Sub-Roman Britain
Sub-Roman Britain is the period of late antiquity in Great Britain between the end of Roman rule and the Anglo-Saxon settlement. The term was originally used to describe archaeological remains found in 5th- and 6th-century AD sites that hinted at the decay of locally made wares from a previous higher standard under the Roman Empire. It is now used to describe the period that commenced with the recall of Roman troops to Gaul by Constantine III in 407 and to have concluded with the Battle of Deorham in 577.
Meaning of terms[edit]
The period of sub-Roman Britain traditionally covers the history of the parts of Britain that had been under Roman rule from the end of Roman imperial rule, traditionally dated to be in 410, to the arrival of Saint Augustine in 597.[1] The date taken for the end of this period is arbitrary in that the sub-Roman culture continued in northern England until the merger of Rheged (the kingdom of the Brigantes) with Northumbria by dynastic marriage in 633, and longer in the west of Britain, and Cornwall, Cumbria and Wales especially.
This period has attracted a great deal of academic and popular debate, in part because of the scarcity of the written source material. The term "post-Roman Britain" is also used for the period; "sub-Roman" and "post-Roman" are terms that apply to the old Roman province of Britannia, i.e. Britain south of the Forth–Clyde line. The history of the area between Hadrian's Wall and the Forth–Clyde line is similar to that of Wales (see Rheged, Bernicia, Gododdin and Strathclyde). North of the line lay a thinly populated area including the kingdoms of the Maeatae (in Angus), Dalriada (in Argyll), and the kingdom whose kaer (castle) near Inverness was visited by Saint Columba. The Romans referred to these peoples collectively as Picti, meaning 'Painted Ones'.
The term "late antiquity", implying wider horizons, is finding more use in the academic community, especially when transformations of classical culture common throughout the post-Roman West are examined. The period may also be considered as part of the early Middle Ages, if continuity with the following periods is stressed. Popular (and some academic) works use a range of more dramatic names for the period: the Dark Ages, the Brythonic Age, the Age of Tyrants, or the Age of Arthur.[2]
Written accounts[edit]
Little extant written material is available from this period, though a considerable amount from later periods may be relevant. A lot of what is available deals with the first few decades of the 5th century only. The sources can usefully be classified into British and continental, and into contemporary and non-contemporary.
Two primary contemporary British sources exist: the Confessio of Saint Patrick and Gildas' De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae (On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain).[3] Patrick's Confessio and his Letter to Coroticus reveal aspects of life in Britain, from where he was abducted to Ireland. It is particularly useful in highlighting the state of Christianity at the time. Gildas is the nearest to a source of Sub-Roman history but there are many problems in using it. The document represents British history as he and his audience understood it. Though a few other documents of the period do exist, such as Gildas' letters on monasticism, they are not directly relevant to British history. Gildas' De Excidio is a jeremiad: it is written as a polemic to warn contemporary rulers against sin, demonstrating through historical and biblical examples that bad rulers are always punished by God – in the case of Britain, through the destructive wrath of the Saxon invaders. The historical section of De Excidio is short, and the material in it is clearly selected with Gildas' purpose in mind. There are no absolute dates given, and some of the details, such as those regarding the Hadrian's and Antonine Walls are clearly wrong. Nevertheless, Gildas does provide us with an insight into some of the kingdoms that existed when he was writing, and how an educated monk perceived the situation that had developed between the Anglo-Saxons and the Britons.
More continental contemporary sources mention Britain, though these are highly problematic. The most famous is the so-called Rescript of Honorius, in which the Western Emperor Honorius tells the British civitates to look to their own defence. The first reference to this rescript is written by the 6th-century Byzantine scholar Zosimus and is found in the middle of a discussion of southern Italy; no further mention of Britain is made, which has led some, though not all, modern academics to suggest that the rescript does not apply to Britain, but to Bruttium in Italy.[4][5][6] The Gallic chronicles, Chronica Gallica of 452 and Chronica Gallica of 511, say prematurely that "Britain, abandoned by the Romans, passed into the power of the Saxons" and provide information about St Germanus and his visit or visits to Britain, though again this text has received considerable academic deconstruction.[7] The work of Procopius, another 6th-century Byzantine writer, makes some references to Britain, though the accuracy of these is uncertain.
