Aelfred's Britain
Page 29
* The ‘C’ and ‘D’ manuscripts that record it do not agree.
† Donald Scragg argues that other relics of Oswald were acquired by Æðelflæd for her new Chester foundation at the same time. Scragg 2008.
‡ See above, p. 145 and below, p. 366ff. Under Æðelstan the Oswald cult also became firmly embedded in Continental tradition.
§ Æðelweard sets the battle at Wednesbury, a few miles to the east; this may indicate that there was more than one engagement and might explain the slight disparity in dates with the Chronicle. Campbell 1961, 53. Tettenhall is Teotanheale: Teotta’s nook; Wednesbury is Wadnesberie: Woden’s fort. Watts 2004. Æðelweard adds that the Host recrossed the Severn at Bridgnorth, the closest vulnerable access across the Severn from the territories of the Five Boroughs. Tettenhall lies at the source of the River Penk, which runs north through Staffordshire before joining the River Sow and thence the Trent. Campbell 1961, 53.
# Æðelweard adds a third: Inwaer, or Ívarr.
∫ The locations of three of the burhs built in this decade have yet to be identified: Bremesburh might be Bromsgrove, close to the head of the River Salwarpe, which would have protected royal interests in salt production at Droitwich. Weardburh (915 ), Scergeat (912) and Wigingamere (920) are similarly obscure, although strategic gaps in both the Wessex and Mercian garrison provisions provide endless opportunities for speculation.
Ω Watling Street seems consciously to rationalize the zig-zag line of the watershed.
≈ The ancient Mercian capital may already have been fortified under King Offa.
∂ A few miles south-east of Chester, protecting its approach through the Beeston gap and providing a forward base to penetrate further east.
π I would place my chips, for what they are worth, somewhere along a line between Whitchurch and Newcastle-under-Lyme.
∆ The Annals of Ulster note a ‘great new fleet of the heathens’ basing itself on Loch dá Caech, that is Waterford harbour, in the previous and following years; it was probably the same fleet.
** Edward later ransomed him for 40 lbs (18 kg) of silver, according to the detailed account of this campaign in the ‘D’ manuscript of the Chronicle. Archenfield, the earlier Welsh kingdom of Ergyng, seems to be the subject of the Dunsæte Ordinance; see Chapter 9.
†† The name of the king is unknown, as is the identity of the monastery which he raided. Llangorse is the only crannog, or lake dwelling, so far identified in Wales or England; they were widespread in Scotland and Ireland.
‡‡ Jeremy Haslam (1997) identifies it as Old Linslade, a probable location for the signing of the Peace of Tiddingford, close to Leighton Buzzard. If so, it protected the line of Watling Street some 15 miles (24 km) to the south-east towards London.
§§ The analysts of York’s Coppergate environmental remains, Allan Hall and Harry Kenward, estimate that a staggering 45 cubic metres of human faecal waste was deposited in Anglo-Scandinavian Coppergate, much of it preserved in anoxic ‘composting’ conditions. Hall and Kenward 2005.
## That is, foods rich in vitamin C, to prevent scurvy.
∫∫ Whether it is the church founded or refounded by Bishop Paulinus is the subject of ongoing debate.
ΩΩ Bearing the inscription LINCOLIA CIVITAS on the reverse; Stewart 1967. For more on the context, see Hadley 2007, 165 and Stocker 2013, 135.
≈≈ See below, Chapter 9, for more on the interaction of native and incomer in the tenth century.
∂∂ See above, p. 287.
ππ From Æðelwulf, Ælfred’s father.
∆∆ See above, pp. 236 and 238; HSC 22.
*** The Annals of Ulster record his passing in 921.
PART
III
Going native
919–955
TIMELINE 3
919 to 955
Unless otherwise stated, narrative source entries are from the ASC Parker ‘A’ text.
ABBREVIATIONS
AC – Annales Cambriae
AClon – Annals of Clonmacnoise
AFM – Annals of the Four Masters
ASC – Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
AU – Annals of Ulster
CKA – Chronicle of the Kings of Alba
EHD – English Historical Documents
GRA – Gest Regum Anglorum
HR – Historia Regum
HSC – Historia de Sancto Cuthberto
RoW – Roger of Wendover
919 Rögnvaldr captures York (HR).
— Eadweard gives his daughter Eadgifu in marriage to Charles the Simple, nephew of Ælfred’s stepmother Judith (GRA).
