Ten Minute English and British History #03 -The Early Anglo-Saxons and the Mercian Supremacy

This episode covers the aftermath of the Roman withdrawal from Britain, focusing on the lack of sources for the centuries afterward and the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons. It begins with the legend of Hengist and Horsa, through the Northumbrian Golden Age all the way to the end of the Mercian supremacy in the wake of Offa's death.

Recommended books:

Chris Wickham - The Inheritance of Rome (2010) - A very good overview of all of European history, good for context.

James Campbell et al. - The Anglo-Saxons (1991) - Seriously, this book is the best book I've ever seen on Anglo-Saxon England, its very accessible and the essays are phenomenal.

If you have access to a university library I'd recommend a read through Dorothy Whitelock's English Historical Sources 500-1042.

Ten Minute English and British History is a series of short, ten minute animated narrative documentaries that are designed as revision refreshers or simple introductions to a topic. Please note that these are not meant to be comprehensive and there's a lot of stuff I couldn't fit into the episodes that I would have liked to. Thank you for watching, though, it's always appreciated.

[HistoryMatters]

Sorry for taking the video down, there was a glaring issue with some of the later part of the video. This was down to an issue with my editing software.

Very sorry about that. The next video is Alfred the Great, though. So you'll get Vikings next week.

[MNKY]

Wealthy, isolated monasteries along the coast? Can't see how that would come back to bite them in the arse later.

[doristheslug]

Northumberland...
North
Humber
Land...
I get it now.

[lakelandbuzz]

I'm glad you mentioned the Britons. It feels as though a lot of people think the English are only descended from the Anglo-Saxons, and ignore the history of the Britains.

[albionmyl]

Hello I am a german Saxon from greetings to my relevants in England..

[Marcus]

Monk: come at me bro

Love your subtle humour

[LordKalte]

Tiw = Týr
Woden = Odin
Thunor = Thor

[peterrasmussen]

The Angels and the Saxons were mortal enemies at least in the beginning. To borrow a concept 500 years too early, the Angels were the southernmost Danish tribe while the Saxons were the northernmost German tribe. It took some time time in England for both tribes to see each other as the Anglo-Saxons.

[rorupar]

It is known that Offa reacted very favorably to Charlemagne's letter, shouting "SENPAI NOTICED ME!" causing much confusion in his court.

[teddybeddy]

Mmm that death sound is lovely, warm, crisp THUD

[pardontillinghast]

Fun fact: in gaelic English and englanders are still referred to as saxon

[majorpayne]

"Honey, there are four men at our door knocking. It's 5 AM"

"What do they want. Did they say who they are?" "They said they're the Early Anglo-Saxons."

[benjammin]

Don't you just love this period? It's my favourite.

[wayneparker]

"Come at me bro!!" I lost it at that point!!

[jbussa]

very good. obviously in a 10 minute lesson you're going to miss a lot. An important piece to add i think is that when these Germanic tribes came, the cities were mostly evacuated already. The Breton migrations for example was largely city folk leaving the island in large numbers. In fact the number of people fleeing the island was most likely greater than the number of newcomers!

[hairetikos]

Correction... The Romans did not leave Briton, the Legions left Briton!

[GeographyCzar]

Actually, "an angry rant against the political and religious leaders of the time" may very well be more useful than a "history" because it's likely to be more accurate (regarding events, not necessarily details of personal character). It's a "first order source" and it is from researching such sources that good histories can be written. In ancient times it was almost customary to make up sources when writing a "history" (such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle). Often, people wrote "histories" to support the author's favorite political and religious leaders of the time by placing their leadership in context that showed it in a favorable light.

[mikelitorous]

Bede is probably one of the most important figures in british history who no one has heard of

[hamishkane]

Why the Christ would you settle the Isle of Wight of all places

[timothyjholloway]

Pretty good. Usually I speed up videos, but I don't dare with this one. You made full use of every second available, making me pause just to read the bulletpoints. Thanks.