The History of England Podcast

Tribes of Vandals, Allens, Makomane and Cordae crossed the frozen Rhine in 406. They were trying to move away from the growing menace of the Huns. Within a few years the Rhine was no longer an effective frontier with the Franks, Burgundians and Alamanae settling on both sides of the river. The various tribes pillaged their way across Gaul and travelled into Spain. You'll recall that at the same time the Visigoths had arrived in southern Gaul. Their relationship with the surviving eastern half of the empire is something we need to touch on. Let's begin in the northwest of Europe where the rainy island of Britain fell from imperial control around