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Fall of Rome:
408-410: Central Asian plains may have had drought. Fierce and warlike Huns defeat the Goths, who crossed the Danube and Rhine and entered the Roman Empire. Rome withdraws its troops from Britain, but Rome was captured and sacked.
circa 410-489: Teutons and Germans who lived on the Rhine border and south Europe conquered Rome to the south and west. The Franks, another Teutonic peoples, migrated southward. Reaching the Loire they conquered Gaul, renaming it France. Goths, Vandals and Lombards to Spain, Balkans, Africa and Italy. Goths were also in south Russia.
451: Attila the Hun (the Huns were an Asiatic people) was defeated at Chalons.

After the Romans left Britain the Britons were harassed by the Picts (Northern Britain) the Scotti (from Ireland) and the Anglos, Saxons and Jutes (north-western Europe).
Europe entered the "Dark Ages". Britons who were forced west joined the other Celts in Britain. Britons who remained were either killed or sold into slavery.

circa 415: Orosius, a Spanish cleric and a Roman, wrote "The History of the World from the Creation to 416", which would later be added to and translated into English by King Alfred. Orosius also wrote the Historia adversus paganos ("History Against the Pagans") that refuted claims that Christianity was responsible for the ills that beset Europe.

450-500: The migration to Britain By Germanic Tribes:
Settlers arrived from Holland, North Germany, and Denmark. During the 5th and 6th centuries Britain was populated by the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, who came from the shores of the Baltic. They also occupied parts of the coast of Denmark and Germany, on both sides of the mouth of the Elba. Jutes from Juteland � north Denmark or from Frisia and the lower Rhine. Franks and Frisians also migrated. The Danes from the Swedish mainland migrated to Denmark and replaced the Anglos and the Saxons.
Hwicce (Anglo-Saxon) settlers in the lower Severn and Avon basin until the 10th century. The kingdoms of the Hwicce � Magon Saete and Surry were absorbed. The city of York was originally known as Jorvik.
The (Celtic) Silurians in south Wales and the Ordivices in the mountainous north, were hard to conquer.
The Jutes settled in Kent (originally 'Cantii'), Isle of Wight and the West-Saxon province. From the Fourth to the border of Cornwall.
Saxons: East Saxons, South Saxons, West Saxons.
Angles: East Angles, Middle Angles, Mercians and the Northumbrians (north of the River Humber). They were called Anglo-Saxons or Saxons. They called themselves Engle, from which the name 'English' came from in the 11th century.
Kent, Canterbury, Hwicce, Magon Saete in the west country. Surry was in the east.
British kingdoms that fell to the Anglo-Saxons, in the southwest peninsula:
Wales, northwest Britain, Rheged, and Godeddin fell in the 6th century; Strathclyde fell a few centuries later.

Anglo Saxon Kingdoms:
Seven main kingdoms:
5th century: Kent and Sussex
6th c. Wessex, Northumbria, East Anglia, Mercia and Essex
By mid-10th century the kings of Wessex dominated England.

500-570: St. Gildas writes his "De excido et conquestu Britanniae" documenting early British history.

541: The Bubonic Plague, originating in Egypt and elsewhere in Northern Africa, reaches Britain and other parts of Europe.

circa 545: Gilda's history. Britons punished for sins (I guess as an explanation for the plague). The Saxons, who had idols, were considered to be hateful to the Creator and man.

547: The plague strikes in Britain and Europe once again.
Christianity came to the Anglo-Saxons circa 540-680. The missionaries and their emissaries arrived looking to convert the Anglo-Saxon kings. The kings still fought and killed each other, however.

560: Ethelbert, king of Kent, will eventually become the first Bretwalda and rule over all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

597: Christianity brought to Ethelbert and his kingdom of Kent by St. Augustine. A Benedictine monastery was founded at Canterbury. Kent reverted to paganism in 616.

598: School built at Canterbury.

In the 6th century the Church was associated with the inauguration of the king. The king of Dalriada was the first to be ceremoniously hallowed.
The Coronation ceremony of the Anglo-Saxons (lasting today):
Kings swear to defend and preserve the Church and Christian people, to ensure peace, order, justice and mercy. Throughout the Middle Ages the Kings were educators, literary patrons, and sponsors of learning and culture.

Some of the men who converted the Celts and Anglo-Saxons:
Augustine c. 590, Columba c. 600, Paulinus c. 620, and Aidan c. 660.
Missionaries from Iona invited to Northumbria in the 630's by kings Oswald and Oswiu, who was taught by Columba. By 650 all kingships converted. Several Anglo-Saxon kings abandoned their kingships and entered the monasteries in 6th and 7th centuries.

630: Churches, schools and castles are now being constructed.

645: King Ethelhere of East Anglia seems to have collected quite a bit of gold. It was found in 1939 in a ship grave at Sutton, Hoo, Suffolk.

651: The kingdoms of Diera and Bernicia merge to form Northumbria.

664: Another plague makes its way through Europe, reaching England.

671: Caedmon the earliest English-Christian poet born and writer of Biblical poems.

672: The Venerable Bede, English monk and historian is born

674: English churches now have glass windows.

680: Aldheim, a bishop was a writer in verse and prose. Also translated the Bible into English.

681: South Saxons converted. Had been committing suicide because of famine.

circa 699: The Saxons built crosses at rivers and prayed to them before crossing the river.

The following was page 2:

The heptarchs from the 5th to the 7th centuries: Kent, Mercia, Sussex (South Saxons), Wessex (West Saxons), Essex (East Saxons), and Northumbria.
In the 8th and 9th centuries, Mercia then Wessex, dominated.

Beowulf: The hero of the Anglo-Saxon folk epic 'Beowulf' which was composed circa 700. Beowulf slays the dragon Grendel and also Grendel's mother. After this Beowulf dies fighting another dragon that is ravaging his kingdom.

