Battle Trails of Northumbria , livre ebook
68
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English
Ebooks
2014
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68
pages
English
Ebook
2014
Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage
Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus
Publié par
Date de parution
10 juin 2014
Nombre de lectures
0
EAN13
9781849894388
Langue
English
Publié par
Date de parution
10 juin 2014
Nombre de lectures
0
EAN13
9781849894388
Langue
English
Title Page
BATTLE TRAILS OF NORTHUMBRIA
BY
CLIVE KRISTEN
Dedicated to the followers of Eric Bloodaxe who had every reason to be suspicious of being governed from the south.
Introduction
About The Battles
For the purposes of this book no serious attempt has been made to distinguish between battle ( pitched or not ), siege or skirmish. It was felt this would be at best arbitrary and at worst confusing. In many instances there are no reliable sources for numbers involved in an engagement and many conflicts cannot be adequately described in terms of a single event.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘battle’ as combat, especially between organised forces; ‘pitched’ battle, strictly speaking, is one fought on ground previously agreed upon, whilst a skirmish is technically fighting by troops in irregular or extended order. This created problems in deciding what should go into this book and what should be left out. In the end the decision was almost arbitrary. The measure taken here is the significance of the armed encounter.
As many of these battles took place a very long time ago, reliable information is sometimes sketchy and sometimes non existent. Where there is an element of significant confusion this is identified in the text, otherwise the most reliable, probable, and wherever possible, contemporary accounts have been used.
It is quite impossible to say how many battles have been fought in Northumbria. The earliest identified here is AD 574 and the most recent 1513. But the true story of Northumbrian battles is much more ancient. During the late iron Age/Celtic period hundreds of hill forts were built – some within view of each other. Farming surpluses - represented by grain and stock – had to be defended. We know from the excavations of burials that warriors were highly prized. It is therefore certain that there were battles in prehistory. During the near millennium of known battles identified above it could be said that for many Northumbrians there was always the threat of armed conflict. Minor skirmishes interspersed with large raids, the Border Reivers, the occasional siege and the forays of the Norsemen and their depredations are brought home to the tourist when he reads that Northumberland possesses 10,000 fortifications. The Northumbrian’s home literally was his castle!
Which Northumbria?
The question of defining Northumbria has also been difficult. There are at least five plausible definitions. The widest area - the Northumbrian Kingdom of Eric Bloodaxe perhaps - covered most of the ground from the Tweed to the Humber. The most arbitrary boundaries are those defined by the modern tourist board.
For the purposes of this book Northumbria is that area in which traces of the five dialects of the ancient Northumbrian language are still extant. This is primarily the area between Tweed and Tyne together with parts of Durham and North Yorkshire. As recently as a century ago everyone inside, and nobody outside, had the Northumbrian burr, and more than 80 per cent of the language was Anglian. Their language is 1000 years older than English and through it there is access to a cultural identity. This indeed is the Northumbria of the Northumbrians, although there is also a wider linguistic network which stretches from Berwick to Guisborough, across to Alston and thence to
Greenhead and back to Berwick. The parts of this area, which are to the south and west of the Anglian dialect areas, have sometimes been called the Northumbrian fringe. One ‘fringe’ encounter, at Cowton Moor, is included here : both the battle itself, and its aftermath were of great significance for Northumbria.
Historical background
In the beginning the local tribes used to raid each other. This simple principle became so embedded in the culture that it ended only after the union of crowns in 1603 and the decline of the border reivers. Before the coming of the Romans the indigenous tribes protected themselves as best they could, and in so doing created a landscape featuring hill forts and palisaded settlements.
When not raiding each other the Ancient Britons of Northumbria also had to had to contend with incursions from the neighbouring Picts & Scottii. The Romans brought a measure of security and prosperity with that great customs and excise barrier - Hadrian’s Wall.
But in AD 367 a concerted attack on Roman Britain was made by a combined force of Picts, Saxons, Scots and Attecotti. This is known as ‘The Barbarian Conspiracy’ although it is doubtful that in the true sense a conspiracy existed. It was two years before full Roman authority was re-established. Many northern outposts ( such as Bremenium ) were never garrisoned again. Northumbria north of the Tyne was largely left to its fate.
