| Abstract: |
An examination of conditions throughout Britain between the barbarian conspiracy of AD 367 and the final defeat of the British under Cadwallon synthesises evidence drawn from literature, annals, inscriptions, laws, place-names and archaeology. Analysis of three key texts suggests that Arthur is no less credible a figure than Vortigern, and that he was a leader of the combined military forces of the small kingdoms which made up sub-Roman Britain at about AD 500. The historical background for the last phases of Roman Britain and for the period 490-634 are outlined. Archaeological evidence, as long as we remember its limitations (especially for this period), already allows us to amplify, perhaps eventually to correct, the Gildasian and Bedan views of the Saxon settlement. Discussion of the material cultures includes that of Britons, Picts, Scotti (in Ireland and Britain) as well as of the ancestral (continental) and pagan English. Finally, events and folk movements in Britain are set in their wider NW European and post-Imperial context. |
