From Dark Earth to Domesday: Towns in Anglo-Saxon England Author: David Crane Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:104070 This work is posted on eScholarship@BC, Boston College University Libraries. Boston College Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, 2014 Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. Boston College The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Department of History FROM DARK EARTH TO DOMESDAY: TOWNS IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND a dissertation by David D. Crane submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May, 2014 © copyright by DAVID DANIEL CRANE 2014 Dissertation Abstract From Dark Earth to Domesday: Towns in Anglo-Saxon England David D. Crane Robin Fleming, Advisor 2014 The towns that the Norman invaders found in England in 1066 had far longer and far more complex histories than have often been conveyed in the historiography of the Anglo-Saxon period. This lack of depth is not surprising, however, as the study of the towns of Anglo-Saxon England has long been complicated by a dearth of textual sources and by the work of influential historians who have measured the urban status of Anglo-Saxon settlements using the attributes of late medieval towns as their gage. These factors have led to a schism amongst historian regarding when the first towns developed in Anglo-Saxon England and about which historical development marks the beginning of the continuous history of the English towns. This dissertation endeavors to apply new evidence and new methodologies to questions related to the development, status, and nature of Anglo-Saxon urban communities in order to provide a greater insight into their origins and their evolutionary trajectories. It is the argument of this work that the emporia of the sixth through nine centuries were indeed towns and that the burhs founded by Alfred the Great and his heirs were intended from their inception to be towns and were quickly recognized as such by contemporaries. Two distinct methodologies are used to support these arguments: The first uses recent archeological and numismatic data related to the settlements in question to determine if the size and occupational make-up of their populations, the complexity and diversity of their economies, and their integration into regional and cross-Channel exchange networks sufficiently differentiated them from contemporary rural sites and places them in a distinct, urban category. The second methodology employs contemporary texts including the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, The Old English Orosius, and The Old English Martyrology to reveal the terms actually used by the Anglo-Saxons to describe their settlements and then compares those terms to the words used to describe places that the Anglo-Saxons would have definitively recognized as a town or a city, such as Rome or Jerusalem. Regarding the continuity of Anglo-Saxon towns, recent archaeological data is used to prove that the periods of time which have often been cited as breaks in occupation were actually moments of transition from one type of town to another. At London, for example, we can now see that there was no substantive gap between the end of the extramural emporium of Lundenwic and earliest evidence for secular settlement within the walls of the former Roman town during the ninth century when it was refortified as a burh. This indicates that we should trace the continuous history of many towns, like London, back beyond Alfred and his burhs, to the emporia and other settlements that preceded them. Another major theme that threads its way through this work is that the Anglo-Saxon towns were negotiated spaces defined by the interplay of different groups of people and different ideas. Kings and bishops certainly exerted a great deal of influence over the development of the Anglo-Saxon towns, but, by no means were they the only forces at work. The common craftsmen and traders who lived and worked in the towns and the lesser elites and royal officials who lorded over them shaped the physical and social environments of the towns, their regional and cross-Channel connections, and how their economies functioned. Different groups of foreigners also influenced the Anglo-Saxon towns through trade, evangelism, and, at times, violence. Moreover, in so much as any of these groups or individuals may have exerted a greater influence over the development of the Anglo-Saxon towns at one time or another, no single group—be it kings, bishops, elites, traders, craftsmen, or assorted foreigners—can ever be said to have been acting totally independently of the others. In short, this dissertation illustrates that the towns of Anglo- Saxon England were the products of complex networks that moved people, things, wealth, and ideas throughout regions and across seas. For Jodi and Ronan Table of Contents Acknowledgements ii List of Tables iv 1. Defining the Town in Anglo-Saxon England 1 2. The New Towns and the New Economy 12 3. The West Saxon Burhs