Editing Anglo-Saxons (section)

=== Middle Anglo-Saxon history (660–899) ===
By 660, the political map of [[Tees–Exe line|Lowland Britain]] had developed with smaller territories coalescing into kingdoms, and from this time larger kingdoms started dominating the smaller kingdoms. The development of kingdoms, with a particular king being recognised as an overlord, developed out of an early loose structure that, Higham believes, is linked back to the original ''feodus''.<ref>Higham, Nicholas J. The English conquest: Gildas and Britain in the fifth century. Vol. 1. Manchester University Press, 1994.</ref> The traditional name for this period is the [[Heptarchy]], which has not been used by scholars since the early 20th century<ref name="Yorke, Barbara 2002">Yorke, Barbara. ''Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England''. Routledge, 2002.</ref> as it gives the impression of a single political structure and does not afford the "opportunity to treat the history of any one kingdom as a whole".<ref name="Keynes, Simon 1995">Keynes, Simon. "England, 700–900." The New Cambridge Medieval History 2 (1995): 18–42.</ref> Simon Keynes suggests that the 8th and 9th century was a period of economic and social flourishing which created stability both below the [[River Thames|Thames]] and above the [[Humber]].<ref name="Keynes, Simon 1995" />

==== Mercian supremacy (626–821) ====
{{Main|Mercian Supremacy}}
[[File:Kingdoms in England and Wales about 600 AD.svg|upright=1.25|thumb|right|A political map of Britain circa 650 (the names are in modern English)]]
Middle-lowland Britain was known as the place of the ''Mierce'', the border or frontier folk, in Latin Mercia. Mercia was a diverse area of tribal groups, as shown by the Tribal Hidage; the peoples were a mixture of Brittonic speaking peoples and "Anglo-Saxon" pioneers and their early leaders had Brittonic names, such as [[Penda of Mercia|Penda]].<ref name="Yorke, Barbara p101">Yorke, Barbara. Kings and kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England. Routledge, 2002: p101</ref> Although Penda does not appear in Bede's list of great overlords, it would appear from what Bede says elsewhere that he was dominant over the southern kingdoms. At the time of the battle of the river Winwæd, thirty ''duces regii'' (royal generals) fought on his behalf. Although there are many gaps in the evidence, it is clear that the seventh-century Mercian kings were formidable rulers who were able to exercise a wide-ranging overlordship from their [[The Midlands|Midland]] base.

Mercian military success was the basis of their power; it succeeded against not only 106 kings and kingdoms by winning set-piece battles,<ref>Yorke, Barbara. Kings and kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England. Routledge, 2002: p103</ref> but by ruthlessly ravaging any area foolish enough to withhold tribute. There are a number of casual references scattered throughout the [[Bede]]'s history to this aspect of Mercian military policy. Penda is found ravaging Northumbria as far north as [[Bamburgh]] and only a miraculous intervention from Aidan prevents the complete destruction of the settlement.<ref>Scharer, Anton. "The writing of history at King Alfred's court." Early Medieval Europe 5.2 (1996): 177–206.</ref> In 676 [[Æthelred of Mercia|Æthelred]] conducted a similar ravaging in Kent and caused such damage in the [[Rochester, Kent|Rochester]] diocese that two successive bishops gave up their position because of lack of funds.<ref>{{cite book|last=Yorke|first=Barbara|page=101|title=Kings and kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England, 2002}}</ref> In these accounts there is a rare glimpse of the realities of early Anglo-Saxon overlordship and how a widespread overlordship could be established in a relatively short period. By the middle of the 8th century, other kingdoms of southern Britain were also affected by Mercian expansionism. The East Saxons seem to have lost control of London, [[Middlesex]] and [[Hertfordshire]] to Æthelbald, although the East Saxon homelands do not seem to have been affected, and the East Saxon dynasty continued into the ninth century.<ref>Yorke, B A E 1985: 'The kingdom of the East Saxons.' Anglo-Saxon England 14, 1–36</ref> The Mercian influence and reputation reached its peak when, in the late 8th century, the most powerful European ruler of the age, the Frankish king [[Charlemagne]], recognised [[Offa of Mercia|the Mercian King Offa]]'s power and accordingly treated him with respect, even if this could have been just flattery.<ref>RYAN, MARTIN J. "The Mercian Supremacies." The Anglo-Saxon World (2013): 179.</ref>

