Anglo-Saxons

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Anglo-Saxons
Organizational information
Locations	Great Britain North Western Europe
Successor(s)	Kingdom of England Kingdom of Wales
Religion	Anglo-Saxon paganism (Classical Antiquity) Christianity Norse Paganism

The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group of people that inhabited England from the 5th century onwards.

Originating from the Germanic Angles and Saxons, the two peoples migrated to Great Britain not long after the end of Roman rule, and became the English Angles and Saxons respectively. Sometime later they merged to became Anglo-Saxons.

Beginning in 449 CE, a Romano-British leader named Vortigern reached out to two brothers, Hengist and Horsa, to aid against incursions by the Picts, although this has been debated by scholars. Vortigern allowed the brothers to settle in Cent, in exchange for the hand of Hengist's daughter in marriage. The Anglo-Saxons were thus paid by Vortigern in order to assure their loyalty. However, Hengist and Horsa began demanding further payment, and when Vortigern refused, it led to an all out war. This ultimately culminated in the Battle of Badon, where a Romano-British leader named Arthur Pendragon, who was also leader of the Order of the Ancients, defeated the Saxons and stopped them from conquering all of Britain. ^{[citation needed]}

However, Badon did not stop the Anglo-Saxons entirely. By the late 6th century, they eventually dominated most of Britain, with the Britons to the West, and the Picts to the North. As a result, their portions of Britain were divided into 7 kingdoms, eventually coalescing into 4 major ones: Mercia, East Anglia, Northumbria and Wessex. ^{[citation needed]}

Around 571, King Wehha of East Anglia died, and was buried at the cemetery of Sutton Hoo. In 597, Augustine of Canterbury was sent by Pope Gregory I to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, succeeding in converting King Ethelbert of Kent, as well as his subjects. This led to the establishment of churches across Kent, with Augustine being appointed the first Archbishop of Canterbury. At some point in the 7th century, the Kingdom of Lindsey was absorbed into Mercia, with its kings becoming the ealdormen of the newly established Lincolnscire. ^{[citation needed]}

Beginning in 757, King Offa of Mercia, who was secretly involved with the Order of the Ancients, eventually became the most powerful Anglo-Saxon king of the time. He built a fortification against the Britons which became known as Offa's Dyke, and defined the western borders of Mercia, and built up an old Roman fort into Cyne Belle Castle in Oxenefordscire. Offa was also famous for going so far as to create gold coins that copied dinars coming out of the Abbasid Caliphate under the reign of Caliph al-Mansur, complete with Arabic inscriptions. One of these coins even made it as far as Rome. ^{[citation needed]}

On June 8th 793, the Anglo-Saxon world was ultimately shook when the monastery of Lindisfarne was sacked by a horde of raiders from Scandinavia, thus kickstarting the Viking Age in Western Europe. This was so shocking that the Northumbrian monk, Alcuin of York, wrote a vivid account of the attack while he was staying at Aachen in the court of Charlemagne. ^{[citation needed]}

In the 860s, an East Anglian ealdorman named Lerion, a member of the Order of the Ancients, made a claim for the throne of Mercia, but was betrayed when word of his actions reached King Edmund, and was executed for treason. His three daughters all swore revenge and fled into the fens where they began delving into sorcery and the occult. ^{[citation needed]}

In 865, Ælla of Northumbria, who was in line to become Grand Maegester of the Order of the Ancients, captured the famed Viking, Ragnar Lothbrok, and had him executed by being thrown into a pit of snakes. In retaliation, Ragnar's sons Halfdan, Ubba, and Ivarr the Boneless swore revenge and invaded England with an invasion force: the Great Heathen Army. This led to the invasions of Northumbria and East Anglia. King Osberht of Northumbria was killed, with Ælla succeeding him as the new king in 866. That same year, King Edmund of East Anglia signed a truce with Halfdan and Ivarr in exchange for peace. Ivarr then captured Jorvik on All Saint's Day, forcing Ælla to flee and abandon his people. The following year, he was captured by the Sons of Ragnar, and executed via the blood eagle. ^{[citation needed]}

By 869, King Edmund of East Anglia was killed for refusing to recant Christianity for Norse Paganism. He was beaten to a pulp, tied to a tree and shot with arrows before being beheaded. Halfdan then appointed his steward, Finnr to appoint a new king in his stead, while he and his brothers invaded Mercia. ^{[citation needed]}

In 871, another Viking army, led by one Guthrum jarl made peace with the Ragnarssons, and settled on conquering Wessex. Halfdan then made his way north to subjugate Northumbria, supporting the king, Ricsige to act as his puppet while he fought against the Picts. At the same time, King Aethelred of Wessex was mortally wounded by Guthrum at the Battle of Meretun, and was succeeded by his brother, Alfred. ^{[citation needed]}

In the 9th century, King Alfred the Great of Wessex made the first efforts to unite the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxons into one country. During this endeavor he was met with resistance from the Vikings in their mission to conquer England.

Alfred's efforts ultimately succeeded in uniting England under one king, but by the late 10th and early 11th centuries, his descendant, Aethelred the Unready, was ultimately defeated by the Vikings led by Cnut the Great at the Battle of Maldon, leading to England becoming part of the North Sea Empire until 1035 when Cnut died, and Aethelred's son, Edward the Confessor, came back to power. ^{[citation needed]}

On the death of Edward the Confessor in 1066, Harold Godwinson took the throne, but his reign was challenged by two claimants: King Harald Hardrada of Norway, and Duke William of Normandy, who had insisted that the throne had been promised to him by the late Edward. Harold succeeded in stopping the last great Viking invasion of England at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, but was ultimately defeated at the Battle of Hastings, and killed in the fighting, and William was crowned King of England on Christmas Day 1066. ^{[citation needed]}

William's victory at Hastings ultimately led to the end of the Anglo-Saxon era in England, and many nobles fled abroad, finding employ in the Byzantine Empire as part of the Varangian Guard. ^{[citation needed]}

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed III (first mentioned)
• Assassin's Creed: Rogue (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Geirmund's Saga
• Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – Blood Brothers
• Discovery Tour: Viking Age
• The World of Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Journey to the North – Logs and Files of a Hidden One (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: Mirage (mentioned in Database entry only)