The period following the Roman withdrawal was one of gradual turmoil and civic breakdown, although St Patrick, writing some ten years after the Roman departure noted that, in the towns at least, some order continued and civil taxes were still being collected and services maintained. The drift was however, towards a return to tribalism with many people leaving the larger towns and returning to the more easily defended hill forts. The power vacuum thus created was to be filled by the Anglo Saxons.
These people were first recorded in 98AD, by the Roman historian Tacitus who describes them as worshippers of the Goddess Nerthus the Earth Mother.
This was no single unstoppable wave of invaders, more of a gradual process. The Romans would doubtless have used these peoples as auxiliaries in their British garrisons and many would have settled in Briton at the end of their service. It would be natural for some of their kin to join them over a period and add to the established settlements.
| The Anglo Saxons The name has now come to mean the Germanic peoples who established themselves in Britain in the wake of the Roman departure and covers the three main tribes, the Angles from the Angeln peninsula, the Saxons from Saxony and the Jutes from Jutland and the Frisian coast, although there were others. Over time the Angles created the northern kingdoms of East Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria, the Saxons, those of Essex, Sussex and Wessex, while the Jutes settled Kent and parts of Hampshire. |
We have read earlier how the high king Vortigern also invited warriors from these tribes to come to Briton to bolster his defence against northern raiders, offering land to them as payment, including a large part of the Briton kingdom of Ceint (Kent) which was handed over to them much to the anger of the Gwyrangon, its ruler. Thus many had already settled here and would have had regular contact with their European kin. The word would have soon got out that Britain without the Romans was easy prey and the wild Germanic warriors would have crossed the North Sea to join their fellows on a piecemeal basis, joining the existing settlements and, as their strength grew, moved out to see what the land had to offer.
Having established themselves in the south east of the country, the Anglo Saxon invaders ranged westwards and northwards, driving the Britons to the margins, the mountains, the forests and islands, while some left the country altogether and crossed the water to Armorica, (Brittany) and northern Spain where they re-established a Celtic culture in Broceliande that mirrored the Cornish model from whence it sprang.
The Anglo Saxon warrior was armed with a spear between five and nine feet long, the shorter being used for throwing. The more prosperous might also carry a sword although these being craft-made weapons made by the slow process of pattern welding, that is, the repeated heating and hammering together of metal strips, made their cost prohibitive to most until the improving quality of iron ore meant that swords could be produced more cheaply. For defence he wore a mail shirt reaching to his knees under which he would wear a padded leather jacket.
The mail shirt, or byrnie, was made of hundreds of iron rings about a third of an inch in diameter welded and riveted in rows and could weigh up to 25 pounds. This gave protection from slashing blows, but could be penetrated by spears and arrows. He would also carry a limewood shield covered in leather and usually rimmed with iron. In battle this would be used in the standard formation of the shieldwall or “bordweall” where the warriors stood in line with shields overlapping and spears pointing forward. This formation, reminiscent of the Roman version, remained the standard infantry tactic for centuries and would have been known to Dark Age commanders through the writings of Roman military strategists like Vegetius who described them in some detail.
Vegetius also recommended the wedge as a tactic to break up a shieldwall. This was often used by the later Viking invaders who would mass in front of a shieldwall in a wedge shaped column and attempt to punch a hole in the wall through which men could pour and outflank the enemy. They compared this to a charging boar and called it “svinfylking”.
Horses were used by the Anglo Saxon forces for scouting and pursuing defeated enemies, but primarily for transport on the march.
By 500AD, a number of Anglo Saxon mini kingdoms had come into existence in the south east corner of the country. It is known that the Saxon Aelle landed at Cumenosara near Selsy Bill and fought off a much larger native force. He established a kingdom of the South Saxons (Sussex) around 477AD and held it despite fierce opposition from the Britons. Another battle was fought at Mearcredesburna, meaning something akin to “Stream near the agreed frontier”, possibly the Cuckmere on the Sussex/Hampshire border. The outcome of the battle is unknown, but as the Chronicle was Saxon biased, we may assume that the invaders lost.