920 Eadweard recognized as overking of Anglo-Saxon and Welsh kingdoms and Northumbria: the so-called ‘Submission to Eadweard’.
— Sigtryggr moves to York and extends his control as far south as Lincoln (HR).
924 Chester rebels against Eadweard in alliance with ‘Britons’ (GRA); defeated.
— Eadweard dies at Farndon, on the east bank of the Dee; succeeded by his second son Ælfweard (in Wessex) for sixteen days; he dies at Oxford and is succeeded by Eadweard’s oldest son Æðelstan.
925 Æðelstan crowned King of Wessex and Mercia at Kingston in September; meets Sigtryggr at Tamworth (ASC ‘D’); gives him his half-sister in marriage.
927 Æðelstan expels the kings of York (ASC ‘D’). The Peace of Eamont is signed. Æðelstan’s overlordship is established over Hywel, Constantín mac Áeda and Owain of Gwent.
930 Possible date for composition of II Æðelstan: the Grately Code.
933 Possible date for death of Harald Fairhair (Haraldr Hárfagri) of Norway.
— Death of Eadwine atheling, half-brother of Aðelstan, by drowning at sea (ASC ‘E’, HR and EHD).
934 Death of Guðrøðr, king in Dublin (AU).
— Death of Adulf mcEtulf (AClon)—possibly Ældred son of Eadwulf of Bernicia.
— Amounderness land grant to the church of York (EHD).
— Æðelstan visits the shrine of St Cuthbert at Chester le Street (HSC).
— Æðelstan invades Alba in a raid as far as Dunottar; the fleet ravages as far as Caithness (HR; EHD).
937 Óláfr Guðrøðsson wins major victory on Lough Re and captures the king of Limerick (AFM); sails to England.
— Battle of Brunanburh: coalition under Óláfr Guðrøðsson including Owain of Strathclyde and Constantín mac Áeda of Alba fights against Æðelstan and allies at unidentified site, probably in the Wirral (ASC; GRA).
— Possible date of composition of the Armes Prydein Fawr.
939 Æðelstan sends fleet to support Louis IV in Francia (EHD).
— Death of Æðelstan at Gloucester; succeeded by his half-brother Eadmund.
940 Óláfr Guðrøðsson re-invades; Northumbrians choose him as their king (ASC ‘D’). He besieges Northampton; ravages regio of Tamworth (HR); meets the king’s army at Leicester and archbishops broker peace; Óláfr becomes king of England north of Watling Street.
— Óláfr Guðrøðsson’s York coins inscribed in Old Norse: ANLAF CVNVNC.
941 Destruction of Tyninghame and Lindisfarne by the army of Óláfr (HR).
— Death of Óláfr Guðrøðsson (RoW); succeeded by Óláfr Kváran in York.
942 Death of Idwal Foel and his son Elise at English hands (AC); Hywel expels his sons from Gwynedd and annexes it and Powys.
— King Eadmund reclaims the Five Boroughs (ASC: first documentary reference).
943 End of reign of Constantín mac Áeda (CKA). He abdicates in favour of Mael Coluim mac Domnall and retires to the Culdee monastery at St Andrews.
— Northumbrians ‘drive out their king’ Óláfr (HR).
944 King Eadmund ravages Northumbria and brings it under his sway: expels Kváran, who returns to Ireland, and Rögnvaldr Guðrøðsson, who is killed.
945 King Eadmund ravages Cumbria/Strathclyde (AC) and ‘gives’ it to Mael Coluim mac Domnall of Alba on condition of an alliance.
946 Louis IV d’Outremer is restored to
the West Frankish throne.
— King Eadmund is assassinated by Liofa (ASC ‘D’). Succeeded by his brother, Eadred (to 955). Eadred subdues Northumbria and the Scots give him submission oaths.
947 Convention at Tanshelf (ASC ‘D’). Wulfstan and the Northumbrians submit to Eadred.
948 Eadred ravages Northumbria; Ripon church is burned (ASC ‘D’). After the campaign the Northumbrians destroy the rear of his army; the Northumbrians repudiate Eiríkr and submit to Eadred (HR).
949 Return of Óláfr Kváran as king at York.
950 Death of Hywel Dda (AU); succeeded by Owain ap Hywel (dies 988); Gwynedd is reclaimed by the sons of Idwal Foel.
952 The sons of Idwal ravage Gwent (AC).
— Eadred has Wulfstan imprisoned in the unidentified Iudanburh for alleged plotting (ASC ‘D’).
