Chapter-2 Anglo-Saxon England

113 Pages·2011·6.61 MB·English

Revised Edition: 2016
ISBN 978-1-283-50908-4
© All rights reserved.
Published by:
The English Press
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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - Introduction to Anglo-Saxons
Chapter 2 - Anglo-Saxon England
Chapter 3 - Anglo-Saxon Settlement of Britain
Chapter 4 - Heptarchy
Chapter 5 - Viking Age
Chapter 6 - Danelaw and Alfred the Great
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Chapter-1
Introduction to Anglo-Saxons

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The parade helmet found at Sutton Hoo, probably belonging to Raedwald of East Anglia
circa 625. Based on a Roman parade-helmet design (of a general class known as
spangenhelm), it has decorations like those found in contemporary Swedish helmets
found at Old Uppsala (Collection of the British Museum)
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the invading Germanic tribes in
the south and east of Great Britain, from the early 5th century AD, and their creation of
the English nation, to the Norman conquest of 1066. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the
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period of English history between about 550 AD and the Norman conquest. The term is
also used for the language now called Old English, spoken and written by the Anglo-
Saxons and their descendants in much of what is now England and some of southeastern
Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century.
The Benedictine monk, Bede, writing in the early 8th century, identified the English as
the descendants of three Germanic tribes:
• The Angles, who may have come from Angeln (in modern Germany); Bede wrote
that their whole nation came to Britain, leaving their former land empty. The
name England (Old English: Engla land or Ængla land) originates from this tribe.
• The Saxons, from Lower Saxony (in modern Germany; German: Niedersachsen)
and the Low Countries.
• The Jutes, possibly from the Jutland peninsula (in modern Denmark; Danish:
Jylland).
Their language, Old English, derived from "Ingvaeonic" West Germanic dialects and
transformed into Middle English from the 11th century. Old English was divided into
four main dialects: West Saxon, Mercian, Northumbrian and Kentish.
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Etymology
The term Anglo-Saxon is from writings going back to the time of King Alfred the Great,
who seems to have frequently used the title rex Anglorum Saxonum or rex Angul-
Saxonum (king of the English Saxons).
The Old English terms ænglisc and Angelcynn ("Angle-kin", gens Anglorum) when they
are first attested had already lost their original sense of referring to the Angles, as distinct
from, the Saxons, and in their earliest recorded sense refers to the nation of Germanic
peoples who settled eastern Britain in and after the 5th century.
The indigenous British people, who wrote in both Latin and Welsh, referred to these
invaders as Saxones or Saeson – the latter is still used today in the Welsh word for
English people; in the Scottish Gaelic word for English people, saesonach; and in the
Irish word for English people, Sasanach.
The term Angli Saxones seems to have first been used in continental writing nearly a
century before Alfred's time by Paul the Deacon, historian of the Lombards, probably to
distinguish the English Saxons from the continental Saxons (Ealdseaxe, literally, "old
Saxons").
The Angles (Old English Engle, Angle) presumably took their name from their ancestral
home in Jutland, Angul (modern Angeln), an area shaped like a hook (cf. Old English
angel, angul "fishhook", anga "hook").
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Anglo-Saxon history
The history of Anglo-Saxon England broadly covers early medieval England from the
end of Roman rule and the establishment of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the 5th century
until the Conquest by the Normans in 1066.
Origins (AD 400–600)
Migration of Germanic peoples to Britain from what is now northern Germany, the
northern part of the Netherlands and southern Scandinavia is attested from the 5th
century (e.g. Undley bracteate). Based on Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum,
the intruding population is traditionally divided into Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, but their
composition was likely less clear-cut and may also have included Frisians and Franks.
Also, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle contains text that may be the first recorded indications
of the movement of these Germanic tribes to Britain.

