Creating Wessex

[caldrail]

The name 'Saxon' conjures up an image of a barbarian horde. They were not a popular people. One british monk described them as 'A race hateful to God'. After Augustine converted saxons to christianity from AD596, they were just as loathed as the pagans because they ignored Easter and held rituals on different days to the existing british church. Aggressive and bold, they were skilled seafarers feared even as far as the Bay of Biscay. Saxons weren't unknown in Britain at the end of the Western Roman Empire. Some had settled there and had become 'good roman citizens'. Certainly there were pockets of them outside their homeland, along the North Sea coast, and down the atlantic coast of Gaul, yet the late roman writers also refer to saxons as the most desperate of pirates. Clearly, there was a wide range in behaviour of these barbarians.

 

The Saxon Shore of Kent was named that by the romans. There has been some debate over the emphasis of this phrase. Did it mean the saxons had settled the area (which they had, in small numbers), or did it mean a shore under threat?. The area features the remains of roman castles, stone fortifications built for defence. It therefore follows that some kind of threat existed, for the building of castles is labour intensive and certainly not something done lightly. This chain of defenses was referred to as limes in the Notitia Dignitatum, a document which included lists of miltary assets in the late empire. The word limes means the romans saw these forts as a frontier to be controlled and defended if need be. Waiting offshore were the vessels of the Saxons.

 

Saxon ships were serviceable vessels capable of crossing the turbulent North Sea to England. Typically they might be seventy five feet long, with perhaps as many as a hundred crew if estimates using viking practice are valid. There is every reason to believe that the vikings adapted and improved on Saxon shipbuilding. By this stage of history roman ships had atrophied a great deal. The great galleys of the Punic Wars were no longer required, and probably none too capable of weathering the Oceanus Brittanicus if the experience of Caesar is anything to go by. The roman navy had concentrated on coastal action, using small ships that were easily manoevered upriver, ships that were severely challenged by Saxon longboats.

 

Yet the romans did challenge saxon naval superiority, as in AD285 Carausius was commisioned to clear the sea of pirates, later to proclaim himself emperor for four years. Whether or not he succeeded in curtailing saxon activity, by the next century they were back, as in AD367 Ammanius describes Franks and Saxons as 'ravaging the coats of Britain'. Stilicho is given credit for suppressing Saxon aggression, and the father of Emperor Theodosius is known to have acted against them, and saxon raids of AD440-450 are the precursor to more permanent invasions later.

 

Some time after the roman withdrawal in the around the start of the 5th century whole saxon communities along the northern coasts of Britain are abandoned. They moved southward, expanding into Gaul, the main target of saxon pirates. Bayeux after all was a saxon city before Winchester, and they conquered Gaul within fifty years. Inevitably however they moved against the british south coast. Was this purely a move to capture richer farmland, or a move to escape pictish raiding? Or threats from their fellow saxons? There were other motivations for saxon expansion. Rising sea levels had made many of their coastal settlements uninhabitable, and to a lesser extent, the pressure of human migration westwards in europe was making itself felt.

 

In AD477, the strongest of the Saxon kings, Aella, landed at Anderitum (Pevensey). The roman castle there even at this stage was in a sorry state, presenting little difficulty to Aella's landing. The local populace may have rebelled against him later, as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that he razed the british settlement there in AD491. This area was perhaps the most desirable, the most developed under roman rule, the closest to mainland europe and thus with the closest trading links. It was also the best defended even after the roman withdrawal for that very reason. Worse still, Aella's move opened the flood gates for similar action elsewhere. Britain was open for business.

 

In AD495 a saxon chief named Cerdic landed on the south coast at a place named Cerdices-Ora, believed to be somewhere in Hampshire or the Southampton Water. This is a significant point, because that area had already been settled by Jutes, who occupied Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, without any known hostility. Nonetheless, three further landings by in AD501 at Portsmouth led by the chiefs Port, Bieda, and Maegla, and there is reason to believe these groups were Jutish.

 

These landings soon provoked a response from the local peoples, and a king named Natanleod was defeated by the invaders in AD508 by the saxon warlords Cerdic and Cynric, giving a wide stretch of coastal territory. There is a record that Cerdic asked for military aid from Aesc, King of Kent, and Aella, the Great King of South Saxons, not to mention the jutish Port and his sons.

 

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle specifically mentions the arrival of the West Saxons under Stufi and Wihtgar (Cerdics nephew) in AD514, leading to a significant battle at Cerdicesford (Charford) 5 years later and the establishing of the realm of Wessex (The West Saxons with Cerdic and Cynric in power by AD519. Although the original borders are unclear, its believed it closely followed the boundaroes of Hampshire at this time. This boundary was further enforced by the attack on Calleva (Silchester) sometime between AD508-14. The city was razed.

