University of St Andrews Full metadata for this thesis is available in St Andrews Research Repository at: http://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by original copyright THE DBVEL0B5ENT OP KENTISH SOCIETT FROt ANGLO-SAXON INVASIONS TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST A Thesis .Presented in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Letters t>y Caroline Vaiden University of St. Andrews 1 May 1971 C. + A;II:ic,UM I certify that CAROLINE B. VAI3BN has spent no less than two acedemic years in full-time higher study toward the degree of Master of Letters in ...rets and that she has fulfilled the requirements under Ordinance C, Resolution No. 9 of the University Court of St. Andrews. She is qualified to submit this dissertation for the degree of Master of Letters (Medieval History). Supervisor DECLARATION This dissertation embodies the results of the higher study undertaken by the candidate on the topic approved by the Senatus Acadernicus of the University of St. Andrews in accordance with the regulations governing the degree of Master of Letters in Arts. I was admitted under the Resolution of the University Court, 1967? No. 9, to read for the degree of M.Litt. from October, I969, in terms of Ordinance C in Higher Ctudy and Research 1970-71? p» 1? 2(b)-7• Candidate ACKNOWLEDGE!.ANT3 I wish to thank my supervisor, Dr. N.P. Brooks, for his considerable assistance, which was given far more generously than I had any light to ask. Also .Ass Sarah J. Mason for advice on Old .English. Also Mrs• J. Wallace for aid in British usage and for proof-reading. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS end+MAffS i INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER I • THE ORIGINS OF KENT 3 1. The Geography of Settlement 3 (a) Distribution of original settlement 3 (b) Division into regiones 2. The Date of Settlement ». .. 17 3« The Racial Origin of the Settlers 20 4« The Survival of Previous Inhabitants 26 CHAPTER II • THE DEVELOPMENT UNDER FOREIGN KINGS 33 1. Mercian Rule Provoked Revolt 34 :• (a) Political developments 34 (b) Administrative modifications 40 (i) The consolidation of the archbishops .. .. 4o (ii) The amount of integration within the Mercian empire 43 (iii) The increasing complexity of the nobility .. 43 2. West Saxon Rule was Accepted .. .. 52 (a) The fostering of local pride 53 (b) The centralisation of power 55 (c) Danish raids 53 CHAPTER III : TILS SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF KENT 65 1. Land Tenure .. • 65 (a) Assessment 65 (b) Bookland .. .. 63 (i) Amount in Kent 68 (ii) Eaenland from it .. *. "JJ (iii) Place in the judicial system 72 (c) Sokemen .. .. 76 2. Peasants 77 CONCLUSION 85 BIBLIOGRAPHY 37 ABBREVIATIONS Arch♦Cant. -rcheolordca Cantiana ASC -Uifdo-Saxon Chronicle ECS Eirch, Cartularium Daxonicun KB Domesday Book, tr. F..\. Ragg (VGH 111*203-252) ■QBE Maitland, Domesday Eook and Beyond 11.. on Domesday Monachorum (7GH III: 253ff•) EclIR Economic History Review fiEID En-dish Historical Documents EHR English Historical Review HE Bede, Ahe iCccle3iastical history of the -.n-dish People KCD Aentish Codex Diplomaticus KPN Aentish Idace Banes Bat. Latin MS, MSS Manuscript(s) OE Old English 3.a. sub annum Lawyer Peter oajjyer, Anylo-Oaxon Charters : -.in Annotated List and Bibliography; all comments on MS dates and authenticity are from Sawyer unless otherwise stated SERB select English Historical Documents of the -iinth and i'enth Penturies YCil Victoria County History ; Rent - /' m/ Ebrne-sd&ukMeBo^o^AUT- ^ifi-rkhborLj-Pll&\fif&q&l TWar)^ofpt&te(hUr&sh- X: j J « \3/orion16>ncJ !OtfCPonCehh-■ BedsBzzt]6hC~ft h- /7 TAP/' i&e2c/ti Cicf-IWe&fdI)'- 6?i-tuZoL?7-~7z)J&war- d/&<flf-<kczo/f J?OiPct5-DPfUfTP&B to WTP Identification explanation lOmi/es TPe lettersthetorefer inch1theshownon seriesgeologies/map &BVLOC7/£AVVU-JdC6PTT/fVA//fe^Pup fA/awee,see/n-U2^§pt /V#/3T~HCOPf5<(VftLT^(Trn£Men)JQAJO-2: MILES ftP&T KENT Roman EXpflrfs/OftI roads Place-namein ■pers.name-//7£(7- Oingael. fh~-JJ2&3 # O Anglo-SaxonX £)e\.-/ngos ?-/ngas "fxxxUvs.3'S>-b Paganburial-site Apers.name-//7^c75pers.name-//?sr<7/)<7tf7 Ae\.-ingaham A?-ingaham SroiM:"TheS:iH.T>c?rfasc>r>;~D/sh,hubcv)pt«°He7}offudkhc4*SfecP/ePa?/)x3r-P/i/'n/n^,///^/Vr/^\ &K. i/m idffr iBfotfU-rhOrif '•[fcJordU!<2-h- [- , \gJp&beiJ-e'r' MILESIO SooiJ",£&shi2f x DOMESDAY• OTHER PLACE-NAMES /v-y/^r^/(^y^M PLACE-NAMES ELEVENTH-CENTURY 4^ouv,:~i>&rbtfH.O.(ecjs);bM(frf.d1?nme^d<3tlTfieand<c,ps?