Review: The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England, by Marc Morris

I’ve got a few books by the author, this being the fourth, and, as with the others, this is an easy to read book so whether you’re looking to bridge the Roman-Norman gap on your bookshelf or are buying this as a first foray into history it’s a sound purchase.

The period covered includes a useful section preceding the arrival of Angles and Saxons explaining what the Roman state of play was, their departure, and the unexpectedly ‘free’ Britons of the 5^th century AD. From there it goes up to the Norman Conquest but there’s little after 1066 (although the author does have an excellent book dedicated to the Norman Conquest which I can heartily recommend).

After the Romans left, the central authority was gone and trade declined substantially. This impoverished and weakened Britain and enabled the Saxons, and others, to roll up, invade, and carve out significant territory (more or less modern day England). After a brief period of many low level ‘nobles’ power began to be aggregated into larger realms by aggressive kings. As time passed, the number of kingdoms declined and the power of individual kings waxed. And then the Vikings showed up and everything went arse over kettle.

It was interesting to read how the heptarchy, which I’ve often heard of, is more or less fictional, a simplification based on something existent in a brief period of time during significant political flux.

Maps are presented roughly at the start of each chapter and reflect the changing political state of play, which fluctuates wildly from the start to the finish. Useful for both British and non-British readers as there are some places that either don’t exist any more or were far more important in the past than they are today (it’s surprising how many settlements have lasted the millennium or more to still be around).

Incidentally, anyone after a similar time frame (400-1000 AD) but covering a much wider geographical area should definitely consider Chris Wickham’s The Inheritance of Rome, which is a cracking book.

Thaddeus