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From Hutton Webster's, Early European History (1917); edited for this on-line publication, by ELLOPOS
X. WESTERN EUROPE DURING THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES, 476-962 A.D.
» Contents of this Chapter
Page 23
THE SEVEN KINGDOMS IN BRITAIN
The Anglo-Saxons started to fight one another before they ceased fighting their common enemy, the Britons. Throughout the seventh and eighth centuries, the Anglo-Saxon states were engaged in almost constant struggles, either for increase of territory or for supremacy. The kingdoms farthest east—Kent, Sussex, Essex, and East Anglia—found their expansion checked by other kingdoms—Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex—which grew up in the interior of the island. Each of these three stronger states gained in turn the leading place.
EGBERT AND THE SUPREMACY OF WESSEX, 802-839 A.D.
The beginning of the supremacy of Wessex dates from the reign of Egbert. He had lived for some years as an exile at the court of Charlemagne, from whom he must have learned valuable lessons of war and statesmanship. After returning from the Continent, Egbert became king of Wessex and gradually forced the rulers of the other states to acknowledge him as overlord. Though Egbert was never directly king of all England, he began the work of uniting the Anglo-Saxons under one government. His descendants have occupied the English throne to the present day.
ANGLO-SAXON BRITAIN
When the Germans along the Rhine and the Danube crossed the frontiers and entered the western provinces, they had already been partially Romanized. They understood enough of Roman civilization to appreciate it and to desire to preserve it. The situation was quite different with the Anglo- Saxons. Their original home lay in a part of Germany far beyond the borders of the Roman Empire and remote from the cultural influences of Rome. Coming to Britain as barbarians, they naturally introduced their own language, laws, and customs wherever they settled. Much of what the Anglo- Saxons brought with them still lives in England, and from that country has spread to the United States and the vast English colonies beyond the seas. The English language is less indebted to Latin than any of the Romance languages, and the Common law of England owes much less to Roman law than do the legal systems of Continental Europe. England, indeed, looks to the Anglo-Saxons for some of the most characteristic and important elements of her civilization.
THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY: Table of Contents
url: www.ellopos.net/politics/european-history/default.asp
Cf. The Ancient Greece * The Ancient Rome
Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) * Western Medieval Europe * Renaissance in Italy
