186 CRANIA BRITANNICA. [CHAP. VI .
i
its Britons." This Ciimbrian kingdom, the history of which is enveloped in obscurity, had to
sustain repeated attacks by the Angles of Northumbria, from the south and east; by the Dakiad
Scots, both of Hibernia and Cantire, from the north-west; by the Picts, from the north ; and
by the Scandinavian Northmen; until, after vai'ied fortunes, it was subdued and wasted by the
Anglo-Sason king Edmimd, A.D. 945, who granted it to Malcolm, king of Scotland, to be held
in fealty*. At a period above fifty years before this, it is related that, to escape from the scourge of
the Danish Vikingr, who had previously taken and sacked theu- capital, Aldckiyd, or Dumbarton,
a large body of the Strathclyde Britons migrated to Wales, to find peace among then- congeners,
whose mountains were their safety t- Edmund's conquest has also been supposed to have been
signalized by fresh migrations to their brethren in Wales, which seem highly probable, as a
retreat to the western kingdoms of Wales and Domnania was the constant expedient of all
the Britons, and the only means of escape from a continued succession of cruel foes. In this
way the mountainous districts of Cumberland and Westmoreland, never populous, and the
old kingdom of Strathclyde, became greatly wasted of their inhabitants t The Britons on
the eastern side of Valentia, the Otadeni and Gadeni, had, at an anterior period, been flnaUy
subjected by the Northumbrian Angles §. Beyond the Priths and the WaU of Antoninus, were
the Gaelic Scots, with a constant tendency to overspread the land from west to east, and the
ancient Plots. Of Galloway, Chalmers has said that " diu-ing the British period it was overrun
by Saxons, who left some of theii- blood, and a Uttle of their language, within its Celtic Umits" ||.
The next intruders, to whose restless eyes the British coasts offered an inviting field, were
the people of Scandinavia, congeners with the Anglo-Saxons, of a spirit as enterprising and as
triiunphant. Their earliest approach to the Britannic shores may well be considered to be unrecorded
iu history, without admitting that remote colonization of Caledonia buHt upon the conjectural
inference of Tacitus, or listening to the fables of Saxo Grammaticus. In the Saxon
Chronicle it is said. In the year 787 " first came three ships of Northmen, out of Hseretha-land."
This has been referred by Lappenberg to " Hbrdeland in Norway, famed for its sea-kings, and
which at a later period sent forth the unyielding discoverers of Iceland "IT- Taking this as the
fii'st recorded descent of the Vikingr upon Britain itself, the hostile and other visits of the
Danes and different Scandinavians extended thence to the period of the Danish conquest under
was a designation at times applied to tlie whole country of the
northern Britons.—Journ.Brit. ArchBeol. Assoc. 1855, p. 47.
Another able inYestigation of this subject, and of the dominion
of the whole territory between the Mersey and the Forth—
Strathclyde, Galloway, and Northumberland—with their various
changes, has been instructively attempted by Mr. J. H.
Hinde.—Loc. cit.
* There is a memoir " On the Early History of Cumberland,"
by Mr. J . H. Hinde, in the ArchEeologicalJournal,
vol. xvi. p. 217.
t Chalmers, "Caledonia," vol. i. p. 355. The Britons of
the Cumbrian region are generally allowed to have effected this
retreat from their threefold enemies ; and it has been repeatedly
asserted that they are yet distingmshable m the district
embraced by the county of Flint, to which part of North
Wales they retired, and which was conceded to them by
Anarawd, the king of Gwynedd (Venedocia) or NorthWales,
and the son of Rhodri Mawr, or Roderick the Great. Even
this retirement of the Britons in the exposed territories of
Valentia into Wales is not perhaps the earliest made by them.
One of the appendices to Nennius appears to describe a similar
movement at the cud of the fourth century.—Vide antea,
p. 151.
t Ferguson, " The Northmen in Cumberland and Westmoreland,"
1856, p. 13, &c. Such were the desolations of the
Danes and the subsequent depopulation of this region by
William the Conqueror, that it was not till the time of his
successor that the city of Carlisle was restored from its ruins.
§ The poem of the Gcdodin of Aneurin refers to the battle
of Kaltraeth, which decided this subjection. Its date is disputed,
but is usually referred to a time later than the middle of
the sixth century.—Jouni. Brit. Archseol. Assoc. 185!),p.237 ;
1860, p. 218. Perhaps there is still room for the query.
