140-693: The Meonwara were one of the tribes of Anglo-Saxon Britain . Their territory was a folkland located in the valley of the River Meon in Hampshire that was subsumed by the Kingdom of Wessex in the late seventh century. In the 8th century the Venerable Bede referred to the Saxon and Jutish settlers that were living in the valley of the River Meon as Meonwara (Meon People) and described
280-530: A Merovingian bride, and is one of the first Anglo-Saxon rulers who can be identified with some confidence. Bede and later sources portrayed Æthelberht as a descendant of the original group of "Saxons" mentioned by Gildas, although they apparently believed they were actually Jutish. Unfortunately the king lists and genealogies produced by Bede and later writers are not considered reliable for these early centuries. A 2022 genetic study used modern and ancient DNA samples from England and neighbouring countries to study
420-618: A Northumbrian monk and chronicler. Bede received a good deal of information relating to Cædwalla from Bishop Daniel of Winchester ; Bede's interest was primarily in the Christianisation of the West Saxons , but in relating the history of the church he sheds much light on the West Saxons and Cædwalla. The contemporary Vita Sancti Wilfrithi or Life of St Wilfrid (by Stephen of Ripon , but often misattributed to Eddius Stephanus ) also mentions Cædwalla. Another useful source
560-421: A "shameful habit" of drinking and eating in the outhouse, which some of the countrywomen practised at beer parties. In April 1016, Æthelred died of illness, leaving his son and successor Edmund Ironside to defend the country. The final struggles were complicated by internal dissension, and especially by the treacherous acts of Ealdorman Eadric of Mercia, who opportunistically changed sides to Cnut's party. After
700-628: A coalition of his enemies – Constantine , King of the Scots; Owain ap Dyfnwal , King of the Cumbrians; and Olaf Guthfrithson , King of Dublin – at the battle of Brunanburh , celebrated by a poem in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , opened the way for him to be hailed as the first king of England. Æthelstan's legislation shows how the king drove his officials to do their respective duties. He was uncompromising in his insistence on respect for
840-500: A common collective term, and indeed became dominant. The increased use of these new collective terms, "English" or "Anglo-Saxon", represents the strengthening of the idea of a single unifying cultural unity among the Anglo-Saxons themselves, who had previously invested in identities which differentiated various regional groups. In contrast, Irish and Welsh speakers long continued to refer to Anglo-Saxons as Saxons. The word Saeson
980-420: A formidable fighting force. At first, Alfred responded by the offer of repeated tribute payments. However, after a decisive victory at Edington in 878, Alfred offered vigorous opposition. He established a chain of fortresses across the south of England, reorganised the army, "so that always half its men were at home, and half out on service, except for those men who were to garrison the burhs", and in 896 ordered
1120-528: A king, but who under the Alfredian regime was regarded as the 'ealdorman' of his people. The wealth of the monasteries and the success of Anglo-Saxon society attracted the attention of people from mainland Europe, mostly Danes and Norwegians. Because of the plundering raids that followed, the raiders attracted the name Viking – from the Old Norse víkingr meaning an expedition – which soon became used for
1260-409: A large part of Britain, and writing about Romano-British kingdoms which had been limited to the north and west. Other historians have argued that in the 5th century many Romano-British people must have adopted the new culture which we now call Anglo-Saxon, even when they did not have Germanic ancestry or rulers. Unfortunately, there are very few written sources apart from Gildas until the conversion of
1400-479: A letter addressed by Aldhelm to Hadrian that he too must be numbered among their students. Aldhelm wrote in elaborate and grandiloquent and very difficult Latin, which became the dominant style for centuries. Michael Drout states "Aldhelm wrote Latin hexameters better than anyone before in England (and possibly better than anyone since, or at least up until John Milton ). His work showed that scholars in England, at
1540-593: A man named Port and his two sons Bieda and Maegla. Most academics regard this as legend rather than fact. Also the listed names may not be of Germanic origin, and Maegla appears to be a Brythonic word meaning "chief" or "prince" (i.e. cognate with Old British maglos , Welsh mael and the Breton given name Maël ). The origins of the Kingdom of Wessex are unclear. The Chronicle has a foundation story, regarded by most as legend, that describes how Cerdic and his son Cynric landed in southern Hampshire in 495, and settled
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#17327722441281680-612: A mission to Christianise the Kingdom of Northumbria from their native Anglo-Saxon paganism. Oswald had probably chosen Iona because after his father had been killed he had fled into south-west Scotland and had encountered Christianity, and had returned determined to make Northumbria Christian. Aidan achieved great success in spreading the Christian faith in the north, and since Aidan could not speak English and Oswald had learned Irish during his exile, Oswald acted as Aidan's interpreter when
1820-579: A monastery at Hoo , northeast of Rochester , between the Medway and the Thames . He installed his brother, Mul , as king of Kent, in place of its king Eadric . In a subsequent Kentish revolt, Mul was "burned" along with twelve others, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle . Cædwalla responded with a renewed campaign against Kent, laying waste to its land and leaving it in a state of chaos. He may have ruled Kent directly after this second invasion. Cædwalla
1960-624: A monastery in Campania (near Naples). One of their first tasks at Canterbury was the establishment of a school; and according to Bede (writing some sixty years later), they soon "attracted a crowd of students into whose minds they daily poured the streams of wholesome learning". As evidence of their teaching, Bede reports that some of their students, who survived to his own day, were as fluent in Greek and Latin as in their native language. Bede does not mention Aldhelm in this connection; but we know from
2100-701: A new type of craft to be built which could oppose the Viking longships in shallow coastal waters. When the Vikings returned from the Continent in 892, they found they could no longer roam the country at will, for wherever they went they were opposed by a local army. After four years, the Scandinavians therefore split up, some to settle in Northumbria and East Anglia, the remainder to try their luck again on
2240-641: A number of casual references scattered throughout the Bede 's history to this aspect of Mercian military policy. Penda is found ravaging Northumbria as far north as Bamburgh and only a miraculous intervention from Aidan prevents the complete destruction of the settlement. In 676 Æthelred conducted a similar ravaging in Kent and caused such damage in the Rochester diocese that two successive bishops gave up their position because of lack of funds. In these accounts there
2380-582: A present after Æthelwealh was baptised and married Eafe the daughter of Eanfrith, a ruler of the Christian Hwicce people. The alliance between the South Saxons and the Mercians and their control of southern England put the West Saxons under pressure. After Wulfhere's death Mercian power eventually declined, and there followed a time of relative peace. However the united Gewisse, now known as
