Localized Leadership
It is important at this point to describe what archaeologists have found to be the state of affairs in Britannia after the Romans left as this had a profound effect on leaders at that time. Archaeologists tell us that from 410 to 600, there was an increase of movement of Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Frisians to Britannia from continental Europe. Language and culture changed from Romano-Britain to a Germanic one. Large tracts of land in Britannia were abandoned, urbanism broke down, trade collapsed, economies became localized, and large constructions like Roman villas, baths and aqueducts fell into disrepair. People no longer built in stone but used organic substances like wood in which worms and parasites were a problem. Pottery became simpler and coinage disappeared. Examinations of bones from 400 to 700 indicate that nutritional value of what inhabitants were eating dropped, individuals were shorter, bones were weaker and smaller. The only population exhibiting none of these problems were the monks who lived in stone dwellings and had access to better food. So, while it appears that inhabitants of Britannia struggled to survive when the Romans left, monks continued to thrive.
It is in this period that a patchwork of small kingdom or states cropped up, some governed by Celtic Romans who made Britannia their home, some governed by the Irish coming from the west, and some governed by the Angles and Saxons coming from the east. The two largest of these states were Dyfed and Gwynedd both located in northwest Wales where the native population was not really influenced by Roman occupation. To the north of Wales in modern day Scotland were small states like Strathclyde also more influenced by the Irish and Celts than the Romans.
By 585 AD, what we now call England had been divided into 7 separate kingdoms (called ‘Heptarchy,’ a Greek word which means ‘the rule of seven’). These independent kingdoms of Kent, Sussex, Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex and Northumbria were led by Saxons and Angles unable to unite at this time. They operated as separate units politically, militarily, and economically. Although they may have been referred to as ‘kings’ in later documents, at that time, leaders of these kingdoms were called earls, dukes, overlords, or similar terms. It’s not until Alfred’s kingdom of Wessex that we begin to see something resembling a united England.
The 5th and 6th centuries were characterized by mass migration and warfare with the balance of power always shifting from one powerful warlord to another. Our primary source on the wars of this era come from the 6th century monk Gildas who describes these times as years of chaos and invasions. Once again, we must remind ourselves that Gildas was not a trained historian but a devout Christian clergyman writing a religious argument. Unfortunately, it is the most intact source from this era so we are reliant on Gilda’s version of events.
From Gildas, we have a picture of Anglo-Saxon leaders at that time. For instance, he tells us that around 477, the Saxon chieftain Ælle thought to be from what is now Germany landed in the southeast coast of Britannia, and after a bloody war lasting some months, routed out or killed most of the local British and formed Sussex. In 547, an Angle Chief Ida thought to be from Denmark seized control of Bamburgh in the north and began to form the kingdom that would ultimately be Northumbria. The history of the kingdom of Mercia from 500 to 600 included five different rulers and a great many battles in which land was continually won or lost by warlords at the time.
Among the early Anglo-Saxon leaders, several stand out because of their influence on English culture in future years. One such leader was Penda (c. 625-655) who ruled Mercia after Icel and constantly vied for dominance with Northumbrian kings. In 655 AD at the Battle of Winaed, Penda was defeated which was a turning point in history because he was the last of the Anglo-Saxon ‘kings’ to have rejected Christianity over Paganism. His defeat effectively marked the demise of Anglo-Saxon Paganism, something that would never be restored.
Æthelberht (cc. 560-616) of Kent represents one of the first leaders to look beyond his rather small kingdom of Kent for support and power. He married Bertha, the daughter of the Frankish king Charibert I, securing an alliance with a powerful state of Europe at that time. He was the first king to convert to Christianity and it was during his leadership that Pope Gregory the Great sent Augustine and his missionaries to build a church in Canterbury and choose it to be the seat of the first archbishop in 603. Under Augustine’s guidance and Æthelberht’s instruction, churches were established throughout the land and the people began to gradually convert to Christianity. Æthelberht traded with those on the continent, introducing a standardized currency, wrote a law code[1], and put into use administrative documents or charters for Kent.
