The Hissem-Montague Family

With some certainty I can trace the history of my family in America back to 1686 and through the use of Y-DNA matching I have found their origins in northern England. Beyond that, however, everything is conjecture, though I think I can provide a good rationale for the tale that follows. If nothing else, it is entertaining and could be true, or, as the comedian Judy Tenuta used to say, "it could happen!"

In the story I will tell, I trace the origin of the name Hissem back to a small village, originally called Hessam, but now known as Heysham, in the county of Lancashire, in northwestern England. The village, though settled for millenia, got its name around the time of the Anglo-Saxon invasions in the 5th century. The use of the village's name as a surname, i.e. "John of Hessam," dates to the early 13th century.

Lancashire, pictured to the right, was not a rich county. Its coasts are marshy, gradually being replaced by forest as you head east into the Pennine Mountains, which rise above 2000 feet. There are wide moorlands or heaths, extensive bogs, which yield only turf for fuel and are very dangerous, and some fertile land for agricultural purposes. Grazing, however, was more common than farming. Fish, taken both in the rivers and the sea, and mussels, harvested from the extensive shoals, were central to the population's diet and explains why most of the early villages were within 20 miles of the sea. The area was not heavily settled until recent times, when coal and cotton mills became the chief industries.

The area is bounded on the west by the Irish Sea; in the east by the Pennine mountains at the border with Yorkshire; in the south, at the border with Cheshire county, by the river Mersey, upon which the modern city of Liverpool is located; and in the north, at the border of the old Westmorland county, now combined with Cumberland into the new county of Cumbria, near the Lakes district. From south to north, the rivers Ribble, Wyre and Lune cross through the center of the county; the Ribble, at the town of Preston; the Wyre, at Fleetwood; and the Lune, passing through Lancaster and behind the village of Heysham.

I don't know when our family first arrived in Lancashire, but after centuries of intermarriage amongst the native population and subsequent invaders, Northern England is now comprised of all the bloodlines of the many peoples who have lived there - - Paleolithic hunter, Neolithic farmer, Celt, Roman, Angle, Saxon, Norwegian, Dane, Frenchman, Norman and even the occasional Spaniard. To better understand how these peoples came together and how they, our ancestors, lived I'll discuss the history of this area of England from its earliest recordings.

Based on excavations performed in and around Heysham we know that the earliest human occupation occurred at the end of the last glacial period, about 10-12,000 years ago. Before that time a great glacier, a mile thick, extended as far south as Wales and the Midlands. After the glaciers receded, but before the return of normal temperatures, the coastline was six to nine miles further west and a landbridge connected England to the continent.

Early man's presence in Lancashire was proven by the discovery of the Poulton Elk. The remains of this animal, dated to 10,000 BC, where found at Poulton-le-Fylde, south of Heysham, on the Wyre river. Before dying it had been wounded 17 times by the stone weapons of Paleolithic hunters.

DNA testing allows us to determine where our family might have been during this very early period.

The Y-chromosone is passed from father to son relatively intact from generation to generation. Shared ancestry between two strangers can be determined based on measurements of their Y-chromosome, and comparing the results. These results are the individual's haplotype, from the Greek haplo, meaning simple or single.

Individuals can be organized into groups of people sharing broadly similar haplotypes, called a haplogroup. Haplogroups are assigned letters of the alphabet, A through T, and refinements or subdivisions are represented by number and letter combinations, i.e. R1a1.

We all share a common ancestor, called Y chromosome Adam, whose haplotype established the prime haplogroup, called A, for all the humans to come. However, from time to time mutations occur in the nucleotides of the DNA, called a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) mutation. The holder of a successful mutation, who is himself a successful breeder, will establish a new haplogroup. Depending how great the mutation is the new group may get its own letter, or be considered a subclade of the original haplogroup. All the members of a paricular haplogroup share a common ancestor with an SNP mutation. Our ancestral origins can thus be dated back thousands of years through our haplogroup.

