Consider David Starkey(TM)s and Francis Pryor(TM)s respective versions of the nature and extent of Anglo " Saxon Settlement between AD 400 and 600. Which of them of you find the most persuasive and why?

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Consider David Starkey’s and Francis Pryor’s respective versions of the nature and extent of Anglo – Saxon Settlement between AD 400 and 600. Which of them of you find the most persuasive and why?

There is considerable speculation over the events of this period depending on the background of the Historian or Archaeologist and on the sources they depend upon. Therefore it comes as no surprise that there is such a stark contrast between the interpretations of Starkey and Pryor regarding the events following the fall of Roman administration in 410. Starkey argues a full blown invasion by Germanic tribes as described by Bede and Gildas. This was “ethnic cleansing at its most savagely effective”. Pryor on the other hand believes in continuity, that life went on just as it had during and even before the Romans. He argues that rather than the invasion force there were a “few economic migrants”. In this scenario, life went on as it did during Roman times and the only change was this cultural exchange.

When one looks beyond Starkey and Pryor and at other historians (and archaeologists) you find that there seem to be four distinct possibilities for what happened after Romans left Britain. The first is migration; under this interpretation the country was flooded by economic migrants from the Germanic tribes who had been displaced by pressure from the Huns who were rapidly advancing through Germany. After a couple of generations the different ethnicities would have mixed significantly to cr4eate a single culture which would have been predominately Anglo Saxon due to the lack of any clearly defined culture left after the falling Roman Empire. The second theory is invasion – again by Germanic tribes. In this interpretation there would be masses of Angles and Saxons who arrived by boat and started a violent conquest of the new lands. Initially they might have been invited in by the Britons as mercenaries, and these then sent back for more men before uprising against their masters, or they could have arrived independent of the local’s knowledge. The third theory is that Britain was conquered by a small Germanic Elite. This would not be the massive invasion army which is suggested by the invasion theory but rather a group of nobles with the aid of their War bands. With their noble ranking they would not just subjugate the country through the use of their war bands but also by manipulating the political scene and playing an active part in politics within the rapidly declining towns. The last theory is simply cultural exchange. Under this theory, there was little migration; but rather the Romano British with a limited cultural exposure left after the departure of the Romans in 410 imported different elements of Germanic culture while forming new trading partners (with Germanic tribes).

When one looks generally at the way in which different people approach the problem of determining what happened in this period you can usually split it into two camps. The historians tend to rely amuch more on the written evidence (which in this period is nearly non – existent except for Gildas and there are serious questions about the reliability of all written documents in this period), while the Archaeologists looks at the archaeology and the other modern investigative techniques. However, while these might be much more reliable, they can only suggest possibilities for what happened. What few have failed to grasp in that the only way to approach this problem is to use both and see where they compliment and contradict each other and try and build a picture from then onwards.

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There are a number of different interpretations of the Roman to Anglo Saxon transition. The establishment view is that Roman Britain ‘wound down’ slowly between 400 and 500. Roman culture is in decline from c.360 and has no presence after 450. Anglo – Saxons dominate the country during the 5th Century having migrated from Holland, Northern Germany and Denmark and colonise eastern parts of England. Tradition suggests that Hengest and Horsa were invited over by Vortigen to fight against the Picts. The Britons and returned to a ‘Celtic Iron Age’ way of life similar to the Anglo Saxons. They lived ...

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