King Arthur, page 10
It names Hengist and Horsa and lists their genealogy: Wihtgils, Witta, Wecta and Woden, thus claiming Woden originated the Wessex royal family and ‘that of the Southumbrians too’. It may be worth noting that Hengist and Horsa mean ‘stallion’ and ‘horse’ respectively, and some have thus suggested there is poetic licence or mythology at play here. There is also the reference to Woden in the genealogy tree which is similar to founding myths in other tribal societies. There is archaeological evidence concerning areas of north-west Europe being left uninhabited around this time, however, so that part of the narrative at least has some corroborative evidence.
We then have a list of four battles involving Hengist, one of which seems to replicate some of Vortimer’s battles in the Historia Brittonum. They all appear to be in Kent.
Table 13
Date
Text
455
Here Hengist and Horsa fought against Vortigern the king in the place which is called Aylesford, and his brother Horsa was killed. And after that Hengist and Aesc his son succeeded to the kingdom.
457
Here Hengist and Aesc fought against the Britons in the place which is called Crayford, and there killed four thousand men; and the Britons then abandoned the land of Kent and in great terror fled to the stronghold of London
465
Here Hengist and Aesc fought against the Welsh near Wipped’s Creek, and there killed 12 Welsh chieftains and one of their thanes, whose name was Wipped, was killed there.
473
Here Hengist and Aesc fought against the Welsh and seized countless war-loot and the Britons fled from the English like fire.
In 488 there is an entry recording Aesc as succeeding to the kingdom of Kent for twenty-four years, so presumably Hengist dies in that year. However other traditions name Oisc as the founder of the Kentish royal house.3 We recall the Historia Brittonum has Octha succeeding Hengist and then ‘Arthur fought against them’. Shortly after Hengist’s battles in Kent, there are several battles by Aelle recorded. These all appear to be in Sussex on the south coast. At that time the Weald separated Kent from Sussex and so it would have be difficult for armies to move from Kent to Sussex, or from Sussex north towards London. If these dates are in any way accurate, then it is interesting to compare them with the military activity of Ambrosius Aurelianus in ‘the time of Zeno’ (474–91) as described by Bede.
Table 14
Date
Text
477
Here Aelle and his 3 sons, Cymen and Wlencing and Cissa, came to the land of Britain with 3 ships at a place which is named Cymen’s shore [probably Selsy Bill, West Sussex], and there killed many Welsh and drove them into the wood which is named the Weald.
485
Here Aelle fought against the Welsh near the margin of Mearcred’s Burn.
491
Here Aelle and Cissa besieged Anderitum [Roman fort at Pevensey], and killed all who lived in there; there was not even one Briton left there.
The last table concerns the foundation of the West Saxons:
Table 15
Year
Entry
495
Here two chieftains; Cerdic and Cynric his son, came to Britain with 5 ships at the place which is called Cardic’s Shore (probably Charford in Hampshire) and the same day fought against the Welsh.
501
Here Port and his 2 sons, Bieda and Maegla, came with 2 ships to Britain at the place which is called Portsmouth, and killed a certain young British man – a very noble man.
508
Here Cerdic and Cynric killed a certain British king whose name was Natanleod, and 5 thousand men with him – after whom the land as far as Charford was named Netley [probably Hampshire]
514
Here the West Saxons, Stuf and Wihtgar, came to Britain with 3 ships in the place which is called Cerdic’s Shore [same location as Cerdic and Cynric] and fought against the Britons and put them to flight.
519
Here Cerdic and Cynric succeeded to the kingdom of the West Saxons and the same year they fought against the Britons at the place they now name Cerdic’s Ford [probably Charford in Hampshire]. And the royal family of the West Saxons ruled from that day on [last line added by later annalist].
527
Here Cerdic and Cynric fought against the Britons at the place which is called Cerdic’s Wood.
530
Here Cerdic and Cynric took the Isle of Wight and killed a few men at Wihtgar’s stronghold.
534
Here Cerdic passed away, and his son Cynric continued to rule 26 years. And they gave all Wight to their two nephew’s Stuf and Wihtgar.