A major battle was fought at Pevensy in 491AD which is said to have ended with the Saxons slaughtering the Britons “to the last man”. From this base he ranged wide with fire and sword driving the Britons ever westward and northward. The writer Bede records Aelle as the first king to have overlordship over other Anglo Saxon kingdoms. We know that the fighting was by no means one sided and that the Britons under various leaders fought many battles to stem the tide of newcomers, culminating in the battle of Mount Blaydon (or Badon) where the victorious Britons imposed a truce on the invaders that reputedly lasted for fifty years.
Next to arrive was the Saxon Cerdic who, with his son Cynric, landed with three keels (ships) near the modern Southampton, which he called Hamwic, in 495AD. The word wic coming from the Latin vicus which means a place and is still used today in centres such as Norwich and Ipswich. The Chronicle tells that he “fought the Welsh on the same day”. His name has a British rather than German origin and it is believed that his mother was Celtic and either emigrated from Britain or was from one of the Celtic tribes in Gaul.
Interestingly, the Chronicle refers to Cerdic as an Eolderman and it is possible that his people had settled in the area in the Romano British era to form part of the Roman defence of the Saxon Shore and he seized the moment to gain power following the defeat of the Saxons at Mount Badon. Furthermore, it was only in 519AD that the Chronicle records that he “began to reign” suggesting that he ceased to be a dependant vassal or Ealdorman and became a king in his own right. Either way, all the English monarchs, plus many European royal houses are said to descended from him.
We next hear of Cerdic when in 508AD he reputedly fought and killed a British king named Natanload, plus five thousand of his warriors at Netley in Hampshire. He thereafter named the conquered territory Nanleaga, meaning “wet wood”. He went on to capture Winchester and erected a heathen temple on the smoking ruins of the old church. He consolidated his position until in 519AD he again fought and defeated the Britons at Cerdicesford (Charford), dating his reign as king of the West Saxons (Wessex) from this time.
He expanded his territory by invading the Isle of Wight in 530AD and defeating its inhabitants in a fight at Wihtgaraesburh, (Wihtgars Fort) now known as Carrisbrook, the name of the island stemming from the fort’s Jutish builder. It is thought that Cerdic died in 534AD and was succeeded by his son Cynric who set about expanding his rule in the captured territories. The Britons did not give up their lands easily however and fought him again at Searobyrig (Old Sarum) in 552AD and later at Beranburh, now identified as Barbary Camp, where Cynric and his son Ceawlin won another great victory.
There must be doubts about the dates given in the Chronicle for these events. If Cynric really did arrive with his son at the turn of the sixth century and if he fought at Netley, it is unlikely that he would still be wielding a sword some 45 years later! This is another example of how carefully the Chronicle must be interpreted in its dating, due to the cyclical nature of its writings that seem to repeat every nineteen years, a device used by the writers to calculate the true date of Easter.
It must also be remembered that it was written from an Anglo Saxon perspective and makes very little reference to the lives and times of the indigenous population. Geoffrey of Monmouth and Sir Thomas Malory, writing respectively some six hundred and one thousand years later, record a parallel Britain whose kings lived, fought and died during the time of Cerdic and Cynric. Much of their work is taken from the writings of Nennius and other Welsh scribes and inevitably has a British/Celtic slant.
Geoffrey claims that Arthur handed over his kingdom to Constantin III, who reigned for four years and crushed a Saxon revolt before his death, reported as “being struck down by God’s vengeance”. He was succeeded in 546AD by Aurelius Conanus, his nephew who imprisoned Constantin’s son and usurped the throne. Gildas writes that Conanus was guilty of murder, fornication, adultery and a love of civil war and, it is thought, deliberately corrupts his name to Caninus to make a pun on the Latin for “dog”. He did not last long and in 546AD the throne was won by Vortiporius who is credited with repelling a Germanic invasion.
