A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons Read online

  GEOFFREY HINDLEY, educated at University College, Oxford is a lecturer and writer. He was three times an invited participant at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, and has regularly lectured in Europe and America on Medieval social history, European culture and the history of music. From 1994 to 2000 he taught English civilization at the University of Le Havre. He is also President of the Society for the History of Medieval Technology and Science of Oxford and London. His many books include The Shaping of Europe, Saladin: A Biography, England in the Age of Caxton, The Book of Magna Carta and A Brief History of the Crusades. He lives in Peterborough, England.

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  ‘We are clearly entering a new phase of an old war. Hindley’s book fills in the historical background to it and should be widely read.’

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  ‘Hindley’s accomplished book is informative, never descending into the sensational – but not avoiding the horrors either.’

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  ‘Hindley’s book magnificently explores the motives of knights and peasants . . . and presents an heroic tapestry of Europe on the move.’

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  A BRIEF HISTORY OF

  THE ANGLO-SAXONS

  GEOFFREY HINDLEY

  ROBINSON

  London

  Constable & Robinson Ltd

  55–56 Russell Square

  London WC1B 4HP

  www.constablerobinson.com

  This edition published by Robinson,

  an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd, 2006

  Copyright © Geoffrey Hindley 2006

  The right of Geoffrey Hindley to be identified as the author of this

  work has been asserted by him in accordance with the

  Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

  All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in

  Publication data is available from the British Library

  ISBN-13: 978-1-84529-161-7

  ISBN-10: 1-84529-161-1

  eISBN: 978-1-47210-759-6

  Printed and bound in the EU

  1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

  To Diana

  CONTENTS

  Acknowledgements

  A Note on Names and Measurements

  List of Illustrations

  Maps

  Chronology

  Selective Genealogy of the Royal House of Cerdic/Wessex/England

  Introduction: An Idea of Early England

  1 Invaders and Settlers: Beginnings to the Early 600s

  2 Southern Kingdoms, AD 600–800

  3 Northumbria: The Star in the North

  4 The Mercian Sphere

  5 Apostles of Germany

  6 Alcuin of York and the Continuing Anglo-Saxon Presence on the Continent

  7 Viking Raiders, Danelaw, ‘Kings’ of York

  8 The Wessex of Alfred the Great

  9 Literature, Learning, Language and Law in Anglo-Saxon England

  10 The Hegemony of Wessex: The English Kingdom and Church Reforms

  11 Danish Invasions and Kings: Æthelred ‘Unraed’, Cnut the Great and Others

  12 Edward the Confessor, the Conquest and the Aftermath

  Appendix 1: The Bayeux Tapestry

  Appendix 2: The Death of Harold and His Afterlife?

  Appendix 3: Royal Writing Office or Chancery?

  Notes

  Select Bibliography

  Index

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Since the publication of the second edition of Peter Hunter Blair’s An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England in 1977 (reprinted in 2003 with a new introduction and updated bibliography), there has been a wide range of books, articles and journals on all aspects of Anglo-Saxon history and culture. This Brief History has drawn on this wealth of publications as well as the classic work of scholars such as Frank Stenton and Dorothy Whitelock to present a rounded and, to the best of my ability, up-to-date account of the history, language and literature of what was undoubtedly one of the most formative cultures in Britain and Europe. Of the many distinguished scholars to whose work I am particularly indebted, I would like to mention here: James Campbell, Simon Keynes, the late Patrick Wormald, Michael Lapidge, John Blair, Pauline Stafford, Rosamond McKiterrick, Timothy Reuter, David Rollason and David Hill. Many others are acknowledged in the notes and bibliography.

  More personal thanks go to my editors at Constable and Robinson, Becky Hardie and Claudia Dyer; to the specialist reader; and to David Rose who copy-edited the entire text with great thoroughness; to Christopher Shaw for reading the page proofs and Helen Peters, to whom I am indebted for the index. For those errors that remain, I am of course to blame.

  A number of the pictures used are thanks to the generous help of my friends Gordon Monaghan and Rex Winsbury, who made many special journeys in pursuit of photographs of crosses and eagles, statues and churches. For some of the artwork that enriches the plates, I am gratefully in the debt of Mr Monaghan, a celebrated draughtsman in the world of stained glass design, who works in partnership with his wife Yvonne.

