The Anglo-Saxon Conquest of Celtic Britain (Germanic tribes)

In the 5^th century the Angles, Saxons (Anglo-Saxons), and Jutes raided Britain from what is now northern Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands (Holland), occupied the eastern shores, the north Midlands, and parts of southern Scotland. The Germanic tribes were warlike and quite illiterate, but their influence on the Celtic culture was great.

According to the writings of Venerable Bede, an English monk, barbaric Teutonic tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes were making raids against the Romano-British throughout the fifth and sixth centuries. The British Celts tried to check (resist) the Germanic tribes, and that was a period of the half-legendary King Arthur and his knights of Round Table who defended Christianity against the heathen Anglo-Saxons.

Professor John Davies and A.W. Wade-Evans believe that the Saxons did not sweep away the entire population of the Celtic Britons (Romano-British population) in the areas they overran, as was supposed by 19^th century historians. Analysis of human remains unearthed at an ancient cemetery near Abingdon, England, indicates that Saxon immigrants and native Britons lived side-by-side. Probably, a majority of British people were dominated politically by new elite. They were swamped culturally but not genetically.

The British (Romanized) Celts fought the raiders as well as they could. Finally most were (fled) driven into the mountains in the far west, with them fled their culture, language and Christianity. Anglo-Saxons controlled the central part of Britain which was described as England. The West the Saxons called “Weallas”, or “Wales”, meaning “the land of the foreigners”. And the King Offa of Mercia (757-796) built a huge dyke, or earth wall, Offa’s Dyke, the length of the Welsh border to keep out the troublesome Celts. These invaders introduced a new culture to Britain and even today British customs and habits are described as “Anglo-Saxon”.

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