The Anglo-Saxons

When the Roman Empire began to break up, the legions were called back from its frontiers to cope with threats at its heart, at the continent.

Britain had always depended for its existence on the Roman Army: legions kept at bay the barbarians on the other side of Hadrian's wall the fleet patrolled the Channel warding off invaders from the continental mainland it also provided and secured the system of government, law and order,

The Collapse of Roman Britain: Once the army and the fleet were gone, Britain was left unprotected and devoid of any central authority.

“A worse consequence of the Roman withdrawal, from the historian’s point of view, is the closing down the records as to what happened, the scantiness of any written evidence; these were truly enough, the Dark Ages”.

The Dark Ages Dark because a whole civilisation disintegrated Dark also because our knowledge of what actually took place is very fragmentary

Sources of Historical Information: Written Monuments: The History of the English Church and People, written by the Venerable Bede (d. 735) The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, started c. 892 in the reign of King Alfred Archeology

At Sutton Hoo in east Suffolk the grave of a Saxon king was uncovered in 1939. The vast burial mound concealed a great open rowing ship with space for forty oarsmen and a steersman It might be the burial of the East Anglian King Redwald who died in 624 or 625.

Into the wood cabin amidships had been placed the king's treasure including his helmet made of iron and covered with tinned decorative plates, the features gilded.

Also found were golden shoulder clasps and a purse, all set with garnets and mille fiori glass.

The Anglo-Saxons, who were made up of various tribes, coming from an area between the mouths of the rivers Rhine and Elbe, started attacking Britain since the IVc. (A group of them was called Engle and from that came the word England).

Ambrosius Aurelianus victory over the Anglo-Saxons: - many of the native population either fled across the Channel (hence the name 'Brittany' in France) - or into the the mountain regions of Wales. Even today the Welsh and Breton languages are very similar.

THE ARTHURIAN MYTH Arthur was supposed to have been the native leader ( like Ambrosius Aurelianus). All that has ever been written about him rests upon a few stories written hundreds of years after the events. The first written account was by a monk writing c. 900 . From this time the myth began to grow, with the addition of the Knights of the Round Table, Camelot and others

Arthurian legends act as a guide to the times in which they were written. Many of them contain important themes from different cultures and religions. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the chivalrous deeds and courtly love themes of Arthur and his knights were embellished to fit in with the activities of the court.

the Saxons settled from Essex to Wessex By the middle of the fifth century the Angles, Saxons and Jutes settled in England: the Jutes in Kent the Angles in Norfolk and Suffolk (hence its regional name of East Anglia) and westwards, the Saxons settled from Essex to Wessex

Way of life Anglo-Saxons lived in villages, they didn’t have towns Each village was self-sufficient, that is, most of the necessities of life were produced in the village itself Their basic needs were few and simple: food, clothing and shelter Arable-farming and cattle-breeding satisfied the needs of the people in the way of foodstuffs, clothing and footwear.

Natural economy a system under which every village was self-sufficient and produced all the necessities of life for consumption and not for sale, predominated in Britain in early medieval times There was very little trading, no shops. The villagers had little or no money, and very little need for it, since they themselves produced most of what they wanted Roads were very poor, people didn’t travel

Agriculture (arable farming) Nearly all the villagers were engaged in cultivating the land They cleared forests and ploughed the soil They grew corn, mostly wheat and barley

The two-field system the land was given a rest every second year—crops were grown on one field, while the other field lay fallow*, in the following year crops were grown on the second field, and the first field had its turn of fallow. *черный пар

The strip-farming system Large fields were divided into long narrow strips. Each strip was 220 yards long. Every villager held several strips in each big field and they alternated with those of his neighbours The strips were separated from one another by low banks of earth (The outline of many of these strips ploughed by the medieval Anglo-Saxons can still be clearly seen in England )

forced rotation of crops made it possible to grow the same crop in a big field divided into hundreds of narrow strips belonging to many people crops ripened simultaneously and could be harvested at the same time after the harvest the plough-land would become a common pasture where all the villagers grazed their cattle.

The system of crop rotation under which arable land was cultivated in small strips and all the strip-owners ploughed their fields at the same time and sowed the same crops so that they would ripen simultaneously became known in Britain as the Open Field System.

Plan of an Anglo-Saxon village Plan of an Anglo-Saxon village. One man's strips lay in different parts of each field so as to give him a share of both good and bad land.

The Open Field System, Nottinghamshire. The outline of the medieval strips can be seen in this air-photograph

Religion in Anglo-Saxon Britain: Celtic Christianity Roman Christianity

Celtic Christianity The V c.- St. Patrick had set about converting the Irish and establishing the Celtic church. The VI c.- St. Columba set up a monastery on the tiny island of lona from which to preach to the Picts. the Celtic church sent missionaries to evangelise the north of England.

Roman Christianity 597 - The pope, Gregory the Great sent a mission, led by St. Augustine, to convert the Anglo-Saxons They landed in Kent and after a year Ethelbert, king of Kent, himself became Christian Augustine was consecrated Bishop and later Archbishop of Canterbury

That mission was only the beginning of the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons, a task which took most of the seventh century to achieve.

Disagreement of the Celtic and Roman Churches: They celebrated Easter on a different day Celtic bishops were free-roaming whereas the Roman bishops each had a diocese, a fixed area of the country over which they presided Their monasteries were also different, for the Celts could have ones for both sexes together

The Synod of Whitby in 664 resolved these differences having recognised the supremacy of the Roman Church as representing universal practice

The Anglo-Saxons