544
Here Wihtgar passed away and they buried him at Wihtgar’s stronghold.
You will note there are three separate tables as the entries, though continuous, appear to concern three distinct geographical areas and individuals. So, we have three sets of foundations stories and battle lists. Hengist in Kent between 455 and 473, Aelle in Sussex between 477 and 491 and then Cerdic, among others, in The New Forest area of Hampshire from 495 onwards.
The question of whether we can trust these dates arises. For example, there are two entries of eclipses for 1 March in 538 and 20 June 540. While it is recognised the dating is not exact, there were indeed eclipses on 15 February 538 and 20 June 540.4 There is then an entry for 547 in which Ida succeeds to the kingdom of the Northumbrians, which begs the question what was the political and military situation prior to that? The entry then lists Ida’s genealogy back to Woden, thus linking him to Hengist. A later entry for Cynric also links his Genealogy back to Woden. Hengist is mentioned as a character in the epic poem Beowulf, so the name would already be familiar.
Foundation stories in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles.
Victories for the West Saxons in 552 at Salisbury and in 556 at Bera’s stronghold (Barbury in Wiltshire) then follow. They are powerful enough to defeat Aethelbert of Kent in 568. There is then a further expansion:
571 Battle at Bedcanford and taking of settlements of Limbury, Aylesbury, Benson and Eynsham
577 Battle of Dyrham against three British kings and taking of three cities: Gloucester, Cirencester and Bath.
So we have activity in Kent involving Vortigern, Hengist and later Aesc between 455 and 473. We then have activity in Sussex by Aelle 477–91. Lastly, there are incursions by various people in the New Forest and Portsmouth areas from 495. The Chronicles list two as victories in 508 and 514, but are ambiguous about other battles. We then have a lull in military activity which ties in with Gildas referring to an end of ‘external wars’.
For Cerdic and Cynric the reference and likely location of the later battles do suggest a more defensive situation. There does seem to be a double entry for the arrival of Cerdic however: first they are said to arrive in 495 and take the kingdom six years later; then there’s an entry for the arrival of the West Saxons in 514 and Cerdic is said to succeed to the kingdom of the West Saxons in 519. It is possible there is an alternative explanation: Cerdic arrives in 495 and occupies the land the West Saxons later inhabit. Nineteen years later the West Saxons Stuf and Whitgar do arrive, and six years after that Cerdic succeeds to their kingdom.
But nineteen years is the same as an Easter cycle, so could easily be misdated by medieval writers. In addition, according to genealogy at the start, and the later entries in the Chronicle, it does appear that the first date is a mistake and Cerdic is actually dated to 514. He then succeeds to the kingdom of the West Saxons in 519. This could be significant if the date for Badon is 516 as per the Annales Cambriae. Plus, the timespan for Cerdic and Cynric arriving in 495 and being succeeded in 560 by Ceawlin seems rather long.
Asser’s ninth-century Life of King Alfred records a Creoda between Cerdic and Cynric which would make the time span more realistic, but it doesn’t take away the apparent double entry. The reference to the taking of the Isle of Wight in 530 could be seen as a retreat from the mainland. It could be that further expansion inland was impossible, but that would be highly speculative. Yet we have this gap of a generation or two from the early 500s to further expansion of the West Saxons from the 550s onwards. This does seem to tie in with Gildas talking about a generation of peace.
I would use caution with the literary sources as there is a heavy influence from Gildas, who influenced Bede, who in turn influenced the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. It’s hard to speculate the extent of that influence, and what (and how valid) their other sources were. It may be important to note the differences: Gildas focuses on Saxons, while Bede is careful to name the Angles as those fighting at Badon.
There is another important point about the West Saxons which seems to contradict the narrative in the Chronicles. There is a suspicion that the whole line has been artificially extended, and a much more likely date would be 5325 for Cerdic’s arrival. In fact, Bede states that this area of South Hampshire and the Isle of Wight were Jutish until the West Saxon king Caedwalla conquered them in 686–8. Thus it would be impossible to place the origins in these Jutish territories.