Legend also credits him with locking his wife away and having an incestuous relationship with his daughter. There is a memorial stone at Castle Dwran in Carmarthernshire bearing the inscription “Memoria Voteporigis Protictoris”, thought to mark his grave, the inscription interestingly referring to him as protector rather than king and again shows how these old writers talk of Kings of the Britons when they in fact mean local or tribal rulers. Vortiporius is thought to have ruled in Dyfed in South Wales, roughly the area of Pembrokeshire.
He was succeeded in 550AD by Malgo who reigned for five years, leaving two sons, neither of whom inherited the kingdom. Malgo is also known to the Britons as Maelgwm Gwynedd, the King of Gwynedd and died of the Yellow Plague which ravaged Europe in the 550s. These tandem records of history illustrate the difficulty in placing events in a proper time frame during the period, but do confirm the turbulent and changing nature of a land being torn apart by the clash of two very different cultures.
What is known however, is that the borders of the various kingdoms were beginning to harden and sub kingdoms were being formed by former enemies coming together to carve out new territories.
With Cynric carving out his kingdom in the West Country, another Angle called Creoda was looking to do the same in the midlands. He was ruler of a tribe known as the Iclingas, named after his ancestor Iclis and they occupied an area of the Trent valley, gradually expanding and driving the local Britons westwards into Wales. This area came to be known as Mercia, which is from the old English “Mierce” meaning border people and from which the modern term “Marches” meaning borders, derives, they were based at Tamworth and eventually expanded until their border met that of Northumbria to the north and Sussex, Essex and Wessex in the south. Their western border abutted the Celtic kingdom of Powys. Creoda ruled for eight years and was succeeded by his son Cearl in 593AD and, following Cearl’s death in 603AD, by Pybba, his second son.
Despite the need to unite against the invaders, native rulers continued to fight among themselves in much the same way as mentioned by Tacitus many years before. In 573AD, Peredur, king of York, and Dunait, king of the Pennines, fought Gwendolau of Carlisle at the Battle of Arthuret. Despite the large loss of life in the battle, neither side gained much advantage and it seems the only winner was one Urien of Rheged, a local warlord who became the new ruler of Carlisle. According to the bard Taliesin in his writings, Urien was a “strong champion” and a “pillar of Britain”, fighting everyone and anyone from the Severn to the Clyde.
Urien’s “caer” or fort was on the site of the old Roman camp at Catreath, the modern Catterick Taliesin relates that Urien and his son Owain fought against a “fourfold” army of Angles led by their warleader Fflamddwyn or Firebrand at the Battle of Argoed Llwfain, in which they killed an important Angle called Ulph. Only tantalisingly small details are known of the clash, that it took place on a Saturday morning and was fought near a ford.
This victory seems to have given the Britons new heart and put the Angles on the defensive. Taliesin rejoices at the victory, “This the English know, Death was theirs, Burnt are their houses”.
Despite these setbacks, the invaders did manage to establish a presence in the area and the Angle Ida built a strongpoint at a place called Bamburgh Rock. Ida’s successors fought many battles with the native kings, “sometimes the enemy and sometimes our countrymen were victorious” wrote Taliesin. Urien managed to form an alliance with three other British kings, Riderich, Gaullauc and Morcant. Together they fought and cornered the Angle king Hussa on Holy Island at Lindisfarne.
The siege lasted three days, but once again, internal division split the Britains. Urien was assassinated by one Lovat, a hireling of “the envious king Morcant” and although Urien’s son Owain continued the struggle, he too was killed and the alliance slipped away enabling the Angles to expand their conquest of the area. The medieval Welsh poem “The Gododdin” tells the story of a brave attempt by the Britons to repulse the invaders at the Battle of Catreath where 300 warriors fought to the death in a vain effort to stop the fort falling into the Angles hands.
Other invaders were also establishing themselves in the north and we now turn to Aella, an Angle, who in 581AD, defeated the local British and overrun the kingdom of Ebrauc which extended from the Humber to the Tees. Aella called his new kingdom Deira, from the old English, “Deifr” meaning waters, or possibly “Daru” meaning the people of Derwent. This mini kingdom was to be merged with the kingdom of Bernicia early in the seventh century to become the kingdom of Northumbria.