/U'/i=.. '/U/b/4/^"'/t/C-dl); IKYEGIXTCTIGN Those who came over were of the three moat powerful nations of Ger¬ many - Saxons, /ingles and Jutes, from the Jutes are descended the people of Kent Bedo in 731 recorded the awareness that Kent 'was different from the rest of England, a difference that remained apparent for many centuries, medieval Kent was a land of hamlet settlements measured in salLL-ncjs ■> not of villages measured in hides. There was little or no common farming} each landholder acted independently. Land of a man dying intestate was disposed of by division among all his sons, and land was filly alienable. By Iho thirteenth century villeinage was rare arc! by the seventeenth century most farmers owned part of the land they occupied and rented the rest in freehold tenure for nominal sums. Yet Kant is not completely different from the rest of England} its settlement by hamlets and the inheritance system have especially close ties to Kales and Korthumbria. It is difficult, furthermore, to trace the customs to their origin to know if they came from settlement by a German people different from those settling elsewhere, or from the survival of more Britons, or as a response to a set of 1. C.W. Chalklin, deventeenth-Gentury Kent : A Jocial and Economic history x^cngmans Green, London 1965), pp. 1, 46-47. - 2 - conditions different from those encountered elsewhere, namely geography and the amallnoss of the kingdom to he ruled. This essay has a two¬ fold purposeJ first, to analyse the relations between Kent and her conquerors, to seo what effects conquest had on social development; and second, to examine the elements of society and in particular the social classes and forms of landholding, to determine whether they can be traoed bach to racial or other origins. ibr the purpose of analysis, the history of Kent between the Anglo-Saxon invasions and the Hbrman Conquest will be divided into three sectionsJ c.450-597> the pagan period; 597-025, the decline of Kent from the moot powerful kingdom south of the Hurnber to a Mercian province; and 825-1066, the unification of England tinder Wessex, and the Danish raids. CHAFTI1H I XH3 0HIGIN3 OF KEHT iio written records from Kent have survived from the period c.45J to 597. Pre-Conquest secondary sources are also scanty. Bedo toil of the settlement and revolt of Ilengist and Horsa, and of the conver¬ sions? the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle adds a few regnal dates. The hulk of the information available comes from archeology and placename studies, and inferences from later institutions and customs, questions are of interest: 'i) Vshere did the Anglo-Saxons settle in Kent? (ii) .hen did they arrive? (iii) !<ho were they? (iv) '.Vhat become of the previous inhabitants? The answers to these questions will indicate whether or not Kentist society owes its uniqueness to its original settlement. 1. The Geography of Settlement (a) -Distribution of original settlement The settlement 3ites are all straightforward, as the first Anglo-Saxons farmed the best land in Kent, the alluvial soils along tiio major rivers, arid along the eastern an! northern coasts. Geologi¬ cally dent is divided into bands of clay, chalk, and sandy loans ^see llap l) which ran virtually parallel across from east to west. furthest south is a wide band of clay? heavily forested until the Stuart period,"*" which was used by the Anglo-Saxons chiefly for forest swine pastures. To the nojjth of the Weald lies the Greensand ridge with its sandy soils. The western Greenaand i3 not particularly fertile, and was part of the • .eald before the Norman Conquest. The eastern slopes are lower and more fertile and formed an important area of early settlement. North of the Greensand belt is the Chalk ridge which was also forested, but came under the plough some time dtlring the Anglo-Saxon period, as the first area of expansion from the regions of original settlement, 2 though the top of the ridge remained forested. The north-east corner of Kent from Dover to Canterbury to Sturry to the coast and then along the coast to the I'edway contains the richest and most easily worked soils of Kent. It is the main area of Kentish medieval settlement, and almost all the pagan burial sites have been found there or along the rivers that cut through the Chalk ridge, the Stour,, the Modway and the Darent, or around Iympne river at the edge of Somney Marsh. Along the coasts of Kent there is much marshy lands the best grazing land in Kent. 1. Ibid., p. 9- 2. II.C. Darby and II.C. Campbell (eds.), The Domesday Geography of Gouth-east ^nglaad (Cambridge U.P. 1962;, pp. 553—9- Geographyj then, was a major factor in determining the settle¬ ment patterns >f Kent. For most estates in the historical period had the bulk of their arable lands in the rich soils of the north ea3t, swine pastures in tho '.,'eald or Chalk forast, 3heep pastures on the coasM.