174-727: The Tetbury Avon , also known as the River Avon (Tetbury Branch), Little Avon or Ingleburn ( Anglo-Saxon – English river), is a tributary of the Bristol Avon in south-west England. It rises at Tetbury in Gloucestershire and flows in a generally south-easterly direction, joining the Sherston Avon at Malmesbury in Wiltshire . The water flow has been reduced by public water extraction from its source aquifer in
348-457: A puer oblatus to the monastery of Monkwearmouth by his family to be educated by Benedict Biscop and later by Ceolfrith . Bede does not say whether it was already intended at that point that he would be a monk. It was fairly common in Ireland at this time for young boys, particularly those of noble birth, to be fostered out as an oblate; the practice was also likely to have been common among
522-530: 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
696-523: A penitential , though his authorship of this work is disputed. Bede's best-known work is the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum , or An Ecclesiastical History of the English People , completed in about 731. Bede was aided in writing this book by Albinus , abbot of St Augustine's Abbey , Canterbury . The first of the five books begins with some geographical background and then sketches
870-421: 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
1044-628: 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
1218-500: 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
1392-408: A different day of the year. The other approach was to use regnal years—the reigning Roman emperor, for example, or the ruler of whichever kingdom was under discussion. This meant that in discussing conflicts between kingdoms, the date would have to be given in the regnal years of all the kings involved. Bede used both these approaches on occasion but adopted a third method as his main approach to dating:
1566-420: 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
1740-528: 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
1914-409: 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
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#17327662997282088-479: 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
2262-620: A maximum of 141 cubic feet per second (4.0 m/s) and a minimum of 1 cubic foot per second (0.028 m/s). It is believed that abstraction of public water supplies from the Great Oolite aquifer of the Cotswolds has reduced flows in the Tetbury Avon, making it difficult to maintain high water quality and having a negative effect on the ecology. Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons , in some contexts simply called Saxons or
2436-612: 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
2610-607: A modern writer of history. His focus on the history of the organisation of the English church, and on heresies and the efforts made to root them out, led him to exclude the secular history of kings and kingdoms except where a moral lesson could be drawn or where they illuminated events in the church. Besides the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , the medieval writers William of Malmesbury , Henry of Huntingdon , and Geoffrey of Monmouth used his works as sources and inspirations. Early modern writers, such as Polydore Vergil and Matthew Parker ,
2784-624: 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
2958-701: 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
3132-641: 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
3306-567: 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
3480-507: 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
3654-595: A rhetorical device. Bede wrote scientific, historical and theological works, reflecting the range of his writings from music and metrics to exegetical Scripture commentaries. He knew patristic literature, as well as Pliny the Elder , Virgil , Lucretius , Ovid , Horace and other classical writers. He knew some Greek. Bede's scriptural commentaries employed the allegorical method of interpretation, and his history includes accounts of miracles, which to modern historians has seemed at odds with his critical approach to
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#17327662997283828-522: A scribe, however, and despite spending the night awake in prayer he dictated again the following day. At three o'clock, according to Cuthbert, he asked for a box of his to be brought and distributed among the priests of the monastery "a few treasures" of his: "some pepper, and napkins, and some incense". That night he dictated a final sentence to the scribe, a boy named Wilberht, and died soon afterwards. The account of Cuthbert does not make entirely clear whether Bede died before midnight or after. However, by
4002-524: A singer and as a reciter of poetry in the vernacular. It is possible that he suffered a speech impediment, but this depends on a phrase in the introduction to his verse life of St Cuthbert. Translations of this phrase differ, and it is uncertain whether Bede intended to say that he was cured of a speech problem, or merely that he was inspired by the saint's works. In 708, some monks at Hexham accused Bede of having committed heresy in his work De Temporibus . The standard theological view of world history at
4176-468: A source for Germanus 's visits to Britain. Bede's account of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain is drawn largely from Gildas 's De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae . Bede would also have been familiar with more recent accounts such as Stephen of Ripon 's Life of Wilfrid , and anonymous Life of Gregory the Great and Life of Cuthbert . He also drew on Josephus 's Antiquities , and
