No Saxon invasion?

[authun]

a) Britain was not empty (Saxon settlement patterns show a spread - not 'advance'- which takes more than a century. You don't move house across the sea to an island that you must fight for. You do that when your settlement chances are reasonable to good.

Not empty everywhere but possibly empty is some places. The new settlers at West Heslerton appear to have entered an abandonned landscape for example. East Yorks, North Lincs and the northern part of East Anglia may have been deserted. What does the manager of a villa do when he can't sell his produce on behalf of the owner back in Rome? What do his workers do? Moreover, if they continue to grow but others come and steal the harvest, who can he appeal to for help? Eventually, I think they would give up.

b) That does still not explain why Gaul would not be more favorable over Britain.

Well we do have settlements in the Loire valley around Angers, the Saxones Baiocassini in the Cherbourg penninsular and possibly three phases of germanic settlement in the Pas de Calais region which pre date the Merovingians. As with possible saxon settlements in Scotland, these never became kingdoms that we know about.

I would rather say the second half of the 5th c., or perhaps even the 6th c. would be more interesting, for these decades would show in what way the Britons are adapting (or not) to the new cultural power on the island.

Yes, of course how the Britons adapted is of interest but so too is the question of what they were adapting from. There is both a gap between the withdrawal of Rome and the arrival of the germanics and there are also parts of Britain untouched by the germanics. Elmet for example still has a British king at the start of the 7th century, yet it is east of the Pennines. Where were they living? What kind of existence was it? There's no data to go on but, on the face of it, it wasn't a continuation of Roman Britain. If it was a rudimentary lifestyle based largely on self sufficiency, that may explain a readiness to adapt to germanic ways.

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authun