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W. Graham Watson Phd Thesis CHANGE IN NORTHUMBRIA: WAS ALDFRITH OF NORTHUMBRIA'S REIGN A PERIOD OF INNOVATION OR DID IT MERELY REFLECT THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROCESSES ALREADY UNDERWAY IN THE LATE SEVENTH CENTURY? W. Graham Watson A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of St Andrews 2015 Full metadata for this item is available in Research@StAndrews:FullText at: http://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/7607 This item is protected by original copyright This item is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence Change in Northumbria: Was Aldfrith of Northumbria’s reign a period of innovation or did it merely reflect the development of processes already underway in the late seventh century? W. Graham Watson This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of PhD at the University of St Andrews 23rd August 2015 ii Summary This thesis looks at a period of Northumbrian history when the king was a part Irish, Iona trained scholar. Some have suggested that Aldfrith was assisted to the kingship by the northern victors of the battle of Nechtansmere. It examines processes in the late seventh century to try to identify changes that might have happened during the reign of this king. The study begins with a wide overview of previous research to establish a basis from which to look for processes and change and also examines the sources available to us, written and archaeological. It then looks at the kingdoms to the north and west and at Aldfrith and the period of his reign. The suggestion is made that Aldfrith acted, with the Church, to cult saints that were Northumbrian and Romanist, as opposed to other options that might have been available. It proposes that the Northumbrians rejected opportunities to develop links with the north and west that may have been open to them. The following chapters then examine processes underway in Northumbria in three general areas; in the use of power, in society, and in the economy. It concludes that although many processes continued as before, these sped up and in certain areas such as the production of coins, and the consequential development of trade, it was a period of innovation. There is no evidence of a focus to the north and west during Aldfrith’s reign and this has implications for how Aldfrith got to the throne, suggesting that it was with the support of the Northumbrian elite and not through the military strength of the Dál Riata or the Picts. The evidence is that Northumbria increasingly looked south for its influences and is prepared to absorb and implement processes and approaches from southern England, Gaul and Rome. iii Declarations 1. Candidate’s declarations: I, Graham Watson, hereby certify that this thesis, which is approximately 79,100 words in length, has been written by me, that it is the record of work carried out by me and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degree. I was admitted as a research student in September 2009 and as a candidate for the degree of PhD in History in September 2009; the higher study for which this is a record was carried out in Inverness and in the University of St Andrews between 2009 and 2015. Date: Signature of candidate: 2. Supervisor’s declaration: I hereby certify that the candidate has fulfilled the conditions of the Resolution and Regulations appropriate for the degree of PhD in History in the University of St Andrews and that the candidate is qualified to submit this thesis in application for that degree. Date: Signature of supervisor: 3. Permission for publication: In submitting this thesis to the University of St Andrews I understand that I am giving permission for it to be made available for use in accordance with the regulations of the University Library for the time being in force, subject to any copyright vested in the work not being affected thereby. I also understand that the title and the abstract will be published, and that a copy of the work may be made and supplied to any bona fide library or research worker, that my thesis will be electronically accessible for personal or research use unless exempt by award of an embargo as requested below, and that the library has the right to migrate my thesis into new electronic forms as required to ensure continued access to the thesis. I have obtained any third-party copyright permissions that may be required in order to allow such access and migration, or have requested the appropriate embargo below. The following is an agreed request by candidate and supervisor regarding the publication of this thesis: PRINTED COPY No embargo on print copy ELECTRONIC COPY No embargo on electronic copy Date: Signature of candidate: Signature of supervisor: iv Acknowledgements I owe many people a debt of gratitude and without their help and advice this thesis could not have been completed. Chris Morris encouraged and supported my