Anglian Leadership in Northumbria, 547 A.D. Through 1075 A.D. Jean Anne Hayes Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected]
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2005 Anglian leadership in Northumbria, 547 A.D. through 1075 A.D. Jean Anne Hayes Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Hayes, Jean Anne, "Anglian leadership in Northumbria, 547 A.D. through 1075 A.D." (2005). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 1986. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/1986 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. ANGLIAN LEADERSHIP IN NORTHUMBRIA, 547 A.D. THROUGH 1075 A.D. A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of History by Jean Anne Hayes B.A., Louisiana State University, 1994 M.A., Louisiana State University, 1997 August 2005 for Brent ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation has evolved from my love of medieval Britain and many happy years spent studying its history, languages, architecture and art. Through my studies I have been drawn particularly to the Anglo-Saxon culture, which comes alive each time I encounter it. I owe a great debt of gratitude to the professors who have guided and inspired me to reach this point in my academic career. Dr. Maribel Dietz has always given generously of her time, knowledge and enthusiasm for medieval history. I have benefited greatly from her mentoring and enjoyed working with her as a teaching assistant. Dr. Lisi Oliver endeavored to provide me with a working knowledge of Old English, for which I am extremely grateful. She also provided much valuable guidance to this dissertation. I wish to thank Dr. Victor Stater for co-leading my history minor through the Tudor and Stuart periods. Dr. Marchita Mauck opened up the world of medieval architecture and art to me and as a result provided a solid medieval foundation on which I can continue to build for many years. I also wish to acknowledge the eternal support of my husband Brent and my parents; they are an enthusiastic and untiring cheering section. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION…………..…………………………………………………………………….ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS…...……………………………………………………………….iii ABBREVIATED REFERENCES ………………………………………………………........v ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………………vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………...1 2 POST-ROMAN NORTHUMBERLAND: EMERGING KINGDOMS...……….12 3 NINTH AND TENTH-CENTURY NORTHUMBRIA AND NEIGHBORS…...66 4 NORTHUMBRIAN EARLS, 927 A.D. TO 1075 A.D……………………...…113 5 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………166 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………..171 APPENDIX: GLOSSARY…………………………………………………………………179 VITA………………………………………………………………………………………..182 iv ABBREVIATED REFERENCES Adomnan Adomnan’s Life of Columba, ed. and trans. Alan Orr Anderson and Marjorie Ogilvie Anderson (Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson and Sons, Ltd., 1961) AC Annals of Clonmacnoise, ed. Denis Murphy (Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 1896); trans. A. O. Anderson, ESSH AS Chart Anglo-Saxon Charters, ed. and trans. A. J. Robertson (Cambridge: University Press, 1956) ASC Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; Two of the Saxon Chronicles parallel, with supplementary extracts from the others, ed. John Earle (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1865) Rositzke The C-Text of the Old English Chronicles, ed. Harry August Rositzke (Druck, Germany: H. Pöppinghouse O. H.-G., 1940) Bede, HE Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors, eds. Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Oxford: Clarendon, 1969) CGS Johannis de Fordun Chronica Gentis Scotorum, ed. W. F. Skene, 2 vols. (Edinburgh, Historians of Scotland vols. 1 and 4, 1871-1872); trans. A. O. Anderson, ESSH CH Chronicle of Holyrood, ed. C. W. Bouterwek, in Monachi anonymi Scoti Chronicon Anglo-Scoticum (Elberfeld, 1863); trans. A. O. Anderson, ESSH CM Chronica de Mailros, ed. Joseph Stevenson, Bannatyne Club, no. 49 (Edinburgh, 1835); trans. A. O. Anderson, ESSH DB Doomesday Book – Yorkshire, ed. Margaret L. Faull and Marie Stinson (London: Phillimore and Co. Ltd., 1986) DEC Durham Episcopal Charters 1071-1152, ed. H. S. Offler (Surtees Series, vol. 179, 1964/68) De Ob SymD De obsessione Dunelmi et de probitate Ucthredi comitis, ed. Thomas Arnold in Symeonis Monachi Opera Omnia (London, Rolls Series, 1882), i, 215-220; translated by Christopher Morris in Marriage and Murder in eleventh-century Northumbria: a study of ‘De Obsessione Dunelmi’, Borthwick Paper, no. 82, (University of York, 1992), 1-5. EHD, vol. I English Historical Documents, c.500-1042, ed. Dorothy Whitelock (New York: Oxford University Press, 1955) v ESSH Early Sources of Scottish History AD 500 to 1286, trans. Alan Orr Anderson, vol. 1-2 (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1922) FlorW Chronicon ex Chronicis: ab initio mundi vsque ad annum Domini. 