WI: Bretons settled in Anglo-Saxon territory?

Deleted member 97083

In the 5th and 6th centuries, post-Roman Britons settled Brittany and Galicia.

What if they had instead settled eastern England as mercenaries for the Saxons, perhaps re-Celtifying part of the east?

Notably, the area of Londinium itself had been abandoned despite the building of Lundenwic nearby.

Map of historical continental settlement:

chSwBMT.png
 
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They presumably get Anglicized, as does the rest of the surviving Romano-British population in the conquered regions (plenty of whom survived the initial Anglo-Saxon Conquest).
 
???
They're fleeing the Anglo-Saxons, that's why they went. You're proposing they flee by moving into Anglo-Saxon territory?

'What if Jewish refugees in WWII settled in Nazi territory'....
 

Deleted member 97083

???
They're fleeing the Anglo-Saxons, that's why they went. You're proposing they flee by moving into Anglo-Saxon territory?

'What if Jewish refugees in WWII settled in Nazi territory'....
The Anglo-Saxons were not one unified entity, they were a group of many tribes at this time. The proto-Bretons were fleeing from western polities which were ruled by Anglo-Saxons, but had no relationship with the eastern polities.

It's more like asking "What if Varangians fighting the Byzantines were settled in Byzantine territory as a mercenary guard?".
 

Abhakhazia

Banned
It's more like asking "What if Varangians fighting the Byzantines were settled in Byzantine territory as a mercenary guard?".

Plenty of Varangians decided to live permanently in Byzantium, but most assimilated into the "stronger" culture that they were serving all around them.

I think a point that makes your POD improbable is the fact that Britons weren't great warriors- certainly nothing compared to the Angles and Saxons- and the Angles and Saxons were clearly winning great victories all across England. This path of victory lead Britons to assimilate into wider Anglo-Saxon culture.
 
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