May not this strife, which has raised so many conjectures and
disputes, be a mere Bction of the poet?—Herbert, "Britannia
after the Komans," p. 202.
II Caledonia, vol. i. p. Oil.
n England under the Anglo-Saxons, vol. ii. p. 12.
CEAP. VI.] ETHNOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OE SUCCESSIVE POPULATIONS. 187
Cnut, A.B. 1016, more than two hundred years afterwards. These invasions are commonly attributed
to the Danes as the leading and prevailing people composing and directing them, .vithout
regard to the other nations who, either conjointly or separately, fiUed this long interval with their
forays and transmigrations. Yet the Cteonicle, as we find, ranges the first under the general
designation of Nortlunen, who are supposed to have come from Norway. Like those who before
set winning foot on the British shores, indiscriminately entitled " Saxons," these latter, called
"Danes," " Northmen," and " Normans," embraced many distinct tribes of Scandinavians*.
They were, in truth, a sort of continuation passing northwards of the people inhabiting the opposite
coast of the North Sea. At fii-st we encountered the Frisians, the Jutes, the Saxons, the
Angles ; and now the Danes, the Norwegians, or Norse and the Swedes. It is the prevalent use
of these general designations that renders it so difficult to distinguish with precision the special
tribes or classes which settled in particular districts of the British islands. At the close of the
ninth centui-y, if not earHer, the Vikingr f, or northern sea-pkates, began to extend then- attacks
beyond the Baltic, and to alarm the neighboui-ing coasts with theu- predatory descents. They
were very numerous and very formidable, bold and skilful masters of the sea, and gave themselves
with the utmost devotedness to a roving life of buccaneering, which had come to be regarded
as valiant and noble. The summer was the season of theu- exploits, and, on the retm-n of winter,
with its storms and icy seas, they repaired to their homes laden with spoil and slaves. It was the
middle of the ninth century before they ventured to winter in the Isle of Sheppey, which was also
the first portion of British ground acquu-ed by the Anglo-Saxons. Ere the close of this century
they had visited a large extent of the coasts of the British islands, and the islets which surround
them. They had made repeated descents on the southern shores of England, in Wessex, extending
to Devonshfre, where the West-Wealhas aUied themselves with them, and both were defeated at
Hengest-down by Egbert in 835, the year before his death. They had more or less possessed
thenTselves of, or settled in many of the principal towns of this coast, as Exeter, Southampton,
Wareham, Winchester, Sandwich, and others. In Kent, in Middlesex, in East Anglia, and in
Northumbria they had also made great ravages, and began to pass into the interior of the island.
They took Eoforwic-ceastre, or York, in 867 and 869, about wliich time they advanced into
Mercia and possessed themselves of Nottingham for winter quarters. Eive years subsequently, in
874, after wintermg one year in Lundenbyrg (London), and the next in Lindisse, they made a
formidable irruption and passed to Hreopedune (Bepton) in Derbyshire, where was the palace,
and a monastery which contained the mausoleum of the Mercian kings. These they destroyed
and drove Burgred, the last king of Hs race, into exile t- At Repton they were assembled in
great force, and dealt desolation all ai-ound. The Abbey of Bui-ton-upon-Trent, the town and
Castle of Tutbui-y, as well as the neighboui-ing monastery of Hanburig, a rural spot on the borders
of the Eorest of Needwood, weU deserving its name, were involved in one common fate §. In
passing up the Trent many names of northern derivation are met with : in Nottinghamshire at
least twenty, in Derbyshire three or four, and in Staffordshh-e there is Chebsey,—all indications
of the ascent of " the princely Trent" by the northern rovers. Erom Repton the Danish host
passed into Northiunbria, and oftthnes spofied the Picts and the Strathclyde-Wealhas under the
* Worsaae, " The Danes and Norwegians in England, Scotland,
and Ireland," 1852, p. 2-1.
t Vik-ings. Dan. Fi f f , a bay; Swed. Vik, a cove or creek.
This derivation points to the coast from which they started on
their expeditions.
( Bigsby, "History of Repton," 1854, p. 32.
5 Anglo-Saxon, heah, heart, high.
Mosley, " History of the Castle, Priory, and Town of Tutbury,"
1832, pp. 3 and 4.