Anglo-Saxons

the name_ used. with doubtful propriety, by modern historians to include the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, who settled in Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries after Christ, and thus became the ancestors of the English people. These tribes came from Germany, where they inhabited the parts about the mouths of the Elbe and Weser, and the first body of them who gained a footing in England are said to have landed in 449, and to have been led by Hengist and Horsa. The Jutes settled chiefly in Kent, the Saxons in the S. and middle of the country, and the Angles in the N. Among the various Anglo-Saxon States that afterwards arose those founded by the Angles first gained the preponderance, and the whole country came in time to be called after them Engla-land, that is, the land of the Angles.