Using haplogroups it is possible to trace our family's migration from very early in man's evolution to the current era.

Modern man evolved in Africa and migrated to settle the rest of the planet; haplogroups A and B (hgA and hgB), found only in Africa, pre-date this "out of Africa" migation. HgA is today found mainly in the southern Nile region of Sudan and amongst the Khoisan of southern Africa.

Haplogroup BT derived from A about 70,000 years ago, most likely in northeast Africa. This is the region of the Great Rift Valley, in present-day Ethiopia, Kenya, & Tanzania, where some of the earliest hominid remains have been found.

Haplogroup CT derived from BT. It contains a mutation present in all haplogroups, except A and B, and is the common ancestral type of all early migration out of Africa. It developed in East Africa about 60,000 years ago. The move out of Africa may have been due to a fluctuation in climate. About this time the most recent glacial period ebbed in force, resulting in a warmer/wetter environment. The Sahara bloomed into grasslands, drawing grazing animals north, who were followed by their predators, including man. The exact route they followed remains unknown, but our ancestors eventually followed the expanding grasslands and plentiful game into the Middle East.

Haplogroup CF derived from CT. It is only found outside of Africa, and is referred to as the Eurasian Adam. At this time it is estimated that the homo sapiens population worldwide was only in the tens of thousands.

Haplogroup F derived from CF, and first appeared in North Africa, the Levant and the Arabian penisula about 50,000 years ago. Not long after the emergence of hgF another cold and arid period intervened. Drought hit Africa and the grasslands reverted to desert, effectively closing the Saharan Gateway into the Middle East.

Over the next 20-30,000 years haplogroup descendants of hgF arose in the near East, then fanned out to populate the globe. These include all members of Haplogroups G through T, or 90% of the world's population.

Hg-Q dominated in the native population of Siberia and the Americas, while the initial, post-glacial colonization of Europe was done by hg-I and hg-R1a/b. These latter three groups were, as the glaciers of the last ice age began their retreat in Europe, located at the northern limit of the tree line, waiting to move north and populate the continent.

As temperatures rose the region around Heysham was transformed into an open woodland of pine, birch and hazel through which now moved mobile bands of hunter-gatherers. Modern genetic studies indicate that the original peoples of England migrated up from the Iberian penisula. They used stone tools which are still occasionally dug up by farmers today. Their camps were seasonal; they spent part of the year in the Penine mountains to the east, and another at the shore where they gathered cockles and mussels.

The most common haplogroups in England are R1b, I, and R1a, evidence of the first migration into the island and later European mixing. Below is a map showing the distribution of Y-DNA in southern England and Wales.

The haplogroup of the Heesom family of East Yorkshire and of the Hissem family of America is G2a3b1 (DYS388=13). That is, our direct line ancestors were not part of the original settlement of England described above. So, if they did not arrive with the original Paleolithic hunters, when did they come?

Members of hgG share a common ancestor who developed an SNP mutation from hgF at the M201 site about 10-20,000 years ago. Evidence suggests that the bearers of this type remained in the Middle East during the Paleolithic. Relatively uncommon today, hgG is the dominant type in only one region in the world, the Caucasus, that corridor of land between the Caspian and Black Seas, north of the Iranian plateau. It is most common in North Ossetia and specifically, the town of Digora, with an average frequency of 74%.

However, in small numbers, this group did find its way into Europe, Western Asia, northern Africa, Central Asia, India and Southeast Asia, including parts of China and the Malay Archipelago.

The most famous hgG member was Joseph Stalin (G2a1), who was born in Georgia, which has a 30% G-type concentration. Furthermore, Georgia has the highest percentage of genetic near-matches, within the Caucasus region, to northwestern Europe G persons. The most common G type in Europe is G2a3b1. See Haplogroup G Categories, Samples, Diagrams, Etc. for more information.

