The Battle of Bedcanford is a battle portrayed in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as taking place in 571 between Britons and someone called Cuthwulf (normally assumed to be a West Saxon).
The Battle of Bedcanford is a battle portrayed in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as taking place in 571 between Britons and someone called Cuthwulf (normally assumed to be a West Saxon).
The annal describing the battle reads "Her Cuþwulf feaht wiþ Bretwalas æt Bedcan forda. & .iiii. tunas genom, Lygeanburg. & Ægelesburg. Benningtun. & Egonesham. & þy ilcan geare he gefor" ("This year Cuthwulf fought with the Britons at Bedford and took four towns, Limbury, Aylesbury, Benson and Eynsham. And this same year he died"). [1]
The identity of Badcanford is uncertain. Despite the superficial similarity of the name to Bedford, this identification has been declared unlikely by modern historians. [2] [3]
In an influential lecture of 1849 on "The Early English Settlements in South Britain", Edwin Guest took the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle account of sixth- and seventh-century battles between Anglo-Saxons and the Britons as a historically accurate and coherent account of an Anglo-Saxon military invasion, followed by settlement, northwards from the south coast of Britain. The Battle of Bedcanford was for many years viewed by historians as part of this history. [4] In 1881, John Richard Green's Guest-inspired The Making of England claimed that Cuthwulf was the son of Cynric, portrayed by the Chronicle as the founder of the West-Saxon dynasty, and argued that the four towns controlled the north bank of the Thames river from the Chilterns to the Cotswolds—roughly coinciding with the traditional counties of Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. [5] As archaeological evidence grew more extensive during the twentieth century and historians came to view the whole of south-eastern Britain as being culturally Anglo-Saxon already in the fifth century, they attempted to fit the annal into their understanding by positing that the area had come under Anglo-Saxon rule, been lost again following a resurgence in British power around 500, and reconquered in 571. [6] [4] : 31–32
This consensus was prominently questioned in 1983 by Patrick Sims-Williams, who argued that the Chronicle account could not be relied on as a true account of sixth-century events, and that it could rather reflect later inventions intended to support later political and territorial claims by the West-Saxon kings. He argued that when it referred to Limbury, Aylesbury, Benson and Eynsham by the Old English word tūnas (translated above as "towns"), the Chronicle was using the word in the technical sense of "royal manor", and he advanced evidence that each site was indeed a royal manor during the early Middle Ages. This does not in itself disprove that the sites were captured in 571, but does give a plausible reason why later West Saxon kings may also have wished to promote the idea that they held them by right of conquest. [4] : 32 Moreover, Sims-Williams noted good evidence that Mercia had significantly expanded its territory southwards into West-Saxon lands by winning the Battle of Bensington in 779, leading to territorial disputes concerning church lands that King Offa of Mercia had taken in the process. Sims-Williams suggested that these territorial gains included formerly West-Saxon royal estates at Limbury, Aylesbury, Benson and Eynsham and that "without asserting that the 571 annal was simply invented to form a 'charter' for West Saxon territorial aspirations, it may nevertheless be suggested that it may have been shaped by the events of 779 and after". [4] : 32–33
It is possible that the Chiltern-setna, a 4,000-hide group listed in the Tribal Hidage, equate to the territory of these four towns: the 4,000 hides for the Chilternsetna in the Tribal Hidage matches the 4,000 for the three burhs of Oxford, Buckingham and Sashes in the Burghal Hidage from about 100 years later.[ citation needed ]
Ceawlin was a King of Wessex. He may have been the son of Cynric of Wessex and the grandson of Cerdic of Wessex, whom the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle represents as the leader of the first group of Saxons to come to the land which later became Wessex. Ceawlin was active during the last years of the Anglo-Saxon expansion, with little of southern England remaining in the control of the native Britons by the time of his death.
The Kingdom of Wessex was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from around the sixth century until England was unified by Æthelstan in 927.
Year 571 (DLXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 571 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Ecgberht, also spelled Egbert, Ecgbert, Ecgbriht, Ecgbeorht, and Ecbert, was King of Wessex from 802 until his death in 839. His father was King Ealhmund of Kent. In the 780s, Ecgberht was forced into exile to Charlemagne's court in the Frankish Empire by the kings Offa of Mercia and Beorhtric of Wessex, but on Beorhtric's death in 802, Ecgberht returned and took the throne.
The Battle of Deorham is portrayed by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as an important military encounter between the West Saxons and the Britons in the West Country in 577. The Chronicle depicts the battle as a major victory for Wessex's forces, led by Ceawlin and one Cuthwine, resulting in the capture of the Romano-British of Glevum (Gloucester), Corinium Dobunnorum (Cirencester), and Aquae Sulis (Bath).
