|
899
Death of King Alfred the Great. (A.S) He was the last remaining Angle or Saxon king resisting the Norse. He had once been reduced to hiding as a ‘fugitive’ in disguise in the Somerset marshs. He established a base at Athelney, his military strategy, clever concessions and cunning alliances was to totally turn the tide so that his grand son subsequently was to become crowned king of all England.
Edward (the Elder) succeeds Wessex. Meanwhile his sister Aethelflaed is beginning to eclipse her husband Æthelred, in the control of Mercia.
902
The Norse are expelled from Dublin. (A.U) The group comprising Christian Gaelic-Norse (known in Ireland as Gal Gaedil) and Pagan Norweigans or ‘Lochlanns’, arrive under Ingimund, and settle in the Wirral and Liverpool with the agreement of ‘Queen’ Aethelflaed of the Mercians.(T.F)
Aethelflaed’s signing of the agreement suggests that by now she was then the de facto head of state, rather than her husband Æthelred, (alleged to be ‘ailing’ in the Irish Annals). At this time there are many instances where such agreements were made under duress to avert immediate confrontation. Aethelflaed may well have ceded the Merseyside with a view to buy time to strengthen Mercia’s northern border, particularly the strategic town of Chester.
Aethelflaed may have made it a condition that only the Christain amongst them be allowed to settle on her side of the Mersey. There is evidence to support the notion that the Christian Gal Gaedil predominated in the Wirral and Pagan Norweigan Lochlanns in Liverpool. There is evidence of early religious artefacts of the Gal Gaedil at the church in West Kirkby (Named St Bridget’s - after a 5th Cent. Irish Saint) and Crosses elsewhere, and some Norse placenames such as Irby (settlement of the Irish) and Frankby (settlement of the French - also likely to be Christain believers) together with Gaelic placenames (Nnoctorum ‘Knock Tirim’ or ‘Dry Hill’, and Arrow Park 'airidh' / 'ergh' or 'summer grazing').
In Liverpool however, there are plenty Norse placenames but scant evidance of Christainity from that time. The pagans and Christains had little love for each other, and faith was as great a cause of conflict, as ethnicity at the time. It is likely the Gal Gaedil and pagan Lochlanns would have dispersed to opposite banks of the Mersey. The Wirral was part of Christain Mercia, while Liverpool in Norse Northumbria. Indeed the two groups would be fighting on opposite sides in Chester in a very short time. (More reasons to support the idea of a split between Ingimund and the Wirral Gall Geadil )
c.904
A treasure hoard is buried by the river Ribble near Preston containing over 8,500 pieces of silver, with many Irish and Northumbrian coins dating to this time.
This suggests Norweigan Lochlanns had penetrated into Northumbria north of Merseyside, fairly soon after their arrival from Ireland. The ‘Cuerdale Hoard’ was the largest Viking hoard of Silver ever found in Western Europe.
905
The Norse settler, Ingimund, and his men revolt against the Mercians and try to take the city of Chester. They are beaten off. (T.F)
According to the Irish ‘Three fragments’, Ingimund was jealous of the good land around Chester, and his Lochlanns colluded with local Danes to attack the city, but that Æthelflæd learnt of the plot and prepared the city with warriors who feigned defeat outside the city walls, and then ambushed the Norse when they had pursued the defenders back inside the city walls, with the gates locked behind them.
The fragments also report an alliance of Mercians and Irish-Norse ‘Gal Gaedil’ stitching up a treaty with the local Danes and then killing them as they swore to it. (These Gal Gaedil preferred their ex-shipmates the Norweigan Lochlanns to the Danes)
Bees are said to have been used successfully by Mercians and Gal Gaedil on those Norweigan Lochlanns attacking Chester’s walls, who had survived showers of stones and hot oil.
It is likely that these incidents occurred successively as the ‘Danish Deal’ was recounted as being at the time of Æthelred’s death (911). The origional story is here
The alliance between Mercian and Gal Gaedil may have been mainly due to their shared Christian beliefs, (as is alleged in the Three Fragments) since Christian battles against pagan forces were common at this time.
Instigated by Æthelflæd, this alliance is an example of the successful proactive partnerships pioneered by her father. This co-operation may account for the apparent reticence of the Mercians in not routing Norse Wirral in the aftermath of Chester and Brunanburh, so that it now has stronger native Norse bloodlines than seems to be the case in Liverpool.
907
Chester is restored and refortified against Viking attacks(A.S)
This implies the Danes of the Danelaw had temporarily recaptured the town with help from Ingimund.
Aethelflaed was to continue her father’s policy of incremental advance and defensive fortification of lands earlier lost to the Norse.
The Anglo Saxon chronicles record concentrated activity in the locality in the following years, with a view to consolidating the Mercian hold on the strategic stronghold of Chester. At the time, Wirral had the only open coastline in Anglo-Saxon Mercia (and so vulnerable to Viking ships) and North Mercia was sandwiched between rivals in Wales to the west, the ‘Dane law’ to the east and Northumbria north of the Mersey.
