Saxon

(work in progress)



The post-Roman transformation of lowland Britain was profound. The end of the Roman administration in fifth century Britain preceded a dramatic shift in material culture, architecture, manufacturing and agricultural practice, and was accompanied by language change. This was the advent of the Anglo-Saxon culture in Britain. The archaeological record and place names indicate shared cultural features across the "North Sea zone", in particular, along the east and southeast coasts of present-day England, Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony (Germany), Frisia (Netherlands) and the Jutland peninsula (Denmark). Examples include the appearance of Grubenhäuser (sunken feature buildings), large cremation cemeteries and the styles of cremation urns or objects that used animal art and chip-carved metal. Moreover, wrist clasps, as well as cruciform and square-headed brooches, found in sixth and seventh century Britain attest southern Scandinavian origins. The advent of the Saxons cannot be doubted. However, to this day, debate continues over the scale of migration, the mode of interaction between locals and newcomers, or how the transformation of the social, material, and linguistic or religious spheres was achieved.

As compared with the North Sea zone the Irish Sea zone is distinct. It is accepted that at some time after the Romans departed from Cheshire, the Anglo-Saxons arrived and started to settle in this west-coast region. There was migration into Wales from Ireland and a Welsh border which in post-Roman times, before the coming of the Saxons (by land) may have included much of Cheshire. This article looks at post-Roman settlement process as applied to Cheshire and what would become the surrounding counties including Flintshire. It does not consider the Vikings in detail as theirs was a colonisation period at a somewhat later time, but it should be noted that the two sets of migrants are distinct in that the English formed a government of their own and completely controlled the teritory whereas the Scandinavians found a strongly established polity and were to a large extent adsorbed by it.

The transition from the Romano-British period to the Anglo-Saxon period is sometimes known as the "Age of Arthur" with reference to the legendary King Arthur. In many cases it is now clear which elements of folklore are derived from myth and which from history. However there is a complex "grey area" between the two which exists for many reasons and is a fascinating study in itself. The last ten years has seen much revision of the nature of the Roman occupation of north Wales and it is now understood that earlier models of the Roman occupation of Britain in general were to some extent influenced by ideas related to later colonisation in the ages of Sail and Steam. Britain is no longer seen as "Romanised" below the Foss Way and militarised to the north and west of it. The Romans had no policy of imposing their culture on others and provided there was no open revolt and that taxes were paid the natives could carry on much as they had before. There were some minor exceptions to this as the Romans objected to actual human sacrifice (which they believed the Druids did) or cannibalism (which they believed the christians did symbolically).

However a great deal remains unclear as to when the Saxons first settled in Cheshire amd when Chester became an "English" town. For this, and many related questions is is not possible to give a definitive conclusion, so this article is more about issues than answers.

=Brythonic and Saxon=

The Brythonic languages (also Brittonic or British Celtic; Welsh: ieithoedd Brythonaidd/Prydeinig; Cornish: yethow brythonek/predennek; Breton: yezhoù predenek) form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic language family; the other is Goidelic. It comprises the extant languages Breton, Cornish, and Welsh. The name Brythonic was derived by Welsh Celticist John Rhys from the Welsh word Brython, meaning Ancient Britons as opposed to an Anglo-Saxon or Gael.

The Anglo-Saxons came to Britain from North Germany and Southern Scandinavia in the 5th century. They crossed the North Sea in search of new land and prosperity. The date and manner of the arrival of the "Saxon" culture in Britain is expected to vary with place. Early theories proposed that the "Anglo-Saxons", who were a diverse group, either displaced the existing population westwards or exterminated them, eventually establishing a common "English" cultural identity. This article refers to them collectively as "Saxons" as it is difficult to define sub-groups using material culture.

The few surviving literary sources, such as Gildas, tell of hostility between incomers and natives. They describe violence, destruction, massacre, and the flight of the Romano-British population. Moreover, comparatively little clear evidence exists for any significant influence of British Celtic or British Latin on the incoming Old English language. These factors suggested a mass influx of Germanic-speaking peoples. In this view, held by most historians and archaeologists until the mid-to-late 20th century, much of what is now England was simply cleared of its prior inhabitants, who either left or died. Historical examples of this "genocide" or "ethnic cleansing" form of colonisation include extremes such as Tasmania, where the indigenous population was brought to near extinction.



A problem with Gildas description of how body parts littered the streets of devastated towns, and how many of those who attempted to flee were “murdered in great numbers.” is that there is no archaeological evidence for this. It has been argued that in the period from 400 to 600, only about 2% of the human remains uncovered showed signs of death from a bladed weapon. In line with this, archaeology has shown that field layouts generally continued uninterrupted through the period of the Anglo-Saxon migration and manufacture of types of pottery unknown to the Anglo-Saxons continued.

Gildas was writing (possibly 510-530) just before, or in the very early years of, a new burst of Anglo-Saxon expansion. He notes that there has been a period of peace, that further incursions by the Anglo-Saxons had largely paused and the Britains were living in peace against outsiders. However Gildas has the Briton's squandering this period of peace with civil war, internal disputes, and general unrest. The next major Saxon campaign against the Britons was to not occur until around 577.

Another view is that the migrants were fewer in number, possibly centred on a "warrior elite" which colonised in the manner of the Romans, Normans or perhaps the British in India. This hypothesis suggests that the incomers somehow achieved a position of political and social dominance, which, perhaps aided by intermarriage, initiated a process of acculturation of the natives to the incoming language, sometimes religion, and material culture. Archaeologists might therfore find that with the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons in England settlement patterns and land use would show no clear break with the Romano-British past, though changes in material culture could be profound.

A third view lies between the two extremes described above. The "warrior elite" are instead a culturally distinct group who introduce, for example, some new innovation in technology or agricultural practice, or a new religion, which spreads to the indigenous population and leads to a change in society. This could be a very small group of "incomers" or even occur through trade. An example would be where indigenous high status groups adopt elements of an "incoming" culture.

The replacement of one culture by another has often led to divisive arguments as to whether these are invasions, migrations or simply the effects of trade. German and Slavic scholars speak of "migration" (see German: Völkerwanderung, Czech: Stěhování národů, Swedish: folkvandring and Hungarian: népvándorlás), aspiring at times to the idea of a dynamic and "wandering Indo-Germanic people". In contrast, the standard terms in French and Italian historiography can translate to "barbarian invasions", or even "barbaric invasions" (French: Invasions barbares, Italian: Invasioni barbariche).

As would be expected any local situation might well be a mixture of the above processes and occur at differing times and timescales, although general education has tended to present the departure of the Romans and the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons as a single national process. Some of the factors which could influence matters on a local scale are discussed below:

Issues


The idea that "the Romans left around 400, then the Anglo-Saxon arrived" is now hardwired into the public consciousness. It can be considered a very "south eastern" view of the post-Roman transition. A slightly more elaborated version adds "..and the British Isles were pagan until Augustine arrived around 600". Neither of these statements is true.

Assuming that the Anglo-Saxons arrived on the south and east coasts of Britain, the above model becomes increasing weak as one moves west. In Cheshire and the surrounding area the same model cannot be expected to apply as it would require a very rapid conquest by relatively small forces. The following issues can be considered:


 * The End of Roman Britain: What should be considered the "End"? - is it the departure of the legions, the expulsion of magistrates appointed by the "Romans", the end of any hope that aid could come from the continent, the development of local institutions such as the church, or the displacement of the "Romano British" from power?


 * Cheshire: What does "Cheshire" mean in this context? Who ruled it, where were they based, and how far did their rule extend.


 * The "Decline and Fall" Paradigm: When did the Saxons actually arrive in Cheshire and did they migrate or invade?


 * Segontium: Did this significant Roman fort on the Menai Strait remain occupied and if so by who?


 * Vortigern: Who was he and why does he have an association with North Wales?


 * Gwynedd, Powys and Pengwern: How did these Roman "sucessor states" come about and how did they interact with "Cheshire"

The End of Roman Britain
The general consensus of archaeologists is that Roman Britain reached its peak of prosperity in the early 4th century. However, near contemporary writers can give a different impression, showing the the local administration was at times in revolt against Rome. The western Caesar Constantius Chlorus needed to re-establish Imperial rule in Britain following a revolt by Carausius (a Roman Naval commander in Britain) and later Allectus (defeated 296), his finance minister and eventual assassin. Eutropius (fl. AD 363–387) writes of the English Channel being cleared by Carausius, since the Armorican and Belgian coasts had been 'infested' with Francs and Saxons. After his father's death in 306, Constantine was acclaimed as augustus (emperor) by his army at Eboracum (York). He eventually emerged victorious in the civil wars against emperors Maxentius and Licinius to become the sole ruler of the Roman Empire by 324.

Following the revolt of Magnentius, Paulus "Catena" was dispatched to Roman Britain in 353 by the paranoid Constantius II to exact savage reprisals against supporters of Magnentius in the army garrisons of Britain. These "revolts" appear to have only involved the army. In the winter of 367, the Roman garrison on Hadrian's Wall rebelled and allowed Picts from Caledonia to enter Britannia. In the spring of 368, a relief force commanded by the elderly Flavius Theodosius arrived in Britannia from Gaul. Coins dated later than 383 have been excavated along Hadrian's Wall, suggesting that troops were not stripped from it by the Roman general then assigned to Britain, Magnus Maximus, as once thought. Claudian's de consulatu Stilichonis, (2, 250-5), written in January 400 is possible evidence for an expedition to Britain mounted by Stilicho in 396-8 to deal with "external" threats.

The crossing of the Rhine River by a mixed group of barbarians which included Vandals, Alans and Suebi is traditionally considered to have occurred on the last day of the year 406 although 405 fits better with events in Britain. It initiated a wave of destruction of Roman cities and the collapse of Roman civic order in northern Gaul. Thereafter the provinces of Britain were isolated, lacking support from the Empire, and the setting up and pulling down of a final series of usurper emperors as the soldiers supported the revolts of:


 * Marcus (406 - 407), a soldier in Roman Britain who was proclaimed emperor by the army there some time in 406. All that is known of his rule is that he did not please the army, and was soon killed by them;
 * Gratianus (407), acclaimed as emperor by the army in Britain in early 407. His army wanted to cross to Gaul and stop the barbarians who were attacking the empire but Gratian ordered them to remain (he should have known better). Unhappy with this, the troops killed him - and finally
 * Constantine "III" (who actually listened to the troops). Constantine III was a British common soldier and invaded Gaul in 407, eventually occupying Arles, but in the process possibly drained Britain of the last of it's Roman legions. In 411 Gerontius besieged Constantine in Arles and killed him.

Around 410, the Romano-British expelled the Roman magistrates from Britain. A frequently used "endpoint" is often assumed to be the so-called "Rescript of Honorius" of 411 when the emperor reputedly told the British cities to look after their own defence. This interpretation has been questioned. Honorius was fighting a large-scale war in Italy against the Visigoths under their leader Alaric, with Rome itself under siege. No forces could be spared to protect distant Britain. Though it is possible that Honorius expected to regain control over the provinces soon, by the mid-6th century Procopius recognised that Roman control of Britannia was entirely lost.

The above summary implies that Britain as a whole had a somewhat insecure government towards the end of the Roman period, but these historical facts are largely concerned with military affairs at a national level. Much less is known about other institutions, such as the church, and especially in some specific geographical locations.



Not all regions in Roman Britain were governed in the same manner. It was once thought that some had a strong element of civilian control (those in the south-eastern "lowland" zone) whereas others were essentially military (those in the northern and western "highland" zone). This view has been recently criticised. City-based local government, was governed by a town council (curia), led by elected magistrates. They were responsible for settling local disputes and collecting taxes from the population in the extensive surrounding territory, and passing them on to the state. There were 22 major towns in Britain. Seventeen of them were civitas capitals based on the tribal areas (civitates) into which the Britons had been organised in the course of the conquest. It has been suggested that the civil settlement at Chester was elevated to the status of civitas capital of the northern Cornovii at the end of the 2nd or early 3rd century under Severus, but there is no conclusive evidence for this.

