Events

Battlefields Trust Online Talk: How the West - and North - was lost: battles between the Britons and 'Anglo-Saxons' in the seventh century

Monday 26th October 2026

In AD 600, the Britons - that is, the descendants of the citizens of Roman Britain - ruled over most of Britain south of Hadrian's Wall. A century later, the same area was largely a patchwork of 'Anglo-Saxon' kingdoms, with the Britons controlling only Cornwall and Wales. This lecture explores the military defeat of the Britons south of the Wall, drawing together archaeological and written sources for specific battles, contrasting ways of warfighting and the strategies of the British kings and their enemies.

Professor Ken Dark PhD FSA FSA (Scot.) FRHist.S. FRAI SFHEA (University of Cambridge)

Ken studied archaeology at the University of York and gained his PhD in archaeology and history at the University of Cambridge. Even before submitting his PhD, he was appointed to a lectureship in archaeology at the University of Oxford, returning to work at Cambridge after his doctorate. He subsequently moved to the University of Reading, where he became both Professor of Archaeology and History and Director of the Research Centre for Late Antique and Byzantine Studies.

Leaving Reading in 2021, he was Visiting Professor at the Institute for Culture and Society at the University of Navarra for a year and then was appointed to King's College London. In 2025, he returned as a professor of archaeology and history to Cambridge, where he is jointly attached to the Von Hügel Institute, the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research and the Institute for Eastern Orthodox Christian Studies.

Ken is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, the Royal Historical Society and Royal Anthropological Institute, and an elected Member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs and the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. He has written over 100 academic publications, including 16 books, most recently Tyrants and Traders. Tintagel, Arthur and the Lost Kings (Bloomsbury 2026), reflecting his longstanding interest in the archaeology and history of immediately post-Roman Western Britain.

For further information.

• Contact name : Battlefields Trust Online Talks
• Contact email : info@battlefieldstrust.com