2520-567: A renaissance in classical knowledge. The growth and popularity of monasticism was not an entirely internal development, with influence from the continent shaping Anglo-Saxon monastic life. In 669 Theodore , a Greek-speaking monk originally from Tarsus in Asia Minor, arrived in Britain to become the eighth Archbishop of Canterbury . He was joined the following year by his colleague Hadrian, a Latin-speaking African by origin and former abbot of
2660-562: A reputation in Europe and showing that the English could write history and theology, and do astronomical computation (for the dates of Easter, among other things). During the 9th century, Wessex rose in power, from the foundations laid by King Egbert in the first quarter of the century to the achievements of King Alfred the Great in its closing decades. The outlines of the story are told in
2800-526: A turning point the continental ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons were probably quite diverse, and they arrived over a longer period. In another passage, Bede named pagan peoples still living in Germany ( Germania ) in the eighth century "from whom the Angles or Saxons, who now inhabit Britain, are known to have derived their origin; for which reason they are still corruptly called Garmans by the neighbouring nation of
2940-615: A week after his baptism. Bede says that he had received wounds during the fighting on the Isle of Wight, which may have led to his untimely death. The subsequent establishment of the very large trading settlement of Hamwic suggests that control over the Solent was a further factor motivating the conquest of the Jutish areas. With the takeover of Jutish lands by the West Saxons in Hampshire,
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#17327722441283080-512: A working alliance between the West Saxon dynasty and the rulers of the Mercians. In 860, the eastern and western parts of the southern kingdom were united by agreement between the surviving sons of King Æthelwulf , though the union was not maintained without some opposition from within the dynasty; and in the late 870s King Alfred gained the submission of the Mercians under their ruler Æthelred , who in other circumstances might have been styled
3220-497: Is a rare glimpse of the realities of early Anglo-Saxon overlordship and how a widespread overlordship could be established in a relatively short period. By the middle of the 8th century, other kingdoms of southern Britain were also affected by Mercian expansionism. The East Saxons seem to have lost control of London, Middlesex and Hertfordshire to Æthelbald, although the East Saxon homelands do not seem to have been affected, and
3360-458: Is apparent that the West Saxons were fighting in north Somerset , south Gloucestershire , and north Wiltshire , against both British and Mercian opposition. To the west and south, evidence of the extent of West Saxon influence is provided by the fact that Cenwalh , who reigned from 642 to 673, is remembered as the first Saxon patron of Sherborne Abbey , in Dorset ; similarly, Centwine (676–685)
3500-525: Is called "Old English". Yet neither are they "Middle English"; moreover, as Treharne explains, for around three-quarters of this period, "there is barely any 'original' writing in English at all". These factors have led to a gap in scholarship, implying a discontinuity either side of the Norman Conquest, however this assumption is being challenged. Caedwalla of Wessex Cædwalla ( / ˈ k æ d ˌ w ɔː l ə / ; c. 659 – 20 April 689)
3640-578: Is in the Life of St Wilfrid, in which he is described as an exiled nobleman in the forests of Chiltern and Andred . It was not uncommon for a 7th century king to have spent time in exile before gaining the throne; Oswald of Northumbria is another prominent example. According to the Chronicle , it was in 685 that Cædwalla "began to contend for the kingdom". Despite his exile, he was able to put together enough military force to defeat and kill Æthelwealh ,
3780-663: Is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , a set of annals assembled in Wessex in the late 9th-century, probably at the direction of King Alfred the Great . Associated with the Chronicle is a list of kings and their reigns, known as the West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List . There are also six surviving charters, though some are of doubtful authenticity. Charters were documents drawn up to record grants of land by kings to their followers or to
3920-540: Is the Heptarchy , which has not been used by scholars since the early 20th century as it gives the impression of a single political structure and does not afford the "opportunity to treat the history of any one kingdom as a whole". Simon Keynes suggests that the 8th and 9th century was a period of economic and social flourishing which created stability both below the Thames and above the Humber . Middle-lowland Britain
4060-678: Is the first Saxon patron of Glastonbury Abbey , in Somerset. Evidently, these monasteries were in West Saxon territory by then. Exeter , to the west, in Devon, was under West Saxon control by 680, since Boniface was educated there at about that time. A number of the early kings of Wessex had Celtic names, which may indicate Brythonic ancestry. Cædwalla's name ultimately derives from the Proto-Celtic * Katu-welnā-mnos , meaning "The One Who (-mnos) Leads (welnā-) into Battle (katu-)". However,
4200-614: Is the modern Welsh word for "English people"; the equivalent word in Scottish Gaelic is Sasannach and in the Irish language , Sasanach . Catherine Hills suggests that it is no accident "that the English call themselves by the name sanctified by the Church, as that of a people chosen by God, whereas their enemies use the name originally applied to piratical raiders". Although it involved immigrant communities from northern Europe,
4340-542: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , though the annals represent a West Saxon point of view. On the day of Egbert's succession to the kingdom of Wessex, in 802, a Mercian ealdorman from the province of the Hwicce had crossed the border at Kempsford , with the intention of mounting a raid into northern Wiltshire ; the Mercian force was met by the local ealdorman, "and the people of Wiltshire had the victory". In 829, Egbert went on,
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4480-495: The Chronicle , Cædwalla was the son of Coenberht , and was descended via Ceawlin from Cerdic , the first of the Gewisse to land in England. However, it appears that the many difficulties and contradictions in the regnal list are caused partly by the efforts of later scribes to demonstrate that each king on the list was descended from Cerdic; thus Cædwalla's genealogy must be treated with caution. The first mention of Cædwalla
4620-545: The Danelaw . This was the " Great Army ", a term used by the Chronicle in England and by Adrevald of Fleury on the Continent. The invaders were able to exploit the feuds between and within the various kingdoms and to appoint puppet kings, such as Ceolwulf in Mercia in 873 and perhaps others in Northumbria in 867 and East Anglia in 870. The third phase was an era of settlement; however, the "Great Army" went wherever it could find
4760-613: The English , were a cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages . They traced their origins to Germanic settlers who became one of the most important cultural groups in Britain by the 5th century. The Anglo-Saxon period in Britain is considered to have started by about 450 and ended in 1066, with the Norman Conquest . Although
4900-578: The Frankish kingdom of Austrasia . Bede therefore called these the " Old Saxons " ( antiqui saxones ), and he noted that there was no longer any country of Angles in Germany, as it had become empty due to emigration. Similarly, a non-Anglo-Saxon contemporary of Bede, Paul the Deacon , referred variously to either the English ( Angli ), or Anglo-Saxons (Latin plural genitives Saxonum Anglorum , or Anglorum Saxonum ), which helped him distinguish them from
