The Ordinance concerning the Dunsæte and the Anglo-Welsh frontier in the late tenth and eleventh centuries

Abstract

The Ordinance concerning the Dunsæte sets out regulations for dealings between the English and Welsh in some part of the frontier between these two peoples. The text is widely assumed to be from the second quarter of the tenth century, but this article argues for a late-tenth- or eleventh-century date. The Ordinance envisages trade and prescribes procedures to settle disputes: it thus reveals cordial contacts between those dwelling along the frontier. This offers an alternative perspective to the focus on kings and conflicts found in many modern accounts of relations between the English and Welsh in the early medieval period.

Evaluating the Early Medieval Portable Antiquities Scheme Data for the Welsh Marches

“…It is considered that the Dee estuary was an important node in the Irish Sea trade with Dublin and the Isle of Man, and Chester and North Wales were both settled (albeit briefly in the case of Chester) by Viking armies from AD 893 (Horovitz 2008: 9;Griffiths 2010: 38;Williams 2021: 172). Artefacts found around Denbigh and the coastline of North Wales support the importance of the area for trade in the pre-and post-Offan periods (Mason 2014: 77; Table 3). Further, while the finds in this northern Welsh triangle do include domestic items, they are predominantly of Viking culture and include some high-status items such as the silver strap end (LVPL-5EAC05) and gold brooch (NMGW-3E31B4).…”

The Changing Approaches of English Kings to Wales in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries

“…At first sight, this is no more than speculation, but the proposition gains credence when one considers the other evidence for the relationship between Gwent and the English kingdom in this period. Foremost among such evidence is the Old English legal text known as the Ordinance concerning the Dunsaete, which has been dated convincingly to the late tenth or eleventh centuries (Molyneaux 2011a). The text concerns the regulation of relations between English and Welsh communities living either side of a river (cf.…”

Introduction: the Dunsæte Agreement and daily life in the Welsh borderlands

“…The word is a Scandinavian borrowing known only from this text, although its Latin equivalent, lagemanni, appears in a few legal documents written after 1066. 12 Were they the same people as the 'Angelcynnes witan and Wealhþeode raedboran' who drafted the Dunsaete Agreement? It is unclear if the text implies any practical difference between the witan and raedboran -both terms were used throughout the Old English corpus to indicate counsellors, often legal ones, with raedbora glossing jurisperitus.…”