— Death of Constantín mac Áeda (CKA).
— Battle between ‘the Men of Alba and the Britons and the English’ against the foreigners (AU).
— Óláfr is driven out of York by the Northumbrians. Return of Eiríkr to York (ASC ‘E’).
954 The North submits to King Eadred; Eiríkr is expelled from York. Oswulf, reeve of Bamburgh, is given control of York by Eadred.
— Death of Mael Coluim mac Domnall, King of Alba (CKA); succeeded by Indulf (to 962).
955 Death of King Eadred; succeeded by Eadmund’s son Eadwig (to 959).
FORESPÆC
KING ÆLFRED’S LEGACY WAS CEMENTED BY THE OUTSTANDING achievements of his son Eadweard, his daughter Æðelflæd and grandson Æðelstan; but they are much more obscure figures, lacking contemporary champions like Asser and also, perhaps, lacking Ælfred’s philosophical and moral sense of his own place in history. Eadweard and his sister were canny and aggressive, seemingly unburdened by their father’s reflective spirit. They inherited a highly organized and professionalized state machinery from their father (and his godson, Æðelflæd’s husband) and with it they constructed a military and economic powerhouse. The once formidable Scandinavian armies were no match for the juggernaut of the Angelcynn.*
By the time of his death in 924 Eadweard would largely complete the task of bringing the Danish territories under his control, extending the burghal system to north and west and apparently effecting the unification of Wessex with West Mercia. The reign of his eldest son Æðelstan at first appears to seamlessly continue the process of West Saxon expansion in the direction of a unified Anglo-Saxon state in which the kingdoms of the Angelcynn and of the Deniscan became England. But in an age of consummate propagandists one must tread carefully. Æðelstan’s succession was not straightforward and, in the swirling currents of dynastic rivalry another, less comfortable narrative can be traced.
Increasingly, historians look to the dispassionate evidence of coinage to test their models of kingship and emergent statehood, while a superabundance of archaeological excavation and geographical analysis keeps a stage-full of social and economic plates spinning. It is a time of dizzying complexity from which, nevertheless, King Æðelstan emerges in recognizable human form, solidifying from the background action. Vulnerabilities can be sensed in his choice of assembly venues and courtiers; in the defensiveness of his self-aggrandizing titles; in the need to have poets offer up verses of sycophantic praise. He surrounded himself with foster sons from across the political spectrum and from over the seas; he actively sought good matches for his many half-sisters, yet he did not marry himself, and produced no heirs. He was remembered by later generations as a warlike king; but he seems to have devoted much of his time to the pursuit of holy relics and to defining punishments for sometimes trivial offences. He seems to have avoided his own capital, Winchester, for nearly a decade after his succession.
The ambitions of Ælfred’s heirs to imitate the Bretwaldas of the seventh century in exerting imperium, or overlordship, over all the other kingdoms of the island were largely frustrated. The Irish Norse grandsons of the famous Ívarr continued to pursue their interests in the kingdom of Northumbria, sometimes successfully, sometimes less so, mostly at the expense of West Saxon strategies to render the lands north of the Humber tributary. And then, West Saxon lines of patronage did not extend to the lands held for so long by Danish kings and jarls. Attempts were made to purchase estates off Scandinavian lords, but they appear to have been small in scale. The historic bonds of loyalty and kinship which, for the most part, united the ealdormen and thegns of Wessex with their king did not stretch to the Five Boroughs or East Anglia, let alone Northumbria.
Æðelstan deployed a full range of political, legal and economic means to gain influence in those newly won territories. The community of St Cuthbert proved itself amenable to his approaches, backed as they were with land and a large quantity of cash and gifts. Together with the distinctly more ambivalent archbishop of York, they supported and legitimized his northern campaigns. Even so, Æðelstan must contend with more deep-seated ambiguities of identity in both native and incomer populations whose sense of regional affinity was far stronger than any wish to be subject to West Saxon rule. Those ambiguities were felt even more sharply in the Welsh kingdoms, despite the increasingly compliant and favourable behaviour of the grandsons of Rhodri Mawr. A remarkable nationalist tract called Armes Prydein Fawr† survives to show that one man’s realpolitik is another’s base appeasement.
