After Rome - The War For Britain // History Documentary

staying more northern england a land of open skies desolate hills ruins of the old world it's had many names over the years many people in the mid 10th century the winds of political change in northumbria at his back the last norse ruler of jorvik eric bloodaxe made a last-ditch effort to cross this moor accompanied by his chosen men and armed retainers seeking to reach his allies on the irish sea to live to fight another day he'd never make it betrayed and killed on route a solitary monument left here on a roadside still marks the passing of that last great viking ruler in britain the road he likely took bits of it still well paved at the time at least in part had been in use for close to a thousand years a great highway built by the old empire which once ruled in these parts [Music] vast construction projects to link up their glittering cities and walled strongholds used reused and marveled at for centuries to come by people with little knowledge of building in stone today as in many places in britain the modern motorway still cuts a swathe along that old path for after the romans abandoned britain at the start of the 5th century the continental heartlands collapsing around them many of their highways continued in use and many rulers would continue to hark back to that imperial majesty of days gone by but in truth it would be hundreds of years before any sort of comparable architecture would be attempted again much longer for an empire of comparable power to arise though bardic tradition often spins a different more heroic yarn and the tiny handful of written sources from the era add further trimming to the tail archaeology tells us that 5th 6th and 7th century britain was a post-apocalyptic landscape where once armies of tens of thousands had marched along well-paved roads to war now bands of a hundred or less decided the fates of entire kingdoms and to call them kingdoms even as we know the term is often a stretch polities at this time often amounting to little more than a river valley a handful of followers eking out in existence in the ruins of an old roman town but this isn't always the case there are hints of much larger identities too particularly in the north and the west where the roman way of life never really took hold much older traditions clinging on and in those years this more was no man's land a frontier zone not just between rival states but rival ways of life opposing incompatible cultures to the east pagan germanic settlers descendants of imperial mercenaries migrating boat people and opportunistic romano britons alike in archaeology these pre-coinage illiterate newcomers can be seen in tiny riverbound settlements cattle corrals burial mounds elaborate metalwork and over time by the year 600 or so princely burials complete with majestic grave goods the sign of the birth of kingship power and ever larger political organizations to the west of the moor sheltered by the steep hills of cumbria enclosed by the windswept irish sea sits the green fertile valley of the river eden once home to a kingdom truly worthy of that title a last holdout of the old world this wasn't anglo-saxon and it wasn't really roman either but british the massive land wall built by the emperor hadrian in the 2nd century a.d across the entirety of northern britain is perhaps the most visible remnant of the roman world left here today but a city on its western edge lingers on too once home to a city council able to dictate its own affairs today we know the place as carlisle and there's a good argument for this being the last city in roman britain for people continued to live here long after the western empire collapsed not only that but several fortresses along the wall show signs of continued occupation too at housted's vinderlander and bird oswald to name a few but did these people see themselves as romans maybe but just as likely is their re-embracing of their own pre-roman brethonic [Music] culture further south from carlisle brethonic place names like penrith still hark back to that time celtic holdouts turning to old customs for survival [Music] for the kingdom in question which once ruled in these parts and perhaps stretching north into galloway to the north the pennines to the south has a british name too sung in songs for hundreds of years all the way down to today [Music] we know it as regeth forged in the fires and chaos of the fifth century their ancestors had been here long before the romans had come their descendants would long outlive the [Music] empire little remains of that ancient kingdom now a scattering of hill forts a handful of inscriptions and place names the britons leave scant little trace in the archaeological record but according to many scholars this was one of the most important of those british polities to emerge in the aftermath of rome [Music] arguably the most important of the hen ogleth the old north just one of a plethora of rival kingdoms that arose in the wake of the roman withdrawal at some like gaddafin in modern day lothian we see older tribal identities re-emerging at others like old klute and perhaps regeth they are entirely new renegotiations of old tribal identities faced with the uncertainty of a new world today the hen ogleth is largely forgotten in england for the most part no museums or monuments can be found on the landscape and yet the old north lives on in a rich corpus of stories spanning 1500 years passed on one generation to the next tales like that of yurion regeth's most famous king praised embardic tradition as a smiter of the anglians in many battles champion of britain and part inspiration for the arthur legend [Music] though his is just one example of a vast array of stories that miraculously survive to the present some of the oldest in all of europe for though the years 400 to 600 are some of the least documented in british history in wales more information can be found than the previous or next two centuries for them it's the age of heroes when the gallow roman historian gregory of tor wrote his lauded history of the franks in the latter 6th century an ambitious attempt to record the history of the germanic barbarians who now held sway in what was once gaul [Music] he describes a class of gallow roman bishops and aristocrats still holding positions of high influence lands titles and political power within the frankish administration still living in many of the roman cities and continuing to use their institutions when the venerable bead wrote his history in the 8th century the first real attempt at an objective telling of events for centuries there is no trace of anything of the sort just battles and bloodshed and violence between two diametrically opposed peoples the situation in britain seems to have been particularly warlike and resentful bitter enmity felt by people speaking different languages and of a different custom [Music] eventually the gallow romans would influence the already christian francs so much they would stop using their own language integrating into the population for french is a romance language in britain it would be different in the anglo-saxon areas their pagan ways of life and language would dominate but in the west where ancestry from the old north would become a badge of honour for later welsh dynasties forming an overarching backdrop to the struggle between saxon and britain the british language brethonic well on the way to becoming welsh would become the primary language replacing the latin and irish that had made inroads too in centuries to come britons and english would define themselves against each other and would continue to do so into modern times and in the mid 6th century amidst all the bloodshed and the warfare something else happened too famine drought snow in mid-summer and in 536 in the far off eastern roman empire still surviving half of the imperial majesty that was rome still linked to britain by disparate trade seen in the archaeological record at places like tintagel in cornwall the historian procopius talks of the sun going dim for months on end it's a strange tale in an otherwise completely rational and reliable account by this well-respected court historian part of the emperor justinian's inner circle and yet today modern science corroborates the account tree ring evidence suggesting a significant decline in vegetation all over eurasia from around 5 35 all the way until 5 55. we don't know exactly what caused it but volcanic eruption might be the culprits ash entering the atmosphere blocking the sun causing temperatures to drop crops to fail and people to die a literal dark age and then we have the plague in ireland the annals of ulster record the deaths of at least seven important rulers to disease in britain it's much the same all over europe in the mid 6th century it's thought as much as half of the population met miserable ends to the very first outbreak of bubonic plague at the city of virgonium an unusually well post-roman settlement a complete collapse of the population took place the city limits shrinking from 79 to 10 hectares new wooden structures now overlaying the previous stone foundations the people here having little connection to those once mighty colonnades and still visible imperial remnants the intense bleakness of this era beset as it was by plague famine and war may well have left such a mark on the psyche of britain that it was later remembered as the concept of the wasteland in medieval literature [Music] it is in this post-apocalyptic landscape unimaginably terrible conditions the mostly unrecorded struggle between britain and saxon was waged this is the untold tale of those forlorn kingdoms war leaders without armies kings without kingdoms [Music] a tale pieced together bit by bit from the depths of time one of the most incredible ever told this is the entire history of the old north an epic tale spanning some 300 years from the end of roman britain to the early middle ages so get yourself comfortable there's a lot to take in from constantinople to scotland i traveled all over europe to film it it's well over three hours long and it took me three years to make but first a quick word from the sponsor of this video a long time supporter of the channel and one of my favorite streaming services on the web it's magellan tv for just a small monthly fee you can find thousands of documentaries on practically any subject you can think of history geography science culture and much much more all streamed directly to your phone your tablet and your smart tv my current recommendation is justinian last of the romans and we'll be seeing much more of him later but you can also find loads more on rome ancient history and medieval britain all of the good stuff now i've teamed up with magellan to offer you an exclusive free trial head on over to try.magellantv.com forward slash history time or click on my link in the description below now back to antiquity [Music] by the mid mid-530s a well-informed citizen of the eastern mediterranean may well have assumed that a roman revival was on the way [Music] the restoration of the entire western empire for the eastern empire hadn't just survived the 5th century calamities that beset its western counterpart safe behind the massive theodosian walls greatest in the world built in the 440s to keep out the huns for decades now it had thrived still firmly holding on to all of its immensely rich eastern possessions including egypt parts of mesopotamia and the levantine shore as the west fell apart piece by piece riven by internal revolt thrall to the whims of germanic invaders by the later fifth century the east found itself expertly governed by the firm hand of zeno head of a sorely needed militaristic infusion from inside the empire in the form of the assorians fierce mountain people of anatolia by 5 18 after a severe crackdown on corruption and the pursuit of firm defensive policies zeno's chosen successor anastasius was able