Bernicia itself, the name meaning “land of mountain passes” in old Brythonic, covered most of what we now know as Northumberland, Berwickshire, Lothian and Durham, and was part of a pre Anglo Saxon “old north kingdom” of the Votadini ruled by Coel Hen. It is likely that some of the Angles in the area had originally been brought over by the Romans as mercenaries to man Hadrian’s Wall and had settled in the country and were later reinforced by others seeking territory in the aftermath of Roman departure.
In the west, Cynegils, great great grandson of Cynric, pushed his territory ever westwards driving the West Welsh before them. The Chronicle states that the two sides met at Beandun in Devon in 614AD, where the army of Wessex killed two thousand and sixty five Welsh, an unusually precise number.
The first Bernician Angle king recorded is Ida, who with his sons, fought the various alliances of the native Britons and, as related earlier, achieved control only after the native alliance collapsed into civil war. Ida’s grandson Aethelfrith fought and won a number of battles with the native kings, principally the Battles of Cattreath (Catterick) where forces of the native kings Mynddog Mwynfawr of Din Eidyn and Cynan of the Goddodin were destroyed and Degastan, near Dawston Rigg on the Scottish border, where he fought Aedan King of Dal Riada leading a coalition of troops from various British kingdoms, plus a contingent from the Ulster Kingdom of Tara. The Angles were led by Theodbold, brother of Aethelfrith and Hering, son of Hussa.
Theobald’s forces were centred on high ground forcing Aedan’s troops to advance over a stream and up sloping ground. In the ensuing fighting, Aedan’s forces were destroyed and his son Domingart killed. During the battle Theobald and his housecarls were cut off and slain to a man suggesting that his forces fought separately from Hering’s. Aethelfrith’s victories secured his dominance and he overran the land between the Border, Chester and the Trent and it is largely due to his successes that these areas now have English names and not Welsh.
Bede, writing some 150 years later comments, “From the first day until present, no king of Scotland has dared do battle with the English”. It is worth noting that the term “English” was now increasingly being applied to all the invaders be they Angle, Jute or Saxon. Aethelfrith went on to defeat Aelle, king of Deira and around 604AD, united the two mini kingdoms under the name Northumbria.
It was Aethelfrith who, coveting the rich farming land owned by the church, carried out the massacre of the monks from the monastery of Bangor on the River Dee at the Battle of Chester, then known as “Carlegion”, a once mighty Roman fort. The Chester forces were led by Solomon ap Cynan, son of the King of Powys who arrayed his army outside the city walls to confront Aethelfrith. The monks gathered in front of the walls to pray for a British victory under a military guard led by a warrior called Brocmail.
The monks had fasted for three days in preparation and, according to Bede, were divided into seven groups of three hundred which would seem a surprisingly high number, although the Chronicle states the number as 200. When the pagan Aethelfrith was told the purpose of their prayers he retorted “If they are crying to their God against us, they are fighting even if they do not bear arms”.
He directed his first attack against the monks who were promptly deserted by their protectors and slaughtered .The Bangor monastery had been in existence since 180AD and founded by the Celtic King Lucius as a seat of learning following his conversion to the faith. Some other sources attest that over 1200 monks were killed in the attack with less than 50 managing to escape, but it is the Chronicle’s version that is considered the most reliable.
Aethelfrith then “destroyed the rest of the accursed army, not without heavy loss to his own forces”. Aethelfrith took over the lands of Deira and Bernicia, causing Aelle’s son Edwin to take sanctuary in East Anglia with Raedwald. Aethelfrith attempted to bribe Raedwald into having Edwin killed, but Raedwald refused. Aethelfrith then demanded that Edwin be handed over to him and again Raedwald refused.
Raedwald decided that his best interests now lay in installing Edwin as a client ruler in his old kingdom and getting rid of Aethelfrith once and for all. Using his powers as a Bretwalda, Raedwald raised an army in the south and east and in the summer of 616AD, rode for York. Aethelfrith was wrong footed and hurriedly assembled an army by the River Idle near Bawtry in Yorkshire where the two forces met.
