Anglo-Saxons
The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited Great Britain from the 5th century, and the direct ancestors of the majority of the modern British people. They comprise people from Germanic tribes who migrated to the island from continental Europe, their descendants, and indigenous British groups who adopted many aspects of Anglo-Saxon culture and language; the cultural foundations laid by the Anglo-Saxons are the foundation of the modern English legal system and of many aspects of English society; the modern English language owes over half its words – including the most common words of everyday speech – to the language of the Anglo-Saxons. Historically, the Anglo-Saxon period denotes the period in Britain between about 450 and 1066, after their initial settlement and up until the Norman conquest.
The early Anglo-Saxon period includes the creation of an English nation, with many of the aspects that survive today, including regional government of shires and hundreds. During this period, Christianity was established and there was a flowering of literature and language. Charters and law were also established. The term "Anglo-Saxon" is popularly used for the language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons in England and eastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century. In scholarly use, it is more commonly called Old English.
Ann Hawkshaw
"Sonnets on Anglo-Saxon History" was published in London by John Chapman in November 1854. The sequence of one hundred sonnets retells the history of Britain up to the Norman Conquest with each sonnet faced on the page by a short prose extract. The extracts include quotations from the work of prominent contemporary Anglo-Saxon historians, such as Sharon Turner ("The History of the Anglo-Saxons from the Earliest Period to the Norman Conquest" (1799–1805)), Francis Palgrave ("History of the Anglo-Saxons" (1831)) and J.M. Kemble ("The Saxons in England" (1849)), and from translations of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Bede's "Ecclesiastical History". In her sonnet response Hawkshaw interacts with the historians and presents alternative perspectives on aspects of Anglo-Saxon history, challenging the traditions of historiography by noting its limitations and filling in the gaps.
Hawkshaw's final collection, "Cecil's Own Book", was published for private circulation in 1871. The collection of three short stories and ten poems was written to amuse her young grandson Cecil Wedgwood, the surviving son of Ann's daughter Mary who had died shortly after childbirth in 1863. The collection is dedicated to her memory. Of particular note is the collection's final poem, 'In Memoriam', a touching elegy on childhood death which traces the loss of the Hawkshaws' three children.