4350-519: A tradition of Christian faith that continues. Bede, like Gregory the Great whom Bede quotes on the subject in the Historia , felt that faith brought about by miracles was a stepping stone to a higher, truer faith, and that as a result miracles had their place in a work designed to instruct. Bede is somewhat reticent about the career of Wilfrid, a contemporary and one of the most prominent clerics of his day. This may be because Wilfrid's opulent lifestyle
4524-750: A translation of the Greek Passion of St Anastasius . He also created a listing of saints, the Martyrology . In his own time, Bede was as well known for his biblical commentaries, and for his exegetical and other theological works. The majority of his writings were of this type and covered the Old Testament and the New Testament. Most survived the Middle Ages, but a few were lost. It was for his theological writings that he earned
4698-526: 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
4872-684: A version of the Liber Pontificalis current at least to the papacy of Pope Sergius I (687–701), and other sources. For earlier events he drew on Eusebius's Chronikoi Kanones. The dating of events in the Chronicle is inconsistent with his other works, using the era of creation, the Anno Mundi . His other historical works included lives of the abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow, as well as verse and prose lives of St Cuthbert , an adaptation of Paulinus of Nola 's Life of St Felix , and
5046-568: 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
5220-497: 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
5394-794: Is believed to have been used by Bede survives and is now in the Bodleian Library at University of Oxford . It is known as the Codex Laudianus . Bede may have worked on some of the Latin Bibles that were copied at Jarrow, one of which, the Codex Amiatinus , is now held by the Laurentian Library in Florence . Bede was a teacher as well as a writer; he enjoyed music and was said to be accomplished as
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5568-571: 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. Bede Bede ( / b iː d / ; Old English : Bēda [ˈbeːdɑ] ; 672/3 – 26 May 735), also known as Saint Bede ,
5742-560: Is easy to read. In the words of Charles Plummer , one of the best-known editors of the Historia Ecclesiastica , Bede's Latin is "clear and limpid ... it is very seldom that we have to pause to think of the meaning of a sentence ... Alcuin rightly praises Bede for his unpretending style." Bede's primary intention in writing the Historia Ecclesiastica was to show the growth of the united church throughout England. The native Britons, whose Christian church survived
5916-640: Is joined on the right by the Wormwell Brook, which has its origin at Westonbirt . Passing through Shipton Wood the river forms a lake, created as part of the Estcourt Estate in the late 18th century. It then enters Wiltshire near the village of Brokenborough , flowing to the north of Malmesbury where it joins the Sherston Avon at the eastern edge of the town. As is common amongst Cotswold streams, many watermills were established from early times for fulling wool and grinding corn. Shipton Mill in
6090-408: Is known of Bede's life is contained in the last chapter of his Ecclesiastical History of the English People , a history of the church in England. It was completed in about 731, and Bede implies that he was then in his fifty-ninth year, which would give a birth date in 672 or 673. A minor source of information is the letter by his disciple Cuthbert (not to be confused with the saint, Cuthbert , who
6264-589: Is known to have visited Bede, though the date cannot be determined beyond the fact that it was after Nothhelm's visit to Rome. Except for a few visits to other monasteries, his life was spent in a round of prayer, observance of the monastic discipline and study of the Sacred Scriptures. He was considered the most learned man of his time. Bede died on the Feast of the Ascension , Thursday, 26 May 735, on
6438-576: Is likely that Bede's work, because it was so widely copied, discouraged others from writing histories and may even have led to the disappearance of manuscripts containing older historical works. As Chapter 66 of his On the Reckoning of Time , in 725 Bede wrote the Greater Chronicle ( chronica maiora ), which sometimes circulated as a separate work. For recent events the Chronicle , like his Ecclesiastical History , relied upon Gildas, upon
6612-556: Is mentioned in Bede's work) which relates Bede's death. Bede, in the Historia , gives his birthplace as "on the lands of this monastery". He is referring to the twin monasteries of Monkwearmouth and Jarrow, in modern-day Wearside and Tyneside respectively. There is also a tradition that he was born at Monkton , two miles from the site where the monastery at Jarrow was later built. Bede says nothing of his origins, but his connections with men of noble ancestry suggest that his own family
6786-629: Is taken from these letters. Bede acknowledged his correspondents in the preface to the Historia Ecclesiastica ; he was in contact with Bishop Daniel of Winchester , for information about the history of the church in Wessex and also wrote to the monastery at Lastingham for information about Cedd and Chad . Bede also mentions an Abbot Esi as a source for the affairs of the East Anglian church, and Bishop Cynibert for information about Lindsey. The historian Walter Goffart argues that Bede based
6960-592: 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
7134-614: 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,
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7308-613: 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,
7482-535: The Anno Domini method invented by Dionysius Exiguus . Although Bede did not invent this method, his adoption of it and his promulgation of it in De Temporum Ratione , his work on chronology, is the main reason it is now so widely used. Bede's Easter table, contained in De Temporum Ratione , was developed from Dionysius Exiguus' Easter table . The Historia Ecclesiastica was copied often in
