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After the occupation: a Saxon workshop producing weapons © Victor Ambrus
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'The barbarians beyond the Rhine, attacking in force, reduced the inhabitants of Britain and some of the Celtic tribes to the point where they were obliged to throw off Roman rule and live independently' Zosimus.

The classical view of Britain falling from grace as a Roman province into the decay and anarchy of a Saxon dark age has long been debated by archaeologists. The frontier of Britannia showed signs of decay from as early as the mid 4th century as a variety of calamities, both home grown in the form of imperial usurpers and on the continent, caused the withdrawal of troops from the country. Admittedly the central administration of Britannia was certainly on its back heel as the emperor Honorius wrote his dictum that Britain must fend for itself in AD410, officially ending the Roman period, but evidence suggests that some towns, such as St Albans, continued successfully for some time as essentially independent town states.

From the third century Saxon raiding parties made up of warriors from powerful Germanic tribes were probing the coast of Britain causing the Romans to construct their Forts of the Saxon Shore, and these groups became a thorn in the side of the declining Roman administration taking advantage of the situation once the island was bereft of troops, but today the general consensus amongst archaeologists is that the influx of Germanic culture to Britain was a gradual change from the fifth to seventh century, rather than a single great invasion along the lines of the Roman episode.

Evidence for this confusing transitional period takes the form of deserted towns and villas juxtaposed with other settlements which remain successful, all showing us that the term 'dark age' can only really be applied to the lack of records associated with the time. Unlike the Romans, the incoming Saxons (and remaining native Britons) were poor record keepers. This, combined with an archaeological phase which is difficult to identify due mainly to a distinct lack of pottery manufacture and coinage use combined with a discontinuity in the use of existing buildings, leaves us with a gaping hole in our knowledge of what actually happened following the Roman withdrawal. The lifestyle of Britons most certainly changed without an occupying army to control them, but just because we have hardly any records or easily identifiable immediately post-Roman archaeology it doesn't mean that all was doom and gloom.

The Saxons, Angles and Jutes brought with them a vibrant culture which was to become an integral part of Britain, not least the eventual large scale conversion of the population to Christianity. The withdrawal of Rome left a vacuum which led to the emergence of a variety of kingdoms within the country which, to a large extent, were all established by the seventh century. Each with their own kings, judicial systems, governing bodies and warrior class, it first appeared that a centralised ruler would come from the powerful Mercians of the midlands. However, resource sapping battles with the Vikings in the ninth century led to Mercian decline and King Alfred of Wessex being the first to conquer and command the whole of England as its sole King. The Saxon period also brought the separate regions of Scotland and Wales under their own rulers. A burial practice which involved internment with personal possessions has helped greatly with the understanding of life in Anglo-Saxon Britain. Highly skilled in crafts and the manufacture of high status items, such as jewellery, the Saxons created a Britain which was carefully administered, guided by a common law and unified in its identity. A legacy which carried through into the medieval period.

Click here for recommended books and websites about the Anglo-Saxons.