The early christian church in Roman Britain was largely based in towns. There is little evidence for an organised Celtic church unique in character with its own structures and practices, especially in north Wales. Most of the surviving "lives" of the Welsh "saints" were written from an eleventh or twelfth century perspective and it is uncertain whether these can provide any historical background.

Elsewhere
The accession of Honorius and his brother Arcadius in 395 was marked by a basic change in the role of the emperor. After holding the consulate at the age of two in 386, Honorius was declared augustus by his father Theodosius I, and thus co-ruler, on 23 January 393, after the death of Valentinian II and the usurpation of Eugenius. When Theodosius died, in January 395, Honorius and Arcadius divided the Empire, so that Honorius became Western Roman emperor at the age of ten. During the early part of his reign, Honorius depended on the military leadership of the general Stilicho, who had been appointed by Theodosius and was of mixed Vandal and Roman ancestry. To strengthen his bonds with the young emperor and to make his grandchild an imperial heir, Stilicho married his daughter Maria, to him. Stilicho's downfall came in 408, when, following his inability to deal with the rebellion of Constantine III, he was executed.

Cheshire
This article attempts to look at Anglo-Saxon settlement in Cheshire and other associated cultural exchanges in the same region. This is a particularly interesting problem due to Cheshire not only having a land and linquistic border with Wales but also by it being a port of the Irish Sea zone. Matters are complicated by the fact that Cheshire was the location of a major Roman base which may or may not have had a cultural legacy. It has been suggested that the civil settlement at Chester was elevated to the status of civitas capital of the northern Cornovii at the end of the 2nd or early 3rd century under Severus, but the evidence on this is inconclusive.

The borders of what is now termed Cheshire are in part defined by landscape features mostly involving the Cheshire Plain. To the west and north the rivers Dee and Mersey roughly follow the boundary and between them around the Wirral the boundary follows the mostly estuarine coast. To the east the Pennines form a natural geographic border. Between Shocklach and Whitchurch the Wych Brook (formerly the River Elfe) roughly defines a convenient boundary. Of course this has not always been the cultural boundary: at times parts of Flintshire were under control of the "English" side and at other times Chester appears to have been under Welsh control.

Even in late Roman Chester historical information is difficult to come by. There is little by the way of written evidence for the period 400-700, so determining the date of the arrival of "Saxon" culture is difficult. Archaeology, which is largely concerned with artifacts, provides little information. Cheshire does not have the Pagan Saxon archaeology of eastern England. What Cheshire does have is a confusing mixture of English place-names with a remarkably low survival of Celtic names, strong hints of Celtic Christianity in ecclesiastical organisation and evidence for early territorial organisation which appears to extend back to the Roman past. There is also an increasing body of information from genetic information. Recent "ancient DNA" results show that around 75 percent of the ancestry of individuals in Eastern and Southern England was shared with those from continental regions bordering the North Sea, including the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark.



There is no detailed historical record of the Roman legions packing up, blowing out the lights, marching out of Chester and leaving the local populace to their own devices. Indeed, after over three-hundred years of "occupation" the Romans were probably pretty well integrated with the indigenous population. Coin finds on the Wirral seem to suggest that retired Roman soldiers lived a settled life in the area. If they did they may well have taken local wives. They probably even spoke the local language. The most likely scenario was that regular troops were withdrawn to support civil wars in mainland Europe, leaving local irregular troops, retired veterans or mercenaries to defend the Roman towns as best they could. There were frequent appeals to Rome for help, few of which were answered, although some were. There are also some historical hints of the survival of Roman culture in the area around Chester.

Just when the Saxon's first became a potential problem for the Brythonic-speaking Roman British is not clear, but the title "comes littoris Saxonici per Britanniam" ("Count of the Saxon Shore") was possibly created during the reign of Constantine the Great (306-337), and was probably in existence by 367 when Nectaridus is elliptically referred to as such a leader by historians such as Ammianus Marcellinus.

Obviously, the "Saxon Shore" is that to the south and east of England, and there is no reason to suppose that the Saxons sailed into the Irish Sea. However there were Roman coastal defences on the north Wales coast intended to protect against the Scots, Picts and others from around the Irish Sea.

Wroxeter
Wroxeter was first established in the early years of the Roman conquest of Britain as a frontier post for a cohort of Thracian Auxilia who were taking part in the campaigns of the governor, Publius Ostorius Scapula (died 52). By the late 80s the fort had ceased to be used by the Roman army after Legio XX Valeria Victrix moved to Deva Victrix. In this period the canabae, or civilian settlement, that had grown up around the legionary fort began turning it into a town. Of this town much survives and it has been extensively studied.



Archaeological research has found that an unfinished legionary bath house in the centre of the town eventually became the town's forum. A decade later a civic street grid was subsuming the plan of the old legionary fort. At its peak, Viroconium is estimated to have been one of the richest and the fourth largest Roman settlement in Britain with a population of more than 15,000. Viroconium appears to have served as the early sub-Roman capital of Powys, variously identified with the ancient Welsh cities of Cair Urnarc or Cair Guricon which appeared in the Historia Brittonum's list of the 28 civitates of Britain. Evidence for the foundation of the wealth of the town is not forthcoming but extensive mineral deposits of lead, silver and coal are located nearby and the Cornovii controlled three centres of salt production.



It is possible that the status of the town declined in the 4th century since the large and unwieldy territory of the Cornovii was possibly broken up into smaller units with Chester and Whitchurch being likely centres for the new pagi. Viroconium became the site of the court of a sub-Roman kingdom known in Old English as the Wreocensæte, which was the successor territorial unit to Cornovia. Wrocensaete means the "people of the Wrekin" or "people of Wroxeter" and the boundary of their land has been the subject of much speculation, with some having it include much of Cheshire. The Wroxeter Stone or Cunorix Stone, was found in 1967, with an inscription in an Insular Celtic language, identified by the Celtic Inscribed Stones Project (CISP) at UCL as "partly-Latinized Primitive Irish". The inscription, probably on a re-used gravestone, is dated to 460-475 AD, when Irish raiders had begun to make permanent settlements in west Wales and south-western Britain. It reads "CVNORIX | MACVSM/A | QVICO[L]I[N]E", traditionally normalised as Cunorix macus Maqui Coline and translated as Cunorīx son of Maqqos Colinī. Thus it is possible that Cunorix may be either one of a number of Irish foederati settled by the Romans in Wales or one of their descendants. It was common Roman policy in the later empire to settle a certain number of barbarian "invaders" within the boundaries of the Empire to ward off the rest. Irish settlers in Wales are known mostly from their tombstones, of which there are a considerable number, chiefly concentrated in Pembrokeshire in the South West, and mostly written in the Ogham script.

The 5th century saw continued town life in Viroconium but many of the buildings fell into disrepair. However, between 530 and 570 there was a substantial rebuilding programme in timber with most of the old basilica being demolished and replaced with new buildings. These probably included a very large two-storey timber-framed building and a number of storage buildings and houses. In all, 33 new buildings were constructed. Some of the buildings were renewed three times and the community probably lasted about 75 years until for some reason many of the buildings were dismantled. This places the end of activity in the 6th or 7th century. Some sources state that Offa of Mercia (ruled 757 – 29 July 796) annexed the entirety of Shropshire over the course of the 8th century from Powys, with nearby Shrewsbury captured in 778. Other sources state that the likely date of abandonment of Wroxeter as an urban settlement seems to have been in the later 7th or the 8th century when, on place-name evidence, the Anglo-Saxons occupied the area. By both these dates the Mercians had already been converted to christianity. It seems unlikely that the town was ever completely abandoned since the church in the village (St Andrew) dates to the 8-10th century (estimates vary) and is associated with a 8/9th century cross-shaft.

Decline and Fall Paradigm


Concerning Britain, the "Decline and Fall" paradigm holds that at the end of the Roman period Britain experienced a more dramatic collapse than other provinces in the Western Roman Empire: political and economic institutions disintegrated by the mid-fifth century or earlier; towns were abandoned; the Anglo-Saxons dominated late fifth-century Britain and conquered it in the sixth century. Until the 1970's it also appears that it was widely believed that christianity became extinct until the Augustinian mission in 597.

Gildas and Bede both present narratives that describe a dramatic collapse of society in Britain and do not emphasise continuity, this was taken as historical fact. However, they each had their own reasons for describing a large-scale systemic collapse. Gildas‘ purpose was to shock the religious and secular leaders of Britain into returning to what he considered acceptable standards of behaviour. Bede took advantage of Gildas‘ negative portrayal of the British to legitimise what he considered Anglo-Saxon political and cultural dominance over the Britons, especially as regards religion. The most frequently cited date for the end of Roman Britain under this paradigm is 410, a date much earlier than the traditional date for the end of the Western Roman Empire, 476. The former is also the date attributed to the letter from Honorius to the citizens of Britain advising them to look to their own defences. The Decline and Fall Paradigm held that the c200 years, 410-597, the bulk of the 5th and 6th centuries, was a period of decay, chaos, ignorance and paganism which only ended with the arrival of Augustine.

The "Late Antiquity" paradigm opposes such a catastrophic decline. Instead it proposes a transition including the spread of Christian monasticism. Christianity was well established in Britain by 400: Victricius of Rouen in his De Laude Sanctorum (396) explains that he has just returned from Britain where he was invited to settle a dispute between bishops. Monastic spirituality came to Britain and then Ireland from Gaul, by way of Lérins, Tours, and Auxerre. A monastery may have been established in Wales c450. A convenient endpoint for late antiquity in the region is possibly the Synod of Chester an ecclesiastical council of bishops held in Chester in the late 6th or early 7th century.

The early development of the above theories paid little attention to the lot of the common man, but were based largely on evidence relating to military and religious elites. They may also be somewhat biased towards events in the south and west of Britain and therefore not reflective of what may have been happening, for example, on the Irish Sea coast.

575-600
At the same time as the East Angles were being united under a single king, Angle and Saxon conquests were rapid and extensive. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle the West Saxons defeated three British kings in c577:


 * "577: Here Cuthwine and Ceawlin fought against the Britons, and they killed three kings, Coinmail, Condidan and Farinmail, in the place which is called Deorham, and took 3 cities: Gloucester and Cirencester and Bath"

This resulted in the capture of Caer Gloui (Gloucester), Caer Ceri (Cirencester), and Caer Baddan (a second Battle of Badon?). The Hwicce moved into new territory to form their own kingdom while the West Saxons continued to fight against Dumnonia resulting in the Battle of Deorham. The catastrophic British defeats in 577 meant that both Dumnonia and Caer Celemion were now totally isolated, while the East Saxons consolidated their own kingdom to the north of the Thames Estuary, possibly under Æscwine,.

North of the Humber, the two Angle kingdoms were also making rapid advances. Ebrauc's defence finally ran out of steam circa 580, which is when it was overrun by the Deiran Angles. The Bernician Angles conquered Dunoting in 595, and appear to have destroyed the kingdom of the Peak around the same time. Saxon groups moved in from the Midlands to adopt the name, becoming the Pecset (Peak settlers).

Elmet was now surrounded by enemies but North Rheged was at the height of its strength, even controlling nearby Galwyddel, until in-fighting, or the Northumbrians, brought down its powerful leader.

Segontium
Segontium (Old Welsh: Cair Segeint) is a Roman fort on the outskirts of Caernarfon in Gwynedd, North Wales. The fort, which survived until the end of the Roman occupation of Britain, was garrisoned by Roman auxiliaries from present-day Belgium and Germany. The fort may take its name either directly from the Afon Seiont or from a pre-existing British settlement itself named for the river. Alternatively, the name could be a Latinised form of the Brythonic language seg-ontio, which may be translated as "strong place", although given that "sego" means "vigorous" as applied to the river "place by the vigourous river" seems a better fit.