 

There followed a thirty year period of consolidation as the West Saxons brought their new-found influence to bear on the local populations. They established harbours on the coast of Britain that are still there today, and trading links with the continent were reopened. There appears to have been almost no problems apart from one battle named Cerdicesleaga in 527, and this may have been a victory for the Britons.

 

In fact, the Britons were actively seeking to prevent any further incursion of these hostile men. Defensive earthworks were dug and given the Saxon aversion to siege warfare, its probably not suprising they found them real obstacles.At point between AD491-520, however, we have a reference to a battle at Mons Badonicus (Mount Badon, location unknown) - which was a complete victory for the Arthur of legend, who is said to have personally slain over nine hundred west saxon enemies. The validity of this battle is still debated.

 

The period of peace ended with an expansion into Wiltshire, leaving the jutish regions and taking on the Britons head first. Searobyrig (Old Sarum) was captured in AD552. Four years later Bera arrived at Beranburgh (Barbury Castle) more than thirty miles to the north and took the old hill fort for his own use (it's named after him) although it may be possible that Cynric and Caewlin fought the battle and left Bera as the local overlord. His victory meant that the Kingdom of Wessex had won land as far north as the River Thames. It also meant the old roman road between Silchester and Badbury had been cut off, thus severly weakening the british earthworks in areas such as Andover.

 

Territory was rapidly falling into West Saxon hands. Berkshire was absorbed and Caewlin even took control of Surrey after defeating Aethelberht of Kent in AD568 at the battle of Wibbandun (Wimbledon). An advance by Cuthwulf (or Cutha) crossed the Thames in 571 reaching Aylesbury, and the westward expansion had reached Somerset, then in welsh hands. All this was leading to a great stand-off battle, and this was the battle of Deorham (Dyrham) in AD577. Curthwine and Ceawlin, the West Saxon kings, slew the three british kings opposing them. The deaths of Commail, Condidan, and Farinmail brought Gloucester, Cirencester, and Bath under Saxon control.

 

A northward advance into the Severn Valley led to the battle of Fethanleag in AD584, a rewarding victory for Caewlin but one that also saw the death of his bother Cutha. The two brothers had been intense rivals and their supporters had squabbled. This battle was the final move in the rapid expansion of Wessex.

 

Caewlins fortunes were to change. In 591 an alliance of Britons and Angles(?) defeated him at Woddesbeorg and he was 'expelled', dying the next year. The Severn Valley would later be taken by Mercia, and for a short while Northumbria was dominant in Britain. The future for Wessex was a long struggle against the Welsh, particularly the absorption of the old kingdom of Dyrwaint (Dorset) but Wessex would never return to the size of territory it held up until Fethanleag. Nonetheless, this constant military struggle made Wessex men known for their skill in combat, the realm was less divided than Mercia or Northumbria, and ultimately Cerdic's descendants would emerge as the future kings of England.

 

The majority of these events are related by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Gildas, or the Venerable Bede in later years. History is written by the victors and indeed there has been some arguement over the validity of the stories, with detractors pointing out inconsistencies in the names of individuals involved, the length of their reigns (Cerdic ruled for forty years, his son Cynric for twenty six), and some doubt as to the origin of the Saxons who landed at end of the 5th century onward. Further doubt has been cast over whether the saxons could have usefully employed the roman agricultural enviroment in abandoned areas, as thick woodland and undergrowth soon recaptures the fields. This ignores the growth of mature trees within fifty years that stifle the undergrowth and allow easier deforestation, and for that reason its believed that saxon farming generally followed the roman pattern.

 

There is also an interesting anecdote mentioned by Geoffery of Monmouth in his History of Britain. He mentions allies of Wessex from Ireland, a group of 'africans', who fought with Caewlin at Deorham. How could that be? Geoffery is guilty of misinterpreting an irish chronicle, which refers to 'black heathens', which the medieval Geoffery could only assume was a description of africans. Not so. The irish description applies to Danes, scandanavian settlers who reached the Emerald Isle long before the traditional beginning of Viking raids. It may not be proof, but there is a strong suggestion that the British Isles were being settled from the continent over a long period of time, and that they were not always welcome by the native Britons. Those opinions would not be forgotten easily and echoes of them exist to this day.

 

Edited April 12, 2008 by caldrail

[Kosmo]

Nice summary, but are you going mainstream now?

BTW saxons did not conquer Gaul. It is possible that they settled along her NW coast and there are claims that the flamish are a reminent of them, but the majority opinion it's that the flemish are a mix of franks and local celto-germans.

[caldrail]

The saxons certainly did move into Gaul even if they didn't conquer all of it. As mentioned above, the french town of Bayeux was a saxon settlement before Winchester (the capital of Wessex). In all fairness though I should point out some of my info is old, and if anyone has something more up to date, feel free.

 

Going mainstream? Not sure what you mean by that.