1118. deductum, auctore Florentio Wigorniensi monacho. Accessit etiam continuation vsque ad annum Christi. 1141. per quondam eiusdem cœnobỳ eruditum. Nunquam antehac in lucem editum (London: Thomas Dausonus, Ricardo Watkins, 1592) GP Malms Willelmi Malmesbiriensis Monachi Gesta pontificum Anglorum, ed. N. E. S. A. Hamilton (London: Longman & Co., 1870) GRA Malms William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regvm Anglorvm, vol.1, ed. and trans. R. A. B. Mynors (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998). HA Henry of Huntingdon, Henry, Archdeacon of Huntingdon: Historia Anglorum, the History of the English People, ed. and trans. Diana Greenway (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996). HB Nennius, British History and the Welsh Annals, ed. and trans. John Morris, History from the Sources Series (London: Phillimore, 1980); Historia Brittonum, Genealogies, ed. T. Mommsen, in M.G. H., Auctores, vol. 13 (1894); trans. A. O. Anderson, ESSH HE Oder Oderic Vitalis, Ecclesiastical History of Odericus Vitalis, ed. and trans. Marjorie Chibnall (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969) Stephenson, HKE Symeon of Durham, A History of the Kings of England, trans. J. Stephenson (Published in Church Historians of England, 1858; reprint, Felinfach, Wales: Llanerch Enterprises, 1987); Historia Regum, ed. Thomas Arnold in Symeonis Monachi Opera Omnia (London, Rolls Series, 1885), ii. LDE SymD Symeon of Durham, Libellus de Exordio atque Procursu istius, Hoc est Dunhelmensis Ecclesie, ed. and trans. David Rollason (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000); Historiae Ecclesiae Dunhelmensis, ed. Thomas Arnold in Symeonis Monachi Opera Omnia (London, Rolls Series, 1882), i. TA Tigernach Annals, ed. W. Stokes, Revue Celtique, vol. 17 (1896); trans. A. O. Anderson, ESSH. For further reading on the Annals of Tigernach and the Clonmacnois redaction, see Kathryn Grabowski and David Dumville, Chronicles and Annals of Medieval Ireland and Wales: the Clonmacnoise- group Texts (Suffolk: The Boydell Press, 1984) 109-226. Vita Ædwardi Vita Ædwardi Regis, ed. and trans. Frank Barlow (Edinburgh: Nelson’s Medieval Texts, 1962) vi ABSTRACT The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Britain were founded in warfare beginning in the fifth century. These kingdoms developed alongside the native Romanized Britons, who attempted to reassert their authority in Britain in the wake of the Roman withdrawal. Northumbria, located north of the Humber River, the largest and most northerly of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms played a vital role in the politics of early medieval Britain. During the seventh century, the Northumbrian kings were recognized as the overkings of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, as well as the neighboring British and Pictish kingdoms. Over the course of several centuries, the leaders of Northumbria alternately engaged in military conflict and peace alliances with their most powerful northern neighbor, the Scots. After York fell to an invading Danish army in the ninth century, the lands of Northumberland were permanently divided along the Tees River valley into Yorkshire and Northumbria. The tenth and eleventh centuries witnessed power struggles between the earls of Northumbria and the ‘English’ kings from Wessex. While the other Anglo-Saxon ealdormen received their political appointments from the kings and worked alongside their monarchs, the earls of Northumbria alone maintained political autonomy. Northumbria was uniquely located between the two emerging powers of Scotland and Anglo-Saxon England, yet never succumbed to either. Dedication to local Northumbrian ealdormen as earls, who exhibited strong military leadership and surprising political savvy, guaranteed Northumbria self-rule and unchanged laws until the Norman Conquest. Not until William Rufus II gained the throne of England in 1087 did Northumbria begin participating as a political and military entity within greater England. vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Bede (c. 672-735), a monk who spent a lifetime at the Jarrow and Wearmouth monastic complexes in County Durham, had access to early manuscripts, histories, and records of political activities in the north of Britain. The scholarly monk provided us with one of the earliest descriptions of his homeland, based both on cultural identity and geography: the Angles lived north of the Humber River.1 He explained the political divisions within this region as the duas prouincias (two provinces) of Deira and Bernicia, which served