Reliable evidence of the period is extremely scarce. The story of the invasion is told by Bede (673-735),  monastic scholar who wrote the first history of England, HISTORIA ECCLESIASTICA GENTIS ANGLORUM.

According to Bede the invaders came to Britain in A.D. 449 under the leadership of two Germanic kings, Hengist and Horsa; they had been invited by a British king, Vortigern, as assistants and allies in a local war. The newcomers soon dispossessed their hosts, and other Germanic bands followed. The invaders came in multitude, in families and clans, to settle in the occupied territories; like the Celts before them, they migrated as a people and in that the Germanic invasion wad different from the Roman military conquest, although it was by no means a peaceful affair.

To quote Bede, "the newcomers were of the three strongest races of Germany, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes". Modern archeological and linguistic research has shown that this information is not quite precise. Some historians define the Jutes as a Frankish tribe, others doubt the participation and the very existance of the Jutes and name the Frisians as the third main party in the invasiоn. It is also uncertain whether the early settlers really belonged to separate tribes, Saxons and Angles. They were called Angles and Saxons by the Romans and by the Celts but preferred to call themselves Angelcyn (English people) and applied this name to the conquered territories: Angelcynnes land ('land of the English', hence England).