Anglo-Saxon Britain

446-1066 AD

Ethnicities of Anglo-Saxons

Angles, Saxons, Jutes

Angles

From South Denmark

Jutes

From North Denmark, more sophisticated

Saxons

From North Germany

first Anglo-Saxon settlement

446

Kent

Jutish Kingdom, established 473 by Hengist and Horsa

Anglo-Saxon Invasion

450-650

Pagan

destroyed churches, killed clergy

St Germanus

British resistance, hallelujah victory legend

Battle of Mount Badon

won by King Arthur in 500

Anglo-Saxon Seven Kingdoms

Northumbria, Marcia, East Anglica, Wessex, Sussex. Essex, Kent

Vikings in Britain

793-1066

Viking weapon

Battle Axe

Viking characteristics

Skilled sailors and navigators, warlike

Sack of Lindisfarne

793

London destroyed

842

Vikings settle Northern England

9th century

Vikings occupy much of England

10th century

York

Viking capital of England

Alfred the Great (871-899)

King of Wessex, built first English Navy, rebuilt London

Battle of Edington (878)

Alfred defeats Guthram, treaty of Wedmore

Treaty of Wedmore

England in South, Danelaw in North, Guthram converts to Christianity

Ethelred the Unready (978-1015)

incompetent, lost land to Vikings, established Danegeld and income tax

Canute (1016)

Sweyn’s son, elected by Witan, married Emma of Normandy

Edward the Confessor

Ethelred’s second son, interested in politics, religion, and literature, not interested in women