The best claim for their origin is the upper Thames valley.6 The first site of a West Saxon episcopal see was Dorchester, and the battles of 552, 556 and 571 seem to suggest a swathe of territory twenty miles north and south of the river Thames, culminating in the battle of Dyrham in the west in 577 where Bath, Gloucester and Cirencester were captured. It is also important to note that Bede stated the West Saxons were formally known as the ‘Geuissae’ or ‘Gewisse’. They only started being called West Saxons after Caedwalla’s time in the seventh century. Gewisse means ‘certain’ or ‘sure’ and may be a reference to their reliability.
Another group, the Hwicce, are occasionally conflated with them but they have separate entries in a later source, The Tribal Hidage, which we will examine later, plus there is no etymological link. They may well have bordered each other at some point, with the Hwicce running alongside the east of the river Severn. Geoffrey of Monmouth labels Vortigern as ‘leader of the Gewissei. Additionally, in Nennius, after his confrontation with the boy Merlin, Emrys Ambrosius, Vortigern leaves the western part of Britain in his hands and goes to the northern part, to Caer Gwrtheyrn in the region called ‘Gwynessi’. Caer Gwrtheyrn is identified as being an Iron Age hill fort in West Wales, which isn’t north of any of the places in that part of the story. Vortigern takes Ambrosius from South Wales to sacrifice him before building a castle near mount Snowdon. There is no evidence for any speculation on this. The early entries in the Chronicles are highly suspect and we simply don’t know enough about the origins of the West Saxons or Gewisse.
Location of battles in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles.
In summary, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles broadly follow Bede and describe a narrative of an appeal, arrival and subsequent revolt. There then follows three distinct areas and periods of conflict. The first involves Hengist and Horsa in Kent, and intriguingly confirms the battle mentioned in the Historia Brittonum, where Horsa fell. The second involves Aelle in Sussex, Bede’s first Bretwalda. The last involves the arrival of Cerdic and the West Saxons. There then follows an apparent break in victories until after 550, which on the face of it supports Gildas and a generation ‘free from external wars’. Unfortunately, no entries before the middle of the sixth century can be confirmed. What is clear is Arthur does not appear in any way.
Chapter 9
Archaeology and Other Evidence
The origins of settlers can be identified through pottery, metalwork and burials. Angles from Schleswig-Holstein settled in mid-, eastern and northern England in the fifth century, along with some Saxons. Shortly after, towards the end of the fifth century, there was some movement from Norway into Norfolk and Humberside. Saxons left their home in North Germany and evidence is found along the Thames valley as well as Wessex and Sussex. Jutes from Jutland appear in east Kent and parts of the New Forest and the Isle of Wight,1 and permanent settlements were established in the last quarter of the fifth century.2
This appears to corroborate Bede’s description of three main tribes. Procopius, writing a century after, names the three races inhabiting Britain as the Angiloi, Frissones and Britons. Linguistic analysis has found Frisian as the most closely related language.3 This Procopius passage is important as it also describes reverse migration of Angles and Frisians back to the Continent in the first half of the sixth century. Theuderich, king of the Franks, allowed Angles from Britain to settle after the Thuringian war in 531. This suggests there was pressure on Germanic peoples to move from Britain to the Continent from 500 onwards. Procopius states Theuderic’s son, Theudebert (king of the Franks 534–48), boasted to Justinian that he had overlordship of part of Britain, presumably because of his support of Anglo immigrants into his kingdom. It may be important to note that archaeological links to Frankish Gaul are most prominent in Kent, and Christianity was reintroduced via a Frankish-Christian princess marrying a Saxon king of Kent, Aethelberht, in the last quarter of the sixth century.