==== Learning and monasticism (660–793) ====
[[File:Britain 802.jpg|thumb|Map of Britain in 802. By this date, historians today rarely distinguish between Angles, Saxons and Jutes.]]
Michael Drout calls this period the "Golden Age", when learning flourished with a renaissance in classical knowledge. The growth and popularity of monasticism was not an entirely internal development, with influence from the continent shaping Anglo-Saxon monastic life.<ref>Drout, Michael DC. Imitating fathers: tradition, inheritance, and the reproduction of culture in Anglo-Saxon England. Diss. Loyola University of Chicago, 1997.</ref> In 669 [[Theodore of Tarsus|Theodore]], a Greek-speaking monk originally from Tarsus in Asia Minor, arrived in Britain [[List of archbishops of Canterbury|to become the eighth]] [[Archbishop of Canterbury]]. He was joined the following year by his colleague Hadrian, a Latin-speaking African by origin and former abbot of a monastery in Campania (near Naples).<ref>Lendinara, Patrizia. "The world of Anglo-Saxon learning." The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature (1991): 264–281.</ref> One of their first tasks at Canterbury was the establishment of a school; and according to Bede (writing some sixty years later), they soon "attracted a crowd of students into whose minds they daily poured the streams of wholesome learning".<ref>Bede; Plummer, Charles (1896). Historiam ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum: Historiam abbatum; Epistolam ad Ecgberctum; una cum Historia abbatum auctore anonymo. Oxford, United Kingdom: e Typographeo Clarendoniano.</ref> As evidence of their teaching, Bede reports that some of their students, who survived to his own day, were as fluent in Greek and Latin as in their native language. Bede does not mention [[Aldhelm]] in this connection; but we know from a letter addressed by Aldhelm to Hadrian that he too must be numbered among their students.<ref>Lapidge, Michael. "The school of Theodore and Hadrian." Anglo-Saxon England 15.1 (1986): 45–72.</ref>

Aldhelm wrote in elaborate and grandiloquent and very difficult Latin, which became the dominant style for centuries. Michael Drout states "Aldhelm wrote Latin hexameters better than anyone before in England (and possibly better than anyone since, or at least up until [[John Milton]]). His work showed that scholars in England, at the very edge of Europe, could be as learned and sophisticated as any writers in Europe."<ref>Drout, M. Anglo-Saxon World (Audio Lectures) Audible.com</ref> During this period, the wealth and power of the monasteries increased as elite families, possibly out of power, turned to monastic life.<ref>[[Keith Dobney|Dobney, Keith]], et al. ''Farmers, monks and aristocrats: the environmental archaeology of an Anglo-Saxon Estate Centre at Flixborough, North Lincolnshire, UK''. Oxbow Books, 2007.</ref>

Anglo-Saxon monasticism developed the unusual institution of the "double monastery": a house of monks and a house of nuns, living next to each other, sharing a church but never mixing, and living separate lives of celibacy. These double monasteries were presided over by abbesses, who became some of the most powerful and influential women in Europe. Double monasteries which were built on strategic sites near rivers and coasts, accumulated immense wealth and power over multiple generations (their inheritances were not divided) and became centers of art and learning.<ref>Godfrey, John. "The Double Monastery in Early English History." Ampleforth Journal 79 (1974): 19–32.</ref>

While Aldhelm was doing his work in [[Malmesbury]], far from him, up in the North of England, Bede was writing a large quantity of books, gaining a reputation in Europe and showing that the English could write history and theology, and do astronomical computation (for the dates of Easter, among other things).

