End of Roman Rule in Britain

The end of Roman rule in Britain is the period during which the Roman Empire ended its relationship with Roman Britain, thus marking the transition from Roman Britain to post-Roman Britain. No single date is correct without qualification, as Roman rule ended for different parts of Britain at different times, and under different circumstances.

The year 410 is the preference of most historians. In that year, the Roman Emperor Honorius replied to a request for assistance with the Rescript of Honorius, telling the Romano-Britons to see to their own defence. Some historians prefer 409 instead, the year when the Romano-Britons expelled Roman magistrates from their cities.

The year 383 marks the end of Roman rule in northern and western Britain. In that year, Roman troops were withdrawn from those regions of Britain for the last time. As the connection between these regions and Rome was a military occupation rather than a civilian society, the connection was dissolved when the troops left.

Read more about End Of Roman Rule In Britain:  Background, Interpretative Variations, Factual Disputes

Famous quotes containing the words roman, rule and/or britain:

    My first childish doubt as to whether God could really be a good Protestant was suggested by my observation of the deplorable fact that the best voices available for combination with my mother’s in the works of the great composers had been unaccountably vouchsafed to Roman Catholics.
    George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)

    It has come to be practically a sort of rule in literature, that a man, having once shown himself capable of original writing, is entitled thenceforth to steal from the writings of others at discretion. Thought is the property of him who can entertain it; and of him who can adequately place it. A certain awkwardness marks the use of borrowed thoughts; but, as soon as we have learned what to do with them, they become our own.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    When Britain first, at Heaven’s command,
    Arose from out the azure main,
    This was the charter of her land,
    And guardian angels sung the strain:
    Rule, Britannia! Britannia rules the waves!
    Britons never shall be slaves.
    James Thomson (1700–1748)