36 Anglo-Saxon England

n the history of Great Britain, Anglo-Saxon England refers to the historical land roughly corresponding to present-day England, as it existed from the 5th to the 11th century, but not including kingdom of Dumnonia (Devon and Cornwall collectively) until the 9th century.

The Anglo-Saxons were the members of Germanic-speaking groups who migrated to the southern half of the island from continental Europe, and their cultural descendants. Anglo-Saxon history thus begins during the period of Sub-Roman Britain following the end ofRoman control, and traces the establishment of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the 5th and 6th centuries (conventionally identified asseven main kingdoms: Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex, and Wessex), their Christianisation during the 7th century, the threat of Viking invasions and Danish settlers, the gradual unification of England under Wessex hegemony during the 9th and 10th centuries, and ending with the Norman conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066. Anglo-Saxon identity survived beyond the Norman Conquest,^[1] and came to be known as Englishry under Norman rule and ultimately developed into the modern English people.