Please forgive my second message but I posted my original message to
soc.culture.cornish as well and a gentleman took me up on a point. As some
people here expressed some interest I though I would echo his comments and
copy my reply.

>The 'Christian community' you speak of was just as warlike as the invading
>Saxons. Indeed the first Saxons in Britain were invited by Vortigern to
>help the Britons fight the Scots (from Ireland, they had invaded northern
>Britain where I understand they still remain), in exchange for British
>land. Of course the Saxons had their own plans, and according to Bede sent
>back word that 'the land was fertile and the people were soft'. I'm not
>sure if this is the source of your attitude, but the Britons turned out
>not to be so soft. It took the separate forces of the Scots, the Picts and
>the Saxons to push the British tribes united under the name 'Kymry' to
>Cumbria, Wales and Cornwall.
>And Vortigern became one of the Three Great Traitors of Britain.
>Unfortunately the early English were themselves eventually Christianised,
>from which, like the Celts, they have by and large still not recovered.

Very text book, and far too simple a picture. It is a little off the subject
of my original mail but, now that you mention it I will come back with a few
comments.

The British Society of the time was split very much between the Warlords and
their bands and the Christian Church. If you examine the written sources you
get a very clear idea of this split. Gildas's writings are a very specific
attack on the Warlike tendencies of his own people and lamented the loss of
the world of his youth and ancestry. These people did have a clear and
worthy civilisation that was in the process of disintegration. Those that
didn't join the war parties joined the church, in fact many crossed over
time and again.

I would disagree with your statement concerning the united tribes of the
British. They were very much in a state of dis-unity. Gildas himself
chastises the actions of one British chieftain north of the border who
slaughtered his own and related peoples. One of the problems facing the
British camp was that they could NOT unify.

This simple fact is born our by the Letter From Honorious telling the
Britons to look to themselves for their own defence. It was addressed to the
'CITIES' of Britain, not any one, or group of, leading figures. From
Vortigerns time onwards the best you could describe the Britons as was a
loose confederacy, much to Gildas's disgust.



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