Jack of Harts

As the Roman Empire began to fall, chaos ruled the northern edges of civilization. Barbarians waged war both each on other and on Rome, and things did not go well for many. For others, they saw a chance to create a new life for themselves. Many people from the area that would later be called Germany traveled to far off Britannia to find exactly that. It had all the hallmarks of Roman civilization from good waste disposal to well-tended farmlands.

So the people history would call Jutes, Angles, and Saxons escaped the ravages of continental life for life on an island. Now the Roman province of Britannia was home to between 2 and 4 million Britons in the year 400, and most of them did not return to Rome. Only the big rich and important Romans did that. So the Britons were left alone to face the tide of new arrivals. Some legends tell tales of a King Arthur-like figure who rallied the Britons and held back the invading Saxons for a time. But that did not last.

Between 20,000 and 200,000 Saxons moved to the island based on computer estimates. That puts the total mass migration at between less than 1% on up to a possible 10% of the local population. But even mere tens of thousands, the Saxons ruled Eastern and Southern Britain by the year 500. The last Celtic king ruled the lands of Britannia around 700, and by around 800, only the Saxons remained throughout what we consider modern day England. What Britons and Celts still existing in those lands were “encouraged” to take on Saxon names and to speak Old English and they faded into history.