Anglo-Saxon - Getty Images

Anglo-Saxon

Stained glass image of King Cnut

Your guide to King Cnut: the fierce Danish warrior who ruled England

What began as small raids on British coastal towns soon developed into all-out war, as a Great Viking Army arrived with a very different aim: to conquer (Photo credit: ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Vikings in Britain: how did raiders and marauders become lords and kings?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

British author Bernard Cornwell, author of 'The Last Kingdom'

Bernard Cornwell on writing historical fiction and his blockbuster series The Last Kingdom: your questions answered. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Church of St Martin of Tours in Canterbury

Q&AWhat is the oldest church in England?

Andrew Ziminski pictured at his workshop in Somerset.

Andrew Ziminski"The stonework at Stonehenge is a Gordian knot of mind-bogglingness". This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A medieval new England: the Anglo-Saxons’ eastern odyssey. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The ninth-century Alfred Jewel, adorned with the inscription: "Alfred ordered me to be made". This masterpiece of Anglo-Saxon art is thought to have been an aestel, a pointer used to follow text. (Picture by Alamy)

10 ways the Anglo-Saxons changed the course of British history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Viking ships arriving in Britain, c1130. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty

From the raid on Lindisfarne to Harald Hardrada's defeat: 8 Viking dates you need to know

Charles I's great weakness was that he made a strict distinction between his role as king, in which he could not compromise, and his personal role, which was entirely pleasant and courteous, says Sean Lang. (Photo by Imagno/Getty Images)

8 of the nicest kings in history

The Crown of Thorns allegedly worn by Christ during the Passion. It was one of the prized possessions in Notre-Dame Cathedral until April 2019 – when it was rescued by the inferno that gutted the building. (Photo by: Godong/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Father, son and holy goat? The dark side of medieval relics. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Michael Wood on a controversial term“As a racism row rumbles on, is it time to retire the term ‘Anglo-Saxon’?”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Inside the fort was a famous spring, St Helen’s Well, today Robin Hood’s Well. (© Bill Henderson)

Brunanburh: Where did the battle that saved England take place?

A scene from the Bayeux Tapestry depicting the death of King Harold II during the battle of Hastings in 1066. (Photo by Getty Images)

Where did the battle of Hastings actually take place? 8 facts about the 1066 battle

War criminal? William the Conqueror shown on horseback in the Bayeux Tapestry. The king's Harrying of the North was a military success but a human catastrophe – one that even appalled chroniclers traditionally sympathetic to the Norman regime. (Photo by Bridgeman)

Was William the Conqueror a war criminal? The brutal story of the Harrying of the North

Giant of literature: A page from the 'Beowulf' manuscript. The story is fictional but some of the characters within it were real people, and others were believed to be the ancestors of Anglo-Saxon and Danish kings. (Photo by Alamy)

Beowulf: The Anglo-Saxons' action hero

Statue of Lady Godiva

Q&ADid Lady Godiva ride naked in Coventry?

History ExplorerThe Holy Island of Lindisfarne

A closer look at the Staffordshire Hoard. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Repton Stone with detail of mounted warrior.

The problem with the Anglo-Saxons. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Ivinghoe Brecon. (Image by Alamy)

The landscape of England. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The west Cornish tomb Lanyon Quoit, which dates to the Neolithic period (3500–2500 BC). The Anglo-Saxons believed that ancient burial sites were cursed – and guarded by dragons. (Image by Dreamstime)

Giants, dragons and Middle Earth: the Anglo-Saxon fear of the past. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Michael Wood on Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. (Illustration by Femke de Jong for BBC History Magazine)

Michael WoodOn Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An 11th-century depiction of the Anglo-Saxon priest Wulfstan, who feared that Viking raids on England signalled the end of the world. (Image by Mary Evans)

Viking apocalypse: the invasion that spelled doom for the Anglo-Saxons. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A memorial tomb to King Æthelstan, the first Saxon king of all England, in Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire. (Photo by Geography Photos/UIG via Getty Images)

A brief history of England. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Heck cows, the result of Nazi breeding experiments. Seven Heck cows had to be put down in January 2015 after they tried, on multiple occasions, to attack Devon farmer Derek Gow. (Photo by Jim Wileman/Alamy Stock Photo)

Nazi super-cows and defamed Gods: 7 strange and forgotten moments in history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

c60 AD, Queen Boudica of the Iceni holding a spear. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

8 things you may not know about British history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

For 10th-century warriors, the appearance of wolves, ravens and eagles on the battlefield meant an unlucky few had been chosen to die. Eric Lacey digs into a grisly superstition. (Illustration by Ross Craig for BBC History Magazine)

The LibraryAnglo-Saxon beasts of death. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Codex Amiatinus – one of three huge Latin bibles produced at the twin monasteries of Wearmouth-Jarrow in the north-east of England in the early eighth century. (Photo by Sam Lane Photography/British Library)

Manuscripts in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: 10 things we learned. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Bernard Cornwell. (Photo by Felix Clay)

Bernard Cornwell on The Last Kingdom. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A wooden cross marks the spot, just over 20 miles west of Newcastle, where Oswald apparently raised his own cross before ambushing Cadwallon. If the Anglo-Saxon warlord's attack had failed, writes Edoardo Albert, England might now be a lot smaller. (Photo by Getty Images)

Hell in Heavenfield: the Anglo-Saxon battle "as important as Hastings". This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.