700: Psalms translated into A-S. Churches now made of stone.

726: Ine, king of Wessex collects the tax called Peter's Pence. This is done to support a college at Rome
circa 730: Bede, an Anglo-Saxon monk who kept ecclesiastical history � "Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum"

735: After Bede's death, Alciun becomes England's historian. Alciun was a monk and scholar in Charlemagne's (French) court.

757-796: Offa, king of Mercia. During his reign Offa absorbed the kingdoms of Lindsey, Hwicce, Sussex. Kent and East Anglia were also under his control. He conquered all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms south of Humber River except Wessex. Offa also built a dyke to keep Welsh invaders away. They dyke was 25' high, 60' wide and 169 miles long. Charlemagne, the king of the Franks (France) treated Offa as an equal.

766: Ethelbert and Alcuin make York a center of learning.

772: Charlemagne gives the (continental) Saxons a good walloping. Subdues Widukind and the other Saxons and converts them, then collects tithes to support schools, the clergy, churches and the poor.

782: Charlemagne executes 4,500 (continental) Saxon hostages. Issued by Charlemagne was the "Capitulation de partibus Saxoniae".

787: Danes invade Britain, more invasions to follow.

795: Cynewulf, a poet, writes composes many works, including religious.

8th century: Viking hordes from Scandinavia and Baltic started their invasions.
First Nordic invasion:
781: The pagan Vikings (Danes and Norsemen) trampled over Christian England. Their god was Odin, the same as the Anglo-Saxon Woden. Odin was the god of 'wisdom' and loved war. There were sacrifices of horses, sheep and boars and in bad times lots were cast and men were killed.
787: Northmen of Haerethaland (Denmark) killed sheriff who rode out to meet them.
Danes and Gotas from Wick (or Vik � now the fjord of Oslo), hug shore from North Cross Thames down channel. From Norway they migrated to Shetland, to south on Scotland, to Wessex, Northumbria, Ireland, Wales and France.
Norsemen were called white strangers (Finn-Galli). Danes were called dark strangers (Dubh-Galli). 3 ships to Britain in 787. 35 ships in 833. 350 ships in 851.

Second Nordic invasion:
During the 9th c. the Vikings established 'Danelaw' over the Anglo-Saxons in England and some Irish towns. (They also went to Constantinople, Greenland and Normandy). The defenses for the Anglo-Saxons were the Rivers Piddle and From, which gave protection for the towns that were front line of the resistance against the Vikings.

802: Egbert, who was once a refugee at Charlemagne's court, now becomes the king of Wessex. Fleeing King Offa, Egbert was exiled to the continent. During this time he spent three years with Charlemagne, meeting his wife while he was there.

Charlemagne's last was against the (continental) Saxons, extending his kingdom.

circa 815: Saxons conquered Britain. The Celts fled to the British Isles (Scotland, Wales and Ireland).

The kingdom of Kent was gone in the 9th c.

800-900: Wessex is the only A-S kingdom to repel the Vikings

825: King Egbert of Wessex annexes Kent, Essex, Surrey, and Sussex. He defeats Mercia in war in the Battle of Ellendun.

829: Egbert is now Bretwalda.

851: Canterbury Cathedral sacked by Danes.

855: King Ethewulf of Wessex collects Peter's Pence. Goes with son Alfred on a pilgrimmage to Rome.

870: Danes occupy East Anglia, kill Edmund, their last king.

871-899: Alfred the Great, king of Wessex, continues the success against the Vikings.

878: Alfred recaptures London from the Danes

885: Alfred translated Pope Gregory's "Cura Pastoralis" (Pastoral Care), instructions for the clergy on how to care for church members.

891-1154: The "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", composed in Wessex, was based on the history written by Bede; several Saxon genealogical lists and annals; oral tradition.

866: Alfred makes treaty with Vikings. Danelaw created, the Vikings and A-S divide England. By law, the Scandinavians control eastern and northern England.

King Alfred the Great versus the Vikings:
circa 860: Danes devastate East Anglia, Northumbria, and Mercia. Wessex resisted due to Alfred the Great and his brother Eadred.
877: Alfred spared by storm. 120 Danish galleys struck against the cliffs of Swanage.
The storm off of Purbeck Cliffs destroyed 60 Viking ships also.
878: Alfred defeats Danes in the Battle of Ethandune, and forced the Viking King Guthrum to be baptized. Led to the Treaty of Wedmore � Northumbria, half of Mercia and East Anglia became Danelaw.
Instead of killing Danes, Alfred converts them. The Danish leaders and followers were baptized and leave Wessex free. Alfred, his son Edward and grandson Athelstan recovered the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

Alfred urged religion education and learning. Wanted the youth of his kingdom to read books of religious instruction, philosophy and history. Theology, history, geography also emphasized.
Historical records were kept, schools began where English prose and literature was taught. Translate Bede's history from Latin to Anglo-Saxon. Had a fleet of ships and an army and began an administration.

The writers Alfred admired were Gregory the Great, Bede, Boethius, Osorius, St. Augustine and Ahus.

The Old English Orosius: a translation of Orosius's volume, dating from 400 AD.

Alfred also recorded three (separate) stories about Scandinavian mariners:
The stories of Ohthere and Wulfstan are added to Orosius's history, augmenting the European's knowledge of the Germanic peoples and geography.
circa 980: Ottar's voyage was also added to his world history. Ottar, a Norwegian chieftan and adventurer, sailed around the North Cape, following the coast before reaching the White Sea and the home of the Biarmians. There was much wilderness, and the Sami, who were fishermen, bird catchers and hunters.

For more info on Anglo-Saxons go to:
www.georgetown.edu/cball/oe/old_english.html