her husband. Whether any of this was true (was she following instructions?) or whether we are dealing here with a simple case of misogynistic gossip, the kings of Wessex did not, after her time, honour their wives with the title of queen and held their ceremonial ‘crown wearings’ in solitary state. It was a change from earlier times. In the seventh century the West Saxons had been briefly ruled by a queen regnant and as late as the 740s a king’s wife was witnessing charters as ‘ regina ’ (‘queen’).
Beohrtric’s reign (786–802) witnessed an event of terrible omen for the English. ‘In these days’, records the Chronicle , ‘came the first three ships of Northmen’ – it seems they may have been from the region around Hardanger Fjord in western Norway. One report hasthem landing at Portland. The king’s gerefa rode out to meet them because he did not know what they were, although, presumably they were not traders, since otherwise they would have been heading for Hamwic. Maybe they had steered a wrong course. It was the reeve’s duty to have newcomers report themselves to the king’s town. They killed him. 18
It was a portent of things to come. Ecgberht, the next king of Wessex (802–39), who was king of Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Essex from 825, and was awarded the title of ‘bretwalda’ by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as eighth in line of the wielders of the imperium named by Bede, would spend the last years of his reign combating recurring incursions of such ‘northmen’ or ‘Vikings’
3
NORTHUMBRIA: THE STAR IN THE NORTH
I have argued in chapter 1 , with David Rollason, that by the time of Bede it was ‘right to regard Northumbria . . . as essentially English’. 1 This chapter argues that the Northumbrians of the seventh and eighth centuries were, considering their numbers and the size of their territories, among the most important, in terms of their cultural contribution to contemporary Europe and influence on the future, of any of the tribal successors to imperial Rome at that time. Their kings founded the possibility of success; their scholars and artists gave birth to it; and a succession of missionaries of determination, faith and courage, and often of administrative genius, established a presence in Europe that would prove formative in the history of the Continental church.
The European setting and Northumbrian actors
In the late seventh century and the early eighth, Northumbria, that is the united kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia, was England’s dominant power. Warfare was a condition of the age throughout Europe. In Spain a century of conflicts between various Visigothic rulers prepared the ground for the catastrophic reign of King Rodrigo (d. 711),when Moorish mercenaries from North Africa were called in. Within months others followed and by mid-decade virtually the entire Iberian Peninsula was in the hands of Islam. Not until the reign of Abd ar Rahmann II, Emir of Cordova (822–52), did the full glories of Moorish Spanish culture begin to unfold. In Italy the Lombards, a Germanic people given to internecine war, produced a great ruler and lawgiver in King Liudprand (712–44), with his court at Pavia. But the pope at Rome, fearful that he might become the Lombards’ puppet, called on the protection of Charles the Great, King of the Franks, and in 774 Charles added the iron crown of Lombardy to his other trophies.
The Frankish kingdom, which comprised most of western Europe north of the Alps, had been founded by Clovis, barbarian turned Catholic (not Arian) Christian in the early 500s. From 600 up to the early 700s it fractured in the wars of his successors, the Merovingian kings, and their chief ministers, ‘mayors of the palace’. Then in 714 the Northumbrian-born St Willibrord, bishop of Utrecht, baptized Pippin, son of the ‘mayor’ Charles Martel. When he grew to manhood, this Pippin the Short, with the full approval of the pope, displaced the last
Beohrtric’s reign (786–802) witnessed an event of terrible omen for the English. ‘In these days’, records the Chronicle , ‘came the first three ships of Northmen’ – it seems they may have been from the region around Hardanger Fjord in western Norway. One report hasthem landing at Portland. The king’s gerefa rode out to meet them because he did not know what they were, although, presumably they were not traders, since otherwise they would have been heading for Hamwic. Maybe they had steered a wrong course. It was the reeve’s duty to have newcomers report themselves to the king’s town. They killed him. 18
It was a portent of things to come. Ecgberht, the next king of Wessex (802–39), who was king of Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Essex from 825, and was awarded the title of ‘bretwalda’ by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as eighth in line of the wielders of the imperium named by Bede, would spend the last years of his reign combating recurring incursions of such ‘northmen’ or ‘Vikings’
3
NORTHUMBRIA: THE STAR IN THE NORTH
I have argued in chapter 1 , with David Rollason, that by the time of Bede it was ‘right to regard Northumbria . . . as essentially English’. 1 This chapter argues that the Northumbrians of the seventh and eighth centuries were, considering their numbers and the size of their territories, among the most important, in terms of their cultural contribution to contemporary Europe and influence on the future, of any of the tribal successors to imperial Rome at that time. Their kings founded the possibility of success; their scholars and artists gave birth to it; and a succession of missionaries of determination, faith and courage, and often of administrative genius, established a presence in Europe that would prove formative in the history of the Continental church.
The European setting and Northumbrian actors
In the late seventh century and the early eighth, Northumbria, that is the united kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia, was England’s dominant power. Warfare was a condition of the age throughout Europe. In Spain a century of conflicts between various Visigothic rulers prepared the ground for the catastrophic reign of King Rodrigo (d. 711),when Moorish mercenaries from North Africa were called in. Within months others followed and by mid-decade virtually the entire Iberian Peninsula was in the hands of Islam. Not until the reign of Abd ar Rahmann II, Emir of Cordova (822–52), did the full glories of Moorish Spanish culture begin to unfold. In Italy the Lombards, a Germanic people given to internecine war, produced a great ruler and lawgiver in King Liudprand (712–44), with his court at Pavia. But the pope at Rome, fearful that he might become the Lombards’ puppet, called on the protection of Charles the Great, King of the Franks, and in 774 Charles added the iron crown of Lombardy to his other trophies.
The Frankish kingdom, which comprised most of western Europe north of the Alps, had been founded by Clovis, barbarian turned Catholic (not Arian) Christian in the early 500s. From 600 up to the early 700s it fractured in the wars of his successors, the Merovingian kings, and their chief ministers, ‘mayors of the palace’. Then in 714 the Northumbrian-born St Willibrord, bishop of Utrecht, baptized Pippin, son of the ‘mayor’ Charles Martel. When he grew to manhood, this Pippin the Short, with the full approval of the pope, displaced the last
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