to leave behind a massive treasury overflowing with gold 23 million solidly the stage was set for perhaps the most momentous reign of any single roman emperor within just 10 years of coming to power the domestic achievements of justinian were remarkable in 534 a groundbreaking new law code was created which would permanently alter european society in 537 the ies sophia largest christian building ever constructed was built in constantinople forming the center of eastern roman society for a thousand years to come this was an age of incredible architectural achievement the very pinnacle of roman development but it was justinian's foreign policy that was really remarkable to the north of the alps the franks catholic allies of a catholic emperor dominated exacting tribute from all of the kingdoms around them enjoying good trade links with the empire and fostering ties even further afield in scandinavia britain and beyond commerce between east and west boomed finally things were looking good [Music] and by the 530s the eastern empire was finally strong enough to intervene directly in the germanic west resting back total control of the mediterranean seaways ending the piracy of the feared vandals scourge of the seas for a hundred years once and for all on the distant eastern frontier after five years of brutal warfare an ambitiously titled eternal peace had been signed with sassanid persia in 532 allowing justinian to focus on his real target africa [Music] [Applause] seized by the vandals close to a century before within just two years the vandalic kingdom was dead its last rulers killed or sent off to exile on the persian frontier [Music] after a century of outside occupation the north african coast once the breadbasket of the empire was back in roman hands [Music] and by 536 led by one of the greatest generals in all of history belisarius the mighty city of rome itself was retaken the forces of the austro-gothic kingdom pushed back behind the fortress walls of ravenna whether the now well-integrated citizens of rome applauded this victory remains unclear [Music] but a bitterly fought reconquest of the italian mainland ensued ultimately leading to the slow death of the austro-goths as a people the fact that the kingdom had been largely peaceful with latin speakers and romans holding positions of power and influence throughout all echelons of society didn't matter to justinian nor the fact that they'd been christian for decades and largely left roman society intact fostering great works of art and literacy as far as he was concerned they were barbarians if they resisted all were put to the sword [Music] and that's when things started to go wrong though often lauded as the greatest of all emperors overseer of a remarkable change of fortunes the change was to be short-lived and stranger accounts of justinian exist too at the very beginning of his reign justinian had ordered the massacre of tens of thousands of his own people during the nico riots and he never fully shook off the reputation as an oppressor in the strange secret history written by court historian procopius justinian roames the halls of his palace at night ever restless demonic even able to detach his head from his body and float around he was a restless figure for sure being in charge of the most powerful state in the world must do that to a person then in 535 writing from the newly conquered metropolis of carthage in procopius's public history an especially well-respected source at the very heart of the imperial power structure that we hear of an especially unusual event during this year a most dread portent took place the sun gave forth its light without brightness like the moon during the whole year and it seemed exceedingly like the sun in eclipse for the beams it shared were not clear nor such as it is accustomed to shed the similarly lauded contemporary writer cassiodorus author of a now lost multi-part epic on the history of the goths speaks of a similar event and it's not just in the roman world that we hear of this dimming of the sun writing much later but using his own independent sources the venerable bead talks of solar eclipses in 538 and 540 though of course his dates are slightly off so too michael the syrian today using modern science this unusual solar activity can actually be seen in tree ring records in the 1980s mike bailey a leading expert on dendo chronology spotted unusually slow tree growth in western europe and scandinavia between 536 and 545 leading to many scholars referring to 535 and 536 as the year without sun in ireland a failure of bread was recorded in 538 in britain heavy snowfall and distress among men its worst weather in a century snow even fell in the euphrates river valley crops failing throughout italy and southern iraq in arabia there was famine followed by flood [Music] and remarkably this seems to have been a global event in china a major drought was recorded where yellow dust rained down like snow [Music] and actual snow fell in the following august ruining the crops [Music] in japan the emperor announced that money cannot cure hunger on the other side of the world the colossal city of teotihuacan greatest the americas had ever seen collapsed for unknown reasons and similar collapses can be seen all over the continent ice cores from the andes tell us that severe aridity descended on the moche civilization of north coastal peru and drought is well documented in north america all over the world climatic record suggests that the climate was awful in 535 for five years and then took decades to recover by 554 in ireland things were still notably bad and similar reports are found all over eurasia today we know that in the mid 6th century something did happen it can be seen in the climatological record as well as the contemporary sources given the wealth of evidence numerous writers have even gone so far to suggest the sixth century to be the single most abrupt climatic occurrence of the last two millennia but what caused the problem well it's unclear there was no scientific method back then and no one bore witness to the actual cause of the event just the repercussions a giant asteroid perhaps a comet colliding with the earth such a thing has been seen before with the tunguska event of 1908 which flattened some 80 million siberian trees over an area well over 2 000 kilometers altering the carbon content of the atmosphere in the process [Music] the most likely scenario however is one we humans know all too well [Music] in 1816 a massive volcanic eruption in indonesia caused so much material to be pushed upwards into the atmosphere that the effects were felt as far away as britain [Music] this so-called year without summer is just one recent example of the volcanic power of the earth [Music] a similarly devastating eruption of heckler in iceland in around 1000 bc could have caused a similarly world-changing climatic event but where was this volcano we can't be sure but one candidate is el chichan in chiapas mexico [Music] another is the ring of fire the long chain of volcanoes between samoa and sumatra in the pacific and southeast asia homeland of the polynesians making tracks out into the wide pacific whatever the cause for it the scientific evidence suggests a dramatic slowing of tree growth an apocalyptic image of a mysterious dry fog rolling over the land sending the world into darkness for a year colder temperatures crop failures drought people might have feared whether the sun would ever shine again and then just when the romans might have thought that things were getting back to normal once the abundant harvests of the previous years had been consumed and perhaps one of the worst strokes of luck ever seen in history bubonic plague arrived in constantinople an entirely new disease developed from close human interaction with domestic animals which no one had any immunity to [Music] a ticking time bomb ever since the domestication of animals some 10 000 years before what followed was by far the worst epidemic the world had ever seen not even the emperor was safe [Music] seeming to originate at the egyptian port city of alexandria where it had arrived from who knows where possibly eurasia or africa the disease spread far and wide alexandria was one of the greatest port cities in the eastern mediterranean with links all over the known world by 542 the plague arrived in the capital [Music] the 6th century church historian describes what happened next in grim detail great pus-filled boobos developing on orifices faces swelling eyes bloody [Music] those stricken often lost their minds entirely before the end [Music] and even if one recovered the disease would strike again and again and again another eyewitness john of ephesus wrote that holmes suddenly became tombs masters and servants alike dying in droves with no one left to bury the dead their corpses mingled together in their bedrooms john managed to escape the city only to find the situation much the same in the countryside [Music] corpses littering roads festering in the sun cattle roamed aimlessly with no one to tend to them fields abundant in grain they untilled no one left to reap or gather the crop even the emperor himself was stricken laying low with particularly nasty boobos on his armpits though with the help of the best medical care in the world at the time he survived ordering colossal mass graves to be built plague ships overloaded with corpses sent again and again to dump the bodies into the black sea all in all more than 50 percent of the city's population is thought to have died and constantinople had links all over europe in the east and now the west [Music] with similar levels of casualties would take place by 554 the annals of ulster record the plague arriving in britain across the world all in all around 100 million people are thought to have died and this was just the first of hundreds of outbreaks to strike eurasia again and again and again for hundreds of years to come well into the eighth century there's a good argument that this is the moment the roman empire collapsed for good and as we shall see things would only get worse by 5 46 given respite to lick their wounds and reform for one last final fight for their very way of life the austrogoths were back in full force led by a charismatic new king totila rome was sacked after a year-long siege its walls torn down its people sent away [Music] for after this third sack in 150 years totilla angrily threatened to now turn the place into grazing land for his sheep in revenge for the aggressive attack on his people but belisarius isn't remembered as one of the greatest generals in history for nothing and a vicious back and forth war followed for years to come with rome changing hands yet again [Music] within a few decades yet more germanic warriors would arrive to smash their way into the peninsula still pagan and fiercely warlike these were the barbarians that justinian had feared and yet the lombards were lord south by vengeful eastern roman diplomacy if they couldn't have italy then the austro-goths certainly couldn't either [Music] in britain too the advance of the germanic settlers began anew heading westwards along the thames into the middle borderlands viraconium sirens esther and other towns too falling into saxon hands [Music] and particularly in the north with the foundation and expansion of a new kingdom on the eastern seaboard carved out by the keels of anglian warlords we know it as benicia and we'll be seeing much more of them later but most dangerous of all far to the east over the vast plains to the north of the black sea [Music] avar steppe nomads horsemen of the apocalypse made flesh continued their westward march tens of thousands of them once the undisputed rulers of inner asia now refugees driving hundreds of thousands of pack animals before them to pastures new for the droughts of the 530s hadn't just hit agricultural areas they'd extended far into central asia mongolia and siberia too