Common term used to refer to the British population following the decay of the Roman empire in Britain (dating typically from AD 440 to 1066). The reality is more complicated as the population during this time contained native Romanised-Britons and ancient Celtic groups, together with settled foreign peoples from Scandinavia and also from the Germanic tribes of the Saxons, Angles and Jutes.

A Northern European people from Northern Germany speaking a West Germanic dialect. The name was generalised to include all Northern Germans. In Britain, used for the Romano-British majority which had adopted Saxon language and ways.

the English-speaking people who lived in England before the Normans invaded.