597. Roman missionaries, led by Augustine, arrive in Kent
597?601. Athelberht
of Kent converted to ChristianityThe legendary beginning of the Roman mission
to England is described in chapter nine of the Life of Gregory the Great (written
at Whitby probably 704?714) and in Bede (HE, ii.1). Gregory, before he became
Pope, was at the slave market in Rome and discovered some Northumbrians. He asked
about their background and made three bilingual puns to show that they were ripe
for conversion. (His comment that the Angles were like angels is well-known; the
other two are that the kingdom's name Deira showed that they should be saved "from the wrath" (de ira) of the Lord, and that the king's name ?lle showed that
Alleluia should be sung in those parts.) The Whitby Life and Bede differ in particulars,
and it is likely that the full-grown tale had more to do with English love of
wordplay (seen most vividly in Aldhelm, the brilliant contemporary Anglo-Latin
poet) than with events in Rome over a century earlier.
One root of the tale
may have been a letter of September 595 from Gregory to the priest Candidus who
was setting out for Gaul, telling him to use papal revenues to buy English youths
in the slave markets and put them into monasteries (see Wood, p.2, and Colgrave,
p.145). Gregory may have intended to use these converted natives as missionaries
to England. Another root was perhaps Gregory's comment in his Moralia in Iob,
also circulating around 595, that the once-barbarous language of Britain was now
beginning to sing the Hebrew Alleluia. These are the only contemporary Continental
references, and if the similarity between Alleluia and the Deiran king's name
was a pun waiting to happen, it probably only happened on English soil.
Bede
provides the only early narrative account of Augustine's mission (HE, i.23-33,
ii.2-3), though this should be supplemented with Wood's review of the Continental
evidence.
In 596, Pope Gregory sent Augustine with almost forty companions
to convert the English. The missionaries were sore afraid of a barbarian and heathen
country and stopped partway, sending Augustine back to Gregory to ask that they
be excused the mission. Gregory instead sent them an encouraging letter, dated
23 July 596, and they continued on their way (HE, i.23). Bede records a letter
from Gregory to the Etherius, the bishop of Lyons, wrongly called of Arles (HE,
i.24); Wood demonstrates from the register of Gregory's correspondence that this
is only one of a thicket of papal letters asking support for Augustine, to bishops
of Marseilles, Aix, Arles, Vienne, Autun, Tours -- which would all be on a relatively
straight route from Provence to Kent (Wood, p. 5). Although Bede states that Augustine
returned to the Continent to be consecrated bishop of the English after the coversion
of ?thelberht (HE, i.27), a letter of Pope Gregory to Eulogius of Alexandria makes
clear Augustine was consecrated on the way over (Colgrave/Mynors, p. 78 n. 1).
In
597, Augustine arrived at Thanet, where he was received by ?thelberht, and granted
a dwelling-place in Canterbury and permission to preach (HE, i.25; date from HE,
v.24). As Wood points out, the litany Bede records for this occasion is probably
an anachronism (Wood, pp. 3-4). The Roman missionaries began to imitate the life
of the apostles in Canterbury, and preached at the church of St Martin's, which
was already in use for the Christian observances of the queen, Bertha, and her
bishop Liudhard. Some of the people, marvelling at the simplicity of the missionaries
and their faith, believed and were baptised, until at last ?thelberht himself
was baptised (HE, i.26). In the letter to Eulogius already mentioned, Gregory
states that at Christmas 597 over ten thousand people were baptised (Wood, p.
12). The precise date of ?thelberht's own conversion is unknown, but the outer
limits seem to be the arrival of the missionaries in 597 and a letter from the
Pope to the newly-converted king in 601.
Bede's account leaves out almost
all mention of Frankish involvement in Augustine's mission, except for his inclusion
of a letter of introduction for Augustine to bishop Etherius of Lyons (HE, i.24)
and his comment that when the missionaries arrived at Thanet they had acquired
some Frankish interpreters (HE, i.25). In fact, in other letters of Gregory, perhaps
not known to Bede but reviewed by Wood, the Pope reports that he has heard good
reports of the involvement of several Frankish kings, and especially of the queen-regent
Brunhild. Further, Syagrius, bishop of Autun, received a pallium in 599 for his
support of the mission. We have no details of this "involvement" and
"support" outside of the record of the letters of Gregory, so we cannot
say what form it took on the ground. From letters Gregory wrote to Frankish kings
in 596, it seems that the English wished to become Christian, but the priests
of the neighbourhood (given the context, presumably Frankish priests) had not
responded. In a letter to Brunhild of 596, Gregory again makes this complaint,
and notes that he wants Augustine to take some priests from the neighbourhood
with him. Perhaps the Frankish rulers were thanked later by Gregory for encouraging
their clergy to support or participate in Augustine's mission, though they would
doubtless also be pursuing their own political aims in doing so (see Wood, p.
9).
N. Brooks, The Early History of the Church of Canterbury (Leicester:
1984)
B. Colgrave, The Earliest Life of Gregory the Great (Kansas:
1968)
B. Colgrave and R.A.B. Mynors, Bede's Ecclesiastical History
of the English People (Oxford: 1969)
I. Wood, "The Mission
of Augustine to Canterbury to the English", Speculum 69 (1994), 1-17
c.600-75.
