0301B

The archaeology of assembly is a curious subject. There is evidence from Scotland and from France for the use of prehistoric stone circles for open-air courts; probably to speak with one's back to a standing stone was to be more audible. We have to think of the British landscape in 500 as studded with prehistoric monuments which, as we learn from excavations and from AngloSaxon documents, were still regarded as special sites.
Who were the invaders of Britain, and what footholds had they gained by 500? A distinguished historian once observed that in this period there may have been more settlers from Ireland than from Germany, and it is certainly true that the Irish assault was impressive. By 500 or soon after, Irish rule was established in Argyll and the Isles, as the kingdom of Dalriada: a dynasty from Dalriada ultimately established itself as rulers of all Scotland; and it was thus that Scotland got its name, for in our period 'Scotus' means 'an Irishman', and so, by origin 'Scotland' means �Ireland�. Other Irish dynasties were established in Wales and Irish inscriptions, of a somewhat later date, survive there. Traces of Irish occupation occur in other parts of the western fringe of Britain, and even further east. Most striking is an inscription from the former Roman town of Silchester, near Reading, showing the presence of at least two significant Irishmen: one who died and another to carve an inscription to commemorate him.
Germanic invaders and settlers had begun to appear in Britain from early in the 5th century. There had been Germans there earlier, for example as Roman soldiers. The dating of the 5th century wars and settlements is difficult. By 500 Kent was a German-ruled kingdom and there were German settlers there, though maybe from varied areas and not necessarily numerous. The name Kent comes from that of the Cantiaci, the British 'tribe' who had occupied the area and whose name was retained in that of the civitas. The subdivisions of the Dark Age kingdom of Kent, the 'lathes', are arguably of British origin. Our evidence is feeble but it is certainly plausible that the creation of the kingdom of Kent was in part a takeover of a sub-unit of former Roman Britain, with some of its systems of authority still in place.
By 500 there had been considerable Germanic settlement in East Anglia: on one scholarly argument it may have been there that the earliest substantial settlements took place; but whether there was anything like a precursor of the later kingdom of East Anglia is unknown. There was some Germanic settlement in what became Hampshire, Sussex, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, as well as penetration of the Midlands. The picture is a cloudy one: our sources are threadbare. Most of such annals as we have are late and reflect the interests of later rulers.
   Archaeology adds to our knowledge year by year, but its record can never even approach completeness. One thing fairly certain is that Germanic movements have to be seen in a context of an extensive theatre of operations. Invaders and settlers came from wide areas: above all from the North Sea coastlands with a special concentration from the area between the lower Elbe and the lower Weser and adjacent plains, but others came from the Jutland peninsula and west Scandinavia. While some invaders may have been backwoodsmen, others could well have had experience of' the Roman empire and its ways, for example through military service. Germanic activity was not, of course, limited to Britain. By 500 the Franks (whom late Roman writers associated with the Saxons) dominated most of Gaul. Saxons raided as far away as the Bay of Biscay; when they did so they may well have been based in Britain. Germanic settlers in Britain had related counterparts across the Channel, for example around Boulogne. It is important to emphasise how inadequate is our knowledge; we simply do not know, for example, the scale of the units of political organisation. It is sometimes assumed that 'state formation' was a process directly in train about a hundred years after 500 but there could have been earlier large units of authority, knowledge of which is quite lost to us.
   One thing we can be certain of is that a very large part, probably much the largest, of what became England was not in Anglo-Saxon but in British hands. We know enough of the Britons to see that there was much of importance there; and much success. Were the Britons Christian? Undoubtedly many were, and it is by no means impossible that nearly all were. Christianity had been well established in late Roman Britain. The power of its legacy to sub-Roman Britain is powerfully demonstrated by the work of Gildas, in particular his On the Fall of Britain, probably written about the middle of the 6th century. This pious diatribe against the sins of the Britons and their rulers is particularly important for two reasons. First, while Gildas denounced every kind of sin he said nothing about paganism, which suggests that it was riot a problem, at least in the south-western parts of the island with which he was principally concerned. Second, his was the work of a highly educated man, written in elaborate Latin, and assumed a Latin-literate and sophisticated audience. Gildas spoke for a tradition of effective Latin learning that extended for at least six generations after the Roman withdrawal. There is other evidence to reinforce this impression. A considerable number of Latin inscriptions survive from between the fifth and the eighth centuries, nearly all commemorative of the dead. Most are from Wales, but significant numbers survive in far southern Scotland and in the south-western peninsula. Far more Latin inscriptions survive from the 'Dark Ages' in these areas than do so from the centuries of Roman rule. What is more, there is a strong likelihood that documents relating to land transfers in southeastern Wales, though surviving only in 12th century versions, nevertheless are essentially of the 6th and 7th century; and again they reveal a culture in which Latin and Roman forms were still in use. There must have been manuscripts written in 5th and 6th century Britain, but not one survives: though features in the make-up of later manuscripts from Britain and Ireland provide some slight idea of their physical nature. Nearly all the evidence for the civilisation of the Britons in our period comes from the west of the island.
   What about other areas? The difficulties of the evidence are well illustrated by considering our best, but terribly badly, documented instance: the cult of St Alban. The earliest written evidence comes from a life of St Gernianus, from 418 to 448 bishop of Auxerre, by Constantius. Constantius described two visits to Britain made by Germanus, probably in 429 and sometime about 444, for the purpose of repressing the Pelagian heresy there; and the accounts of his visits give indications of a Romanised society and culture still surviving. He made a visit to Verulamium (St Albans) to honour the cult of Alban. The saint's story, as Constantius told it, is this. Alban had been a citizen of Verulamium who, in time of persecution, sheltered a Christian fugitive who converted him. Arrested by the authorities, Alban refused to abjure his faith and was tortured and executed, in circumstances attended by miracles. How much truth is there in the tale? One fact is important: the focus of the Anglo-Saxon and later cult of Alban was St Albans abbey (now cathedral). This lies not within the walls of Roman Verulamium but on a hill outside, on the site of a Roman cemetery. Such cemeteries had, by law, to be extra-mural. In continental cities the cults of martyrs were focused outside city walls on sites in the cemeteries where the martyrs were buried - thus, for example, in Rome, St Peter's is on the site of a catacomb cemetery outside the walls of the Roman city. St Albans fits the pattern: the site, therefore, largely validates the story. In 500 there was a major cult centre at St Albans; and it is likely that this cult had had a continuous history from Roman times. In fact, if one asks: 'What is the oldest institution in this island?', the answer may be: 'The chapter of St Albans', for they are in the succession of those maintaining Christianity there for, quite possibly, seventeen hundred years or more.                                          More in Part C...