29% of the Kabardinian and Balkarian peoples of the northwestern Caucasus are G types and Azerbaijan and Armenia also have high concentrations of the haplogroup.

The G1 variant is most common in Iran. G2 represents the majority of G Y-chromosomes, while most Europeans G's are, by far, G2a. G2c are Ashkenazi Jews. G2b exists, but is rarely found. Only 75 to 100 million males worldwide are in Haplogroup G.

Agriculture had been introduced in the Middle East during the Neolithic perid and gradually made its way into Europe. It may have had little impact on this region due to the generally poor soil. A pastoral economy, supplemented by fishing, probably predominated. A large number of polished axe heads from the Neollithic period were found at Heysham.

Haplogroup G may have moved into Europe during the Neolithic wave. It became concentrated in the Mediterranean and Southern Europe. On average, 4.88% of the European population is haplogroup G. 5% to 11% are G type north of the Caucasus, in southern Russia and eastern Ukraine. Frequencies also increase to >5% in central and southern sections of the continent, such as Greece, Italy, and parts of Spain. There is a relatively high concentrations in the Greek island of Crete (approx. 7% to 11%), Sardinia (approx. 21% in Tempio, 14% in Cagliari, 12% in Sorgono), and the Tyrol region of Austria (8%). Moving north and westwards from the Alps, concentrations drop to around 5-7% in parts of Germany, Bohemia, Moravia and Hungary. In the British Isles, Scandinavia, northern France, northern Germany, the Netherlands and the Baltic countries it is less common, reaching perhaps 2%.

Haplogroup G2a has been resolved into several subgroups, the largest of which are G2a3a and G2a3b.

G2a3a, a mutation at M406, is found in significant numbers in Turkey, Greece and the eastern Mediterranean countries of Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, history's Phoenicia. G2a3a populations seemed to spread wesward through the Mediterranean along the various trading routes originating in these lands. Detailed samples available from inland Europe were compared with detailed samples from more easterly sites, namely Turkey, Lebanon-Jordan, and Armenia. These comparisons show that most Europeans have Armenians as their nearest relatives with separations from them starting generally about 1300 BC and extending into the Dark Ages period, after the Roman Empire.

Haplogroup G2a3b, the most common G-type in northwestern Europe, arose as a mutation at P303 about 2000-3000 yrs ago. Since people with the P303 mutation are still found in the Caucasus today, especially in Georgia, it is assumed that it arose in that area. It is estimated over half of European G samples have the P303 mutation. Ray Banks says, "The latest thinking is that G2a3b persons originated in the general area of western Iran sometime perhaps around 500 BC." Since at least one modern day sample came from Georgia, the mutation probably occurred in the Caucasus amongst those G-types who did not migrate into Europe during the Neollithic. Their migration into Europe, then, occurred during the historical period and may be tied to the barbarian invasions of the early-modern era, or to travel along the Central Asian trade routes between China and Europe. Ray Bank's latest comments are somewhat more equivocal, "The G family definitely partially migrated westward into Europe in the last several thousand years by invasion, capture as slaves or other means of movement."

It is interesting that G2a3a moved along a southern route, through Turkey into the Mediterranean, while G2a3b took a northern route, through Romania into northwestern Europe. There is a certain thrill to realizing that an homogenous group, of some finite numbers carrying our Y-chromosome, that is, our direct lineal ancestors, were physically walking this route within recorded history.

Hg G2a3b, also described as G2a-P303, has three major subgroups based on the following marker values: DYS388=13, DYS568=9, and positive for the L13 SNP. In the Caucasus, Georgia has the closest genetic link to northwestern Europe, 17% of those tested being P303. Yet P303 is rare in Turkey, western Russia, eastern Europe generally, Scandanavia, and in the Mediterranean. Interestingly, half of Romanian and French G-types tested were P303, though the number of French samples was too small to be significant. This is similar to the ratio in England. Other exceptions include high percentages, though less than half of G-types, in southern Italy and Sicily, Austria, and the Netherlands.

