The Dark Ages

By the mid 5th century, the mercenaries and their families brought in by the Romans to bolster the defence of Britain late in the previous century, when the Legions were being withdrawn, had been joined by further waves of Germanic immigrants.

Some were invited by the British to help them in their defence, while others came seeking new land to settle. Many of them came into Britain across our coast. Vortigern, who ruled Kent, brought in Saxons under two chieftains of the Jutes, Hengist and Horsa (the first Saxons whose names are recorded). Initially Briton and Saxon seem to have existed peacefully - living in the same settlements and inter-married.

Inevitably, as more and more Saxons arrived in the late 5th century, the Saxon demands for land bred resentment in the British. Between 450 and 600 AD there were frequent battles along our coast with many British defeats as they did not co-ordinate resistance, except for a short period when an ‘Arthur’ was in charge. The border between Kent Jutish and Jutish Sussex was approximately along the line of the River Rother - i.e. it was already, by 550 AD, a political and cultural border. The next phase was when the newly established Anglo-Saxon kingdoms fought for predominance.

In 798 AD the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says - ‘Cenwolf, king of Mercia ravaged the Kentish people and the people of Romney Marsh; their king, Praen, was taken, and they led him bound to Mercia, and had his eyes put out and his hands cut off.’