The term Anglo-Saxon has historically been used to describe any Germanic people who, from the 5th century AD to the time of the Norman Conquest (1066), inhabited and ruled the lands that are today part of England and Wales.
According to St. Bede, the Anglo-Saxons were the descendants of three different Germanic peoples: Angles, Saxons and Jutes. According to Bede’s account, these peoples migrated from northern Germany to the island of Britain in the 5th century at the invitation of the British monarch Vortigern to help him defend his kingdom against the marauding invasions of the Picts and Scotti who now occupied what is now Scotland. It is now Scotland.
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Archaeological evidence suggests that the first migrants from the Germanic regions of mainland Europe included settlers from Frisia, preventing the Roman withdrawal from Britain around 410 AD. Their subsequent settlement in what is now England laid the foundation for the later kingdoms of Essex, Sussex and Wessex (Saxons); East Anglia, Central Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria (Angles); and Kent (Jutes). Ethnically, the Anglo-Saxons originally represented a mixture of Germanic peoples with the pre-existing Celtic inhabitants of Britain and the subsequent Viking and Danish invaders.
The peoples of each of the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms spoke different dialects, which developed over time and became known collectively as Old English. Within these various dialects, an extremely rich vernacular literature emerged. Examples include the master epic poem Beowulf and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a collection of manuscripts covering events in the early history of England.
The term Anglo-Saxon seems to have been first used by Continental writers in the late 8th century to distinguish the British Saxons from the continental Europeans, whom St. Bede called the Antiqui Saxons (“Old Saxons”). The name formed part of the title rex Angul-Saxonum (“king of the Anglo-Saxons”), sometimes used by King Alfred of Wessex (reigned 871-99) and some of his successors. At the time of the Norman Conquest, the kingdom that developed from the realm of the Anglo-Saxon peoples was known as England, and Anglo-Saxon was eventually replaced by “English” as a common term for the people of the region. For some time thereafter, Anglo-Saxon survived as an informal synonym for English, but this usage declined as immigrants from Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and other regions outside northern Europe further reshaped the ethnic makeup of Britain.
“Anglo-Saxon” continues to be used to refer to a period in British history usually defined as the years between the end of Roman occupation and the Norman Conquest. During this period, however, the various peoples who came together as the Anglo-Saxons were not politically united until the 9th century, and their rule over England was interrupted by 26 years of Danish rule, beginning with the accession of Canute in 1016.
