Abstract
There are few sources available on the fifth and sixth centuries. We have some archaeological evidence and a small group of text, annals and fragments. ‘The English Settlements’ tries to piece together what we know about Britain during this 200-year period. Archaeology suggests that Germanic settlers first came to Britain as mercenaries in the Roman army. The English of later centuries dated their ancestors' arrival some decades later. Who were the invaders and what were they like? How did the native people receive them? It is difficult to establish British survival in the regions that became Anglo-Saxon by 600.