For all of the first four decades of the tenth century a single king sat on the throne of Alba: Constantín mac Áeda, who first promulgated the laws of the Scots at Scone in 906. At the time of his succession there was a real chance that all Alba would fall under Scandinavian rule from ambitious Norwegian exiles or the Norse rulers of Dublin. But, increasingly self-confident and effective, Constantín intervened in the political and military evolution of North Britain; and if he was forced by circumstances to submit to Æðelstan, he ensured an enduring Scots identity from which the distinct medieval nation would emerge. Even so, the Northern and Western Isles became, and remained, thoroughly Norse.
When Scot, Anglo-Saxon, Briton and Irish Norse met in a great battle at Brunanburh in 937, Æðelstan claimed victory; but he achieved no more than a defence of the status quo. In the half century after Ælfred’s death Dane integrated with Anglo-Saxon, and there remains a distinctly regional flavour to the legal and territorial identities of pre-Conquest East Mercia and East Anglia; likewise in Lancashire and north Cheshire. The Midland shires evolved directly out of territories based on the Five Danish boroughs of Derby, Nottingham, Leicester, Lincoln and Stamford, and from other towns that they had fortified, settled and transformed into commercially successful central places. When archaeologists excavate the imposing defended settlements of the East Mercian élite at sites like Goltho in Lincolnshire, they cannot tell if the lords of the estate were Danish or English; and it may not matter. The mutual intelligibility of Old English and Old Norse and the sharing of many cultural and artistic expressions of identity, fostered integration. Anglo-Saxon, Welsh or Dane, the late tenth-century inhabitants of Britain south of the Humber were nearly all Christian.
Towns and mercantile economies flourished under Scandinavian influence, and their example was taken up by their would-be overlords. The same cannot be said of the ancient minsters, many of them absorbed into the secular property portfolios of kings and lay lords, abandoned or shrunk to the point of invisibility. Ælfred had attempted a form of ecclesiastic reform while systematically treating the minsters as a currency of royal patronage. Eadweard had much else on his mind. Æðelstan spent money on churches and, especially, on endowing them with costly relics and treasures. But only under his half brothers Eadmund and Eadred did the Anglo-Saxon state once more put its weight behind a monastic movement, of Continental inspiration but distinctly indigenous form.
The final expulsion of the last Norse king of York in 954 coincided with increasing economic and spiritual self-confidence, and with a stable environment in which agriculture and local communities flourished, so that by the end of the tenth century a landscape of nu
cleated villages, with small churches and graveyards, looking to their nearest town for markets and for justice, begins to look like the medieval world in embryonic form. For a generation the Insular kingdoms enjoyed relative peace without fear of invasion.
A traveller passing through Britain in the 960s would find much that had changed from the days when Ælfred’s father brought a Frankish bride home. But the British Isles were probably still as regionally distinct as they ever had been; certainly as wealthy, certainly as attractive, if a little less vulnerable to conquest by jealous kings watching from overseas.
* Compare the Viking Age travel map of the ninth century (p. 50) to that of the early tenth, (p. 281), which shows the defence in depth of the burghal system.
† See below, p. 373.
INNATE AFFINITIES WITH AMBIGUITY
AMBITION AND REALITY—NORTHUMBRIA—GOOD FENCES—THE STATUS QUO—GOVAN—FAMILY WEDDINGS—DEATH OF EADWEARD—DIPLOMACY AND PATRONAGE—ÆÐELSTAN, OVERLORD
9
In the Northern politics of the Viking period nothing is quite so simple as it seems. Land surely changed hands by fair means and foul; but the bald account of theft and insult, of good lords and perfidious heathens in the piously partisan Historia de Sancto Cuthberto masks a more subtle navigation through these difficult waters.
The lands which the community of St Cuthbert had given to the faithful Elfred before his flight from Corbridge comprised three large estates in a contiguous strip along the north Durham coast, between the rivers Wear and Tees.* North of these lay territories that the community had acquired (or reacquired) by dint of its support for King Guðroðr in the 880s, during which time it settled on generous estates in and around Chester le Street, the old Roman fort straddling the Great North Road on the banks of the Wear. Another set of lands which came into the possession of the community of St Cuthbert during that period consisted of a large triangular tract in the north-west of what is now County Durham, circumscribed by the rivers Derwent and Wear and Roman Dere Street.1