Abstract:The meeting of the kings of Britain and the Isles at Chester in 973 has usually been interpreted as a submission ritual. The object of this paper is to explore an alternative explanation, that the ritual involved was an egalitarian one of a type commonly used in the Roman world, and subsequently by parties desiring to make peace treaties. Such meetings often took place on rivers, especially those marking borders, as they were regarded as neutral. The location of the 973 meeting on the Dee is examined from this… Show more
“…Though debate continues as to Edgar's exact intent here, there is some scholarly consensus that Edgar's trip to Chester (Fig. 1), and an attendant ritual emphasizing the status of other Insular rulers as subreguli , are historically plausible (Barrow, 2001; Williams, 2004; Molyneaux, 2011; Roach, 2019). The homilist Ælfric (2003: 606–607) confirms the Chronicles account of the event in his near‐contemporary Life of St Swithun , which recounts that eight kings attended Edgar and gave their submission, though here there is no mention of the sea, nor of Chester.…”
Section: Edgar the Peaceful: History And Mythmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…This is somewhat unconvincing, however, as it only explains the S 731 as a stand‐alone artefact of a period post‐1135, rather than a participant in a tradition of which John of Worcester was also a part. Julia Barrow (2001: 72) argues that S 731 was composed after John's death in 1140, while Thornton (2001: 57) highlights that the entries in John's Chronicon that relate the 10th century were apparently completed by 1123, during Henry I's reign (1100–1135). In his paean for Edgar's death in the entry for the year 975, John declares that Edgar: …had assembled in his lifetime 3,600 strong ships for his own use, from which, when the Easter feast was over, he used to assemble 1,200 on the east coasts of the island, 1,200 on the west, and 1,200 on the north coasts of the island, and sail to the western fleet with the eastern, and that sent back [and so on], acting thus vigorously for the defence of his kingdom against foreigners and to train himself and his men in military exercises.…”
Section: Edgar the Peaceful: History And Mythmentioning
Ships and seafaring were intrinsic to early English cultures, identifiable in the origin story of the adventus Saxonum, in the material cultures of 6th-to 10th-century England, and in later portrayals of good kingship. However, effective control of the sea only became critical to Anglo-Saxon kings in the 10th century, serving to legitimate their authority and demonstrate both power and prestige. Using a combination of historical texts and archaeological evidence, this article examines the intersection of kingship and sea-power in 10th-century England, both as practical necessity and cultural symbol of legitimate kingly authority.
“…Though debate continues as to Edgar's exact intent here, there is some scholarly consensus that Edgar's trip to Chester (Fig. 1), and an attendant ritual emphasizing the status of other Insular rulers as subreguli , are historically plausible (Barrow, 2001; Williams, 2004; Molyneaux, 2011; Roach, 2019). The homilist Ælfric (2003: 606–607) confirms the Chronicles account of the event in his near‐contemporary Life of St Swithun , which recounts that eight kings attended Edgar and gave their submission, though here there is no mention of the sea, nor of Chester.…”
Section: Edgar the Peaceful: History And Mythmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…This is somewhat unconvincing, however, as it only explains the S 731 as a stand‐alone artefact of a period post‐1135, rather than a participant in a tradition of which John of Worcester was also a part. Julia Barrow (2001: 72) argues that S 731 was composed after John's death in 1140, while Thornton (2001: 57) highlights that the entries in John's Chronicon that relate the 10th century were apparently completed by 1123, during Henry I's reign (1100–1135). In his paean for Edgar's death in the entry for the year 975, John declares that Edgar: …had assembled in his lifetime 3,600 strong ships for his own use, from which, when the Easter feast was over, he used to assemble 1,200 on the east coasts of the island, 1,200 on the west, and 1,200 on the north coasts of the island, and sail to the western fleet with the eastern, and that sent back [and so on], acting thus vigorously for the defence of his kingdom against foreigners and to train himself and his men in military exercises.…”
Section: Edgar the Peaceful: History And Mythmentioning
Ships and seafaring were intrinsic to early English cultures, identifiable in the origin story of the adventus Saxonum, in the material cultures of 6th-to 10th-century England, and in later portrayals of good kingship. However, effective control of the sea only became critical to Anglo-Saxon kings in the 10th century, serving to legitimate their authority and demonstrate both power and prestige. Using a combination of historical texts and archaeological evidence, this article examines the intersection of kingship and sea-power in 10th-century England, both as practical necessity and cultural symbol of legitimate kingly authority.
