Anglo-Saxons

1. Introduction
Anglo-Saxon is a collective term usually used to describe the culturally and
linguistically similar peoples living in the south and east of the island Great
Britain (modern England) from around the middle-5th century AD to the Norman
conquest of 1066.
2. Origins of the word and contemporary meanings
The term "Anglo-Saxon" is from Latin 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.
By 1800 "Anglo-Saxon" was the term used for the Old English language. It
was the language spoken in England before the arrival of the French-speaking
Normans who conquered England in 1066.
It is still a matter of debate as to whether the term "Anglo-Saxon" can be used
as a synonym for ethnic or racial groups who lived and live in England. On one
hand there is the argument that says that there were further influxes of people into
England such as the Danes, Normans, and Celts who migrated to England from the
other parts of the British Isles, so the term is no longer valid. The other side of this
argument is to say these people were relatively small in number and, particularly
in the case of Danes and the Normans, were of similar ethnic origins as the AngloSaxons themselves, and so became immersed into the Anglo-Saxon "tribe".
"Anglo-Saxon" is still used by linguists to mean the original West Germanic
component of the English language, often called Old English, as opposed to the
especially large addition of Old Norse and many loanwords the language has
obtained, especially from Romance languages.
3. Settlement (600-900 AD)
We know very little of the first several hundred years of the Anglo-Saxon,
because the invaders were an illiterate people. Our earliest records of them are
little more than highly inventive lists of rulers. We know that they established
separate kingdoms, the Saxons settling in the south and west, the Angles in the
east and north, and the Jutes on the Isle of Wight and the mainland opposite. They
probably thought of themselves as separate peoples, but they shared a common
language and similar customs.

One of these customs was fighting everyone in sight. A king's power was not
hereditary; it depended solely on his ability to win battles and so gain land,
treasure, and slaves to give his supporters. He was obliged to fight and keep
fighting. If not, he would find himself out of a job or deprived of his life, or both.
Succession from father to son was never a forgone conclusion. Any relative of the
old king who could muster enough support could make a bid for the throne. This
helps to explain why the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms came and went so quickly. The
power of any kingdom over its neighbours was only as solid as the strength of its
king in battle.
4. Supremacy of kingdom Mercia
Roughly speaking, the 7th century was the age of Northumbrian ascendance,
with Mercia playing second fiddle. In the 8th century these roles reversed. The
most powerful and well known of the Mercian kings was Offa, who ruled from
758-796. A successful warrior (which is a given for anyone in those days who
managed to hold onto power for so long), he defeated kings in Sussex, Anglia, and
Wessex, proclaiming himself King of the English.
Offa caused to be built the earthwork that still bears his name, Offa's Dyke,
which stretches the 150 mile length of the Welsh border. Begun in the 780's, the
purpose of the dyke seems to have been as a fortified frontier barrier, much as
Hadrian's Wall some six centuries previous.
In most places the ditch was 25 feet from the bottom of the cut to the top of
the bank, with wood or stone walling on top of that. The work involved has been
compared to the building of the Great Pyramid. This gives us some idea of the
power wielded by Offa. It seems that the dyke was not permanently manned,
relying instead on the warning given by a series of beacons.
5. Foreign attack
After the dead of King Offa the power owned by the kingdom of Mercia
begins to decrease. His successor for a short time by his son, Ecgfrith, and then a
distant cousin, Coenwulf and he maintained his authority over the territories Kent
and Sussex. Even though, kingdom Wessex has broken from his hand in 802 . New
dynasties begin, this time from the West.
In 825 King Egbert of Wessex defeats the mighty Mercians at the Battle of
Ellandon. He invades Kent and expels King Baldred. The former's son, Aethwulf,
is installed as King of Kent. The sub-Kingdoms of Essex, Sussex and Surrey
submit to Egbert. The Mercians are allowed to retain Berkshire and its boundaries
are formally set. Athelstan of East Anglia begins to re-assert East Anglian

independence. King Beornwulf of Mercia invades East Anglia, but is killed in

battle. He is succeeded by one Ludecan. The men of Cornish Dumnonia clash with
the Saxons of Devon at the Battle of Galford. At dead of Egbert in 839, Mercia
becomes again independent.
The 9th century may well have turned into a struggle for the upper hand
between Mercia and Wessex if not for one thing; England was once again the
subject of recurring raids from across the seas. This time it was the Danes and
Norwegians. The Danes attacked the east coast of England, the Norwegians
attacked the north by way of Ireland and Scotland.
The Danes found rich pickings in the undefended monastic settlements on
Lindisfarne Island and Jarrow, in Northumbria, but they were not out solely for
loot. The Danish raids were partly a response to population pressures in their
homeland, so they wanted new lands to settle, not merely easy plunder. They made
good use of fortified settlements as bases to expand, and their use of helmets,
shields, chain mail, and particularly the long handled battle axe, meant they were
better armed than most of their foes.
By 870 the Danes had overthrown the kingdoms of East Anglia, Northumbria,
and Mercia, and were preparing to do the same to Wessex. Standing in their way
was a young king of Wessex, Alfred by name. At first the fight went badly for
Alfred; some of his allies found it more expedient to cooperate with the Danes,
and in 877 he was pushed back to a small corner of the marshes around Athelney,
in Somerset.
It is this time, at the low ebb of Anglo-Saxon resistance to the Danes, which is
commemorated in the folk tale of Alfred and the griddle cakes. The story goes that
Alfred was so low in his fortunes that he was forced to travel anonymously and
seek lodging in a peasant woman's hut. Told to mind the cakes cooking on the fire,
Alfred let his thoughts wander to his troubles. The cakes burned, and the peasant
woman gave her king a good scolding for his carelessness. True or not, (probably
not, but it sounds good), the story illustrates the depth to which the young Alfred
had sunk in his battle with the Danish invaders. From that point on, however,
things began to look up.
Alfred came out of the Athelney marshes and surprised the Danes under
Guthrum at Edington, in Wiltshire. After a thorough victory for Alfred, Guthrum
was chased back to his base at Chippenham, where he was besieged for two
weeks. Eventually Guthrum surrendered, and agreed to retreat from Wessex, and
also to accept baptism as a Christian. This baptism was solemnized at Wedmore, in
Somerset, some weeks later, giving us what is known as the Peace of Wedmore.
The Danes retreated to East Anglia, and Alfred got on with consolidating his gains.
These things dont mean the end of conflict. In 886 King Alfred the Great of
Wessex recaptures London from the Vikings. He moves the community from

