The English and the Celts - no genocide?

[ambrosius]

Actually, Robert, there is only one 'eccles' placename in Kent. That's
not a lot, really, when there are many more further West and North.

Actually Mike, there are two, there’s also an Eccleshill (on the List of Names from the 6 inch O.S. Maps of Kent (revised 1905/08)).

Ah, you found another one. Well done. 8)

Not a lot, indeed. But the point was not their number, but their existence in the first place – if (according to Härke and Coates) the Anglo-Saxons entered an empty landscape, then why would such a name exist at all?

Well, everything is always relative. Two 'Eccles' placenames in Kent,
teo in sussex and 6 in East Anglia versus three dozen further West and
North (including Scotland). That gives a fairer picture of the distribution
of Christianity across England & Scotland than the assumption that it
was more represented in the South-East in the immediate post-Roman
period. I'm not sure, though, that Harke claims the Amglo-Saxons
entered an 'empty landscape', so much as that they created one! :lol:

Don't forget that the battle of Aylesford in Kent in 455 was the first of
three between the invading Jutes and the Romanized Britons (Vortigern's
two sons, apparently). Anyhoo, that doesn't sound much like an 'empty
landscape' to me... 8) And if the next battle was Crayford, in 457,
then this is further West, towards London. Nomatter who claimed to have
won at Aylesford, the Jutes obviously struck further into British territory
and nearer to London, 2 years later. This means that they had likely
captured the river-crossing of Aylesford - and the site of the Roman
villa (and church) at the nearby hamlet of 'Eccles'. The fact that the
name survived at Eccles shows that the (pagan) Jutes recognised the
church as such (even though they would have no use for it, themselves,
for another 150 years, until St. Augustine came to convert them). :lol:

It says absolutely nothing about the existence - or otherwise - of any
surviving British Christian community at Aylesford in the period either
immediately before or after the battle. All it says is that the Jutes who
captured Aylesford recognized the nearby church as being what it was.
A church. That's all we can say. The site may well have already been
abandoned by the native Britons, seeking refuge from the advancing
Jutes. Certainly, I wouldn't expect there to have been any British
civilians hanging around at Aylesford to see the outcome of the coming
battle. Any still there when the Jutish forces arrived would presumably
have been killed or fled.

Ambrosius / Mike