7656-566: The Historia Ecclesiastica , and also the Chronicon , though he had neither in the original Greek; instead he had a Latin translation of the Historia , by Rufinus, and Jerome 's translation of the Chronicon . He also knew Orosius's Adversus Paganus , and Gregory of Tours ' Historia Francorum , both Christian histories, as well as the work of Eutropius , a pagan historian. He used Constantius 's Life of Germanus as
7830-560: The Cotswold Hills . In the past watermills were used for fulling wool and grinding corn; one working mill survives. The Tetbury Avon rises at Wor Well to the north east of Tetbury in the Cotswold Hills . It flows first in a southerly direction, joined on the right bank by the Cutwell Brook at the southeast of the town. The river now turns in the southeasterly direction into a steep valley through Estcourt Park, where it
8004-577: The Council of Whitby , traditionally seen as a major turning point in English history. The fourth book begins with the consecration of Theodore as Archbishop of Canterbury and recounts Wilfrid's efforts to bring Christianity to the Kingdom of Sussex . The fifth book brings the story up to Bede's day and includes an account of missionary work in Frisia and of the conflict with the British church over
8178-545: 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
8352-613: 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
8526-578: 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
8700-674: 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
8874-576: 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
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#17327662997289048-466: The Kingdom of Northumbria of the Angles . Born on lands belonging to the twin monastery of Monkwearmouth–Jarrow in present-day Tyne and Wear , England, Bede was sent to Monkwearmouth at the age of seven and later joined Abbot Ceolfrith at Jarrow . Both of them survived a plague that struck in 686 and killed the majority of the population there. While Bede spent most of his life in the monastery, he travelled to several abbeys and monasteries across
9222-423: The Synod of Whitby in 664. Bede is also concerned to show the unity of the English, despite the disparate kingdoms that still existed when he was writing. He also wants to instruct the reader by spiritual example and to entertain, and to the latter end he adds stories about many of the places and people about which he wrote. N. J. Higham argues that Bede designed his work to promote his reform agenda to Ceolwulf,
9396-431: 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
9570-405: 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
9744-497: 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,
9918-438: 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
10092-421: The Anglo-Saxon period". His Latin has been praised for its clarity, but his style in the Historia Ecclesiastica is not simple. He knew rhetoric and often used figures of speech and rhetorical forms which cannot easily be reproduced in translation, depending as they often do on the connotations of the Latin words. However, unlike contemporaries such as Aldhelm , whose Latin is full of difficulties, Bede's own text
10266-430: 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
10440-408: 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
10614-465: The Anglo-Saxons whom he regards as having held imperium , or overlordship; only one king of Wessex, Ceawlin , is listed as Bretwalda , and none from Mercia, though elsewhere he acknowledges the secular power several of the Mercians held. Historian Robin Fleming states that he was so hostile to Mercia because Northumbria had been diminished by Mercian power that he consulted no Mercian informants and included no stories about its saints. Bede relates
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#173276629972810788-402: The British Isles, even visiting the archbishop of York and King Ceolwulf of Northumbria . His theological writings were extensive and included a number of Biblical commentaries and other works of exegetical erudition. Another important area of study for Bede was the academic discipline of computus , otherwise known to his contemporaries as the science of calculating calendar dates. One of
10962-413: 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
11136-502: 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
11310-406: 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
11484-432: 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
11658-411: 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
11832-491: The Elizabethan Archbishop of Canterbury, also utilised the Historia , and his works were used by both Protestant and Catholic sides in the wars of religion . Some historians have questioned the reliability of some of Bede's accounts. One historian, Charlotte Behr, thinks that the Historia's account of the arrival of the Germanic invaders in Kent should not be considered to relate what actually happened, but rather relates myths that were current in Kent during Bede's time. It
12006-416: 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
12180-564: The Germanic peoples in England. Monkwearmouth's sister monastery at Jarrow was founded by Ceolfrith in 682, and Bede probably transferred to Jarrow with Ceolfrith that year. The dedication stone for the church has survived as of 1969 ; it is dated 23 April 685, and as Bede would have been required to assist with menial tasks in his day-to-day life it is possible that he helped in building the original church. In 686, plague broke out at Jarrow. The Life of Ceolfrith , written in about 710, records that only two surviving monks were capable of singing
12354-538: 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
