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The Northern Danelaw: Its Social Structure, c.800 - 1100 PDF

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STUDIES IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF BRITAIN General Editor: Nicholas Brooks The Northern Danelaw This page intentionally left blank The Northern Danelaw Its Social Structure, c. 800-1100 D. M. Hadley Leicester University Press London and New York Leicester University Press A Continuum imprint Wellington House, 125 Strand, London WC2R OBB 370 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10017-6503 First published 2000 © D. M. Hadley 2000 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 0-7185-0014-8 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hadley, D. M. (Dawn M.), 1967- The Northern Danelaw: its social structure, c. 800-1100/D.M. Hadley. p. cm.—(Studies in the early history of Britain) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7185-0014-8 (hb) 1. Great Britain-History-Anglo-Saxon period, 449-1066. 2. Land tenure-England, Northern—History—To 1500. 3. Peasantry—England, Northern—History—To 1500. 4. England, Northern—Social conditions. 5. Great Britain—History—Invasions. 6. Vikings-England, Northern. I. Title. II. Series. DA158.H34 2000 333.3'22'0942809021-dc21 99-087413 Typeset by BookEns Ltd, Royston, Herts. Printed and bound in Great Britain by The Cromwell Press, Trowbridge, Wilts. Contents Foreword vi Acknowledgements vii Abbreviations viii 1 Introduction: past and current controversies 1 2 Early medieval societies 42 3 Territorial organization 94 4 Lords and peasants 165 5 Ecclesiastical organization 216 6 The Scandinavian impact 298 Epilogue 342 Bibliography 343 Index 364 Foreword The aim of the Studies in the Early History of Britain is to promote works of the highest scholarship which open up new fields of study or which straddle the barriers of traditional academic disciplines. As scholarship becomes ever more specialized, interdisciplinary studies are needed not only by students and lay people but also by professional scholars. This series has therefore included research monographs, works of synthesis and also collaborative studies of important themes by several scholars whose training and expertise has lain in different fields. Our knowledge of the early Middle Ages will always be limited and fragmentary, but progress can be made if the work of the historian has secure foundations in philology, archaeology, geography, litera- ture, numismatics, art history and liturgy - to name only the most obvious fields. The need to cross and to remove academic frontiers also explains the extension of the geographical range of this series to include the whole island of Britain, where its predecessor had been limited to 'early English history'. The change would have been welcomed by the previous editor, the late Professor H.P.R. Finberg, whose pioneering work helped to inspire, or to provoke, the interest of a new generation of early medievalists in the relations of Britons and Saxons. The approach of this series is therefore deliberately wide- ranging. Early medieval Britain can only be understood in the context of contemporary developments in Ireland and on the Continent. In this volume Dr Dawn Hadley offers a much-needed synthetic re- evaluation of the society of the northern Danelaw. Ethnic interpretations of social history, as characterized by the fundamental work of Sir Frank Stenton on the peasantry of this region, are no longer in fashion. Preferring to follow Maitland's advice 'to be careful how we use our Dane', she provides a new assessment of the Scandinavian impact and of the nature of the indigenous inheritance against a wide European background. She pulls together modern historical and archaeological approaches to ethnography, to the linguistic and toponymic evidence, to the analysis of the landscape and of early ecclesiastical structures, to artistic and sculptural styles, as well as to the traditional issues of peasant freedom in the face of manorial lordship. The resulting picture of the northern Danelaw is much richer and more complex than we have seen hitherto. Scandinavian influence can no longer be a deus ex machina to explain every distinctive feature of Danelaw society; but we can now hope to gauge that impact more clearly. I am delighted to welcome a volume to the series which brings students and lay people up to date on some of the most controversial issues of English social history. N.P. Brooks University of Birmingham July 1999 Acknowledgements This book owes a great debt to the many friends and colleagues who have offered encouragement and advice during its genesis and composition. In particular I would like to acknowledge the major influence on my research played by the various members of the Department of Medieval History at the University of Birmingham, and its 'Friday Night Seminar', who have helped me to formulate my ideas and have forced me on many occasions to rethink assumptions and to look beyond the narrow focus of the northern Danelaw. I am, in particular, indebted to Steve Bassett for his patience and support during my years as a postgraduate student, and my