The
Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain was the process, from the mid 5th to early 7th centuries, by which the coastal lowlands of
Britain developed from a
Romano-British to a
Germanic culture following the
Roman withdrawal in the early 5th century. The traditional view of the process has assumed an invasion of several Germanic peoples, later collectively referred to as
Anglo-Saxons, from the western coasts of continental
Europe, followed by the establishment of
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms across most of what is now
England and parts of
lowland Scotland. The arrival of a Germanic element in the history of Britain is also called the a term first used by
Bede in about 731.