Introduction

Abstract

The making of Britain is a process with no discernible beginning. Any starting point is arbitrary and at first sight the confused centuries between the fall of the Roman Empire in the early years of the fifth century and the Norman invasion of England in 1066 seem an unlikely place to start. For over six hundred years wave after wave of alien invaders — Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Scots from Ireland, Norwegians, Danes and French-speaking Normans — swept across England, Scotland and Wales; attacking, if not always conquering, indigenous populations, and overturning, if not always destroying, existing political, economic and social structures.