English gold coinage
There is no evidence of coin production in England
before the end of the 6th century, in contrast with the Continent where the barbarian
invaders were soon issuing imitation Roman coins of their own. Some of these Continental
coins from before c.600 are found in England, but since most of these are pierced
or have loops attached, they may have been worn as ornaments rather than circulated
as money. Most of the imported coins are from Merovingian Francia, with a scattering
of other types.
From the end of the 6th century, imported gold coins tend
to be unmounted, and were more probably used as money, perhaps the scillingas
(shillings) of the early law codes. The earliest surviving English gold coins
also date from about this time; one of them, probably struck by a visiting moneyer
of the Frankish king Theudebert II (595-612), names the moneyer and the mint-place
(Eusebius of Canterbury). Coins tended to follow Merovingian or earlier Roman
models, with frequently a bust on one side and a cross on the other. Sometimes
the legends are legible, but they seem most often to be a blundered or other incomprehensible
assemblage of letters and runes. Some coins name the mint-place as London, others
name the moneyer (e.g. Witmen, Pada), and one exceptional issue is made in the
name of King Eadbald of Kent.
English minting of gold coin seems to have
been mostly limited to Kent and the upper Thames valley, though one issue is associated
with York and another seems to be East Anglian. Minting of coin in the first quarter
of the 7th century seems to have been a sporadic affair. There was a more sustatined
coinage in the 630s and 640s, but the fact that most of the surviving coins seem
to be little worn and to have been struck from a small group of dies suggests
again a small coinage with a limited circulation. The largest output of gold coin
came in the third quarter of the century. The gold content of the coins dropped
progressively throughout the century, and in about 675 the gold standard was abandoned
altogether in favour of silver. Occasional gold coins were produced until the
end of the Anglo-Saxon period (King Eadred's will in the 10th century calls for
the minting of 2,000 of them), but they were very much the exception to the standard
silver penny.
P. Grierson and M. Blackburn, Medieval European Coinage,
1: The Early Middle Ages (5th-10th centuries) (Cambridge: 1986)
601.
Augustine sends Laurence and Peter to report to the pope
Pope Gregory sends
more helpers and a pallium to Augustine
Bede notes that Augustine sent
the priest Laurence (later Archbishop of Canterbury) and the monk Peter (later
abbot of St Augustine's) to report on progress and ask a detailed series of questions
(HE, i.27); this visit is not dated, but can probably be assigned to 601 since
the papal reply, made "without delay", was dated July 601 (Colgrave/Mynors,
p. 79 n. 1).
In addition to his detailed replies, Gregory sent more helpers
to Augustine, foremost among them Mellitus (later bishop of London), Justus (later
bishop of Rochester), Paulinus (later bishop of York), and Rufinianus, as well
as many needful goods for the worship and ministry of the church, a pallium for
Augustine, and a letter directing how the bishops of Britain should be organized
(HE, i.29). The pope also sent letters to Frankish bishops through whose territory
the missionaries would travel, of Vienne, Arles, Lyons, Toulon, Marseilles, Chalon-sur-Sao'ne,
Metz, Paris, Rouen, Angers, and Gap, and to the three Merovingian royal courts.
These were by no means all in a straightforward route back to England, and the
party was probably meant to travel around the Frankish territories to gather additional
support (see Wood, p. 6, and entry on 597).
With the pallium, a white woollen
band worn over the shoulders and signifying papal authority, Gregory enabled Augustine
to consecrate other bishops, and in his letter Gregory outlined a plan for the
English church. He determined that Augustine, as bishop of London, should ordain
twelve bishops in places subject to his jurisdiction, and should also select a
bishop for York who should receive his own pallium and also consecrate twelve
subordinate bishops. Gregory also noted that Augustine should have under his authority
not only all the bishops under York and London, but also the British bishops;
it seems quite likely that this would lead to a confrontation between Augustine
and the British bishops such as Bede described at "Augustine's Oak"
(see entry on c.602).
It is unclear why Gregory, presumably after being
briefed by Laurence and Peter on the state of Augustine's mission at Canterbury,
stated that Augustine should be established instead at London. London and York
were the centres of late Roman administration in Britain, and the scheme may have
been a deliberate echo of old Britannia as a compliment to the breadth of rule
of ?thelberht, the first converted English king. (In the 10th century, English
kings would with much greater justification evoke memories of the rule of all
Britannia: see entries on 927 and 973). This may have sounded well in Rome, but
the ambit of ?thelberht's rule was much more limited (see entry on c.575) and
the plan could not be implemented on the ground. Augustine is only known to have
ordained bishops to two other sees (of London and Rochester, in 604), the Northumbrian
mission had to wait until 625, and Augustine's see remained at Canterbury.
There
were also papal letters in 601 to King ?thelberht (reproduced at HE, i.32) and
to Queen Bertha (noted by Wood, p. 10), comparing them in their faith to the Emperor
Constantine and his mother Helena; Bertha was thanked for her support of Augustine
and encouraged to strengthen ?thelberht's faith, while ?thelberht was encouraged
to take every opportunity to extend the Christian faith over his subjects. In
his letter to ?thelberht Gregory also urged that idols should be suppressed and
the shrines overthrown. In another letter, written to Mellitus a month later (HE,
i.30), Gregory notes that after long deliberation he prefers a more moderate approach:
the idols should still be overthrown, but the shrines and some of the ceremonies
should be converted for Christian use, so that the English can feel more familiar
with their new religion. The most enduring result of this is that the English
name for Easter remains that of a pagan goddess who had earlier given her name
to the month of April (Eosturmonath; see Hines, p.379).
