The British History Podcast

124 – Social Mobility: Getting a Raise in Anglo Saxon Kingdoms

Alright, lets get to history. Specifically, lets talk about towns. And to start with, lets establish a couple terms I’m going to be using a lot. When I talk about towns and cities, what I’m largely talking about are larger communities that have a permanent population of traders and craftsmen and whose economy is focused largely upon trade. Conversely, villages are smaller communities that are built largely around agriculture. Villages might have more land than a town, but their population density will be much less (by nature of the work they do and the amount of arable land they require) and their economies tend to be more localized and based upon subsistence when compared with towns and cities. Support the Show

The days of subsistence farming and small local communities is drawing to a close. And just like the early egalitarian days came to an end with the concentration of wealth at the dynastic level, now we’re seeing a concentration of goods and trade at trading towns and the rise of a new urban and merchant class. And the farmers and their slaves, whether they knew it or not, were supporting the entire structure.

123 – Retail Therapy: The Rise of Anglo Saxon Towns

I’ll be talking in broad strokes today, but I want to give you a forest view of what we’ve been talking about over the last couple seasons. Support the Show

Something strange has been happening in our story… and I’m going to very briefly touch upon the arrival of the Anglo Saxons simply because I want you to see how much things have changed. As you might remember, when we began on Season two, we saw Roman Britannia in collapse and the introduction of a new cultural group that was a mix of farmers and mercenaries: The Anglo Saxons. And these people were frighteningly poor. The Romano-British were definitely not living the high life that they were under Constantine, and some of them were definitely in dire straits. We saw plenty of evidence of public spaces being left to decay and others deliberately torn down. We also saw a shift from heavily industrialized lifestyles, where a single town would only produce one product, to a more localized economy. And we saw a rise in defensive structures, likely in response to raids that came along with the destabilization that the region was going through. But we also saw places like Cadbury Congresbury that were British trading centers that thrived following the withdrawal of Rome, the arrival of the Anglo Saxons, and through the period where Gildas tells us that everything went to hell in a handbasket. And then following that period of instability, we’re told that the Britons got their lives back in order and started to get more organized (though into individual kingdoms) and got… uh… a little bit decadent. So the take away is that, following the withdrawal, Britons might have gone through some chaos and dealt with raids and violence, but they also stayed organized enough that they had kingdoms, retained literacy, and their economies stayed strong enough that the decadence of their leaders was apparently a problem. So even though Rome had largely collapsed in the West, the Britons (at least some of the Britons) were still holding on and maintaining their power structures.

122 – The Concentration of Power and Wealth

The Battle of the Winwaed is over and Penda is dead along with 30 noble warleaders who had joined him in battle… with them was King Anna’s brother, King AEthelhere of East Anglia… and as for King AEthelwald of Deira… well, I’m not sure what happened to him. But he isn’t in the histories any longer, so perhaps siding with Penda against his Uncle Oswiu didn’t end well for him. Support the Show

Now the Battle of Maserfield had established Mercia as a dominant force on the island, and specifically it had demonstrated the military prowess of Penda. It was there that King Oswald of Northumbria was killed and his kingdom was split into two separate kingdoms, each with its own king. It was there that Mercian power, which had already been growing with their challenges to the West Saxons, reached its full stride and broke the Northumbrian Hegemony. And Mercian power was so complete that it successfully waged wars against challenges to multi-kingdom system that ruled Anglo-Saxon britain, taking down kings of East Anglia, ousting a King of Wessex, and even taking their wars into Bernicia. But now, in the aftermath of the Winwaed, it was King Oswald’s brother, King Oswiu of Bernicia, that was triumphant on the field of battle. Given the location, weather, and how outnumbered the Bernicians were in this battle, it makes one suspect that this was an ambush rather than a typical anglo saxon battle in the model of honorable combat. But however Oswiu managed to secure victory, he had won and had killed (and beheaded) the man who had killed his brother all those years ago. But a King’s work doesn’t end with a successful battle. Especially not a King like Oswiu. We’ve spoken at length in earlier episodes about how Penda had plenty of opportunities to annex kingdoms, or parts of kingdoms, but generally didn’t. Well, Oswiu didn’t have the same hesitation when it came to expansion.

121 – King Oswiu: The Aftermath of the Winwaed

Imagine the scene… the weather had been horrendous. Torrential rains had battered the region for days. Penda and his men were tired, far from home... and they were weighted down with whatever gifts they had retained, and their forces were already weakened… and as the war was now over, perhaps some of the warbands were already marching off independently, heading back to wherever they came from. And so Penda’s once great army was shrinking, weary from the weather, and thinking more of home than of the enemy. After all, the fight was over… home was all that mattered. And their march brought them to a river known as the Winwaed. And while it might normally be able to be traversed, the rains had caused the river to swell and flood, blocking the Mercian army’s path. There, with the Mercian army disorganized, blocked by a raging river, and distracted by the weather and their victory… King Oswiu and his Bernicians attacked. The unprepared Mercians were immediately in peril.

So when we last left off, things were going crazy in the North and in the Midlands. But the very last thing I mentioned was that Honorius, the Archbishop of Canterbury, had died. Well, his seat remained vacant for about six months until March 26, 654 (or maybe 655) when a new Archbishop was ordained. Archbishop Deusdedit… and since Deus means god in Latin, I can only assume that Deusdedit translates to God Did It. Ok all joking aside, Deusdedit ALMOST means god did it… his name actually translates to God Has Given. But what I’m getting at is that his name was… you know… humble. Support the Show

120 – Penda and Oswiu: The Winwaed

So where were we? Oswiu had arranged for the murder of his cousin, which is awkward in itself… but the slain King Oswine was also related to Eanflaed, Oswiu’s wife. So… even if Oswiu wasn’t fussed about kinslaying, chances are that dinner still had suddenly become a lot more awkward following that rather underhanded victory. So perhaps to appease Eanflaed, or maybe to keep the Deirans happy… Oswiu built a monastery at the location of Oswine’s murder at Gilling. Support the Show

119 – King Penda: No Posers