Who Should Be King?

The wealth of Britain by the fourth century, the result of its mild climate and centuries of peace, was a temptation to the greedy. At first the Germanic tribes only raided Britain, but after AD 430 they began to settle. The newcomers were warlike and illiterate. We owe our knowledge of this period mainly to an English monk named Bede, who lived three hundred years later. His story of events in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People has been proved generally correct by archaeological evidence. Bede tells us that the invaders came from three powerful Germanic tribes, the Saxons, Angles and Jutes. The Jutes settled mainly in Kent and along the south coast, and were soon considered no different from the Angles and Saxons. The Angles settled in the east, and also in the north Midlands, while the Saxons settled between the Jutes and the Angles in a band of land from the Thames Estuary westwards. The Anglo-Saxon migrations gave the larger part of Britain its new name, England, "the land of the Angles".

The British Celts fought the raiders and settlers from Germany as well as they could. However, during the next hundred years they were slowly pushed westwards until by 570 they were forced west of Gloucester. Finally most were driven into the mountains in the far west, which the Saxons called "Weallas", or "Wales", meaning "the land of the foreigners". Some Celts were driven into Cornwall, where they later accepted the rule of Saxon lords.  The strength of Anglo-Saxon culture is obvious even today. Days of the week were named after Germanic gods: Tig (Tuesday), Wodin (Wednesday), Thor (Thursday), Frei (Friday). New place-names appeared on the map. The ending -ing meant folk or family, thus "Reading" is the place of the family of Rada, "Hastings" of the family of Hasta. Ham means farm, ton means settlement. Birmingham, Nottingham or Southampton, for example, are Saxon place-names. Because the Anglo-Saxon kings often established settlements, Kingston is a frequent place-name. The Anglo-Saxons established a number of kingdoms, some of which still exist in county or regional names to this day: Essex (East Saxons), Sussex (South Saxons), Wessex (West Saxons), Middlesex (probably a kingdom of Middle Saxons), East Anglia (East Angles). By the middle of the seventh century the three largest kingdoms, those of Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex, were the most powerful. It was not until a century later that one of these kings, King Offa of Mercia (757-96), claimed "kingship of the English". He had good reason to do so. He was powerful enough to employ thousands of men to build a huge dyke, or earth wall, the length of the Welsh border to keep out the troublesome Celts. But although he was the most powerful king of his time, he did not control all of England. The power of Mercia did not survive after Offa's death. At that time, a king's power depended on the personal loyalty of his followers. After his death the next king had to work hard to rebuild these personal feelings of loyalty. Anglo-Saxon technology changed the shape of English agriculture. The Celts had kept small, square fields which were well suited to the light plough they used, drawn either by an animal or two people. This plough could turn corners easily. The Anglo-Saxons introduced a far heavier plough which was better able to plough in long straight lines across the field. It was particularly useful for cultivating heavier soils. But it required six or eight oxen to pull it, and it was difficult to turn . This heavier plough led to changes in land ownership and organization. For better use of village land – it was divided into two or three very large fields. These were then divided again into long thin strips. Each family had a number of strips in each of these fields amounting probably to a family "holding" of twenty or so acres. Ploughing these long thin strips was easier because it avoided the problem of turning. Few individual families could afford to keep a team of oxen and these had to be shared on a co-operative basis. The Saxons settled previously unframed areas.

They cut down many forested areas in valleys to farm the richer lowland soil. and they began to drain the wet land.  At first the lords, or ‘aldemlen’  were simply local officials. But by the beginning of the eleventh century they were warlords. and were often called by a new Danish name, earl. Both words, alderman and earl  remain with us today: aldermen are elected officers in local government  and earls are high ranking nobles. It was the beginning of a class system, made up of king  lords soldiers and workers on the land. One other important class developed during the Saxon period  the men of learning. These came from the Christian Church. We cannot know how or when Christianity first reached Britain but it was certainly well before Christianity was accepted by the Roman Emperor Consrantine in the early fourth century AD. In the last hundred years of Roman government Christianity became firmly established across Britain , both in Roman-controlled areas and beyond. However. the Anglo-Saxons belonged to an older Germanic religion. an d they drove the Celts into the west and north. In the Celtic areas Christianity continued to spread. bringing paganism to an end. The map of Wales shows a number of place-names beginning or ending with ‘llan’ meaning the site of a small Celtic monastery around which a village or town grew.

