Plot
The story begins with Cerdic's birth in 451 CE, ending shortly before his death in 534 CE. Britain now consists of small states battling each other while also fighting off Danes, Irish, Picts, Jutes, Angles and Saxons. Cerdic (whose Roman name is Coroticus) is the youngest son of Eleutherus, King of the Regni, a territory in southern England roughly equivalent to modern East and West Sussex. Although raised as a Roman, his paternal grandfather was closely related to a Germanic ruler given land in Southern Britain around 370 CE in return for military service. This was common practice in the late Roman Empire [1] and means he is at home in both cultures.
The novel purports to be Cerdic's personal memoir and essentially fictional, although certain characters and events are found in the historical record. He plans to deposit the manuscript in a ruined church, which means it will not be read for centuries and he can be completely honest. Cerdic feels true affection only for his son Cynric and does not hesitate to remove anyone else who stands in his way, including family members. This ruthlessness is a quality shared by others, including his brother and wife. He recognizes and values honour and loyalty in people such as the Romano-British leader Ambrosius Aurelianus and this makes him an interesting, multi-dimensional character.
The first part of the book covers Cerdic's life as a Romano-British noble; he is a generally loyal supporter of his father but frustrated by his lack of independence. This ends in his mid-20s when he murders his eldest brother Constans in a dispute over loot and has to flee. He passes himself off as a Saxon, concealing his real name and background and makes his way to Frisia in the modern Netherlands. He becomes chief advisor to the Saxon leader Aella, marries and has a son, Cynric. He persuades Aella to invade his father's kingdom and after several years, they storm the capital of Anderida and slaughter the inhabitants, including his father and second brother Paul; the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle dates this to 491 CE.
Unfortunately, Cerdic is recognised by one of the defenders and banished by Aella for his role in the deaths of his brothers and father, for which he would be punished by the gods and better not to be around when it happens. He views this as an excuse used by Aella to get rid of a dangerous rival but accepts the decision and returns to Frisia. There he recruits another army to invade the lands west of his former homeland, roughly modern Hampshire and Dorset (495 CE per the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle). During the voyage, he overhears his wife plotting his assassination and throws her overboard; the rest of the book covers his long and ultimately successful battle to establish the Kingdom of Wessex and his own dynasty. It ends with him musing that if the Christian faith in which he was brought up is true, he will spend certainly eternity in Hell but 'it was fun while it lasted.'
Relation to other works
Cerdic's desire for independence is a recurring theme in Duggan's work, as is what happens when one form of society is replaced by another. Here it is Roman Britain, elsewhere the Roman Republic becoming an Empire (Three's Company, Winters Quarters) or the Byzantine Empire giving way to the Crusaders (The Lady for Ransom, Count Bohemund). Duggan has a great ability to convey different perspectives and the novel contains clues suggesting it can be seen as reversion, not just decay. For example, 'Regni' was the name of the pre-Roman British tribe who lived in the same area, while 'Coroticus' is often interpreted as a variation of Caratacus the British chief who led opposition to the Roman invasion of 43 CE.
The Little Emperors ends with the Roman protagonist concluding most Britons had a better life without 'Roman civilisation,' which was confirmed by a 2014 study showing average life-span actually increased in Post-Roman Britain due to better diet. [2] Similarly, in Conscience of the King Cerdic regrets the dirt and squalor of Saxon life but feels the freedom he gained more than compensates.
Historical background
The main sources for Cerdic himself are from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Historia Brittonum and Geoffrey of Monmouth, all written centuries later and subject to selective editing. It is generally agreed that the number of references mean Cerdic was a real and important historical figure but we know very little else. [3] This is also true of other historical characters referenced in the book like Aella, Vortigern, Vortimer, Hengist and Ambrosius.
The traditional Dark Ages view of Post-Roman Britain was driven by a reliance on the limited written sources cited above. The novel's portrayal of this period as far more complex has been confirmed by archaeological discoveries in the last 30 years and reassessment of the historical evidence. [4] As he was writing in the late 1940s, this is a considerable achievement and the book builds logical and realistic scenarios based on the few facts available.
A good example is the treatment of Arthur or Artorios, a character whose historical existence is still debated. [5] Unlike Ambrosius Aurelianus, Artorios is a minor character who never appears directly but Duggan provides a rare perspective of this figure from the Saxon side. Here he is a former soldier from the Byzantine army leading a band of mercenary cataphractarii or heavy cavalry who fight for the surviving Roman-British kingdoms. Their impact is huge compared to numbers but they require horses large enough to carry an armoured man; when the horses die out, this strategic advantage disappears. Duggan's approach was the basis for the plot of the 2004 film King Arthur , cited in its publicity as being based on 'the latest historical research.'
