The first inhabitants of the British isles were hunters about five thousand years ago settlers from Europe started to arrive Celts Romans angles and Saxons and then Vikings all invaded at different times for 200 years England had anglo-saxon king's and Danish king's in 1066 the French arrived on the south coast of England William Duke of normandy defeated the Saxon king's Harold at the battle of Hastings and become the king of England for the next 300 years the king's of England spoke French and the they ruled a large part of France too