There is a division within Hg-G2a3b between those that have 13 repeats at DYS388, like our family, and those who have only 12. Europeans are more likely to have 13, but nonetheless this mutation appears to have also arisen in the Middle East. There are DYS388=13 samples taken that show that some Iranians have a closer relationship to Welshmen, Englishmen, Swiss and southern Germans than to Turks, Russians and Ossetians. Such results suggest ancient migration patterns.

Although the percentage of P303 persons is unusually high in the southern part of Italy, these men tentatively do not seem genetically as close to P303 persons in northwestern Europe as are those in Romania because the specific marker variations in Romania are more similar to those in Britain.

Another interesting distinction is a sub-group within DYS388=13 with DYS594=11. This is an overwhelming Welsh and English group who share a common ancestor circa 1000 AD. The Heesom type is DYS594=10.

The live issue is when this westward migration of G2a3b (P303) occurred: before the current era, in the last centuries of the Roman Empire, or during the Middle Ages. There is an apparent Romanian-Austrian-German-Swiss-Dutch-English axis to the haplogroup's spread that aligns with the Roman imperial border of the 1st to 5th centuries. In the 2nd century, particularly, large number of soldiers drawn from barbarian populations were stationed in precisely the areas were we find so many DYS388=13 groups, in Britain, from the Netherlands down to Switzerland, and in Central Romania.

The Ossetians consider themselves to be the descendants of the Alans, a Sarmatian tribe of nomadic pastoralists of the 1st millenium AD who dwelt on the Russian steppes, just north of the Caucasus. The Alans, along with the Visigoths, invaded the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, and founded short-lived kingdoms in France, Spain and northern Africa. The G haplogroup may be a marker of Sarmatian ancestry. DNA testing of known Sarmatians remains, however, is lacking. See more about the Sarmations below.

There are also G2a3b (P303) positive samples in modern-day Brahmin [India], Kalash [North-Western Pakistan, who claim Greek ancestry] and Adyghe [northwest Caucasus] populations. This again stresses a Middle Eastern origin of the mutation, followed by an out-migration, mainly to the west, but also into India.

By the way, the Y-DNA of the Hysom family of Dorset has been tested. The sample I saw did not have a haplogroup identified, so I used a haplogroup predictor. It yielded a prediction of E3b-V13 [E3b1a2] at a 68% level, or E3b-M78 [E3b1a] at 31%. So, they are not relatives of the Heesom family, despite the phoentic similarity. No Y-DNA testing of the Heysham family has been done to my knowledge.

E3b is the only E group found in Europe in significant numbers. Like hgG2, it came out of the Near East during the Neolithic, through the Mediterranean. E3b1a2 is found at its highest frequency today in Kosovo, southern Serbia and northern Macedonia, the old Roman province of Moesia Superior. As a result, some researchers see this haplogroup as a marker of the settlement of Roman solidiers of Balkan origin.

It was in the pre-Bronze Age period, about 2,000-4,000 years ago, that stone monuments were erected across England, including the largest and most famous at Stonehenge. These were probably religious structures, though that is the decription used for any artifact whose use can not be definitely determined. There are some 900 stone circles and 40,000 megaliths surviving across the British Isles. A stone circle known as the Druid's Tempe, left, is at Birkrigg Common, in Cumbria, overlooking Morecombe Bay.

In written history, the Celts were the first identified inhabitants of Lancashire in the form of a tribe known as the Brigantes, followed by the Romans who recorded their presence.

At the time of the Roman conquest Queen Cartimandua ruled the Brigantes from her capital at Stanwick in northern Yorkshire. She was friendly with the Romans and the Brigante prospered as an ally and client-kingdom under their patronage. Upon her death the Brigante fell into a Civil War. Cnaeus Julius Agricola, a Roman general and governor of the province of Britannia, finally conquered and annexed the area to the Roman Empire between 73-82 AD.