Ambrosius Aurelianus was a war leader of the Romano-British who won an important battle against the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th century, according to Gildas. He also appeared independently in the legends of the Britons, beginning with the 9th-century Historia Brittonum. Eventually, he was transformed by Geoffrey of Monmouth into the uncle of King Arthur, the brother of Arthur's father Uther Pendragon, as a ruler who precedes and predeceases them both. He also appears as a young prophet who meets the tyrant Vortigern; in this guise, he was later transformed into the wizard Merlin.
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 the West Saxons, also known as the Kingdom of Wessex, was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from around 519 until Alfred the Great declared himself as King of the Anglo-Saxons in 886.
Cynric was King of Wessex from 534 to 560. Everything known about him comes from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. There, he is stated to have been the son of Cerdic, who is considered the founder of the kingdom of Wessex. However, the Anglian King-list and parts of the West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List, instead says that Cynric was the son of Cerdic's son Creoda. Similarly, the paternal genealogy of Alfred the Great given in Asser's The Life of King Alfred, includes the name Creoda, while the account of the king's maternal ancestry in the same work calls Cynric son of Cerdic.
Cerdic is described in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as a leader of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, being the founder and first king of Wessex, reigning from around 519 to 534 AD. Subsequent kings of Wessex were each claimed by the Chronicle to descend in some manner from Cerdic. His origin, ethnicity, and even his very existence have been extensively disputed. However, though claimed as the founder of Wessex by later West Saxon kings, he would have been known to contemporaries as king of the Gewissae, a folk or tribal group. The first king of the Gewissae to call himself 'King of the West Saxons', was Cædwalla, in a charter of 686.
Uther Pendragon (Brittonic), also known as King Uther, was a legendary King of the Britons and father of King Arthur.
Ine or Ini, was King of Wessex from 689 to 726. At Ine's accession, his kingdom dominated much of what is now southern England. However, he was unable to retain the territorial gains of his predecessor, Cædwalla of Wessex, who had expanded West Saxon territory substantially. By the end of Ine's reign, the kingdoms of Kent, Sussex, and Essex were no longer under West Saxon sway; however, Ine maintained control of what is now Hampshire, and consolidated and extended Wessex's territory in the western peninsula.
Ivar the Boneless, also known as Ivar Ragnarsson, was a Viking leader who invaded England and Ireland. According to the Tale of Ragnar Lodbrok, he was the son of Aslaug and her husband Ragnar Loðbrok, and was the brother of Björn Ironside, Halvdan, Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye, and Ragnvald. However, it is not known whether or not this is historically accurate. Ivar is sometimes regarded as the same person as Ímar, a Viking king of Dublin between 870 and 873. He might have been born in Uppsala, Sweden in about 787.
The Gewisse were a tribe or ruling clan of the Anglo-Saxons. Their first location, mentioned in early medieval sources was the upper Thames region, around Dorchester on Thames. However, some scholars suggest that the Gewisse had origins among the ancient Britons at Cair-Caratauc in Wiltshire. According to Saxon folklore, the Gewisse were the founders of the kingdom of Wessex.
The Lantern Bearers is a historical novel for children by Rosemary Sutcliff, first published by Oxford in 1959 with illustrations by Charles Keeping. Set in Roman Britain during the 5th century, it is the story of a British Roman's life after the final withdrawal of Roman troops. Sutcliff won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject.
Anglo-Saxon England or Early Medieval England covers the period from the end of Roman Britain in the 5th century until the Norman Conquest in 1066. It consisted of various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms until 927, when it was united as the Kingdom of England by King Æthelstan. It became part of the short-lived North Sea Empire of Cnut, a personal union between England, Denmark and Norway, in the 11th century.
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.
Natanleod, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, was a king of the Britons. His inclusion in the Chronicle is believed to be the product of folk etymology.
Creoda is a shadowy figure from early Wessex history whose existence is disputed.
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.
Wihtwara were the Early Medieval inhabitants of the Isle of Wight, a 147-square-mile (380 km2) island off the south coast of England. Writers such as Bede attribute their origin to Jutes who migrated to the island during the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain. They formed an independent kingdom at points in the Early Middle Ages, with their last king Arwald dying as the last heathen Anglo-Saxon king. After this point, the island was controlled from Great Britain.
The Meonwara were one of the tribes of Anglo-Saxon Britain. Their territory was a folkland located in the valley of the River Meon in Hampshire that was subsumed by the Kingdom of Wessex in the late seventh century.
A number of royal genealogies of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, collectively referred to as the Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies, have been preserved in a manuscript tradition based in the 8th to 10th centuries.
The West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List is the name given in modern scholarship to a list of West-Saxon kings. It is one of the main sources for understanding the early history of Wessex and the attempts of its dynasties to project an image of dynastic stability.
