History, Wonder Tales, Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends The Flemish | Page 38

A HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION TO BRITAIN
The following article by Alistair McConnachie appeared in a Special Report enclosed free
with the November 2002 issue of Sovereignty, available from the address at the bottom of
this webpage.

PRE-HISTORY
At the end of the Mesolithic time, 4,000 BC, there may have been around 3,000 people
in Britain. At the beginning of the Bronze Age, 2,500 BC, the population has been
estimated at 20,000, and rising, by the later Bronze Age, 1000-700 BC, to around
100,000. By 100 BC there may have been around 250,000 people in Britain, which had
risen to 500,000 by 50 BC.

THE CELTS
These were the related tribes of the BRITONS, SCOTS/GAELS and PICTS. Celtic
languages evolved during the Later Bronze Age, around 1000 BC. Where did they
come from? There is little to suggest major population movement occurred during the
Iron Age, 700 BC-43 AD. The Celts descended in large part from Britain's own Neolithic
people.

ROMANS 43-410 AD
The invasion saw around 20,000 combat troops and the same number of auxiliaries,
making a figure of around 40-45,000. The Romans kept around 16,000 legionaries
stationed here, with perhaps around the same number of dependants and auxiliaries,
some of whom would be drawn from the native population. Paul Johnson writes, "For
the mass of the British, the Roman occupation was a disaster." Their course of
conquest led to the total destruction of the Celtic societies of the south. Estimates for
the population by 200 AD vary between 1 and 2 million.

ANGLES, SAXONS, JUTES, FRISIANS, FRANKS circa 400-600 AD
Leslie Alcock writes, "… Bede tells us that 'three very powerful German peoples' were
involved, 'that is Saxons, Angles and Jutes'. Archaeology and place-names studies
would add other names to these, including Franks, Frisians and Suevi. Broadly
speaking, we have to deal with ethnic and cultural elements coming from as far apart as
the Lower Rhine and the tip of the Jutish peninsula … He tells us that the 'race of the
English or Saxons' … came 'from three very strong tribes of Germany' … He explains
that the Saxon homeland was the region 'now known as Old Saxony', while that of the
Angles was the 'land called Angulu s … between the provinces of the Jutes and the
Saxons'. Angulus must correspond broadly with the modern Angeln towards the base of
the Schleswig-Jutland peninsula; the territory of the Jutes lay in the northern part of that
peninsula; and Old Saxony was the land between the Elbe and the Weser. We have no
means of knowing what mixture of oral tradition and pure speculation lay behind Bede's
analysis, but for more than a century archaeologists have been collecting material to

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