Battle between the Kingdom of Scotland and the Northumbrians at Carham on Tweed
Battle of Carham
St Cuthbert's Church, Carham, viewed from the other side of the Tweed, where the battle took place. The minster was a significant economic and administrative centre.
There are no strictly contemporary sources for the battle, with it going unnoticed in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.[1] Historians know of the event primarily because of historical material assembled at Durham in the twelfth century, though the battle is also noted in one Scottish king-list.[2]
In Libellus de exordio, the Benedictine monk Symeon of Durham writing c.1110 recounted a certain famosum bellum, 'infamous battle', of 1018 where a 'countless multitude of Scots' defeated the Northumbrians, causing the contemporary bishop [of St Cuthbert] to die of grief.[3] The same writer was responsible for an entry (under 1018) in the Annals of Lindisfarne and Durham, written c.1100, where were are told that 18 priests fell in the carnage.[4]
The encounter is described, in the 1120s, as ingens bellum inter Anglos et Scottos, 'a massive battle between the English and the Scots', located apud Carrum, 'at Carham', in Anglo-Latin annals known as Historia Regum (and related/derived form like Roger of Howden).[5] We also have a notice of a 'great battle' (magnum bellum) added to a Scottish king-list annotating the reign of Máel Coluim mac Cinaeda, or Malcolm II; king-lists were an evolving tradition from the tenth to fourteenth centuries, and the Carham notice seems to have been added to a surviving recension in the reign of the Scottish king William, grandson of David I (1165–1214).[6]
Relatedly, in the work attributed to the fourteenth-century historian John of Fordun (the basis of which was a thirteenth-century chronicle narrative), we are told how Malcolm II defeated Earl Uhtred while plundering Cumbria, the encounter taking place at Burgum (perhaps Burgh-by-Sands); although not a clear direct reference to any set-piece at Carham, earlier material about the battle may lie behind this notice.[7]
Dating controversy
The Durham sources provide 1018 as the date for the battle, with Historia Regum explicitly naming Earl Uhtred as the leader of the [Northumbrian] English.[8] However, in the near contemporary Anglo-Saxon Chronicle the death of Earl Uhtred is noted two years earlier, leading historians like Plummer and Stenton to re-date the battle to that year, 1016.[9] Previous solutions to this problem had retained 1018 as the year, but with the proposal that the ruler of Bamburgh was Eadwulf Cudel, Uhtred's brother and successor.[10]
Scottish historian Archie Duncan proposed that the reference to Uhtred's death among the events of 1016 was a 'parenthetical' comment, added by an annalist in the 1020s; Duncan argued that Uhtred's death took place after 1016, perhaps 1018 or later.[11] It has been suggested that Duncan's theory is supported by the twelfth-century tract De obsessione Dunelmi, where the death of Uhtred is described; although the killing of Uhtred itself is not given any date, the logic of the events it outlines fits well with events otherwise documented for the year 1018.[12]
Both the Annals of Lindisfarne and Durham and Libellus de exordio, authored by Symeon, record the visibility of a comet 30 days before the battle, which would correlate with astronomical evidence from August 1018.[13] Woolf thus thought that a 1018 battle led by Uhtred was most likely, but accepted the possibility that it may have been his brother Eadwulf.[14] McGuigan has suggested the possibility that our date for the battle goes back to the efforts of Symeon of Durham to regularise traditions about Bishop Ealdhun, the founder of the bishopric of Durham; that Symeon may have placed it along with the comet in a single 1018 narrative to emphasise the significance of Ealdhun's death.[15]
Politics of the conflict
The site of Bamburgh Castle, centre of Uhtred's home dominion.
