Anglo-Saxon Institutions. 449-1066 5
We deal here with the institutions of a country after
a great invasion and conquest have taken place. An in-
vading people has more or less completely displaced the
former inhabitants. We must know at this point, at least
in summary fashion, something of the condition of the
people in Britain just before the conquest, something of
the conquerors and the manner of their invasion, and the
more immediate results of the contact of the two peoples.
These three subjects will be briefly discussed in the order
mentioned.
We cannot here consider at length the extent to which
the native Britons had become Romanised during the
four centuries in which Britain was a Roman province, or
how much Roman law and custom survived the with-
drawal of the legions.1 Britain was the last of Rome's
provinces to be gained and the first to be abandoned.
Rome's famous capacity for assimilation declined rapidly
not long after Agricola had finished his work; and, more-
over, there were reasons why no great efforts were made
towards a complete colonisation of the island: Britain
was the most northern of the provinces, and while the
comparatively level regions of the south, east, and mid-
lands offered no great obstacle, the hill country of the
west and north, even where it passed tinder Roman rule,
was much less affected and retained a distinct Celtic ele-
ment in its life throughout the Roman period. But the
lowlands were Romanised; here prevailed "Roman town
life, the peculiar gift of Rome to her western provinces."
Besides the five chief municipalities on or near the sites
of the later Colchester, Lincoln, Gloucester, York, and
scholars are not in agreement. This book can attempt nothing more than
to reflect the present stage of scholarship on these questions. If the
problems themselves can be so stated as to be clearly^ understood, much
has been done; and enough is now known so that an intelligible story of
institutional development can be told.
1 These questions have been long and hotly debated and the contest is
not yet over. There can be no doubt, however, as to which side scholarly
opinion is more and more favouring. The older, and, as it may be called,
orthodox view seems likely to be sustained. It is essentially that given in
the text.