this vast ocean of grassland already marginal at the best of times in many areas became unlivable setting off a chain of events that would lead the avar horde all the way to the walls of constantinople itself losers in a conflict on the other side of the world just as the huns had done before them and others would do time and time again over the centuries to come the horde moved west skirting around the north shores of the caspian sea leaving death in their wake eventually they moved onto the fertile grasslands north of the caucasus and from there the hungarian plane subduing all they came across creating a new empire stretching from the rhine to the vulgar from the baltic to the balkans [Music] driving before them entire nations of slavic refugees permanently altering the patchwork of states that would develop in eastern europe [Music] and leading to mass population movements into the frontiers of the helpless eastern empire already massively weakened by losing half of its tax base to the plague in just a few short decades the world had changed irrevocably the western empire was dead for good and the eastern hung on by the skin of its teeth [Music] never again able to interfere as far west as it had done under justinian harassed by constant warfare faced with recurrent plague epidemics civil strife dictatorships [Music] the eastern empire now very nearly died entirely [Music] by the 570s the avar state was one of the largest realms europe had ever known when they weren't raiding the empire the elite avar horselords and their slavic subjects all resolute pagans extorted it for cash content to exist parasitically from massive peace payments after year the imperial coffers ran a little smaller the avars got a little richer still visible today in immensely elaborate burials found all over the hungarian plain in the space of just a few decades from the end of justinian's reign the imperial tax base is thought to have shrunk by approximately 60 percent as a result of avar and slavic land grabs [Music] and then of course the persians were back justinian's so-called eternal peace lasting just a few decades as the avars beset the west besieging the great city itself the persians took the east seizing mesopotamia the levant even the christian stronghold of egypt [Music] and then in the early 7th century from the south this time an entirely new force arrived to sweep away all in its path for the muslims had arrived the mortal enemy of constantinople for a thousand years to come firmly now on the defensive for 400 years the east no longer had the luxury of direct involvement in the west any post-roman holdouts there were on their own meanwhile in britain long gone were the days when tens of thousands of soldiers marched out of city gates to war when armadas sailed past the great sea fortresses of the western headlands [Music] great construction projects undertaken on the orders of the emperor oceans and continents away all that had been a thing of the past for more than a hundred years and despite the immense leaps forward in our archaeological understanding of this era made in recent decades most of what happened still remains shrouded in mystery just one solitary contemporary source survives [Music] penned by a romano british monk writing in late roman latin vernacular sometime in the sixth century [Music] probably before the plague which swept through europe in the 540s and likely not earlier than 500 though scholarly consensus usually places the work towards the end of the middle of the 6th century say the early 530s [Music] and that source it's difficult to really understand it's not a history there aren't any dates rather it's a fiery sermon the writings of an incredibly angry man disgusted by the actions of the warring kings of the island [Music] and of course the historical section of gildas is highly unreliable he wasn't a historian nor was he particularly concerned with accuracy and yet as fate would have it it remains the only source we have everything else being lost to time much of the text is made up of biblical quotes and it's not entirely obvious when our writer is being truthful and when he is simply launching scathing attacks on people he hates yet nonetheless it does provide an incredible glimpse into this otherwise dark period and guild us he is not happy the work is called de excedio et conquesto britanniere and in english the language of gilda's enemies on the ruin and conquest of britain divided into three sections part one provides a brief overview of the events of the previous hundred years or so since the romans pulled out of britain in fiery language it speaks of devastation by pictish and scottish raiders saxons and anglian pirates ravaging the shorelines of the north sea the barbarians push us back to the sea the sea pushes us back to the barbarians between these two kinds of death we are either drowned or slaughtered so dire was the situation that several appeals for aid were sent to the imperial roman court at ravenna to the emperor onorius and later the magister militant edius flavius these appeals are now known as the groans of the britons but the collapsing western empire had its own issues and no help could be sent gildas goes on to describe further events a number of the wretched survivors were caught in the mountains and butchered wholesale others their spirits broken by hunger went to surrender to the enemy they were forced to be slaves forever others made for lands beyond the sea and many britons did indeed cross the sea heading to brittany in gaul where they established new polities remaining in contact with their island brethren for centuries to come and according to gildas for a time the ones that stayed in britain found themselves under the sway of a powerful ruler a tyrant who very much in the roman imperial tradition sent for military help from the continent a call soon answered by germanic mercenaries the 9th century writer nenius names this british ruler as lord vortigern bede names the mercenaries hengest and horsa the rest as they say is history vortigerne's incompetent defense of britain the revolt of the saxons and finally by around the year 500 a successful british resistance organized according to gildas by one ambrosius aurelianus descended from romans according to much later sources this is the age of arthur by gilda's day we're told that there has largely been peace for a generation by that time five great kings ruled the southern lands from the river d to land's end part two of gilda's work consists of a harsh condemnation of them all as this remains the only contemporary information about these rulers gildas is of particular interest to scholars of british history first we have constantine of damnonia the deceitful usually thought to have ruled in cornwall where many landmarks are still named for him next we have aurelius canonis who we know next to nothing about then we have vortiporius ruler of david in southern wales conoglazus probably a sub-king of gwyneth in northern wales and finally we have male gwen ruler of gweneth the so-called dragon of the island perhaps referring to his stronghold on anglesey [Music] he receives the most hate of all from gildas almost described as a high king over the others and though the later genealogies of gwyneth and heroic poetry place male gwyn perhaps ruling from his stronghold at castle de ganway a generous patron of the church [Music] the descendant of canaver an old north prince of man organ who came down to fight off the irish nothing of the sort is stated here and nothing at all on the other kingdoms in britain these sorts of things simply didn't concern gilda's only the faults of the western britons south of hadrian's wall part three is a similar attack on the clergy of the time apparently people still sacrificed to heathen gods not to mention the personal depravity of their rulers and that's it only one written work during a nearly 200 year period many more questions than answers [Music] who was gildas and where was he from he was clearly an educated man the sheer fact of his writing makes that so living in an almost entirely illiterate age [Music] yet gildas still uses terms like governors watchmen and bishops titles likewise found on inscribed memorial stones from western britain some conception of rome surviving perhaps but was he aware of how far imperial splendor had fallen or did he and his countrymen assume everything was normal well it seems clear that gildas was not happy with the events of his time and aware of a vague decline in the fortunes of society extremely well-read in the writings of the classical world and possessing a good grasp of latin vernacular gildus clearly the result of a classical education in an insular school seems considerably better informed than later writers such as beed and nanius quite simply he may well have been one of the few educated men left [Music] educated at one of the last schools even for he was the recipient of a traditional roman style education somewhere in the west of britain st patrick would have been put through similar education though his latin isn't as good a product of his education being cruelly cut short by slave traders on the irish sea [Music] one recipient we know much more about however of about the same era was augustine of hippo his parents were curious local aristocrats [Music] though even for them people of means it was expensive to put their child through school at one point they had to pull him out due to financial difficulties so gildas was clearly from a high status family one candidate for his upbringing is sirencester in the cotswolds where significant evidence of post-roman occupation has been found though splendid this was not a scattering of houses and halls in the centre of the old amphitheatre a much reduced population who simply didn't have the numbers to defend the perimeter of the town anymore just a few decades earlier in the mid 5th century intricately decorated mosaics were being laid at chedworth villa life going on as normal much as it was in many places on the island by the 6th century it's a grim image of what would become of that post-roman [Music] world another candidate for gildas is found on the shropshire farmland near roxata the ruins of viraconium the third or fourth largest city in rome and britain unusually well preserved because of no one built on top of it the place has allured in archaeologists and artists alike for centuries from byron to mortimer wheeler to a e houseman interested in what it represents for the fleetingness of existence as much as the ancient ruins themselves [Music] once a colossal roman basilica could be seen here huge pillars and roof one of the largest north of the alps [Music] by the early 5th century use of the building eventually stopped perhaps it was closed for safety reasons the locals no longer having the means to repair it [Music] soon enough a number of wattle and daub buildings were built within the place being used for industrial purposes a workshop perhaps the roof was eventually taken down the shell used once more as a marketplace [Music] yet there does seem to have been some continuity here from the roman era though there is no evidence at roxata of the kind of mediterranean pottery found at other sites in western britain like tintagel and cadbury castle was it too far inland and had society and trade links really broken down that much the fear of bandits and brigands keeping people more local perhaps [Music] there are small bits of evidence to suggest the place could have been home to a bishopric maybe this was the domain of one of the tyrants chided by gildas certainly a figure who lived here was strong enough to build a more moderately sized though nonetheless large for the time timber hall surrounded by a series of timber buildings and gildas wasn't strictly right in his thinking that tyrants were a new thing though those of his own time undoubtedly seemed to have operated on a much smaller