“…It has been claimed that Chester, which was frequented by merchants from around the Irish Sea, constituted a neutral venue. 31 It was not. It was a town with which Edgar had a longstanding connection: one of his earliest extant charters granted six estates in western Cheshire to a minster in Chester.…”
ABSTRACT. Some tenth-century English kings, especially AEthelstan and Edgar, were commonly presented as rulers of Britain. The basic reason for this is that they had a loose but real hegemony over the other rulers on the island. This hegemony did not collapse in subsequent centuries, but English kings were less often described as rulers of Britain. The intensification of royal rule within the English kingdom in the second half of the tenth century made kings' power inside the kingdom increasingly unlike their power elsewhere in Britain: it consequently became harder to think of Britain as a single political unit.In this year [927] appeared fiery lights in the northern part of the sky, and Sihtric died, and King AEthelstan gained the Northumbrian kingdom (feng to Nor›hymbra rice); and he had power over (gewylde) all the kings who were on this island: first Hywel, king of the West Welsh, and Constantine, king of the Scots, and Owain, king of the people of Gwent, and Ealdred son of Eadwulf of Bamburgh. And they established peace (fryfl) with pledge and oaths (mid wedde 7 mid aflum) in the place which is called Eamont [near Penrith] on 12 July and renounced all idol-worship (deofolgeld) and afterwards departed with friendship (mid sibbe). 1
“…That is what this article considers, but before we go any further we must recall what happened on that occasion -recently, and in a felicitous phrase, called 'Chester's earliest Regatta'. 15 The historical background Edgar was King of Mercia, very crudely the north Midlands and including what is now Cheshire, from 957 to 959, in which year he also became King of Wessex -the old territory of King Alfred, and he ruled both until his death in 975, thus creating a situation similar to that of 1603 when King James after a lifetime of being the Sixth of Scotland became also the First of England. We know that Edgar had been crowned as King of Mercia and, very probably, Wessex too, but for reasons which have left historians arguing for years, he was re-crowned in Bath in 973.…”
WHEN ABROAD and faced with a question on nationality, a subject of Her Britannic Majesty tends to provide different answers according to the circumstances in which the question is asked. If the question is put officially, as when he enters the country, the answer is most likely that he is 'British'. Relaxing in the bar of an evening with other foreign guests, he is more likely to say English, Scottish or, probably less often, Welsh. This ambiguity suggests that the concept of 'Britishness' hardly exists at anything deeper than a culturally superficial, legal, level. The feeling is echoed by the ability of such a relatively small nation to field three separate national teams in sports such as rugby, and even when a national team exists it is usually called the 'English' not the 'British' team. There are parallels with, as yet largely peaceful, tensions in countries like Spain, uneasily containing the independent-minded Catalonia, which are only recently being recognised. What does 'Great Britain' amount to in the popular mind?This article does not attempt to explore the whole history of the Union and attitudes to it, but considers the treatment of one historic episode in that context. The Act of Union has attracted surprisingly little attention in general histories, considering its importance in ending the centuries old rivalry and hostility between two old enemies. Some studies of the British constitution simply ignore it: this may seem extraordinary, but as we shall see there was some justification for doing so. 1 Elisabeth Wicks has given us the most recent and detailed study, in which she explored the purpose and rationale behind the Act. It was born of pressing needs on both sides: for an opening to English markets (including the colonies) on one side, and to secure a dangerous northern frontier on the other. 2 It was not an exercise in mutual affection. Its first article declared That the two kingdoms of England and Scotland shall upon the first day of May, which shall be in the year of one thousand, seven hundred and seven, and for ever after, be united into one Kingdom by the name of Great Britain. 3 1 For one student history which managed to avoid mention of the Act
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