ABSTRACT
Processes of migration have always been the outcome of complex situations. A certain ‘push’ factor (as, for example, local difficulties arising from recurring famine, war or overpopulation) may be complemented by the ‘pull’ factor of better living conditions elsewhere. With the demise of Rome’s central authority an older political pattern began to reassert itself in the British Isles. The fundamental units both in Britain and in Ireland were petty kingdoms. Although Arthur is one of the most famous figures in British history, his actual existence remains in doubt. Bede was given to Benedict Biscop, the founder and first abbot of the monastic community of Monkwearmouth and Jarrow, Northumbria, as a child oblate at the age of seven.
