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The Early Anglo-Saxon Period (AD 410-AD 1066)

After the Roman Empire withdrew its support from Britain in A D 410, and the Roman army departed, many characteristic elements of Roman civilisation also disappeared. These included organized trade, industry and coinage. The Roman way of life was gradually succeeded over most of England by a new alien Anglo-Saxon culture and language brought over by settlers and invaders from northern Germany.

Hertfordshire is one of the few areas of southern England which has not produced any significant evidence of early Anglo-Saxon settlers during this period. It is not entirely clear why this is so, although it may be that Roman life continued on in Hertfordshire in some form until the 6th or 7th centuries. This was possibly in the form of a ‘British’ kingdom centred on the old Roman city of Verulamium, but again, there is also little archaeological evidence for this.

By the end of 7th century it is probable that any surviving ‘British’ political power-base that may have existed in Hertfordshire had finally fallen under Anglo-Saxon control. Even so, very little archaeological evidence for this Anglo-Saxon settlement has come to light, and most of what there is occurs only in the north and west of the county, and principally along the ancient Icknield Way.

This archaeological evidence is supported by documentary evidence which suggests that an Anglo-Saxon tribe known as the ‘Hicci’ lived in the area around Hitchin, and another tribe known as the ‘Cilternsaetna’ lived in the Chilterns. By the 8th century all of Hertfordshire, including these tribal areas, was controlled by the large Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, under its powerful ruler, King Offa.

There is evidence of some important early Christian sites in Hertfordshire. Hertford was probably the site of an important gathering of Anglo-Saxon Bishops at a church ‘Synod’ in AD 672, and there may have been an early Christian centre at St Albans, at the site of St. Alban’s martyrdom. Later, in AD 793, King Offa founded the important Benedictine Abbey there.

There is some also archaeological evidence for Anglo-Saxon burials in the north of the county including some ‘warrior’ graves in which the burials were accompanied by spears and other weapons. Of these, the most notable is a small group of Anglo-Saxon warrior burials which were placed in the prehistoric barrows on Therfield Heath, at Royston.

A recent theory suggests that burials such as this may have been a deliberate attempt to reassert old burial traditions by the pagan Anglo-Saxons as a reaction to the spread of Christianity in Britain during the 7th century.