Pattison, 'Is it Necessary to Assume an Apartheid-like Social Structure in Early Anglo-Saxon England?' in Proceedings of the Royal Society B 2008 275, pp. 2423–29; and 'Integration vs Apartheid in Post-Roman Britain' in Human Biology 2011 83, pp. 715–33: "Opinions vary as to whether there was a substantial Germanic invasion or only a relatively small number arrived in Britain during this period. Contrary to the assumption of limited intermarriage made in the apartheid simulation, there is evidence that significant mixing of the British and Germanic peoples occurred, and that the early law codes, such as that of King Ine of Wessex, could have deliberately encouraged such mixing." By convention, the Heptarchy period lasted from the end of Roman rule in Britain in the 5th century, until most of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms came under the overlordship of Egbert of Wessex in 829. This approximately 400-year period of European history is often referred to as the Early Middle Ages or, more controversially, as the Dark Ages.

Take French day-names like mardi and jeudi and their English cognates, Tuesday and Thursday. The former come from the Latin names of the Roman gods Mars and Jupiter. Tuesday and Thursday, by contrast, are named after the Anglo-Saxon gods Tiw and Thunor. It’s a significant divergence. Dark, Ken (2000). Britain and the End of the Roman Empire. Stroud: NPI Media Group. ISBN 0-7524-1451-8. Guide to Scandinavian origins of place names in Britain" (PDF). Ordnance Survey. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 December 2008 . Retrieved 15 January 2010.

The Norman Threat

Myres. The English Settlements. p. 14. Talking about Gildas references to the arrival of three keels (ships), "... this was the number of ship loads that led to the foedus or treaty settlement. Gildas also uses in their correct sense technical terms, annona, epimenia, hospites, which most likely derive from official documents relating to the billeting and supply of barbarian foederati." Stunning in its action and drama, this book illuminates fully what turns out to have been a tangled and violent passage in history. A Best Book of the Year (Praise for The Norman Con Kansas City Star So why did these proto-Anglo-Saxons migrate and settle on the other side of the North Sea? Archaeologists speculate that rising sea-levels may have played a role, but our second major source for this period highlights a different factor: political miscalculation. O'Reilly, Jennifer (2003). Thomas Charles-Edwards (ed.). Short Oxford History of the British Isles: After Rome: The Art of Authority. Oxford: OUP. ISBN 978-0-19-924982-4.

Horspool, David (2006). Why Alfred Burned the Cakes. London: Profile Books. ISBN 978-1-86197-786-1. the more modern view is of co-existence between the British and the Anglo-Saxons. [31] [32] [33] He suggests that several modern archaeologists have now re-assessed the traditional model, and have developed a co-existence model largely based on the Laws of Ine. The laws include several clauses that provide six different wergild levels for the Britons, of which four are below that of freeman. [34] Although it was possible for the Britons to be rich freemen in Anglo-Saxon society, generally it seems that they had a lower status than that of the Anglo-Saxons. [33] [34]

They were not one united people, but lots of warring tribes that settled in different parts of Britain. commissioned the writing of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a historical record of the Anglo-Saxons in Britain. Härke, Heinrich. "Anglo-Saxon Immigration and Ethnogenesis." Medieval Archaeology 55.1 (2011): 1–28. Curry, Andrew (21 September 2022). "Migration, not conquest, drove Anglo-Saxon takeover of England". Science.

A vivid, sharply drawn story of seven centuries of profound political change ... Superbly clear and evocative' THOMAS PENN Higham, N.J. (1994). English Conquest: Gildas and Britain in the fifth century. Manchester: Manchester United Press. ISBN 0-7190-4080-9. Sherley-Price, Leo; Farmer, D.H., eds. (1990). Bede:Ecclesiastical History of the English People. London: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-044565-X.

Welch, Anglo-Saxon England, p. 11: "Some archaeologists seem to believe that very few immigrants...were involved in the creation of Anglo-Saxon England... Gildas describes the settlement of Saxon mercenaries in the eastern part of the country, their reinforcement and subsequent successful rebellion...suggests more than just a handful of military adventurers. Bede felt secure in his belief that he was not of British descent... Further his list of three principle peoples who migrated here... is echoed in the archaeological record." The Dukes of Normandy were quite happy to allow these Danish adventurers to use their ports for raids on the English coast. The result was that the courts of England and Normandy became increasingly hostile to each other. [123] Eventually, Æthelred sought a treaty with the Normans, and ended up marrying Emma, daughter of Richard I, Duke of Normandy in the Spring of 1002, which was seen as an attempt to break the link between the raiders and Normandy. [125] [131]

Look at a map of Europe in 400 AD and you won’t find a country called England. Nor will you find anything recognizably English in the territory that was later given that name. Dark, Ken R. (2003). "Large-scale population movements into and from Britain south of Hadrian's Wall in the fourth to sixth centuries AD" (PDF). The Roman church wasn’t prepared to abandon Britain to Scandinavian “paganism.” When Pope Gregory I sa The term Anglo-Saxon seems to have been first used by Continental writers in the late 8th century to distinguish the Saxons of Britain from those of the European continent, whom St. Bede the Venerable had called Antiqui Saxones (“Old Saxons”). Meticulous and absorbing. Where Morris’ book really excels is in its understanding of the conquest’s ramifications for the nation’s demographics, language, and ruling elite. Providence JournalThe historian Peter Hunter-Blair expounded what is now regarded as the traditional view of the Anglo-Saxon arrival in Britain. [28] He suggested a mass immigration, with the incomers fighting and driving the sub-Roman Britons off their land and into the western extremities of the islands, and into the Breton and Iberian peninsulas. [29] This view is based on sources such as Bede, who mentions the Britons being slaughtered or going into "perpetual servitude". [30] According to Härke Coates, Richard. "Celtic whispers: revisiting the problems of the relation between Brittonic and Old English". Welch, Anglo-Saxon England. A complete analysis of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology. A discussion of where the settlers came from, based on a comparison of pottery with those found in the area of origin in Germany. Burial customs and types of building. Kelly S. E.; etal., eds. (1973–2007). Anglo-Saxon Charters Volumes: I–XIII. Oxford: OUP for the British Academy. Charles Thomas Christianity in Roman Britain to AD500. pp. 48–50: Saint Alban is discussed in detail, as when he lived and was martyred gives an indication of the state of Christianity in Roman Britain. Dates suggested for his martyrdom are 209 or 251–259 or c. 303.