The fullest list of participants comes from Historia Regum and related Anglo-Latin annals that name not only 'Uhtred son of Waltheof' as leader of the 'English' (Angli) and Malcolm leader of the Scots, but also Eugenius Calvus, Owen the Bald, 'king of the Clyde-folk' (rex Clutinensium).[16]
Uhtred was a member of the Eadwulfing clan who had ruled a rump of the old Northumbrian realm around Bamburgh Castle since the early tenth century.[17] Bamburgh's territories stretched from the Firth of Forth to the River Tyne, where they met the lands under the direct jurisdiction of the ealdorman based in York, an official appointed by the West Saxon kings of England.[18]
Between 1006 and 1016 Uhtred himself had also served as ealdorman of York and northern England, meaning that his authority probably extended as far as the East Midlands of England.[19] In 1016 the Danish ruler Cnut the Great became king of England, and a new ealdorman (Eiríkr Hákonarson) was appointed to govern in York; and so, if the battle took place subsequently, as in 1018, Uhtred would have been a diminished ruler; once ruler of most of the old kingdom of Northumbria, he was now reduced to his homeland in Bamburgh and the lower Tweed basin.[20]
The Scots were the northern neighbours of Bamburgh, across the Firth of Forth; to the west across the Ettrick Forest and Tweeddale was the kingdom of Strathclyde, whose people the Northumbrians English called 'Cumbrians'.[21]Historia Regum's term Clutinenses, 'Clyde-folk' or 'people of the River Clyde', it has been argued, likely reflects a local endonym, a Cumbrian rendering of the Welsh vernacular term Cludwys.[22]
Although the mutual interest that brought the Clydeside Cumbrians and Scots into a coalition against the ruler of Bamburgh cannot be explained with certainty, Uhtred's declining political fortune in the face of Cnut's conquest would have made his territory an appealing target for plunder.[23] Despite the suggestion in later historiography, there is no indication in any of the relevant sources that the Clyde king was in any way subordinate to his Scottish counterpart.[24] Historian Fiona Edmonds has argued that pressures to the west and north may have pushed the king of Strathclyde into closer relationship with the Scots.[25]
In 1006, the Scots themselves had been defeated by the Bamburgh English, presumably under Uhtred. Still, the downward spiral of Uhtred's fortunes after 1015 would have presented the opportunity for renewed attack or revenge.[26] The Scottish kingdom in the era appears to have suffered some internal stresses, with the emergence of Clann Ruaidrí as a major force in the north; plunder and military success would have been important for re-establishing Malcolm II's authority and popularity.[27]
It is also possible that the Scots and Strathclyders were pursuing very specific political goals, such as replacing the ruler of Bamburgh in favour of a client or else territorial aggrandisement.[26]
Encounter and its significance
As for the campaign itself, Alex Woolf has suggested that King Malcolm and Owen may have grouped their combined armies 'near Caddonlea (Selkirkshire) […] where the Wedale road from Alba met the Tweeddale road from Strathclyde'[28] In this reconstruction, Uhtred's forces intercepted them before they crossed Cheviot; by the necessity of time recruitment would have been geographically limited, depriving the Bamburgh leader of his full military resources.[28] It is also possible that the combined march, began further north, perhaps at Falkirk, affording the English more time.[29]
The battle's significance is a matter of controversy, especially regarding the region of Lothian. Since the 19th century Scottish historians have linked the battle to the Scottish king's takeover of Lothian.[30] Until the middle of the twentieth century, this interpretation ran counter to what was dominant among English historians, who thought that the transfer of Lothian had already occurred in the 970s as a result of the 'beneficence' of King Edgar the Peaceable, said in one historical tradition dating from the twelfth century to have granted Lothian to the Scottish king Kenneth II.[30]
There were attempts to reconcile the two positions by historian Marjorie Anderson, allowing Carham some significance while accounting for the 'beneficence' of King Edgar.[31] By contrast, G. W. S. Barrow rejected both views and thought saw the process as even earlier still.[32] In more recent years, some historians have become more sceptical about any link between the battle and the Scottish conquest of Lothian, since there is no direct primarily source evidence for any link and since the takeover is not fully evident until the twelfth century and probably incomplete until at least the 1070s.[33] Nonetheless, it has also been argued that the defeat is likely to be a symptom of a greater crisis affecting Bamburgh's secular and ecclesiastical institutions in the first third of the 11th century when the major relics of the region were relocated to Durham.[34]
Carham 1018 Society
The society's mission statement is "to investigate, raise awareness, and commemorate the Battle of Carham."[35] The society's website provides dates for "public meetings, commemorative events, and future plans" as well as excerpts from articles and archaeological findings pertaining to the battle.[35]
Related Research Articles
Causantín mac Áeda was an early King of Scotland, known then by the Gaelic name Alba. The Kingdom of Alba, a name which first appears in Constantine's lifetime, was situated in modern-day Northern Scotland.
Malcolm III was King of Scotland from 1058 to 1093. He was later nicknamed "Canmore". Malcolm's long reign of 35 years preceded the beginning of the Scoto-Norman age. Henry I of England and Eustace III of Boulogne were his sons-in-law, making him the maternal grandfather of Empress Matilda, William Adelin and Matilda of Boulogne. All three of them were prominent in English politics during the 12th century.
