The Story Of Saxon And Norman Britain Told In Pictures - BY C. W. AIRNE - 1. THE ANGLO-SAXONS. A.D. 410-1066. The Anglo-Saxon or English Conquest A.D. 440-618 marks the beginning of our natioral history, as it destroyed the Roman Civilization in Britain and establish the English race and nation with its own distinctive lanqiage, society, institutions and government. The early English were pagans inferior to the Romans, but they were not barbarians. They iunderstood the Hontan Civilization, but discarded it as unsuited to essentially agricultural cornmunitics. Upon their conversion to Christianity A.D. 597-664, their civilization rapidly improved their cultural progress being directed by the Christian Church, whose efficient organization ably assisted the civil governments, instituted maturer systems of law and justice, fostered religious and secular learning and encouraged craftsmanship and the arts, especially literature and music. The English were characterized by their intense love...