scale tyrants had been a common feature of british society for centuries even before the emperor constantine had himself crowned caesar at the city of york in 306 held a loft on the shields of his men third century emperors of britannia had all been the same underneath the propaganda and pomp military strong men seizing political and societal control [Music] and in 406 after a colossal horde of atlantic horsemen swavik longswords and vandal refugees entire nations on the move crossed over the frozen ride on the last day of the year the last day the romans could boast of total control of the situation in gaul when a certain british general crossed over the channel his own machinations in mind we get our first hints of the post-roman system that would ultimately develop in britain constantine iii we're told by the historian zosimus adopted the name in respect for the first christian emperor of 70 years before was the third tyrant in as many months the others one apparently a civilian from a city council perhaps one of the first independent british rulers in centuries ended up conveniently dead [Music] leaving just constantine to make his grasp for power following in the footsteps of the late 4th century general magnus maximus constantine stripped the province of soldiers and headed to the quickening maelstrom of gaul appointing a briton and a frank as his right-hand man historians have hypothesized constantine's true identity to be british whether he sought to save the empire or break away entirely remains unclear but he seems to have steered clear of the germanic invaders the emperor onorius ultimately sending a force under a mercenary saris the goth to fight him [Music] he'd end up dead killed by one of his own lieutenants by the time another tyrant riotomas from brittany went to fight in gaul taking a large force of many thousands with him the army opposing him no longer professed any loyalty to rome they were the hearthguard of yorick one of the mightiest of all gothic war leaders successor to alaric the sacker of rome the king of the visigothic state which now sprawled over much of what was once the imperial provinces of hispania and gaul riotimus a candidate for the inspiration for king arthur known from contemporary letters as well as a later historian jordanas would be defeated by yorick and then just three years later the germanic mercenaries who resided over the rump of the empire now confined entirely to italy decided to depose the last emperor the western empire had already lingered on for more than 60 years dominated by germanic generals but now it was dead after pulling the strings for many years the leader of the army the germanic general odo akka seized total control instead where consuls and emperors had once reigned kingship had now been born but wait a letter you may ask well yes literacy never died on the continent and thankfully there are many continental sources aside from gildas with which we can use to construct a basic narrative of events in britain during the years 400 to 600 porchester castle hampshire it may look like a medieval castle today but almost all of the fortifications here are much older [Music] here stands some of the greatest surviving roman architecture in western europe [Music] just one of a string of fortifications built all around britain towards the end of the third century to protect the province in increasingly dangerous times [Music] from brancaster in the north to porchester in the west and further north still signal towers lined the northeastern shore of northumberland great fortresses flanked britain's western seaboard too but carlisle lancaster cardiff and more facing the grim irish sea home to increasingly daring pirates [Music] and of course along the northern frontier hadrian's wall manned in part even after the empire fell yet even all these defenses weren't enough many raids are recorded and no doubt many more remain unrecorded [Music] the most significant comes in 368 when a so-called conspiracy of picts scots atticotti and saxons are recorded by the historian amianus marcellinus but great roman war leaders could still be found at this time and after a year of rampant violence the revolt was suppressed by a famed general from spain the father of a future emperor count theodosius and yet the situation wasn't as simple as that one of the foremost military positions in britain the duke of the saxon shore in 367 may have been a german times were changing and roman britain by this time was already a shadow of what it had once been in recession for hundreds of years its towns had gradually shrunk in size its great buildings gradually dismantled replaced by gardens and pavilions its population standing at around two million by the end of the third century by the middle of the fifth even long before the plague of justinian it had declined by a half [Music] when constantine headed to the continent in 407 the men he took were a far cry of the well-drilled armies of previous generations by now soldiers were largely hereditary living with their families in static held positions it was around this time that the very last coins ever produced in roman britain would be minted a situation that rapidly hastened the decline leading to a barter economy currency wouldn't return until the 7th century and with the economy went the last vestiges of the regular army no longer being paid salaries in places like bird oswald on hadrian's wall once the roman fort of banner the men had no choice but to fight not for pay now but for their families their very way of life it's no wonder that germanic mercenaries began to be recruited by fearful romano britons they needed the protection not only from outsiders but from their own neighbors having been occupied for close to 400 years many in the lowlands south east had spoken latin as a first language not british and had little in common with their more barbarous northern neighbours it was these most romanized and pacified areas that suffered the most germanic culture being perceptible in the archaeological record as early as 4 30 a.d but no doubt newcomers came in too following distant kinsmen serving in the roman army by around 400 a.d events on the continent almost forced this to happen the losers in power struggles against their turingian and frankish neighbours the old saxons living along the german shore were similarly beset by shifting unpredictable shorelines and increasingly deadly climatic conditions a migrant crisis is very possible all of which was later neatly collated into the tale of hengest and horsa and the insurgents of the mercenaries but as far as archaeology is concerned it wasn't all bad some areas continued in much the same way they had before [Music] in the third century the largely self-governed britannia primer had proved remarkably resilient and many might have assumed that life would go on in the 5th century perhaps hoping for a revival of the empire tying in neatly with the concept of late antiquity rather than early medieval and life did go on in many areas viraconium shows little change in the initial post-roman period direct links continuing via the western seaways even after 476 baths continued to be used until just after 500 in wales and beyond the wall long since having been governed by auxiliaries native chiefs allied to the roman course the collapse wasn't anywhere near as severe for here north of the wall the far reaches of the roman world society remained different bordered by the war-like picts at eternal war with the empire it had to be [Music] within the roman empire a firm division existed between civilian and soldier the latter was a career path not a way of life [Music] but on the frontier where life was harder no such division existed everyone was a [Music] soldier so in the 5th century in the south mercenaries were necessary and they weren't just germans [Music] at viraconium the tombstone of a fifth century irish warrior has been found conor x roughly translated as hound king his is just one of hundreds of inscriptions like it often written in latin as well as an early irish script ogham found all over the west of britain testament to warrior mercenaries sailing to make their fortunes in britain and over time irish place names along the western coast suggest widespread settlements too a similar story to the germans in the east reoccupied hill forts in gweneth like gone bodawan on the flynn peninsula hint at a growing unease of the irish sea this is the period st patrick was seized as a slave by irishmen several southern welsh kingdoms like david and brekanog even traced their lineages back to irish free booters in gweneth however the situation is different they traced their lineage to another region where mercenaries weren't necessary a war leader named canaver the old north but what of the last roman outposts in the north the largest cities chester lincoln and york must surely have seen some continuation at least in the early 5th century possessing their own independent city councils they were simply too impressive to be abandoned entirely and on the western edge of hadrian's wall carlisle is a good candidate for roman britain's last city surviving well into the 7th century we have confused mentions of historical events too surviving in much later welsh poetry [Music] cole hen for example the old king cole from nursery rhymes has been suggested as the last ducks britanniarum of york living in the early 400s coal sits firmly at the top of a multitude of royal pedigrees of old north kingdoms though the evidence is flimsy it's at least possible that he declared himself king of britannia secunda sometime after 4 10 establishing some sort of hereditary monarchy and of course outside the cities we have the hill forts massive iron age fortresses sometimes reoccupied in the post-roman period from maiden castle to dennis palace to cadbury castle 5th century site of archaeologist leslie alcock's search for king arthur but that's a story for another time gildas seems to have been writing after a lengthy period of peace with the anglo-saxons the borders may have been fixed for a while since the end of the 5th century perhaps [Music] then in the later 6th century the wars begin again in earnest interestingly archaeologically few items of anglo-saxon origin have been found in western britain before around 5 50 but this would soon change moving into gloucester sirens esther bath dorset and in the north beginning to cross over the penins into the western lands the world they entered up there though was a far cry from the one the romans had left behind for 150 years is a long time and what of those lands north of the wall the least romanized portions of roman britain [Music] the very edge of the empire well as far as gildas was concerned they were semi-barbarians early welsh tradition even hints of a war between the western and the northern britons in the sixth century with enmity between melgwin of gwyneth and yurian of regeth and though it's clearly based on fantastical travellers tales he himself never having visited britain we do have one contemporary account of the north for this we must turn back to the eastern empire the writings of procopius in his history of the wars of justinian there is a very brief somewhat confused mention of a diplomatic mission arriving in britain the emperor apparently still laid claim to the island and we're told tried to offer it to the austrogoths in return for sicily looking past the hearsay and myth contained in his writings procopius describes the south as very different to the north divided by a great land wall the southerners lived in a civilized prosperous land inhabited by britons angles and frisians to the north however a great dark forest coated the land peopled by wandering shades and monsters a savage landscape too tainted for proper human occupation peopled instead by wild beasts serpents and the spirits of the dead fifteen hundred years ago the landscape of britain looked