When the Romans abandoned Britain, its coasts became vulnerable to raids and incursions by the peoples of northern Europe. But who exactly were they and how did they establish their new dominions?
Avulnerable island abandoned by its imperial overlords to fend for itself against enemies from across the seas – this is the general picture of the first ‘Saxon’ invasions of Britain that eventually gave rise to the term ‘Anglo-Saxons’. But as the ‘Anglo’ part of this name suggests, the reality of what happened is more complicated.
These invasions – though that term does not easily describe the historical events, as we shall see – were not just Saxon, but also by the peoples of the Angles as well as the Jutes, Frisians, Franks, Danes and Norse. It’s also true that these events get the group label of ‘Saxon’, even in our oldest sur viving sources, rather than identifying individual tribes and exact origins.
Another tricky factor is the date of the abandonment of Britain by Rome. This is usually dated to 410 CE when the Roman Emperor Honorius (r393-423 CE) withdrew troops from the provinces of Britain, because he needed them to defend what is now Italy. By that time there were four or five provinces in Britain, not just one. Britain had been split into more and more provinces since the third century CE – Britannia Prima, Britannia Secunda, Maxima Caesariensis, Flavia Caesariensis and Valentia – the last had been created in around 360 CE so was young but not especially new. Unfortunately, the actual borders of these provinces and even where they were within Roman Britain are not precisely known – one of the first (of many) indicators that this history is part of the so-called Dark Ages. According to the sixth century historian Zosimus, Honorius sent a letter to the cities of Britain (known as the Rescript of Honorius) that he was withdrawing the garrisons and that the cities would need to look after themselves.
This seems relatively straightforward. However, at the time Honorius was dealing with a usurper, Constantine III,
who had actually arisen in Britain and who had invaded the continent. He had brought troops with him from Britain in around 407 CE (meaning the Roman garrisons may already have left Britain). He was not the first British usurper to trouble Rome – there had been similar uprisings in the 380s CE (Magnus Maximus) and stretching back to the 290s CE (Carausius and Allectus). Even Constantine the Great had first been declared emperor at York in 306 CE. Citizens of Britain had often sided with usurpers since the second century CE. One reason for this was that Britain was considered to be on the edge of the Roman Empire and often neglected when the capital faced other challenges. The people of Roman Britain often felt vulnerable to raids, so looked to local would-be emperors who promised to protect t