Wulfhere or Wulfar was King of Mercia from 658 until 675 AD. He was the first Christian king of all of Mercia, though it is not known when or how he converted from Anglo-Saxon paganism. His accession marked the end of Oswiu of Northumbria's overlordship of southern England, and Wulfhere extended his influence over much of that region. His campaigns against the West Saxons led to Mercian control of much of the Thames valley. He conquered the Isle of Wight and the Meon valley and gave them to King Æthelwealh of the South Saxons. He also had influence in Surrey, Essex, and Kent. He married Eormenhild, the daughter of King Eorcenberht of Kent.
Hwicce was a tribal kingdom in Anglo-Saxon England. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the kingdom was established in 577, after the Battle of Deorham. After 628, the kingdom became a client or sub-kingdom of Mercia as a result of the Battle of Cirencester.
The Kingdom of the Kentish, today referred to as the Kingdom of Kent, was an early medieval kingdom in what is now South East England. It existed from either the fifth or the sixth century AD until it was fully absorbed into the Kingdom of Wessex in the late 9th century and later into the Kingdom of England in the early 10th century.
Coenred was king of Mercia from 704 to 709. Mercia was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the English Midlands. He was a son of the Mercian king Wulfhere, whose brother Æthelred succeeded to the throne in 675 on Wulfhere's death. In 704, Æthelred abdicated in favour of Coenred to become a monk.
Eynsham is an English village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about 5 miles (8 km) north-west of Oxford and east of Witney. The 2011 Census recorded a parish population of 4,648. It was estimated at 5,087 in 2020.
Cynegils was King of Wessex from c. 611 to c. 642. Cynegils is traditionally considered to have been King of Wessex, even though the kingdoms of the Heptarchy had not yet formed from the patchwork of smaller kingdoms in his lifetime. The later kingdom of Wessex was centred on the counties of Hampshire, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire but the evidence of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is that the kingdom of Cynegils was located on the upper River Thames, extending into northern Wiltshire and Somerset, southern Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, and western Berkshire, with Dorchester-on-Thames as one of the major royal sites. This region, probably connected to the early tribal grouping known as the Gewisse, a term used by Bede for the West Saxons, lay on the frontier between the later kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia.
Benson is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire, England. The 2011 Census gave the parish population as 4,754. It lies about a mile and a half north of Wallingford at the foot of the Chiltern Hills, where a chalk stream, Ewelme Brook, joins the River Thames next to Benson Lock.
The Tribal Hidage is a list of thirty-five tribes that was compiled in Anglo-Saxon England some time between the 7th and 9th centuries. It includes a number of independent kingdoms and other smaller territories, and assigns a number of hides to each one. The list is headed by Mercia and consists almost exclusively of peoples who lived south of the Humber estuary and territories that surrounded the Mercian kingdom, some of which have never been satisfactorily identified by scholars. The value of 100,000 hides for Wessex is by far the largest: it has been suggested that this was a deliberate exaggeration.
Limbury is a suburb of Luton, in the Luton district, in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England, and was formerly a village before Luton expanded around it. The area is roughly bounded by Bramingham Road to the north, Marsh Road to the south, Bramingham Road to the west, and Catsbrook Road, Runfold Avenue, Grosvenor Road, Bancroft Road and Blundell Road to the east.
The Timeline of conflict in Anglo-Saxon Britain is concerned with the period of history from just before the departure of the Roman Army, in the 4th century, to just after the Norman Conquest in the 11th century.
The Burghal Hidage is an Anglo-Saxon document providing a list of over thirty fortified places (burhs), the majority being in the ancient Kingdom of Wessex, and the taxes assigned for their maintenance. The document, so named by Frederic William Maitland in 1897, survives in two versions of medieval and early modern date. Version A, Cotton Otho B.xi was badly damaged in a fire at Ashburnham House in 1731 but the body of the text survives in a transcript made by the antiquary Laurence Nowell in 1562. Version B survives as a composite part of seven further manuscripts, usually given the title De numero hydarum Anglie in Britannia. There are several discrepancies in the lists recorded in the two versions of the document: Version A includes references to Burpham, Wareham and Bridport but omits Shaftesbury and Barnstaple which are listed in Version B. Version B also names Worcester and Warwick in an appended list.
Cuthwulf, also sometimes Cutha, was the third son of Cuthwine, and consequently a member of the House of Wessex. Although a member of the direct male line from Cynric to Egbert, Cuthwulf was never king. He is said to have been born circa 592, and his death date is unknown.
Events from the 6th century in England.
The Cilternsæte were a tribe that occupied the Chilterns, probably in the 6th century AD.
The Battle of Bensington was a major battle fought between Mercia, led by King Offa, and the West Saxons led by Cynewulf of Wessex. It ended with a victory for the Mercians.