Additionally, Bede’s list of seven kings has Aelle of Sussex and Caewlin of Wessex separated by over fifty years between 500 and 560.4 This further points to a lull in Anglo-Saxon advance and corroborates the idea of a British resurgence. However, the picture is not consistent across the whole country. There is a strong correlation between Anglian areas and cremation, and Saxon regions and burial.5 So we have a South and Eastern divide. In addition there seems to be corroboration that the areas of Kent and Isle of Wight were Jutish. There is evidence that the New Forest area had once been Jutish land and Asser, King Alfred’s biographer, records that Stuf and Wihtgar were Cerdic’s nephews and of Jutish Origin.6
We can’t conclude there is total support for the literary sources that suggest Germanic tribes arrived in Britain after the 450s. Aside from evidence of Germanic mercenaries during Roman Britain, the archaeological evidence is at odds with Gildas and Bede in that it suggests Saxon presence in 430s and perhaps even a generation earlier,7 rather than after an appeal to Aetius before 449. Given the description of the southern coastal forts as the ‘Saxon Shore’ it really is impossible to say whether the forts were defended against Saxons or by Saxons, or whether the area was already settled by Saxons.
Fifth-century archaeological evidence.
The evidence supports the idea of a Saxon presence before 450 and a later Angle presence after. This could explain both the Gallic Chronicle entry regarding Saxons in 440 and the later Gildas and Bede references concerning the arrival of mercenaries around 450. They could be mislabelling Angles and Jutes as Saxons. The evidence for cultural, linguistic and genetic change is for population movements from even before the Roman invasion.8 The main evidence relates to eastern Britain from across the North Sea. Strabo, writing in the first century, contrasts Britons with Celts, and Tacitus describes Caledonians as having Germanic origin and the inhabitants of Britain ‘nearest the Gauls’ having similar language. The tribe nearest the Gauls were the Belgae and there is evidence from Caesar’s Gallic Wars that the Belgae were a Germanic people. Gallo-Belgic coins were found in Britain across the same area affected by the alleged later Saxon invasion.9 The Roman name for Winchester was ‘Venta Belgarum’, meaning the meeting place of the Belgae. There is also the interesting fact that after Roman Britain, inscribed stones were found everywhere except the southeast, suggesting further cultural difference. A similar difference occurs in the distribution of rune markings appearing in Angle and Jutish areas, but not supposed Saxon ones.10
As early as the late third century, Frankish and Saxon raiders began to attack the channel coasts.11 However, the forts of the so called Saxon Shore seem to have been built in the wrong time and place for defence12 and it is possible that Saxons were already present along the South Coast in the early fourth century. A Saxon site at Mucking in Essex shows late Roman bronzes in Saxon huts, and graves dated to 400. It is worth remembering Procopius writing in Byzantium in 550; he tells of a Frankish embassy accompanied by Angles, over whom the Franks claim to have dominion. The Angles tell of three populous nations: Britons, Angles and Friesians. They don’t mention Saxons. This could be ignorance, but the Saxon homeland was adjacent to Angeln and it’s unlikely Angles would have misidentified them. Far more likely this was a group who were linguistically and culturally different from both Angles and Saxons, or perhaps people who had settled many decades earlier and enough time lapsed for cultural and linguistic changes to take place.
There is genetic, linguistic, literary and archaeological evidence for Germanic presence in Britain before 400. The colonisation of later Anglian, Jutish and Saxon areas would have been inconsistent and irregular, with complex and different timescales,13 which makes for a very mixed and confusing picture. There is, therefore, evidence of Saxon presence much earlier than we previously thought. Then there’s evidence of further arrivals that could suggest Angles in the East, Jutes in Kent and Hampshire and more Saxons on the south coast. It is possible that it’s these later arrivals which are referred to in the sources, but it’s important to remember that they did not arrive into a political or cultural vacuum.
We do not know how they initially interacted with the indigenous population, the political administration and what the ethnic mix was at the time. Regarding provincial boundaries, there is some similarity with earlier Roman provinces and boundaries of later Anglo-Saxon and British kingdoms.14 Germanic settlement appears to take place in areas of Romano-British economic and political activity,15 which suggests some possible continuity. There’s even evidence that villa and estate boundaries stayed constant into the Middle Ages. I wouldn’t take that too far, but it does show that there was no ‘wiping clean of the slate’, so to speak. The Romano-British civitates and populations were not exterminated and replaced wholesale.
