles, Jutes and Saxons, who had designs on plunder and rich agricultural lands. They continually raided the South and East coasts as they had done under the Romans.

From about AD 450 they settled in small independent communities, supplied by sea from their homelands. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells us the Jutes, led by the brothers Hengist and Horsa, were invited to assist the native Britons repel the invading northern Scots and Picts, in exchange for food, money and land (Fig.1). This arrangement worked well until the Jutes decided conquest was preferable to servitude and joined forces with the Picts and Scots against the Britons. The Jutes took the land of Kent, Southern Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

Meanwhile the Angles and Saxons colonised the East and South coasts, spreading westwards and northwards until by AD 600 only Cornwall, Devon, Cumbria, Scotland and Wales remained of the old British or Celtic kingdoms (Fig.2). The Angles, Saxons and Jutes were neighbours in their Germanic homeland with similar cultures and for simplicity I will call them all AngloSaxons. They probably understood the Roman civilisation, but fiercely rejected the model as unsuited to their agricultural communities and way of life. As the migrants advanced, they sacked and burned the old Roman towns and villas, massacring or enslaving the Britons.