The Coming of the English

Where do the words Anglo-Saxon, English and England come from?

The words ‘English’ and ‘England’ come from the Anglo-Saxon peoples. The Anglo-Saxons were not a single people, and may not have been even a formal confederation originally. primarily made up of Jutes from Jutland where they are still called Jutes in that area, the Engle or Angles from Angeln in Denmark, also called the ‘Anglii’ (Latin for Engle,) by the Roman historian Tacitus, and the Seax, named after the formidable fighting knife of the same name, who came from Saxony Elbe-Weser region in Germany. Smaller number of Frisians came from the small islands in the North Sea.There were also Jutes from the lower Rhineland, and Swabians, Franks and Alamanni. However the Anglian and Saxon tribes were the most prominent. These tribes called the Anglii-Saxones by Paul The Deacon to cover a single ‘insular Germanic’ identity, or Saxons (after the dominant tribe,) for short in more modern times. They were a formidable set of three North Sea Germanic tribes. From this combination of tribes we get an evolution through the words Engle, Angles, Anglii, - or Englisc, Anglisc which were apart of the Nerthus-Worshipping peoples mentioned in Tacitus’s Germania. Anglii (the Latin version of the word Engle,) is the earliest recorded form of the folk-name which gave rise to ‘Eng’ in England. However, the people called themselves Anglisc (Angle-ish, Anglian) and the national identity was assumed under the heading Anglisc or Englisc, ‘English’. The people gave their name to their territory, thus the Englisc gave their name to Englalond (England). Englisc was used from the time of Alfred the Great onwards to describe both in the sense of ‘Englishman’ and as meaning the English language. A mixture of terms are used in these articles.

Dateline 449 to 937 AD

The period of the invasion of Britain by the English and the subsequent conquest of the land covers some 500 years. It stretches from 449 AD and the Coming of the English or ‘Adventus Saxonum,’ to the Battle of the Five Armies, or The Battle of Brunanburgh in 937 AD. This battle was so decisive that it lead to the Formation of England, a battle on such a scale it is like something out of Tolkeins The Lord of the Rings.

Early English History Timeline 410 AD to 1066 AD

This dateline is a recognisable period to define the ‘Coming of the English’ and their settlement in England. It defines the English as a people.

Background and Evidence to the 'Coming of the English'

We the English people did not come into being here in Britain. Our story and our history has its beginnings across the North Sea, or what is now Southern Denmark, they, our kin (Cynn,) or Old English continued for many generations after the first arrival of the long cyul (keel,) boats carrying the first war bands of Anglo-Saxon raiders to this Island in the 3rd, 4th and 5th centuries AD, so it would seem natural for us their kin to look to the North West Continent as our homeland, to the lands at the neck of the Jutland peninsula and to the Frisian Islands, and of Northern Germany and Holland – modern England is effectively ‘New England’, since that other, older ‘England’ across the North Sea was our earliest home. History of that Old England is known from Denmark and includes stories of King Offa I and his great sword Steadfast. Yet the sea was a natural ground for exploration too.

They were used to the North Sea and had ‘cyul’ (keel) boats similar to Viking long ships. In fact the Anglo-Saxons were hardened sea farers long before the Vikings. They fished (hence ‘Angling,’) and raided along the North Sea and are said to have reached Northern Spain. To reach Britain would have taken a short time. And the sea routes were well known. The people who occupied Britain were the Brythons.

A map of the first England - AD449

Evidence to Adventus Saxonem (or Saxonum)

The acquisition of land and, ultimately, political mastery of lowland Britain by the Anglo-Saxons is a much-debated subject, and the image conveyed by such emotive terms, found even in quite sober works, as Anglo-Saxon invaders or ‘raids of the Saxon Pirates’ and the like, is of marauding bands of bloodthirsty cut-throats roaming aimlessly through the ungoverned and unprotected post-Roman countryside murdering and pillaging at will. Finally tiring of this strenuous life, they are then supposed to settle down to farm, turning their swords into ploughshares and raising broods of warlike sons whose inherent aggression leads them to begin the process all over again.

There are, however, no eyewitness accounts of an Anglo-Saxon (English,) invasion of Britain, or at least as far as I know of, from people who were there at the time. We have the writing of Gildas, who may have lived through it, and the entries in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles to go by, but these were written years after the events. The English Conquest is argued against or for by various people. Those against tend to propose a ‘Celtic’ Britain. They propose that the Anglo-Saxons melted and mixed into the Celtic peoples. Yet the word Celt was never used by any of this time as it was a word which was invented in 1829, deriving itself from a Greek word. It and its people are a myth. The only people who were in any way related to Iberian Celts now are the Basques from Southern France. The truth is I am afraid more brutal. 90% of the Brython males ‘disappeared’ at the onslaught of the Anglo-Saxons. A study in May 2003 by UCL has shown that during the period of the Englisc invasions of Britain a 50-100 % change in the DNA was observed. Major archaeological change occurred. A distinct Germanic Y Chromosome was introduced. The people who occupied this Island at the time and who were the targets of the Anglo-Saxons were the Brythons Scots and Picts. The Anglo-Saxons called the Brythons the ‘Welsh’ which means ‘foreigner’ or ‘slave’ in Englisc. Some Romans would also have remained. They are thus known as the Romano-Brythons

Yet as I have said there is no eyewitness factual basis for such a picture of defenceless Romanic-Brythons driven like sheep before the English Sea Wolves. Though there is strong evidence of a rapid and total replacement of Brythonic (An ancient British language,) by the various Germanic tongues in the low lands, beginning in East Anglia and a long the Thames valley and spreading quickly North and West.