After his account
of the correspondence of 601, Bede records that Augustine restored a Roman church
within Canterbury (on the site of the present cathedral), and also founded a monastery
to the east of the city (HE, i.33; the monastery was at first dedicated to St
Peter and St Paul, and later to St Augustine). Plummer, following a very late
Canterbury tradition, suggests that the cathedral may have been dedicated on 9
June 603 (see Plummer, II.63).
N. Brooks, The Early History of the Church
of Canterbury (Leicester: 1984)
B. Colgrave and R.A.B. Mynors, Bede's
Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Oxford: 1969)
J. Hines,
"Religion: The Limits of Knowledge", The Anglo-Saxons from the Migration
Period to the Eighth Century: An Ethnographic Perspective (Woodbridge: 1997),
pp.375-410
C. Plummer, Venerabilis Baedae Historiam Ecclesiasticam
Gentis Anglorum [...] (Oxford: 1896)
I. Wood, "The Mission
of Augustine to Canterbury to the English", Speculum 69 (1994), 1-17
c.602.
Augustine meets the British bishops (?)
Two meetings between Augustine
and the British bishops are described by Bede (HE, ii.2). The meetings are not
dated, but since one of the things to which the British object is accepting Augustine
as their archbishop, they would probably have taken place shortly after the Pope
gave Augustine that authority in a letter of 601.
The first meeting, arranged
with King ?thelberht's help, took place at "Augustine's Oak" (unidentified,
but said to be on the borders of the Hwicce and the West Saxons). Augustine argued
that the British bishops and teachers should conform more closely to catholic
doctrine and help to evangelise the English. When argument proved unavailing,
the two sides went on to "trial by miracle": a blind Englishman was
brought, and where British prayers proved unavailing, Augustine's prayers restored
the man's sight. The Britons then confessed that Augustine was right, but that
they could not abandon their former beliefs without the consent of their people.
A second and larger meeting was arranged.
Before the second meeting, the
British sought the advice of a holy hermit, as to whether they should forsake
their traditions and follow Augustine. The hermit replied that if Augustine showed
himself to be meek and lowly of heart, then he was a man of God and deserved to
be followed: if, on the contrary, he was harsh and proud, he was not from God.
The hermit further suggested that if, when the British came to meet Augustine,
he rose at their approach, that would demonstrate his humility. Most unfortunately,
Augustine remained seated when the British arrived, and so no agreement was reached.
According to Bede, Augustine then threatened the British that if they refused
to accept peace from their brethren, they would suffer war from their enemies,
and if they would not preach the way of life to the English, they would be killed
by them. Bede saw the fulfillment of this prophecy in the battle of Chester of
c.613, in which the prayers of British monks proved ineffective against the wrath
of ?thelfrith of Northumbria.
So far the story. With its allegorical miracle
(for healing the blind Englishman, read converting him) and soon-fulfilled prophecy
(easy enough in hindsight), it reads more like Bede's ideal of how Augustine might
have confounded the British than an accurate account of historical events c.602.
That there were meetings between Augustine and the British bishops is very likely.
That these did not result in a joint plan to convert the English is plausible,
and would explain Bede's hostility to the British church a hundred years later.
It
should be emphasized though that Bede's information is incomplete, and such evidence
as we can gather suggests that while the British church may not have played a
top-heavy institutional role, the British were probably much more involved in
the conversion of the English than Bede was prepared to admit. Sims-Williams (at
pp.75-9) has plausibly suggested that the Hwicce and Magons?tan, English groups
on the Welsh borders who are already Christian when Bede first mentions them,
were converted unobtrusively by their British neighbours. This fits with Meens's
recent demonstration that Augustine's eighth question to the Pope in 601 (reported
by Bede at HE, i.27) closely reflects concerns of the contemporary British church,
which implies that Augustine sometimes had to deal with English who had already
been exposed to (and perhaps converted by) the doctrines of the British Christians.
J. Campbell, "Observations on the Conversion of England", reprinted
in his Essays in Anglo-Saxon History (London, 1986), pp.69-84, at pp.71-3
R. Meens, "A background to Augustine's mission to Anglo-Saxon England",
in Anglo-Saxon England, 23 (1994), pp.5-17
P. Sims-Williams, Religion
and Literature in Western England, 600-800 (Cambridge: 1990)
603.
Battle at Degsastan: between the Northumbrians and the Scots
Bede records
that in 603 Athelfrith defeated Aedan, king of the Irish living in Britain (HE,
i.34; Aedan was king of the Dal Riada in Scotland). Aedan had marched against
Athelfrith with a very strong army, but the British king was defeated and his
army cut to pieces at "Degsa's Stone" (perhaps Dawston Rigg in Liddesdale?).
Bede notes further that Athelfrith's brother Theobald was killed along with the
whole of his army (presumably Theobald led part of the Northumbrian army). One
manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle adds the detail that Hering, son of Hussa,
led the army. No more is known of Hering, but Hussa (588-92?) seems to have been
?thelfrith's predecessor as king of Bernicia (see entry on c.450 to 651).
604.
Augustine consecrates bishops Mellitus and Justus
Mellitus converts the East
Saxons, receives see of London
Justus receives see of Rochester
Bede
records that in 604 Augustine consecrated two bishops, Mellitus and Justus, and
assigned Mellitus to preach in the district of the East Saxons, and Justus to
the see of Rochester (HE, ii.3). King Athelberht built the churches of St Andrew's
in Rochester and St Paul's in London.