The Battle of the River Idle, which was particularly bloody was fought in an area between Gainsborough and Bawtry where Raedwald formed his army into three divisions, led by himself, his son Raegenhere and Edwin. Aethelfrith, confusing Raegenhere’s division for that of Raedwald’s, threw his forces forward, killing Raegenhere. Raedwald furiously attacked the flanks of the enemy and overran them, killing Aethelfrith and many Northumbrians. Edwin took over as King of Northumbria and Aethlfrith’s sons fled to north exile among the Picts.
Raedwald was one of the first East Anglian kings to receive Christian teaching and baptism although his conversion was not total. He is said to have hedged his bets by having erected two separate altars in his private temple, one for Christ and one for his pagan gods. It is thought that the famous longship discovered at Sutton Hoo was his burial site. Edwin then set about subduing the remaining British resistance in the region and launched an attack on Elmet, a Cumbric speaking territory in the west of Yorkshire, bordering Wales proper and drawing him into conflict with Cadwallop (or Cadwallon) ap Cadfan, British King of Gwynedd.
Edwin felt sufficiently strong to invade Gwynedd and for a while, achieved some success. Bede records that Edwin established his rule over what he calls the Mevanian Islands which include Anglesey while another source tells of Cadwallop being besieged on Priestholm which is off the coast of Anglesey. Cadwallop then formed an alliance with the great grandson of Creoda, the former King of Mercia, whose name was Penda, and though not king at that time was governing the kingdom and in 626AD, overthrew King Cearl and took the throne.
Penda had made an alliance with the joint kings of Wessex, Cynegils and Cwitchelm, who were in fact, father and son, and sealed it with the marriage of his sister to Cynegil’s son Cenwalh. Things went awry when Cwitchelm tried to assassinate Edwin, the puppet king of Northumbria and sent an assassin called Eomer who only succeeded in wounding him, but in the process, killed Edwin’s Thanes, Lilla and Forthere, bringing the wrath of the Northumbrians down on them and in the ensuing confusion, Penda invaded his one time allies and defeated the Wessex force at the Battle of Cirencester in 628AD. He took control of the northern section of Wessex in what is now Gloucester.
Over the next two years Penda extended his territory and invaded South West Britain, the land of the Dumnonii and it was at the siege of Exeter that Penda first met King Cadwallop of Gwynedd who had recently returned from exile in Britanny, having been sent there by Edwin of Northumbria in an earlier squabble. Penda raised the siege and forged an alliance with Cadwallop and the two armies recaptured Gwynedd for Cadwallop at the Battle of Long Mynd and then marched against Northumbria.
Penda and Cadwallop met Edwin’s army at Hatfield Chase on marshy ground about eight miles North East of Doncaster on 12th October 633AD. The battle was a disaster for Northumbria with both Edwin and his son Osfrith being killed and his other son Eadfrith being captured and later killed by Penda, whose own brother Eobba was also killed in the battle. The kingdom was split back to its two former parts with Eanfrith, the exiled son of the old King Aethelfrith ruling Bernicia and Edwin’s cousin Osric ruling Deira. Writing of the sons of Aethelfrith, Bede notes, “For all the time that Edwin reigned, the sons of Aethelfrith and all the old nobility, lived in banishment among the Scots or Picts and received the grace of baptism”.
Penda and Cadwallon went on to devastate the lands of Edwin without mercy; a contemporary Irish annal tells of “the kindling of fires in the land” and the burning of York. On the same theme, Bede writes of “the terrible slaughter took place among the Northumbrians, more terrible because it was carried out by two commanders, one of whom was the Pagan Penda and the other (Cadwallon) a barbarian more savage than a pagan”.
Cadwallop continued to wage a ruthless war against the two states and Eanfrith, wearied of the fighting, went to Cadwallop to sue for peace but was killed. Eanfrith’s brother Oswald raised an army and fought and killed Cadwallon at the battle of Heavenfield in 634AD, thereafter reuniting Deira and Bernicia again into the Kingdom of Northumbria.
