Who were the Lombards, Saxons, and Angles?
The Lombards, Saxons, and Angles were all Germanic peoples. The Lombards are thought to have originated on an island in the Baltic Sea. In 100 B.C. they moved into the area now known as Germany, and by A.D. 500 they lived in present-day Austria. The Lombards invaded and controlled much of Italy from 568 to the mid-700s. Today the northern region of Italy is known as Lombardy, named for the Lombards. The Saxons were a warrior tribe who lived in Jutland (a peninsula comprising a portion of present-day Denmark and northwestern Germany) during the second century A.D. They staged a series of raids along the coastal areas of the North Sea, occupying the northwestern coast of present-day France by 400. Fifty years later they reached England, then part of the waning Roman Empire, which crumbled later in the century. In England the Saxons merged with the Angles, another tribe…
