Sub-Roman Britain was a period of British history dated from the end of Roman rule in Britain in 410 AD to the arrival of Saint Augustine of Canterbury in 597 AD. The era was one of societal collapse, political anarchy, demographic shifts, and religious conflict, as the Romanized Britons - the "Romano-British" founded a patchwork of small, feuding kingdoms in the aftermath of the Roman withdrawal. These Romano-British kingdoms and the Brythonic kingdoms of northern and western Britannia were worn down by decades of raids by Irish pirates and migratory invasions of the Germanic pagan Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisii, Goths, and Suebi, among others, and the Britons were gradually pushed back to the "Celtic fringes" of Cornwall, Wales, and southern Scotland as the "Anglo-Saxons" founded their own kingdoms in England, including Wessex, Mercia, Kent, Essex, Sussex, East Anglia, Hwicce, Bernicia, and Deira. The Germanic invaders intermarried with their British subjects, forging a new "Anglo-Saxon" culture, different from the continental Saxon culture. Starting in 597, the Anglo-Saxons were gradually Christianized by Saint Augustine of Canterbury and other Roman missionaries sent by Pope Gregory I, and the anarchy of Sub-Roman Britain ended as the border between the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon kingdoms was solidified, the Anglo-Saxon language and culture replaced the native Celtic culture of England, and Roman influence returned to Britain in the form of the spread of Latin Christianity to all of Britain's peoples (the Welsh, the Anglo-Saxons, the Gaels, and the Picts).
Background[]
At the start of the 5th century, Britannia was a province of the Western Roman Empire under Emperor Honorius. Due to a series of civil wars and Germanic invasions in mainland Europe, Honorius was forced to gradually withdraw the Roman Army from Roman Britain to defend Italy and Gaul, and he was forced to employ Saxon and Anglian Germans as foederati in Britain. The withdrawals began in 402 under Stilicho, and, in 406, the Roman Army in Britain revolted, with Flavius Claudius Constantinus leading the rest of the Roman troops in Britain in a failed invasion of Gaul. None of his troops returned to Britain after the army was destroyed, and, after 410, Honorius sent letters to the cities of Britain and told them to fend for themselves. The "lost province" still remained part of the Roman cultural world, and many of its inhabitants identified as Roman; these Romanized Britons became known as the Romano-British.
History[]
Anglo-Saxon conquest[]
Sub-Roman Britain in 410 AD
Beginning in the mid-5th century AD, Germanic raiders began to settle in the eastern river valleys, and Roman society collapsed as civil wars broke out between pro-Roman and pro-independence factions, peasants and landowners, and renewed tribal disputes. Feuding kingships replaced the centrally governed Roman provinces, and the Romano-British king Vortigern opted to hire Saxon mercenaries to fight off the Germanic raiders. However, these mercenaries - led by Hengest and Horsa - turned against the British and plundered their towns, establishing the kingdom of Kent. The Romano-British king Ambrosius Aurelianus fought against the invading Saxons in a number of battles over a long period, and he and his descendants Uther Pendragon and King Arthur became major leaders in the fight against the Germans.
Britannia in 479 AD
Soon, waves of Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians, Suebi, Goths, and other Germanic peoples came to Britain to exploit the anarchy there and establish new kingdoms. In 500, Arthur defeated the Saxons at the Battle of Mount Badon, ushering in a long period of peace. The Germanic peoples - known collectively as the "Anglo-Saxons" - ruled over eastern England from East Yorkshire in the north to South East England in the south, while the Celts ruled over western England from York in the north to Bournemouth in the south.
Britannia in 530 AD
In 537, Arthur was killed by his nephew Mordred at the Battle of Camlan, depriving the Romano-British of their "High King". In 552, the Saxons renewed their campaign of expansion, taking Searoburh (Shrewsbury) before invading the Cotswalds and defeating the Welsh at the Battle of Deorham in 577, conquering much of the West Country. Until the 570s, the Britons were still in control of half of England and Wales, but the Brythonic kingdoms were soon pushed back to the "Celtic fringe" of Cornwall, Wales, and Scotland, while the Anglo-Saxons absorbed the rest of England into their domain. The Anglo-Saxons then founded seven kingdoms, the "heptarchy" of Northumbria, East Anglia, Mercia, Wessex, Sussex, Kent, and Essex.
Religion and culture[]
Religious map of the British Isles, 479 AD
The Romans had introduced Christianity to the Celtic Britons during the 5th century, but the British Christians were divided between Latin Christians and Celtic Rite Christians. By 410, the Catholic Gospel was spreading quickly in the lands of southern Britain. The pagans came to be a minority in cities and larger settlements, remaining strong only in rural areas such as the deep wooden valleys of Powys and in the northern kingdoms. The invading Angles, Saxons, and Jutes brought Germanic paganism to the British Isles, worshipping the god Woden. As the Saxons expanded, they came to rule over significants populations of Romano-Britons and Celts. While medieval historians and authors claimed that the Saxons had committed a genocide against the Celts and replaced them with Germans, it was the Little Ice Age's environmental changes, famine, and the Plague of Justinian which wiped out millions of native Britons. Between 1.5 and 3 million Britons were killed by the plague during the 540s, and the general population of the islands declined. By 2015, 30% of white Britons had Germanic ancestry, while most central and southern English people shared 40% of their DNA with the French (from the original Gallic migrations), 11% with the Danes (from the Viking Age), and 9% with the Belgians (from the Belgae). Meanwhile, the Welsh had strong genetic links to the original hunter-gatherers of Britain. The study revealed that, despite the Roman, Viking, and Norman invasions of England, most Britons shared the same native DNA, and that few high-ranking Roman officials had settled in Britain and that they and their families remained largely segregated from the local Celts. The replacement of the Celtic language by Old English and the complete shift towards German farming and pottery styles originally suggested that the Celts were wiped out through genocide, but only 20% of English people had Anglo-Saxon DNA, evidencing that the Saxons migrants mixed with the locals and assimilated the native Britons into Anglo-Saxon society.
The introduction of Christianity to the Saxons by Saint Augustine of Canterbury and the conversion of King Aethelberht of Kent in 597 is often considered to be the end of Sub-Roman Britain. Pope Gregory I then sent further Roman bishops to England, establishing bishoprics at London and Rochester in 604. Under King Oswald of Northumbria (r. 634-642), the Northumbrian Angles adopted Christianity. The spread of Christianity among the Saxons, the successful resistance of the Briton stronghold in Wales from 600 to 700, and the solidification of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms ended the chaotic era of sub-Roman Britain and ushered in a new era of Anglo-Saxon hegemony.