The Saxons & Vikings (0)

The Saxons & Vikings
Fragmentary knowledge of England in the 5th & 6th centuries comes from the British writer Gildas, the Anglo- Saxon Chronicle, saints’ lives , poetry, archaelogical findings and place -name studies . British landlords ruled small, unstable kingdoms and continued some Roman traditions of governance.
In the mid-5th cent , Vertigern, a British leader, hired Germanic mercenaries to help defend against peoples of the north (Picts & Scots ). In the end they revolted & the process of invasion and settlement began. The first Saxon „ kings “ were Hengist & Horsa in Kent , Aelle in Sussex, Cerdic / Cynric in Wessex . So the first „ English “ became mainly from Northern Germany & Denmark .
The resistance of the Celts was long. They were free at the time, not like other Roman provinces on the Continent .
Around 500, the Britons seem to have won several victories. One of their leaders was Ambrosius Aurelianus and one of their victories was at the place called Mount Badon. The main leader of the Britons at this time may have been the warrior later called King Arthur .
By the 7th cent. the invaders managed to conquer the greater part of the land . The invaders came from 3 powerful tribes :

• The Saxons – settled from the Thames Estuary westwards, in the south of England; they formed the kingdoms of Sussex, Wessex, Essex & Middlesex
  
• The Angles – settled in East Anglia, the Midlands & Northumbria
  
• The Jutes – settled mainly in Kent, Hampshire & the Isle of Wight
  

The name Jutes died out & the conquerors are generally referred to as the Anglo-Saxons. At first they spoke various dialects, but gradually the dialect of the Angles of Mercia became predominant.
The Anglo-Saxon migration gave the larger part of Britain its new name, England, „The land of the Angles“. The British Celts were slowly pushed westwards. Finally most were driven into the mountains in the far west , which the Saxons called „ Wales “. Some were driven into Cornwall, where they later accepted the rule of Saxon lords and northward to Strathclyde. Further north lived the Picts and Scots. Some Celts crossed the sea & settled in the north-west of France called Brittany after the Celtic tribes of Britons. The Celts who stayed behind became mostly slaves.
Hardly anything is left of the Celtic language or culture in England, except for some names of some rivers (Thames, Avon, Severn) and two large cities London & Leeds.
The new conquerors were warlike and illiterate. Disliked towns, preferred to live in small cillages. They destroyed the Roman towns & villas . Beautiful buildings, roads were neglected or broken up.
The first settlements were groups of 3 or 4 family farms. Houses were all made of wood & had sloping thatched roofs. Around the settlement was a fence . In time the settlements became villages. Villages were self-sufficient. In the village there was also a forge where a blacksmith mended tools & weapons. There was also a wheelwright’s workshop & mill.
There was very little trading at that time. Roads were bad. Agriculture changed.
The Celts kept small square fields, they used a light plough drawn by an animal or 2 people. Anglo-Saxons introduced a heavier plough, it required 6-8 oxen to pull it. That’s why the arable land was divided into 2 or sometimed 3 fields. The fields into long thin strips. The strips were scattered over the field , so everybody had strips on both good & bad land. In the field all strip -owners had to grow the same crop. The common crops were wheat, rye, oats & barley. They also grew peas, beans & lentils.
Each family had a number of strips, oxen were shared, so the villagers worked more closely together. They had no fertilizers. The method they used is known as forced rotation of crops. The following year the field lay in fallow. The piece of land not cultivated was called waste land. The pastures & meadows were common. Besides tilling the soil , the Anglo-Saxons were also occupied with cattle -breeding, hunting & fishing.
The peasants of the village formed a community. The Anglo-Saxons had Trial by Ordeal.
In the 7-9th cent. the situation started to change . Not all member stayed equal. Military leaders & elders possessed more land & cattle and slaves. Land became private property, could be sold or presented or given in return for debts to another owner . Free peasants began to lose their freedom . Many fell into bondage. Lost their land. In return for the land had to work on sb’s land. Many nobles seized land by force .
Sheriffs became king ’s officials. Moots lost their importance . This was the beginning of feudal relations . The man’s position in the society depended on how much land he had. The root of power was land. It was the beginning of a class system, made up of king, lords, soldiers & workers on the land.
By 600 Saxon settlements had gradually formed 7 kingdoms (Essex, Sussex, Wessex, Kent, Mercia, East Anglia, Northumbria). They were constant struggle against one another for predominance. From time to time some stronger state seized the land of the neighbouring kingdoms & made them pay tribute or even ruled directly. The number of kingdoms & their boundaries were always changing . The greatest & most important kingdoms were Kent, Northumbria, Mercia & Wessex.
