Anglo-Saxon England: History, Christianity, Literature

From Roman Britain to Anglo-Saxon England

From the 1st through the 5th centuries, England was a province of the Roman Empire called Britannia. These Britons adapted to the Roman lifestyle and civilization, but some ruins remained. The withdrawal of the Roman Legions left the island vulnerable, creating an opportunity for invaders. In the 5th century, three Germanic tribes arrived in Britain: the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes.

The Anglo-Saxon Arrival and Conquest

The Anglo-Saxon conquest was gradual, a process extending over decades of fighting against the native Britons, who were mostly confined to the regions of Wales.

The Return of Christianity

The Britons converted to Christianity, like the rest of the Empire, when in the 4th century, Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity. Nevertheless, due to the invasions and as the invaders were still pagans, Christianity survived only in the remoter regions the Anglo-Saxons could not reach.

Missionaries and Conversion Efforts

A Benedictine monk, St. Augustine of Canterbury, was sent as a missionary to King Ethelbert of Kent. At the same time, missionaries from Ireland began to preach Christianity in the North.

Literacy, Learning, and Early English Culture

There were no books in Britain before Christianity. It was thanks to Christianity that literacy began to expand. Proof of this is an extended written specimen in Old English: a code of laws promulgated by Ethelbert, the first English Christian king.

Key Figures: Bede and Alcuin

In the following centuries, England produced many distinguished churchmen such as Bede. Thanks to his Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, we know about the conversion and the history of the English Church. Alcuin (735–804) was another great example. He was a man of great culture who became a friend and adviser of the Frankish emperor Charlemagne, whom he assisted in making the Frankish court a greater center of learning. By the year 800, English culture had richly developed and surpassed its insular boundaries.

The Viking Age and Danish Invasions

In the 9th century, the Christian Anglo-Saxons were subjected to new invasions, this time by the Danes, who repeatedly ravaged the coast, sacking Bede’s monastery in Lindisfarne, among others. Such events inspired the creation of The Battle of Maldon, the last of the major poems in Old English.

King Alfred the Great's Stand

The Danes occupied the northern part of the island. Nevertheless, they were stopped and defeated by King Alfred the Great (reigned 871–899) at the Battle of Edington in 878. Guthrum signed the Treaty of Wedmore.

Preserving Old English Texts

King Alfred the Great was an enthusiast of literature, and he himself translated several works from Latin. Furthermore, Alfred instigated the translation of Bede’s History and the beginning of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a year-by-year record in Old English of important events in England, which was maintained at various monasteries until the mid-12th century. Practically all Old English poetry is preserved in copies made in the West Saxon dialect.