Segontium was founded by Agricola in AD 77 or 78 after he had conquered the Ordovices in North Wales. It was the main Roman fort in the north of Roman Wales and was designed to hold about a thousand auxiliary infantry. It was connected by a Roman road to the Roman legionary base at Chester. An inscription on an aqueduct from the time of the Emperor Septimius Severus indicates that, by the 3rd century, Segontium was garrisoned by 500 men from the Cohors I Sunicorum, which would have originally been levied among the Sunici of Gallia Belgica. The size of the fort continued to reduce through the 3rd and 4th centuries although according to some sources coins found at Segontium show the fort was still occupied until at least 394. Other sources state that the latest coin from the site is that of Gratian (367-383).



At this "late Roman" time Segontium's main role was the defence of the north Wales coast against Irish raiders and pirates. It appears that a coastal defence network was constructed along the coast of North Wales, with a small fort at Caer Gybi (Holyhead) on Angelsey and a series of forts (Caer) and signal towers along the Welsh coast. Possible sites were at Hen Waliau (Caernafon), Aberffraw (possible), Bangor, Braich yr Dinas, Caerhun, Deganwy, Varis (St Asaph) and possibly also at Pentre. There are probably remains of watch-towers or signal-beacons which have yet to be found. The fact that the Romans should build so much infra-structure in north Wales raises the issue of what they were defending and the degree of "Romanisation" of the population between Segontium and Deva. This leads on to the issue of how long a Romanised way of life would have survived in the region.

Irish "Invaders"
From the literature we see that for the Irish Sea region the initial foreign threat was the Scoti and possibly the Picts. Jones & Mattingly's Atlas of Roman Britain (1990) shows incursions of Irish invaders/settlers through Cheshire and shows significant Irish settlement in Angelsey and Dyfed. There are a number of sites, such as that at Ty Mawr, known as "Cytiau Gwyddelod", or "The Huts of the Irishmen".

Scoti or Scotti is a Latin name for the Gaels, first attested in the late 3rd century. It originally referred to all Gaels, first those in Ireland and then those in the rest of Great Britain as well, but it later came to refer only to Gaels in northern Britain. An early use of the word can be found in the Nomina Provinciarum Omnium (Names of All the Provinces), which dates to about AD 312. This is a short list of the names and provinces of the Roman Empire. At the end of this list is a brief list of tribes deemed to be a growing threat to the Empire, which included the Scoti, as a new term for the Irish. For the purpose of this article Scoti is taken to refer to Irish and particularly those who raided across the Irish Sea.

Matters are complicated by the fact that not everyone crossing the Irish Sea was a raider. In the late fourth century there was an influx of settlers into Wales from southern Ireland, the Uí Liatháin and Laigin (with "Déisi" participation uncertain), arriving under unknown circumstances but leaving a lasting legacy especially in Dyfed. Déisi is an Old Irish term that is derived from the word déis, which meant in its original sense a "vassal" or "subject", a designated group of people who were rent-payers to a landowner. As a class that evolved from peoples tied by social status rather than kinship, groups had largely independent histories in different parts of Ireland.

That people from Ireland settled in some numbers in western Wales about the fifth century is generally accepted. Physical evidence of the Irish presence in post-Roman Britain comes in the form of Ogham inscriptions. Some of these are dual-language which implies co-existence and co-operation. There is also a large legendary literature concerning the interaction of Ireland and Wales. However, the scale and duration of the Irish ‘colonization’, along with its influence on the native Brittonic population, remain a matter of debate. What documentary references to Irish incursions and settlement exist are difficult to exploit as they were all written much later, and subject to the vagaries of oblivion, omission and contemporary political propaganda. According to the ninth-century Historia Brittonum (see below), the family of Eochu Liathán settled in the southern region of Wales until they were driven out by Cunedda and his sons. Later on, this same record refers to Cunedda and his sons driving the Irish out of the region which subsequently became the kingdom of Gwynedd.

Opinions vary greatly as to when Cunedda lived. Some place him in the 6th century whereas others grant an earlier date. Maelgwn Gwynedd (Latin: Maglocunus; died c. 547) was king of Gwynedd during the early 6th century, and according to some he was the great-grandson of Cunedda.

Vortigern


The period between the departure of the Romans and the settlement of the Saxons has been called the "Age of Arthur" after the legendary king. Records from the time are sparse but the name of Vortigern as an important character seemingly involved in events eventually emerges. Vortigern's existence is contested by scholars and information about him is obscure. Unfortunately, many online sources assume without any doubt that he was a real historical figure and fail to distunguish between sources which are historical, folklore, myth or fiction. It is also the case that many of the legends surrounding Vortigern appear to be set in Wales. This does not automatically make him a "Welsh" character as his existence/legend may have simply been largely if not entirely forgotten in areas that were occupied by the Saxons. Vortigern and Cunedda both feature in the "traditional" version of the family trees of Welsh monarchs: a schema which may have been subject to political revision at various times.

The 6th century cleric Gildas does not mention Vortigern by name in most surviving editions, with only two later copies mentioning him. MS. A (Avranches MS 162, 12th century), refers to Uortigerno; and Mommsen's MS. X (Cambridge University Library MS. Ff. I.27) (13th century) calls him Gurthigerno. There is no proof that these names were included in Gildas original text. They may well have been introduced in surviving copies of Gildas at a later date.

The 8th century monk Bede mostly paraphrases Gildas in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People and The Reckoning of Time, adding several details, perhaps most importantly the name of this "proud tyrant", whom he first calls Vertigernus (in his Chronica Maiora) and later Vurtigernus (in his Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum). The Vertigernus form may reflect an earlier Celtic source or a lost version of Gildas, but Bede does not identify his source.

The Historia Brittonum (History of the Britons) was attributed until recently to Nennius, a monk from Bangor, Gwynedd, and was probably compiled during the early 9th century. Nennius wrote more negatively of Vortigern, accusing him of incest (perhaps confusing Vortigern with the Welsh king Vortiporius, accused by Gildas of the same crime).

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle provides dates and locations of four battles fought by the Saxons against the British in the county of Kent. Vortigern is said to have been the commander of the British for only the first battle; the opponents in the next three battles are variously termed "British" and "Welsh", which is not unusual for this part of the Chronicle. The Chronicle locates the Battle of Wippedesfleot as the place where the Saxons first landed, dated 465 and thought to be Ebbsfleet near Ramsgate. The year 455 is the last date when Vortigern is mentioned. The annals for the 5th century in the Chronicle were put into their current form during the 9th century, probably during the reign of Alfred the Great. The Chronicle exhibits some bias in favour of the West Saxons.

Later writers such as Geoffrey of Monmouth expand on detail but in Geoffrey's case his primary source appears to be his own imagination. By the date of the documents which survive there had been many opportunities for the content of the original sources to become significantly corrupted.

Gwynedd and Powys/Pengwern
The Kingdom of Gwynedd was a "Welsh" kingdom and a Roman Empire successor state that emerged in sub-Roman Britain in the 5th century during the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain. The name Gwynedd is believed to be a borrowing from early Irish (reflective of Irish settlement in the area in antiquity), either cognate with the Old Irish ethnic name Féni, "Irish People", from Primitive Irish *weidh-n- "Forest People"/"Wild People" (from Proto-Indo-European *weydh- "wood, wilderness"), or (alternatively) Old Irish fían "war band", from Proto-Irish *wēnā (from Proto-Indo-European *weyH1- "chase, pursue, suppress"). The 5th-century Cantiorix Inscription found near Festiniog and now in Penmachno church seems to be the earliest record of the name. It is in memory of a man named Cantiorix, and the Latin inscription is:




 * "Cantiorix hic iacit/Venedotis cives fuit/consobrinos Magli magistrati": "Cantiorix lies here. He was a citizen of Gwynedd and a cousin of Maglos the magistrate".

The use of terms such as "citizen" and "magistrate" may be cited as evidence that some elements of Romano-British culture and institutions continued in Gwynedd long after the legions had withdrawn and the magistrates were supposedly ejected.

The Kingdom of Powys was another Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain. It very roughly covered the top two thirds of the modern county of Powys and part of today's English West Midlands. During the Roman occupation of Britain, this region was organised with the capital most likely at Viroconium Cornoviorum, the fourth-largest Roman city in Britain. Archaeological evidence has shown that, unusually for the post-Roman period, Viroconium Cornoviorum survived as an urban centre well into the 6th century and thus could have been the Powys/Pengwern capital.

One issue is how far into "England" Gwynedd and Powys extended. The heartlands of Gwynedd appear to have been Arfon and Môn i.e. along the Menai straight; with the latter perhaps the most important locale within the greater Gwynedd kingdom. The remaining areas of north-western and north-eastern Wales comprised a multitude of smaller polities such as Meirionnydd, Dunoding, Dogfeiling, Osfeiling, Edeirnion, Eifionydd, Rhos and Rhufoniog. These were generally considered sub-kingdoms of Gwynedd. Individuals who ruled many of these were identified as the sons and grandson of Cunedda, but this may reflect later creation of a link to a notable ancestor. It may also reflect the British practice of splitting land between several sons, something which could produce a large number of small polities. Thus the lands up to the River Dee and perhaps at some times up to the Gowy were subject to the Gwynedd hegemony. Despite Offa's Dyke being considered the border at some times, Chester appears to have been a British\"Welsh" city when attacked by the West Saxons under Ecgbert in c829 and at the time of the Battle of Chester in c616.

Pillar of Eliseg
The Pillar of Eliseg is located near Valle Crucis Abbey, Denbighshire, Wales [Grid reference SJ 20267 44527]. It was erected by Cyngen ap Cadell (died 855), king of Powys in honour of his great-grandfather Elisedd ap Gwylog (died c. 755). The form "Eliseg" found on the pillar is assumed to be a mistake by the carver of the inscription. Cyngen was the last of the original line of kings of Powys of the Gwertherion dynasty. He had three sons, but on his death Powys was annexed by Rhodri Mawr, ruler of Gwynedd.



A generally accepted translation of the inscription, one of the longest surviving inscriptions from pre-Viking Wales, is as follows:


 * † Concenn son of Cattell, Cattell son of Brochmail, Brochmail son of Eliseg, Eliseg son of Guoillauc.
 * † And that Concenn, great-grandson of Eliseg, erected this stone for his great-grandfather Eliseg.
 * † The same Eliseg, who joined together the inheritance of Powys . . . throughout nine (years?) out of the power of the Angles with his sword and with fire.
 * † Whosoever shall read this hand-inscribed stone, let him give a blessing on the soul of Eliseg.
 * † This is that Concenn who captured with his hand eleven hundred acres [4.5 km²] which used to belong to his kingdom of Powys . . . and which . . . . . . the mountain

(the column is broken here. One line, possibly more, lost)
 * . . . the monarchy . . . Maximus . . . of Britain . . . [Conce]nn, Pascen[t], Mau(n?), An(n)an.
 * † Britu son of Vortigern, whom Germanus blessed, and whom Sevira bore to him, daughter of Maximus the king, who killed the king of the Romans.
 * † Conmarch painted this writing at the request of king Concenn.
 * † The blessing of the Lord be upon Concenn and upon his entire household, and upon the entire region of Powys until the Day of Judgement.

How much of this is history and how much is myth (or propaganda) has been the subject of debate. Those named in the first line can be identified as: Cattell son of Brochmail, Brochmail son of Eliseg and Eliseg son of Guoillauc. Guoillauc, according to traditional Welsh king-lists would be Gwylog ap Beli the great-grandson of Selyf ap Cynan who died in the Battle of Chester.

The names [Conce]nn, Pascen[t], Mau(n?), An(n)an appear on a very badly damaged section of the column. Pascent appears in a genealogical argument which flared up in the 9th century around the dynasties that claimed the legitimacy of the throne of Powys. These were the dynasties of Cadell Ddyrnllwg (promoted by the Historia Brittonum) and of Catigern ((Welsh: Cadeyrn Fendigaid) said to be confirmed by the Pillar of Elise), which claimed descent from Vortigern. The Historia Brittonium says of the sons of Vortigern:


 * "He had three sons: the eldest was Vortimer, who, as we have seen, fought four times against the Saxons, and put them to flight; the second Categirn, who was slain in the same battle with Horsa; the third was Pascent, who reigned in the two provinces Builth and Guorthegirnaim, after the death of his father. These were granted him by Ambrosius, who was the great king among the kings of Britain. The fourth was Faustus, born of an incestuous marriage with his daughter, who was brought up and educated by St. Germanus."