Máel Coluim mac Cináeda was King of Alba (Scotland) from 1005 until his death in the year 1034. He was one of the longest-reigning Scottish kings of that period.
Ildulb mac Causantín, anglicised as Indulf or Indulph, nicknamed An Ionsaighthigh, "the Aggressor" was king of Alba from 954 to 962. He was the son of Constantine II; his mother may have been a daughter of Earl Eadulf I of Bernicia, who was an exile in Scotland.
Siward or Sigurd was an important earl of 11th-century northern England. The Old Norse nickname Digri and its Latin translation Grossus are given to him by near-contemporary texts. It is possible Siward may have been of Scandinavian or Anglo-Scandinavian origin, perhaps a relative of Earl Ulf, although this is speculative. He emerged as a regional strongman in England during the reign of Cnut. Cnut was a Scandinavian ruler who conquered most of England in the 1010s, and Siward was one of many Scandinavians who came to England in the aftermath, rising to become sub-ruler of most of northern England. From 1033 at the latest, he was in control of southern Northumbria, present-day Yorkshire, governing as earl on Cnut's behalf.
Eadwulf or Eadulf was ruler of Bamburgh in the early tenth century. A genealogy in the twelfth-century text De Northumbria post Britannos recording the ancestry of Waltheof Earl of Northampton, makes Eadwulf the son of Æthelthryth daughter of Ælla, King of Northumbria, but no source names Eadwulf's own father.
Ealdred was a ruler of Bamburgh, at least part of the former kingdom of Bernicia in northern Northumbria, in the early tenth century. He was the son of Eadwulf.
Uhtred of Bamburgh, was ruler of Bamburgh and from 1006 to 1016 the ealdorman of Northumbria. He was the son of Waltheof I, ruler of Bamburgh (Bebbanburg), whose family the Eadwulfings had ruled the surrounding region for over a century. Uhtred's death by assassination was described in De obsessione Dunelmi and has been interpreted as the beginning of a blood feud. Not to be confused with Uhtred the son of Eadwulf I of Bamburgh, which is why he historically has been referred to as Uhtred the Bold.
Oswulf was ruler of Bamburgh and subsequently, according to later tradition, commander of all Northumbria under the lordship of King Eadred of England. He is sometimes called "earl" or "high reeve", though the precise title of the rulers of Bamburgh is unclear. By the twelfth century Oswulf was held responsible for the death of Northumbria's last Norse king, Eric of York, subsequently administering the Kingdom of York on behalf of Eadred.
Waltheof was high-reeve or ealdorman of Bamburgh. He was the son of Ealdred, and the grandson of Oswulf I and was father of Uhtred the Bold, Ealdorman of Northumbria. His name is Scandinavian which may imply that he had Viking ancestors.
Owain Foel, also known as Owain Moel, Owain the Bald, Owen the Bald, and Eugenius Calvus, was an eleventh-century King of Strathclyde. He may have been a son of Máel Coluim, son of Dyfnwal ab Owain, two other rulers of the Kingdom of Strathclyde. Owain Foel is recorded to have supported the Scots at the Battle of Carham in 1018. Although it is possible that he died in the conflict, no source states as much, and it is uncertain when he died. Owain Foel may be an ancestor—perhaps the father—of a certain Máel Coluim who is described as the "son of the king of the Cumbrians" in the 1050s.
Eadwulf III of Bamburgh or Eadwulf Cudel or Cutel was ruler of Bamburgh for some period in the early eleventh century. Following the successful takeover of York by the Vikings in 866/7, southern Northumbria became part of the Danelaw, but in the north English rulers held on from a base at Bamburgh. They were variously described as kings, earls, princes or high-reeves, and their independence from the kings of England and Scotland is uncertain. Uhtred the Bold and Eadwulf Cudel were sons of Waltheof, ruler of Bamburgh, who died in 1006. He was succeeded by Uhtred, who was appointed by Æthelred the Unready as earl in York, with responsibility for the whole of Northumbria. Uhtred was murdered in 1016, and king Cnut then appointed Erik, son of Hakon, earl at York, while Eadwulf succeeded at Bamburgh.
Oslac ealdorman of York from around 963 to 975. His territory included but may not have been limited to the southern half of Northumbria. His background is obscure because of poor source documentation. The latter has facilitated disagreement amongst historians regarding his family and ethnicity.