5040-674: The Franks on the Lower Rhine . At the same time, the Roman administration in Britain (and other parts of the empire) was recruiting foederati soldiers from the same general regions in what is now Germany, and these are likely to have become more important after the withdrawal of field armies during internal Roman power struggles. According to the Chronica Gallica of 452 Britain was ravaged by Saxon invaders in 409 or 410. This
5180-576: The Isle of Thanet and proceeded to King Æthelberht 's main town of Canterbury . He had been sent by Pope Gregory the Great to lead the Gregorian mission to Britain to Christianise the Kingdom of Kent from their native Anglo-Saxon paganism . Kent was probably chosen because Æthelberht had married a Christian princess, Bertha , daughter of Charibert I the king of Paris , who was expected to exert some influence over her husband. Æthelberht in Kent
5320-541: The Life of Wilfrid asserts that the Archbishop of Canterbury , Theodore , expressed a wish that Wilfrid succeed him in that role, and if this is true it may be a reflection of Wilfrid's association with Cædwalla's southern overlordship. In 688, Cædwalla abdicated and went on a pilgrimage to Rome, possibly because he was dying of the wounds he had suffered while fighting on the Isle of Wight. Cædwalla had not been baptised , and Bede states that he wished to "obtain
5460-543: The Synod of Whitby was convened and established Roman practice as opposed to Irish practice (in style of tonsure and dates of Easter) as the norm in Northumbria, and thus "brought the Northumbrian church into the mainstream of Roman culture." The episcopal seat of Northumbria was transferred from Lindisfarne to York . Wilfrid , chief advocate for the Roman position, later became Bishop of Northumbria, while Colmán and
5600-569: The church of SS Peter and Paul, Winchester , built by Cenwalh of Wessex in 648, became the new episcopal see in the 660s. The settlement of Exton , on the west bank of the Meon, is named after the East Saxons , indicating some sort of settlement or other form of influence from that people. The first surviving record of the name is from 940 as East Seaxnatune . Anglo-Saxons The Anglo-Saxons , in some contexts simply called Saxons or
5740-578: The "War of the Saxon Federates". Unlike Bede and later writers who followed him, for whom this war turned into a very long war between two nations which was eventually won by the descendants of the Saxons, Gildas reported that by the time he was born this war ended successfully for the Britons after the siege at 'Mons Badonicus' . (The price of peace, Higham argues, must have been a better treaty for
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5880-497: The "proud tyrant" as Vortigern . However, the date could have been significantly earlier, and Bede's understanding of these events has been questioned. The Historia Brittonum , written in the 9th century, gives two different years, but the writer apparently believed it happened in 428. Another 9th century source, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is largely based on Bede but says this Saxon arrival happened in 449. The archaeological evidence suggests an earlier timescale. In particular,
6020-546: The 4th century not with a specific country or nation, but with raiders in North Sea coastal areas of Britain and Gaul . An especially early reference to the Angli is the 6th-century Byzantine historian Procopius who however expressed doubts about the stories he had heard about events in the west, which he apparently heard through Frankish diplomats. He never mentions the Saxons, but he states that an island called Brittia, which
6160-550: The Anglo-Saxon period." In modern times, the term "Anglo-Saxons" is used by scholars to refer collectively to the Old English speaking groups in Britain. As a compound term it has the advantage of covering the various English-speaking groups on the one hand, and to avoid possible misunderstandings from using the terms "Saxons" or " Angles " (English), both of which terms could be used either as collectives referring to all
6300-511: The Anglo-Saxons to Christianity which began in the late 6th century. One eastern contemporary of Gildas, Procopius , reported a story which was apparently relayed to him by Frankish diplomats, that an island called Brittia which faced the Rhine was divided, between three peoples, the Britons, Anglii, and Frisians. Much later, Æthelberht of Kent (died 616) invited missionaries from the Pope and married
6440-677: The Britons": the Frisians , the Rugini , the Danes , the " Huns " ( Avars in this period), the "old Saxons", and the " Boructuari " who are presumed to be inhabitants of the old lands of the Bructeri , near the Lippe river. Gildas reported that a war broke out between the Saxons and the local population, who joined forces under a person named Ambrosius Aurelianus . Historian Nick Higham calls it
6580-502: The Continent. More important to Alfred than his military and political victories were his religion, his love of learning, and his spread of writing throughout England. Keynes suggests Alfred's work laid the foundations for what really made England unique in all of medieval Europe from around 800 until 1066. Thinking about how learning and culture had fallen since the last century, King Alfred wrote: ...So completely had wisdom fallen off in England that there were very few on this side of
6720-510: The Danes and that any charters issued in respect of such grants have not survived. When Athelflæd died, Mercia was absorbed by Wessex. From that point on there was no contest for the throne, so the house of Wessex became the ruling house of England. Edward the Elder was succeeded by his son Æthelstan , whom Keynes calls the "towering figure in the landscape of the tenth century". His victory over
6860-556: The East Saxon dynasty continued into the ninth century. The Mercian influence and reputation reached its peak when, in the late 8th century, the most powerful European ruler of the age, the Frankish king Charlemagne , recognised the Mercian King Offa 's power and accordingly treated him with respect, even if this could have been just flattery. Michael Drout calls this period the "Golden Age", when learning flourished with
7000-411: The Elder – who with his sister, Æthelflæd , Lady of the Mercians, initially, charters reveal, encouraged people to purchase estates from the Danes, thereby to reassert some degree of English influence in territory which had fallen under Danish control. David Dumville suggests that Edward may have extended this policy by rewarding his supporters with grants of land in the territories newly conquered from
7140-533: The European Saxons who he also discussed. In England itself this compound term also came to be used in some specific situations, both in Latin and Old English. Alfred the Great , himself a West Saxon, was for example Anglosaxonum Rex in the late 880s, probably indicating that he was literally a king over both English (for example Mercian) and Saxon kingdoms. However, the term "English" continued to be used as
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#17327722441287280-538: The Great's Pastoral Care") What is presumed to be one of these "æstel" (the word only appears in this one text) is the gold, rock crystal and enamel Alfred Jewel , discovered in 1693, which is assumed to have been fitted with a small rod and used as a pointer when reading. Alfred provided functional patronage, linked to a social programme of vernacular literacy in England, which was unprecedented. Therefore it seems better to me, if it seems so to you, that we also translate certain books ...and bring it about ...if we have
