How England Began

The Staffordshire treasure was created at a time of upheaval. After Roman rule ended, Germanic Warriors—Angles, Saxons, and Jutes—helped the Britons beat back the Picts and Scotti.

After battling alongside the Britons in the north and west, the Germanic warriors turned on their allies and carved out kingdoms of their own. As this fragmented land became a state under one king, literature flourished, coins were minted, and people adopted Christianity. In 1066 Norman invaders defeated Harold II, England's last Anglo-Saxon ruler.

The Anglo-Saxon Era

Bronze head of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, second century A.D.

King Arthur depicted in an early 15th-century tapestry fragment

Gold and garnet buttons from the Staffordshire Hoard

Seventh century
Mercia develops into one of the three biggest kingdoms in England.

Early sixth century
The legendary Roman-British leader King Arthur is said to have lived in this era.

ca 450
Angles, Saxons, and Jutes arrive in England following the end of Roman rule, ca 410.

Mid-seventh century
Anglo-Saxon royal treasure is buried in the hull of a ship at Sutton Hoo.

ca 650-700
The Staffordshire Hoard, a cache of military hardware, is buried.

Gravestone that may show an early Viking raid at Lindisfarne, England

A scene in the late 11th-century Bayeux Tapestry showing the Battle of Hastings

ca Eighth century
Beowulf, an Anglo-Saxon epic, is written in Old English.

ca 793
Viking attacks begin; they continue into the 11th century.

1066
The Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest end Anglo-Saxon rule.

Tenth century
England unifies following the reign of Alfred the Great, who died in 899.