Northman was a late 10th-century English earl, with a territorial base in Northumbria north of the River Tees. A figure with this name appears in two different strands of source material. These are, namely, a textual tradition from Durham witnessed by Historia de Sancto Cuthberto and by the Durham Liber Vitae; and the other an appearance in a witness list of a charter of King Æthelred II dated to 994. The latter is Northman's only appearance south of the Humber, and occurred the year after Northumbria was attacked by Vikings.
The Rulers of Bamburgh were significant regional potentates in what is now northern England and south-eastern Scotland during the Viking Age. Sometimes referred to in modern sources as the Earldom of Bamburgh, their polity existed for roughly two centuries, beginning after the attacks on the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria by the Vikings in the later ninth century, and ending after the Norman Conquest later in the eleventh century. In Scottish and Irish sources of the period the Bamburgh 'earldom' is referred to as the kingship of the Northern English, or simply of the 'Saxons'.
Thurbrand, nicknamed "the Hold", was a Northumbrian magnate in the early 11th century. Perhaps based in Holderness and East Yorkshire, Thurbrand was recorded as the killer of Uhtred the Bold, Earl of Northumbria. The killing appears to have been part of the war between Sweyn Forkbeard and Cnut the Great against the English king Æthelred the Unready, Uhtred being the latter's chief Northumbrian supporter. Thurbrand may also have attested a charter of 1009 and given a horse to Æthelred's son Æthelstan Ætheling. The killing is the first-known act, if it did not initiate, a bloodfeud between Thurbrand's family and Uhtred going into the time of Earl Waltheof. It is possible that Holderness took its name because of Thurbrand's presence or ownership of the peninsula.
Eadwulf II, nicknamed Evil-child, was ruler of Bamburgh in the latter half of the tenth century. Although Eadwulf is sometimes described as the Earl of Northumbria, he ruled only a northern portion of Northumbria, a polity centred on Bamburgh that once stretched from the Firth of Forth to the River Tees.
Máel Coluim was an eleventh-century magnate who seems to have been established as either King of Alba or King of Strathclyde. In 1055, Siward, Earl of Northumbria defeated Mac Bethad mac Findlaích, the reigning ruler of the Kingdom of Alba. As a result of this military success against the Scots, several sources assert that Siward established Máel Coluim as king. It is uncertain whether this concerned the kingship of Alba or the kingship of Strathclyde.
The English king Æthelstan invaded Scotland by land and sea with a large force in AD 934. No record of any battles fought during the invasion has survived and Æthelstan returned to England later in the year.
References
Footnotes
↑ Collation of variants for these years translated in English Historical Documents, ed. Whitelock, pp. 248–51.
Barrow, G. W. S. (2003), The Kingdom of the Scots: Government, Church and Society from the Eleventh to the Fourteenth Century (2nded.), Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, ISBN0-7486-1802-3
Edmonds, Fiona (2018), "Carham: The Western Perspective", in McGuigan, Neil; Woolf, Alex (eds.), The Battle of Carham: A Thousand Years On, Edinburgh: Birlinn / John Donald, pp.79–94, ISBN978-0-7486-1110-2
McGuigan, Neil (2018), "The Battle of Carham: An Introduction", in McGuigan, Neil; Woolf, Alex (eds.), The Battle of Carham: A Thousand Years On, Edinburgh: Birlinn / John Donald, pp.1–32, ISBN978-0-7486-1110-2
Morris, Christopher J. (1992), Marriage and Murder in eleventh-century Northumbria: a study of 'De Obsessiones Dunelmi', Borthwick Paper No. 82, York: Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, University of York, ISSN0524-0913
Plummer, Charles, ed. (1892–1899), Two of the Saxon chronicles: Parallel, with Supplementary Extracts from the Others (2 vols), Oxford: Clarendon Press
Woolf, Alex (2007), From Pictland to Alba, 789–1070, The New Edinburgh History of Scotland, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, ISBN978-0-7486-1234-5
Woolf, Alex (2010), "Reporting Scotland in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", in Jorgensen, Alice (ed.), Reading the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: Language, Literature, History, Turnhout: Brepols, pp.221–39, ISBN978-2-503-52394-1
Further reading
Daly, Rannoch (2018). Birth of the Border: The Battle of Carham 1018 AD. Alnwick: Wanney Books. ISBN978-1-9997905-5-4
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