King Offa of Mercia claimed „Kingship of the English“. His power his shown by the border barrier he built between Mercia & Wales – Offa’s Dyke. It probably took 5000 men to build it. It stretches for about 180 km, was 7 metres high, the ditch in front of it 2 metres deep.
By the beginning of the 9th cent. Wessex had become the strongest. Wessex never again lost its supremacy.
In 829 King Egbert was acknowledged by Kent, Mercia & Northumbria. This was the beginning of the united kingdom. King Egbert became 1st King of England. The clergy, royal warriors & officials supported the king’s power. He granted them land and the right to collect dues from the peasants & hold judgement over them.
Another important class developed – the men of learning , came from the Christian Church . Nobody knows when christianity first reached Britain. Christianity came from 2 directions, Rome & Ireland . In 597 Pope Gregory the Great sent a group of missionaries under a monk Augustin to re-establish Christianity. Augustin went to Canterbury , the capital of Kent, where King Ethelbert had married Bertha, a Christian Frankish princess.
Several ruling families accepted Christianity, but not ordinary people.
Augustin became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in 601.
It was the Celtic Church which brought Christianity to the ordinary people. Patrick , a British monk, introduced Christianity to Ireland before 460.
Around 563 a monk named Columba left Ireland for the isle of Iona near Scotland and started a monastery there. Monks from Iona then converted most of Scotland. Another monk, Aidan, founded the monastery of Lindisfarne in 635. These holy men and the people who followed them are known as Celtic Christians . When the king of Northumbria decided to support the Roman Church, the Celtic Church retreated. So England became Christian very quickly. By 660 only Sussex & the Isle of Wight had not accepted the new faith . Latin became the language of the Church.
From the end of the 8th cent. and during the 9th & 10th centuries Western Europe was attacked by new barbarians who came from the North – Norway , Sweden & Denmark and were called Northmen. In different countries they were known as the Vikings, the Normans, the Danes. As England was more often raided from Denmark, the new invaders came to be known in English history as the Danes, the Norwegians invaded Ireland & Scotland.
The Danes were of the same Germanic race as the Anglo-Saxons, but they still lived in tribes, were pagans. The Danes were well armed with long swords, spears, daggers, axes, bows, iron helmets & chain armour. Their ships were sailing -boats, but they were also provided wiht oars. The sails were often red & blue & green. At the prow of the ship there was usually a carved dragon ’s head which rose high out of the water. The Danes were bold & skilful seamen.
The word „Vikings“ probably means „ pirates “ or „the people of the sea inlets“. At first they only raided & plundered. Came in spring & summer , burnt churches and monasteries, loaded their ships and returned home. London itself was raided in 851. The Danes were successful, because the Anglo-Saxons had neither a regular army nor a fleet , no coastguards, so the raiders could appear unexpectedly. There were few bad roads, so it took several weeks to send a messenger & ask for help and help was a long time in coming .
In 866 York fell to the Vikings. York had Viking kings until 954. In 865 the Vikings invaded Britain. Northumbria, Mercia & East Anglia fell into their hands . Only Wessex was left to face the enemy. Wessex became the centre of resistance. The Danes had made an attempt to conquer Wessex, but king Egbert had defeated them. In 871 the Danes invaded Wessex again. Its king Ethelred I died, his brother Alfred , became king. Alfred could think of only one solution – bribery. He paid the Danes money to leave Wessex alone . They did –but only for 4 years . In 876 the Danes attacked again. Alfred won several victories and defeated the Danes in AD 878.
The treaty of Wedmore in 878 divided England. The Danes promised to leave Wessex & part of Mercia. They settled in the north-western part in a region which from that time was called the Danelaw. The Danes spoke their language & kept to their way of life.’
In time of peace the Great King Alfred managed to raise an army, the fyrd, in which every free peasant had to serve . They formed a levy of infantrymen. Knights with good armour formed and army on horseback. Half of the infantrymen were serving, half working at home. Then changed. So all men were trained to fight . Alfred built the first Navy.
