FROM THE TEUTONIC CONQUEST OF BRITAIN TO THE
NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND.
THE first step in a history of the Institutions of the Origin of the
English people is to determine the elements of the English English.
nationality. It is not unusual to speak of the English
as a mixed race formed out of the fusion of the Britons,
the Anglo-Saxons, the Danes, and the Normans; but this
form of expression is apt to convey an erroneous idea of
the facts. No modern European nation is, indeed, of pure
unmingled race; yet in all some one element has maintained
a clear and decided predominance. In the English people
this predominant element is the German, or Teutonic.
The Teutonic conquest of Britain was something more Teutonic
than a mere conquest of the country: it was in all senses of Britain,
a national occupation, a sustained immigration of a new A.D. 450-
race, whose numbers, during a hundred and fifty years,
were continually being augmented by fresh arrivals from
the Fatherland.
Before the end of the 6th century, the Teutonic invaders had established a dominion in Britain, extending from the German Ocean to the Severn and from the English Channel to the Firth of Forth. The Britons were soon driven into the western parts of the island, where they maintained