Ph.D. examiners, John Blair and Nicholas Brooks, for their advice and encouragement as the thesis was developed into a book. Both Chris Dyer - who initially inspired me, through his work, to study the medieval period - and Chris Wickham have provided much advice and encouragement over many years. Chris Dyer, Chris Wickham, John Blair and Nicholas Brooks also kindly read part, or all, of the text and saved me from numerous errors. The book has also benefited from discussion with other friends and colleagues, some of whom have assisted by making available to me unpublished work: I am particularly grateful to Lesley Abrams, Ross Balzaretti, Julia Barrow, Andrew Chamberlain, Katy Cubitt, Ros Faith, Margaret Gelling, Guy Halsall, Carenza Lewis, Keith Lilley, Patrick Mitchell-Fox, Julian Richards, David Roffe, David Stocker, Alan Thacker and Gabor Thomas. I would like to thank John Palmer for making the Hull University Domesday database available to me and for his advice about the construction of my own database, the Cambridge Population Studies Group for funding my database, and Gill Bullock for helping me with data in-putting. My thanks are also due to Colin Merrony, Jo Mincher and Alex Norman for the other illustrations. I am also grateful to the British Academy for funding the period of post- doctoral research out of which this book developed, and to Bruce, Ron and Molly Coley for their support and hospitality during the earliest stages of research for this book. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the help and encouragement of a number of friends whose support helped me to finish this book. Kate Peters helped me to want to finish this project, which, in the end, made me do so. The final stages of the completion of this book were far more enjoyable than they would otherwise have been thanks to the love and support of Patrick Major. The book is dedicated to the people without whom it would not have been started or completed, my parents and CJW. Abbreviations /Ethelweard The Chronicle of Ethelweard, ed. A. Campbell (1962) AASRP Associated Architectural Societies' Reports and Papers Ag. Hist,, I.II H.P.R. Finberg (ed.) The Agrarian History of England and Wales I.II AD 43-1042 (1972) Ag. Hist., II H.E. Hallam (ed.) The Agrarian History of England and Wales II1042-1350 (1988) AgHR Agricultural History Review ANS Anglo-Norman Studies Antiq. J. Antiquaries Journal Arch. J. Archaeological Journal ASC Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (EHD, I, no.l) ASE Anglo-Saxon England ASSAH Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History Asser Asser's Life of King Alfred, in Asser's Life of Alfred the Great and Other Contemporary Sources, trans. S. Keynes and M. Lapidge (1983) B W. de G. Birch, Cartularium Saxonicum (3 vols, 1885-93) BAR British Archaeological Reports Burton Abbey Charters Anglo-Saxon Charters, II: Charters of Burton Abbey, ed. P.M. Sawyer (1979) CBA Council for British Archaeology Cox J.C. Cox, Notes on the Churches of Derbyshire (4 vols, 1875) DAJ Derbyshire Archaeological Journal (formerly Derbyshire Archaeological and Historical Journal) DB Domesday Book (ed. J. Morris, Nottingham- shire, 1977; Derbyshire, 1978; Lincolnshire, 1986; Yorkshire, 1986) EcHR Economic History Review EHD, I English Historical Documents I, c. 500-1042, ed. D.W. Whitelock (1955; 2nd edn 1979) Abbreviations ix EHD, II English Historical Documents II, 1042-1189, ed. D.C. Douglas and G.W. Greenaway (1953; 2nd edn 1981) EHR English Historical Review EME Early Medieval Europe EPNS English Place-Name Society EYC Early Yorkshire Charters, ed. W. Farrer and C.T. Clays (12 vols, 1914-65) Flores Historiarum Roger of Wendover's Flores Historiarum: Rogeri de Wendover, Chronica sive /lores historiarum, ed. H. Coxe, Rolls Series, 84 (4 vols, 1841-2) HE Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, ed. B. Colgrave and R.A.B. Mynors (1969) HSC Historia de Sancto Cuthberto (Symeonis monachi Opera omnia, ed. T. Arnold, Rolls Ser., 1882-5), I, 196-214 (selected chs trans, in EHD I, no.6) IBGT Institute of British Geographers, Transactions JBAA Journal of the British Archaeological Association JEPNS Journal of the English Place-Name Society JHG Journal of Historical Geography K J.M. Kemble, Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici (6 vols, 1839-48) LHA Journal of the Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology Life of Saint Guthlac Felix's Life of Saint Guthlac, ed. B. Colgrave (1956) PN Berks M. Gelling, The Place-Names of Berkshire, 3 pts, EPNS, 51-3 (1973-6) PN Derbs K. Cameron, The Place-Names of Derbyshire, 3 pts, EPNS, 27-9 (1959) PNERY A.M. Smith, The Place-Names of the East Riding of Yorkshire, EPNS, 14 (1937) PN Notts J.E.B. Glover, A. Mawer and F.M. Stenton, The Place-Names of Nottinghamshire, EPNS, 17 (1940) PNNRY A.H. Smith, The Place-Names of the North Riding of Yorkshire, EPNS, 5 (1928) PNWRY A.H. Smith, The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire, 8 pts, EPNS, 33 (1961-3) RA The Registrum Antiquissimum of the Cathedral Church of Lincoln, ed. C.W. Foster, 3 pts, Lincoln Record Society, vols 27-9 (1931-5)

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