Early Medieval Britain and King Arthur
When Constantine
III revolted in England in 406 AD
and took all its Roman troops with him to France, that was really the
end of Roman control in Britain. The British wrote to the Romans
asking them to come help out in the 420's, and got back only a letter
advising them to stop paying
taxes, because now they were on their own.
As other people realized that there were no more Roman troops in Britain,
they began to invade. Both the Danes and the Anglo-Saxons (from Germany)
invaded regularly at this time.
There is a story, which you have probably heard, that at this time there
arose in England a famous king, King Arthur, who had a famous magician
helper named Merlin, and whose Knights of the Round Table fought off
the Anglo-Saxons and the Danes, and kept England civilized and unified.
It is hard for historians to say definitely whether Arthur really existed.
But it does seem likely that the English organized to keep the Anglo-Saxons
and the Danes out.
However, as the Arthur stories say, the effort failed. By the 600's,
England had been taken over by the Angles and the Saxons. The name England
means the land of the Angles. The Angles and Saxons did at least manage
to fight off the Danes for the most part.
The Anglo-Saxon kings ruled England from the 600's AD until the Norman
Conquest in 1066.
Norman Conquest
Main medieval history page
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