Brittu is named as the son of Vortigern by Sevira, daughter of Magnus Maximus. The connection between Vortigern and Brittu is is mentioned in no other source. The Pillar of Eliseg inscription is also the only known source for a daughter of Magnus named Sevira (or Severa). In the "Matter of Britain" Vortigern also marries Rowena, daughter of the purported Anglo-Saxon chief Hengist: she is first recorded by name in the work of Geoffrey of Monmouth (so it is possible he made the name up). Geoffrey claims the drunken seduction of Vortigern created the tradition of toasting in Britain. According to the Historia Brittonum, Vortigern "and his wives" (Rowena/Rhonwen is not named directly) were burned alive by "heavenly fire" (brought down by Germanus) in the fortress of Craig Gwrtheyrn ("Vortigern's Rock") in south Wales.

Summary so far
Chester makes much of its Roman past but digging into the detail reveals a spread of "jigsaw pieces" that could indicate a quite different evolution to that in the south and west of Britain from which most "popular" theories about the advent of the Saxons arise. There is an argument for surviving Roman culture in north Wales, yet this may have been in part interrupted by colonisation from Ireland. There is the theory that the Cornovii re-emerged with a center at Wroxeter and the "myth" of Pengwern. At the time of the Battle of Chester, some 200 years after the "end of Roman Chester", the Saxons do not seem to have settled what is now Cheshire.

=Written Evidence=

The writing of Saint Patrick and Gildas apparently demonstrates the survival in Britain of Latin literacy and Roman education, learning and law within elite society and Christianity, throughout the bulk of the fifth and sixth centuries. Some see signs in Gildas' works which indicate that the economy was thriving without Roman taxation, as he complains of luxuria and self-indulgence. Of course Gildas may only be writing a polemic against a small elite. In the mid-fifth century, Anglo-Saxons begin to appear in an apparently still functionally Romanised Britain, so a key factor in analysis of the period is how quickly and when the culture changed due to outside influences.

Early Evidence
The first set of written evidence is that which comes from late Roman writers in the period before 450, at least some of whom may have been alive during the time of the first Saxon raids on late and post Roman Britain.

Ammianus Marcellinus


Ammianus Marcellinus (330 - c391 – 400): his account of the "British War" of 343 has been lost but he refers to it in extant works. According to his account, the Picts, Attacotti and Irish were raiding widely, while the Franks and Saxons were plundering parts of Gaul at some time between 343 and 367. Ammianus was living in Antioch at the time he wrote, but he is the source for the "Great Conspiracy", a year-long state of war and disorder that occurred near the end of Roman Britain. In the winter of 367, the Roman garrison on Hadrian's Wall rebelled and allowed Picts from Caledonia to enter Britannia. Simultaneously, Attacotti, the Scotti from Hibernia and (according to some interpretations) Saxons from Germania landed in what might have been coordinated and pre-arranged waves on the island's mid-western and southeastern borders, respectively.

The warbands managed to overwhelm nearly all of the loyal Roman outposts and settlements. The entire western and northern areas of Britannia were overwhelmed; the cities sacked; and the civilian Romano-British murdered, raped, or enslaved. In the spring of 368, a relief force, commanded by Flavius Theodosius, gathered at Bononia (Boulogne-sur-Mer). It included four units, Batavi, Heruli, Iovii and Victores, as well as his son, the later Emperor Theodosius I, and probably the later usurper Magnus Maximus, his nephew. Considerable reorganization was undertaken in Britain, including the creation of a new province, Valentia, probably to better address the state of the far north.

It is possible that Theodosius mounted punitive expeditions against the barbarians and imposed terms upon them. Certainly, the Notitia Dignitatum later records four units of Attacotti serving Rome on the Continent. What happened next only survives as a mix of myth and legend.

The areani (native British troops) were removed from duty and the frontiers refortified with co-operation from other border tribes such as the Votadini, which marked the career of men such as Paternus (Padarn Beisrudd). One traditional interpretation identifies Paternus as a Roman (or Romano-British) official of reasonably high rank who was placed in command of the Votadini troops stationed in Clackmannanshire in the 380s or earlier by Roman Emperor Magnus Maximus. Alternatively, he may have been a frontier chieftain in the same region who was granted Roman military rank, a practice attested elsewhere along the empire's borders at the time. His command in part of what is now Scotland probably lasted until his death and was then assumed by his son Edern (Edeyrn=Eternus). Edern is traditionally considered to be the father of Cunedda, traditional founder of the Kingdom of Gwynedd. Dates for the arrival of Cunedda in Wales range from the 370's (under Magnus Maximus) to the late 440's.

This provides two links to the Irish Sea region and in particular to north Wales. The earliest Welsh genealogies give Maximus (referred to as Macsen Wledig, or Emperor Maximus) the role of founding father of the dynasties of several medieval Welsh kingdoms, including those of Powys and Gwent. He is given as the ancestor of a Welsh king on the Pillar of Eliseg, erected nearly 500 years after he left Britain. For more on Maximus see the article on Elen of the Hosts.

Claudian
Claudius Claudianus (c. 370 – c. 404) was a Latin poet associated with the court of the Roman emperor Honorius at Mediolanum (Milan), and particularly with the general Stilicho who was of Vandal origins. His coverage of events in Britain is somewhat fragmentary. His de consulatu Stilichonis (on the Consulship of Stilichio), puts the following into the mouth of Britannia, dressed in the skin of some Caledonian beast, her cheeks tattooed, her sea-blue mantle sweeping over her footsteps like the surge of ocean:


 * "Inde Caledonio velata Britannia monstro, ferro picta genas, cuius vestigia verrit caerulus Oceanique aestum mentitur amictus: me quoque vicinis pereuntem gentibus inquit munivit Stilicho, totam cum Scottus Hivernen movit et infesto spumavit remige Tethys illius effectum curis, ne tela timerem Scottica, ne Pictum tremerem, ne litore toto prospicerem dubiis venturum Saxona ventis." (When I too was about to succumb to the attack of neighbouring peoples - for the Scots had raised all Ireland against me, and the sea foamed under hostile oars - you, Stilicho, fortified me. This was to such effect that I no longer fear the weapons of the Scots, nor tremble at the Pict, nor along my shore do I look for the approaching Saxon on each uncertain wind.)

Frere (1987) believed this was evidence of naval activity against the Irish, Picts, and Saxons, as Gildas mentions in is sixth century writings. If this is the case then it may well have taken place offshore of the line of forts and signalling towers along the northern Welsh coast. It also indicates that the Saxons were already percieved as a danger before 404, if only as raiders.

Legio XX, based at Chester, appears to have been recalled to the continent by Stilicho about 402. Claudian's poem, De Bello Getico, indicates that the troops in question had done service against the Picts and Scots, as had the XXth under Hadrian and Pius:


 * "Venit et extremis legio praetenta Britannis; Quae Scoto dat frena truci, ferroque notatas; Pertegit exsangues Picto moriente figuras." This legion, which curbs the savage Scot and studies the designs marked with iron on the face of the dying Pict.

The mention of the invasions of the Scots, the implication of coastal defence and the possible link with the XXth legion, may indicate that Stilchio was active in the Chester/N.Wales area. Soldiers based at Chester were still being paid in coins from the imperial mints until, but not during, the time of Magnus Maximus (383- 8), who perhaps removed regular troops from Chester when he invaded Gaul in 383. The Notitia Dignitatum, a list of officials probably compiled c. 400, mentioned neither troops at Chester nor the Twentieth Legion elsewhere in Britain.

The Chronica Gallica of 452
The Chronica Gallica of 452, also called the Gallic Chronicle of 452, is an anonymous Latin chronicle of Late Antiquity, presented in the form of annals, which continues that of Jerome. It was edited by Theodor Mommsen who for some unknown reason saw fit to change some of the dates. The chronicle begins in 379 with the elevation of Theodosius I as co-emperor, and ends with the attack of Attila, king of the Huns, on Italy in 452. The contents focus on Gaul, the emperors and the popes, while events in the eastern part of the empire find little mention. There is a mention of Magnus Maximus being "made a tyrant by his troops" in Britain (in 383) and that in 384:


 * "Incursantes Pictos et Scottos Maximus tyrannus strenue superavit" (Maximus the tyrant achieved an admirable victory over the invading Picts and Scots)

There is a potential problem with these dates as Magnus Maximus had indeed been proclaimed emperor in Gratian's place in 383, but seems to have gone straight to Gaul to pursue his imperial ambitions. He defeated Gratian, who fled the battlefield and was killed at Lyon on 25 August 383, according to the Consularia Constantinopolitana. Maximus then continue his campaign into Italy.

The Chronica Gallica records of the year 441:


 * "441: The British provinces, which to this time had suffered various defeats and misfortunes, are reduced to Saxon rule."

It is not clear when the Chronica was actually compiled. It was completed probably in Viennensis, perhaps in Valence or Marseille, in the middle of 452. Despite the anonymity, it is clear that the author was a staunch Catholic Christian as this religious perspective informs the chronicle. The author shows a keen interest in bishops and other outstanding religious figures. The author is also interested in the suppression of paganism and the competition between Catholicism and Arianism. He describes Pelagius (c354–418) as "mad". He gives a date of the sixteenth year of Honorius (c409) as that when:


 * "The British lands were devastated by an incursion of the Saxons"

The c409 incursion follows close upon the departure of the usurper Constantine III from Britain. However the 441 date for "reduction to Saxon Rule" seems early.

Constantius of Lyon
Constantius of Lyon (fl. c. AD 480) was a cleric from what is now the Auvergne in modern-day France, who wrote the Vita Germani, or Life of Germanus, a hagiography of Germanus of Auxerre. The hagiography was written some time during the second half of the fifth century, and was commissioned by and dedicated to Patiens, bishop of Lyon. The Vita was most probably dedicated to Patiens while he was still living and serving as bishop, most probably between his ascendancy to the bishopric in 450, and his death, before 494 when his successor plus one was bishop.

In Britain Germanus is best remembered for his journey to combat Pelagianism in or around 429, and the records of this visit provide valuable information on the state of post-Roman British society. We can be sure of the date because it is recorded in Prosper of Aquitaine‘s Chronicon, composed only a few years later in 434. Germanus also played an important part in the establishment and promotion of the Cult of Saint Alban. Around 429, shortly after the Romans had withdrawn from Britain, a Gaulish assembly of bishops chose Germanus and Lupus, Bishop of Troyes, to visit the island. It was alleged that Pelagianism was rife among the British clergy, led by a British bishop, Severianus' son named Agricola. Constantius states that Germanus went to combat the threat and satisfy the Pope that the British church would not break away from the Roman teachings. Prosper reported that Germanus went to Britain because he was ordered by Pope Celestine on the advice of Bishop Palladius.

Constantius of Lyon himself said of the work: "So many years have passed it is difficult to recover the facts from the silence in which they are buried", but he appears to depict Britain as still part of the Roman Empire and orthodox at the time he was writing about it, in the second half of the fifth century.

Germanus is said to have made a second visit to Britain in 447. The chronology of Germanus‘ life and episcopacy has been under heavy debate. The year of his death has been suggested as 437, 442, and 448 which almost completely conflict with the idea of a second visit. There is also an issue with the date of the second vist and the ascendancy of the Saxons as described in the Chronica Gallica of 452, which places the Saxons in control by 441.

Later Evidence (After the Romans in Britain pass from living memory)
The second set of written records date from slightly later, when first-hand accounts of the arrival of the Saxons would not have been available to the authors, either through passage of time or separation by distance.

