Stenton argued that the meetings of the king of England with the kings of Scotland and Cumbria in 927 at Eamont Bridge (the recent border between Cumberland and Westmorland) was at the boundary between Cumbria and England.
In 934, King of England, styling himself as King of the
English, but also Ruler of Britain, went north with an army, in part composed
of Welsh allies. He invaded Scotland going as far as Caithness with his ships. The
Scots and Cumbrian kings were forced to attend at Aethelstan's court in
Cirecencester along with Hywel of Deheubarth, who, notes Woolf, took third
place behind the kings of Scotland and Cumbria, despite Hywel being the English
king's ally and the Scots and Cumbrians his recent enemies. At Christmas at
Dorchester, Owain was again Aethelstan's guest [8]. But the friendship didn't
last.
Woolf then discusses the Norse King Anlaf (Olaf) based in Ireland
whom he feels had strong influence over Man, Galloway and probably Furness and
Copeland in modern Cumbria. In 937 A battle was fought at Brunanburh. It was Dun Brunde in Gaelic
sources and Brune in the Welsh annals. The site is unknown. It was between
Aethelstan on one side against the Norse King Anlaf, Constantine, king of the
Scots and a king of the Cumbrians. Aethelstan won. However, his victory did not last long
because he died in 939 and after that Anlaf returned and harried the
English lands, including Mercia and up into Northumberland and East Lothian.
In 945 the English king harried Cumbria, with the aid of the
Welsh king Hywel, so-called "The Good". He blinded the two sons of
the king Dyfnwal and gave Cumbria to the king of the Scots to be his ally. In
the annals, Dynfwal is spelled Dunmail, and so we have the Cumberland legend of
the last king of Cumbria who fought his last battle at Dunmail Raise on the
boundary between Cumberland and Westmorland at the top of the pass that
connects the two. There is a large cairn there "a raise" (from the
Norse word for cairn) and local stories say Dunmail's sons ran up the mountains
to the east and took the Cumbrian crown and cast it into Grisedale Tarn so the
"Saxon should not flaunt it".
Woolf suggests that Dunmail's two sons were hostages previously held by
King Eadmund and that the blinding (and castrating) was done in response to Dynfwal breaking his pledges -
presumably by giving succour to the Norse. However, Dyfnwal did not die at Dunmail Raise and does not
lie under it, because he lived until 975 [8].
As part of the consolidation of what became Scotland, the
Gaelic kings of Alba, captured Edinburgh. Woolf notes that it is usually
presumed that they took it from the Northumbrians, but he suggests it might
have been in the hands of the Cumbrians. I would note that there are lots of
Cumbric names in the Edinburgh region and there were Cumbric speakers there
until relatively late. In
971, Cuilen, king of the Scots was killed
by Rhydderch, whose name appears in garbled form as Amdarch. Apparently the
killing was done in Lothian in response for Cuilen raping a British girl -
possibly Rhydderch's daughter. It may have been at West Linton, which was
originally Linton Ruderic - Rhydderch's Linton [8].
Woolf describes the Scots King Cinaed son of Mael Coluim
ravaging the lands of the Britons, until the Scots were defeated at Moin
Uacoruar, which he suggests is the Fords of Frew near Stirling. Woolf sees this
as possible disputes over lands the Britons had in Lothian. The Scots are said
to have raided "Saxony" - usually meaning the lands of the English
down as far as Stainmore to Cliua which
he takes as possibly the edge of the Lake District and the lakes of Derann, which would seem to be
Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite Lake. As Woolf points out, this area is seen to
be English at this time.
In 997, Mael Coluim son of Dynfwal, a king of the Cumbrians, with a Gaelic name,
was succeeded by his brother Owain. The English King Ethelred in 1000 mounted
an expedition against "Cumberland" and ravaged nearly all of it.
Woolf speculates this was because of Cumbrian alliance, or at least tolerance
of the Norse.
In 1018, Owain Foel, king of the Cumbrians was in alliance
with Mael Coluim king of the Scots and they fought against the English at
Carham, near Coldstream. It has been
speculated that in reward for the victory, south east Scotland was added to
Cumbria - and thence David I's later inclusion of it within Cumbria. Cumbric
place-names are relatively rare in this area and it was not part
of the ethnic heartland of the Cumbrian Britons at this late stage.
There is an account that after the English invasion of
Scotland on 1054, that the Scottish king Mac Bethad was replaced by Mael Colum,
son of the king of the Cumbrians. If so, had the Cumbrians put themselves under
English protection? Woolf also wonders whether it was this campaign that
returned the Solway plain of Cumberland and Dumfriesshire into Northumbrian
hands.
Another note is that the Archbishop of York between 1055-60
consecrated two bishops of Glasgow. One was Magsuen, which looks like the
Brittonic name Macsen - though it could
be Gaelic Mac Suthain, and the other Johannes, Woolf
does not dismiss the idea that Glasgow was already the Cumbrian see even
thought the cathedral was not built until the time of David I (1124-53).
Davies, citing Edmonds, sees Siward of Northumbria as a patron of the Cumbrian
dynasty and installed Mael Coluim, probably the son of Owen the Bald, as king in
1054. Siward was installed as Earl of York by Canute (Knutr) around 1031 and
invaded Scotland on Mael Coluim's behalf in 1055. Broun wonders whether Mael Coluim as son of one of the former kings of Strathclyde was taken to York as a protégé of Siward, Earl of Northumbria and later set up again in Cumbria as, Siward's man.
Woolf notes the end of an independent Cumbria when it was
subjugated violently by Mael Coluim, king of the Scots in 1070 (a common name). Mael Coluim was
also at war with Earl Gospatric, a Northumbrian Earl with holdings around
Dunbar, ironically with a Cumbric name (whose father Maldred, also had a likely Cumbric name Maeldryd) . Edmonds has looked at reasons why the
Northumbrian nobility adopted Cumbric names [7], but one might be because
they had Cumbrian ancestry.
Gospatric I had three sons. They were were
Dolfin, who ruled Carlisle until 1092, Waltheof who ruled Allerdale and
Gospatric II, who died as leader of the men of Lothian in the battle of the
Standard in 1138. Clearly Gospatric I and his sons had great influence in the
areas "that were Cumbrian", but in Lothian and Cumberland, and so
peripheral to the holdings that passed to David I as Prince of Cumbria. However both Gospatric II and his brother Waltheof
are witnesses to David I's Inquisition
into the Cumbrian holdings of the Bishopric of Glasgow [47]
Driscoll dates the end of the Cumbrian kingdom to the
foundation of Glasgow Cathedral in around 1118. Driscoll associates the founding of Glasgow
Cathedral as being under the influence of York and the revived post-Viking
kingdom of Northumbria [31]. The rise of Glasgow is associated
with the cult of Kentigern, whereas the Royal Church of the Cumbrian kings at
Govan was dedicated to St Constantine.
Broun describes a situation whereby Cumbria disintegrated
and was chewed over by the Northumbrians, Scots and the Gall-Ghàidheil - the Norse-Gaelic raiders and settlers who took over the Isle of Man, Galloway,
the Western Isles and settled heavily in Cumberland and Westmorland. The Kingdom of Galloway had expanded north
and east as far as Nithsdale if not Annandale and up into Clydesdale and
Strathgryfe [42] Broun notes the Irish chronicles reference to
a ravaging of the Britons by the English and the Foreigners of Dublin (i.e. the
Norse-Gaels). However, much of Cumbria
by this time had been taken by the Scots
as told by Simeon of Durham - "not possessed by right, but subdued
by force" [42]
No comments:
Post a Comment