  Finally I would like to say thank you to the staff of Cambridge University Library; the staff of Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery; the Peterborough Central Library; and the staff at Yaxley Library, in Cambridgeshire, for their exp
ertise and assistance.

  A NOTE ON NAMES AND MEASUREMENTS

  Spellings and place names

  The territory we now call France covered, during the Anglo-Saxon period, various regions with different names, for example Gaul, Neustria, West Francia or Frankia. Like other writers in this field, I have done my best to tread a rational path through the minefield of usage. In the last case both spellings are found in recent literature. On the assumption that the usage derives from a Latin formation and that Latin at the time still used the letter ‘C’ for the consonantal ‘K’, and having no other letter, I have adopted the spelling ‘Francia’, though the word would no doubt have sounded like Frankia.

  Personal Names

  When it comes to the spelling of Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian personal names and transliterations from Old English, Old Norse or Danish usage, one finds a rich diversity of modern variants. From Æthelred/Ethelred, Eiric/Erik, Sweyn/Swein, to Cnud/Cnut (even the somewhat old fashioned Canute) and so forth. Alfred/Ælfred is the classic example. One of the recent biographies of the king refers to him throughout as ‘Alfred’ while the book jacket features a manuscript in Old English where the name is clearly shown as ‘Ælfred’. It seems to me that ‘Alfred’ is the inevitable choice here. In other cases I have endeavoured to follow what one might call ‘best practice’ in the knowledge that common usage may change by the end of this decade. Within the last decade, two major books have been published on the leading dynasty of Wessex nobility: the title of one concerns the ‘Godwins’, the other, the Godwines. I have adopted ‘Weland the Smith’ in place of the ‘Wayland’ for the name of the figure of pagan legend. A note about Egbert or Ecgberht: it is now increasingly common to find the spelling Ecgberht, not only because it is more true to the original but also because in Anglo-Saxon ‘ecg’ sounds like ‘edge’ not ‘egg’.

  The Scandinavian raiders appear as ‘Vikings’ even though it is likely that ‘viking’ may have originated as a generic term for a young raider or pirate. Technically, the lower case spelling might seem preferable. In fact, I have followed the predominant convention and capitalized it.

  Measurements

  In the interests of my American readers I give dimensions in the common usage of the world’s largest trading nation, namely the old English mile, yard, foot and inch, with the European metric equivalents given in brackets where useful.

  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

  Gordon Monaghan took all photographs featured unless otherwise stated.

  Frankish ship’s figurehead

  (Held at the British Museum and drawn by Gordon Monaghan)

  The Castor hanging bowl

  (Courtesy of the Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery)

  A reconstruction of the princely burial chamber excavated at Prittlewell, Southend-on-Sea, Essex

  (Drawn by Faith Vardy, Museum of London Archaeology Service)

  Disc brooch from the burial site at Alwalton near Peterborough

  (Courtesy of the Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery)

  The golden belt buckle from the ship burial at Sutton Hoo

  (Courtesy of the British Museum)

  The portrait page of St Mark from the Lindisfarne Gospels

  (Courtesy of the Bridgeman Art Library)

  The Coppergate Helm

  (Held at the York Museum Trust and drawn by Gordon Monaghan)

  The Bewcastle Cross, Cumbria

  (Photograph by Rex Winsbury)

  Detail from the front panel of the Franks casket

  (Held at the British Museum and drawn by Gordon Monaghan)

  The annual Whitsuntide Dancing Procession of Echternach, Luxembourg

  (Photo: Ed Kohl © Luxembourg Tourist Office – London, used by kind permission)

  The Hedda stone, Peterborough Cathedral

  (Courtesy of the Dean and Chapter of Peterborough Cathedral)

  The gold mancus of Coenwulf of Mercia

  (Held at the British Museum and drawn by Gordon Monaghan)

  All Saints’ Church, Brixworth

  Alfred the Great of Wessex

  (Courtesy of Winchester City Council)

  Platz Bonifacius, Fulda, Land Hessen, Germany

  (Courtesy of Stadt Fulda)

  The lower half of the frontispiece to King Edgar’s charter for the New Minster, Winchester

  (Held at the British Library and drawn by Gordon Monaghan)

  Detail from the ‘Five Senses’ on the Fuller Brooch

  (Held at the British Museum and drawn by Gordon Monaghan)