Aldwich to within the safety of the city walls and hands the place over to his sonin-law, Lord Aethelred II of the Mercians. Alfred becomes the supreme monarch in
the country and "all the English submitted to him, except those who were under
the power of the Vikings". Seven years later, in 893, a Danish army has
disembarked in estuary of Thames, cover for three years all England, but by this
time the raids have little effects in kingdom Wessex. Alfred has assured by the
stability of his own kingdom and tried to strengthen the supremacy over the
territories from west and south by the Danish frontier. It seems that in this period
the army and fleet have known visible bettering.
An important element in his plans was the program by building of towns,
which made him the first English architect mentioned in history. Alfred was an
innovator and a thinker, as well as a successful warrior. He began a policy
encouraging the formation of fortified towns, or burghs, throughout his lands, such
that no place in Wessex was more than 20 miles from a town. In exchange for free
plots of land within the towns, settlers provided a defense force. The burghs were
also encouraged to become centers of commerce and local government.
Alfred built a new and improved navy to better meet the sea-faring Danes on
their own terms. He wrested London from Danish control and reached the
agreement by which England was divided into two zones; the south and west,
where Saxon law would apply, and the north and east, where Danish law ruled.
This second territory became known as the Danelaw.
Alfred also did his bit on the cultural front. He established schools and
encouraged the dissemination of knowledge. He is said to have personally
translated several books from Latin into the Anglo-Saxon tongue. An untraceable
myth has it that he established the first university at Oxford. From the depths of
despair in 877, Alfred brought Anglo-Saxon England into a golden age of social
stability and artistic accomplishment. He was one of the first kings who seem to
have looked beyond his own personal glory to a vision of the future well-being of
the nation he ruled. He has every right to be remembered as Alfred "The Great".
6. The fall of the Anglo-Saxons
Following the death of Alfred the Great his son Edgar and grandson
Aethelstan won a series of victories that extended the power of Wessex north as
far as present day Scotland. Aethelstan could afford to call himself "king of the
Anglo-Saxons and the Danes". Unfortunately, this was still a time when personal
loyalty to a successful warrior king counted more than anything else. Dynasties
were rare, and no realm was strong or stable independent of its leader. England
was about to be saddled with a weak leader at just the wrong time.
The leaders' name was Ethelred, and, in an unfortunate misunderstanding of

an Anglo-Saxon pun, history has saddled him with the soubriquet, "The Unready".
The original term for Ethelred was "un raed", which translates as "no council". It
is possibly a play on his name, which is composed of the terms "aethel raed", or
"noble council". In any case he was not well thought of even during his own reign,
when it was not good politics to directly criticize a king. One chronicler, writing a
century later, called the king "eager and admirably fitted for sleeping."
Why the bad press? Ethelred came to the throne at the age of ten when his mother
had his half-brother Edward murdered, and things went downhill from there. In the
980's a fresh wave of Danish raids began, and in the next decade armies under
Norwegian and Swedish kings did their ravaging bit. London was attacked and
survived, but the surrounding countryside was hit hard. In 991 the fateful decision
was made to buy off the raiders with a large payment. This payment, or Danegeld
as it came to be known, set a dangerous precedent. Now the Danes knew that there
was good money to be had just for showing up. And each time the payment got
bigger, from 10,000 pounds in 991 to a high of 82,500 pounds in 1018.
The Danes, under Swein Forkbeard, were a constant threat. In 1013 they
became more than a threat. They sailed up the Trent and established a base at
Gainsborough. From there Swein forced the submissions of first the north, then the
southern kingdoms. Ethelred fled to Normandy, only to return the following year
when Swein died.
The trouble was that Swein had a son, named Canute, who proved as difficult
to deal with as his father. Canute defeated Ethelred, who improved matters by
dying shortly thereafter. His son, Edmund ("Ironside", for his battle prowess),
carried on the scrap for a short time before he, too, died, perhaps assassinated by
Canute. So the acclaimed new ruler of all England was a Dane who was also king
of Denmark and Norway. He did his best to keep the peace in his new kingdom by
using English councillors and upholding the traditional laws and customs. He
married Edmund's widow, and allied himself closely with the Christian church. He
tried to make loyalty to his person and loyalty to the Church one and the same.
When Canute died in 1035, however, the same old dynastic squabbles broke out,
with the eventual result that Edward, surviving son of Ethelred, was called back
from exile in Normandy to rule

Bbibliography:
1.
2.

Nicolescu, Corneliu, Anglia si spiritul englez, ed. Pro Vita, 2005

Motor de cautare google: -en.wikipedia.org
-www.britainexpress.com
-www.britannia.com
-www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk