THE ANGLO-SAXON CONQUEST

The Position of the British Isles

The narrow strait which separates them from the Continent has often saved them from foreign invasion and from entanglement in Continental affairs. On the other hand, their nearness to the Continent has always enabled them to keep in close touch with the civilization of European countries.

Celts and Romans in Britain

Long before the coming of the Anglo-Saxons these islands had been occupied, first by some primitive and unknown people, later by the Celts, and afterward by the Romans. In earliest times, which are called prehistoric, two migrations of Celts had taken place. First had come the Gaelic or Goidelic Celts, conquering an older People, traces of whom can be discovered in certain customs of the Celtic conquerors. These Gaelic Celts are the ancestors of the present inhabitants of the Scotch Highlands, the Isle Of Man, and the western part of Ireland. Centuries later came the Brythonic or Gallic Celts, whose descendants are to be found in Cornwall, Wales, and Brittany.

When in 55 B.C. Julius Caesar crossed from Gaul into Britain, he found the Brythonic Celts occupying a large part of the island, and the older Celts forming in Ireland what is known as the nation of the Scots, and in northern Britain, the nation of the Picts. Of Celtic history from 55 B.C. to 43 A.D., when the Roman emperor Claudius invaded Britain, we know almost nothing. The conquest by the Roman general Plautus in 50 A.D. carried the authority of Rome through the southeast of Britain, but it was not until Agricola became the Roman governor of Britain (80 A.D.), that the Romans passed northward and conquered the region which is now southern Scotland. The emperor Hadrian completed the work of Agricola in 120 A.D., and built a wall or rampart between the Tyne and the Solway.

Thus the greater part of southern and central Britain came under Roman rule, and was transformed into a Roman province. At first, in 197 A.D., the Romans organized the island as a single province; but later they divided it into two provinces, and finally, about 300 A.D., into four. They built roads, which opened to Roman civilization the interior of the island, and guarded them by camps or fortresses. Near the roads they built country houses or villas of stone, and often equipped them with heating and bathing apparatus, and adorned them with wall paintings and mosaic floors. Although many Romans crowded into Britain, yet the total number compared with that of the Celts was small. The upper class of the native Britons became Roman, thriving towns grew up, commerce flourished, grain was raised and exported, and the arts of the Continent were introduced. But the Romans never completely subjugated even the southern portion of Britain, while in the north their occupation was at best only temporary in character and always precarious. Furthermore, they never trained the Romanized Britons in the art of defence, so that when the legions were withdrawn and the Roman citizens fled, the Romanized and Christianized natives were unable to protect themselves. Except for the solidly built roads and villas, the walls and inscribed monuments, and the names of their more important settlements, the Romans left but few permanent traces of their occupancy.

The Roman Empire and the Teutonic Tribes in the Fifth Century

During the fourth and fifth centuries a movement took place in western Europe, known as the "Wandering of the Nations." Tribes of Goths, Vandals, Suevi, Alans, and others passed out from their old homes in the north and northeast and moved into the territory of the Roman Empire. For two centuries previous to this, Germans had been crossing back and forth between Germany and the Roman Empire, but now for the first time whole tribes began to migrate at once. The Visigoths (West Goths) passed into southern Gaul and Spain; Burgundians into southeastern Gaul; Franks into northern Gaul; Vandals into Africa; Ostrogoths (East Goths), and afterwards Lombards (Long Beards), into Italy. One group of peoples, however, did not go southward, but westward, and they travelled not by land, but by water. The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, sailing out into the North Sea, sought the island of Britain, and became the ancestors of the modern English.