Saxons, Vikings and Celts, ad 400–1066

Abstract

The fifth century is an especially obscure period. It is far from clear how far continuity or discontinuity should be stressed between Roman and post-Roman Britain. In particular, it is unclear how far there were large-scale movements of people or invasions by smaller warrior groups. The invaders attacked eastern and southern England. The Jutes established themselves in Kent, the Isle of Wight and parts of Hampshire, the Saxons elsewhere in southern England, the Angles further north. Barbarian progress was, however, resisted, for longer and more successfully than in France, Spain or Italy, although resistance was gravely handicapped by internal divisions. Resistance may have been greater because there was more at stake for the Romano-British elite: the assimilation with invaders that characterised France, for example, was absent. In about 500 the Romano-Britons possibly won a major battle under Artorius (Arthur) at Mons Badonicus, and it is possible that a large hall at the hillfort at South Cadbury was the feasting hall of a warrior of the period, the basis of the legend of Arthur’s Camelot.