Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain

This article is part of the series:
Anglo-Saxon society and culture
People
Settlement Women History
Language
Language Literature Runes
Material culture
Architecture Art Burial Coins Dress Glass Weaponry
Power and organization
Charters Government Law Monarchs and kingdoms Warfare Military
Religion
Christianisation Christianity Paganism
v t e

The settlement of Great Britain by diverse Germanic peoples led to the development of a new Anglo-Saxon cultural identity and shared Germanic language, Old English, which was most closely related to Old Frisian on the other side of the North Sea. The first Germanic speakers to settle permanently are likely to have been soldiers recruited by the Roman administration, possibly already in the fourth century or earlier. In the early fifth century, after the end of Roman rule in Britain and the breakdown of the Roman economy, larger numbers arrived and their impact upon local culture and politics increased.

Many questions remain about the scale, timing and nature of the Anglo-Saxon settlements, and also about what happened to the previous residents of what is now England. The available evidence includes not only the scant written record, which tells of a period of violence, but also the archaeological and genetic information. Furthermore, British Celtic languages had very little impact on Old English vocabulary, and this suggests that a large number of Germanic-speakers became important relatively suddenly. On the basis of such evidence it has even been argued that large parts of what is now England were cleared of prior inhabitants. However, a view that gained support in the late 20th century suggests that the migration involved relatively few individuals, possibly centred on a warrior elite, who popularized a non-Roman identity after the downfall of Roman institutions. This hypothesis suggests a large-scale acculturation of natives to the incoming language and material culture. In support of this, archaeologists have found that, despite evidence of violent disruption, settlement patterns and land use show many continuities with the Romano-British past, despite profound changes in material culture.^[1]

A major genetic study in 2022 which used DNA samples from different periods and regions demonstrated that there was significant immigration from the area in or near what is now northwestern Germany, and also that these immigrants intermarried with local Britons. These studies indicate that in both the early medieval period and the modern period there were large regional variations, with the genetic impact of immigration highest in the east and declining towards the west. This evidence supports a theory of large-scale migration of both men and women, beginning in the Roman period and increasing in the early medieval period until the 8th century. This sits alongside evidence of rapid acculturation, with early medieval individuals of both local or migrant ancestry being buried near each other in the same new ways.

One of the few written accounts of the period is by Gildas, who wrote in the early 6th century. His account influenced later works which became more elaborate and detailed, but which cannot be relied upon for this early period. He reported that a major conflict was triggered some generations before him, after a group of foreign Saxons was invited by the Romano-British leadership to help defend against raids from the Picts and Scots. After a long war, he reported that the Romano-British recovered control. Peace was restored, but Britain was now ruled by tyrants. It had internal conflicts instead of conflicts with foreigners, but because of foreigners it was still difficult for Britons to travel to some parts of England and Wales. He gives no other information about Saxons or other Germanic people before or after this specific conflict. No other local written records survive until much later. By the time of Bede, more than a century after Gildas, Anglo-Saxon kingdoms had come to dominate most of what is now modern England. Bede and other later Welsh and Anglo-Saxon authors apparently believed that the kingdoms of their time had always been distinctly Anglo-Saxon. However, many modern historians believe that the development of Anglo-Saxon culture and identity, and even its kingdoms, involved not only Germanic immigrants but also local British people and kingdoms.