6). Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms.

Pre-reading Tasks:

1. What were the names of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms?

2. Find out in the following extract what the main political, social and cultural events took place in this period

Far away, another venture was in the making. The Pope understood what was happening in this once provincial holding of Rome. One hundred and fifty years had gone by since the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, in other words the English, had come to Britain. Britain was now being called England. Thirty years earlier, Columba had travelled from the land of the Scots, what is now called Ireland, to the highlands north of the Grampians and had become Abbot of Iona and the monastery had been built. But the Christian and heathen traditions sat uneasily side by side.

C+ The buildings, such as they were, were of wood, not stone. The people had lost entirely the art of writing. Some miserable runic scribblings were the only means by which they could convey their thoughts or wishes to one another at a distance… The confusion and conflict of petty ruffians, sometimes called kings, racked the land. There was nothing worthy of the name nationhood , or even of tribalism. For various reasons, including the spreading of the Gospel, it was decided in the closing decade of the sixth century that a guide and teacher should be sent in England to diffuse and stimulate the faith, to convert the heathen, and also to bring about an effective working union between the British Christians and the main body of the Church.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells what happened in the year 595. "In this year', says the chronicler, 'Pope Gregory sent Augustine to Britain with very many monks who preached God's word to the English nation’. But they were nervous. They wanted to turn back. In fact Augustine did so. But Pope Gregory wrote to Augustine and his brethren :

*Gregory, the servant of the servants of God, to the servants of our Lord. For as much as it had been better not to begin a good work than to think of desisting from that which has been begun, it behoves you, my beloved sons, to fulfil the good work which by the help of our Lord, you have undertaken. Let not, therefore, the toil of the journey nor the tongues of evil speaking men, deter you; but with all possible earnestness and zeal perform that which, by Cod's direction you have undertaken; God keep you in safety my most beloved sons.

Gregory's letter worked. Augustine and his nervous monks trudged on and eventually crossed to the Isle of Thanet. But what they needed was protection and that could only come from the local king. And it did. The king was Aethelberht. Aethel means, more or less, nobly born. Aethelberht wasn't a Christian. In fact he worshipped Thor, the god of thunder. But he had thought of converting, not because he felt any spiritual need, but for a political reason. His wife, a Frankish princess, whose name was Bertha, was a Christian. Kent, recognized by the Romans as the most civilized part of the land or the Britons was the one place where a revival would be most likely to take hold. Aethelberht sensed that it might not be such a bad idea to go with the mood of the people. And so Aethelberht became the first 'English' King to convert to Christianity. For Augustine it was, perhaps, a heaven-sent opportunity.

C+With the aid of the Frankish princess he converted King Ethelbert...Upon the ruins of the ancient British church of St Martin he refounded the Christian life of Canterbury... Ethelbert, as overlord of England, exercised an effective authority over the kingdoms of the South and West. His policy was at once skilful and ambitious; his conversion to Christianity, however sincere, was also in consonance with his secular aims. He was himself, as the only English Christian ruler, in a position where he might hold out the hand to the British princes, and, by using the Christian faith as a bond of union, establish his supremacy over the whole country… Thus at the beginning of the seventh century Ethelbert and Augustine summoned a conference of the British Christian bishops... It failed for two separate reasons: first, the sullen and jealous temper of the British bishops, and, secondly, the tactless arrogance of St Augustine.

There was a second conference. It tailed as the first had. Worse than that, the gathering broke up with Augustine threatening war and making sure that the lot of Rome would be thrown in behind the English.

War never happened, but Augustine achieved the development of Christian belief in these islands. And he began the training of a clergy who would go out and achieve many of the things that this arrogant messenger from Rome had hoped for himself. But he was just one figure in the 2ooo-year saga of these islands.

C+Except for the consecration of Mellitus as Bishop of the East Saxons in a church on the site of St Paul's, he [Augustine] had made little attempt to proselytize outside Kent. From the title loosely accorded him of 'Apostle of the English' he enjoyed for many centuries the credit of having re­converted the once-famous Roman province of Britannia to the Christian faith; and this halo has shone about him until comparatively recent times.

It was during this time that heathenism declined and Christianity prospered. But the question of whose version of Christianity should rule - Augustine's or the northern Celtic - divided the peoples of mid-seventh century England as much as the feud between the English and the Britons. The issues were quite basic: how should Easter be observed? Should the tonsure - a symbol of church doctrine-be worn?

C+Redwald, King of the East Angles, had established a wide dominion over the lands of Central England from the Dee to the Humber. With Redwald's aid the crown of Northumbria was gained by an exiled pnnce, Edwin [Aethelberht's son-in-law], who by his abilities won his way, step by step, to the foremost position in England. Even before the death of his ally, Redwald, Edwin was recognized as overlord of all the English kingdoms except Kent, and the isles of Anglesey and Man were also reduced by his ships. He not only established his personal primacy, but the confederation founded by him foreshadowed the kingdom of all England that was later to take shape under the kings of Mercia and Wessex. Edwin married a Christian princess of Kent, whose religion he had promised to respect. Consequently, in her train from Canterbury to Edwin's capital at York there rode in 625 the first Roman missionary to Northern England, Paulinus, an envoy who had first come to Britain in the days of St Augustine, twenty-four years before Paulinus converted Edwin, and the ample kingdom of Northumbria, shaped like England itself in miniature, became Christian.

