#english_history 

## The Origin
As a result of [[Characteristics of the British Isles|Britain's mild climate]], barbaric Anglo-Saxon tribes began to settle in Britain after **430 CE**. They were warlike and illiterate, according to an English monk named [[Bede]], who lived 300 years later, in his **Ecclesiastical History of the English People**, which is relatively correct.
The invaders came from three powerful Germanic tribes:
- the Saxons (settled in Wessex (Capital - Winchester), Sussex and Essex)
- the Angles (settled in Mercia, East Anglia and Northumbria)
- the Jutes (settled in Kent)
![[Pasted image 20220418213830.png]] ^d19f00
## The Resistance
The British Celts fought the raiders and settlers from Germany as well as they could, but soon were overwhelmed and pushed into the mountains in the far west, which the Saxons called "Weallas", or **"Wales"**, meaning "the land of the foreigners". Some Celts fled into Scotland, some stayed behind and became slaves. Nowadays hardly anything is left of [[The Celts in Britain#^7e31b0|Celtic]] language or culture in England.
## The Cultural Impact
The strength of Anglo-Saxon culture is obvious even today: the days of the week were **named after Germanic gods**. And villages/cities' names are often derived from Saxon languages, such as: -ing meant folk or family (Reading - the place of the family of Rada), ham - farm, ton - settlement (Kingston)
## The Kingdomship
Together, the seven kingdoms are known as the **Heptarchy**. The three largest kingdoms, Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex, were the most powerful. A century later one of these kings, King **Offa of Mercia** (757-796 CE), claimed "kingship of the English". He was so powerful he ordered the construction of a **dyke** (=an earth wall) the length of the Welsh border to keep out the pesky Celts. But although he was the most powerful king of his time, he did not control all of England.
After his death the next king had to rebuild personal feelings of loyalty, as most people still believed that a man's first duty was to his own family, However, the Saxon kings **began to replace loyalty to family with loyalty to lord and king** ^001ed9

## Trade
Most European trade of the Anglo-Saxons was with the Frisians in the Low Countries, around the mouth of the River Rhine.