Numerous later written sources claim to provide accurate accounts of the period. The first to attempt this was the monk Bede, writing in the early 8th century. He based his account of the Sub-Roman period in his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (written around 731) heavily on Gildas, though he tried to provide dates for the events Gildas describes. It was written from an anti-Briton point of view. Later sources, such as the Historia Brittonum often attributed to Nennius, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (again written from a non-Briton point of view, based on West Saxon sources) and the Annales Cambriae, are all heavily shrouded in myth and can only be used with caution as evidence for this period.[8] There are also documents giving Welsh poetry (of Taliesin and Aneirin) and land deeds (Llandaff charters) that appear to date back to the 6th century.
After the Norman Conquest there were many books written that purport to give the history of the Sub-Roman period. These have been influenced by the fictionalised account in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain). Therefore, they can only be regarded as showing how the legends grew. Not until modern times have serious studies of the period been undertaken.
Later Lives of Celtic saints, although often unreliable, do provide some insights into life in Sub-Roman Britain. For example, there is a description of a dilapidated, but still occupied, Roman villa near Chepstow (probably at Portskewett[9]) included in an account of a visit by St Tatheus; and the Roman ruins of Carlisle, as they were in 685, are described in a Life of St Cuthbert.[10]
End of Roman rule[edit]
The proximate cause of the end of Roman rule in Britannia appears to have been a power-struggle between aristocrats and Stilicho, a Roman general and strongman of the Roman Empire.[23] In order to protect Italy from invasions by the Visigoths, Stilicho had seriously depleted the Roman forces defending the Limes Germanicus. In the summer of 406 there was a rebellion of legionarii in Britain[24] that resulted in the acclamation of several usurpers in quick succession as imperator,[25] a declaration of rebellion against the ruling emperor. The last of these, Constantine III, crossed the Channel at Bononia and took with him all of the mobile troops left in Britain, thus denuding the province of any first line military protection.[26] The Roman forces in Gaul (modern France) declared for him, followed by most of those in Hispania (modern Spain). On 31 December 406 the Vandals, Burgundians, Alans and Sueves crossed the Rhine and overran the Limes Germanicus.
Meanwhile, there were barbarian raids on Britain in 408, but these seem to have been defeated. After 410 Honorius apparently sent letters to the cities of Britain telling them to fend for themselves, though this is sometimes disputed.[27][28][29]
From the middle of the 5th century the Germanic raiders began to settle in the eastern river valleys.[30] Later civil wars seem to have broken out, which have been interpreted either as being between pro-Roman and independence groups or between "Established Church" and Pelagian parties (Myres 1965, Morris 1965), a class struggle between peasants and land owners (Thompson 1977, Wood 1984), or a coup by an urban elite (Snyder 1988). A recent view explored by Laycock (Britannia the Failed State, 2008) sees Britain violently fragmenting into kingdoms based on British tribal identities; 'violently' is disputable, but clearly most of the civitates gradually transformed into kingdoms. Life seems to have continued much as before in the countryside, and on a reduced scale in the towns as evidenced by the descriptions of Germanus' visits. It appears that while Roman cities and towns have decreased in size, they retained administrative and symbolic importance for new polities.[31]
Gildas says that a "council" was convened by Vortigern to find ways of countering the barbarian threat. The council opted to hire Saxon mercenaries, following Roman practice. After a while these turned against the British and plundered the towns. A British leader, Ambrosius Aurelianus, fought against them in a number of battles apparently over a long period. Towards the end of this period was the Battle of Mons Badonicus, around 490, which later sources claimed was won by King Arthur, though Gildas does not identify him. After this there was a long period of peace. The British seem to have been in control of England and Wales roughly west of a line from York to Bournemouth. The Saxons had control of eastern areas in an arc from East Yorkshire through Lincolnshire and perhaps Nottinghamshire, to East Anglia and South East England.