St Patrick
The dates of Patrick's life are uncertain; there are conflicting traditions regarding the year of his death. Patrick's father, Calpurnius, is described as a decurion (city senator and tax collector) of an unspecified Romano-British city, and as a deacon; his grandfather Potitus was a priest from "Bonaven Tabernia".

His own writings provide no evidence for any dating more precise than the 5th century generally. His Biblical quotations are a mixture of the Old Latin version and the Vulgate, completed in the early 5th century, suggesting he was writing "at the point of transition from Old Latin to Vulgate", although it is possible the Vulgate readings may have been added later, replacing earlier readings. The Letter to Coroticus implies that the Franks were still pagans at the time of writing: their conversion to Christianity is dated to the period 496–508. According to the Confession of Saint Patrick, at the age of sixteen he was captured by a group of Irish pirates, from his family's Villa at "Bannavem Taburniae". The Irish annals for the fifth century date Patrick's arrival in Ireland at 432, but they were compiled in the mid 6th century at the earliest. The date 432 was probably chosen to minimise the contribution of Palladius, who is traditionally said to have been sent to Ireland by Pope Celestine in 431, and maximise that of Patrick.

In the Epistola Patrick recounts that Coroticus, a Romanised Briton, is a sort of local leader and an ally of the Picts and Scoti.

Gildas


Gildas — also known as Gildas the Wise or St. Gildas — was a 6th-century British monk best known for his scathing religious polemic "De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae" (On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain), which recounts the history of the Britons before and during the coming of the Saxons: partly in the form of a prolonged "rant". It is the only substantial literary text to survive from late antique Britain. Gildas tells us that native British sources were not available to him because they had been burned by enemies or taken by exiles when they fled Britain.

It is thought from his Latin style that Gildas wrote "De Excidio" after 480 and before 550 with the closest estimate being 510-530. His knowledge of the north is sketchy and his damning accusations of the Welsh kings have been taken to indicate that since Gildas was able to accuse these men, he must certainly have lived a long way away from the territory controlled by them. The signage at the Amphitheatre has Gildas writing at the monastery at Bangor-on-Dee. This monastery is believed to have been founded in about AD 560 by Saint Dunod (or Dunawd) and was an important religious centre in the 6th century. The monastery was destroyed in about 613/616 by the Anglo-Saxon king Æthelfrith of Northumbria after he defeated the Welsh armies at the Battle of Chester. Clearly, if Gildas' "De Excidio" is dated to before 550 (or in the narrower range 510-530) he cannot have been writing at the Bangor-on-Dee monastery. Thus, any actual association between Gildas and Chester, as implied on the Amphitheatre signage, appears to be without any historic foundation. There is some evidence to suggesst that Gildas wrote at Cor Tewdws or Bangor Tewdws (Meaning "college" or "chief university" of Theodosius) a Celtic monastery and college in what is now Llantwit Major, Glamorgan.

The first threat to the Britons mentioned in Gildas are the attacks by the Scots and the Picts. Eventually, most likely after 446 the Britons wrote to Aetius (died 453) as the so-called Groans of the Britons. The record is ambiguous on what the response to the appeal was, if any. There is no mention in this passage of the Saxons, who are first mentioned as being summoned as mercenaries to help defend against the threat from the west and north. Gildas is unclear about the date except to state that it was 44 years and one month before his own birth, which was in the same year as the Battle of Badon. Dates proposed by scholars for the battle include 493, 501 and 516.

Gildas is often cited as evidence that the Anglo Saxon invasion was violent, but he presents a paradox in that he describes his own time as having a functioning legal system an ecclesiastical hierarchy with clergy and bishops, and monastic houses with abbots and monks.



Zosimus
Zosimus (Greek: Ζώσιμος [ˈzosimos]; fl. 490s–510s) was a Greek historian who lived in Constantinople during the reign of the eastern Roman Emperor Anastasius I (491–518). As noted above he is the source for the so-called Rescript of Honorius.

The problem with the Rescript of Honorius is that there is no contemporary mention of it – the sixth century eastern Roman writer Zosimus is the first to record it and when he does bring it up, he does so at a seemingly random moment in the middle of a discussion on events in Italy. This has led to some reasonable suggestion that there had been some textual errors rendering as "Britain" what should have been "Bruttium", a city in the toe of Italy.

Procopius
Procopius of Caesarea (Greek: Προκόπιος ὁ Καισαρεύς Prokópios ho Kaisareús; Latin: Procopius Caesariensis; c. 500 – 565) was a prominent late antique Greek scholar and historian from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman general Belisarius in Emperor Justinian's wars, Procopius became the principal Roman historian of the 6th century. Procopius' knowledge about the goings-on at court gave him information about Britain as well. This originated with a Frankish embassy (ca 553) to Constantinople, accompanied by some Angles, possibly from Britain. Procopius' information might thus be hearsay and personal comment, but there is a possibility that, because of enough plausible detail, it was based on serious evidence.


 * Three very populous nations inhabit the Island of Brittia, and one king is set over each of them. And the names of these nations are Angles, Frisians, and Britons who have the same name as the island. So great apparently is the multitude of these peoples that every year in large groups they migrate from there with their women and children and go to the Franks. And they [the Franks] are settling them in what seems to be the more desolate part of their land, and as a result of this they say they are gaining possession of the island. So that not long ago the king of the Franks actually sent some of his friends to the Emperor Justinian in Byzantium, and despatched with them the men of the Angles, claiming that this island [Britain], too, is ruled by him. Such then are the matters concerning the island called Brittia.

Justinian was emperor April 527 – November 565.

Later Evidence (Written by Anglo-Saxons and later Welsh)


The third set of written records are those written after the clear settlement of the Saxons. The foremost are Bede (672/3 – 26 May 735) and "Nennius" (c830). Of these, most is known about Bede. Both Bede and Nennius use Gildas as a source, but both clearly have other sources, some of which may be lost.

The Tribal Hidage
The Tribal Hidage is a list of thirty-five tribes that was compiled in Anglo-Saxon England some time between the 7th and 9th centuries. The original purpose of the Tribal Hidage remains unknown: it could be a tribute list created by a king, but other purposes have been suggested. The Tribal Hidage has been of importance to historians since the middle of the 19th century, partly because it mentions territories unrecorded in other documents. Attempts to link all the names in the list with modern places are highly speculative and resulting maps should be treated with caution. In the tribal hidage, the extent of Elmet is described as 600 hides. Edwin of Northumbria led an invasion of Elmet, and overran it in 616 or 617. The Historia Brittonum says that Edwin "occupied Elmet and expelled Certic [sic], king of that country". It is generally presumed that Ceretic was the same person known in Welsh sources as Ceredig ap Gwallog, king of Elmet. A number of ancestors of Ceretic are recorded in Welsh sources: one of Taliesin's poems is for his father, Gwallog ap Lleenog, who may have ruled Elmet near the end of the 6th century. Around 1865, a Pillar stone with a 5th or early 6th century inscription was found at St Aelhaearn's Church, Llanaelhaearn in Gwynedd. The Latin inscription reads "ALIOTVS ELMETIACOS/HIC IACET", or "Aliotus the Elmetian lies here". It is believed that this refers to an otherwise unattested Aliotus from the Kingdom of Elmet who may have been active in the area before Saint Aelhaiarn founded his church.

Bede
Bede (672/3 – 26 May 735) places the arrival of the Saxons just before, during or just after the joint reign in Rome of Marcian and Valentinian III in AD 449–456. Bede bases his history in part on Gildas and starts with invasions and raids by the Scots and the Picts. He then has the Britons, under "Vortigern" invite the Angles or Saxons to defend them. Bede then skips almost a hundred years during which time he has the Britons "delivered from foreign invasions", but failing to convert the Saxons. Bede follows Gildas's account of Ambrosius in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, but in his Chronica Majora he dates Ambrosius Aurelianus' victory to the reign of the Emperor Zeno (474–491).

Bede has a strong bias against the British (Celitic) church and this may be the primary reason that he writes little of its activities between the visit of Germanus and the arrival of Augustine. In his view the defeat of the British at the Battle of Chester is a deserved consequence of their failure to preach to the Saxons and agree to be subordinate to Augustine.

Bede refers to Chester as a "Civitas". The civitates differed from the less well-planned vici that grew up haphazardly around military garrisons; coloniae, which were settlements of retired troops; and municipia, formal political entities created from existing settlements. The civitates were regional market towns complete with a basilica and forum complex providing an administrative and economic focus. Civitates had a primary purpose of stimulating the local economy in order to raise taxes and produce raw materials. All this activity was administered by an ordo or curia, a civitas council consisting of men of sufficient social rank to be able to stand for public office. During the Roman period Chester was possibly never anything other than a military base.



Nennius
Nennius — or Nemnius or Nemnivus — was a Welsh monk of the 9th century. He has traditionally been attributed with the authorship of the Historia Brittonum, based on the prologue affixed to that work. This attribution is now widely considered a secondary (10th century) tradition. The traditional Nennius was a student of Elvodugus, commonly identified with the bishop Elfodd of Bangor who convinced British ecclesiastics to accept the Continental dating for Easter in 768 (much later than the Anglo-Saxons), and who died in 809 according to the Annales Cambriae. Welsh traditions include Nennius with Elbodug and others said to have escaped the massacre of Welsh monks associated with the Battle of Chester, although the timing seems impossible given the battle was c. 616. The Prologue, in which Nennius introduces his purpose and sources for writing the British History, first appears in a manuscript from the twelfth century, and so the prevailing view is that Nennius was a later compiler of a series of much earlier set of texts.

One thing which is missing from Nennius is any mention of the legend concerning the Votadini. The Historia Brittonum describes the unlikely settlement of Britain by Trojan expatriates and states that Britain took its name after Brutus, a descendant of the mythical Trojan Aeneas. Nennius is presumably trying to illustrate the dual heritage of the Romans and the Britons, which makes some sense in that he was a member of a church which was a survival of the Roman "occupation" of Wales. He borrows from Vergil the idea that the Roman Emperors are descended from Aeneas (Vergil apparently invented that as a form of flattery) and mixes in the legends of Macsen Wledig which introduce both Roman imperial and British bloodlines into the ancestors of Welsh kings. Where his Romano-British history can be confirmed from other sources, he frequently gets names and dates confused and makes many of the Roman usurpers into British kings. Nennius has even crazier ideas about the settlement of Ireland, which was apparently in part colonised by a Scythian, expelled by Egyptians, after many years of wandering and via Spain. Germanus turns up frequently as an active character in Nennius. He is a pious visitor from the continent who opposes the tyranny of Vortigern and brings down divine retribution on those who deserve it. In the text of Nennius Germanus is now fighting the Saxons rather than the Scoti and the Picts and Vortigern is now firmly in North Wales at Dinas Emrys.

The purpose of the text ascribed to Nennius appears to include providing a firm basis for the dynastic claims of Merfyn Frych (died c.844) and his son Rhodri Mawr (820–878).

Later evidence is in many cases even more pseudo-historical and so coloured by the storytelling traditions of the Arthurian legends that any details that might emerge from this period cannot be considered reliable facts.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The original manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was created late in the ninth century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great (r. 871–899). Its content, which incorporated sources now otherwise lost dating from as early as the seventh century, is known as the "Common Stock" of the Chronicle. Multiple copies were made of that one original and then distributed to monasteries across England, where they were updated, partly independently. The Chronicle's accounts tend to be highly politicised, with the Common Stock intended primarily to legitimise the dynasty and reign of Alfred the Great. Comparison between Chronicle manuscripts and with other medieval sources demonstrates that the scribes who copied or added to them omitted events or told one-sided versions of them, often providing useful insights into early medieval English politics.

Wulfstan
In 1014, Wulfstan, archbishop of York, delivered a homily to his English brethren, admonishing them for their sins and referring back to Gildas. There were renewed Viking raids by the Danes and, just the year before, King Æthelred had been forced to flee to Normandy. Wulfstan explained these depredations by his theory that an omnipotent God was deservedly chastising an unworthy people. As Wulfstan writes in the Sermo Lupi ad Anglos (Lupus, "the Wolf," is a literary alias):


 * "Here there are manslayers and slayers of their kinsmen, and slayers of priests and persecutors of monasteries, and here there are perjurers and murderers, and here there are harlots and infanticides and many foul adulterous fornicators, and here there are wizards and sorceresses, and here there are plunderers and robbers and spoliators, and, in short, a countless number of all crimes and misdeeds."