Sometime after Agricola's annexation of the north the Romans built a fort at Lancaster, Calunium, probably in reaction to further disturbances by the Brigante. This fortification was erected as early as 100 AD and survived into the 4th century. Today lines of Roman ramparts from the old fort can still be seen (just barely) in Lancaster at the Wery Wall, off Vicarage lane.

One garrison unit at Calunium whose name was recorded was the Ala Gallorum Sebosiana, the Wing of Sebusian Gauls, a cavalry unit commanded by Octavius Sabinus. This was during the period when Britannia was part of the break-away Gallic Empire, from 260 to 273, during the Roman Empire's Crisis of the Third Century. The Sebusian were Gauls from the Loire valley of today's France. There was also a unit of bargemen, the Numerus Barcariorum, essentially Marines.

Outside the fort were governmental buildings and a bath house. The local population settled around the fort, trading with the soldiers and providing services. A large number of Roman coins have been recovered from the site.

Five Roman altar stones have been recovered from Lancaster. Of those that are decipherable, two were dedicated to Mars or Mars Cocidius, a conflation of the classical god and a popular Germanic god of war, and one to the Celtic river-god Ialanus.

Town life was a social revolution for the largely rural Celtic society. The Romans encouraged the growth of towns and saw urban life as the epitome of sophisticated civilization. These towns became vibrant centers of commercial activity and trade flourished. The Romans built their towns in lowland areas, such as fords across rivers, in contrast to the earlier Celtic practice of sticking to the slopes and higher ground above the valleys. Towns also tended to grow up around army bases. A complex series of roads, built to exacting Roman standards, linked these towns and fortresses in an effective commercial and military web.

In the countryside a "villa" system was introduced. These were the country estates of wealthy Romanized Celts, built usually within 10 miles of a city center. Villas were focused on the "great house," much like a plantation of the American ante-bellum south, and were centers of rural industry and agriculture. This system was most extensively instituted in the southeast.

Slavery was integral to the Roman Empire and the slaves gathered in war from its rapid expansion funded an opulent life style in the city of Rome. The Villa's of Britannia would have been worked by Celtic slaves. The islands of Britain and Ireland also provided slaves for export to the rest of the Empire.

Britain was a valuable province and through most of its history it was protected, and subdued, by three legions. IX Hispana was at York, Eburacum, to about 120 AD when they were replaced by VI Victrix, the Victorious Sixth, who remained until circa 400. The latter built Hadrian's Wall. There was also a large legionary base at Chester.

At its height, the population of Roman Britain was almost 5 million.

The only classical geographical treatise that deals with Britain's northwest coast is Ptolemy's Geography that was published in the latter half of the second century. In this work Claudius Ptolemaius describes the ancient British coastline, naming the Moricambe Aestuarium (Morcambe Bay). Morcambe is Celtic for "curved inlet" and appears to have been applied to the river Lune as well by the natives. Ptolemy also mentioned the Setantii as a sub-tribe of the Brigantii. Official correspondence of the Roman military commander in the north in 81 AD also mentioned these local tribes.

Haplogroup G2a3b may have been introduced to Lancashire during the multi-ethnic settlement of Roman Britain. Some areas with relatively high levels of G2, such as those in northern England and eastern Wales, lie where there are comparably high levels of haplogroups E3b or J/J2 as well. All three haplogroups have either a Middle Eastern or a Central Asian origin. Troops from all these areas were stationed at Hadrian's Wall and along the Welsh March. According to the Roman historian Cassius Dio, the Empereor Marcus Aurelius sent 5,500 cavalry from the Iazyges tribe of Sarmatians, presumed to be haplogroup G, to England. There is evidence of their occupations of forts along Hadrian's Wall and at Ribchester.