908
The Annals of the four masters reports “A battle was gained by the foreigners (generally used for Norse) over a crew or fleet of Ulidians (Ulster Gaels), in the region of Saxonland (i.e Mercia or Wessex), where many were slain with Cumascach”, This is too vague to tell us much except suggest that there were Gaelic interests somehow involved in England, at conflict with Norse (who then had their main settlements around Merseyside).
c908
A hoard is buried at Huxley near Chester, (estimated to have been hidden in the first decade of the tenth century) . The 22 silver objects are thought to have been produced by Norse settlers in Dublin some years before.
910
‘Queen’ Æthelflæd builds a fort or ‘burh’ at Bremesbyrig (A.S)(note the phonetic resemblance to ‘Brunan burh’ or Bromsborough (‘byrig’ is an alternative version of burh). Broms-bourgh is not mentioned in the Domesday survey, but other similarly prefixed placenames are e.g Broms-grove were referenced as Bremes-grave. ‘Brun’ means brown in Old English. The old name of Ribchester on the River Ribble (formally River ‘Bruna’ or ‘murky / brown’) was Breme tennacum, (the town names Burnley & Blackburn derive from the river Bruna also.)
It is around here that the fertile Cheshire plain gave way to the brown heath lands then covering most of East Wirral. The ‘Bromsbourgh burh’ was quite possibly this ‘Bremesbyrig’ recorded at the time, built to help keep Ingimund’s Lochlann Norse at bay (literally!).
911
Death Æthelflæd’s ailing husband; King Æthelred.(A.S)
An unusual astronomical event is described by the both the Fragments and Annals as “a great wonder”, as “two suns moved together on the same day”
913
“Æthelflæd through her wisdom made a treaty with the men of Alba (Christian Gaelic Scotland) and the Britons (Welsh and Christian), that whenever the same race should come to attack her; they would rise up to assist her and that they should come to them, she would assist them ” (Three fragments penultimate entry)
Liverpool’s Norwegian (Lochlann) settlements may have been among those subsequently pillaged by Mercian-Briton alliances.
914
Æthelflæd builds a fortress at Eddisbury (frontier with the ‘Danelaw’ east of Chester) and Runcorn in 915, on the border of Northumbria.(A.S)
918.
“Æthelflæd, a very famous queen of the Saxons, dies” (quote from Annals of Ulster). Edward the elder succeeds (Æthelflæd’s brother and ‘King of Wessex’ which marks an important union of the two Kingdoms). Edward continues to consolidate the North by building a fortress at Thelwall (East Cheshire) and orders a Mercian army to repair and occupy and the fortress at Manchester (in Northumbria). In 921. Edward builds a fortress at Cledemutha (probably the mouth of the Clwyd at Rhyll) (A.S)
920
Sihtric leaves his domain in Dublin which he had just won from the Irish (A.U), Symeon of Durham records that, despite Edward's new defences, Sihtric storms Davenport in Cheshire, he also takes York. (A.S) Edward responds by directing further burh building in the Danelaw area.
925
Edward the elder’s son Æthelstan finally succeeds him after around a year seeing off his rival siblings .(A.S.)
927
Guthfrith becomes king of Northumbria on the death of his brother Sihtric, but he is soon driven out from York by Æthelstan so he returns to Dublin to reign there.(A.S) (A.U)
On July 12 at Æthelstan's great meeting at EamontÆthelstan forces the submission of the northern kings including King Constantine of Scotland, and of all five of the Welsh kings also agree to pay a large annual tribute to him. Opposition in Cornwall is eliminated.(A.S)
On coins minted after 927, Æthelstan's title changes from Rex Angul-Saxonum, "King of the Anglo-Saxons", to Rex Anglorum, King of the English or Rex Totius Britanniae, "King of the Whole of Britain",
c.933
Æthelstan (a bastard) sees off a rebellion in Wessex by forces loyal to his disposed legitimate siblings. Meanwhile Constantine of Scotland (probably with news of the rebellion) breaks his truce and harries the English.(A.S)
934
Æthelstan retaliates and ravages much of Constantine’s Scotland with both a land and naval force.(A.S) Meanwhile in Ireland Guthfrith’s son Olaf becomes king of Dublin on the death of his father.(A.U.)
937
939
“Athelstan, king of the Saxons, pillar of the dignity of the western world, died an untroubled death.” (The Annals of Ulster testify here to the sense of brotherhood between Gael and Saxon against the pagan). Edmund (son of Edward the Elder, and half-brother to Æthelstan) becomes the first king to succeed to all of England.
Olaf Guthfrithsson, who was defeated by Æthelstan at Brunanburh in 937, returns from Dublin to become king of York. He quickly repels the Anglo-Saxons back down to Wattling St, however Edmund regains all his lost territory before his death in 946.(A.S)
|