Wulfstan compares the plight of the English to that of the Celtic Britons, whom the English had themselves defeated half a millennium before.


 * "There was a historian in the times of the Britons, called Gildas, who wrote about their misdeeds, how with their sins they angered God so excessively that finally he allowed the army of the English to conquer their land and to destroy the host of the Britons entirely. And that came about, according to what he said, through robbery by the powerful, and through the coveting of ill-gotten gains, through the lawlessness of the people and through unjust judgments, through the sloth of the bishops and the wicked cowardice of God's messengers, who mumbled with their jaws where they should have cried aloud; also through the foul wantonness of the people and through gluttony and manifold sins they destroyed their country and themselves they perished."

=King Lists=

There are records of Germanic infiltration into Britain that date before the collapse of the Roman Empire. It is believed that the earliest Germanic visitors were eight cohorts of Batavians attached to the 14th Legion in the original invasion force under Aulus Plautius in AD 43. There is a recent hypothesis that some of the native tribes, identified as Britons by the Romans, may have been Germanic-language speakers, but most scholars disagree with this due to an insufficient record of local languages in Roman-period artefacts. In the eighth century, if not the seventh, Anglo-Saxon scholars began writing lists and genealogies of kings which purport to record their ancestry through the settlement period and beyond, prominently including the Anglian King-list and the West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List. Thes lists became in turn a source for the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the relevant sections of which were edited into their surviving form in the later ninth century. The Chronicle also includes various more detailed entries for the fifth and sixth centuries that ostensibly constitute historical evidence for a migration, Anglo-Saxon elites, and various significant historical events.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes the arrival of the "Saxons" as follows:


 * A.D. 443. This year sent the Britons over sea to Rome, and begged assistance against the Picts; but they had none, for the Romans were at war with Atila, king of the Huns. Then sent they to the Angles, and requested the same from the nobles of that nation.


 * A.D. 449. This year Marcian and Valentinian assumed the empire, and reigned seven winters. In their days Hengest and Horsa, invited by Wurtgern, king of the Britons to his assistance, landed in Britain in a place that is called Ipwinesfleet; first of all to support the Britons, but they afterwards fought against them. The king directed them to fight against the Picts; and they did so; and obtained the victory wheresoever they came. They then sent to the Angles, and desired them to send more assistance. They described the worthlessness of the Britons, and the richness of the land. They then sent them greater support. Then came the men from three powers of Germany; the Old Saxons, the Angles, and the Jutes. From the Jutes are descended the men of Kent, the Wightwarians (that is, the tribe that now dwelleth in the Isle of Wight), and that kindred in Wessex that men yet call the kindred of the Jutes. From the Old Saxons came the people of Essex and Sussex and Wessex. From Anglia, which has ever since remained waste between the Jutes and the Saxons, came the East Angles, the Middle Angles, the Mercians, and all of those north of the Humber. Their leaders were two brothers, Hengest and Horsa; who were the sons of Wihtgils; Wihtgils was the son of Witta, Witta of Wecta, Wecta of Woden. From this Woden arose all our royal kindred, and that of the Southumbrians also.

If the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is to be believed, the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms which eventually merged to become England were founded when small fleets of three to five ships of invaders arrived at various points around the coast of England to fight the sub-Roman British, and conquered their lands. The Angles formed Mercia, East Anglia, and Northumbria; the Saxons formed Essex, Sussex, and Wessex; while the Jutes settled in the Isle of Wight, Hampshire, and Kent. Many of the kingdoms that these eventually became have their own "Royal Legends".



Assuming this small-boat theory is true, the obvious question is: how big were the Anglo-Saxon boats? The most famous early Germanic boat is the Nydam boat. Nydam was once a bog in southern Denmark (now it’s a meadow) which has yielded many artefacts over the years like swords, shields and boats that were ritually "sacrificed" centuries ago and preserved by the bog’s high peat content. The 23 meter long oak boat known as the Nydam boat has been dendro-dated to around 310. It has 15 pairs of oars (so 30 rowers) and there is no sign of a mast block, meaning that it was probably powered by oars alone. It has a ‘keel plank’ rather than a fully developed keel and so would not be particulary sea-worthy and even less so if it was stepped with a mast and rigged with sails. Other than the Nydam boat, no whole vessel has been found from the pre-Viking age.

Kent
The Kingdom of the Kentish (Old English: Cantwara rīce; Latin: Regnum Cantuariorum), today referred to as the Kingdom of Kent, was an early medieval kingdom in what is now South East England. In the Romano-British period, the area of modern Kent that lay east of the River Medway was a civitas known as Cantiaca. It existed from either the fifth or the sixth century until it was fully absorbed into the Kingdom of Wessex. Under the preceding Romano-British administration the area of Kent faced repeated attacks from seafaring raiders during the fourth century. It is possible that Germanic-speaking foederati were invited to settle in the area as mercenaries. The primary ethnic group to settle in the area appears to have been the Jutes: they established their Kingdom in East Kent and may initially have been under the dominion of the Kingdom of Francia. In Kent, archaeological evidence suggests that a large-scale immigration of Germanic peoples did indeed take place. However, some of the Romano-British population likely remained, as the Roman name for the area, Cantiaca, influenced the name of the new Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Cantware ("dwellers of Kent").

The earliest recorded king of Kent was Æthelberht, (550 – 24 February 616) who, as "bretwalda", wielded significant influence over other Anglo-Saxon kings in the late sixth century. There is both documentary and archaeological evidence that Kent was primarily colonised by Jutes, from the southern part of the Jutland peninsula. According to legend, the brothers Hengist and Horsa landed in 449 as mercenaries for the British king, Vortigern. The Kentish Royal Legend is a diverse group of Medieval texts which describe a wide circle of members of the royal family of Kent from the 7th to 8th centuries. Key elements include the descendants of Æthelberht of Kent over the next four generations; the establishment of various monasteries, the lives of a number of Anglo-Saxon saints and the subsequent travels of their relics.

Although historical sources going back to Bede indicated Jutes as settlers in Kent, in an issue that became known as "the problem of the Jutes", this historically attested migration is difficult to determine from or reconcile with the archaeological record. Indeed, material culture elements found in Kent resemble those of contemporary Merovingian France and Alemannic (southern) Germany, rather than the rest of England or Denmark.

Wessex (West Saxons)
Cerdic is described in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as a leader of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, being the founder and first king of Wessex, reigning from around 519 to 534. His origin, ethnicity, and even his very existence have been extensively disputed. The name Ċerdiċ is thought by most scholars to be Brittonic – a form of the name Ceretic – rather than Germanic in origin. Ceawlin (also spelled Ceaulin, Caelin, Celin, died ca. 593) was also King of Wessex. He may have been the son of Cynric of Wessex and the grandson of Cerdic. Ceawlin is named as one of the eight "bretwaldas", a title given in the Chronicle to eight rulers who had overlordship over southern Britain, although the extent of Ceawlin's control is not known. Ceawlin's reign belongs to the period of Anglo-Saxon expansion at the end of the sixth century. Though there are many unanswered questions about the chronology and activities of the early West Saxon rulers, it is clear that Ceawlin was one of the key figures in the final Anglo-Saxon conquest of southern Britain.

The West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List begins with Cerdic (claiming that he arrived in Wessex in 494) and extends to Alfred (r. 871–99). Thus the list probably took its surviving form during Alfred's reign when the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was compiled. As the Chronicle is tilted towards the interests of Wessex it does little to shed light on the early history of Cheshire.

Mercia
Creoda (Cryda or Crida, c585–593) may have been one of the first kings of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, ruling toward the end of the 6th century. Icel (c460 –c535), also spelt Icil, is a possible earlier king of Mercia. He was supposedly the son of Eomer (443–489), last King of the Angles in Angeln. Icel supposedly led his people across the North Sea to Britain around 515. Mercia's exact evolution at the start of the Anglo-Saxon era remains more obscure than that of Northumbria, Kent, or even Wessex. Mercia developed an effective political structure and was Christianised later than the other kingdoms. The earliest settlements are in the Trent valley, either close to the river or a little way along its tributaries. The first pagan burials appear in these areas, datable to c550.

The Anglian collection is a set of Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies and regnal lists which survive in four manuscripts - two of which now reside in the British Library. All the manuscripts include genealogies for the kingdoms of Deira, Bernicia, Mercia, Lindsey, Kent and East Anglia. Three of them (C, T and R) also contain a West Saxon genealogy (which may have been a source for the West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List), and regnal lists for Northumbria and Mercia.

Penda (died 15 November 655) was a 7th-century king of Mercia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom in what is today the Midlands. A pagan at a time when Christianity was taking hold in many of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Penda took over the Severn Valley in 628 following the Battle of Cirencester before participating in the defeat of the powerful Northumbrian king Edwin at the Battle of Hatfield Chase in 633. Nine years later, he defeated and killed Edwin's eventual successor, Oswald, at the Battle of Maserfield; from this point he was probably the most powerful of the Anglo-Saxon rulers of the time, laying the foundations for the Mercian Supremacy over the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy.

Northumbria
The Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria was originally two kingdoms divided approximately around the River Tees: Bernicia was to the north of the river and Deira to the south. It is not known if Deira was ever an independent Brythonic kingdom, and no British king has been identified with the area from the surviving genealogies, poems or chronicles. However the area was subject to the same fractious inheritance traditions and changing power dynamic that allowed Elmet and Bernicia to become independent hereditary kingdoms in the early fifth century. Archaeology suggests that the Anglian royal house was in place in Deira by the middle of the fifth century, but the first certainly recorded king is Ælla in the late sixth century. After his death, Deira was subject to king Æthelfrith of Bernicia, who united the two kingdoms into Northumbria. Æthelfrith ruled until the accession of Ælla's son Edwin, in 616 or 617, who also ruled both kingdoms until 633.

With the death of Æthelfrith, and of the powerful Æthelberht of Kent the same year, Raedwald and his client Edwin were well placed to dominate England, and indeed Raedwald did so until his death a decade later. Edwin expelled Ceretic from the minor British kingdom of Elmet in either 616 or 626. Elmet had probably been subject to Mercia and then to Edwin. The larger kingdom of Lindsey appears to have been taken over c. 625, after the death of king Raedwald.

Edwin and Eadbald of Kent were allies at this time, and Edwin arranged to marry Eadbald's sister Æthelburh. The fate of his first wife (Cwenburg) is not recorded. Bede notes that Eadbald would agree to marry his sister to Edwin only if he converted to Christianity. The marriage of Eadbald's Merovingian mother Bertha had resulted in the conversion of Kent and Æthelburh's would do the same in Northumbria.

So what of Cearl of Mercia? That some catastrophe did overwhelm king Cearl seems plausible. At a date no later than the spring of 616, Edwin had fled to Raedwald of the East Angles. Given his marriage to Cearl’s daughter and their co-parentage of Cearl’s grandsons, it is difficult to imagine that Edwin’s flight was voluntary. That successive embassies from Æthelfrith subsequently came close to securing his death by threat of war against Rzedwald demonstrates that Æthelfrith was, in 616, in a position to attack the East Angles. He had, therefore, secured passage through the Trent valley - that is through Cearl’s core territory. When Raedwald eventually marched against Æthelfrith he surprised him with only small forces, so not on campaign, inside the Mercian frontier on the banks of the River Idle. These several circumstances possibly demonstrate that Cearl’s kingship had evaporated by 616, at the latest. It had apparently been replaced by Æthelfrith’s own (brief) imperium over Mercia. Such is unlikely to have been achieved without a major clash between their two forces. The battle of Chester is the only battle known to have been fought by Æthelfrith against anyone south of Northumberland. Unless Bede omitted mention of another at least as important, it seems likely that Cearl was a victim of the "Chester campaign". Bede might well have failed to mention Mercia's involvement simply because that would weaken his argument that the downfall of the Britons was the result of Augustine's curse.

