ms of East Anglia,
Mercia, and Northumbria. During the seventh and eighth centuries there
were constant wars of conquest among these kingdoms. Eventually, about
800 A.D., the West Saxon monarchy made itself nominally supreme over
all the others. Notwithstanding this political supremacy of the West
Saxons, it was the Angles who were the most numerous and widely
spread, and who gave their name, England, to the whole land.

Agriculture was at this time almost the sole occupation of the people.
The trade and commerce that had centred in the towns and flowed along
the Roman roads and across the Channel had long since come to an end
with the Roman civilization of which it was a part. In Saxon England
cities scarcely existed except as fortified places of defence. The
products of each rural district sufficed for its needs in food and in
materials for clothing, so that internal trade was but slight.
Manufactures were few, partly from lack of skill, partly from lack of
demand or appreciation; but weaving, the construction of agricultural
implements and weapons, ship-building, and the working of metals had
survived from Roman times, or been brought over as part of the stock
of knowledge of the invaders. Far the greater part of the population
lived in villages, as they probably had done in Roman and in
prehistoric times. The village with the surrounding farming lands,
woods, and waste grounds made up what was known in later times as the
"township."

The form of government in the earlier separate kingdoms, as in the
united monarchy after its consolidation, gave limited though
constantly increasing powers to the king. A body of nobles known as
the "witan" joined with the king in most of the actions of government.
The greater part of the small group of government functions which were
undertaken in these barbarous times were fulfilled by local gatherings
of the principal men. A district formed from a greater or less number
of townships, with a meeting for the settlement of disputes, the
punishment of crimes, the witnessing of agreements, and other
purposes, was known as a "hundred" or a "wapentake." A "shire" was a
grouping of hundreds, with a similar gathering of its principal men
for judicial, military, and fiscal purposes. Above the shire came the
whole kingdom.

The most important occurrences of the early Saxon period were the
general adoption of Christianity and the organization of the church.
Between A.D. 597 and 650 Christia