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The Landscape Archaeology of Secular Power in 8Th-11Th Century England Andrew Reynolds (BA Phd FSA FSA Scot Frhists

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The Landscape Archaeology of Secular Power in 8Th-11Th Century England Andrew Reynolds (BA Phd FSA FSA Scot Frhists The landscape archaeology of secular power in 8th-11th century England Andrew Reynolds (BA PhD FSA FSA Scot FRHistS. Reader in Medieval Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, University College London) d Territorio, Sociedad y Poder, Anejo Nº 2, 2009 [pp. 67-88] TSP Anexto 4.indb 67 15/11/09 17:22:44 Resumen: Este artículo aspira a valorar en cuánto ha Palabras clave: defensa, ley, organización militar, palacios, contribuido la arqueología a nuestra comprensión de la poder real. naturaleza del poder regio en la Inglaterra anglosajona tardía. El interés principal recae en los indicios indirectos de la iniciativa regia, en particular la actividad judicial y militar. Abstract: This paper considers how archaeology has Keywords: defence, law, military organisation, palaces, contributed to our understanding of the nature of royal royal power. power in later Anglo-Saxon England. The main focus is on indirect evidence for royal initiative with a particular emphasis on military and judicial activity. TSP Anexto 4.indb 68 15/11/09 17:22:45 The landscape archaeology of secular power in 8th-11th century England INTRODUCTION Santa María de Naranco only a short distance from the city of Oviedo; Anglo-Saxon evidence for royal activity y aim in this paper is to present a brief sur- is much less obvious, at least initially. vey of the archaeological evidence for secu- The search for physical evidence ofA nglo-Saxon royal lar power in Anglo-Saxon England. While power thus requires a wide-ranging enquiry and includes Mthe magnificent Cruz de los Ángeles and the Cruz de material which, on first inspection, is relatively unim- al Victoria kept in the Cámera Santa of Oviedo Cathe- pressive but whose implications support the commonly dral surpass any such surviving ecclesiastical treasure in held view that the Late Anglo-Saxon state (of the 10th and Anglo-Saxon England, similar crosses of Anglo-Saxon 11th centuries) was a well organised and powerful machine provenance, or at least workmanship, such as the la- (Campbell, 1975, 1994). The operational capabilities of ter 8th century ‘Rupertus’ Cross from Bischofshofen, the Late Saxon kings, particularly from the reign of King Austria, and the 10th century Drahmal Cross from the Alfred in the second half of the ninth century, are well Treasury of the Cathedral of St Michael and St Gudu- illustrated by the fact that they maintained a network of le at Brussels show that similar objects once adorned royal palaces throughout their kingdoms (based in many English churches too (Wilson, 1984: 134, fig. 158; 191, cases on earlier arrangements), raised large armies, often fig. 240). A famous illustration in the Liber Vitae of at short notice, built fortifications based on a system of Newminster and Hyde (Winchester) of c. 1031 shows military obligations, and enforced complex judicial or- King Cnut and his queen, Aelfgifu (also called Emma), ganisation. I shall consider each of these themes below before a large gold cross on an altar (BL MS Stowe and illustrate them with reference to examples, but to 944, f. 6) (Wilson, 1984: 184, fig. 231). Beyond precious begin with I shall examine what little is known from objects both Asturias and Anglo-Saxon England sha- material culture of the tastes and aspirations of Anglo- re an impressive early medieval ecclesiastical heritage Saxon kings, before moving on to consider the wider evident today in standing buildings. manifestations of royal power. My focus here, however, is not on ecclesiastical wealth or influence, but on the evidence for royal power in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms from the 8th to the 11th cen- MAteRIAL CultuRE turies. In a European context the Asturian kingdom has provided one of the finest surviving monuments of The separation of the English Church from that of early medieval royal power in the form of the palace of Rome in the second half of the 16th century, after nearly 69 TSP Anexto 4.indb 69 15/11/09 17:22:45 Poder y simbología en Europa. siglos viii-x 1000 years of Catholic Christianity, brought about the (853/4-888/9). Both objects were found accidentally (his in loss of countless ecclesiastical treasures (Dodwell, 1982). cart-rut in 1780 in Laverstock, Wiltshire - hers ploughed A century later, the execution of King Charles I in 1649 up in a field inS herburn, Yorkshire in 1870). Most famous and the period of the English Commonwealth ensured of all, of course, is the so-called Alfred Jewel, a gold the destruction at the hands of Oliver Cromwell of open work piece with an enamel and rock-crystal setting what at that time remained of the English medieval found near Athelney (the