12528-461: The Gregorian mission, Goffart feels was modelled on Life of Wilfrid . Most of Bede's informants for information after Augustine's mission came from the eastern part of Britain, leaving significant gaps in the knowledge of the western areas, which were those areas likely to have a native Briton presence. Bede's stylistic models included some of the same authors from whom he drew the material for
12702-588: 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
12876-462: 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,
13050-590: The Middle Ages, and about 160 manuscripts containing it survive. About half of those are located on the European continent, rather than in the British Isles. Most of the 8th- and 9th-century texts of Bede's Historia come from the northern parts of the Carolingian Empire . This total does not include manuscripts with only a part of the work, of which another 100 or so survive. It was printed for
13224-532: The Northumbrian king. Bede painted a highly optimistic picture of the current situation in the Church, as opposed to the more pessimistic picture found in his private letters. Bede's extensive use of miracles can prove difficult for readers who consider him a more or less reliable historian but do not accept the possibility of miracles. Yet both reflect an inseparable integrity and regard for accuracy and truth, expressed in terms both of historical events and of
13398-527: 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
13572-497: 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
13746-679: 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
13920-399: 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,
14094-537: The Venerable Bede , and Bede the Venerable ( Latin : Beda Venerabilis ), was an English monk , author and scholar. He was one of the greatest teachers and writers during the Early Middle Ages , and his most famous work, Ecclesiastical History of the English People , gained him the title "The Father of English History ". He served at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in
14268-416: The abbess of Ely. Wilfrid had been present at the exhumation of her body in 695, and Bede questioned the bishop about the exact circumstances of the body and asked for more details of her life, as Wilfrid had been her advisor. In 733, Bede travelled to York to visit Ecgbert, who was then bishop of York . The See of York was elevated to an archbishopric in 735, and it is likely that Bede and Ecgbert discussed
14442-466: The abbot during this visit, and it may be that Adomnán sparked Bede's interest in the Easter dating controversy . In about 692, in Bede's nineteenth year, Bede was ordained a deacon by his diocesan bishop, John , who was bishop of Hexham . The canonical age for the ordination of a deacon was 25; Bede's early ordination may mean that his abilities were considered exceptional, but it is also possible that
14616-429: The achievements of Mercia and Wessex, omitting, for example, any mention of Boniface, a West Saxon missionary to the continent of some renown and of whom Bede had almost certainly heard, though Bede does discuss Northumbrian missionaries to the continent. He is also parsimonious in his praise for Aldhelm , a West Saxon who had done much to convert the native Britons to the Roman form of Christianity. He lists seven kings of
14790-464: The aim of all his scholarship, was a belief common among historians in the past but is no longer accepted by most scholars. Modern historians and editors of Bede have been lavish in their praise of his achievement in the Historia Ecclesiastica . Stenton regards it as one of the "small class of books which transcend all but the most fundamental conditions of time and place", and regards its quality as dependent on Bede's "astonishing power of co-ordinating
14964-553: 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
15138-404: 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
15312-462: The classroom. He continued to write for the rest of his life, eventually completing over 60 books, most of which have survived. Not all his output can be easily dated, and Bede may have worked on some texts over a period of many years. His last surviving work is a letter to Ecgbert of York , a former student, written in 734. A 6th-century Greek and Latin manuscript of Acts of the Apostles that
15486-399: 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
15660-458: The conjugal duty because as often as I perform what is due to my wife I am not able to pray." Another passage, in the Commentary on Luke , also mentions a wife in the first person: "Formerly I possessed a wife in the lustful passion of desire and now I possess her in honourable sanctification and true love of Christ." The historian Benedicta Ward argued that these passages are Bede employing
15834-613: The coronation of Charlemagne in 800. In 1899, Pope Leo XIII declared him a Doctor of the Church . He is the only native of Great Britain to achieve this designation. Bede was moreover a skilled linguist and translator, and his work made the Latin and Greek writings of the early Church Fathers much more accessible to his fellow Anglo-Saxons , which contributed significantly to English Christianity . Bede's monastery had access to an impressive library which included works by Eusebius , Orosius , and many others. Almost everything that
16008-444: The correct dating of Easter. Bede wrote a preface for the work, in which he dedicates it to Ceolwulf , king of Northumbria. The preface mentions that Ceolwulf received an earlier draft of the book; presumably Ceolwulf knew enough Latin to understand it, and he may even have been able to read it. The preface makes it clear that Ceolwulf had requested the earlier copy, and Bede had asked for Ceolwulf's approval; this correspondence with
16182-586: 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
16356-592: 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
