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Definition: Anglo-Saxons from Dictionary of British History

The Germanic peoples (see Angles; Saxons; Jutes) who invaded Britain from the 5th century. Originally a number of separate kingdoms were created (the Heptarchy), before a unified England was established under an Anglo-Saxon dynasty. The Norman Conquest (1066) ended this period of Anglo-Saxon rule.


Anglo-Saxons

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
name given to the Germanic-speaking peoples who settled in England after the decline of Roman rule there. They were first invited by the Celtic King Vortigern , who needed help fighting the Picts and Scots. The Angles (Lat. Angli ), who are mentioned in Tacitus' Germania , seem to have come from what is now Schleswig in the later decades of the 5th cent. Their settlements in the eastern, central, and northern portions of the country were the foundations for the later kingdoms known as East Anglia , Mercia , and Northumbria . The Saxons , a Germanic tribe who had been continental neighbors of the Angles, also settled in England in the late 5th cent. after earlier marauding forays there. The later kingdoms of Sussex , Wessex , and Essex were the outgrowths of their settlements. The Jutes, a tribe about whom very little is known except that they probably came from the area around the mouths of the Rhine, settled in Kent (see Kent, kingdom of ) and the Isle of Wight. The Anglo-Saxons…
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Full text Article ANGLO-SAXONS

From Cassell's Peoples, Nations and Cultures Full text Article Europe
The population of England before the Norman Conquest of 1066. The Anglo-Saxons originated as a group of Germanic tribes that migrated from their homelands in north Germany and Jutland (in modern Denmark) and settled in eastern and southern Britain in the 5th century AD, following the end of Roman…
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Full text Article Anglo-Saxons

From Philip's Encyclopedia
People of Germanic origin comprising Angles , Saxons , and other tribes who began to invade England from the mid-5th century, when Roman power was in decline. By ad 600 they were well established in most of England. They were converted to Christianity in the 7th century. Early tribal groups were led…
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Full text Article Anglo-Saxons

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
name given to the Germanic-speaking peoples who settled in England after the decline of Roman rule there. They were first invited by the Celtic King Vortigern , who needed help fighting the Picts and Scots. The Angles (Lat. Angli ), who are mentioned in Tacitus' Germania , seem to have come from…
| 320 words
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Also known as: Engle; Old English The Anglo-Saxons were Germanic barbarians who invaded Britain and took over large parts of the island in the centuries following the withdrawal of the Roman Empire. They were initially less gentrified than other post-Roman barbarian groups such as the Franks or…
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Full text Article Anglo-Saxons.

From The Oxford Companion to British History
is the name collectively applied to the descendants of the Germanic people who settled in Britain between the late 4th and early 7th cents. and to their ancestors. Their backgrounds varied. Some came as mercenaries, others as invaders. They included, besides Angles and Saxons, Jutes and other…
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Full text Article 400s: Anglo-Saxons

From English History: People, Places and Events That Built a Country
400s: Anglo-Saxons
After the Roman army abandoned Britain in 410, two tribes from Northern Germany began to invade and settle in England. Known as the Anglo-Saxons, they established a number of separate kingdoms across the country, such as Wessex in the south, Mercia in the midlands, and Northumbria in the Northeast. …
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Full text Article ANGLO-SAXONS

From The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales
The Germanic-speaking peoples who established themselves in much of southern and eastern Britain from c. 400 onwards, displacing or assimilating the Romance and Celtic -speaking natives. Gildas , in the mid-6th century, claimed that the earliest Anglo-Saxons had been brought to Britain as…
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Offa was one of the few Anglo-Saxon rulers to...
(ca. 450–ca. 850) From the middle of the fifth to the end of the sixth century, a new culture established its domination over most of Britain outside Wales, the far southwest, and the north. This new culture was that of the Anglo-Saxons, originally a group of Germanic peoples from the European…
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Coronation of Harold II (c.1022-66) King of the Anglo-Saxons in AD 1066, from 'Illustrations of English and Scottish History' volume I (engraving)
Artist: Maclise, Daniel (1806-70) (after) Location: Private Collection Credit: Coronation of Harold II (c.1022-66) King of the Anglo-Saxons in AD 1066, from 'Illustrations of English and Scottish History' volume I (engraving), Maclise, Daniel (1806-70) (after) / Private Collection / Ken Welsh / The…
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King Alfred inciting the Anglo-Saxons to repel the invasion of the Danes in AD 876, from 'Illustrations of English and Scottish History' Volume I (engraving)
Artist: Watts, George Frederick (1817-1904) (after) Location: Private Collection Credit: King Alfred inciting the Anglo-Saxons to repel the invasion of the Danes in AD 876, from 'Illustrations of English and Scottish History' Volume I (engraving), Watts, George Frederick (1817-1904) (after) / …
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