very different to today it was wilder back then huge forests coating much of the wilderness areas stalked by wolves wild cats and bears no place for the faint of heart and to the north of hadrian's wall where woodland still thrives one of the greatest in all of britain still stood largely untouched the great caledonian forest when considering this overgrown mass of oak and old growth wilderness it's easy to see how half a world away in the eastern empire tales of evil spirits and half men took hold for there is a good argument that as far as the christian romans were concerned the people up here still did worship devils and demons the old gods many having become syncretized with roman ones long ago and thus encouraged during earlier times still holding influence over the forest dwellers up here where roman rule had only extended briefly the tribal societies instead acting as clients outside the very extreme limits of the empire ancient celtic traditions were still strong the celtic pantheon still worshipped of course christianity had made firm inroads too and a scattering of publicly christian tribal kings ruled over the populace regional rulers subject to over kings often fighting amongst themselves when rome fell most here carried on in much the same lifestyle as they had for millennia without much concern for the outside world and during that insular pre-literate time when most evenings would be spent huddled around half fire storytelling wasn't just a good pastime it was integral to the way society held itself together the britons loved a good story we know that [Music] a tale of a hero to inspire of a tyrant to warn a monster to scare children and during the long winter nights with darkness often coming at 3 or 4 p.m these stories were even more important the greatest tale tellers of all ultimately became heroes in their own right for this wasn't just a land without the written word but a land where stories reputation was integral to the power of kings how indeed to hold together a kingdom without them the best bards of all seem to have been hugely influential figures in their own right being paid inordinate amounts of riches to promote their patrons the wilyist regularly passing between royal patrons during their careers depending on who promised to pay the most [Music] a passing caravan of a bard would have been a sight to behold armed retainers luxuries from across the known world horses animals in a time when most people had nothing the bardic life was something to aspire towards and to love they were the celebrities of the day and in the mid 6th century the greatest of them all remembered in future generations as the lord of all bards was taleasin in the latter 6th century taliasin worked at many courts at least three that we know of he was a pr specialist a spin doctor for whoever could pay the most out of the 13 or so vying kings of the old north his most famous patron of all however and the poems that remain most lauded today was the great king of reggaeth yorian initially a straightforward caught barred during his own lifetime taliasin is also a prime example of the shape-shifting power of oral tradition [Music] by the time his stories were finally written down by the 14th century he had become a literal shape-shifter and a druidic time traveller [Music] the possessor of occult knowledge and spiritual law transformed over the years to suit the political needs and societal agendas of rewriters from 9th century nationalists to 14th century arthurian romances such was his popularity and renowned by the high middle ages that he was used as a floating figure to tie together any and all writings in an 11th century saints life he travels across the sea to brittany acting as a sage and prophesying the birth of a saint king [Music] in the welsh epic the mabinogian he follows a mythical king to war in ireland ultimately by the 13th century becoming a supporter of flewellen the great by which time he'd morphed into the archetype of the charismatic riddling sorcerer is also linked to pre-christian sorcerers like gwydian and merlin a similarly metamorphosizing figure based on a 6th century bard as much as he is to christianity acting as a bridge between traditional welsh law and the more modern ecclesiastical learning of medieval times yet even so deep down there is truth in the stories fundamental aspects of the tales which remain from as much as a thousand years before and his stories aren't alone long before these later tales were written down at the beginning of the 9th century historia brutonum traditionally attributed to the historian nenius we're given five names of famous poets working during the later 6th century [Music] the writings of all of these figures and more still survive today poured over by armies of scholars over the years using literary analysis much older sections can still be located within the masses of later editions today the five ancient books of wales remain some of the oldest european literature found anywhere and are integral to any study of the sixth century old north taliasin's book is one and eren's another but we also have the black book of kamathan the red book of hergist and finally the mabinogian often known as the white book of wreth bede greatest historian of his age who knew just about everything that could be known during the eighth century barely mentions regeth godothin alt klute or elmeth they only survive through bardic poetry but does this world exist outside the stories what tale does the archaeology tell [Music] brian hope taylor always had a certain flair for finding things he was a born archaeologist [Music] the story goes that in the early 1950s an artist at the time with no university education he stared at aerial photographs of a northumbrian plane cutting edge technology at the time he pinpointed several buildings he wished to excavate within a few years upon arriving at the place it didn't take long for his hunch to be proved right [Music] out in the fields below the imposing mountain of yevering bell a miraculous needle in a haystack hope taylor precisely pinpointed a high status 6th century anglian settlement and not just any either as decades of further study would show this was the anglian settlement a royal palace very probably the ed gefthren bead talks off in his history [Music] where king edwin the first christian king of the english reigned an immense cattle corral timber halls and even an amphitheatre-like structure have been revealed and on the mountain overlooking it all an earlier massive iron age hill fort occupied throughout roman times and after yevoring had already been a high status capital for hundreds of years by the time the anglians arrived a center of power for the britons well into the latter fifth and early sixth century [Music] and it's not alone either excavations at bambra castle the other famous capital of benicia suggested not just earlier british occupation but a possible roman settlement too a lighthouse or a beacon tower perhaps unfortunately most of the evidence is gone [Music] at places like edinburgh rock thought to have been capital of the gedothin excavations are difficult more than a thousand years of occupation have removed much of the past as the place was built over again and again by succeeding generations but in some places that weren't occupied again hill forts remain [Music] the cheviot hills near yevering are one example shown in immense earthworks amidst farmland this was a powerful place during roman [Music] times and hill forts during the roman period and after were very common up here hundreds of them have been found the idea we get is of a militarized zone unlike the lowland areas which were romanized and pacified raids from picts and scots remained common up here and war was the norm [Music] indeed in the north and west indigenous people lived in enclosed settlements the same as they had before the romans came their lives had changed little during roman times [Music] one of the most important of all is also found in lothian heartland of the goddathin at treprain lore where not only a substantial reinforcing of the walls took place at the end of the 5th century but massive hordes of roman wealth were found in 1919 generally interpreted as protection payments made to client kings in return for manning the northern frontier much had changed since the emperor septimoseverus marched north at the beginning of the 3rd century to shatter the mai tai and the caledoni by the 5th century the romans had to rely on client kings and what of those kings [Music] in most continental provinces of the romans like hispania and gaul centuries of elite participation in the roman world led to a near total breakdown of native culture and language replaced by latin in professional and everyday life in britain though the process was encouraged it was never fully completed in everyday life brethonic remained the language of choice for much of the island particularly in the north an area not widely settled by romans from elsewhere in the empire being largely restricted to military garrisons along the wall it's from the writings of roman geographers that we get the names of the british confederacies that held sway along the frontier [Music] notably we have the damnonii the novante the selgovae and the votadini in archaeology the damnonii and the votadini in particular have notable continuity from the pre-roman iron age all the way through to the roman period and beyond as we've seen from the horde at traprain law it paid well to work for rome and came with it a powerful legitimacy over rival rulers [Music] with the continental troubles of the 5th century however no doubt came the disintegration of many of these old tribal loyalties some of them at least propped up by roman power though some of the older identities remained intact such as the votadini new powers emerged too a renegotiation of a more personal loyalty between king and follower and over time particularly as the sixth century dawns alongside british archaeological finds are increasingly seen pictish irish and anglo-saxon items mercenaries to paymasters of the old north perhaps exiled princes making common cause [Music] both were common in later centuries but unfortunately definitive answers remain unclear and what were those kingdoms really like are thorian castles they were not today pubs all over britain bear the name of the green man [Music] mysterious fertility symbol found all over europe and beyond and there's an argument that the roots of this horned figure a much older bearing a resemblance to the ancient celtic deity carunos [Music] part of the reason for the romans immense success as an empire was their acceptance of religious worship for 300 years in britain they had not only encouraged native cults but entrenched them in society by merging their own gods with them and by the time their rule in britain came to an end these cults could still be found all over the island of course christianity came too saint ninian supposedly arriving on the frontier in the later 4th century to begin a long tradition of missionary activity leaving a marked impact for the entire early middle ages but paganism remained too far away from the more romanized continental provinces and now in the wake of roman withdrawal britain remained a heretical unorthodox land mired by christian heresies as well as older ones [Music] alter fires of the earlier faith still shone on windy hills and haunting forest groves far from an apocalyptic struggle between germanic invader and british old north kingdoms the picture we get from archaeology and bardic tradition in the first half of the 6th century at least is different far more important than the fledgling anglian kingdoms still clinging to the eastern coast with the other british realms as far as the bards were concerned the most important and famous battle of this era was an entirely british affair after it fought according to the 12th century annals of