Bede notes also that while Saberht
ruled the East Saxons, he was the son of Athelberht's sister Ricule, and under
Athelberht's overlordship.
607. Ceolwulf of Wessex fights the South Saxons
This
battle is not mentioned by Bede, but is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
611.
Ceolwulf of Wessex dies (?)
Cynegils succeeds to Wessex
The Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle does not mention Ceolwulf's death, it simply states that in 611 Cynegils
succeeded to Wessex, and notes that he was the son of Ceola, the son of Cutha,
the son of Cynric. "Cutha" is presumably short for Cuthwulf, Ceawlin's
brother.
Little is known of Cynegils's reign. He and Cwichelm (his son)
defeated the British at Beandun (unidentified) in 614, and were defeated by Penda
of Mercia at Cirencester in 628. Bede records that Cwichelm sent an assassin to
kill Edwin of Northumbria, and in revenge Edwin sent an army into Wessex (see
entry on c.626), but later Edwin's successor Oswald became Cynegils's godparent,
and also married Cynegils's daughter Cyneburh (see entry on 635). Cwichelm (who
may have shared rule with his father) was baptised and died in 636, according
to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. In 642, presumably on his death, Cynegils was succeeded
by another son, Cenwealh.
c.613. Battle of Chester: Athelfrith of Northumbria
defeats Selyf of Powys
The battle of Chester is noted by Bede (HE, ii.2)
as the fulfilment of a prophecy of Augustine's that the British, if they would
not convert the English, would be killed by them instead (see entry on 602). Bede
states that Athelfrith (of Northumbria) raised a great army against Chester and
there made a great slaughter of the Britons, including over 2000 monks of Bangor
who had come to pray for a British victory.
One manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle mentions the battle after a note of the death of Pope Gregory, and dates
both events to 605. The Chronicle is here following Bede quite closely, and since
Bede records Gregory's death in 605 in the chapter before his account of the battle
(HE, ii.1), the date was probably originally nothing to do with the battle.
The
Annales Cambriae date the battle instead to 613, and this date (or some point
between this date and Athelfrith's death in 616) is generally accepted. The Annales
add that Athelfrith's opponent was Selyf (Solomon) son of Cynan (Cynan was the
king of Powys). It has been suggested from contemporary Welsh verse that the kingdom
of Powys at this time extended northwards into Lancashire, which might make more
sense of the Northumbrian king's attack (Dumville, p.221, notes both the possibility
and the lack of real evidence).
D. Dumville, "The origins of Northumbria:
some aspects of the British background", in S. Bassett (ed.), The Origins
of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms (London: 1989), pp.213-22
614. Cynegils and
Cwichelm of Wessex defeat the Britons at Beandun
This battle is recorded
in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which further notes that over 2000 Britons were
killed.
c.615-54. Early history of the East Angles
Sources for East
Anglian narrative history really begin in the first half of the 7th century with
King R?dwald, though reign-dates remain vague until the middle of the century.
There is a surviving royal genealogy which extends behind R?dwald: Bede notes
that the East Anglian kings are called "Wuffings" after R?dwald's grandfather
Wuffa (HE, ii.15), and the later Historia Brittonum suggests that Wuffa's father
Wehha was the first of the line to rule the East Angles (?59), but this could
just be copied from the Kentish origin model (an initial ruler, Hengest, followed
by a son, ?sc, from whom the ruling dynasty is named; see entry on c.450 to 512).
It
is uncertain when Radwald came to power, but he was king by 616 when he raised
a large army and fought the battle of the river Idle (see entry on 616) which
put Edwin on the Northumbrian throne. Since this campaign not only demonstrated
R?dwald acting beyond the East Anglian borders, but also showed him helping to
his throne the king under whom the Northumbrians would be converted, it is small
wonder that Bede puts R?dwald in his list of kings with wide powers over the southern
English kingdoms (HE, ii.5). R?dwald had accepted Christianity in Kent (probably
at ?thelberht's court), but was seduced back to his old pagan faith by his wife
and some of his counsellors, so that he had in the same temple an altar to Christ
and also an altar for offering victims to devils (Bede, HE, ii.15). The date of
R?dwald's death is as uncertain as the date of his accession: his son Eorpwald
had succeeded him as king when he was converted by Edwin (HE, ii.15), so R?dwald
must have died between the battle of the river Idle in 616 and Edwin's death in
633. The 12th-century Liber Eliensis pushes the closing date back to 627 (see
Keynes, p.104), but this may be simply based on an assumption from the order of
events in Bede that Edwin converted Eorpwald immediately after his own conversion
in 627.
Eorpwald succeeded Radwald then some time 616?633, and received
the faith from Edwin some time 627?633. Shortly after becoming Christian, Eorpwald
was killed by a heathen called Ricbert (HE, ii.15). Bede notes that the kingdom
stayed in error for three years, which may imply that it was under Ricbert's pagan
rule.
Then Eorpwald's brother Sigeberht came to the throne (early in the
630s?); Sigeberht had been in exile in Gaul for fear of R?dwald's enmity, and
had become a Christian there. (On Sigeberht's reign, see HE, ii.15 and iii.18.)