There is only one known account of the Englisc Conquest, from a Native Romanic-Brython who may have lived through that time Gildas (c. 494 or 516 – c. 570) was a prominent member of the Brython Christian church in Britain, whose renowned learning and literary style earned him the designation Gildas Sapiens (Gildas the Wise). He describes the reaction of the Romano-Brythons to the repeated attacks by Gildas describes the sacking of Southern Britain by the Anglo-Saxons thus:

“For the fire…spread from sea to sea, fed by hands of our foes in the east, and did not cease, until, destroying the neighbouring towns and lands, it reached the other side of the island, and dipped its red and savage tongue in the western ocean. In these assaults…all the columns were levelled with the ground by the frequent strokes of the battering-ram, all the husbandmen routed, together with their bishops, priests, and people, whilst the sword gleamed, and the flames crackled around them on every side. Lamentable to behold, in the midst of streets lay the tops of lofty towers, tumbled to the ground, stones of high walls, holy alters, fragments of human bodies, covered with livid clots of coagulated blood, looking as if they had been squeezed together in a press; and with no chance of being buried, save in ruins of the houses, or in ravening bellies of wild beasts and birds; with reverence be it spoken for their blessed souls, if, indeed, there were many found who were carried, at that time, into the high heaven by the holy angels…some, therefore, of the miserable remnant, being taken in the mountains, were murdered in great numbers; others, constrained by famine, came and yielded themselves to be slaves for ever to their foes, running the risk of being instantly slain, which truly was the greatest favour that could be offered them: some others passed beyond the seas with loud lamentations instead of the voice of exhortation…others, committing the safeguard of their lives, which were in continual jeopardy, to the mountains, precipices, thickly wooded forests, and to the rocks of the seas (albeit with trembling hearts), remained still in their country.”

It may seem disturbing to some that their English roots lay in such violence and bloodshed. A conquered Britain. A Brythonic people reduced to a ‘miserable remnant’. But war of this time as fought for land not economic gain. The Anglo-Saxon tribes would have been used to fighting enemies far more numerous and tougher than the Brythons. They would have fought with incredible stamina and tenacity and were some of the fastest marching warriors in history. They would have been more homogenous than the varied Brythonic tribes and would have had the ethos and tactics to match. The Anglo-Saxons could ‘punch above their weight.’ This type of warfare is not to be applauded, but it illustrates that eventually, as these articles will show, the land became England

Why did the Anglo-Saxons Invade?

To understand this time in our history, we have to understand the uncertain state of the whole of what was the Western Roman Empire, or the collapse of that Western Empire. At the time, around the late 300’s to the early-mid 400’s AD, the political power of the Roman world had or was shifting to the Eastern half of that Empire, and Constantinople, what is now Istanbul in Turkey where most if not all the Administration and Military power of Rome had shifted leaving the Western half more or less to fend for its self.

During this period of uncertainty and turmoil, whole peoples were on the move, with Eastern European peoples were moving west looking for more land and subjugating tribes as they went, thus the tribal peoples of Germania, in response moved further west coming into conflict with other Germanic Tribes and those who were trying to keep hold of there Roman way of life in Gaul (France,) invaded by the Franks a Germanic tribe and into other old Roman Provinces.

At this same time Northern peoples were moving into the lands of the Angles, Saxons, Frisian’s and into the Jutland Peninsula. These invasions were driven by the movement West of peoples from the Eastern European lands, which would in any circumstances bring tribes and whole nations into conflict with each other.

Thus in the same period the Engle (Angles,) Seax (Saxons,) Frisian’s and Jutes were having to look for new lands, which led to small raids by war bands on the Eastern coast-line of the Province of Britannia which by the mid 400’s AD was abandoned by its Roman Mother. Such was the frequency of the attacks that a line of Saxon Shore Forts (litus Saxomincum,) was built along the South coast of what is now England (and the Northern coasts of Gaul,) by the Romans to help defend against these Germanic Sea Wolves. The forts were commanded by a Romano-Brython Count. With these North Sea tribes used to raiding Britain, and under pressure themselves, it would only take a catalyst for the invasion to happen.

The Englisc Invade

The collapse of Roman power in Britain saw the last Roman Legions leave in around 410 AD. This left Britain occupied by retired Roman soldiers and their mercenaries, and the Brythons. The land was thus vulnerable to raids by the Scottish tribes and the Picts who were two different people from the North. The Englisc also came with increasing frequency and ferocity leading to Roman defences along the coastline called the Saxon Shore forts. So when the Englisc came to Britain in the Fifth Century, they were no strangers to the Island. The Romans had used them and their military prowess as warriors as auxiliaries or mercenaries if you like, which were paid and equipped by the Roman Army during their service, after their service usually twenty five years, they would be given land within the province they were discharged in and they would settle as a colonist, marrying and having children, so we could say that Englisc blood has been here long before the Englisc War Bands came as invaders. The Brythons actually had a name for these mercenaries - ‘the foderati’.

After the final departure of the Romans, the Englisc began arriving in a series of numerous but unconnected expeditions. Many of these adventurers probably came direct from Frisia or Lower Saxony or Schleswig (Angeln), or Jutland. For centuries, land-hungry tribes had been constantly moving out of Scania (Scandinavia,) and Asia Westward across Europe; the Northern provinces took the weight of the first attacks, but with the end of the fourth century it was Britain’s turn. The catalyst was provided by the Brythons themselves. They in fact ‘invited’ the Anglo-Saxons to their land.