7420-430: The Humber who could understand their rituals in English, or indeed could translate a letter from Latin into English; and I believe that there were not many beyond the Humber. There were so few of them that I indeed cannot think of a single one south of the Thames when I became king. (Preface: "Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care") Alfred knew that literature and learning, both in English and in Latin, were very important, but
7560-410: The Ionan supporters, who did not change their practices, withdrew to Iona. Wilfred also influenced kings to the south who were under the dominance of Oswiu, such as the son of Penda, Wulfhere of Mercia (died 675), who converted to Christianity and eventually recovered control over Mercia, and eventually expanded his dominance over most of England, beginning a long period of Mercian supremacy . By 660,
7700-592: The Kingdom of Wessex, became resurgent under their king Caedwalla . Caedwalla, probably concerned at Mercian and South Saxon influence in Southern England, conquered the land of the South Saxons and took over the Jutish areas in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight , in the late 680s. Bede describes how brutally Caedwalla suppressed the South Saxons and slaughtered the people of the Isle of Wight and replaced them with people from "his own province". Although quite young, Caedwalla abdicated shortly after this campaign and in 689 went on pilgrimage to Rome to be baptised, but died about
7840-407: The Old English speakers, or to specific tribal groups. Although the term "Anglo Saxon" was not used as a common term until modern times, it is not a modern invention because it was also used in some specific contexts already between the 8th and 10th centuries. Before the 8th century, the most common collective term for the Old-English speakers was "Saxons", which was a word originally associated since
7980-445: The Picts and Scots. Gildas did not report the year, and later writers (and modern historians) developed different estimates of when this occurred. Possibly referring to this same event, the Chronica Gallica of 452 records for the year 441: "The British provinces, which to this time had suffered various defeats and misfortunes, are reduced to Saxon rule". Bede, writing centuries later, reasoned that this happened in 450-455, and he named
8120-442: The Saxons". Cædwalla's departure in 688 appears to have led to instability in the south of England. Ine , Cædwalla's successor, abdicated in 726, and the West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List says that he reigned for thirty-seven years, implying his reign began in 689 instead of 688. This could indicate an unsettled period between Cædwalla's abdication and Ine's accession. The kingship also changed in Kent in 688, with Oswine , who
8260-507: The Saxons, giving them the ability to receive tribute from people across the lowlands of Britain. ) Gildas himself did not mention the defeated Saxons as an ongoing problem, but instead he noted that the Britons had become divided into many small "tyrannies". His interest was in criticizing the Romano-British ruling class, whereas archaeological evidence shows that Anglo-Saxon culture had long become dominant over much of Britain. Historians who accept Bede's understanding interpret Gildas as ignoring
8400-399: The Scots, who had the capacity not merely to interfere in Northumbrian affairs, but also to block a line of communication between Dublin and York; and the inhabitants of northern Northumbria were considered a law unto themselves. It was only after twenty years of crucial developments following Æthelstan's death in 939 that a unified kingdom of England began to assume its familiar shape. However,
8540-404: The South Saxons in the 680s, which implies a rather later date. Wulfhere's attack on Ashdown , also dated by the Chronicle to 661, may likewise have actually happened later. If these events happened in the early 680s or not long before, Cædwalla's aggression against Æthelwealh would be explained as a response to Mercian pressure. Another indication of the political and military situation may be
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#17327722441288680-434: The South Saxons, Wilfrid was at the court of King Æthelwealh, and on Æthelwealh's death Wilfrid attached himself to Cædwalla; the Life of Wilfrid records that Cædwalla sought Wilfrid out as a spiritual father. Bede states that Cædwalla vowed to give a quarter of the Isle of Wight to the church if he conquered the island and that Wilfrid was the beneficiary when the vow was fulfilled; Bede also says that Cædwalla agreed to let
8820-502: The archaeological record in Britain begins to indicate a relatively rapid melt-down of Roman material culture, and its replacement by Anglo-Saxon material culture. At some time between 445 and 454 Gildas , one of the only writers in this period, reported that the Britons also wrote to the Roman military leader Aëtius in Gaul, begging for assistance, with no success. In desperation, an un-named "proud tyrant" at some point invited Saxons as foederati soldiers to Britain to help defend it from
8960-478: The area around Hastings in East Sussex ( Haestingas ). They also settled in what was to become Meonwara . As well as Bede's description, there is other evidence of Jutish occupation. Droxford, in the Meon valley, was the site of a large Jutish cemetery. Also one of the local manors had the medieval custom of gavelkind , similar to that in Kent. Further there is placename evidence, linking Kent and Southern Hampshire. In 686, Bede tells us, Jutish Hampshire extended to
9100-460: The area as Provincia Meanwarorum (Province of the Meonwara ). The origin of the name Meon and its meaning is not known for sure, but possibly thought to be Celtic or Pre-Celtic for 'swift one'. During the period after the Roman occupation and before the Norman conquest, people of Germanic descent arrived in England. Bede recorded the event in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People . He said that: " Those who came over were of
9240-451: The area of Somerset and West Wiltshire, who is mentioned in two land-grants, one dated 681 and the other 688, though both documents have been treated as spurious by some historians. Further confusing the situation is another land-grant, thought to be genuine, showing Ine's father, Cenred, still reigning in Wessex after Ine's accession. Once on the throne, Cædwalla attacked the South Saxons again, this time killing Berthun, and "the province
9380-471: The area that became occupied by the West Saxons. Historians however are sceptical of this version. Most academics believe that initially the West Saxon royal house ruled over the Gewisse and their power base was in the upper Thames Valley. The missionary bishop Birinus established the episcopal see at Dorchester-on-Thames in the 630s. The history of the Gewisse is quite obscure before the arrival of Birinus, but there were probably several West Saxon groups in
9520-406: The baptismal name Peter , and died not long afterwards, "still in his white garments". He was buried in St Peter's Basilica . Bede's Ecclesiastical History and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle agree that Cædwalla died on 20 April, but the latter says that he died seven days after his baptism, although the Saturday before Easter was on 10 April that year. The epitaph on his tomb described him as "King of
9660-404: The chronicler reports, to conquer "the kingdom of the Mercians and everything south of the Humber". It was at this point that the chronicler chooses to attach Egbert's name to Bede's list of seven overlords, adding that "he was the eighth king who was Bretwalda ". Simon Keynes suggests Egbert's foundation of a 'bipartite' kingdom is crucial as it stretched across southern England, and it created