He established a school in East Anglia to teach letters with the help of the Burgundian
bishop Felix, whom he gave a bishopric at Dommoc (Dunwich?) . Sigeberht eventually
resigned and entrusted the rule of the whole kingdom to his kinsman Ecgric, who
had previously ruled part of the kingdom. Bede gives no indication of the line
of the division, but it might have followed the river Waveney, which was the dividing
line between the two sees of East Anglia when a second see was established by
Theodore (at North Elmham) and remains today the dividing line between Norfolk
and Suffolk (see Yorke, p.69). Some time later, the East Angles were under attack
from the Mercian king Penda, a battle which can be roughly dated as between c.635
and 645, and in which both Sigeberht and Ecgric were killed (see entry on c.635?645).
The
next known king of East Anglia was Anna, son of R?dwald's brother Eni (HE, iii.18
and genealogy). He was king by 645, when he sheltered the exiled Cenwealh of Wessex
(see entry on 645). Like his cousin Sigeberht, he was killed by Penda of Mercia,
and this event is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under the year 654. Anna
had three daughters. The eldest, Seaxburh, married King Eorcenberht of Kent (640-64),
while another, ?thelburh, became abbess of the Continental monastery of Brie (HE,
iii.8). Anna's most famous daughter, ?thelthryth, was married to Tondberht of
the South Gyrwe and later to Ecgfrith of Northumbria, maintained her virginity
through both marriages (in spite of Ecgfrith's entreaties and promises of rich
gifts to Bishop Wilfrid if he could convince her to consummate the marriage),
and went on to found the abbey of Ely (HE, iv.19).
No entry on the early
history of the East Angles would be complete without mentioning the burial ground
of Sutton Hoo, a few miles from what was in Bede's day the East Anglian royal
centre of Rendlesham (HE, iii.22). There are several mounds over burials, two
of which included large ships among their grave goods. The richest collection
of goods, that in the ship buried beneath Mound 1, contained treasures from the
Scandinavian, Merovingian, and Mediterannean worlds, as well as from farther afield
-- a silver dish from Byzantium and a yellow cloak from Syria. Other items, such
as an iron "standard" and whetstone "sceptre", have been interpreted
as royal regalia, and the temptation to see this as the burial of a great king
leads to the assumption that this is a commemoration to King R?dwald, the only
great East Anglian king we know much about. However, a recent study has suggested
the site should rather be identified as East Saxon, and has suggested the East
Saxon S?berht as the most likely candidate for Mound 1 (see Pearson, van de Noort,
and Woolf), and the latest word of the most recent excavator of the site, Martin
Carver, is that such attributions should be seen as possible but unproven (see
Carver's article on Sutton Hoo in the Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England).
M. Carver (ed.), The Age of Sutton Hoo: The Seventh Century in North-Western
Europe (Woodbridge: 1992)
D. Dumville, "The Anglian collection
of royal genealogies and regnal lists", Anglo-Saxon England 5 (1976), pp.23-50
S. Keynes, "R?dwald the Bretwalda", Voyage to the Other World: The Legacy
of Sutton Hoo (Minneapolis: 1992), pp.103-23
M. Parker Pearson,
R. van de Noort and A. Woolf, "Three men and a boat: Sutton Hoo and the East
Saxon kingdom", Anglo-Saxon England 22 (1993), pp.27-50
B.
Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England (London: 1990)
February
24, 616. Athelberht of Kent dies
Eadbald succeeds to Kent; restores paganism
Archbishop
Laurence persuades Eadbald to the faith
Bede records ?thelberht's death
on 24 February, in 616, 21 years after the missionaries arrived and he accepted
the faith (HE, ii.5).
The "21 years" is a problem, since it would
place the arrival of the missionaries in 595, which contradicts the date of 597
Bede gives elsewhere (HE, v.24, and see the papal letters at HE, i.23-4). On the
other hand, shifting ?thelberht's death to 618 (21 years after 597) runs into
problems with the chronology of events after the death of S?berht of the East
Saxons (see entry on 616/7): S?berht died after ?thelberht, and then there must
be room for a pagan backlash and for Mellitus to spend a year in exile and then
return some time before taking up the archbishopric of Canterbury in February
619. This would be almost impossible if ?thelberht died in February 618, so it
seems best to regard "21 years" as an error and leave ?thelberht's death
in February 616.
?thelberht was succeeded by his son Eadbald, who had never
received Christianity and compounded his fault in Bede's eyes by marrying his
father's wife, presumably his stepmother (HE, ii.5; see entry on 858 for another
example of a king's son marrying his stepmother). On the death of S?berht (616/7)
the East Saxons also reverted to paganism, and bishops Mellitus and Justus went
back to the continent to await the outcome. According to Bede, Laurence would
have followed, but St Peter appeared to him in a dream and scourged him for deserting
his post. The next morning Laurence showed Eadbald the marks and Eadbald, sore
afraid, quickly gave up his unlawful wife, accepted the Christian faith, and outlawed
paganism once more, though he was not strong enough to reimpose Christianity (or
bishop Mellitus) on the East Saxons (HE, ii.6).