16530-681: 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
16704-461: The departure of the Romans, earn Bede's ire for refusing to help convert the Anglo-Saxons; by the end of the Historia the English, and their church, are dominant over the Britons. This goal, of showing the movement towards unity, explains Bede's animosity towards the British method of calculating Easter: much of the Historia is devoted to a history of the dispute, including the final resolution at
16878-420: 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
17052-765: The earlier parts of his history. His introduction imitates the work of Orosius, and his title is an echo of Eusebius's Historia Ecclesiastica . Bede also followed Eusebius in taking the Acts of the Apostles as the model for the overall work: where Eusebius used the Acts as the theme for his description of the development of the church, Bede made it the model for his history of the Anglo-Saxon church. Bede quoted his sources at length in his narrative, as Eusebius had done. Bede also appears to have taken quotes directly from his correspondents at times. For example, he almost always uses
17226-521: 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
17400-402: The first attempts to evangelise Northumbria. These ended in disaster when Penda , the pagan king of Mercia, killed the newly Christian Edwin of Northumbria at the Battle of Hatfield Chase in about 632. The setback was temporary, and the third book recounts the growth of Christianity in Northumbria under kings Oswald of Northumbria and Oswy . The climax of the third book is the account of
17574-411: The first time between 1474 and 1482, probably at Strasbourg . Modern historians have studied the Historia extensively, and several editions have been produced. For many years, early Anglo-Saxon history was essentially a retelling of the Historia , but recent scholarship has focused as much on what Bede did not write as what he did. The belief that the Historia was the culmination of Bede's works,
17748-399: 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
17922-713: The floor of his cell, singing "Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit" and was buried at Jarrow. Cuthbert, a disciple of Bede's, wrote a letter to a Cuthwin (of whom nothing else is known), describing Bede's last days and his death. According to Cuthbert, Bede fell ill, "with frequent attacks of breathlessness but almost without pain", before Easter. On the Tuesday, two days before Bede died, his breathing became worse and his feet swelled. He continued to dictate to
18096-434: The fragments of information which came to him through tradition, the relation of friends, or documentary evidence ... In an age where little was attempted beyond the registration of fact, he had reached the conception of history." Patrick Wormald describes him as "the first and greatest of England's historians". The Historia Ecclesiastica has given Bede a high reputation, but his concerns were different from those of
18270-427: The full offices; one was Ceolfrith and the other a young boy, who according to the anonymous writer had been taught by Ceolfrith. The two managed to do the entire service of the liturgy until others could be trained. The young boy was almost certainly Bede, who would have been about 14. When Bede was about 17 years old, Adomnán , the abbot of Iona Abbey , visited Monkwearmouth and Jarrow. Bede would probably have met
18444-533: The history of England, beginning with Caesar's invasion in 55 BC. A brief account of Christianity in Roman Britain, including the martyrdom of St Alban , is followed by the story of Augustine 's mission to England in 597, which brought Christianity to the Anglo-Saxons . The second book begins with the death of Gregory the Great in 604 and follows the further progress of Christianity in Kent and
18618-419: 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
18792-460: 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
18966-411: 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
19140-521: The king indicates that Bede's monastery had connections among the Northumbrian nobility. The monastery at Wearmouth-Jarrow had an excellent library. Both Benedict Biscop and Ceolfrith had acquired books from the Continent, and in Bede's day the monastery was a renowned centre of learning. It has been estimated that there were about 200 books in the monastic library. For the period prior to Augustine's arrival in 597, Bede drew on earlier writers, including Solinus . He had access to two works of Eusebius:
19314-483: 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
19488-507: 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,
19662-522: 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
19836-470: The letters imply that Bede had met his correspondents, it is likely that Bede travelled to some other places, although nothing further about timing or locations can be guessed. It seems certain that he did not visit Rome, however, as he did not mention it in the autobiographical chapter of his Historia Ecclesiastica . Nothhelm , a correspondent of Bede's who assisted him by finding documents for him in Rome,
20010-519: 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
20184-461: 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
20358-512: The materials in his history. Modern studies have shown the important role such concepts played in the world-view of Early Medieval scholars. Although Bede is mainly studied as a historian now, in his time his works on grammar, chronology, and biblical studies were as important as his historical and hagiographical works. The non-historical works contributed greatly to the Carolingian Renaissance . He has been credited with writing
