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.Gransden. Historical Writing. Ch. 1. Gildas and Nennius 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."Huntingdon. Historia Anglorum. p. 97Welch. Anglo-Saxon England. p. 9. 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: + Suggested dates for the Battle of BadonSourcesSnyder. 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.DateAnnales Cambriae516Bede493Highamc. 430 – c. 440Snyderc. 485M. Wood490sMorris494–497Dumvillec. 500I. Woodc. 485 – c.520 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.Gransden. Historical Writing. pp. 11–23 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. 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.Bede. Ecclesiastical History. Farmer Ed. p. 24. 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.Alfred the Great. Asser.(2004) pp. 275–281. - Discussion of sources, authors, dates and accuracy 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.
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.J. Campbell, 'The Lost Centuries: 400–600' in The Anglo-Saxons. ed. J. Campbell, et al.) pp. 20–44
AC = "from the Annales Cambriae" (English translation at this link). ASC = "from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle". B = "from Bede's writings". ByT = "from Brut y Tywysogion". (?) = 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 ()).D.J.V. Fisher, The Anglo-Saxon Age c.400-1042, London: Longman, 1973,
5th century 410 : Emperor Honorius refuses a call for help from Britain, and tells the cities to look to their own defence.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 429 : Germanus of Auxerre leads Romano-Britons to victory over Saxon raiders.Butler, Rev. Alban, "St. Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, Confessor", The Lives of the Saints, Vol. VII, 1866 c. 430 to 520: The range of dates for the Battle of Badon. See effects of the battle for the strategic situation resulting afterwards. c. 446: The "Groans of the Britons" - A last appeal (possibly to the Consul Aetius) for the Roman army to come back to Britain. 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."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. (The name Vortigern may mean "Great King" rather than being a lifelong personal name.) 455: 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. (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 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. (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.) c. 460: Treachery of the Long Knives. Death of all British kings, and the beginning of violent land grab by Saxons. 466: Battle of WippedesfleotASC 465. Her Hengest & Æsc gefuhton uuiþ Walas neah Wippedesfleote & þær .xii. wilisce aldormenn ofslogon, & hiera þegn an þær wearþ ofslægen, þam wæs noma Wipped. 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 473. Her Hengest & Æsc gefuhton wiþ Walas & genamon unarimedlico herereaf, & þa Walas flugon þa Englan swa þær fyr. (Here Hengest & Æsc fought against Welsh and took countless war-loot, and the Welsh fled from the English like fire.) 477:(?) 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. (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 ].)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. 485: Battle of MercredesburneASC 485. Her Ælle gefeaht wiþ Walas neah Mearcrædesburnan stæðe. (Here Ælle fought against Welsh near the margin of Mearcrædesburna [= Mearcræd's stream].) 491: ASC 491.Her Ælle & Cissa ymbsæton Andredescester & ofslogon alle þa þe þærinne eardedon; ne wearþ þær forþon an Bret to lafe. (Here Ælle and Cissa besieged Andredescester [now Pevensey] and slew all who dwelt therein; no Briton was left [alive] afterwards.) c. 497: The Anglo-Saxons are defeated in the Battle of Mons Badonicus by the Britons led by Ambrosius Aurelianus (possible King Arthur).Ashe, Geoffrey, From Caesar to Arthur pp.295-8R. 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.
6th century c. 500: Average of suggested dates for the Battle of Badon. c. 500: Angles colonised the North Sea and Humber coastal areas, particularly around Holderness. 501: 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. (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.] ) 508: 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. (Here Cerdic and Cynric slew a British king, whose name was Natanleod, and 5000 men with him. Afterwards that land was named Natanleag as far as Cerdicesford [= North Charford and South Charford ].) c. 520: Saxons took control of Sussex, Kent, East Anglia and part of Yorkshire, West Saxons founded a Kingdom in Hampshire under Cerdic. 535 & 536: The extreme weather events of 535–536 likely caused a great famine and thus population loss. In or before 547: Bernicia established by Angles taking over part of a British area called Bryneich. Around 549: A great plague caused much population loss. 556 Battle of Beran Byrig. The West Saxons are said to have defeated the Britons at Barbury Castle Hill Fort near Swindon. About 560: Saxons conquered all of east Yorkshire and the British kingdom of Ebrauc, and there established Deira. 571: ASC 571.Her Cuþwulf feaht wiþ Bretwalas æt Bedcan forda. & .iiii. tunas genom, Lygeanburg. & Ægelesburg. Benningtun. & Egonesham. & þy ilcan geare he gefor. (Battle of Bedcanford: Here Cuthwulf fought against Britons at Bedcanford and took 4 settlements: Limbury, Aylesbury, Benson & Eynsham. And in the same year he died.) 573: Battle of Arfderydd at Arthuret in Cumbria: Briton fought Briton and weakened their numbers.