9800-439: The church and provide some of the earliest documentary sources in England. In the late 7th century, the West Saxons occupied an area in the west of southern England, though the exact boundaries are difficult to define. To their west was the native British kingdom of Dumnonia , in what is now Devon and Cornwall . To the north were the Mercians , whose king, Wulfhere , had dominated southern England during his reign. In 674 he
9940-399: The conduct of government and warfare during Æthelred's reign. It is this evidence which is the basis for Keynes's view that the king lacked the strength, judgement and resolve to give adequate leadership to his people in a time of grave national crisis; who soon found out that he could rely on little but the treachery of his military commanders; and who, throughout his reign, tasted nothing but
10080-651: The conquest of the Isle of Wight, and perhaps for this reason he abdicated in 688 to travel to Rome for baptism . He reached Rome in April 689 and was baptised by Pope Sergius I on the Saturday before Easter , dying ten days later on 20 April 689. He was succeeded by Ine . A major source for West Saxon events is the Ecclesiastical History of the English People , written about 731 by Bede ,
10220-586: The culture of the Anglo-Saxons was not transplanted from there, but rather developed in Britain. In 400, the Roman province of Britannia had long been part of the Roman Empire . Although the empire had been dismembered several times during the previous centuries, often because of usurpations beginning in Britain such as those of Magnus Maximus , and Constantine "III" there was an overall continuity and interconnectedness. Already before 400 Roman sources used
10360-592: The death of Constantine "III" in 411, "the Romans never succeeded in recovering Britain, but it remained from that time under tyrants." The Romano-Britons nevertheless called upon the empire to help them fend off attacks from not only the Saxons , but also the Picts and Scoti . A hagiography of Saint Germanus of Auxerre claims that he helped command a defence against an invasion of Picts and Saxons in 429. By about 430
10500-408: The death of Cenwalh as the start of the ten-year period in which the West Saxons were ruled by these underkings; Cenwalh is now thought to have died in about 673, so this is slightly inconsistent with Cædwalla's dates. It may be that Centwine, Cædwalla's predecessor as king of the West Saxons, began as a co-ruler but established himself as sole king by the time Cædwalla became king. It may also be that
10640-681: The defeat of the English in the Battle of Assandun in October 1016, Edmund and Cnut agreed to divide the kingdom so that Edmund would rule Wessex and Cnut Mercia, but Edmund died soon after his defeat in November 1016, making it possible for Cnut to seize power over all England. In the 11th century, there were three conquests: one by Cnut on October 18, 1016; the second was an unsuccessful attempt of Battle of Stamford Bridge in September, 1066; and
10780-420: The details of their early settlement and political development are not clear, by the 8th century a single Anglo-Saxon cultural identity which was generally called Englisc had developed out of the interaction of these settlers with the pre-existing Romano-British culture . By 1066, most of the people of what is now England spoke Old English, and were considered English. Viking and Norman invasions changed
10920-557: The division in the 660s of the West Saxon see at Dorchester-on-Thames ; a new see was established at Winchester , very near to the South Saxon border. Bede's explanation for the division is that Cenwalh grew tired of the Frankish speech of the bishop at Dorchester, but it is more likely that it was a response to the Mercian advance, which forced West Saxon expansion, such as Cædwalla's military activities, west, south, and east, rather than north. Cædwalla's military successes may be
11060-521: The error of his ways, leading to a period when the internal affairs of the kingdom appear to have prospered. The increasingly difficult times brought on by the Viking attacks are reflected in both Ælfric 's and Wulfstan 's works, but most notably in Wulfstan's fierce rhetoric in the Sermo Lupi ad Anglos , dated to 1014. Malcolm Godden suggests that ordinary people saw the return of the Vikings as
11200-399: The first time following the Anglo-Saxon invasion, coins began circulating in Kent during his reign. His son-in-law Sæberht of Essex also converted to Christianity. After Æthelberht's death in about 616/618, the most powerful king was Rædwald of East Anglia , who also gave Christianity a foothold in his kingdom, and helped to install Edwin of Northumbria , who replaced Æthelfrith to become
11340-563: The form "Cædwalla" appears to be a Saxon variant of " Cadwallon ", a contemporary Welsh name. Bede states that Cædwalla was a "daring young man of the royal house of the Gewissæ", and gives his age at his death in 689 as about thirty, making the year of his birth about 659. " Gewisse ", a tribal name, is used by Bede as an equivalent to "West Saxon": the West Saxon genealogies trace back to one "Gewis", an eponymous ancestor. According to
11480-584: The heirs of Arwald, the king of the Isle of Wight, be baptised before they were executed. Two of Cædwalla's charters were grants of land to Wilfrid, and there is also subsequent evidence that Cædwalla worked with Wilfrid and Eorcenwald , a bishop of the East Saxons, to establish an ecclesiastical infrastructure for Sussex. However, there is no evidence that Wilfrid exerted any influence over Cædwalla's secular activities or his campaigns. Wilfrid's association with Cædwalla may have benefited him in other ways:
11620-419: The ignominy of defeat. The raids exposed tensions and weaknesses which went deep into the fabric of the late Anglo-Saxon state, and it is apparent that events proceeded against a background more complex than the chronicler probably knew. It seems, for example, that the death of Bishop Æthelwold in 984 had precipitated further reaction against certain ecclesiastical interests; that by 993 the king had come to regret
11760-460: The imminent "expectation of the apocalypse," and this was given voice in Ælfric and Wulfstan writings, which is similar to that of Gildas and Bede. Raids were taken as signs of God punishing his people; Ælfric refers to people adopting the customs of the Danish and exhorts people not to abandon the native customs on behalf of the Danish ones, and then requests a "brother Edward" to try to put an end to
11900-411: The insistence of Athelstan, right at the end of his reign in 939. Between 970 and 973 a council was held, under the aegis of Edgar, where a set of rules were devised that would be applicable throughout England. This put all the monks and nuns in England under one set of detailed customs for the first time. In 973, Edgar received a special second, 'imperial coronation' at Bath , and from this point England
12040-464: The king of Sussex. He was, however, soon expelled by Berthun and Andhun , Æthelwealh's ealdormen , "who administered the country from then on", possibly as kings. The Isle of Wight and the Meon valley in what is now eastern Hampshire had been placed under Æthelwealh's control by Wulfhere; the Chronicle dates this to 661, but according to Bede it occurred "not long before" Wilfrid 's mission to
12180-483: The kingdom of England was indeed made whole. In his formal address to the gathering at Winchester the king urged his bishops, abbots and abbesses "to be of one mind as regards monastic usage . . . lest differing ways of observing the customs of one Rule and one country should bring their holy conversation into disrepute". Athelstan's court had been an intellectual incubator. In that court were two young men named Dunstan and Æthelwold who were made priests, supposedly at
12320-507: The latter was preaching. Later, Northumberland 's patron saint, Saint Cuthbert , was an abbot of the monastery, and then Bishop of Lindisfarne . An anonymous life of Cuthbert written at Lindisfarne is the oldest extant piece of English historical writing, and in his memory a gospel (known as the St Cuthbert Gospel ) was placed in his coffin. The decorated leather bookbinding is the oldest intact European binding. In 664,