==== West Saxon hegemony and the Anglo-Scandinavian Wars (793–878) ====
{{Main|Viking Age|Danelaw}}[[File:Exhibition in Viking Ship Museum, Oslo 01.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The [[Oseberg ship]] prow, [[Viking Ship Museum (Oslo)|Viking Ship Museum]], Oslo, Norway.]]
During the 9th century, [[Wessex]] rose in power, from the foundations laid by [[Egbert of Wessex|King Egbert]] in the first quarter of the century to the achievements of [[Alfred the Great|King Alfred the Great]] in its closing decades. The outlines of the story are told in the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'', though the annals represent a West Saxon point of view.<ref>Dumville, David N., Simon Keynes, and Susan Irvine, eds. The Anglo-Saxon chronicle: a collaborative edition. MS E. Vol. 7. Ds Brewer, 2004.</ref> On the day of Egbert's succession to the kingdom of Wessex, in 802, a Mercian ealdorman from the province of the [[Hwicce]] had crossed the border at [[Kempsford]], with the intention of mounting a raid into northern [[Wiltshire]]; the Mercian force was met by the local ealdorman, "and the people of Wiltshire had the victory".<ref>Swanton, Michael (1996). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. New York: Routledge. {{ISBN|978-0-415-92129-9}}.</ref> In 829, Egbert went on, the chronicler reports, to conquer "the kingdom of the Mercians and everything south of the Humber".<ref name="Whitelock, Dorothy 1965">Whitelock, Dorothy, ed. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1965.</ref> It was at this point that the chronicler chooses to attach Egbert's name to Bede's list of seven overlords, adding that "he was the eighth king who was [[Bretwalda]]".<ref>Bede, Saint. The Ecclesiastical History of the English People: The Greater Chronicle; Bede's Letter to Egbert. Oxford University Press, 1994.</ref> [[Simon Keynes]] suggests Egbert's foundation of a 'bipartite' kingdom is crucial as it stretched across southern England, and it created a working alliance between the West Saxon dynasty and the rulers of the Mercians.<ref>Keynes, Simon. "Mercia and Wessex in the ninth century." Mercia. An Anglo-Saxon Kingdom in Europe, ed. Michelle P. Brown/Carol Ann Farr (London 2001) (2001): 310–328.</ref> In 860, the eastern and western parts of the southern kingdom were united by agreement between the surviving sons of [[Æthelwulf of Wessex|King Æthelwulf]], though the union was not maintained without some opposition from within the dynasty; and in the late 870s King Alfred gained the submission of the Mercians under their ruler [[Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians|Æthelred]], who in other circumstances might have been styled a king, but who under the Alfredian regime was regarded as the 'ealdorman' of his people.

[[File:Viking weight combined only reflection.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Anglo-Saxon-Viking [[Coin weights|coin weight]]. Material is lead and weighs approx 36&nbsp;g. Embedded with a [[sceat]] dating to 720–750 AD and minted in Kent. It is edged with a dotted triangle pattern. Origin is the northern [[Danelaw]] region, and it dates from the late 8th to 9th century.]]

The wealth of the monasteries and the success of Anglo-Saxon society attracted the attention of people from mainland Europe, mostly Danes and Norwegians. Because of the plundering raids that followed, the raiders attracted the name [[Viking]] – from the Old Norse ''víkingr'' meaning an expedition – which soon became used for the raiding activity or piracy reported in western Europe.<ref>Sawyer, Peter Hayes, ed. Illustrated history of the Vikings. Oxford University Press, 2001</ref> In 793, [[Lindisfarne]] was raided and while this was not the first raid of its type it was the most prominent. In 794, Jarrow, the monastery where [[Bede]] wrote, was attacked; in 795 [[Iona]] in Scotland was attacked; and in 804 the nunnery at [[Lyminge]] in Kent was granted refuge inside the walls of Canterbury. Sometime around 800, a Reeve from [[Isle of Portland|Portland]] in Wessex was killed when he mistook some raiders for ordinary traders.

Viking raids continued until in 850, then the ''Chronicle'' says: "The heathen for the first time remained over the winter". The fleet does not appear to have stayed long in England, but it started a trend which others subsequently followed. In particular, the army which arrived in 865 remained over many winters, and part of it later settled what became known as the [[Danelaw]]. This was the "[[Great Heathen Army|Great Army]]", a term used by the ''Chronicle'' in England and by Adrevald of Fleury on the Continent. The invaders were able to exploit the feuds between and within the various kingdoms and to appoint puppet kings, such as Ceolwulf in Mercia in 873 and perhaps others in Northumbria in 867 and East Anglia in 870.<ref name="Whitelock, Dorothy 1965" /> The third phase was an era of settlement; however, the "Great Army" went wherever it could find the richest pickings, crossing the [[English Channel]] when faced with resolute opposition, as in England in 878, or with famine, as on the Continent in 892.<ref name="Whitelock, Dorothy 1965" /> By this stage, the Vikings were assuming ever increasing importance as catalysts of social and political change. They constituted the common enemy, making the English more conscious of a national identity which overrode deeper distinctions; they could be perceived as an instrument of divine punishment for the people's sins, raising awareness of a collective Christian identity; and by 'conquering' the kingdoms of the East Angles, the Northumbrians and the Mercians, they created a vacuum in the leadership of the English people.<ref>Coupland, Simon. "The Vikings in Francia and Anglo-Saxon England to 911." The New Cambridge Medieval History 2 (1995): 190–201.</ref>

