Charles Dickens believed that Britain’s Saxon invaders gained power by force of arms – but not by weapons.
Whether or not the fifth-century Saxon warlords Hengist and Horsa were historical figures (St Bede and JRR Tolkien both thought so), the Saxon invasions, and General Flavius Aetius’s failure to respond to Roman Britain’s heartbreaking appeals in the late 440s, were quite real.
‘Rule Britannia’ was a discreet way of telling a German prince what was expected of a British King.
The British patriotic song “Rule Britannia” is sadly misunderstood. The short drama ‘Alfred’ from which it comes was not a shrill declaration of British power abroad but a tactful way of telling King George II’s son, a German-speaking Prince, that his job was to defend his people from invasion, and then leave them to enjoy fruits of their own labours.