In 597 pope Gregory the Great sent a monk Augustine to re-establish Christianity in England. He went to Canterbury, the capital of the king of Kent. The reason was as follows, the king’s wife came from Europe and was already Christian.  Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in 601. He was very successful. Several ruling families in England accepted Christianity. But Augustine and his group of monks made little progress with the ordinary people. The competition between the Celtic and Roman Churches reached a crisis because they disagreed over the date of Easter. In 663 at the Synod (meeting) of Whitby the king of Northumbria decided to support the Roman Church. The Celtic Church retreated as Rome extended its authority over all Christians, even in Celtic parts of the island. Saxon kings helped the Church to grow, but the Church also increased the power of kings. Bishops gave kings their support, which made it harder for royal power to be questioned. Kings had "God's approval". The value of Church approval was all the greater because of the uncertainty of the royal succession. An eldest son did not automatically become king, as kings were chosen from among the members of the royal family, and any member who had enough soldiers might try for the throne. In addition, at a time when one king might try to conquer a neighboring kingdom, he would probably have a son to whom he would wish to pass this enlarged kingdom when he died. So when King Offa arranged for his son to be crowned as his successor, he made sure that this was done at a Christian ceremony led by a bishop. It was good political propaganda, because it suggested that kings were chosen not only by people but also by God. The king who made most use of the Church was Alfred, the great king who ruled Wessex from 871-899.

He used the Iiterate men of The Church to help establish a system of law, to educate the people and to write down important matters. He started the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the most important source, together with Bede 's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, for understanding the period. The Anglo-Saxon kings also preferred the Roman Church to the Celtic Church for economic reasons Villages and towns grew around the monasteries and increased local trade. Many bishops and monks in England were from the Frankish lands (France and Germany) and elsewhere. They were invited by English rulers who wished to benefit from closer Church an d economic contact with Europe. Most of these bishops and monks seem to have come from churches or monasteries along Europe 's vital trade routes. In this way close contact with many parts of Europe was encouraged. In addition they all used Latin, the written language of Rome, and this encouraged English trade with the continent. Increased literacy itself helped trade. 

Anglo-Saxon England became well known in Europe for its exports of woolen goods, cheese, hunting dogs, pottery and metal goods. It imported wine, fish pepper, jewelry and wheel-made pottery.

The end of the eighth century was marked by the invasion of new raiders who were tempted by Britain's wealth. These were the Vikings, a word which probably means either "pirates" or "the people of the sea inlets", and they came from Norway and Denmark. Like the Angle Saxons they only raided at first. They burnt churches and monasteries along the east, north and west coasts of Britain and Ireland. London was itself raided in 842.

In 865 the Vikings invaded Britain once it was clear that the quarreling Anglo-Saxo n kingdoms could not keep them out. This time they came to conquer and to settle. The Vikings quickly accepted Christianity and did not disturb the local population. By 875 only King Alfred in the west of Wessex held out against the Vikings, who had already taken most of England. After some serious defeat s Alfred won a decisive battle in 878, and eight years later he captured London. He was strong enough to make a treat y with the Vikings. The Saxon king, Ethelred, decided to pay the Vikings to stay away. To find the money he set a tax on all his people, called Danegeld, or "Danish money". It was the beginning of a regular tax system of the people which would provide the money for armies. The effects of this tax were most heavily felt by the ordinary villagers, because they had to provide enough money for their village landlord to pay Dangeld. When Erhelred died Cnut (or Canure), the leader of the Danish Vikings, controlled much of England. He became king for the simple reason that the royal council, the Wiran, and everyone else, feared disorder. Rule by a Danish king was far better than rule by no one at all. Cnut died in 1035, and his son died shortly after, in 1040. The Witan chose Edward, one of Saxon Erhelred's sons, to he king. Edward, known as "the Confessor". was more interested in the Church than in kingship. Church building had been going on for over a century. And he encouraged it. By the time Edward died there was a church in almost every village. The pattern of the English village, with its manor house and church, dates from this time. Edward started a new church fit for a king at Westminster, just outside the city of London. In fact Westminster Abbey was a Norman, not a Saxon building, because he had spent almost all his life in Normandy, and his mother was a daughter of the duke of Normandy. As their name suggests, the Normans were people from the north, they were the children and grandchildren of Vikings who had captured and settled in northern France. Edward only lived until 1066, when he died without an obvious heir. The question of who should follow him as king was one of the most important in English history. Edward had brought many Normans to his English court from France. These Normans were not liked by the more powerful Saxon nobles, particularly by the most powerful family of Wessex, the  Godwin sons. It was a Godwinson , Harold, whom the Witan chose to be the next king of England. Harold had already shown his bravery and ability. He had no royal blood, but he seemed a good choice for the throne  of England. Harold's right to the English throne was challenged by Duke William of Normandy. William had two claims to the English throne. His first claim was that King Edward had promised it to him. The second claim was that Harold, who had visited William in 1064 or 1065, had promised William that he, Harold, would not try to take the throne for himself.

Harold decided not to wait for the whole Saxon Army the ‘fyrd’, to gather because William's army was small. He thought he could beat them with the men who had done so well against the Danes. However, the Norman soldiers were better armed, better organized, and were mounted on horses. If he had waited, Harold might have won. But he was defeated and killed in battle near Hastings, killed with an arrow in his eye.

William marched to London, which quickly gave in when he began to burn villages outside the city. He was crowned king of England in Edward's new church of Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1066.

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