Penda meanwhile turned his attention to the East where part of the old Mercian homeland had come under the control of the East Anglians, in 635AD he invaded and quickly overran the area, killing its two sub kings, Sigebert and Egric. Mercia was peaceful for the next seven years, but the Northumbrians were not happy with so powerful a neighbour and in 642AD, King Oswald marched into Mercia. Penda had moved his forces westwards to be closer to his Welsh allies and the two sides met at Maserfield near Oswestry on the 5th August.
Penda had with him King Cadafeal Cadomedd of Gwynedd, Eluen of Powys and Cynddylan of of Pengwern. During the battle, Penda’s brother Eowa was killed, but so was Oswald of Northumbria. Oswald’s body was interred at Bardney, while his hands were buried at Bamburgh and reportedly never corrupted, causing pilgrims to visit the site and tell of miracle cures and other wonders occurring there.
Oswald was succeeded by his brother Oswiu or Oswy and ruled as a subking of Bernicia under Penda for the next ten years. Relations were not good between the two rulers however and in 655AD Penda invaded Bernicia, initially sweeping all before him until the two sides met at the running Battle of Winwaed where Penda was finally killed. Initially Oswiu, being greatly outnumbered, tried to buy Penda off by offering him “an incalculable quantity of regalia and presents as the price of peace”. Penda refused, and declared that he would “wipe out the entire nation from the highest to the humblest in the land”. Oswiu then turned to God and offered his one year old daughter to the service of the church together with twelve estates to build monasteries if he could be granted victory. The two sides met on the 15th of November near a river called Winwaed by Bede.
Welsh accounts refer to it as “Maes Gai”, meaning the slaughter of the field of Gai. The autumn rains had swollen the river and flooded much of the surrounding pasture. Oswiu and his men, standing on higher ground, had the stronger position and Penda’s forces had to struggle through water and mud to reach them. The battle became a rout and many of Penda’s men were drowned while trying to escape. Penda himself was cornered and slain “by the sword he had drawn too often”. Oswiu assumed the crown of Mercia and the title of Bretwalda over much of Britain, setting up his son in law, Peada (Penda’s son) as a sub king. The Mercians were understandably not happy with this outcome and rose up in revolt to drive Oswiu out, electing Penda’s other son Wulfhere to rule.
Meanwhile, in Kent, King Aethelbert died, the first English king to receive baptism. He was the son of Ermenric of Kent and the great, great grandson of Hengist, the first of the Saxon conquerors of Britain. Aethelbert had ruled for fifty six years and his military might gave him some influence and control over all the other Saxon kingdoms, stretching as far north as Northumbria and gaining the title of Bretwalda, or leader of the Saxon confederation. Following his baptism on Whitsun Day 597AD, he gave St Augustine the church of St Martins in Canterbury in which “to sing, to pray, to say mass, to preach and to baptise” and gave them permission to build new churches and to rebuild those destroyed by the pagan Saxon invaders.
His son wanted nothing of Christianity and reverted to heathenism, even taking the old king’s wife for his own. The leader of the East Saxons, King Saebert also died at this time and his three sons divided up the kingdom between them under the old pagan rule and drove out bishop Mellitus, making Raedwald’s the only Christian kingdom in the country, situation that would remain until his death in 624AD, by which time, Christianity had been re-established in the two kingdoms, albeit temporarily.
This maelstrom of plot and counterplot, alliances, treacheries and invasions indicate just how unstable the country was following the departure of the Romans. It was as if all the tribes of Europe and Scandinavia were picking over the corpse of this once stable outpost of empire and the native population could only hide and watch from their mountain hideaways as the country was occupied by these savage invaders who, having only recently driven the Britons from their land, were now engaged in territorial war between themselves.
It is a universal truth that expediency can make strange bedfellows and for Penda, an ambitious Angle who claimed to trace his lineage back to Wodin, to ally himself with the Celtic/British King of Gwynedd, Pengwerm and Powys, illustrates the shifting nature of relationships and alliances of the time. Penda does not get “a good press” from Bede who disliked him for being an enemy of Bede’s native Northumbria and also for being a pagan. Bede does allow however, that it was Penda who first gave permission for Christian missionaries to preach in Mercia.
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