Edwin's expansion to the west may have begun early in his reign. There is firm evidence of a war waged in the early 620s between Edwin and Fiachnae mac Báetáin of the Dál nAraidi, king of the Ulaid in Ireland. A lost poem is known to have existed recounting Fiachnae's campaigns against the Saxons, and the Irish annals report the siege, or the storming, of Bamburgh in Bernicia in 623–624. This should presumably be placed in the context of Edwin's designs on the Isle of Man, a target of Ulaid ambitions. Fiachnae's death in 626, at the hands of his namesake, Fiachnae mac Demmáin of the Dál Fiatach, and the second Fiachnae's death a year later in battle against the Dál Riata probably eased the way for Edwin's conquests in the Irish sea province.

Edwin's supposed foster-brother Cadwallon ap Cadfan enters the record circa 629, but Cadwallon was defeated and either submitted to Edwin's authority or went into exile. With the defeat of Cadwallon, Edwin's authority appears to have been unchallenged for a number of years, until Penda of Mercia and Cadwallon rose against him in 632–633. Edwin faced Penda and Cadwallon at the Battle of Hatfield Chase in the autumn of 632 or 633 and was defeated and killed. Edwin was succeeded by Osric, son of Edwin's paternal uncle Æthelfric, in Deira, and by Eanfrith, son of Æthelfrith and Edwin's sister Acha, in Bernicia. Both reverted to paganism, and both were killed by Cadwallon. Eventually Eanfrith's brother Oswald restored Northumbria's fortunes (Heavenfield: 634), but was himself defeated and killed by the Mercians under Penda (Maserfield: 641-42)). Oswalds brother Oswiu got revenge on Penda (Winwaed: 655) but the Mercians were back on form under their temporary king Æthelred (Trent: 679). Having been defeated, the Northumbrian Ecgfrith turned his attention northwards and was destroyed with his army at the Battle of Nechtansmere c685.

Sussex (South Saxons)
The foundation legend of the kingdom of Sussex is that in 477 Ælle and his three sons (Cissa, Wlencing and Cymen) arrived in three ships, conquering what is now Sussex. Bede states that Ælle became overlord, or Bretwalda, over the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms south of the Humber.

Essex (East Saxons)
Æscwine (494–587) in the Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies is listed as the first king of Essex. If historical, he would have flourished during the 6th century. Little evidence is available for his existence. His name Æscwine first appears in an East-Saxon genealogy which is imperfectly preserved in British Library Add. MS 23211, presumably of the late 9th century.

East Anglia
The Kingdom of East Anglia was organised in the first or second quarter of the 6th century, with Wehha listed in some sources as the first king of the East Angles, followed by Wuffa who is the first king in other lists. According to the historian R. Rainbird Clarke, migrants from southern Jutland "speedily dominated" the Sandlings, an area of southeast Suffolk, and then, by around 550, "lost no time in conquering the whole of East Anglia". According to the 13th-century chronicler Roger of Wendover, Wuffa ruled from 571 to 578, but the origin of this information is unknown. According to Michael Wood, current evidence suggests that Wuffa ruled the East Angles around 575. A lack of documentary evidence prevents scholars from knowing if Wuffa is anything more than a legendary figure and the true identity of the first East Anglian king cannot be known with certainty.

=Archaeology=

Burials
Burial practices across the remnants of the provinces of the Western Roman Empire underwent significant changes from the fourth to seventh centuries. Up to the fourth century, burials were typically cremations or inhumations with various orientations, often accompanied by grave goods, and sometimes overlapping other burials. From the fourth century onward, two general burial trends can be identified:


 * A trend is distinguished by the inclusion of a wide range of grave goods such as weapons, jewellery and pottery vessels. Such accompanied burial included varied body positions, crouched, prone or supine, and varied orientation with a tendency for a north-south alignment;


 * Inhumation in an extended supine position and by a paucity, but not necessarily a total lack, of grave goods. These burials were oriented east-west with head to the west and often placed in burial containers, such as wooden coffins, stone-sarcophagi and stone-lined graves. Such burials were sometimes interred in mausolea or separated from other burials by ditched enclosures. These inhumations are also associated with managed cemeteries, where burials were laid out in neat rows with little or no overlap of graves.

How such burials should be interpreted has been the subject of considerable debate.

If the pagan English immigrants were few in number amongst a Christian Welsh population, it might be expected that the English pagan burial sites would be small in size and few in number. Further, the cultural minority represented by such a pagan-burying English community might quickly find itself adopting the customs of the majority in such matters and possibly, after the first generation in the new land, an assimilation of burial custom by the minority to that of the majority in a society in which English and Welsh lived side by side. If the pagan burial sites contained few burials they would be hardly noticeable under the plough or the spade of later ages. On the other hand, if the English were already converted to christianity at the time of their arrival then even if they arrived in significant numbers no pagan graveyards would be created. The conversion of Mercia to Christianity occurred in the latter part of the 7th century, and was carried out almost entirely by Northumbrian and Irish monks of the Celtic Rite. Wulfhere of Mercia (658-675), son of Penda and father of Werburgh was the first christian king of Mercia.

Saints
The traditional model for the archaeological investigation of saints‘ cults focuses on special graves and churches in extra-mural Roman cemeteries. The model developed from an understanding of the development of the cult of saints whereby cults arose from the veneration of martyrs at graveside feasts outside the walls of Roman towns. Due to the widespread belief that burial near the saints, ad sanctos, would improve one‘s chances of salvation, cellae memoriae (the burial sites of saints) became the focus of burial for other Christians who wanted to be in proximity to the holy dead. These shrines sometime developed into churches, but there is no firm evidence for this in Chester. In Chester there are three early religious establishments outside of the Roman walls. St Johns next to the Amphitheatre may be associated with an early crypt which pre-dates its traditional establishment by Æthelred of Mercia in 689. St Olave comes from much later, as does St Chad.

Offa's Dyke and Wat's Dyke
Offa’s Dyke is a series of ditch and rampart structures running north to south dividing roughly what is now England from what is now Wales. The dyke consists of a large earthen bank with a ditch on the Welsh side. Wat’s Dyke tended to be viewed as earlier than Offa’s, but more recent archaeological intervention has provided a scientifically grounded date for Wat’s Dyke which would place it in the first half of the ninth century, i.e. in the generations following Offa’s reign. In recent years Offa’s and Wat’s Dykes have been the subject of renewed study, especially in the "Offa's Dyke Journal" which is described as "promoting the archaeology, history and heritage of frontiers and borderlands focusing on the Anglo-Welsh border."

There are no contemporary written sources which mention the building of Offa’s and Wat’s Dykes, the earliest known reference, and perhaps the one most often quoted, comes from Asser (a Welsh monk) in the Life of Alfred, written in the ninth century in which he states that:


 * "Offa… ordered a great wall to be built between Britannia and Mercia, from sea to sea"

It isn't exactly from "sea-to-sea", and did Offa actually build it? In the years after the Battle of Chester in 616 up to the death of Offa in 796, the kingdom of Mercia was strong and expanding its boundaries. In this period there were four powerful Mercian kings; Penda, who died in 655, is the earliest. However Mercian expansion westwards was at the expense of the kingdom of Powys and on this evidence Penda is too early.

Wulfhere, a son of Penda, reigned between 658 and 675 and is recorded as being one of the most powerful kings of Mercia. Wulfhere is a possibility, but again, this is possibly early for the expansion into Powys.

Ethelbald, who was from a different branch of the Mercian royal family, reigned between 716 and 757, and would seem to be the most likely candidate in view of the date

He was succeeded by Offa who is himself perhaps a feasible alternative; his reign from 757 to 796 was certainly long enough to have completed two earthworks and he controlled a greatly expanded Mercia. It is however a little late to have been before the hidation of the area.

=Linguistics=

When it comes to place-names Cheshire (Chester-shire) has many interesting features. Chester itself takes its name from Caer Ileon, rendering the Latin castra legionis and abbreviated familiarly to plain Caer. However prototypic "Chester" might appear it can be compared with the variants "-caster" (with the Old English suffix -ceaster), cester, and "-xeter". Even Lancashire derives its name from "Lune-caster-shire". In Wirral there are several well-attested Celtic names. Liscard, from llys "court (for day-to-day business)" and carreg "cliff", was Lisenecark in the thirteenth century when the OW definite article "en" probably survived. Noctorum has cnoc "hill" as its first element, but its second component remains obscure. Landican, from llan Tecan "church of St Tecan", probably goes back to the fifth and sixth centuries. It is evident that the English place-names of Cheshire are of the Mercian dialect of Old English. There is no evidence of specifically Northumbrian dialect features in Cheshire place-names; if there was a Northumbrian Anglian settlement in the county, all traces of that particular dialect have been erased by Mercian forms. However there are signs of both Mercian and Northumbrian influence between the Rivers Ribble and Mercia. In the "Comber-" place-names the Welsh are accorded a polite recognition of their personality as a race: in the "Wal-" names the recognition is less polite.

There would have been no English place-names before the arrival of significant numbers of permanent English-speaking residents.

Western Cheshire falls into Kenneth Cameron’s Area 2, where Brittonic names are mainly found in river, hill and woodland names. Eastern Cheshire has more English influence. Significantly, many Brittonic names in Cheshire are hybrid names with an Old English element, which Simeon Potter (see paper in sources) describes as proof that the autochthonous Celts were not all exterminated or expelled from the Cheshire countryside by the English invaders. This idea of cohabitation is evidenced by tautological place-names such as Cheadle, from Celtic *cę̄d and OE lēah, both meaning "wood". As the Brittonic element remains in the place-name, it suggests that the OE speakers had contact with and miscommunicated with the Britons over their naming of the woodland.

Often OE ham,"a village, a homestead", appears in composition, with a personal-name or a simple modifier. In many places these are considered to be among the earliest English place-names in the county. The simple construction of element or personal-name or river-name + ham would appear to be, in many counties, in geographical and archaeological contexts which suggest that such names belong to an epoch marked by the emergence of a recognition of social permanence in a territorial possession by the English community.

Some aspects of the Welsh element in Cheshire place-names could indicate a late sixth century date of adoption, others a seventh century and later adoption: and there is evidence of Welsh place-names subject to Welsh language changes down into the seventh century, in Cheshire, before these names were "fossilised" by the English adopters

Welsh place-names were being borrowed by English speakers over a period late sixth to seventh centuries: that some forms represent sixth century adoptions place-names borrowed at that stage and, upon being taken into English, immunized against Welsh speech changes while some others were not finally removed into English usage until they had been subjected to the changes taking place in the Welsh language down to the end of the seventh century. The picture thus drawn would show a progressive borrowing of Welsh place-names by the English in Cheshire from the late sixth to the late seventh century; but a persistence in the county area of an active and living Welsh vernacular throughout that period, and possibly later.

Certain English place-names of a potentially pre-seventh century type appear sporadically all over the county, but along Roman roads and similar ancient ways. Welsh place-names appear sporadically all over the county, some of which could have been adopted by the English in a pre-seventh century form, others in a later form. Certain types of hybrid place-name, and the English place-names which embody a social and racial distinction (especially when taken with the early English and the Welsh place-names), show a continuous juxtaposition of Welsh and English populations. It is also seen that there appears to be evidence of a Welsh frontier along R. Gowy down to the seventh century; that the Mercian English and the Welsh are in political harmony, and in alliance or co-operation against the Northumbrians, during a period in which English political influence is replacing Welsh political influence at Chester and in Cheshire.

This collation of inferences implies that the English take-over from the Welsh in Cheshire was accomplished between 613-616 and 689 without political strife that it was only a reflection in political organisation of a change in the balance of society which had already taken place.