The Sarmatians of Central Asia are known to have had settlements in the western half of Europe in Britain, Holland, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Austria and Switzerland during the later Roman Empire. Many of these were laeti settlements, in which Rome provided admission to the empire and a grant of lands to barbarians in return for the promise of loyalty and the obligation to supply recruits to the Roman army. In France there was a population of at least 35,000 Sarmatians, or about 2% of the estimated population. The percentage of the G haplogroup in many of these western European populations today is only a little higher.

The Sarmatian's The Sarmations were a people of Central Asia, originally occupying a region from the Caucausus to the Don river. Herodotus wrote that the Sarmatians were descended of Scythian men and Amazon women. In the 4th century B.C. the Sarmatian's moved west into the Black Sea steppe, displacing the Scythians with whom they were related. Unlike the majority of steppe peoples, who were Turkic or Altaic, both of these peoples were Indo-Aryan in extraction and spoke an Iranian language related to Persian and Median. For their war with the Scythians, who fought as mounted bowmen, the Sarmatian tribes developed a fully armored warrior who rode an armored horse. Originally this armor was made of slices of horce hoof sewn to a leather jerkin in an overlapping fishscale pattern. Later metal scales were substituted. The riders also carried a leavy lance and a broadsword. Below the Roman army chases Sarmatian cavalrymen. The Sarmatians were to fight the Romans for 400 years and influence shock cavalry warfare in the West for a 1000 more. Rome first faced the Sarmatians during the 1st century B.C. Iazygian tribes, who settled north of the Danube, had allied with King Mithridates of Pontus and Rome fielded a punitive expedition against them in 78-76 B.C. In the 1st century A.D., driven by the Huns, they moved west to the Hungarian plain and up against the Roman's Danube border. Sarmatian cavalry opposed Trajan in his conquest of Dacia in the 2nd century. Based on their experience fighting the Romans, the Sarmatians began to use Roman-style chain mail. Marcus Aurelius defeated a Sarmatian tribes of Alani and Roxalani in 169 A.D. and again in 172. A peace was signed in 175 under which the Sarmatians were required to furnish the Roman army with 8,000 cavalry. The Empereor ordered 5,500 Iazyg warriors from the Danube region to to Britain to guard Hadrian's Wall and the north; evidence of Sarmatian occupation have been found at forts along the wall and at a veterans settlement at Ribchester [Bremetenacum Veteranorum] where the Ala Primae Sarmatorum was based. The Sarmatian's were conquered by the Huns and later absorbed by the Vandals. - from "Warriors on the Steppes" by Erik Hildinger

We don't know if all 5,500 Sarmatian cavalry were actually sent to England since records and archealogical evidence exists for only 500 to a 1000. However, these Sarmatian military outposts certainly could have introduced hundreds, if not thousands, of their Y-DNA into Lancashire. There is evidence for these units in England for at least 160 years (241-400), implying that the sons of the original cavalrymen, on for many generations, were then serving. There are several tombstones at Ribchester [Bremetenacum] and one documentary reference describing the Sarmatian presence. At right is from the tombstone of an auxiliary cavalryman at Ribchester.

"To the spirits of the departed (and) [...] decurion of the Sarmatian Wing." - RIB 595; tombstone

"This earth seals up Aelia Matrona, who lived for twenty-eight years two months and eight days, and Marcus Julius, son of Maximus, fifty years old. Julius Maximus, singularius consularis of the Sarmatian Wing, husband of an incomparable wife, and son of a most devoted father, placed this in memory of the most steadfast of companions." - RIB 594; 3rd century tombstone?