Edwin wasn't simply an atheist. He worshipped idols. That meant he had courtiers, henchmen and priests who did the same. For the king to say, 'I give my life to Christ', is one thing; to carry with him these vital allies towards a religion that was relatively new in the kingdom was not only an act of faith, in early England it was also a political decision. He had to carry his realm with him. And that's exactly what he did. Churchill tells what happened next.

C+…this blessed event brought with it swift and dire consequences. The overlordship of Northumbria was fiercely resented by King Penda of Mercia, or, as we should now say, of the Midlands. The drama unfolded with staggering changes or fortune. In 633 Penda, the heathen, made an unnatural alliance with Cadwallon, the Christian British King of North Wales, with the object of overthrowing the suzerainty of Edwin and breaking the Northumbrian power. Here for the first time noticed in history British and English fought side by side. Politics for once proved stronger than religion or race. In a savage battle near Doncaster, Edwin was defeated and slain, and his head—not the last—was exhibited on the ramparts of captured York. This sudden destruction of the greatest king who had hitherto ruled in the Island brought in recoil an equally speedy vengeance… upon their Saxon foes. The name and fame of the slaughtered Edwin rang through the land. His successor Oswald, of the house of Bernicia, had but to appear to find himself at the head of the newly Christianized and also infuriated Saxon warriors. Within a year of the death of Edwin, Oswald destroyed Cadwallon and his British forces. This was the last pitched battle between the Britons and the Saxons and it must be admitted that the Britons fared as badly in conduct as in fortune. They had joined with the heathen Saxon Midlands to avenge their wrongs, and had exploited an English movement towards the disunity of the land. They had shattered this bright hope of the Christianity they professed, and now they were themselves overthrown and cast aside. The long story of their struggle with the invaders ended thus in no fine way; but what is important to our tale is that it had ended at last.

However, fundamental issues about Christianity, and which version to adopt, persisted. And, at this time in the island's history, any prolonging of differences could mean war.

C+The celebrated and largely successful attempt to solve them took place at the Synod of Whitby in 663. There the hinging issue was whether British Christianity should conform to the general life-plan of Christendom, or whether it should be expressed by the monastic orders which had founded the Celtic Churches of the North. ... in the end after much pious dissertation the decision was taken that the Church of Northumbria should be a definite part of the Church of Rome and of the Catholic system. Mercia soon afterwards conformed . . . The leadership of Saxon England passed to Mercia. For nearly eighty years two Mercian kings asserted or maintained their ascendancy over all England south of the Humber. Ethelbald and Offa reigned each for forty years. Ethelbald had been an exile before he became an autocrat. As a fugitive he consorted with monks, hermits, and holy men. On attaining power he did not discard his Christian piety, but he found himself much oppressed by the temptations of the flesh. . . . He showed charity to the poor; he preserved law and order ... he took to styling himself 'King of the Southern English' and 'King of Britain'. South of the Humber these claims were made good.

Aethelbald actually called himself 'rex Britanniae' which was the Latin for the Saxon English title, bretwalda, ruler of Britain. But this wasn't an idle boast. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, for example, records that he was fighting, and winning, as far away as Somerton in Somerset. That meant that Aethelbald controlled a huge chunk of Wessex. One indication of that control was that he could buy and sell land as he wished. He was the strongest figure in southern Britain. In spite of his confessions of faith, he was barbaric and everyone, including the Church, knew that and could do little about it. No other king had ruled so masterfully and for so long. But then it came to an end. After forty-one years of his throne, Aethelbald was murdered, by his own bodyguard. The result was a civil war in the Midla C+…the imprint of his power is visible not only throughout England but upon the Continent. Offa was the contemporary of Charlemagne. His policy interlaced with that of Europe; he was reputed to be the first 'King of the English' and he had the first quarrel since Roman times with the mainland.

Charlemagne wished one of his sons to marry one or Offa's daughters. Here we have an important proof of the esteem in which the Englishman was held. Offa stipulated that his son must simultaneously marry a daughter of Charlemagne. The founder of the Holy Roman Empire appeared at first incensed at this assumption of equality, but after a while he found it expedient to renew his friendship with Offa. It seems that the 'King of the English' had placed an embargo upon Continental merchandise, and the inconvenience of this retaliation speedily overcame all points of pride and sentiment. Very soon Offa was again the Emperor's 'dearest brother' and Charlemagne is seen agreeing to arrange that there should be reciprocity of royal protection in both countries for merchants, 'according to the ancient custom of trading'

All this explains now powenul a king Offa was. What's more he saw himself as the defender of the faith. And it was here that a single incident that marked Offa is particularly relevant to our history occurred. Offa had his son anointed as King of Mercia. He was consecrated. And this is probably the first time that an English king was consecrated and, therefore, the moment that marked a religions dimension to the English throne. But for most people, Offa remains famous for one great work.

