Saxon mercenaries, collapsing Roman order, and a new chapter for Britain. Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr Peter Heather to explore the mysterious Saxon migrations, their Germanic roots, and how they shaped early medieval Britain. A gripping dive into post-Roman chaos and emerging kingdoms.MOREThe Fall of Roman Britainhttps://open.spotify.com/episode/6vMwL1dueziXVNOwloY9xnThe Origins of Londonhttps://open.spotify.com/episode/0vE8PGKJ858AY1bhwd4D0rPresented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Nick Thomson, the producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.Theme music from Motion Array, all other music from Epidemic SoundsThe Ancients is a History Hit podcast.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. You can take part in our listener survey here:https://uk.surveymonkey.com/r/6FFT7MK
Chapter 1: What is the context of Saxon migrations in Britain?
It's the mid-fifth century. Decades have passed since the last Roman field troops had left Britain, symbolising the end of Roman control. Once the most prosperous and protected part of the island, southern Britain is now vulnerable. Fearsome raiders from present-day Scotland and Ireland threaten these lands. But help is at hand.
Southern Britain's new Romano-British leaders, warlords, have sought aid from overseas. And Saxon mercenaries have answered the call. It's the Ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes, your host. Today we're exploring the story of the Saxons, one of the most recognisable non-Roman peoples from the late Ancient and early Medieval periods in Western Europe.
Over the course of more than a century, they would rise to become a dominant force in Britain, ultimately forming famous kingdoms like Wessex and Mercia. But the nature of their arrival into Britain remains highly debated. What do we know about the Saxon migrations into Britain? Did they really start with these mercenary bands coming to the aid of Romano-British warlords?
And then did they grow into something much bigger? Well, fortunately, recent studies have started to shine new light on this intriguing topic, as you're about to find out.
Joining me to discuss the Saxon story, from their Germanic origins, to their interactions with the Roman Empire, to their migrations to Britain, I was delighted to interview Dr Peter Heather, Professor of Medieval History at King's College London. Now Peter, he is a good friend of the podcast.
He's been on the show recently to talk through the barbarian invasions that gripped the Western Roman Empire during the last century of its existence. Now he's back to talk through what we know about the Saxons and their migrations to Britain following Rome's departure. Enjoy. Peter, it is a pleasure to have you back on the podcast. It's an absolute pleasure to be here.
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Chapter 2: Who are the Saxons and what are their origins?
Now, in the past on The Ancients, we've covered in-depth topics on the Vandals, the Goths. We've done the Franks as well. And it feels like we need to do an episode also on the Saxons. They're another of these big barbarian groups that really rise to the fore at the end of the Western Roman Empire. Yeah. We'll cover the Saxons in Britain, but first we do need to go back to the origins.
I mean, when do we first hear about a group called Saxons in our sources?
It's very late, actually. Looking back on the 290s, a chronicler writing in the 370s talks about Saxons and Franks causing trouble in the Channel. Some people suggest that's an anachronism. The first absolute contemporary indisputable mention is in the so-called Verona List from 314. And I actually think there's nothing wrong with the mention from the 290s, but it's circa 300.
In other words, it's very much a late Roman ethonym.
It's not something that appears earlier on. So we don't have it, let's say, at the time of the Bass of the Teutoburg Forest or Tacitus when he's labelling all of those different Germanic groups. He doesn't say the Saxons are one of them.
No, it is quite striking. Some of these later Roman confederative names like Goths do appear in Tacitus' lists. And obviously the Goths of the 4th century are very different from the Goths of Tacitus' time. But Saxons aren't mentioned at all.
It is like an axoners, but it doesn't actually say Saxons, does it? So it's interesting. And whereabouts in what is today Germany or mainland Europe, where did the Saxons live? Where were they placed by the Romans?
They are in the northern part of Germany. They are immediately behind, as it were, in an eastwards direction, the Franks. So the Franks are on the North Sea, lower Rhine, in that kind of region. And the Saxons are their eastern neighbours. We're talking... areas like, well, by the fourth century, we're talking the northeastern part of the Netherlands. Now we're talking southern Denmark.
We're talking Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany.
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Chapter 3: How did the Saxons interact with the Roman Empire?
But from the surviving information, let's say from the Romans that you have of other Germanic groups in that area, is it possible at all to piece together a rough idea of Saxon lifestyle, how we should imagine settlements and so on in those lands of what is today northern Germany?
The archaeology is, in a sense, quite clear. They are agriculturalists. They mostly cremate their dead. There are some groups that bury bodies. They live in clustered villages to some extent, but also rural spread. What is completely unclear is their political organization. And it's unclear because they are not in direct contact with the Roman world.
So we know, for instance, that the Alamanni, who are the southern neighbors of the Franks on the sort of middle and upper Rhine, that they tend to form a political confederation. You've got a number of separate kings over different areas within Alamani territory, but within each political generation, you tend to have an overking. And that's what I think makes the Alamani the Alamani.
