The Timeline of conflict in Anglo-Saxon Britain is concerned with the period of history from just before the departure of the
Roman Army, in the 4th century, to just after the
Norman Conquest in the 11th century.
The information is mainly derived from annals and the
Venerable Bede. The dates, particularly from the fourth to the late sixth centuries, have very few contemporary sources and are largely later constructions by medieval chroniclers.[1] The historian Diana Greenway described one such 12th-century chronicler,
Henry of Huntingdon, as a 'weaver' compiler of history, and the archaeologist Martin Welch described the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as "a product of the West Saxon court... concerned with glorifying the royal ancestry of
Alfred the Great. Manipulation of royal genealogies, in this and other sources, to enhance the claims of contemporary rulers was common. Literary formulas associated with original myths are a common feature of earlier entries."[2][3] Although the timeline uses the annals for this period of history, information provided by these sources can be problematic, particularly with the earlier dates.
Chronology
Constructing a chronology of the early Anglo-Saxon period, and how the
Anglo-Saxons took over land in Britain from Romano-Britons (Celtic-speakers, Latin-speakers, or both), is highly complex. The limitations of source material place constraints on just how accurate any chronology can be. As an example, the following table shows how much variation there is between historians on just one date, the
Battle of Badon:
Much of the dating of the period comes from
Bede (672/673–735), who in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, tried to compute dates for events in early Anglo-Saxon history.[5] Although primarily writing about church history, Bede is seen as Britain's first true historian, in that he cited his references and listed events according to dates rather than regnal lists.[5] So we know that he relied heavily on De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae by
Gildas, a sixth-century cleric, for his early dates and historians have found Gildas unreliable where dates were concerned.[6] Bede's work was widely read among the literate in the
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and his dates were used by the
monks who compiled the various
Anglo-Saxon Chronicles from the late ninth century onwards.[7]
Some sources say that the Saxon warriors were invited to come, to the area now known as England, to help keep out invaders from Scotland and Ireland. Another reason for coming may have been because their land often flooded and it was difficult to grow crops, so they were looking for new places to settle down and farm.
The most controversial dates in the period—those from the fourth to the late sixth centuries—have very few contemporary sources, and are mainly derived from later attempts to construct Anglo-Saxon history.[1]
The following is an outline of some events recorded in Bede's Ecclesiastical History, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Welsh Annals (Annales Cambriae), and Brut y Tywysogion. Many of the dates from the fourth, fifth, and sixth century are points of contention.[8]
(?) = Dates and events that are contentious or subject to debate.
4th century
360 and after, and perhaps before: various
Germanic peoples (Alemanni, Saxons, etc.) came to
Roman Britain: raiders, Roman armies recruited from among German tribes, some settlers (The
Saxon Shore (
Latin: litus Saxonicum)).[9]
449:
Vortigern invites
Saxons to come and help them against the
Picts, who were raiding the east coast, and allows them to settle on "The eastern side of the island."[12] (The name Vortigern may mean "Great King" rather than being a lifelong personal name.)
455: [ASC 1] (
Battle of Aylesford: Here
Hengest and
Horsa fought against Vortigern the king, in the place that is called
Aylesford, and his brother Horsa was slain; and after that Hengest took the throne with Æsc, his son.)
457: [ASC 2] (Here Hengest &
Æsc fought against
Britons in the place which is called
Crecganford and there slew 4,000 men, and the Britons abandoned
Kent and with great fear fled to
London.)
466:
Battle of Wippedesfleot[ASC 3] Here Hengest and Æsc fought together against the Welsh (meaning 'foreigner': the manner in which the invaders referred to the Britons) near Wippedesfleot and there slew 12 Welsh chief men, and one of their thanes was slain, whose name was Wipped. [This battle is said to have resulted in much bloodshed and slaughter on both sides, to the extent that hostilities abated for a while thereafter. It is not known where Wippedesfleot (= "Wipped's tidal estuary") was.])
473: [ASC 4] (Here Hengest &
Æsc fought against Welsh and took countless war-
loot, and the Welsh fled from the English like fire.)
477:(?) [ASC 5] (Here
Ælle came to Britain and [with him] his 3 sons Cymen & Wlencing & Cissa, with 3 ships to the place which is named
Cymenesora [probably now
The Owers, rocks off
Selsey in
West Sussex], and there slew many Welsh & drove some in flight into the wood which is called Andredesleag [=
The Weald ].)[13]
485:
Battle of Mercredesburne[ASC 6] (Here Ælle fought against Welsh near the margin of Mearcrædesburna [= Mearcræd's stream].)
491: [ASC 7] (Here
Ælle and
Cissa besieged Andredescester [now
Pevensey] and slew all who dwelt therein; no Briton was left [alive] afterwards.)