12460-522: The law. However this legislation also reveals the persistent difficulties which confronted the king and his councillors in bringing a troublesome people under some form of control. His claim to be "king of the English" was by no means widely recognised. The situation was complex: the Hiberno-Norse rulers of Dublin still coveted their interests in the Danish kingdom of York ; terms had to be made with
12600-519: The locals and immigrants were being buried together using the same new customs, and that they were having mixed children. The authors estimate the effective contributions to modern English ancestry are between 25% and 47% "north continental", 11% and 57% from British Iron Age ancestors, and 14% and 43% was attributed to a more stretched-out migration into southern England, from nearby populations such as modern Belgium and France. There were significant regional variations in north continental ancestry ― lower in
12740-461: The major political problem for Edmund and Eadred , who succeeded Æthelstan, remained the difficulty of subjugating the north. In 959 Edgar is said to have "succeeded to the kingdom both in Wessex and in Mercia and in Northumbria, and he was then 16 years old" (ASC, version 'B', 'C'), and is called "the Peacemaker". By the early 970s, after a decade of Edgar's 'peace', it may have seemed that
12880-527: The most powerful and influential women in Europe. Double monasteries which were built on strategic sites near rivers and coasts, accumulated immense wealth and power over multiple generations (their inheritances were not divided) and became centers of art and learning. While Aldhelm was doing his work in Malmesbury , far from him, up in the North of England, Bede was writing a large quantity of books, gaining
13020-529: The overall group in Britain as the "English" people (Latin Angli , gens Anglorum or Old English Angelcynn ). In Bede's work the term "Saxon" is also used to refer sometimes to the Old English language, and also to refer to the early pagan Anglo-Saxons before the arrival of Christian missionaries among the Anglo-Saxons of Kent in 597. The term "Saxon", on the other hand, was at this time increasingly used by mainland writers to designate specific northern neighbours of
13160-526: The particular privilege of receiving the cleansing of baptism at the shrine of the blessed Apostles". He stopped in Francia at Samer , near Calais , where he gave money for the foundation of a church, and is also recorded at the court of Cunincpert , king of the Lombards , in what is now northern Italy . In Rome, he was baptised by Pope Sergius I on the Saturday before Easter (according to Bede) taking
13300-424: The peace, that all the youth of free men who now are in England, those who have the means that they may apply themselves to it, be set to learning, while they may not be set to any other use, until the time when they can well read English writings. (Preface: "Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care") This began a growth in charters, law, theology and learning. Alfred thus laid the foundation for the great accomplishments of
13440-581: The people to their knees in 1009–12, when a large part of the country was devastated by the army of Thorkell the Tall . It remained for Swein Forkbeard , king of Denmark, to conquer the kingdom of England in 1013–14, and (after Æthelred's restoration) for his son Cnut to achieve the same in 1015–16. The tale of these years incorporated in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle must be read in its own right, and set beside other material which reflects in one way or another on
13580-665: The people's sins, raising awareness of a collective Christian identity; and by 'conquering' the kingdoms of the East Angles, the Northumbrians and the Mercians, they created a vacuum in the leadership of the English people. Danish settlement continued in Mercia in 877 and East Anglia in 879—80 and 896. The rest of the army meanwhile continued to harry and plunder on both sides of the Channel, with new recruits evidently arriving to swell its ranks, for it clearly continued to be
13720-408: The political map of Lowland Britain had developed with smaller territories coalescing into kingdoms, and from this time larger kingdoms started dominating the smaller kingdoms. The development of kingdoms, with a particular king being recognised as an overlord, developed out of an early loose structure that, Higham believes, is linked back to the original feodus . The traditional name for this period
13860-476: The politics and culture of England significantly, but the overarching Anglo-Saxon identity evolved and remained dominant even after the Norman Conquest. Late Anglo-Saxon political structures and language are the direct predecessors of the high medieval Kingdom of England and the Middle English language. Although the modern English language owes less than 26% of its words to Old English, this includes
14000-516: The preface: ...When I had learned it I translated it into English, just as I had understood it, and as I could most meaningfully render it. And I will send one to each bishopric in my kingdom, and in each will be an æstel worth fifty mancuses. And I command in God's name that no man may take the æstel from the book nor the book from the church. It is unknown how long there may be such learned bishops as, thanks to God, are nearly everywhere. (Preface: "Gregory
14140-416: The question of physical Anglo-Saxon migration and concluded that there was large-scale immigration of both men and women into Eastern England, from a "north continental" population matching early medieval people from the area stretching from northern Netherlands through northern Germany to Denmark. This began already in the Roman era, and then increased rapidly in the 5th century. The burial evidence showed that
14280-479: The raiding activity or piracy reported in western Europe. In 793, Lindisfarne was raided and while this was not the first raid of its type it was the most prominent. In 794, Jarrow, the monastery where Bede wrote, was attacked; in 795 Iona in Scotland was attacked; and in 804 the nunnery at Lyminge in Kent was granted refuge inside the walls of Canterbury. Sometime around 800, a Reeve from Portland in Wessex
14420-402: The reason that at about this time the term "West Saxon" starts to be used in contemporary sources, instead of "Gewisse". It is from this time that the West Saxons began to rule over other Anglo-Saxon peoples. In 685 or 686, Cædwalla became king of the West Saxons after Centwine , his predecessor, retired to a monastery. Bede gives Cædwalla a reign of two years, ending in 688, but if his reign
14560-425: The region they called " Old Saxony ", in what is now northern Germany , which in their own time had become well-known as a region resisting the spread of Christianity and Frankish rule . According to this account, the English (Angle) migrants came from a country neighbouring those Saxons. Anglo-Saxon material culture can be seen in architecture , dress styles , illuminated texts, metalwork and other art . Behind
14700-527: The richest pickings, crossing the English Channel when faced with resolute opposition, as in England in 878, or with famine, as on the Continent in 892. By this stage, the Vikings were assuming ever increasing importance as catalysts of social and political change. They constituted the common enemy, making the English more conscious of a national identity which overrode deeper distinctions; they could be perceived as an instrument of divine punishment for