He built walled settlements, called „burghs“. They became rich market towns. Alfred the Great also took measures to improve the laws in the interest of the great landowners & raise the standard of culture among them. He himself could read & write, knew Latin & Greek . He sent for artisans, builders & scholars from the Continent, rebuilt the churches burnt by the Danes & set up schools in the monasteries for the clergy. He demanded that the priests and state officials should learn. Alfred himself taught at a school which had been started in the palace where the sons of the nobles learned to read & write. Books on religion, history & philposophy were translated into Anglo-Saxon. Many Latin words came into Anglo-Saxon. Alfred ordered the literate men to help and establish a system of law. He ordered that the old customs & laws should be collected, new laws were added, so a Code of English Law was drawn up. He also ordered the learned men to collect all that was known of the early history of the country & to keep a record of the outstanding events . Thus the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which continued for 250 years after Alfred’s death , was written. Power went into the hands of those who could read & write.
In the 2nd half of the 10th cent. under the rule of Alfred’s descendants, the Saxon monarchy was further consolidated. Alfred’s son Edward, the Elder , and his sister defeated the Northumbrian Vikings. Edward took control of the Danelaw and ruled over the whole of England. The Danes were not driven out of the country, they were made subjects of Wessex. The descendants of the Danish conquerors became peaceful peasants & traders. They were skilful shipbuilders. They were not very different from the Anglo-Saxons. They had adopted their town.
Many Scandinavian words came into the English language ( happy , ugly, ill, weak etc.)
The Saxons’ Golden Age started when Athelstan (Alfred’s grandson, Edward’s son), won a great victory in 937 against an army of Irish Vikings, Scots & Stathclyde Britons.
Athelstan was interested in good government . He ordered on coinage to be used throughout the land.
The king was a collector of art & holy relics.
After his death his successors, Edmund & Eadred, had to fight new Viking raiders. England was not at peace again until Edgar became king of Wessex in 959. With his death in 975 the golden age ended .
At the end of the 10th cent. the Danish invasions were resumed.
Ethelred II, the Unready, who had come to the throne in AD 978, brought in a tax called Danegeld to keep the Danes out. It was the beginning of a regular tax system.
A new round of Danish invasion came at the beginning of the 11th cent. King Etherlred II was forced to flee the country at Christmas, 1013 , leaving king Sweyn I of Denmark in possession. Sweyn died the following February , and Ethelred was restored. Ethelred’s son Edmund II, Ironside, reigned only 7 months.
The Danish King Canute II (Cnut), Sweyn’s son, who was also king of Norway & Denmark, became King of England. He was chosen by the Witan. He married Ethelred’s widow, Emma of Normandy. He divided England into 4 earldoms – Wessex, Mercia, Northumbria & East Anglia and appointed an earl to rule over each of them. Canute continued to collect Danegeld tax & used the money for his army & fleet. He ruled according to the Anglo-Saxon laws. He became a Christian. Before he died, he left his throne of England to his son Hardicanute, but as he wasn’t in England at the time of his father ’s deaths, the general feeling turned in favour of his brother, Harold Harefoot.
2 years of conflict followed & eventually Harold Harefoot was acknowledged king. Hardicanute never appeared in person to claim the throne. King Harold I’s reign was short & unimpressive. Hardicanute succeeded his half-brother. He was even less attractive than Harold.
The English Royal Family was restored in 1042 with Edward the Confessor . His mother had been daughter of the duke of Normandy and he had spent almost all his life in Normandy. He had brought many Normans to his English court. Edward was more interested in the Church than in kingship. He encouraged church building & by the time he died there was a church in almost every village. The pattern of the English village with its manos house & church dates from this time. He started a church at Westminster. He died in 1066 & left no heir. The Witan chose Harold from a powerful family of Godwin to be next king of England. He had no royal blood , but had shown bravery & ability . Harold’s right to the throne was challenged by Duke William of Normandy and Harold III of Norway.
The strength of Anglo-Saxon culture is obvious even today . Days of the week were named after Germanic gods. New place-names appeared, The earliest Saxon villages were family villages. The ending „-ing“ meant folk or family. The Saxons created institutions which made the English state for the next 500 years. One of them was the King’s Council , called the Witan, issuing laws & charters. It had the right to choose kings & to agree the use of the king’s laws. Without its support the king’s authority was in danger . Large council meetings were called by the king during major festivals such as Christmas & Easter , or to solve major disputes.
Even today the king or queen has a Privy Council, a group of advisers on the affairs of the state. The Saxons divided the land into shires. Over each shire was appointed a shire reeve , in time became shortened to „sheriff“. Shire moots took place regularly.
The first lords were called aldermen.
As many bishops & monks were from France & Germany, close contacts with Europe were encouraged. England exported woollen goods, cheese , pottery, hunting dogs, metal goods. It imported wine, fish , pepper, jewelry and wheel -made pottery.