  All Saints’ Church, Earls Barton, Northamptonshire

  The ‘flying angel’ from the church of St Laurence, Bradford on Avon

  (Drawn by Gordon Monaghan)

  ‘Christ in Majesty’ from the church of St John the Baptist, Barnack

  (Courtesy of the PCC)

  The ‘death of King Harold II at Hastings’ from the Bayeux Tapestry

  (Courtesy of the Bridgeman Art Library)

  CHRONOLOGY

  360s

  Incursion of the Scotti (inhabitants of Ireland), the Picti (inhabitants of Scotland) and the Saxones from northwest Germany, or already resident as foederati (mercenaries in the service of the empire) into the province of Britain

  410

  The sack of Rome by Alaric the Visigoth Honorius, the western Roman emperor, notifies the Romano-British civitates that thenceforward they must fend for themselves

  429

  Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, makes first visit to Britain in response to request by the British church

  431

  Palladius sent by Pope Celestine as first bishop ‘to the believers in Ireland’

  443

  Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (A-SC) date for Britons’ appeal to Aetius, the principal Roman commander in Gaul, for aid against the barbarian incursions

  447

  Second visit of Germanus; he dies in Ravenna the following year

  449

  A-SC date for arrival of Hengest and Horsa

  470s

  A-SC notes landing of Aelle on coast of Sussex

  490s

  A-SC notes landing of Cerdic and his son Cynric in the Solent

  c. 500

  British victory at Mount Badon under ‘Ambrosius Aurelianus’, location unknown. The battle checks the incursions of the heathen Angles and Saxons for 44 years, according to Gildas, who was born in the same year

  c. 540

  Gildas writes his De excidio et conquestu Britanniae (‘Concerning the Overthrow and Conquest of Britain’). It inveighs against the moral decadence of the British and attributes their defeats to this

  563

  Irish monk Columba comes to Britain and founds the monastic community at Iona

  570

  Presumed death of Gildas

  590

  Gregory I (the Great) becomes pope

  591

  Columbanus, monk at Bangor in Co. Down, goes ‘in peregrinatio’ to the Frankish kingdom of Burgundy and soon thereafter founds the monastery at Luxueil

  592–616

  Northumbrian Kingdoms: the pagan Æthelfrith, king of Bernicia from 592, rules also in Deira from c. 604

  597

  Augustine and his party, sent by Pope Gregory I to preach Christianity to the English, arrive at the court of King Æthelberht of KENT and his Christian queen, Bertha of Paris; Æthelberht is baptized no later than 600

  603

  Northumbria: Æthelfrith defeats the king of Dál Riata at the battle of Degsastan and within twelve months succeeds, by right of his wife, to Deira, forcing her brother Edwin into exile (604)

  613 or 615

  Æthelfrith wins major battle against the Britons (possibly of Powys) at the Battle of Chester

  c. 615

  Possible date for the promulgation of the first code of laws in a European vernacular by Æthelberht of KENT

  616

  In Kent, the death of Æthelberht is followed by a brief pagan resurgence under his son Eadbald Rædwald,
king of East Anglia, with his client Edwin of Deira defeats and kills Æthelfrith at the Battle of the River Idle. Edwin becomes king in Northumbria

  c. 619

  At about this time Edwin marries Æthelburh of Kent, who is accompanied north by Paulinus, later bishop of York

  c. 625

  Death of Rædwald of East Anglia; paganism strong in the kingdom

  627

  Edwin of Northumbria baptized at Easter with his baby daughter Eanflæd

  630/31

  East Anglia: Sigeberht, in exile in Burgundy under Rædwald, returns as king and installs Felix as bishop

  633

  Penda of Mercia and Cadwallon of Gwynedd defeat and kill Edwin of the Northumbrians at the Battle of Hatfield

  634

  Oswald of Northumbria defeats and kills Cadwallon at the Battle of Heavenfield, near Hexham

  635

  Cynegils of Wessex baptized by Birinus, bishop of Dorchester. Oswald founds Lindisfarne

  642

  Penda of Mercia defeats and kills Oswald of Northumbria at the Battle of Maserfelth. His brother Oswiu becomes king in Bernicia, and his cousin Oswine in Deira

  651

  Oswiu becomes king in Deira, though his rule is resisted there