501: [ASC 8] (Here Port and his 2 sons Bieda and Mægla came to Britain with 2 ships to the place which is called
Portsmouth and slew a young British man, a very noble man. [But this may be an old fiction, as a folk-etymology to explain the placename Ports-mouth.] )
577:
Battle of Dyrham: Capture of
Glevum,
Corinium,
Aquae Sulis by Saxons of
Wessex led by
Cealin.[17][ASC 11] (Here
Cuthwine and
Ceawlin fought against Britons and they slew 3 kings: Coinmail & Condidan & Farinmail, in the place which is called
Dyrham, and took 3 towns:
Gloucester &
Cirencester &
Bath. ): These entries seem to show that the Britons' defences in the
English Midlands collapsed, and the peace that followed the
Battle of Mons Badonicus ended, and the Saxons obliterated the British Watling Street
salient and united their areas and overran the
London -
Verulamium area and much of the plain of the Midlands. Loss of Bath would separate the Britons of Wales from the Britons of the southwest. After this, the border between Saxons and the southwest Britons was probably at the
Wansdyke along the ridge of the
Mendip Hills.
581:
Ælla of Deira took land from the Britons, thus establishing or enlarging
Deira.
584: [ASC 12] (
Battle of Fethanleag: Here Ceawlin and
Cutha fought against Britons in the place that is named Fethanleag and Cutha was slain, and Ceawlin took many settlements and countless war-
loot, and in anger he returned to his own land.)[18][19]
616: Autumn – Northumbria invaded and conquered Elmet.
616: Likeliest date for the
Battle of Chester, between a Northumbrian army and a Welsh army: heavy Welsh casualties, and their defeat severed the land connection between Wales and the Celts of northwest Britain.
658: [ASC 15] (Here
Cenwalhfought against Welsh [= Britons] at
Penselwood, and drove them in flight as far as [the river]
Parrett [in
Somerset]; this was fought after he came from
East Anglia. He was there 3 years in exile.
Penda had driven him out, and taken his kingdom, because he abandoned his [= Penda's] sister.)
682: [ASC 16] This year also,
Centwine chased the Britons into the sea.
8th century
710: [ASC 17] (... and in the same year ealdorman Beorhtfrith fought against
Picts between [the rivers]
Avon and
Carron [which flow into the
River Forth from the south about 20 miles west of
Edinburgh ], and
Ine and his relative
Nunna fought against
Geraint king of Welsh ... [This second battle may have been the
Battle of Llongborth.] ) ...
722: According to the
Annales Cambriae, 722 saw "the
battle of Hehil among the
Cornish, the battle of Garth Maelog, [and] the battle of Pencon among the south
Britons, and the Britons were the victors in those three battles."
Before 730: Northumbria annexed the kingdom of
Rheged.
760: A battle between the Britons and the Saxons, the
Battle of Hereford, in which Dyfnwal son of Tewdwr dies. AC
778: The devastation of the South Britons by
Offa. AC
779: "
Cynewulf and Offa fought at
Bensington, and Offa took the town." Asc
784: The devastation of Britain by Offa in the summer AC
794: [ASC 18] (796 [corrected from 794]: In this year
Pope Hadrian and king Offa die.) (AC: 797: Offa king of the Mercians and Maredudd king of the
Demetians die, and the battle of
Rhuddlan.)
798: Caradog king of
Gwynedd is killed by the Saxons. AC
9th century
813: [ASC 19] (815 [corrected from 813]: ... and in this year king
Ecgbryht raided in
Cornwall from east to west.)
816: ... Saxons invaded the mountains of
Eryri and the kingdom of
Rhufoniog. AC
822: The fortress of
Degannwy is destroyed by the Saxons and they took the kingdom of
Powys into their own control. AC
823: [ASC 20] (825 [corrected from 823]: Here was a fight of Welsh/Britons [against] men of Devon at
Gafulford ...)
825: The
Battle of Ellendun was fought in Wiltshire between Ecgberht of Wessex and Beornwulf of Mercia It effectively ended Mercian Supremacy over the southern kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England and established West Saxon dominance in southern England.
835: [ASC 21] (838 [corrected from 835]: Here a great ship-army [of
Vikings] came to
Cornwall and they [= the Cornish] joined them, and were fighting against
Ecgbryht king of the
West Saxons. Then he heard and with an army fought against them at
Hengestdun and there put to flight both the
Cornish and the
Danes.)
