ABSTRACT
By the middle of the fifth century the Picts had become the most powerful people in Scotland. Apart from mastering the countryside from the Orkneys and Shetlands down to the Forth and the Clyde, they were also capable of sustaining raids right into southern Britain. They did so for short-term material gain. Nothing justified a raid more in their eyes than a series of wagon loads of RomanoBritish treasure like brooches, belts, helmets, robes, swords and so forth. They were not concerned with conquering territory and settling it on any permanent basis, or else they would have done so. They descended considerable distances into what is now England, and their attacks were strong enough to prompt the Britons of the Home Counties to invite help to ward them off. The Britons first asked for troops from Rome, but none were available. Italy itself was in dire distress. Attila the Hun, with his huge Asian armies, was marching across Europe towards the great city. So the Britons invited Jutes and Angles from Denmark and Saxons from north-west Germany and Holland to come and help. They offered the foreigners lands in return. The Jutes, Angles and Saxons thought this was not an opportunity to be missed, and they came over, though not all at once. The Jutes arrived first, in Kent, under their chiefs Hengist and Horsa, and helped the Britons to beat back the Picts. Then they decided to stay. In the entry for 449 the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that they fought against the Picts and beat them in every engagement. Then they sent to Germany for more support, telling them that the Britons were a useless and demoralized people, but that their land
was very good for farming. Naturally, more Jutes and their families came from Europe; they were under some pressure themselves from neighbouring races who were being threatened by the Huns and the Avars.