C+We have a tangible monument of Offa in the immense dyke which he caused to be built between converted Saxon England and the still unconquered British.... This dyke, which runs over the hills and dales, leaving gaps for the impenetrable forests, from the mouth of the Severn to the neighbourhood of the Mersey, attests to our day the immense authority of the state over which Offa presided. . . . the fact that this extensive rampart could have been mainly the work of the lifetime and the will of a single man is startling. It conveys to us an idea of the magnitude and force of Offa's kingdom. But 'Offa's Dyke' shows policy as well as manpower. In many sections it follows lines favourable to the British, and historians have concluded that it was a boundary rather than a fortification and resulted from an agreement reached for common advantage ... the expression of a solemn treaty which for a long spell removed Offa's problem - the menace of a British incursion - and thus set him free with his back secure to parley and dispute with Europe. The Venerable Bede, who died, peacefully, after Vespers on the Feast of the Ascension in ad 735, describes the land Offa inherited.

*The Scots that inhabit Britain, satisfied with their own territories, meditate no hostilities against the nation of the English. The Britons, though they for the most part through innate hatred are adverse to the English nation, and wrongfully and from wicked custom oppose the anointed Easter of the whole Catholic Church; yet from both the divine and human power withstanding them can in no way prevail as they desire, for though in part they are their own master, yet elsewhere they are also brought under subjugation to the English. Such being the peaceable and calm disposition of the times, many of the Northumbrians as well of the nobility as private persons, laying aside their weapons, rather incline to dedicate both themselves and their children to the tonsure and monastic vows, than to study martial discipline. What will be the end hereof, the next age will show. This is for the present the state of all Britain. The new king of the Mercians was Offa, one or the most famous names or this period

The king Offa is best remembered for the great wall he built to hem the British Celts of the west.

In ad 778 Offa had made a military expedition as far as Dyfed. Another raid followed in ad 784. His final attack in the area led to a battle at Rhuddlan by the Clwyd in the year of his death. But it was sometime after his expedition of AD 784 that Offa conceived the idea of building a frontier which can still be seen today. This consists of 120 miles of massive earthworks from the Severn estuary at Sedbury near Chepstow, snaking northwards to the estuary of the Dee at Prestatyn. There are parts where the density of woodland prevented building but the wall was effective nonetheless. To the British Celts it became Clawdd Offa and to the English it was known as Offan Dic, Offa's Dyke. Another series of earthworks which ran from Basingwerk to Morda Brook, south of Oswestry, has been claimed to have been built earlier by Aethelbald and not Offa. If so, then the original idea of the dyke belongs to Aethelbald. Offa was merely completing the work of the king he had succeeded. Offa's Dyke was to become regarded as the fixed boundary between Celt and Saxon in this area.

The building of this frontier wall seemed arbitrary and, as Nora Chadwick points out, in the north the frontier actually sliced through British Celtic territory and 'cut off a large portion of the old kingdom of Powys - the richest portion'. But on the eighth-century monument known as Eliseg's Pillar, we find that Eliseg ap Gwylog, king of Powys, had managed to retake 'the heritage of Powys ... from the power of the Saxon'. Given that Eliseg's great-grandson died in Rome about ad 850, we could place Eliseg in Offa's time. Did he overun Offa's Dyke to the east and regain that lost part of Powys as far as Pengwern (Shrewsbury) for a time? Or was he merely consolidating Powys as far as Offa's threatening ramparts? From this time, how­ever, the great fortifications hemmed in the western British Celt: effectively severing them from their kinfolk in south-west Britain and from the former kingdom of Rheged, now reduced south of the Solway Firth to Cumbria, but still independent and under its own kings. The Celts of Cumbria were now calling themselves ‘Сymry’ (compatriots) and their land 'Cymru' which the Saxons pronounced: as Cumbria.

The modern shape of England was beginning to emerge.

By ad 796 Offa was dead, and the Vikings were about to arrive. The Romans had left at the start of the fifth century and the Angles, the Jutes and, of course, the Saxons, together became the English after the Romans left. At the end of the 700s the Vikings arrived from Scandinavia: Swedes, Norwegians and Danes. The first mention of them appears in The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The year was ad 789.

* In this year Beorhtric took to wife Eadburh, daughter of King Offa. And in his days came first three ships of Norwegians from Horthaland; and then the reeve [sheriff] rode hither and tried to compel them to go to the royal manor, for he did not know what they were: and then they slew him. These were the first ships of the Danes to come to England.

C+ In the eighth century a vehement manifestation of conquering energy appeared in Scandinavia. Norway, Sweden and Denmark threw up bands of formidable fighting men, who, in addition to all their other martial qualities, were the hardy rovers of the sea. The causes which led to this racial ebullition were the spontaneous growth of their strength and population, the thirst for adventure, and the complications of dynastic quarrels. There was here no question of the Danes or Norsemen being driven westward

by new pressures from the steppes of Asia. They moved of their own accord. Their prowess was amazing. The relations between the Danes and the Norwegians were tangled and varying. Sometimes they raided in collision; sometimes they fought each other in desperate battles: but to Saxon England they presented themselves in the common guise of a merciless scourge.