877: Rhodri Mawr, a Welsh opponent of the Vikings, and his son Gwriad were killed by Mercian forces, even though Mercia was almost completely under the control of the Vikings at the time.[21]AC
893:A combined force containing men from Mercia, Wessex and Wales besieged the Vikings at Buttington for several weeks, starving them out until finally the Vikings had to emerge and they were defeated there by the English and the Welsh: the surviving Vikings fled back to Essex.[22]A
10th century
4 and 5 August 910 Battle of Wednesfield near Wolverhampton. 'The first written references to Wednesfield came in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle where there is mention of a great battle at Wednesfield in which the Mercians and their allies inflicted a defeat on the Danes, leading to the effective end of their power.'[23]
927: Athelstan evicted the Cornish from
Exeter and refortified the city.[24]
1059: Macht, son of Harold, came to Wales with a great army in his train; and the Prince
Gruffudd, and Macht, with combined forces, proceeded against the Saxons, and devastated the country of England a great way towards its centre; and they returned to Wales with great spoil. ByT
1060: Caradoc, son of Rhydderch, son of lestin, hired Harold to come with an army to S.Wales. Then, conjointly with a great host of the men of Glamorgan and Gwent, they went against Grufudd. After Grufudd, son of Llywelyn, was slain, his head was cut off and taken as a present to Harold. (The ASC dates this as 1063) ByT
1063: Here Earl
Harold and his brother Earl
Tostig went into
Wales both with land-army and ship-army, and conquered that land; and that people gave
hostages and submitted to them, and afterwards went to and killed their king Gruffudd, and brought Harold his head, and he set another king for it. ASC (Peterborough manuscript).
1066:
Battle of Hastings. William, Duke of Normandy, came as an intruder to the island of Britain, and a pitched battle took place between him and Harold; in which, after a severe and bloody fight, Harold was killed. ByT
1068: Some of the Saxons sought protection from the Normans in Powys then.. Afterwards, by the power of the Saxons, Bleddyn, son of Cynvyn, reigned sole king of Gwynedd and Powys; and Meredydd, son of Owain, son of Edwin, by the power of the Saxons became prince of South Wales.ByT
ASC Notes
The Timeline was constructed using the following extracts from the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, they are in their original
Old English form. For a more complete version and explanation
Click Here :
^ASC 455. Her Hengest & Horsa fuhton wiþ Wyrtgeorne þam cyninge, in þære stowe þe is gecueden Agælesþrep, & his broþur Horsan man ofslog; & æfter þam Hengest feng to rice & Æsc his sunu.
^ASC 457.Her Hengest & Æsc fuhton wiþ Brettas in þære stowe þe is gecueden Crecganford & þær ofslogon .iiiim. wera, & þa Brettas þa forleton Centlond & mid micle ege flugon to Lundenbyrg.
^ASC 465. Her Hengest & Æsc gefuhton uuiþ Walas neah Wippedesfleote & þær .xii. wilisce aldormenn ofslogon, & hiera þegn an þær wearþ ofslægen, þam wæs noma Wipped.
^ASC 477. Her cuom Ælle on Bretenlond & his .iii. suna, Cymen & Wlencing & Cissa, mid .iii. scipum on þa stowe þe is nemned
Cymenesora, & þær ofslogon monige Wealas & sume on fleame bedrifon on þone wudu þe is genemned Andredesleage.
^ASC 485. Her Ælle gefeaht wiþ Walas neah Mearcrædesburnan stæðe.
^ASC 491.Her Ælle & Cissa ymbsæton Andredescester & ofslogon alle þa þe þærinne eardedon; ne wearþ þær forþon an Bret to lafe.
^ASC 501.Her cuom Port on Bretene & his .ii. suna Bieda & Mægla mid .ii. scipum on þære stowe þe is gecueden Portesmuþa & ofslogon anne giongne Brettiscmonnan, swiþe æþelne monnan.
^ASC 508.Her Cerdic & Cynric ofslogon ænne Brettisccyning, þam was nama Natanleod, & .v. þusendu wera mid him. Æfter was þæt lond nemned Natanleaga oþ Cerdicesford.
^ASC 658.Her Cenwalh gefeaht æt Peonnum wiþ Walas, & hie gefliemde oþ Pedridan; þis wæs gefohten siþþan he of East Englum com. He wæs þær .iii. gear on wrece, hæfde hine Penda adrifenne, & rices benumenne. forþon he his swostor anforlet.
^ASC 682. On þissum geare Centwine gefliemde Bretwealas oþ sę.On the Parker MS it was 682. On the
Cotton Tiberius 683
^ASC 710..... & þam ylcan geare feaht Beorhtfrið ealdorman wið Pehtas betwux Hæfe & Cære, & Ine & Nun his mæg gefuhton wið Gerente Weala cyninge,
^ASC 794.Her Adrianus papa & Offa cyning forþferdon ...
^ASC 813.... & þy geare gehergade Ecgbryht cyning on West Walas from easteweardum oþ westewearde.
