«For the conquest of Britain by the English our authorities are scant and imperfect. The only extant British account is the «Epistola» of Gildas, a work written probably about A.D. 560. The style of Gildas is diffuse and inflated, but his book is of great value in the light it throws on the state of the island at that time, and above all as the one record of the conquest which we have from the side of the conquered.»