Writing in Latin, perhaps about 540, Gildas gives an account of the history of Britain, but the earlier part (for which other sources are available) is severely muddled. He castigates five rulers in western Britain – Constantine of Dumnonia, Aurelius Caninus, Vortipor of the Demetae, Cuneglasus and Maglocunus (Mailcun or in later spelling Maelgwn of Gwynedd) – for their sins. He also attacks the British clergy. He gives information on the British diet, dress and entertainment. He writes that Britons were killed, emigrated or enslaved but gives no idea of numbers.
In the late 6th century there was another period of Saxon expansion, starting with the capture of Searoburh in 552 by the dynasty that later ruled Wessex, and including entry into the Cotswolds area after the Battle of Deorham (577), though the accuracy of the entries in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for this period has been questioned. These conquests are often said by modern writers, on no clear evidence, to have separated the Britons of South West England (known later as the West Welsh) from those of Wales. (Just after the period being discussed, the Battle of Chester in 611 might have separated the latter from those of the north of England.) Until the 570s, Britons were still in control of about half of England and Wales.
Various British kingdoms existed at some point in the period. Some changed their names and some were absorbed by others. Not all of their names, especially in the southeast, are known, nor are the details of their political development; some authority structures left from the Roman period may have continued in charge of some areas for some time. At times some of the kingdoms were united by a ruler who was an overlord, while wars occurred between others. During the period the boundaries are likely to have changed. The major ones were:
Some areas fell under the domination of Anglian or Saxon chieftains, later kingdoms:
Religion[edit]
Officially the Roman Empire was Christian at the start of the 5th century, but there is evidence of rural pagan temples being refurbished at the start of this period in western England. However, most temples seem to have been replaced eventually by Christian churches on the same site or nearby. "Celtic" churches or monasteries seem to have flourished during this period in the British areas, such as that at Glastonbury, though mostly not until the 6th century; but the "Saxons" were pagan. This reinforced a great antipathy between the peoples. Many Roman cemeteries continued into much later times, such as that at Cannington, Somerset. In the east, there was a gradual transition among the pagan Saxons from cremation to inhumation. Although the arrival of Saint Augustine is traditionally seen as the significant Christianising event for the Saxons, a bishop had already arrived in Kent with the king's Merovingian wife. Other Saxons remained pagan after this time.
In 429, a British Deacon, Palladius, had requested support from the Pope in Rome to combat Pelagianism. Bishops Germanus and Lupus of Troyes were sent. Germanus, a former military commander, is reported to have led the British to the "Hallelujah" victory, possibly in Wales or Herefordshire. Germanus is said[32][33] to have made a second visit to England later. Participation by a British bishop at a synod in Gaul demonstrates that at least some British churches were in full administrative and doctrinal touch with Gaul as late as 455.[34]
In the north, Whithorn is said to be the earliest church in Scotland, being founded in 397 by Saint Ninian.[35] Coroticus (or Ceretic) was an apostate Pict king who was the recipient of the letter from Saint Patrick. His base may have been Dumbarton Rock on the River Clyde, and his descendant Rhydderch Hael is named in the Life of Saint Columba. Rhydderch was a contemporary of Áedán mac Gabráin of Dal Riata and Urien of Rheged in the late 6th century, as well as of Æthelfrith of Bernicia. Unlike Columba, Kentigern, the supposed apostle to the Britons of the Clyde and alleged founder of Glasgow, is a shadowy figure.
Environmental change effects[edit]
There is evidence for climate change in the 5th century, with conditions turning cooler and wetter. This shortened the growing season and made uplands unsuited to growing grain. Dendrochronology reveals a particular climatic event in 540.[69] Michael Jones suggests that declining agricultural production from land that was already fully exploited had considerable demographic consequences.[70]