^ASC 835.Her cuom micel sciphere on Westwalas & hie to anum gecierdon, & wiþ Ecgbryht West Seaxna cyning winnende wæron. Þa he þæt hierde & mid fierde ferde & him wiþ feaht æt Hengestdune & þær gefliemde ge þa Walas ge þa Deniscan.
^
abSnyder. The Britons. p. 123.; Jones.The End of Roman Britain. pp. 44–45.; Morris. Dark Age Dates. p. 154.; Michael Wood. The Domesday Quest. p. 64.;
Bede.EH. Book 1. Ch. 15–16.;
Annales Cambriae.
^Alfred the Great. Asser.(2004) pp. 275–281. - Discussion of sources, authors, dates and accuracy
^J. Campbell, 'The Lost Centuries: 400–600' in The Anglo-Saxons. ed. J. Campbell, et al.) pp. 20–44
^D.J.V. Fisher, The Anglo-Saxon Age c.400-1042, London: Longman, 1973,
ISBN0-582-48277-1
^Esmonde Cleary. The Ending of Roman Britain. pp.137 - 138. The source for the Rescript of Honorius was Zosimus, he was a chronicler from the eastern part of the Roman Empire. He was writing in the late 5th and early 6th century. His work was copying earlier sources and it seems that he may have compressed a lot of the dates. Also the Rescript of Honorius was in a section discussing northern Italy and Liguria. It has been suggested that the name copied down was in error and that the copyist mistranscribed Brettannia (Britain) for Brettia or Brittia, which is a place in southern Italy
^Gildas.
The Ruin of Britain 23. Gildas says that it is Saxons who come over to fight the Picts and settle, whereas Bede,
HE.Book 1 Ch 15 suggests that it is Angles or Saxons.
^Welch.Anglo-Saxon England p.9.- When Aella and his three sons land from three ships on a beach named after one of the sons, we are reading legend rather than history.
^R. Ernest Dupuy and Trevor N. Dupuy, The Harper Encyclopedia of Military History From 3500 B.C. to the Present, Fourth Edition (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993), 193.
^C. Warren Hollister, The Making of England to 1399, Eighth Edition (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001), 31.
^Stenton. The Age of Arthur.p.299. The English were badly beaten on the Wye in 584, and Cealin returned home in anger...in 591 a new king is said to have ruled over the Gewissae (West Saxons)... wars between the English drove him (Cealin) back to his original territory...
^
abWood. In search of the Dark Ages.pp. 146 - 147.He(Athelstan) now attacked the 'West Welsh'(Cornish) ..crushed their opposition, deported the dissident minority, established a new boundary at the Tamar.. Athelstan was remembered in Cornwall not as a conquering warlord but as the benefactor of their churches.
^Ellis. The Celtic Revolution.p.135.This has given rise to two schools of thought. Celts were still living east of the Tamar...Athelstan simply drove them beyond the river. Secondly...the Tamar was already a national boundary and that the Cornish lived in Exeter as foreign settlers.
^Woods. Dark Ages. p.152. Constantine king of the Scots broke his treaty with Athelstan. Whether he was already plotting against Athelstan we can not say, but he must have refused to pay tribute. Athelstan's response was swift..
Berresford Ellis, Peter (1985). The Celtic Revolution: Study in Anti-imperialism . Wales: Y Lolfa.
ISBN0-86243-096-8.
Campbell, J. (1982). J. Campbell (ed.). The Anglo- Saxons. London: Penguin.
ISBN0-14-014395-5.
Morgan, Kathleen; Smith, Brian S (1972). Elrington, C R; Herbert, N M; Pugh, R B (eds.).
"Fretherne and Saul: Introduction". A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 10: Westbury and Whitstone Hundreds. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 18 March 2010.
Esmonde Cleary, A. S. (1991). The ending of Roman Britain. London: Routledge.
ISBN0-415-23898-6.
Gransden, Antonia (1974). Historical Writing in England c 550 - c1307. London: Routledge.
ISBN0-203-44203-2.
Henry of Huntingdon (1996). Greenway, Diana E. (ed.). Historia Anglorum: the history of the English. Oxford: OUP.
ISBN0-19-822224-6.
Jones, Michael E. (1998). The End of Roman Britain. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
ISBN978-0-8014-8530-5.
Lobel, Mary D., ed. (1959).
"Parishes: Stoke Lyne". A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 6. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 18 March 2010.
Morris, John (1985) [1965]. "Dark Age Dates". In Michael Jarrett and Brian Dobson (ed.). Britain and Rome.
Payton, Philip (1982). Cornwall: A History. Cornwall Editions Limited.
ISBN1-904880-05-3.