Back to the Angles and Saxons calendar
Various parts of England now had their own rulers. The people were still fighting some invaders and the ruler in Kent, called Vortigern, decided he needed help in his fight against the Picts. He asked two leaders from a tribe called Jutes if they would help. They agreed and after six years the Picts were defeated but the Jutes decided they liked Kent, seized power from Vortigern and stayed. Their leaders were called Hengist and Horsa.
Other tribes were now coming as well and you can see who they were and where they came from on the map on the right. If you want to see a little
animation of the route they took and where they landed, click the map. There wasn’t one single invasion like the Romans had done but over a period of time these
people slowly took over Briton and they, and the people they conquered, became known as Anglo-Saxons. The Angles and Jutes settled in south east England while
the Saxons spread inland. In other words the Angles and Jutes were like pate and the Saxons like treacle. What is he talking about I hear you cry, even sob? If
you drop pate on your toast it stays where you drop it; drop treacle and it runs everywhere.
But these treacle people were warriors and farmers not town people and so the Roman buildings were left alone and not repaired. Stones were taken to
build farmhouses. Some major towns remained. Some Saxons were also very scared of Roman buildings believing strange gods lurked inside. They didn’t want to go
near them and gradually they fell apart, the buildings not the treacle people; they stuck closely together as they would. Worse still cattle were allowed to
walk over the elaborate mosaic floors of the old Roman villas. You have to remember that these Anglo-Saxon tribes had never been under Roman rule and so they
hadn't experienced the Roman way of life.
They came to England for different reasons too. Some, those that
were warriors, came to fight and conquer. They thought that the Britons would be weak and easy to beat and to some extent they were correct, Others came to
farm because the land was good for growing crops whereas the land in their counties was often flooded or frozen. Whole families would sail across to England,
bringing weapons, tools and even farm animals.
Over the next hundred or so years these tribal people ruled over England. There were many little wars and battles and life was nowhere near as
peaceful as it had been after the Roman invasion.
Forward to 460AD