They are a confederative group who will tend to throw up a recognized overking. Whether that's true of Saxons, I'm sure the multiplicity of kings is true, but whether they had a confederative tendency that made them politically recognizable and distinct, like the Alemanni did, there's no way of knowing that, actually.
And in regards to religion, is their religion what we would call Germanic paganism? Certainly. But the crucial point about that is that that is on the move. And that's become very clear. So, for instance, these different Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies, most of them trace their descent from Woden, not from Saxony. And it's clear that Woden was not a dominant figure in the early Roman period.
But what has just been found is a beautiful 5th century gold bracteate where a king in Jutland describes himself as Woden's man. Yeah. So I think Woden is genuinely one of these war gods. In other words, we've got competing warrior cults. Saxnet, possibly. Woden, certainly. But they're all new. And the nature of leadership in the Germanic world has changed since the time of Testus.
Wonderful work by an old friend of mine, sadly passed away, called Dennis Green, showed that the words for leadership in the Germanic world... change over the Roman period. They change from meaning things like leader of the people, that kind of stuff, to different words for military leadership.
So there's a series of them in different Germanic languages by the later period, but they all mean war leader, every single one. So leadership has become much more militarized. I think this is why war god cults are so important. This is a brutal and competitive world, and getting the right war god on your side is really important.
Let's explore their interactions with the Roman Empire. If you've highlighted with their position that they don't directly neighbour the Roman Empire, how do the Romans portray them? Are they more as a conflict people rather than a trading people, almost a trading partner?
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Chapter 4: What changes occurred in Britain after the Romans left?
Yeah, well, in 406.
406, my apologies.
And Stilicho is unable to deal with that. That a local British military commander, well, a series of them, but it ends up being Constantine. He's the third and the one that doesn't get killed by the soldiers.
He takes the field army troops from southern Britain, unites them with the field army troops, regional field army troops on the Rhine and creates a user patient and sells himself as the man who's going to deal with the Vandal threat. So he takes these troops off. And as far as we can see, they never come back.
In the military listing from the early 420s, there is a field army account of Britain, but it's not clear whether he's in Britain. Because by that date, a fleet that used to be on the Solent is now stationed in Paris. It's called the Pevensey fleet, but it's in Paris. So the thought is that the key elements of the Roman military in southern Britain are taken to the continent and never come back.
The Hadrian's War units are probably still there. But what this effectively does is remove the umbrella of central Roman military protection from southern Britain.
Whether that happens immediately in 408, whether it's confirmed by Flavius Constantius when he restores order in the Western Empire and says, no, we're not going to protect Britain, that is the level of detail we don't know, which I think Olympiodorus probably would have told us if we had it, but we don't have it.
And do we think that triggers a Saxon response? Or do they have their own threats on the continent and then they decide that Britain's their next best place? What does the removal of Roman troops from southern Britain, what does that do for the Saxons?
Well, the only narrative that we've got is by the British cleric, Gildas. The story as told by Gildas, and he's writing in the 6th century looking back to the 5th century, is that the removal of the protection leaves Britain open to attacks from Picts and Scots, so from Scotland and Ireland.
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Chapter 5: Did Saxons migrate to Britain as mercenaries or settlers?
Chapter 6: What is known about Saxon religious beliefs?
And two different people used him, Zosimus and Sosimun. And then there are independent fragments that survive in a very brief summary. And the trouble is that Zosimus certainly at least confused a few things as well. So this makes it quite tricky to know exactly what happens. But the broad outline would seem to be that in response to the Rhine invasion and of the Vandals, Alans and Suevs.
That's what happens in 408. They cross the Rhine.
Yeah, well, in 406.
406, my apologies.
And Stilicho is unable to deal with that. That a local British military commander, well, a series of them, but it ends up being Constantine. He's the third and the one that doesn't get killed by the soldiers.
He takes the field army troops from southern Britain, unites them with the field army troops, regional field army troops on the Rhine and creates a user patient and sells himself as the man who's going to deal with the Vandal threat. So he takes these troops off. And as far as we can see, they never come back.
In the military listing from the early 420s, there is a field army account of Britain, but it's not clear whether he's in Britain. Because by that date, a fleet that used to be on the Solent is now stationed in Paris. It's called the Pevensey fleet, but it's in Paris. So the thought is that the key elements of the Roman military in southern Britain are taken to the continent and never come back.
The Hadrian's War units are probably still there. But what this effectively does is remove the umbrella of central Roman military protection from southern Britain.
Whether that happens immediately in 408, whether it's confirmed by Flavius Constantius when he restores order in the Western Empire and says, no, we're not going to protect Britain, that is the level of detail we don't know, which I think Olympiodorus probably would have told us if we had it, but we don't have it.