wales in 573 today the river lidl runs directly along the border between england and scotland the landscape has changed little in hundreds of years when scottish antiquarian william forbes skeen came here in the 1860s along the old railway line from the north now overgrown abandoned local farmers told him of an old tradition in the area a last stand supposedly made by 300 picts on a nearby hilltop against the romans upon investigating the area skein soon found himself walking in the shadow of the medieval age this is the ancient citadel of little strength nestled on a river ford with immense views across the border the impressive martin bailey we see today is norman in construction lair of an 11th century flemish knight put in place after the norman conquest but skeen was convinced on the basis of place name evidence the local tradition and an expert reading of the bardic tradition that underneath the medieval earthworks they are fortress of the old north much of which if it existed has fallen into the river over the centuries [Music] skein was convinced that he'd found the lost citadel of after it site of the most famous battle in all the welsh triads and furthermore one in which the original bardic figure of merlin is said to have taken part skeen and later writers have even gone so far as to portray the battle fought by gwendolo abcdo very possibly against redec heil the king of alt klute was a bitter struggle between pagans and christians after all two roman altars to a god named huitrus or vitrus located nearby a lot of speculation but some evidence too today skeen can be neither proved nor disproved for little strength remains entirely unexcavated its secrets hidden but more on that in a future video within just a few years by 577 things were beginning to change for in that year taliasin sings of a fierce battle fought on a saturday morning on an unnamed river ford in a wood called argoad flefane we know not the location but the enemy we do [Music] on that day yorion and his son owen fought against a four-fold army of angles led by a figure called firebrand [Music] in one telling of the tale an anglian leader theodoric yells forth for hostages owen yells back a defiant response saying all they'll receive is battle and during this buoyant age of boasting and victory the angles were driven back a leader named ulf killed in the fray according to taliasin for the angles death was theirs burnt are their homes yorion the most famous king of all often called a cattle raider in the british sources may well have dominated the other british kings into submission forming a confederacy of sorts anglian and british alike if there ever was a golden age of the old north this is it [Music] and it is his story we turn to next [Music] [Music] one of the most important sources for the history of the old north wasn't written down until more than 200 years after the events it records usually attributed to the early 9th century welsh monk nenius the historia brutonum is thought to be a political document commissioned by the king of gwyneth mervin finch living in an age of mercian and west saxon supremacy the people of wales were in dire need of a rallying cry [Music] however although written for a modern audience it isn't all propaganda its writer is thought to have worked for much older sources now lost [Music] alongside the battles of arthur and the wars of vortigern and the saxons one much talked about event is also mentioned by the bard taliasin for towards the end of the sixth century while the britons of the south yielded more territory year on year to the ancestors of the west saxons and the mercians a great coalition of north britain's are said to have pushed the angles all the way back to the sea in a great re-conquest worthy of ambrosius aurelianus and the great fortress of cadbury castle a century earlier for three days in a great turning point in the war we're told forces drawn from most of the northern british kingdoms besieged the anglians either at their fortress of bambra or the nearby island of lindisfarne which also has a prominent fortified hilltop the assembled kings came from far and wide from old klute regeth their leader of course was yorion called the pillar of britain and king of the golden north by taliasin [Music] and amazingly the written record does somewhat line up with archaeology with bambra remaining one of the few verified anglo-saxon settlements from the earlier 6th century with very few pagan burial grounds in the area too until later [Music] but how had these outsiders got there in the first place well on a keel probably as a travelling band of sword warriors one near contemporary ship is the 23 meter long proto-longship found at nidom in germany in the 19th century it's an impressive sight and a glimpse into this long lost world the anglo-saxon chronicle written much later but working from much older sources gives a name for the founder of this kingdom eder the flame bringer son of the oper and king of bernicia for 12 years from 547 [Music] but whether he came from the anglo-saxon lands further to the south or directly from the continent is anyone's guess but many historians think an origin in the other older anglian areas is possible perhaps at daira around york where according to much later traditions a mercenary named samuel is thought to have seized control in the 5th century these days rather than a straightforward land grab the situation is now thought to have been far more nuanced germanic soldiers had been operating on the northern frontier since the 1st century a.d from batavian marines under the first emperors to alemanic nobility under constantine all alike came here in service to roman paymasters thrall to roman coin and by the sixth century there remains a hinted at in the archaeological record by new styles of germanic metalwork found at burial sites and over time the overall culture becomes more and more germanic [Music] it seems the anglian mercenaries did their job well fending off pictish and other seaborne raiders a little too well in fact eventually perhaps by a marriage coupled with pressure from more incoming colonists and maybe access to the trade system of the north sea after the collapse of the roman system they became the paymasters [Music] the locals either joined them becoming germanic over time or became their slaves as with many germanic dynasties in bernicia eida as the founder rings out above all others and though we can't be sure of the real extent of his power future kings of benicio all claimed descent from him for henry of huntington writing in the 12th century he was the leader of a group of war bands operating north of the wall between the tyne and the tweed in the mid 6th century and though no helmets have been found from this era and very little archaeological evidence we can see hints of this warrior culture in the contemporary swedish helmets at vendal and valciarde [Music] and the slightly later helmet at sutton who one hint at the power of these people is the bambra sword one of the most magnificent pattern-welded swords ever found though bede claims that eida built the castle at bambra there is evidence of earlier british occupation and despite the importance given to eder by his later descendants his rule never extended further than a foothold on the coast his immediate descendants too would only survive the britons by the skin of their teeth but survive they did and it's likely that in reality eida wasn't the only anglian warlord operating in the region after his death his brood of sons grandsons and rivals would rise to power one after the other raiding far and wide fierce pagan warriors bred for war it wouldn't be long before the eastern british lands began to be carved out by the newcomers and as far as the britons were concerned enough was enough something had to be done to stop them traditionally the kingdom of regeth has been associated with the hills and valleys of cumbria and yet bardic references to yurion and his sons range from loch lomond all the way to yorkshire his strongholds are said to have been located all over the north suggesting his power may have extended to a large hegemony over other rulers and yet many of these places have never been located not to mention the fact that they might have been added to the yurian story by later generations due to the unreliable nature of the sources the actual extent of yurian's domain remains ever elusive hailed a strong champion in battle by taliasin yurian's campaigns ranged far and wide fighting against the north welsh in one tradition attacking manor in another a place interpreted variously as menorga dothin in the north or even the isle of man regeth did lie on the irish sea after all slightly more concrete evidence can be found in the battle of rith or kloot the fort of the clyde stronghold of king redeck of alt klute his later ally at the siege of lindisfarne and one of the only one of the kings who fought there whose existence is attested elsewhere in a reliable source of non-welsh provenance the 7th century life of columba by adam nan of iona some historians have even interpreted these battles often described as great cattle raids as in reality more serious attempts by regeth to subdue the other british kingdoms into overlordship [Music] unfortunately we can't know the truth but by the later century sometime around 577 according to one reading of the sources the combined armies of yurian redeck of old glute and three kings named gaulak gualawag perhaps of elmet and morkant maybe of gaddafin assembled for an assault of banisia but who really was yurian and can archaeological evidence of his rule be found well his kingdom has long remained a mystery but there is archaeology in the old north not exactly where historians have often looked but in the old north nonetheless regeth lacks archaeology these archaeological sites lack history just maybe they are one and the same [Music] [Music] 50 miles west of carlisle rising up over the solway firth where the river earth flows down to the sea a hill fort stands sentinel on the landscape it's a tiny site nothing on the vast citadels of the south and yet as early as the 1890s shards of e-ware pottery were found here indicating extensive trade links with the far-off european mainland in 1913 metal work glass vessels and yet more pottery originating in gaul was found [Music] though the place was then thought to have been occupied in the 8th or 9th centuries at the time no hilltop settlements from the early medieval period had been found still thought of as an entirely dark age then in the 1950s and 60s a series of astonishing finds at cadbury castle dennis palace and elsewhere changed this perception for good when the moat of mark was thoroughly re-excavated in the 1970s by lloyd lang and david longley it was definitively proven that the place had been fortified in the 6th century with trade continuing until the mid to later 7th century a connection to the nearby population centre at withhorn was also established the site of an important monastic centre associated with saint ninion apparently the two sites being supplied and frequented by the same merchants yet the motive mark wasn't necessarily a high status settlement perhaps being the home of a master craftsman and his family and followers it's a site reminiscent of the story of weyland the smithy and the welsh story of collock and olwen which both suggest the activities of smiths and jewellers were richly rewarded and highly regarded [Music] like bards perhaps integral to the power of kings they often lived and worked somewhere outside of regular society and moved to where the pay would be best so a royal capital this was not but a stronghold of regeth maybe the hunt continued for a stronghold fit for a king in 2012 another hilltop in galloway was excavated firmly situated in the old territory of the selgave a people who'd fiercely resisted rome at 72 metres tall it's not the most prominent summit in