We know little detail of the history of Northumbria in the two centuries following the Roman’s departure in AD 410, but the Kingdom of Bernicia ( north Northumbria ) was created in AD 547 at Bamburgh by Ida the Flamebearer who had successfully rampaged his way north after landing a battle fleet near Flamborough Head. A wider Northumbrian Kingdom - the forced union of Bernicia ( of the mountains ) and Deira ( of the Waters ) - came about around AD 592 under the sword of Ethelfrith the Destroyer, a grandson of the fearsome Flamebearer. Although his hold on the whole kingdom was never complete this may just have been the largest ever Northumbrian kingdom - with the northern sector ( Bernicia ) stretching from the Forth to the Tees, and the southern ( Deira ) from the Tees to the Humber. Most historians however accept that the absolute ( tenth century ) control that Eric Bloodaxe briefly had - of a kingdom which stretched from the Tweed to the Humber - is the archetypal Northumbria.
By the early 7th. century a new threat emerged from the south and the territorial ambitions of the Angles and Saxons. In AD 633 the kingdom was devastated by Penda and Cadwallon following the death of King Edwin.
Then came the religious wars as heathen was matched against Christian. Celtic Christianity however was to become a unifying force as it brought incomers and natives together to combat the marauding Vikings. In turn, they too were assimilated and accepted.
The Normans marched from the south to subdue ‘the wild men of the north’ and built their famous castles to hold the land in their grip. The barons, to whom the castles were entrusted, were for the most part ‘on the make’ and took every opportunity to increase their wealth and status. The greatest threat to the welfare of the people was their overlord.
An early test to Norman rule occurred in 1068 when Earl Morcar of Northumbria led a revolt with more than a little help from what proved to be the last Danish fleet to ravage the coasts of England.
Then a Civil War pitched neighbour against neighbour as one lord declared for Stephen and another for Matilda. The anarchy that resulted left the door open for the Scots to raid across the border almost with impunity.
Many attempts were made in the 13th. and 14th. centuries to fix the border amicably. In 1222, 1237, 1243 and in 1249 ambitions of English kings thwarted the efforts. Further attempts were made in 1328, 1357, and 1367 when the East and West Marches were created and the policing of them became the responsibility of local barons. In 1381 the Middle March was similarly created.
When the country was united again under the Plantagenets, one of Henry II’s first tasks was to take control of the Northumbrian castles. First he took the Earldom from the Scots. Then Newcastle and Bamburgh were given back by Malcolm of Scotland; other castles like Harbottle were built; yet others like Wark-on-Tweed were rebuilt or strengthened. Some of these castles were soon to be wrecked by King John as he took his revenge on the Northern barons for their rebellion.
After Bannockburn ( 1314 ) the Scots had free reign in Northumbria for a period of some ten years, and the land was again burned, looted and pillaged by Robert the Bruce. During this time many Northumbrians threw in their lot with the Scots, either for self-protection or self-aggrandisement.
Ravages of a different sort - from the Black Death of 1348-9 - put an end to ‘official’ Anglo/Scots wars for a number of years. There was however little change in the pattern of purposeful ‘freelance’ raiding.
During the Wars of the Roses, when the Percies regularly swapped sides, the Northumbrian castles saw much action. Dunstanburgh alone changed hands five times and paid the ultimate price with its destruction. The Scots, of course, saw their chance again and crossed the border at will.
The uprising in support of Perkin Warbeck drew the Scots across the border for further death and destruction, just as support for the French brought them back a few years later; a tide only reversed by Flodden field.
The reivers constantly took advantage of the distance from law and authority to help themselves to what they pleased. Those who got in their way were brutally dealt with. Harry Percy stemmed the tide until The Pilgrimage of Grace opened the way once more to raiders from the north.
The treaty of 1551, and the clearing of the Debatable Land, brought temporary respite only, and for the whole of Elizabeth’s reign the Borders were in a state of flux.
The combining of the thrones brought longer lasting peace, though the Civil Wars and the Jacobite Risings provided further opportunities for the men from north of the border. In fairness to the Scots, it should be pointed out that through the course of history the Northumbrians crossed the border a time or two themselves!
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