14840-518: The second king over the two kingdoms north of the Humber, Bernicia and Deira . After Rædwald died, Cadwallon ap Cadfan, the king of Gwynedd , in alliance with king Penda of Mercia , killed Edwin in battle at Hatfield Chase . Æthelfrith's son Oswald subsequently became the third king of Northumbria. Although not included in Bede's list of rulers with imperium, Penda defeated and killed Oswald in 642 and
14980-430: The southern Danelaw, and finally over Northumbria, thereby imposing a semblance of political unity on peoples, who nonetheless would remain conscious of their respective customs and their separate pasts. The prestige, and indeed the pretensions, of the monarchy increased, the institutions of government strengthened, and kings and their agents sought in various ways to establish social order. This process started with Edward
15120-476: The state of learning was not good when Alfred came to the throne. Alfred saw kingship as a priestly office, a shepherd for his people. One book that was particularly valuable to him was Gregory the Great's Cura Pastoralis (Pastoral Care). This is a priest's guide on how to care for people. Alfred took this book as his own guide on how to be a good king to his people; hence, a good king to Alfred increases literacy. Alfred translated this book himself and explains in
15260-440: The surviving works of Anglo-Latin and vernacular literature, as well as the numerous manuscripts written in the 10th century, testify in their different ways to the vitality of ecclesiastical culture. Yet as Keynes suggests "it does not follow that the 10th century is better understood than more sparsely documented periods". During the course of the 10th century, the West Saxon kings extended their power first over Mercia, then into
15400-464: The symbolic nature of these cultural emblems, there are strong elements of tribal and lordship ties. The elite declared themselves kings who developed burhs (fortifications and fortified settlements), and identified their roles and peoples in Biblical terms. Above all, as archaeologist Helena Hamerow has observed, "local and extended kin groups remained...the essential unit of production throughout
15540-528: The tenth century and did much to make the vernacular more important than Latin in Anglo-Saxon culture. I desired to live worthily as long as I lived, and to leave after my life, to the men who should come after me, the memory of me in good works. (Preface: "The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius") A framework for the momentous events of the 10th and 11th centuries is provided by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle . However charters, law-codes and coins supply detailed information on various aspects of royal government, and
15680-477: The term Saxons to refer to coastal raiders who had been causing problems especially on the coasts of the North Sea . In what is now south-eastern England the Romans established a military commander who was assigned to oversee a chain of coastal forts which they called the Saxon shore . The homeland of these Saxon raiders was not clearly described in surviving sources but they were apparently the northerly neighbours of
15820-399: The third was conducted by William of Normandy in October, 1066 at Hastings. The consequences of each conquest changed the Anglo-Saxon culture. Politically and chronologically, the texts of this period are not Anglo-Saxon; linguistically, those written in English (as opposed to Latin or French, the other official written languages of the period) moved away from the late West Saxon standard that
15960-473: The three most powerful nations of Germany—Saxons, Angles, and Jutes. From the Jutes are descended the people of Kent, and of the Isle of Wight, and those also in the province of the West Saxons who are to this day called Jutes, seated opposite to the Isle of Wight." It is likely that the Jutes initially inhabited Kent ( Cantaware ) and from there they occupied the Isle of Wight ( Wihtwara ) and also possibly
16100-453: The time of Magnus Maximus in the late 4th century. Bede, whose report of this period is partly based on Gildas, believed that the call was answered by kings from three powerful tribes from Germania, Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. The Saxons came from Old Saxony on the North Sea coast of Germany, and settled in Wessex , Sussex and Essex . Jutland , the peninsula containing part of Denmark,
16240-403: The underkings were another dynastic faction of the West Saxon royal line, vying for power with Centwine and Cædwalla; the description of them as "underkings" may be due to a partisan description of the situation by Bishop Daniel of Winchester, who was Bede's primary informant on West Saxon events. It is also possible that not all the underkings were deposed. There is a King Bealdred, who reigned in
16380-464: The upper Thames Valley and Wiltshire. The West Saxons' neighbours to the north were the Mercians. In the 7th century Mercian power was in the ascendent, so the West Saxons could not expand northwards. This led them to concentrate on the lands beyond their southern borders. Wulfhere of Mercia advanced into southern Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in about 681. Shortly afterwards he gave the Isle of Wight and Meonwara to Æthelwealh of Sussex , possibly as
16520-433: The vast majority of everyday words. In the early 8th century, the earliest detailed account of Anglo-Saxon origins was given by Bede (d. 735), suggesting that they were long divided into smaller regional kingdoms, each with differing accounts of their continental origins. As a collective term, the compound term Anglo-Saxon , commonly used by modern historians for the period before 1066, first appears in Bede's time, but it
16660-530: The very edge of Europe, could be as learned and sophisticated as any writers in Europe." During this period, the wealth and power of the monasteries increased as elite families, possibly out of power, turned to monastic life. Anglo-Saxon monasticism developed the unusual institution of the "double monastery": a house of monks and a house of nuns, living next to each other, sharing a church but never mixing, and living separate lives of celibacy. These double monasteries were presided over by abbesses, who became some of
16800-586: The west, and highest in Sussex, the East Midlands and East Anglia. From the time of the Christian conversions the first well-attested English kings and kingdoms appear in the written record. This situation with a small number of kingdoms competing for dominance is traditionally called the Heptarchy , which indicates a period of seven kingdoms. There were however more than seven kingdoms, and their interactions were quite complex. In 595 Augustine landed on
16940-520: The western edge of the New Forest ; however that seems to include another Jutish people, the Ytene , and it is not certain that these two territories formed a continuous coastal block. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records a series of landings by Anglo-Saxon settlers, during the years 449–514, in the area that became Meonwara . According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle the founders of Meonwara were
17080-399: The work of Catherine Hills and Sam Lucy on the evidence of Spong Hill has moved the chronology for the settlement earlier than 450, with a significant number of items now in phases before Bede's date. Historian Guy Halsall has even speculated that Gildas was badly misread by Bede and all subsequent historians, and that the invitation of the foederati was part of a military reorganization in
17220-505: Was apparently a Mercian client, taking the throne; and there is evidence of East Saxon influence in Kent in the years immediately following Cædwalla's abdication. In 694, Ine extracted compensation of 30,000 pence from the Kentishmen for the death of Mul; this amount represented the value of an aetheling 's life in the Saxon system of Weregild . Ine appears to have retained control of Surrey, but did not recover Kent. No king of Wessex