name itself means ‘princely royal regalia, which still included early medieval mate- island’) in Somerset in 1693. The openwork frame of rials including a comb and various jewels. The upshot the object incorporates an Old English inscription ‘ael- of these two episodes of English ‘cultural revolution’ is fredmech/eh/tgewyrcan’ ‘Alfred had me made’ and, that material culture which can be directly associated despite the fact that there is no royal title, the quality and with Anglo-Saxon royalty is extremely limited. Never- stylistic features of the piece belong in a high-status 9th theless, the few items either owned or given as gifts by century context (Hinton, 1974: 29-48). That the object Anglo-Saxon royalty give at least an indication of the incorporates a socket for a now lost circular-sectioned quality of what has been lost. rod (of bone, ivory or wood) has invited a link to be The much discussed contents of the Mound 1 ship- made with reading aids, possibly the objects referred burial at Sutton Hoo, which may or may not be attrib- to as æstels, noted by King Alfred as gifts made in his utable to King Raedwald of East Anglia (c. 600-c. 624), drive to foster learning among his subjects in his own provide the only English material to compare with translation of c.890 of Pope Gregory’s Cura Pastoralis wealth of Frankish royal burials – most notably (Hinton, 1974: 46). the contents of the grave of the Merovingian King These few objects represent virtually all that is known Childeric (c. 457-c. 481/2), buried in Tournai, Belgium of the material culture of Anglo-Saxon royalty. We and subsequently discovered by a stone mason making move on now, however, to consider how royal power repairs to St Brice’s Church in the town in 1653. There was manifested in the wider landscape and it is only at is, however, nothing from England to compare with ar- this scale of enquiry that the level and impact of royal guably the finest European treasure explicitly symbol- initiative becomes apparent. ising early medieval royal power, which is of course that recovered at Guarrazar (Toledo) between 1858 and 1861 (De Palol and Hirmer, 1967: 24). The Guarrazar hoard PALACES included over 20 remarkable jewelled votive crowns, among them those of the 7th century Visigothic kings Unlike the finest stone-built royal palaces of the Caro- Suintila (621-631) and Reccesswinth (653-672), along lingian world such as Aachen and Frankfurt, Anglo- with many other items including dress accessories and Saxon royal residences (villa regalis, or villa regia) were gold crosses, all gifts to the church. constructed of timber. While stone construction is Besides the Sutton Hoo finds, English objects which often linked with a perceived desire on the part of early either belonged to individual royals or, at the very least medieval kings to express Romanitas, the English kings were commissioned by them, begin with two gold finger seemingly expressed a deeply embedded Germanic rings that can be dated to the 9th century on the basis identity and their accommodation can be seen to bear of their stylistic attributes as they are decorated in the closer similarities more generally with the northern so-called Trewhiddle Style (Wilson and Blunt 1961; and Scandinavian worlds than with the Merovingian/ Wilson 1984, 102, figs 117 and 118). Both rings bear in- Carolingian area, southern Europe and the Mediter- scriptions with names with royal titles (Rex and Regna) ranean. Timber architecture, however, need not mean identifying them with the 9th century West Saxon King that royal accommodation was unimpressive, nor that Æthelwulf (839-58) and his daughter, Queen Æthelswith the Anglo-Saxons had simply lost the technological 70 TSP Anexto 4.indb 70 15/11/09 17:22:45 The landscape archaeology of secular power in 8th-11th century England Plan of the 7th century palace at Yeavering, Northumbria (after Hope-Taylor 1977). capability to build in stone. In western and northern Much has been made of the various accounts in the Britain in the 6th and 7th centuries, hillforts of Iron writings of the Venerable Bede’s of Frankish masons Age origin were sometimes strengthened with the ad- and glaziers being shipped to England in the late 7th dition of stone walls and gateways, for at example at century to assist in the building of the sister mon- South Cadbury, Somerset, while the high status secular asteries of Jarrow and Wearmouth in northeastern residence at Tintagel, Cornwall contained many early England (Cramp, 2005: 31-32), but for kings to have medieval stone buildings (Alcock, 1995; Barrowman et built their accommodation in wood and not stone al., 2007). In central and eastern England important is much more likely to have been a conscious ideo- churches were built in stone from the start of the period logical and cultural choice rather and not an indi- of the conversion of the pagan English to Christianity cator of post-Roman technological decline.
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