1. Introduction

As you remember, the Anglo-Saxons began conquering Britain soon after the Romans left. Having come much earlier, as mercenaries, they decided to obtain the land which nobody seemed to rule. By the beginning of the 6^th century they had covered the territory of modern England having created a number of separate kingdoms.

We owe our knowledge of this period mainly to an English monk named Bede, who lived in the early 8^th century. His story of events in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum) has been proved generally correct by archaeological evidence.

In fact, there were several tribes. Bede suggests that:

• the people of the more northern kingdoms (East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria) belonged to the Angles, who derive their name from the peninsula of Angeln in Schleswig-Holstein (Germany).

• those of Essex, Sussex and Wessex were sprung from the Saxons, who came from the region of Old Saxony.

• those of Kent and southern Hampshire were from the tribe of the Jutes.

There were also Frisians but they are rarely mentioned separately. In custom the Kingdom of Kent presents the most remarkable contrasts with the other kingdoms, so Angles and Saxons had more in common. Still the term Angli Saxones seems to have first come into use by Latin writers on the continent. There can be little doubt, that there it was used to distinguish the inhabitants of Britain from the Old Saxons of the continent. That is, it meant "English Saxons"; however, in later times it was commonly understood as a combined form "Angles and Saxons". It is still a matter of debate as to whether the term "Anglo-Saxon" can be used as a synonym for ethnic or racial groups who lived and live in England.

However, we still can speak about Anglo-Saxon culture and Anglo-Saxon England, that is PRE-NORMAN. The history of Anglo-Saxon England is the history of early medieval England from the end of Roman Britain and the establishment of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the 5th century until the Conquest by the Normans in 1066.

The population of Britain in 400 is unknowable, but is estimated, based on land usage, to have been around 4 million. It is considered unlikely that such a large population was significantly killed or displaced. The idea of the British population adopting Anglo-Saxon culture is very popular and is used to stress the ethnic unity of all the people inhabiting the isles.

Genetic studies are applied to put an end to the idea of the "Celtic fringe" of Scotland, Ireland and Wales. They do their best to show that the majority of Britons are Celts descended from Spanish tribes who began arriving about 7,000 years ago. Even in England, about 64 per cent of people are descended from these Celts, outnumbering the descendants of Anglo-Saxons by about three to one.

The proportion of Celts is only slightly higher in Scotland, at 73 per cent. Wales is the most Celtic part of mainland Britain, with 83 per cent. In Scotland, the majority of people are not actually Scots, but Picts. Even in Argyll, the stronghold of the Irish Scots, two-thirds of members of the Oisin clan are Pictish Celts. But what does it mean if there is no culture to inherit?

The incoming tribes of Germanic origin were initially rooted in the south of Scandinavia and the northern part of modern Germany. When they began to migrate and spread they conquered many peoples in Europe. It is said that Germanic peoples were often quick to assimilate into foreign cultures. England is similarly considered an example of assimilation, where elements of the culture of the migrating Angles, Saxons and Jutes merged with that of the indigenous Celtic speaking Britons, resulting in an English identity for the inhabitants of that land.

The strength of Anglo-Saxon culture is obvious even today. Days of the week were named after Germanic gods. New place-names appeared on the map. Some of them show that the earliest Saxon villages, like the Celtic ones, were family villages. The ending -ing meant folk or family, thus "Reading" is the place of the family of Rada, "Hastings" of the family of Hasta. Ham means farm, ton means settlement. Birmingham, Nottingham or Southampton, for example, are Saxon place-names. Because the Anglo-Saxon kings often established settlements, Kingston is a frequent place-name.

Larger distinctive kingdoms shaped in the 6^th century are known as the Heptarchy, as they were seven, which eventually merged to become the basis for the Kingdom of England; these were Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex and Wessex. By the middle of the 7th century the three largest kingdoms, those of Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex, were the most powerful.

More recent scholarship has shown that a number of other kingdoms were politically important across this period: Hwicce, Magonsaete, Lindsey and Middle Anglia. There were also non-Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, such as Strathclyde, Rheged and Elmet.

Throughout the 7th and 8th century power fluctuated between the larger kingdoms. Bede records Aethelbert of Kent as being dominant at the close of the 6th century, but power seems to have shifted northwards to the kingdom of Northumbria, which was formed from the amalgamation of Bernicia and Deira. Edwin probably held dominance over much of Britain, though Bede's Northumbria bias should be kept in mind. Succession crises meant Northumbrian hegemony was not constant, and Mercia remained a very powerful kingdom, especially under Penda. Two defeats essentially ended Northumbrian dominance: the Battle of the Trent (679) against Mercia, and Nechtanesmere (685) against the Picts.

The so-called 'Mercian Supremacy' dominated the 8th century, though again was not constant. Aethelbald and Offa, the two most powerful kings, achieved high status; indeed, Offa was considered the overlord of south Britain by Charlemagne. That Offa could summon the resources to build Offa's Dyke is testament to his power. However, a rising Wessex, and challenges from smaller kingdoms, kept Mercian power in check, and by the end of the 8th century the 'Mercian Supremacy', if it existed at all, was over. The power of Mercia did not survive after Offa's death. At that time, a king's power depended on the personal loyalty of his followers. After his death the next king had to work hard to rebuild these personal feelings of loyalty. Most people still believed, as the Celts had done, that a man's first duty was to his own family. However, things were changing. The Saxon kings began to replace loyalty to family with loyalty to lord and king.