17360-571: Was dominant over the southern kingdoms. At the time of the battle of the river Winwæd, thirty duces regii (royal generals) fought on his behalf. Although there are many gaps in the evidence, it is clear that the seventh-century Mercian kings were formidable rulers who were able to exercise a wide-ranging overlordship from their Midland base. Mercian military success was the basis of their power; it succeeded against not only 106 kings and kingdoms by winning set-piece battles, but by ruthlessly ravaging any area foolish enough to withhold tribute. There are
17500-426: Was killed when he mistook some raiders for ordinary traders. Viking raids continued until in 850, then the Chronicle says: "The heathen for the first time remained over the winter". The fleet does not appear to have stayed long in England, but it started a trend which others subsequently followed. In particular, the army which arrived in 865 remained over many winters, and part of it later settled what became known as
17640-603: Was known as the place of the Mierce , the border or frontier folk, in Latin Mercia. Mercia was a diverse area of tribal groups, as shown by the Tribal Hidage; the peoples were a mixture of Brittonic speaking peoples and "Anglo-Saxon" pioneers and their early leaders had Brittonic names, such as Penda . Although Penda does not appear in Bede's list of great overlords, it would appear from what Bede says elsewhere that he
17780-476: Was later seen by Bede as the third king to have imperium over the English south of the Humber , having replaced Ceawlin of Wessex (died about 593), and before this generation there are only semi-mythical accounts of earlier kings. Æthelberht's law for Kent, the earliest written code in any Germanic language , instituted a complex system of fines. Kent was rich, with strong trade ties to the continent, and Æthelberht may have instituted royal control over trade. For
17920-465: Was less than three years then he may have come to the throne in 685. The West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List gives his reign a length of three years, with one variant reading of two years. According to Bede, before Cædwalla's reign, Wessex was ruled by underkings, who were conquered and removed when Cædwalla became king. This has been taken to mean that Cædwalla himself ended the reign of the underkings, though Bede does not directly say this. Bede gives
18060-513: Was only a few years after Constantine "III" was declared Roman emperor in Britain, and during the period that he was still leading British Roman forces in rebellion on the continent. The rebellion was soon quashed, the Romano-British citizens reportedly expelled Constantine's imperial officials during this period, but they never again received new Roman officials or military forces. Writing in the mid-sixth century, Procopius states that after
18200-401: Was persuaded by a priest to let them be baptised before they were executed. Bede also mentions that Cædwalla was wounded; he was recovering from his wounds when the priest found him to ask permission to baptise the princes. In a charter of 688, Cædwalla grants land at Farnham for a minster , so it is evident that Cædwalla controlled Surrey. He also invaded Kent, in 686, and may have founded
18340-518: Was probably not widely used until modern times. Bede was one of the first writers to prefer " Angles " (or English) as the collective term, and this eventually became dominant. Bede, like other authors, also continued to use the collective term " Saxons ", especially when referring to the earliest periods of settlement. Roman and British writers of the 3rd to 6th century had described those earliest Saxons as North Sea raiders, and mercenaries. Later sources such as Bede believed these early raiders came from
18480-478: Was reduced to a worse state of subjection". He also conquered the Isle of Wight, which was still an independent pagan kingdom, and set himself to kill every native on the island, resettling it with his own people, though Bede states that the natives remained a majority on the island. Arwald , the king of the Isle of Wight, left his two young brothers as heirs. They fled the island, but were found at Stoneham , in Hampshire , and killed on Cædwalla's orders, though he
18620-508: Was ruled by Edgar under the strong influence of Dunstan, Athelwold, and Oswald , the Bishop of Worcester. The reign of King Æthelred the Unready witnessed the resumption of Viking raids on England, putting the country and its leadership under strains as severe as they were long sustained. Raids began on a relatively small scale in the 980s but became far more serious in the 990s, and brought
18760-417: Was ruled by underkings until Cædwalla. After his accession, Cædwalla returned to Sussex and won the territory again. He also conquered the Isle of Wight , gained control of Surrey and the kingdom of Kent , and in 686 he installed his brother Mul as king of Kent. Mul was burned in a Kentish revolt a year later, and Cædwalla returned, possibly ruling Kent directly for a period. Cædwalla was wounded during
18900-428: Was succeeded by his brother, Æthelred , who was less militarily active than Wulfhere had been along the frontier with Wessex, though the West Saxons did not recover the territorial gains Wulfhere had made. To the southeast was the kingdom of the South Saxons , in what is now Sussex; and to the east were the East Saxons , who controlled London . Not all the locations named in the Chronicle can be identified, but it
19040-586: Was supposedly distinct from Britain itself, was settled by three nations: the Angili, Frissones, and Brittones, each ruled by its own king. Each nation was so prolific that it sent large numbers of individuals every year to the Franks, who planted them in unpopulated regions of their territory. By the 8th century the Saxons in Germany were seen as a country, and writers such as Bede and some of his contemporaries including Alcuin , and Saint Boniface , began to refer to
19180-677: Was the King of Wessex from approximately 685 until he abdicated in 688. His name is derived from the Welsh Cadwallon . He was exiled from Wessex as a youth and during this period gathered forces and attacked the South Saxons , killing their king, Æthelwealh , in what is now Sussex . Cædwalla was unable to hold the South Saxon territory, however, and was driven out by Æthelwealh's ealdormen . In either 685 or 686, he became King of Wessex. He may have been involved in suppressing rival dynasties at this time, as an early source records that Wessex
19320-465: Was the dominant king of the English until he was himself killed in battle against Oswald's brother Oswiu in 655. Oswiu remained the dominant king of England until he died in 670. In 635, Aidan , an Irish monk from Iona , chose the Isle of Lindisfarne to establish a monastery which was close to King Oswald 's main fortress of Bamburgh . He had been at the monastery in Iona when Oswald asked to be sent
19460-528: Was the homeland of the Jutes who settled in Kent and the Isle of Wight . The Angles (or English) were from 'Anglia', a country which Bede understood to have now been emptied, and which lay between the homelands of the Saxons and Jutes. Anglia is usually interpreted as the old Schleswig-Holstein Province (straddling the modern Danish - German border), and containing the modern Angeln . Although this represents
19600-449: Was unbaptised when he came to the throne of Wessex, and remained so throughout his reign, but though he is often referred to as a pagan this is not necessarily the most apt description; it may be that he was already Christian in his beliefs but delayed his baptism to a time of his choice. He was clearly respectful of the church, with charter evidence showing multiple grants to churches and for religious buildings. When Cædwalla first attacked
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