Key Stage 2 history · British history

KS2 The Romans leave Britain: Anglo-Saxons and Scots arrive

In Key Stage 2 history, children learn how Roman rule in Britain ended around AD 410 and how new groups, including the Anglo-Saxons and the Scots from Ireland, settled in the centuries that followed. It is a lesson in cause and change: the Romans did not simply vanish overnight and the newcomers did not simply replace everyone who was already here.

Romans leave, Anglo-Saxons arrive, explained

The Roman army had been in Britain since AD 43. By the late 300s the Empire was under pressure on many borders, and troops were repeatedly taken from Britain to fight elsewhere. In AD 407 a soldier whom the army in Britain had proclaimed emperor took troops across to Gaul (now France) to fight for the throne. In AD 410 the Emperor Honorius is said to have told British communities to look after their own defence. In the same year the city of Rome itself was attacked and looted. The usual date given for the end of Roman rule in Britain is therefore c. AD 410, and the western Roman Empire is generally said to have ended in AD 476.

The date is a convenient marker, not a single day on which everything changed. Roman buildings, roads and some towns continued to be used. Many people in Britain, whom historians call Britons, still spoke a Celtic language and some used Latin. Without Rome, army pay and Roman taxes stopped, trade shrank, and local leaders took charge. Raiders came from several directions: the Picts from the far north of Britain, Saxons and others from across the North Sea to the east, and the Scots, who sailed from Ireland in the west. Over time Scots settled in the west of what is now Scotland, which later took its name from them.

From the 400s, groups from across the North Sea began to settle in Britain. The monk Bede, writing around AD 731, described them as Angles, Saxons and Jutes, from lands that are now northern Germany and Denmark. Archaeology suggests others came too, such as Frisians from the coast of what is now the Netherlands. Some may have been invited as soldiers and others arrived to farm. Bede and later writers tell of leaders such as Hengest and Horsa, but these stories were written down centuries afterwards and are mixed with legend. Our word “English” comes from the Angles, and “England” means “land of the Angles”.

What happened next is still discussed by historians, because few written sources survive from this period. Archaeology, place names and later writing are the main evidence. Children are taught not to say that the Britons were all killed or driven out, as the evidence suggests that settlers and Britons lived alongside each other, and the language, laws and customs gradually changed. Some Britons moved west, and the Welsh language descends from the speech of the Britons. The curriculum also asks children to build a secure sense of chronology, so this topic is the bridge between the Roman period and the Anglo-Saxon one on a timeline that runs through to 1066.

Words your child will hear

Withdrawal: Pulling soldiers or support out of a place, as the Romans did from Britain.
Settlement: A place where people move to and make their homes, or the act of doing so.
Briton: A person living in Britain before and during the Roman period and afterwards, speaking a Celtic language.
Anglo-Saxons: The peoples, mainly Angles, Saxons and Jutes, who came from across the North Sea and settled in Britain.
Scots: People from Ireland who settled in the west of northern Britain, which later became known as Scotland.
Invasion: Entering a country with an army to take control.
Chronology: The order in which events happened. A timeline shows chronology.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Key Stage 2 says:

Pupils should be taught about Britain’s settlement by Anglo-Saxons and Scots
Pupils should continue to develop a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of British, local and world history, establishing clear narratives within and across the periods they study.
Pupils should regularly address and sometimes devise historically valid questions about change, cause, similarity and difference, and significance.

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

A worked enquiry

Why did Roman rule in Britain end around AD 410?

Put the key events in order on a timeline: Romans invade (AD 43), Roman troops are taken to Gaul (AD 407), Rome is attacked and Honorius is said to have told the British to defend themselves (AD 410), the western Empire ends (AD 476). Children should note the timing before looking at causes.
Look for long-term causes. The Empire was very large and hard to defend. Armies were needed across Europe, so Britain, at the edge, was an easy place to take soldiers from.
Look for short-term causes. In AD 407 soldiers were taken from Britain to Gaul by a rival for the throne, and in AD 410 Rome itself was in trouble. The Emperor could not spare an army to send back.
Add the pressure in Britain: raids by sea and from the north made life harder, and without Roman pay, trade and taxes, local leaders took control.
Remember the limits of the evidence. The letter from Honorius does not survive. We know of it from one writer who lived about a century later, and historians do not agree on what it meant. The end of Roman rule was a process, not a single day.

Roman rule ended around AD 410 because the Empire was stretched across too many borders, troops were taken from Britain to fight elsewhere, and Rome itself was under attack, so no help could be sent back. Raiders increased the pressure, and local leaders gradually took over. It was a slow process, not an overnight event.

Common mistakes and how to help

Thinking all the Romans left Britain at once in AD 410

A single date on a timeline makes the change look like a switch being flicked off.

What helps: Explain that the army and officials left, but many people of Roman Britain stayed, and roads, buildings and habits continued for a long time.

Believing the Anglo-Saxons arrived all together and drove out the Britons

Short summaries describe “the Anglo-Saxon invasion” as one dramatic event.

What helps: Say that settlers arrived over generations, that many Britons stayed, and that historians still debate the numbers. Ask your child why that is hard to know.

Mixing up the Scots and the Picts, or thinking the Scots were always in Scotland

The names sound similar and the modern country map is easy to read backwards onto the past.

What helps: Draw a rough map: Picts in the north, Scots crossing from Ireland to the west coast, Britons in the south and west. Show that “Scotland” gets its name from the Scots.

Calling this period the “Dark Ages” because nothing happened

The phrase is old and still appears in books, and few written records survive from these years.

What helps: Explain that fewer written records survive, which is different from nothing happening. Archaeology shows that people farmed, traded, built and made beautiful things.

How to help at home

Build a long timeline. Use a roll of paper or a line of paper cups to mark the Stone Age, the Romans (AD 43 to c. 410), the Anglo-Saxons and later the Vikings. Seeing how long each period lasted helps children keep the order straight.
Trace the sea routes on a map. Find Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands, then the east coast of England, and trace how settlers crossed the North Sea. Do the same for Ireland and Scotland to see where the Scots came from.
Place-name detective. Look at local place names for clues. Endings such as “-ham”, “-ton” and “-ing” are Anglo-Saxon in origin, and some names come from older Celtic words. Ask which period your town’s name might come from.
Cause and consequence game. Give your child a card for “troops leave Britain” and ask what happens next, then what happens after that. The aim is to practise explaining chains of cause and effect, not to find one right answer.

Leads on to

Key Stage 3: Medieval Britain 1066 to 1509
Key Stage 3: Tudors and Stuarts: Britain 1509 to 1745
Key Stage 3: Britain 1745 to 1901: industry and empire
Key Stage 3: Britain and the world, 1901 to today
Key Stage 3: The Holocaust