the area resting on a craggy null in galloway's borland hills further to the west of the motive mark but it is significantly larger than its neighbor more akin to the strongholds at edinburgh and dumbarton rock [Music] today the landscape is overgrown in scrub and heather and until recently the place was known for its ramparts generally thought to be iron age in construction along with an unusual pictish carving stone etched on the exposed bedrock at the entrance to the fort depicting sea monsters and warriors similar carvings have also been found at edinburgh and the dalriarton stronghold of dunad neither of them picked his strongholds nevertheless trustees hill has often been suggested to be an outlying pictish fort built by a victorious warband perhaps the truth may have been very different the chronology revealed in 2012 lined up perfectly with the old north the place being occupied between 375 and 710. like most other contemporary forts there had been habitation here before the romans and when they left once more there is now a good argument for trustees hill being a site of royal inauguration just maybe for the kings of regeth it's a pretty big leap but just maybe the most famous of all urian after all an abundance of early medieval material has been found in galloway compared to little in cumbria the place also has more fertile agricultural land and strategic access to all sides of the irish sea a better region to hold court from perhaps with military outposts further afield like at the moat of mark smelting slag suggests workshops creating high status metalwork though only tiny pieces have survived [Music] evidence of continental trade has also been found whoever ruled this place enjoying trade links as far away as ireland the isle of man muravingi and gaul and the far-off mediterranean [Music] and it isn't just pictish influence that can be seen here but germanic too giving tantalizing clues that regeth may have been more anglian before the conquest than we realize free booting mercenaries operating here perhaps [Music] and what did this kingdom look like well it bears little resemblance at all to the roman or late antique world where romanitas continued in some form this was a renegotiated power base for a celtic people in the context of recovery and a new order rather than the continuation of the old and even further west we have yet another site far more mysterious as it's never been excavated but proposed by many as a hill fort with early medieval habitation today done ragged sits overgrown almost entirely forgotten save the adjacent village which bears an uncanny resemblance to the kingdoms of the old north what happened here we just don't know until it's excavated it's a mystery archaeologists let's get this place excavated [Music] if you want to learn more about these hill forts and many more all over britain i have a series on my other channel where i go and visit them to have a look for myself go check it out here after you finish this video and don't forget to subscribe what became of this land well it doesn't look great by the 7th century both the moat of mark and trustees hill were destroyed by fire the ramparts torn down and demolished soon afterwards the moat of mark would be reoccupied and tellingly angry and runic inscriptions have been found etched on bones which brings us back to the siege of lindisfarne in the written sources we're told that five kings succeeded eda as rulers of benicia four of them his sons and another called husser nenius tells us that it was hussa who ruled at the time of the siege though it may even be the two rival groups now held power one at bambra and the other at lindisfarne and so for three days and three nights the british army laid siege to the island but ultimately the campaign would end in disaster we're told yurian was betrayed murdered by an agent of king morkant jealous and wary of his power or attempting to overthrow the overlordship of regeth this betrayal and untimely death has led many scholars to suggest yorian as an integral inspiration for the eventual king arthur legend in the years that followed the situation told of by the poets is of squabbling and war allowing the anglian's time to not only survive but regain their strength yurian's kinsmen luak sings of the king's sons being attacked by their father's enemies morkant gualawag and donnard the stout perhaps reflecting the decline of regeth in the early 7th century yurian's son owen also a famed figure in his own right may have continued the struggle for a time but was himself killed the anglians ever advancing onwards [Music] though often portrayed as contemporaries living in the same age anaeron and taliasin in fact may not have been taliyahsin sings the praises of courtly life and all powerful battling kings of the mid 6th century a buoyant exuberant age the good times and aaron's work on the other hand is almost entirely wistful lamenting the loss of more recent times elegies for dead kings the faded glory of the recent past thought to have been sung into existence in the early years of the seventh century they lament a dying world and an aaron's work isn't alone of course an anonymous song from the red book of hergist is thought to date from around this time too in the poem we're told of a solitary bard wandering the wilderness once regaled in the halls of kings he now goes by the wilder ways following old paths through overgrown meadows over hills and forest gullies crows and beasts his only companions finally our fugitive spies a ruined wall in the distance flanked by vine laden masonry the now collapsed roof of a great hall rises up on his approach [Music] overgrown with nettles empty bereft of its protector just the same as the countryside around he is walking in the king's fortress no one lives there now home only to pigeons and being wolves but the morning bard has a purpose he has come here for a reason he has on his person the head of the great king yurian mouth spattered with foaming blood brought back to the hallowed halls of his ancestors sent home the passage has long intrigued scholars for the bringing home of the head of a slain prince is known to have been a traditional pagan ritual amongst the celtic peoples [Music] unfortunately whether this is a genuine celtic leftover or a later addition we can't be sure [Music] but the passage is thought to be old another mention by the poet luark mentions yurian's decapitation too and yet jorion is also called the lord of christendom in other sections but who's to say these heavily christian epithets aren't later additions [Music] after all yurian like king gwendolo of after it was one of the three bowl protectors of britain and other references in regards to him are made to malevolent otherworldly birds across the sea in ireland a land traditionally thought to have been mostly christian by this point high kings were still occasionally pagan with pagan burial practices certainly surviving until the late 7th century and in 569 a similar written mention of pre-christian traditions is found too when king dermot was slain by hugh duff mcswain at rathleg his body was interred in connery but his head was sent elsewhere to clon vikknos as he requested himself indeed the pics would hold on to their pagan beliefs for much longer so why not at least some of the britons north of hadrian's wall nevertheless by the year 600 the british alliance had failed jorion was dead and a new order arising [Music] until the 590s the northern britons had largely escaped the calamities experienced by their southern neighbours their wars were amongst themselves managing to hold their own against picts irish and anglians alike but soon enough this would change [Music] just as the britons fragmented back into warring states again after the death of yurian a new warlord arose to lead the usually quarrelsome angles of the eastern coast [Music] with a fury to match that of eder the flamebringer this new warlord had risen to the top of the pile one of those rare seemingly unstoppable figures of history arising from a dynasty which usually killed its kings every few years the twister they called him we know him as ethel frith and he was destined to change everything in the space of a single generation and with a new age comes a new foremost poet whereas taliasin had praised the deeds of the men of the north singing of their glorious victories in battle our source for this age is an aaron he writes with sadness for his was the twilight time [Music] catrace snowdonia is one of the most starkly beautiful landscapes in all of britain yet it is a place awash with the memory of the past too in the 9th and 10th centuries we know bards and wandering poets walked these hills traveling from hall to hall to tell their tales derived from the rich tradition of heroic poetry and storytelling so much a part of welsh culture retelling the tales of the very best of them of the giants and ancient celtic kings but most of all of the heroes of just a few centuries before men like yorion and arthur one of the most famous tales of all however doesn't sing the deeds of either of these figures it's a tragic elegy to celebrate a doomed last charge of the men of the north one final offensive to fight back the invaders once and for all or die trying still celebrated today we know it as the [Music] godovin today edinburgh is one of the great cities of britain a sprawling metropolis world-renowned center of culture and gateway to the north fourteen hundred years ago it looked very different for back then this was a rural landscape ruled over by the ancient britons of old never conquered by rome underneath the towered walls of the castle rock the remains of thousands of years of continual occupation have been found and though much smaller than the nearby stronghold at triprayne law this is thought to have been at least a capital of the gedothin and as time went on and traprene law was abandoned by the end of the fifth century the most important of all once a vast sprawling high kingship many scholars think the heartlands of dara and benicia both british names had once been under gaddafin overlordship by the year 600 though all that had come to an end yet the kings here still wielded power over their neighbors for some time around that year an aaron sings of a great mustering to the king alongside the household warriors of king mindok we're told the assembled warriors came from all the lands of the northern british godothin alt kloot regeth elmet and from wales too penguin poes gweneth and we're given stranger names too that can't be placed geographically men from green up in pictish warriors from beyond the fourth and irishman two [Music] three hundred of them in all all young freedmen aristocrats even perhaps accompanied by their own warbands and shield bearers all had come to pledge their loyalty to the king for one last battle against the english [Music] mintog the rich feasted the men for over a year though he wouldn't lead the attack himself he seems to have been too old for battle and stayed in his hall the force was to be led by three kings perhaps his sons henry kainen and kinrain [Music] an aaron individualizes 80 of the men heroes to those gathered around listening to the tale in years to come perhaps sometimes figures they'd recognize from other stories each given an immortalizing description like karadog who rushed into battle a wild boar an armed bull killer of three kings he fed wolves by his hand [Music] and owen who wore a coat of mail over his crimson undershirt and is also described as wearing multi-coloured armor and blaine beautiful he burned in gold and purple riding his well-fed horses and an errand stresses that these most renowned men of their day rode as a cavalry army just maybe harking back to tactics from the late roman world after all we know anglo-saxon helmets reserved only for elite soldiers and kings ultimately derived from those once worn by late roman soldiers so why not