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Chapter 7: What evidence do we have of Saxon raids on Roman territories?
But anyway, it doesn't say that the Saxons are wiped out, but it's certainly suggesting that Saxon intrusion is contained. And if you run the chronology and think that 440 is the mercenary revolt, that's around 500 would have to be certainly there or thereabouts.
yet swing forward 100 years to when Bede starts up, and Anglo-Saxons have taken over all of northern England, everywhere to the Welsh border, and are right on the fringes of Devon. I mean, they've got Somerset. So another big moment of expansion has happened between the victory that Gildas records circa 500 by the Brits and the situation that we have very well documented for us by Bede.
So the Saxons keep coming back. I think they do. Yes. And the conditions on the other side of the North Sea, I mean, there is marine intrusion that's been documented. There might be negative push factors as well. But I certainly think that a flow of increasing momentum is extremely likely. And it will be small groups. I mean, the Sutton Hoo ship didn't have a mast, doesn't have sails.
It's a rowing boat. There's no sign of sails amongst being used by these populations until the Viking period in the 8th and 9th centuries. So they are rowing. Bigger rowing boats, small rowing boats, but they are rowing. It's not impossible that they could have hired ships with sails from the sort of more Roman parts. And I wouldn't put that out.
You know, the Goths, when they raid across the Black Sea in the third century, hire ships and sailors from the old Greek cities of the Black Sea coast. So you couldn't rule that out. And it might be possible to put together a larger migration groups on that basis. But as far as we know, at least, we're talking about migration groups that are being carried by rowing boats.
If you have that Ambrosius Aurelianus story in the Battle of Mount Baden around 500, is it in the century afterwards that always the balance of power seems to shift from Romano-British to Germanic-Saxon culture in southern Britain and a bit beyond that?
Yes, I think so. That is what it suggests to me. The trouble is Gildas doesn't give us any specific geographical pointers as to where Aureus Ambrosius manages to restore British control to the Anglo-Saxon chronicles. is pretty rubbish. I mean, there are some things that are very clear. So it records a battle in the late fifth century at Durham.
I've been rear-ended, actually, just outside Durham Park. I know exactly where that is. It's on a huge ridge just north of Bath. And if you stand on that ridge, you see the whole of the Bristol plain. in front of you. It's pretty clear that's the moment when the British lose control of Somerset and push back towards Devon, you know, further away.
The Saxons extend their control out of these highlands and down into that Bristol plain. You can see that, but whether it took place in the date that it's supposed to have taken place, Neanderthals and Chronicles seems to me extremely doubtful.
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Chapter 8: How did Saxon presence shape early medieval Britain?
That's got to be broadly it. It's got to be something like that, but it's just how many and how small. I mean, I think you probably could turn up with three boatloads. I mean, the fourth century Needham ship or the Sutton Hoo ship, that'd be about 30 men a boat. You could turn up with a warband of 30, well, three lots of 30, so 100 men, and carve out a little Princeton.
Land in Chichester and just say, I'm taking this for myself for the time being, and then grow from there. This has been really, really interesting. I can only ask a couple more questions, but I will ask one quickly because you mentioned St. Augustine. The Saxons, we mentioned before, Germanic paganism. But as they migrate, more and more of them migrate to Britain.
Do we know much about their conversion to Christianity? You know a lot about it.
I mean, you know far more about the conversion of the Saxon thing than most other conversions because Bede provides such a narrative of it. It's a partial view. I mean, what Bede tells us is a story of conversion of kings and elites, a top-down process. But that is, of course, fascinating because these are warrior aristocrats. And you've got to ask, you know, how does Christianity work for them?
You know, there's no turn the other cheek possible in the Anglo-Saxon world. Don't love your enemies. They're engaged in martial competition against each other and against what remains of British kingdoms further west. We're having to recreate Christianity, redefine it. in order to make it work for any medieval warriors.
And that kind of story starts to emerge from some of the sources that survived for us.
You can almost imagine with certain Romano-British elites, if they bought into Saxon customs when they arrive, if they were originally Christian, then maybe they convert to whatever the religion that the Saxons bring across, and then they convert back to Christianity when that goes the other way.
Absolutely, that might well be going on. The interesting thing is we're told that the missionaries sell the idea of Christian conversion on the backs of the great glory of Christian civilization. Well, of course, that doesn't work in a British context because the Anglo-Saxons have spent 200 years beating the crap out of Christian Brits. What's impressive is the Frankish Christian world.
south of the channel. You know, this is where we have Merovingian kings in their absolute glory and their prime. And Kent's relationships with the Frankish world are very close. You know, this is why Ethelbert of Kent has a Frankish wife and Frankish princess as a wife. So, you know, that's the conduit or that's trajectory from which Christianity looks impressive.
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