616. Battle at the river
Idle: Radwald of the East Angles kills Athelfrith of Northumbria
Edwin succeeds
to Northumbria
The story of Radwald's alliance with Edwin is told by
Bede as part of the long account of Edwin's conversion (HE, ii.12). Edwin of Deira
was in exile from Athelfrith of Bernicia, and had been wandering for long years
through all the kingdoms of Britain when he sought protection from R?dwald of
the East Angles. R?dwald took Edwin in and promised to protect him. When Athelfrith
learnt that Edwin was in East Anglia, he sent messengers to Radwald promising
large amounts of money if he would put Edwin to death. R?dwald refused, and so
?thelfrith sent a second and a third time, promising even larger gifts and threatening
war if R?dwald refused. Finally, either corrupted by the bribes or cowed by the
threats, R?dwald agreed and promised either to kill Edwin or give him up to the
Bernician messengers. Edwin learned this and went to sit outside the hall, where
a heavenly messenger came to give him hope; shortly after that, a faithful friend
sought him out, to tell him that R?dwald's wife had convinced him that going against
his initial promise to Edwin would have been entirely unbecoming and a sacrifice
of his honour. R?dwald sent away ?thelfrith's messengers, and shortly afterwards
gathered together a large army to restore Edwin to the Northumbrian throne. R?dwald's
army met ?thelfrith's without giving the Northumbrian king time to prepare, and
?thelfrith was slain in the battle on the Mercian border on the east bank of the
river Idle, as was R?dwald's own son Regenhere. It was this battle that enabled
Edwin to succeed to the Northumbrian throne.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records
the battle under 617, but since Bede says that Edwin had ruled the Northumbrians
for 17 years at the time of the Battle of Hatfield of October 12, 633 (HE, ii.20),
the correct date for the battle and for Edwin's accession is presumably 616.
c.616.
Edwin of Northumbria occupies Elmet and expels King Cerdic
The Historia
Brittonum records this conquest as taking place in Edwin's reign (?63). The Annales
Cambriae record the death of a Cerdic in 616, just before they record Edwin's
accession: this may be Cerdic of Elmet, although it need not be, and if it is
someone else then the defeat of Cerdic of Elmet could be redated to 616?633. Bede
does not mention the conquest of Elmet, though he does note that Edwin's nephew
Hereric was poisoned while living in exile under the British king Cerdic, and
this might have given Edwin an excuse for the war (HE, iv.23).
Elmet (Elfed
in Welsh) was near modern-day Leeds in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and sent
some warriors to the battle at Catraeth commemorated in the Gododdin (see entry
on 570). The fact that a British kingdom survived into the 7th century, though
probably surrounded by English Northumbria, suggests that there may have been
other British kingdoms among the early English kingdoms, and that the English
conquest was not as wholesale as our fragmentary and later sources lead us to
believe. The name Elmet survives Edwin's conquest, as the Elmeds?te (dwellers
in Elmet) are the most northerly people listed in the Tribal Hidage (a document
of uncertain date between the later 7th and 9th centuries).
D. Dumville,
"The origins of Northumbria: some aspects of the British background",
in S. Bassett (ed.), The Origins of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms (London: 1989), pp.213-22,
at pp.220-1
616/7. Saberht of East Saxons dies
Saberht's three
sons succeed to East Saxons; restore paganism
S?berht's death in mentioned
in Bede (HE, ii.5), but not in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. As Plummer has shown
(II.88), the date is very likely either 616 or 617: Bede's wording implies it
is after ?thelberht's death (February 616), and the expulsion of Christian clerics
which followed S?berht's death must be in January 618 or earlier (because Mellitus
spent one year in exile in Gaul (HE, ii.6), and he was made archbishop of Canterbury
in February 619, some indeterminate time after his return (HE, ii.7)).
After
Saberht's death, his three sons succeeded, Saward, Seaxred, and probably Seaxbald
(see Yorke, p.52). They had restrained their heathen practices during their Christian
father's reign, but now went back to openly worshipping idols and allowing their
subjects to do the same. Bede records the story that the three sons of Saberht
saw the bishop celebrating mass (Mellitus, in London), and they asked him why
he would not give them the Eucharistic bread just as he had given it to their
father. The bishop replied that they could not partake of the bread unless they
were baptised, and after much argument they threw him out of the kingdom (HE,
ii.5).
C. Plummer, Venerabilis Baedae Historiam Ecclesiasticam Gentis
Anglorum [...] (Oxford: 1896)
B. Yorke, Kings and Kingdoms of Early
Anglo-Saxon England (London: 1990)
c.616. West Saxons defeat East
Saxons; Saberht's three sons killed
This battle is mentioned in Bede
(HE, ii.5), who implies that it was the East Saxons' due punishment for having
expelled their Christian bishop. It cannot be dated precisely: Bede says that
it took place not long after the East Saxons had exiled Mellitus, which was at
some point between 616 and January 618 (see entry on 616/7, so it could have happened
as early as 616 or as late as a few years after 618. The next recorded king of
the East Saxons was Sigiberht the Small, of whom almost nothing is known, save
that he was succeeded by Sigiberht the Good, who was converted back to Christianity
in about 653.
625-7. Conversion of Northumbria
Bede tells a
long story of the conversion of Edwin of Northumbria at HE, ii.9-14. It begins
with Edwin of Northumbria sending ambassadors to Kent, to ask for the hand of
?thelberht's daughter (Eadbald's sister) ?thelburh. Eadbald objected that Edwin
was a pagan, and Edwin responded that he would not prevent ?thelburh from practising
her religion, and indeed might convert himself. At this, ?thelburh was betrothed
to Edwin, and Paulinus was consecrated bishop (on 21 July 625) and went in ?thelburh's
train to the Northumbrian court. (HE, ii.9. This all bears close comparison with
the Frankish princess Bertha coming to pagan Kent and bringing bishop Liudhard
with her: see entry on c.575.) We are told that Paulinus worked long and hard
to convert the Northumbrians, but to no avail.
