When the Saxons came over in the 5th century AD, did they exterminate the Brits?

Question

Or is this just their bad press? (or good press)

Did they chase the Welsh all the way to Wales or do they they integrate with the natives living in England?

Using the normal techniques of mass genocide, betrayal, mass murder back stabbing, burning down local forts, etc. ie. are we really German?

Answer 1

The idea of a Saxon invasion is now disputed by many historians.

Gildas and Bede, both main sources, are not considered "gospel" due to external evidence giving rise to new conclusions. There is a lot of personal ideas, criticisms and even myth in their works.

Grave evidence suggest more of a large migration over generations mostly being absorbed into the indigenous population with periods of heaver migration spotted with violence/war.

DNA evidence does give some contrary answers to the grave evidence however the problem with all DNA evidence taken from modern population to work out their heritage is that the Viking invasions came after the Saxon "invasion" period. The Vikings themselves were from similiar areas to the Saxons (Northern Germanic) and so their DNA mixing into the population will "add" to the amount Saxon in their put simply.

Lastly town names and words being used does not necessairly point to invasion and settling. The Romans did not replace our population, in fact they hardly made a dent in it all the time they were here, same for the Normans. They replaced the ruling classes, mixed into them or created a new uber-class only for invaders rather than exterminated the populations and replaced them. Their languages became what was used for civic purposes, town naming and their personal names would have also started to seep into tthe local populations new children.

To be honest it's a huge question, almost unanswerable here without leaving out something, good question though :)

Answer 2

no.

as i read in a history book (i believe it was treveylan) - england's history was determined a lot by its geography. look at the way britain is formed: england is plainish, wales and scotland have mountains: this was decisive in the history.

invaders came to england in large numbers. england was the edge of the world and all invaders that migrated from europe somehow ended up here. the original people were invaded by celts. celts were invaded by romans. then the roman-celtic population was invaded by saxons. then danes. then normans. quite a lot of invasions.

each and every time such an invasion happened the outnumbered locals would flee to the mountains. this is the main reason why wales and scotland are celtic regions while england is more saxon. basically the brits (or britons) ran to the mountains. some stayed and mixed with the saxons. but few were killed.

Answer 3

No. Even though the Saxons conquered the native peoples, they did not destroy them.

From WIkipedia - History of England

"Analysis of human remains unearthed at an ancient cemetery near Abingdon, England, indicates that Saxon immigrants and native Britons lived side-by-side. David Miles, research fellow at the Institute of Archaeology has said: "Probably what we're dealing with is a majority of British people who were dominated politically by a new elite. ... They were swamped culturally but not genetically". ...

Increasingly, the Romano-British population (the Britons) was assimilated, a process enabled by a lack of clear unity amongst the British people against a unified armed foe, and the culture pushed westwards and northwards. The settlement (or invasion) of England is known as the Saxon Conquest or the Anglo-Saxon (sometimes "English") Conquest.

In approximately 495, at the Battle of Mount Badon (Latin Mons Badonicus, Welsh Mynydd Baddon) possibly at Badbury Rings near the Roman Porchester-Poole road, ...Britons inflicted a severe defeat on an invading Anglo-Saxon army which halted the westward Anglo-Saxon advance for a long period. While it was a major political and military event of the 5th and 6th centuries in Britain, there is no certainty about who commanded the opposing forces. This victory by the British army made it possible to halt the Saxon invasion and secured a long period of peace for Celtic Britain. The earliest source does not name the commanders of the opposing forces, but by the 9th century the victory was attributed to King Arthur."
...
"In the decisive Battle of Deorham, in 577 between the West Saxons and the Britons. the British people of Southern Britain were separated into the West Welsh (Cornwall, Devon Dorset and Somerset) and the Welsh by the advancing Saxons. ...The battle was promptly followed by the Saxon occupation of three cities: Cirencester ...Gloucester ...and Bath. However, their advance southwestward was held up for about a hundred years, until the battle of Peonnam, and was not complete until the 10th century. Though there were some gains towards Wales, it remained largely independent from the Saxons."
...
"From the 4th century AD, many Britons had migrated across the English Channel from Wales, Cornwall and southern Britain, with their chiefs, soldiers, families, monks and priests, and started to settle and colonize the west part (Armorica) of Gaul (France) where they founded a new nation: Brittany. ..

Beginning with the raid in 793 on the monastery at Lindisfarne, Vikings made many raids on England.

At Dore (now a suburb of the City of Sheffield) Egbert of Wessex received the submission of Eanred of Northumbria in 829 and so became the first Saxon overlord of all England."
...
"Until recently it has been believed that those areas settled by the Anglo-Saxons were uninhabited at the time or the Britons had fled before them. However, genetic studies show that the British were not pushed out to the Celtic fringes – many tribes remained in what was to become England (see C. Capelli et al. 'A Y chromosome census of the British Isles'. Current Biology 13, 979–984, (2003)). ... Steven Bassett of Birmingham University; .. suggests that much of the West Midlands was only very lightly colonised with Anglian and Saxon settlements."

Answer 4

They didn't exterminate the Brits. After a while they settled down and lived a normal life within Britain not causing much trouble only a few distubances. There was a Saxon king on the throne and he had saxon successors.

Answer 5

DNA seems to suggest that we are mainly Celt (even in England) of North European ethnicity.

There is not all that much racial difference among German, Danish, Baltic, Swedish, even Slavic -- any historic immigration into Celtic Britain was gradual (unlike today) and easily assimilated.

So no-one exterminated anyone on genocide grounds.

Answer 6

They integrated except for pockets of Britons in Wales and Scotland. Some Britons escaped to France to form their own colony (Britteny) and many of their ancestors returned to England with William the Conqueror.

Answer 7

There were no Brits as such when Saxons invaded the Island, they were Gauls and Celts. Celts are the Welsh of today and Gauls, or whatever was left of them, and Saxons and Angles and Jutes made what is now known as British, later to be mixed with the Vikings (in the 8th Century).

Answer 8

You obviously haven't got very far with history have you?

There were invasions of Normans, Saxons, Vikings, Romans & god knows what you'd call it these days but one thing remains the same regardless.... WE ARE PROUD BRITISH PEOPLE and we conquer & devour all who invade!
If this weren't true then we'd be speaking a different language ie; french, italian, german, danish.....

Answer 9

Nae Saxons here laddie.
Totally separate culture.
England's three lions roll over every time.
Ours is standing up and is pretty angry.
Yours are lying down.
How fitting!

Answer 10

we have been invaded so many times and the invaders interbred eddie izzard is right we are a mongrel nation lol. and jock f is right in the fact that the scots blood is more pure british than ours lol.