=Genetics=

Prior to the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons the genetic makeup of England was primarily comprised of Celtic ancestry, with significant contributions from continental Europeans as a result of the Romans. The genetics of Wales and Scotland, meanwhile, remained more distinctly Celtic. As noted above, over the next few hundred years, the arrival of Europeans contributed to the formation of Anglo-Saxon culture in England, which would dominate until the arrival of the Normans. However, as noted above, whether this migration was peaceful, or ensured by force, has been debated for many years. A lack of widespread archaeological evidence had been used by historians to suggest that England was ruled by a small but elite group of Anglo-Saxons which led to the adoption of their culture over time. However, this theory did not explain why in some areas these individuals can be found buried side by side with Britons.

The Vikings who crossed the North Sea a few centuries later left far fewer traces, accounting for about 6% of the genes of modern English people, compared with between 30% and 40% from the Anglo-Saxons.

=Conclusions: Anglo-Saxon Cheshire=

Summary of Dates
The following attempts to sumarise events for which there are actual historical records, and notes where dates are assumed:

3rd Cent

 * 230: Wales was no longer seen as a frontier zone,and as few as nine forts were left. These were: Chester, Segontium (Caernarfon), Forden Gaer (Montgomery), Caersws II (Newtown), Castell Collen, Brecon Gaer, Caerleon, Gelligaer and Abergavenny, the low troop density of the second century continued, and after AD 230 it dropped further.
 * c286–293: Usurper Carausius (Carawn in Welsh legend) supposedly removes an infestation of Saxons;
 * c294: Carausius is murdered by his treasurer, Allectus, who takes his place;

4th Cent



 * c305 – About this time a group of Deisi establishes a colony among the Demetae; a group of Laighin is granted land in Lleyn peninsula; and the Eoganachta are given lands in the later Ceredigion (under Lethan), Dumnonia (under Corpre), and Circinn in the north (under Fidig). The Ui Laithin have a colony in Dumnonia;
 * 330: Caerwent town walls built in stone. Cardiff fort rebuilt in stone. Saxon Shore forts built on South Coast of England to defend against raids from Northern Europe. Cardiff may have replaced Caerleon as the main defensive stronghold in south Wales. Raiders attacking from Ireland cause fortifications to be improved at Caernarfon (Segontium) and Holyhead (Caer Gybi) Christianity becoming state religion but little evidence of impact in Wales Welsh tribes still also maintain local religious practices;
 * 350-353: Revolt of Flavius Magnus Magnentius, who usurps Imperator Caesar Flavius Julius Constans Augustus, actively supported by Britanniae, Galliae, and Hispaniae;
 * c367: The role of Count of the Saxon Shore appears to exist. War against the confederation of the Picti, Attacotti, and Scoti attacking Britanniae and the Saxonici and Franci attacking northern Galliae;
 * 368: A relief force commanded by the elderly Flavius Theodosius arrived in Britannia from Gaul;
 * c382: Wave of raiding by Scoti, Picts, and Saxons;
 * 383: Revolt of Magnus Maximus;
 * 390: By now the territory of the Deceangli has a sprinkling of Roman villas and is relatively settled. Under threat by waves of Irish raiders, the tribe's lands are incorporated along with much of those of the Ordovices into a new territory when Cunedda Wledig and his branch of Romanised Venicones are transferred from the Manau dependency of the Goutodin to secure north Wales from the raiders.

5th Cent

 * c405: Wave of raiding by Scoti, Picts, and Saxons. By this time Niall of the Nine Hostages established a Gaelic kingdom in north Wales.;
 * c406: The legions of Britain revolt and nominate a usurper named Marcus as emperor
 * c407: Marcus is killed by his troops and replaced with Gratian. Gratian is killed by the troops because he would not order them to cross over to Galliae to stop the “barbarians”.  The troops in Britanniae then nominate Flavius Claudius Constantinus, who moves to Galliae with the remaining legions.
 * c410: Coelistius, aka Coel Hen, assumes control of the North, the area known to the Cymry as Hen Ogledd, its people as the Gwyr y Gogledd.
 * c411: Rescript of Honorius, Constantine III abdicated, took holy orders and – promised his life – surrendered. Constantius had lied: Constantine was killed and his head presented to Honorius on a pole;
 * c411-429: Waves of raiding by Scoti, Picts, and Saxons;
 * c413: Pelagian heresy said to begin;
 * c425: Flavius Aetius, the “last of the Romans”, becomes Comes and Magister Militum per Galliae
 * c427: Britanniae appeal to Comes Aetius for help, but gets no support;
 * c429: At the request of Palladius, a British deacon, Pope Celestine I dispatches Bishops Germanus of Auxerre and Lupus of Troyes to Britanniae to combat the Pelagian heresy;
 * c432: Palladius is sent as missionary bishop to Eire, making his seat in Mumha;
 * 440-450: Possible Civil War and famine in Britanniae, caused by Pictish incursions and tensions between Pelagian/Roman factions. Migration of pro-Roman citizens toward west.
 * c441: Britain is said to be "under the rule of the Saxons" (Chronica Gallica of 452);
 * c446-453: The "Groans of the Britons";
 * c447: Second visit of Germanus to Britannia, this time accompanied by Bishop Severus of Trier. He expels the Scotti from mountain territory of the Cornovii;
 * c449: Arrival of Hengest and Horsa (traditional date);
 * 449–456: Arrival of the Saxons according to Bede;
 * c450: Rheged is formed out of Northern Britain. The new domain reaches from the southern border of Alt Clud to the northern border of Gwynedd;
 * c460–c535: estimated lifetime of Icel of Mercia;
 * c465: The Jutes from Kent invaded today's western Southampton, while the Meonware settled in the eastern area, merging with the Saxons in the early sixth century;
 * c495: Faced with the advance of the invaders and the founding of the kingdom of Wessex by Cerdic, Venta Belgarum (Winchester) blocked its south gate;

6th Cent

 * 508: Bangor Tewdws rebuilt;
 * 536: Great famine due to extreme weather events;
 * 540: Gildas writes "The ruin of Britain", possibly at Bangor Tewdws. He mentions the martyrdom of Julius and Aaron;
 * 547: Maelgwn Gwynedd dies of the "yellow plague"; quite probably the arrival of Justinian's Plague in Britain.
 * c552: The British stronghold of Caer Gwinntguic collapsed;
 * 559: The Angles in Deira assert themselves at about the same time as Ida of Bernicia dies.
 * 560: Posssible date for establishment of Celtic christian monastery at Bangor-on-Dee by Dunod. Dunod is best known as being the only Welsh ecclesiastic mentioned by name, in Bede's "Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum", as having been at the meeting of the Welsh bishops with Saint Augustine of Canterbury;
 * 577: Saxons under Ceawlin of Wessex resume attacks on Britons;
 * 593: Edwin is driven out of Diera by his brother-in-law, Æthelfrith of Bernicia.
 * 597: Augustine of Canterbury lands in Kent;

7th Cent



 * 601: Synod of Chester. Also, by 601, Pope Gregory was writing to both Æthelberht of Kent and Bertha, calling the king his son and referring to his baptism. Testimony to the revival of the city of Eboracum (York) occurs when Pope Gregory announces his intention to make York the home of the Northern see;
 * 603: Battle of Degsastan between king Æthelfrith of Bernicia and the Gaels under Áedán mac Gabráin, king of Dál Riada;
 * 604: Æthelfrith's hostile takeover of Deira;
 * 613: Hereric was poisoned in the court of King Ceretic of Elmet probably at the instigation of Æthelfrith;
 * 616: Battle of Chester, probably at Heronbridge. Æthelberht of Kent dies;
 * 617: Edwin begins a push westwards that will gain him the entire Pennine region, and in this year he uses the poisoning of Hereric father of Hilda of Whitby as a pretext for invading Elmet, holding Ceretic responsible. The Elmetians are outnumbered by Edwin's host and are defeated at a battle fought near Bawtry;
 * 624: At Rædwald's death, Edwin replaced him as Bretwalda;
 * 627: Edwin accepts Christianity, thanks to his Christian wife, Æthelburh (Ethelburga) of Kent;
 * 630: Battle of Cefn Digoll (also known as the Battle of The Long Mynd) ended the Northumbrian domination of Gwynedd (under Cadwallon ap Cadfan);
 * 633: Battle of Hatfield Chase: decisive victory for Gwynedd and the Mercians: Edwin was killed, ;
 * 634: Battle of Heavenfield: Oswald of Bernicia defeats a Welsh army under Cadwallon ap Cadfan of Gwynedd;
 * 641: Oswald dies at Battle of Maserfield;
 * 650: Werburgh born;
 * 655: Cynddylan possibly dies at the Battle of the Winwaed, together with Penda;
 * 664: Synod of Whitby: Wilfrid becomes famous;
 * 672: Ely Abbey founded by Æthelthryth (St Etheldreda), daughter of the East Anglian King. Bede born;
 * 679: Æthelred of Mercia defeats the Northumbrian Ecgfrith (his brother in law) at the Battle of the Trent;
 * 689: St Johns founded possibly by Æthelred of Mercia (king from 675 until 704) and Wilfred (c. 633 – 709 or 710);
 * 697: Bardney Abbey founded, possibly by Æthelred of Mercia;
 * 699: Werburgh dies;

8th Cent

 * 716: Ceolred of Mercia dies;
 * 755: Elisedd ap Gwylog dies;
 * 757: Æthelbald of Mercia dies;
 * 796: Offo of Mercia dies;

9th Cent

 * 808: Cyngen ap Cadell rules Powys (until 854)

=Sources and Links=

An interesting place to start, although not written with a focus on Cheshire in mind, is always Vortigern Studies.

Book Sources

 * Arthur's Britain: Leslie Alcock;
 * The Age of Arthur: John Morris;

Map Resources

 * The Rural Settlement of Roman Britain: an online resource;
 * Sequential Maps of Roman Britain AD 43-425;
 * Ordnance Survey map of Roman Britain (1956!);

Related Pages

 * Dark Ages: a general overview;
 * Gildas, Bede and Nennius: provide some source material;
 * Mold Cope: concerning the visit of Germanus;
 * Chester and Ireland: links and influence;
 * Battle of Chester: Bede and others mix myth and history for a variety of reasons;
 * Elen of the Hosts: Magnus Maximus, myth and the Chester Mystery Plays;
 * Eliseg's Pillar: and the visit of Germanus;
 * Ælfgar: how Wessex re-wrote history;
 * Amphitheatre:

Roman and Sub-Roman Chester

 * The Roman Occupation and Settlement of Wales;
 * The Chester ‘Command’ System c. 71-96 C.E.;
 * Archaeology without artefacts: the Iron Age and Sub-Roman periods in Cheshire;
 * NOTES AND CONSIDERATIONS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF ST. PATRICK’S EPISTOLA AD MILITES COROTICI;
 * "The Groans of the Britons": from the Classical Association in Northern Ireland;
 * Timeline of Roman & Post Roman Britain;
 * Roman Resource Assessment 2007;
 * Some Inscribed Stones In Wales;

Settlement and Language

 * THE ENGLISH ARRIVAL IN CHESHIRE: J. MCN. DODGSON's paper from 1967;
 * CHESHIRE IN THE DARK AGES: A MAP STUDY OF CELTIC AND ANGLIAN SETTLEMENT;
 * CHESHIRE PLACE-NAMES;
 * 40 place-names in the historic county of Cheshire;
 * Saint Alban and the Cult of Saints in Late Antique Britain;
 * The Ogham Stones of Wales;
 * The Anglo-Saxon Invasion of Britain;

Mercia

 * Mercia: a history;
 * Mercia on the "History Files" site
 * The first Mercian Lands;
 * Pengwern (Eastern Paganes) (Romano-Britons);
 * The Saxon Advent;
 * WAT'S DYKE: AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL ENIGMA;
 * The Date and Nature of Wat’s Dyke:

Genetics

 * The Anglo-Saxon migration and the formation of the early English gene pool;
 * New Genetic Insights into the Anglo-Saxon Transition in Britain;
 * Early English Anglo-Saxons descended from mass European migration;