20532-480: The minimum age requirement was often disregarded. There might have been minor orders ranking below a deacon; but there is no record of whether Bede held any of these offices. In Bede's thirtieth year (about 702), he became a priest, with the ordination again performed by Bishop John. In about 701 Bede wrote his first works, the De Arte Metrica and De Schematibus et Tropis ; both were intended for use in
20706-437: The more important dates Bede tried to compute was Easter, an effort that was mired in controversy. He also helped popularize the practice of dating forward from the birth of Christ ( Anno Domini — in the year of our Lord), a practice which eventually became commonplace in medieval Europe. He is considered by many historians to be the most important scholar of antiquity for the period between the death of Pope Gregory I in 604 and
20880-527: 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
21054-529: 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
21228-424: 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
21402-581: 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
21576-665: 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
21750-408: 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
21924-476: 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
22098-516: 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
22272-420: The proposal for the elevation during his visit. Bede hoped to visit Ecgbert again in 734 but was too ill to make the journey. Bede also travelled to the monastery of Lindisfarne and at some point visited the otherwise unknown monastery of a monk named Wicthed, a visit that is mentioned in a letter to that monk. Because of his widespread correspondence with others throughout the British Isles, and because many of
22446-416: 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
22620-479: 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
22794-401: The reckoning of Bede's time, passage from the old day to the new occurred at sunset, not midnight, and Cuthbert is clear that he died after sunset. Thus, while his box was brought at three o'clock Wednesday afternoon of 25 May, by the time of the final dictation it was considered 26 May, although it might still have been 25 May in modern usage. Cuthbert's letter also relates a five-line poem in
22968-425: 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
23142-527: 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
23316-414: 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
23490-562: The sons of the Saxon founder of Portsmouth . The Liber Vitae of Durham Cathedral names two priests with this name, one of whom is presumably Bede himself. Some manuscripts of the Life of Cuthbert , one of Bede's works, mention that Cuthbert 's own priest was named Bede; it is possible that this priest is the other name listed in the Liber Vitae . At the age of seven, Bede was sent as
23664-430: 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
23838-476: 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
24012-403: The story of Augustine's mission from Rome, and tells how the British clergy refused to assist Augustine in the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons. This, combined with Gildas's negative assessment of the British church at the time of the Anglo-Saxon invasions, led Bede to a very critical view of the native church. However, Bede ignores the fact that at the time of Augustine's mission, the history between
24186-433: The structure of the Historia on three works, using them as the framework around which the three main sections of the work were structured. For the early part of the work, up until the Gregorian mission , Goffart feels that Bede used De excidio . The second section, detailing the Gregorian mission of Augustine of Canterbury was framed on Life of Gregory the Great written at Whitby. The last section, detailing events after
24360-440: 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
24534-464: 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
24708-456: The task of writing the Historia Ecclesiastica . His interest in computus, the science of calculating the date of Easter , was also useful in the account he gives of the controversy between the British and Anglo-Saxon church over the correct method of obtaining the Easter date. Bede is described by Michael Lapidge as "without question the most accomplished Latinist produced in these islands in
24882-528: 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
25056-533: 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
25230-553: The terms "Australes" and "Occidentales" for the South and West Saxons respectively, but in a passage in the first book he uses "Meridiani" and "Occidui" instead, as perhaps his informant had done. At the end of the work, Bede adds a brief autobiographical note; this was an idea taken from Gregory of Tours' earlier History of the Franks . Bede's work as a hagiographer and his detailed attention to dating were both useful preparations for
25404-399: 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
25578-453: 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,
25752-539: The time was known as the Six Ages of the World ; in his book, Bede calculated the age of the world for himself, rather than accepting the authority of Isidore of Seville , and came to the conclusion that Christ had been born 3,952 years after the creation of the world, rather than the figure of over 5,000 years that was commonly accepted by theologians. The accusation occurred in front of the bishop of Hexham, Wilfrid , who
25926-601: The title of Doctor Anglorum and why he was declared a saint. Bede synthesised and transmitted the learning from his predecessors, as well as made careful, judicious innovation in knowledge (such as recalculating the age of the Earth—for which he was censured before surviving the heresy accusations and eventually having his views championed by Archbishop Ussher in the sixteenth century—see below) that had theological implications. In order to do this, he learned Greek and attempted to learn Hebrew. He spent time reading and rereading both