initial approaches. Without Alex Woolf's guidance and support as my tutor, it would have foundered at an early stage. As a part-time researcher, based some distance from the University, I discovered the meaning of lone working. However my work colleagues, initially in Highland Council, and subsequently in High Life Highland, have consistently enquired after my progress and offered encouragement, and my Chief Executive, Ian Murray was always generous and forgiving when research and work deadlines clashed. I must also thank the librarians in St Andrews University Library whose efficiency and willingness to help made writing a thesis 150 miles away from the University possible, and also the librarians of Inverness Library and High Life Highland whose management of inter-library loan requests was exemplary. The St Andrews University Library policy of keeping up to date with innovations in web based access has been invaluable. I do not see how I could have managed without much closer access to an academic library even ten years ago, and their approach to the possibilities of IT and distance access is to be commended. There are four people who I owe so much more than gratitude. My father, William Watson, and my aunt, Jean Watson, both now deceased, saw me through university in the 1970s, and without their support and occasional cadjoling the first steps that have led to this point would never have been taken. My wife Janet and daughter Rosalyn put up with my hours of research and writing, and despite these absences from their lives unfailingly supported my endeavours. I use this opportunity to thank them with love. v Contents Introduction 1 Chapter 1 – Literature Review 7 Chapter 2 – Primary Sources and Their Authors 60 Chapter 3 – Aldfrith’s Northumbria: A Sense of Direction? 86 Chapter 4 – Power 123 Chapter 5 – Society and Identity 162 Chapter 6 – Economy 201 Chapter 7 - Conclusion 238 Abbreviations 253 Bibliography 254 vi Introduction Aldfrith was the son of Oswiu, son of Æthelfrith, king of Northumbria and Fína, granddaughter of Fín, King of the Uí Néill, so the Irish genealogists tell us.1 Some forty years later he was king of Northumbria. He was called doctissimus by Bede because he spent many years studying within the church, and it is likely that some of these were spent with Adomnán on Iona.2 These ‘facts’ sparked off an interest in me in the relationship between Northumbria and its neighbours, whether “Anglo-Saxon”, “Irish”, Pictish or “British”. It was soon to lead to a realisation of the complications involved in defining identity, and also the danger of the possibility of being seen as ascribing motives and impact to an individual when there is a complete lack of evidence, never mind this being poor historiography. Of more interest historically is the process of change in Northumbria. What was happening in the second half of the seventh-century and particularly during Aldfrith’s reign? Could change be mapped and what were the influences on Northumbria at the end of the seventh-century and the beginning of the eighth? Could the sources of these influences be recognised? 1 Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae, 140 a39-40: Colmán Rímid atair Fína, máthair íside Flaind Fína meic Ossu Saxonum 2 VCB.24 1 Northumbria was a powerful kingdom in the second half of the seventh-century. Under Oswiu and his successor Ecgfrith it had expanded its hegemony far to the north and west, dominating the Picts and the Dál Riatan Scots as well as a number of British polities. Both kings also fought, and for a while had power over, a number of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Its population was mixed, if only because of the relatively recent expansion into the British areas. Ecgfrith actually put an army on the soil of Ireland. It might be expected that Northumbria was strongly influenced by its northern and western neighbours. A number of writers have suggested that Aldfrith relied on the support of the Irish or Picts as king of Northumbria, or that he looked to Iona and the North. Barbara York states “After 685 we could say in terms of practical politics there was a reversion to the earlier pattern in which Northumbrian rulers were relatively little concerned with the affairs of the southern English and focused much more on those of their northern Celtic neighbours”.3 Claire Stancliffe and Hermann Moisl both suggest that Aldfrith gained the kingdom with the support of Dál Riada or the Picts,4 and most recently Juliana Grigg has said that “Both figures (Aldfrith and Adomnán) had made a significant rapprochement between Gaelic and Northumbrian political and religious interests after King Ecgfrith’s military aggression”.5 3 Barbara Yorke, ‘The Bretwaldas and the Origins of Overlordship in Anglo-Saxon England’ in Stephen Baxter and Janet Nelson (eds.), Early Medieval Studies in Memory of Patrick Wormald, (London, 2009), pp.
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