"To the sacred god Apollo Maponus, and for the health of our Lord and the Company of Gordians Sarmatian Horse at Bremetenacum, Aelius Antoninus, centurion of the Sixth Victorious Legion, from Melitanis, in charge of the Company and the Region, willingly and deservedly fullfilled his vow. Dedicated on the first day of September when our Lord Imperator Gordianus Augustus [Emperor Gordian (Imp. AD238 - 244)] - for the second time - and Pompeianus were consuls." - RIB 583; dedicatory inscription; AD241

"XL.
Dux Britanniarum.
Sub dispositione viri spectabilis ducis Britanniarum:
. . .
Item per lineam Valli:
. . .
Cuneus Sarmatarum, Bremetenraco [The Formation of Sarmatians at Ribchester]" - Notitia Dignitatum (circa 400)

During this same period the Sarmatians were contributing their Y-DNA to the populations of France, Germany and Belgium. Their descendents may have been aboard the boats bringing the Saxons or the Normans to England in a later time.

Roy Banks, however, throws a great deal of cold water on the romantic notion of Sarmatian forebears:

"Since G persons of the G2a3b variety are found in areas where Sarmatians once lived, it was theorized that this might explain the presence of the G2a3b persons in Europe today. However, one of the major subgroups of G2a3b (the DYS388=13 grouping) descends from a common ancestor who developed the 13 mutation who did not live much further back in time than the barbarian migration. It is unlikely the DYS388=13 group would have comprised a large part of any barbarian group at the time of the migration due to recent age of the mutation. Likewise the L13+ subgroup of G2a3b shares a mutation that is possibly even more recent than the DYS388 mutation to 13."

In the immediate aftermath of the Roman withdrawal the province of Britannia began to break apart. Powerful men set themselves up in strong places, declared their lands kingdoms and themselves kings, and began to wage petty wars. The area around Hessam fell under the control of the Celtic Kingdom of Rheged whose center of power was to the north, around Carlisle in present day Cumbria. This kingdom further splintered into the kingdoms of North and South Rheged when two sons squabbled over their inheritance.

The disorders that followed the breakup of Britain resulted in a wholesale depopulation of the island. The towns that remained, like London (Londinium), shrank precipitously and became too small for the Roman walls that had previously protected them. Trade disappeared and ships were left to rot at their piers. Constant warfare and cycles of famine and disease became the expectation of the common man. These were indeed the Dark Ages.

In addition to internal disorders the Romanized Celts of Britain also suffered from attacks by their wild cousins out of Scotland and Ireland. In 446 the Britons asked again for aid from Rome, but the Emperor did not respond. In about 450 the Britons called on mercenaries from Germany to defend them. Of this the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles reported:

"Mauricius and Valentinian obtained the Kingdom and reigned seven years. In their days Hengest and Horsa, invited by Vortigern, King of the Britons, came to Britain at a place called Ebbsfleet at first to help the Britons, but later they fought against them. The king ordered them to fight against the Picts, and so they did and had victory wherever they came. They then sent to Angeln; ordered them to send them more aid and to be told of the worthlessness of the Britons and of the excellence of the land. They sent them more aid. These men came from three nations of Germany: from the Old Saxons, from the Angles, from the Jutes."

There are disagreements about what an Anglo-Saxon conquest might have looked like. It is unlikely that the Celts were all swept from their land and forced to take refuge in Wales and Cornwall. The German advance and settlement was slow, if, in the end, inexorable; Rheged, where modern-day Heysham lies, did not finally fall until the end of the 7th century. Most of the Celtic residents, the peasants, were probably absorbed into the Saxon community rather than killed or driven off. Their culture, language and arts, however, would have rapidly withered in the new society.

The legend of King Arthur arose from events in this period. His story is based on a Celtic warlord, supposedly the son of the Roman Ambrosius Aurelianus, who, in about 500, defeated a Saxon army at the battle of Mount Badon, creating a short period of peace, fondly remembered as a golden age, before the invasion regathered force. The 6th century Welsh poet Taliesin, the bard of King Urien of Rheged, referred to

"the battle of Badon with Arthur, chief giver of feasts, with his tall blades red from the battle which all men remember."

Steve Hissem
San Diego, California