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

385 Pages·2000·23.709 MB·English

by  Dawn M. Hadley

STUDIES IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF BRITAIN
General Editor: Nicholas Brooks
The Northern Danelaw
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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)