Danish settlement continued in Mercia in 877 and East Anglia in 879–80 and 896. The rest of the army meanwhile continued to harry and plunder on both sides of the Channel, with new recruits evidently arriving to swell its ranks, for it clearly continued to be a formidable fighting force.<ref name="Whitelock, Dorothy 1965" /> At first, Alfred responded by the offer of repeated tribute payments. However, after a decisive victory at Edington in 878, Alfred offered vigorous opposition. He established a chain of fortresses across the south of England, reorganised the army, "so that always half its men were at home, and half out on service, except for those men who were to garrison the burhs",<ref>Anglo-Saxon Chronicle s.a. 893</ref><ref name="Whitelock, Dorothy 1965" /> and in 896 ordered a new type of craft to be built which could oppose the Viking [[longship]]s in shallow coastal waters. When the Vikings returned from the Continent in 892, they found they could no longer roam the country at will, for wherever they went they were opposed by a local army. After four years, the Scandinavians therefore split up, some to settle in Northumbria and East Anglia, the remainder to try their luck again on the Continent.<ref name="Whitelock, Dorothy 1965" />

==== King Alfred and the rebuilding (878–899) ====
[[File:Alfred Jewel.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|A royal gift, the [[Alfred Jewel]]]]
More important to Alfred than his military and political victories were his religion, his love of learning, and his spread of writing throughout England. Keynes suggests Alfred's work laid the foundations for what really made England unique in all of medieval Europe from around 800 until 1066.<ref>Keynes, Simon, and Michael Lapidge. Alfred the Great. New York:
Penguin, 1984.</ref>

Thinking about how learning and culture had fallen since the last century, King Alfred wrote:
{{blockquote|...So completely had wisdom fallen off in England that there were very few on this side of the Humber who could understand their rituals in English, or indeed could translate a letter from Latin into English; and I believe that there were not many beyond the Humber. There were so few of them that I indeed cannot think of a single one south of the Thames when I became king. (Preface: "Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care")<ref name="Keynes, Simon 1984">Keynes, Simon, and Michael Lapidge. Alfred the Great. New York: Penguin, 1984.</ref>}}

Alfred knew that literature and learning, both in English and in Latin, were very important, but the state of learning was not good when Alfred came to the throne. Alfred saw kingship as a priestly office, a shepherd for his people.<ref>Frantzen, Allen J. King Alfred. Woodbridge, CT: Twayne Publishers, 1986</ref> One book that was particularly valuable to him was [[Pope Gregory I|Gregory the Great's]] ''Cura Pastoralis'' (Pastoral Care). This is a priest's guide on how to care for people. Alfred took this book as his own guide on how to be a good king to his people; hence, a good king to Alfred increases literacy. Alfred translated this book himself and explains in the preface:

{{blockquote|...When I had learned it I translated it into English, just as I had understood it, and as I could most meaningfully render it. And I will send one to each bishopric in my kingdom, and in each will be an æstel worth fifty mancuses. And I command in God's name that no man may take the æstel from the book nor the book from the church. It is unknown how long there may be such learned bishops as, thanks to God, are nearly everywhere. (Preface: "Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care")<ref name="Keynes, Simon 1984" />}}

What is presumed to be one of these "æstel" (the word only appears in this one text) is the gold, [[rock crystal]] and enamel [[Alfred Jewel]], discovered in 1693, which is assumed to have been fitted with a small rod and used as a pointer when reading. Alfred provided functional patronage, linked to a social programme of vernacular literacy in England, which was unprecedented.<ref>Yorke, Barbara. Wessex in the Early Middle Ages. London: Pinter Publishers
Ltd., 1995.</ref>

{{blockquote|Therefore it seems better to me, if it seems so to you, that we also translate certain books ...and bring it about ...if we have the peace, that all the youth of free men who now are in England, those who have the means that they may apply themselves to it, be set to learning, while they may not be set to any other use, until the time when they can well read English writings. (Preface: "Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care")<ref name="Keynes, Simon 1984" />}}

This began a growth in charters, law, theology and learning. Alfred thus laid the foundation for the great accomplishments of the tenth century and did much to make the vernacular more important than Latin in Anglo-Saxon culture.

{{blockquote|I desired to live worthily as long as I lived, and to leave after my life, to the men who should come after me, the memory of me in good works. (Preface: "The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius")<ref name="Keynes, Simon 1984" />}}