The New Student's Reference Work/Anglo-Saxon

An'glo-Sax'on, the name of the German tribes that invaded England just after the Romans had left it. They came mostly from three tribes, the Saxons, Angles and Jutes, all living on or near the Danish peninsula. They subdued and overspread the country, driving the Britons, who were of the Celtic race, before them. They founded the seven kingdoms, Kent, Sussex, Wessex, East Anglia, Mercia, Essex and Northumbria, which were banded together for protection into the Heptarchy or Seven Kingdoms, and afterward united in one nation called England, from the Angles. Each of the seven divisions had its king and a queen, who were treated with great respect. Next came the athelings or high nobles; then the thanes, who were landed farmers. Below these were the churls, who were retainers of the thanes, and lowest of all were the slaves, most of whom had been prisoners of war. The Anglo-Saxon language is the German language spoken by these tribes, mixed with a few words of Celtic spoken by the Britons and many Latin words introduced by the monks, who were the only scholars then in the country. Although the English language grew out of the Anglo-Saxon, we cannot read it now without studying it like a new language.