The following year, Cwichelm
of the West Saxons sent an assassin to kill Edwin (see entry on 626), and Edwin
promised Paulinus that if God would grant him life and victory over his enemies,
he would renounce idols and serve Christ. As earnest of this, he gave his infant
daughter (Eanfl?d, later abbess of Whitby) to be baptised. His campaign against
the West Saxons was successful, and though he did not accept the Christian faith
immediately and without consideration, he did listen to Paulinus and consult with
his counsellors (HE, ii.9).
Pope Boniface wrote letters of encouragement
to Edwin and ?thelburh (HE, ii.10-11, compare the letters Pope Gregory had written
to ?thelberht and Bertha in 601). Bede also recounts a moment in Edwin's exile
with R?dwald (see entry on 616), in which a heavenly messenger appeared to give
him hope, and in return Edwin promised to follow such a messenger in every particular.
Paulinus came one day and spoke in the voice Edwin seemed to remember from the
vision, and bade him remember his promise. Edwin then agreed that he would accept
Paulinus's faith, but would confer with his counsellors first that they might
all be converted together (HE, ii.12-13; note the echo of Bede's description of
the first meeting of Augustine and the British bishops in c.602).
Bede goes
on to describe Edwin's council (HE, ii.13), in which Coifi, the heathen high priest,
claims that the heathen religion is worthless because it has not brought him better
advancement, and another counsellor makes the famous comparison between life on
earth and the flight of a sparrow through a hall. After the council Coifi rushes
forth to profane the heathen shrines which he had consecrated, and Edwin with
all his nobles and many others is baptised on Easter day of 627 (HE, ii.14).
One
might be forgiven for thinking there is enough here to convert a normal person
several times over. It is possible that Edwin was very cautious or very reluctant,
but another possibility is that legends grew up quickly around Edwin's conversion,
and that Bede, unable or untroubled to select the original, has presented them
all. Support for this second possibility comes from the earliest Life of Gregory,
composed at Whitby in the early 8th century (704?714). Chapter 16 tells the tale
of the heavenly messenger at R?dwald's court, prefaced by the warning that this
was not the tale as told by those who were closest to Edwin (his daughter and
grand-daughter were abbesses of Whitby), but that it was included since it was
related sincerely by faithful witnesses. This may suggest that the heavenly messenger
glimpsed at R?dwald's court was a later and legendary addition.
The 9th-century
Historia Brittonum (at ?63) and the Annales Cambriae make the counter-claim that
Edwin was baptised by Rhun son of Urien (king of Rheged). This claim is probably
rightly dismissed as a much later invention, though it is true that Bede's prejudice
against the British church might keep him from mentioning British influence in
the Northumbrian conversion (see further Campbell, p.24).
J. Campbell,
"Bede I", reprinted in his Essays in Anglo-Saxon History (London, 1986),
pp.1-27
c.626. Penda becomes king of the Mercians
Sources
for the early history of Mercia are few and far between, with almost no detail
before we reach Penda in the early 7th century. The earlier material can be dealt
with briefly here. The royal line is said to go back, son to father, from Penda
to Pypba to Crida to Cynewald to Cnebba to Icel. Icel is probably the one who
came to Britain, since the 8th-century Life of St Guthlac notes that the line
begins with him. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (ASC 626) takes the line farther back,
through Eomer and Angeltheow and Offa (three legendary heroes noted in Beowulf),
and eventually to Woden. This neat structure ignores the Mercian king Cearl and
his daughter Cyneburh, who took in the Northumbrian Edwin in his exile according
to Bede (HE, ii.14), and so presumably ruled at some point between the end of
the 6th century and 616. Henry of Huntingdon in the 12th century assumed Cearl
was a kinsman of Pypba and reigned between Pypba and Penda, but this may be no
more than a guess (see Sims-Williams, p.25).
Penda probably started to rule
in about 626. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle notes under 626 that he ruled the kingdom
for 30 years, and was 50 when he gained the throne. This would make him of Lear-like
proportions at his final battle in 655, and it is more likely that the Chronicle
is mangling a source which said that he ruled the kingdom for 30 years and was
50 when he died (see Brooks, p.166). Bede notes that Penda held the kingdom of
the Mercians for 22 years after the battle of Hatfield in 633, "with varying
success" (HE, ii.20); this might be taken to imply that Penda came to power
in 633, but it might only mean that he first came to Bede's Northumbrian attention
in the year of his major battle with the Northumbrians. (The West Saxons would
remember Penda from their first battle with him in 628, recorded in the Chronicle.)
The Historia Brittonum is more difficult to reconcile, since it gives Penda a
reign of ten years, starting from the battle of Maserfelth (in 642), at which
his brother Eowa, king of the Mercians, was killed, and by means of which he freed
the kingdom of the Mercians from the Northumbrians. This starting date of 642,
at odds with the other two sources, suggests that Bede's brief comment that Penda
ruled "with varying success" may conceal a period when Penda had lost
control of Mercia to the Northumbrians (see entry on 634-42).