and the Development of Towns 51 4. Town Reeves and Royal Administration of Towns and Trade 74 5. Rebuilding Rome: Churches and Religious Houses in the Anglo-Saxon Town 100 6. Reconnected: Craft Production, Trade, and Towns in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries 132 7. Vikings and Normans 161 Appendix A 183 Appendix B 185 Appendix C 188 Appendix D 195 Bibliography 196 i Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to the Department of History and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Boston College for providing me with the opportunity to pursue my doctorate. I am also indebted to the faculty and staff of the Department of History for their assistance and support during my time in the department. This work would not have been possible without the helpful staff of the O’Neill library. Particular thanks go to the Interlibrary Loan department for bringing the world’s libraries within my reach. I wish to acknowledge the support of my colleagues and the administration at Salem State University. I would like to specifically thank Professor Emerson “Tad” Baker for providing me with a solid foundation in archaeology and material culture and for generously serving on my comprehensive exam board. To Arlene Greenstein and Cyndi Allison, thank you so much for your kindness, your encouragement, and for being the greatest boss and the most amazing coworker anyone could ever ask for. ii I would like to thank all of Robin Fleming’s graduate students past and present for their contributions to this work, both formally in the forge of Robin’s seminar and informally in so many great conversations. I am proud to be a part of such an amazing family of scholars. To Sally Shockro, Kylie Dodson, and Tracey-Anne Cooper, thank you for your friendship and for making me laugh. Many thanks to Prasannan Parthasarathi and Robert Stanton, not only for reading this dissertation but for helping me acquire the skills to get it done. I am eternally grateful to Robin Fleming. Thank you for all of the time and energy you have so generously given me over the years. Thank you for reading all of the drafts I sent you—especially the bad ones. Thank you for pushing me to be a better writer, a better thinker, and a real historian. Thank you for the privilege of being your student, you exemplify what a scholar, a teacher, and a mentor should be. I have to thank Ronan for making his dad really happy. Finally, Jodi, thank you for your support, your patience, and your love. Thank you for managing all of the details of life that I have had to put aside to work on this dissertation. Most of all, thank you for just being you. I could not have done this without you. iii List of Tables Table 3.1 Comparison of the Two Extent Versions of The Burghal Hidage 67 iv 1. Defining the Town in Anglo-Saxon England The title of this study, From Dark Earth to Domesday, lays out the period covered, from the sixth century to the Norman Conquest. The organization of the chapters is roughly chronological, although chapter five reaches back from the tenth century to immediate post-Roman era in order to provide the full context of the Church’s participation in development of the Anglo-Saxon towns. The order of the chapters is intended to present a cohesive picture of the evolution of the Anglo-Saxon towns over time. Methodologically, this study attempts to synthesize three types of evidence: the growing body of archaeological and numismatic evidence that has come to light in the last few decades, the extent charter and law code evidence, and the extremely underutilized literary evidence relating to the Anglo-Saxon towns. The aim of this study is to apply both new evidence and new approaches to some of the major questions concerning the development of the English towns before the Conquest and thereby provide greater insight into their origins and to argue for a longer evolutionary history for the Anglo-Saxon towns than is often considered. To begin this process, it is necessary to examine some of the fundamental questions faced by all studies of the Anglo- Saxon towns. 1 The nature of the burhs built by Alfred and his heirs, whether they were fortresses or towns, has been a central debate in the historiography of the Anglo-Saxon towns for well over one hundred years. In the early twentieth century, Frederick William Maitland presented his so-called “garrison theory,” arguing that Alfred’s burhs were nothing more than fortresses that provided the nuclei around which the later Anglo-Saxon towns formed.1 In response, James Tait and Sir Frank Stenton proposed that the burhs were fortified towns equipped with all of the necessary appurtenances—a market, a mint, and a wall—to prepare them for their eventual maturity.2 Despite the best efforts of Tait and Stenton to drive a stake through its heart, the specter of Maitland’s “garrison theory”—that the West Saxon burhs were intended to be nothing more than fortresses—periodically rises from the dead to haunt the debate over when and how towns developed in Anglo-Saxon England.