26100-436: The two was one of warfare and conquest, which, in the words of Barbara Yorke , would have naturally "curbed any missionary impulses towards the Anglo-Saxons from the British clergy." At the time Bede wrote the Historia Ecclesiastica , there were two common ways of referring to dates. One was to use indictions , which were 15-year cycles, counting from 312 AD. There were three different varieties of indiction, each starting on
26274-433: 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
26448-412: The vernacular that Bede composed on his deathbed, known as " Bede's Death Song ". It is the most-widely copied Old English poem and appears in 45 manuscripts, but its attribution to Bede is not certain—not all manuscripts name Bede as the author, and the ones that do are of later origin than those that do not. Bede's remains may have been transferred to Durham Cathedral in the 11th century; his tomb there
26622-530: 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
26796-586: 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
26970-490: The wood of the same name still produces organic wheat and rye flours. A mill at this site was recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086. A population of white-clawed crayfish in the Tetbury Avon has been eradicated by fungi hosted by the invasive North American signal crayfish . The Environment Agency has a gauging station at Brokenborough and reports a mean flow of 24.4 cubic feet per second (0.69 m/s) with
27144-399: 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
27318-428: The works of Cassiodorus , and there was a copy of the Liber Pontificalis in Bede's monastery. Bede quotes from several classical authors, including Cicero , Plautus , and Terence , but he may have had access to their work via a Latin grammar rather than directly. However, it is clear he was familiar with the works of Virgil and with Pliny the Elder 's Natural History , and his monastery also owned copies of
27492-501: The works of Dionysius Exiguus . He probably drew his account of Alban from a life of that saint which has not survived. He acknowledges two other lives of saints directly; one is a life of Fursa , and the other of Æthelburh ; the latter no longer survives. He also had access to a life of Ceolfrith. Some of Bede's material came from oral traditions, including a description of the physical appearance of Paulinus of York , who had died nearly 90 years before Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica
27666-571: 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
27840-426: 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
28014-603: 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
28188-476: 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
28362-541: Was looted in 1541, but the contents were probably re-interred in the Galilee chapel at the cathedral. One further oddity in his writings is that in one of his works, the Commentary on the Seven Catholic Epistles , he writes in a manner that gives the impression he was married. The section in question is the only one in that work that is written in first-person view. Bede says: "Prayers are hindered by
28536-449: 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
28710-436: Was present at a feast when some drunken monks made the accusation. Wilfrid did not respond to the accusation, but a monk present relayed the episode to Bede, who replied within a few days to the monk, writing a letter setting forth his defence and asking that the letter also be read to Wilfrid. Bede had another brush with Wilfrid, for the historian says that he met Wilfrid sometime between 706 and 709 and discussed Æthelthryth ,
28884-518: 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
29058-508: 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
29232-533: 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
29406-465: 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
29580-580: 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
29754-436: Was uncongenial to Bede's monastic mind; it may also be that the events of Wilfrid's life, divisive and controversial as they were, simply did not fit with Bede's theme of the progression to a unified and harmonious church. Bede's account of the early migrations of the Angles and Saxons to England omits any mention of a movement of those peoples across the English Channel from Britain to Brittany described by Procopius , who
29928-447: Was well-to-do. Bede's first abbot was Benedict Biscop , and the names "Biscop" and "Beda" both appear in a list of the kings of Lindsey from around 800, further suggesting that Bede came from a noble family. Bede's name reflects West Saxon Bīeda (Anglian Bēda ). It is an Old English short name formed on the root of bēodan "to bid, command". The name also occurs in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , s.a. 501, as Bieda , one of
30102-439: Was writing in the sixth century. Frank Stenton describes this omission as "a scholar's dislike of the indefinite"; traditional material that could not be dated or used for Bede's didactic purposes had no interest for him. Bede was a Northumbrian, and this tinged his work with a local bias. The sources to which he had access gave him less information about the west of England than for other areas. He says relatively little about
30276-515: Was written. Bede had correspondents who supplied him with material. Albinus, the abbot of the monastery in Canterbury, provided much information about the church in Kent, and with the assistance of Nothhelm , at that time a priest in London, obtained copies of Gregory the Great 's correspondence from Rome relating to Augustine's mission . Almost all of Bede's information regarding Augustine
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