Penda's relations
with the Northumbrians, then, are a tale of four battles: first, the battle of
Hatfield in 633, in which he and Cadwallon of Gwynedd killed Edwin of Northumbria,
and second, in the following year, the battle at Denisesburn (see entries on 634
and 634-42), in which Cadwallon at least was soundly defeated by Oswald of Northumbria,
and Penda may have had his brother imposed on him as king of the Mercians under
the overlordship of the Mercians. Penda would defeat the Northumbrians a second
time in 642 at the battle of Maserfelth, when he would kill Oswald of Northumbria,
and Penda would himself be killed in the Northumbrians' second victory, at the
battle of Winw?d of 655.
Penda's relations with other southern kingdoms
were scarcely more peaceful. He defeated Cynegils and Cwichelm of Wessex in 628
at Cirencester, probably establishing his overlordship over the Hwicce at that
point, and possibly forcing Cynegils's son Cenwealh to marry his sister. When
Cenwealh repudiated Penda's sister in about 645, Penda forced him into exile,
and he fled to the court of Anna of the East Angles. The East Angles were likely
to harbour Penda's enemies because he had killed two of their kings, Sigeberht
and Ecgberht, in a battle of c.635?645; he would go on to kill Anna of the East
Angles in 654. It may be that one of the things that Penda was disputing with
the East Angles was jurisdiction over the territory of the Middle Angles which
lay between them, over which Penda put his son Peada in 653. It may also be that
Penda was systematically reducing the power of a kingdom which had flexed its
muscles and shown that it might be a threat back in 616 when it had sent an army
up to the Northumbrian border (presumably through eastern Mercia) and toppled
the Northumbrian king (see Dumville, p.132).
N. Brooks, "The formation
of the Mercian kingdom", The Origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms (London:
1989), pp.159-70
D. Dumville, "Essex, Middle Anglia and the
expansion of Mercia", The Origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms (London: 1989),
pp.123-40
P. Sims-Williams, Religion and Literature in Western England,
600-800 (Cambridge: 1990)
626. West Saxon Cwichelm tries to assassinate
Edwin of Northumbria
Northumbrians launch a revenge attack on the West Saxons
Bede
tells this story as part of the tale of the conversion of Northumbria (HE, ii.9;
see entry on 625-7). Cwichelm, whom Bede calls king of the West Saxons (the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle usually presents him as acting with his father king Cynegils), sent
Eomer, an assassin, to Edwin's court. In the midst of delivering his pretend message
from his lord, Eomer leapt up, drew his poisoned sword, and rushed at the king.
A thegn called Lilla quickly got in the way, and Eomer killed him outright and
wounded the king behind him. Eomer was surrounded and slain.
When Edwin
recovered from his wound, he gathered his army and marched against the West Saxons,
and had a victorious campaign in which he slew or forced to surrender all those
he discovered to have plotted his death. (The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle notes that
Edwin took an army into Wessex and destroyed there five kings, and killed many
other people. We cannot say who these five kings were: Cynegils and Cwichelm certainly
survived.)
c.627-731. Early history of Lindsey
The kingdom
of Lindsey (probably the same as the Parts of Lindsey in modern Lincolnshire)
was known to Bede, and though it fell alternately under Northumbrian and Mercian
control in the 7th century, a surviving regnal list shows that it did at one time
boast its own kings. It was once thought that the last of these, Aldfrith, witnessed
a single charter confirmed by Offa of Mercia (S 1183), but this is now thought
to be more probably a mangled attestation of Offa's son Ecgfrith (see Kelly, Selsey,
p. 54).
Most of the references to Lindsey in the 7th century come from Bede.
In the earliest, Paulinus goes to Lindsey after converting Edwin and converts
the nobleman (praefectus) Bl?cca and his household in Lincoln (HE, ii.16). Bede
goes on to report a story that mass baptisms took place in the river Trent near
Littleborough in the presence of King Edwin, which suggests that Lindsey was already
under Northumbrian influence at this point. Lindsey next emerges after the death
of Oswald of Northumbria in 642, when the Lindsey monastery of Bardney was unwilling
to receive the bones of St Oswald, "because he belonged to another kingdom
and had once conquered them" (HE, iii.11); it took a miracle for them to
change their minds, so, as one would expect in Bede's History, a miracle duly
took place. In the time of Wulfhere of Mercia (658-75), Lindsey was part of the
diocese of Mercia (HE, iv.3), but Wulfhere lost it to Northumbria when he fought
Ecgfrith in around 670?675. In 678, Lindsey gained a bishop (HE, iv.12), and it
was probably at the Battle of the Trent in the following year (see entry on 679)
that Wulfhere's successor ?thelred regained Lindsey from Ecgfrith (HE, iv.12).
The
return to Mercian control in 679 was the final change: from then on, Lindsey was
under Mercian control, though it seems to have retained its kings at least until
731, when Bede mentions the kingdom of Lindsey as being part of ?thelbald of Mercia's
Southumbrian dominions (HE, v.23).
D. Dumville, "The Anglian collection
of royal genealogies and regnal lists", Anglo-Saxon England 5 (1976), pp.23-50
(for Lindsey, see p. 37)
B. Eagles, "Lindsey", in S. Bassett
(ed.), The Origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms (London: 1989), pp.202-12
S. Kelly, Charters of Selsey (Oxford: 1998)
F. Stenton, "Lindsey
and its Kings", Preparatory to Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford: 1970), pp.127-35