Heptarchy (600–800)
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General locations of the Anglo-Saxon peoples circa AD 600
Christianisation of the Anglo-Saxons began in 597 and was at least nominally completed
in 686. Throughout the 7th and 8th centuries, power fluctuated between the larger
kingdoms. Bede records Aethelbert of Kent as being dominant at the close of the 6th
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century, but power seems to have shifted northwards to the kingdoms of Mercia and
Northumbria.
Aethelbert and some of the later kings of the other kingdoms were recognised by their
fellow kings as Bretwalda (ruler of Britain). The so-called 'Mercian Supremacy'
dominated the 8th century, though again it was not constant. Aethelbald and Offa, the
two most powerful kings, achieved high status. This period has been described as the
Heptarchy, though this term has now fallen out of academic use.
The word arose on the basis that the seven kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, Kent, East
Anglia, Essex, Sussex and Wessex were the main polities of south Britain. More recent
scholarship has shown that theories of the 'heptarchy' are not grounded in evidence, and it
is far more likely that power fluctuated between many more 'kingdoms'. Other politically
important 'kingdoms' across this period include: Hwicce, Magonsaete, Kingdom of
Lindsey and Middle Anglia.
Viking Age and the Norman Conquest (800–1066)
In the 9th century, the Viking challenge grew to serious proportions. Alfred the Great's
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victory at Edington, Wiltshire, in 878 brought intermittent peace, but with their
possession of Jorvik, the Danes gained a solid foothold in England.
An important development in the 9th century was the rise of the Kingdom of Wessex; by
the end of his reign Alfred was recognised as overlord by several southern kingdoms.
Æthelstan was the first king to achieve direct rule over what is considered "England".
Near the end of the 10th century, there was renewed Scandinavian interest in England,
with the conquests of Sweyn of Denmark and his son Cnut the Great. By 1066 there were
three lords with claims to the English throne, resulting in two invasions and the battles of
Stamford Bridge and Hastings. The latter, which heralded the Norman conquest of
England, resulted in the overthrow of the Anglo-Saxon polity and its replacement with
Norman rule.
After the Norman Conquest
Following the conquest, the Anglo-Saxon nobility were either exiled or joined the ranks
of the peasantry. It has been estimated that only about 8 per cent of the land was under
Anglo-Saxon control by 1087. Many Anglo-Saxon nobles fled to Scotland, Ireland, and
Scandinavia. The Byzantine Empire became a popular destination for many Anglo-Saxon
soldiers as the Byzantines were in need of mercenaries. The Anglo-Saxons became the
predominant element in the elite Varangian Guard, hitherto a largely Scandinavian unit,
from which the emperor's bodyguard was drawn and continued to serve the empire until
the early 15th century. However, the population of England at home remained largely
Anglo-Saxon; for them, little changed immediately except that their Anglo-Saxon lord
was replaced by a Norman lord.
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Culture
Architecture
Early Anglo-Saxon buildings in Britain were generally simple, not using masonry except
in foundations but constructed mainly using timber with thatch for roofing. Generally
preferring not to settle within the old Roman cities, the Anglo-Saxons built small towns
near their centres of agriculture, at fords in rivers or sited to serve as ports. In each town,
a main hall was in the centre, provided with a central hearth.
There are few remains of Anglo-Saxon architecture, with but one secular work remaining
above ground – a 10m. x 5m. houscarl's dwelling re-using local Roman materials. This is
still completely standing as an undivided single room with a single central north-facing
door, belonging to the Godwin estates, so can be dated 1018–1066. At least fifty churches
are of Anglo-Saxon origin, with many more claimed to be, in part from their dedication
to local Anglo-Saxon saints, although in some cases the Anglo-Saxon part is small and
much-altered. All surviving churches, except one timber church, are built of stone or
brick and in some cases show evidence of re-used Roman work.
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The character of Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical buildings ranges from Celtic influenced
architecture in the early period; basilica influenced Romanesque architecture; to in the
later Anglo-Saxon period, an architecture characterised by pilaster-strips, blank arcading,
baluster shafts and triangular headed openings.
Art

Anglo-Saxon jewelry

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The Pentney hoard
Anglo-Saxon art before roughly the time of Alfred (ruled 871–899) is mostly in varieties
of the Hiberno-Saxon or Insular style, a fusion of Anglo-Saxon and Celtic techniques and
motifs. The Sutton Hoo treasure is an exceptional survival of very early Anglo-Saxon
metalwork and jewellery, from a royal grave of the early 7th century. The period between
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Alfred and the Norman Conquest, with the revival of the English economy and culture
after the end of the Viking raids, saw a distinct Anglo-Saxon style in art, though one in
touch with trends on the Continent.
Anglo-Saxon art is mainly known today through illuminated manuscripts, including the
Benedictional of St. Æthelwold (British Library) and Leofric Missal (Oxford, Bodleian
Library, MS Bodl, 579), masterpieces of the late "Winchester style", which drew on
Hiberno-Saxon art, Carolingian art and Byzantine art for style and iconography, and
combined both northern ornamental traditions with Mediterranean figural traditions. The
Harley Psalter was a copy of the Carolingian Utrecht Psalter — which was a particular
influence in creating an Anglo-Saxon style of very lively pen drawings.
Manuscripts were far from the only Anglo-Saxon art form, but they have survived in
much greater numbers than other types of object. Contemporaries in Europe regarded
Anglo-Saxon goldsmithing and embroidery (Opus Anglicanum) as especially fine.
Perhaps the best known piece of Anglo-Saxon art is the Bayeux Tapestry which was
commissioned by a Norman patron from English artists working in the traditional Anglo-
Saxon style. The most common example of Anglo-Saxon art is coins, with thousands of
examples extant. Anglo-Saxon artists also worked in fresco, ivory, stone carving,
metalwork and enamel, but few of these pieces have survived.
Language
Old English, sometimes called Anglo-Saxon, was the language spoken under Alfred the
Great and continued to be the common language of England (non-Danelaw) until after
the Norman Conquest of 1066 when, under the influence of the Anglo-Norman language
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spoken by the Norman ruling class, it changed into Middle English roughly between
1150–1500.
Old English is far closer to early Germanic than Middle English. It is less Latinised and
retains many morphological features (nominal and verbal inflection) that were lost during
the 12th to 14th centuries. The languages today which are closest to Old English are the
Frisian languages, which are spoken by a few hundred thousand people in the northern
part of Germany and the Netherlands.
Before literacy in the vernacular Old English or Latin became widespread, a runic
alphabet, the futhorc, was used for inscriptions. When literacy became more prevalent, a
form of Latin script was used with a couple of letters derived from the futhorc: 'thorn' ‹þ›
and 'wynn' ‹ƿ› (generally replaced with ‹w› in modern reproductions).
The letters regularly used in printed and edited texts of Old English are the following:
• a æ b c d ð e f g h i l m n o p r s t þ u w x y
with only rareW occurrences of j, k, q, v, and z. T
Law
Very few law codes exist from the Anglo-Saxon period to provide an insight into legal
culture beyond the influence of Roman law and how this legal culture developed over the
course of time. The Saxons chopped off hands and noses for punishment (if the offender
stole something or committed another crime). If someone killed a Saxon, he had to pay
money called wergild, the amount varying according to the social rank of the victim.
Literature

First page of the epic Beowulf
Old English literary works include genres such as epic poetry, hagiography, sermons,
Bible translations, legal works, chronicles, riddles and others. In all there are about 400
surviving manuscripts from the period, a significant corpus of both popular interest and
specialist research.
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