the britons too and so when the year had passed the men readied themselves to head south a last alliance to curb the advance of the anglians they rode out to war to death to catreth and the location of the battle well we don't know for certain but many historians see the town of cataric as a good bet just to the east of stainmore in north yorkshire cataract had been an important roman stronghold on the old road to the north and though no archaeological evidence has of yet been found the place has often been suggested to be an important royal stronghold for urian in the later 6th century maybe even the location of the earlier elegy from the red book of hergest archaeology does suggest that york and the entire surrounding area up to the central hill country had fallen under anglian sway by the end of the sixth century a germanic elite ruling over a mostly british population perhaps and when katarik and the surrounding countryside fell in the aftermath of yurian's death which we know it did the anglians would have gained easy access much further afield via the roman road if the northern british were to survive the place had to be retaken and so the riders charged forth [Music] what happened next sung in halls in the north and the west for hundreds of years to come there's a classic tale of heroism and sacrifice [Music] said to have been opposed by a wildly exaggerated number of a hundred thousand warriors the 300 british war leaders probably supported by their own subordinates soon made it to the old roman ruins still an impressive sight after its abandonment just over a hundred years earlier but of course the germanic shield wall proved too strong all the might of the britons was not enough and aaron who may have actually been present at the battle composing the tale just a few years later also claims to have been the only survivor the 300 warriors all riding to their doom within a generation of the defeat mentioned as one of the atrocious assassinations of the island of britain in the welsh triads godothin and almet would come to an end regeth would soon follow and yet the tale would continue to inspire generation after generation of britons and welshman from cadwallen to rodri the great two kings who both eventually met their ends on the battlefield against anglo-saxon foes but who was the anglian war leader at catraith well we don't know for sure geography would suggest a dayrun contingent still independent from the benissians of bambra at the time and yet ethelfrith or at least a sub ruler under his command still stands out as the most likely figure after all soon enough he would rule both kingdoms it's even been suggested that the battle took place slightly earlier under ethel frith's father ethelrick or even theodoric yurian's arch enemy unfortunately we simply don't know much like british leaders generally didn't concern later english chronologists anglians didn't concern the british but thankfully for us by the beginning of the seventh century this period finally begins to emerge onto the pages of history for literacy and record keeping were on the rise [Music] whoever the anglian leader was at catrice the damage had been done the anglians around york wouldn't be dislodged not now and within a few decades now in firm control of all the lowland areas of the west that even begin moving from the cattle corrals of the countryside into urban roman halls [Music] within just three decades king edwin would be baptized at york though they would become no less war-like the britons were pushed west over the hills into rougher moorland never again would they push the english back now in control of all the lowland fertile areas and yet from the north yet another power was arising [Music] in the year 574 so says the irish monk adam nan a new king came to power in the gaelic sea kingdom of dalriata striding up the staked ramparts of donnad mightiest fortress in the northlands just as his ancestors had done before him since they crossed over the waves from ireland in the preceding centuries he would undergo the traditional rituals of inauguration at the kingston the assembled lords of the islands amassed around him for aiden mack gabrain was a descendant of nile of the nine hostages semi-legendary progenitor of a slew of royal houses who'd lived some time in the fourth or fifth centuries a figure who'd changed the political system in ireland for good revolutionizing the old power structures by looking outside of the island not within ravaging seashores far and wide gaining great wealth and power in the process perhaps even taking part in the great conspiracy of the barbarians spoken of in the roman sources in those roman sources irishmen were often called cannibals and despite being christian now since the days of saint some of those pagan ways still clung on but of course the succession was not uncontested the previous king colonel had many sons and relatives all eager for power aiden already nearing 40 would have to pull every favor he could to secure the kingship as far as adam nan was concerned one figure in particular acted as king maker at this time we know him as columba and he is the center of adam nan's story [Music] following the death of the previous king conal columba spent three days and nights fasting on the tiny spit of himba there he spoke to angels when he returned to dunad he'd made up his mind for by this time after st patrick's great influence on irish society in the 5th century divine holy blessing went hand in hand with kingship [Music] one of the first times in post-roman europe that this had happened aidan wasn't just chosen by his kinsmen and under-kings but by god himself [Music] but this christianity left adrift to develop in the wild atlantic for hundreds of years was a far cry from the orthodoxy preached in rome [Music] now imbued by the king stone made powerful by christian magic king aiden accompanied his kinsmen columba back to ireland to broker an alliance with the assembled lords of the o'neill yet more distant kinsmen descended from nile then his southwestern borders secure almost immediately aiden went to war this is the tale we get from history not strictly contemporary but written in the centuries immediately following by people using sources entirely lost today and yet archaeology can be used to corroborate much of the account too it seems that the hebrides were indeed populated from ireland from the fourth or even the third century onwards like the rest of the western seaboard of britain by roaming warriors and dynasties of kings here the legendary hero cullen is often linked to events center of an epic tale often called ireland's iliad [Music] and centuries later after so many unrecorded events by the 6th century a powerful confederacy of kin groups held sway from antrim to argyll ireland to the hebrides numerous kin groups pledging allegiance to one overkink and by the 6th century dunad had extensive trade links more storage vessels known as e-ware than anywhere else in britain have been found here indicating regular trade with the bordeaux and loire regions of france and even the mediterranean beyond loaded up with spices wine honey and salt interestingly the pottery and glass found here all comes from overseas they don't seem to have made their own it was those sea roads to the south spanning the entire western seaboard of europe and eventually penetrating deep into the river systems that columbus spiritual descendants would use to journey far and wide in the spreading of their new faith and their desire for knowledge for in the later sixth century the monks on iona were some of the only literate men in a mostly illiterate world and yet hints of older traditions come through too when colomba exiled from his native ireland founded his stronghold on the island of iona there are hints of a blood sacrifice made to consecrate the ground a human sacrifice yet adam nan also writes of 30 monasteries personally founded by columba who ranged far and wide in picked land converting people as well as transcribing hundreds of books and amazingly it's because of the literacy on iona where a now lost chronicle seems to have been maintained throughout this era we have a unique document telling us how many men aiden could muster [Music] the history of the men of scotland is believed to have been compiled in the 10th century though it is based on much earlier writings providing royal genealogies as well as a census no other document of its kind survives for this era in the work we are told that aiden could muster well over a thousand men a huge force for the time [Music] there is even reference of a sea battle fought by sailed corrects some of the best ships of the era in other irish sources we're told that aidan fought a sea war in 580 against orkney's pickish defenders and no doubt against other groups of pics too but for our story we must look to the south back to the brethonic welsh sources as far as the welsh are concerned aiden the only non-britain to feature heavily in their tales is known as the treacherous and the wily perhaps earning this name after the collapse of an alliance with redec heil king of dumbarton rock [Music] another triad records aiden's host as one of the three faithful war bands of the island of britain as they went to sea for their lord maybe reflecting a lost account of an expedition to man or orkney perhaps suggesting a significant british contingent in aidan's army indeed many welsh works claimed that aidan had a british mother a dynastic allegiance between two kingdoms perhaps [Music] so then by the start of the seventh century it's speculation but there is a chance that aiden may have grieved when he heard of the slaughter at catrath his people shared the same religion as the britons and much more of a similar way of life [Music] either this or he saw it as an opportunity to carve out his own dominion over the south for not long afterwards he called his banners gathering together a huge army from his kingdoms as well as significant numbers of o'neill from tara across the sea led by mail ume the brother of the high king of ireland [Music] as well as contingents of britons and maybe even exiled anglian princes making their own place for power these are hinted at by archaeology at dunad and of course the enemy that they were fighting was the twister ethelfrith of benicia by the year 603 a reckoning was on the way elsewhere in the world the tyrant focus reigned in byzantium to the east the sassanian shahs sent forth their armies to do battle still standing guard over one of the largest border walls the world had ever seen the latest incarnation of classical eastern empires to arise in mesopotamia ever since the sumerians many thousands of years before [Music] further east still the first great turkish confederation the blue sky gurk turks still tengrist in their belief system held sway over nearly the entirety of the eurasian steppe [Music] in arabia to the south polytheism still reigned for this was an age before islam was even born and in remote far off britain the first great battle in british history just on the edge of verifiable recorded events would be fought the two armies met so we're told at a pre-arranged place somewhere in the north of britain called dexa's stone [Music] a great monolith described by bead apparently everybody knew where it was though the location is lost today [Music] the ensuing battle by far the largest conflict since the fall of roman britain pitted the two foremost superpowers of the north against one another squabbling over the carcass of the old north to the victor would go the lands of the britons aidan's name does not speak favorably to his reputation amongst the britons of old glute where some of our sources may have originated with a long-lost chronicle written there may be that dexter stan was fought over control of lothian in the aftermath of catrath there are even hints of an irish raid on bambra in the bardic tradition no doubt many britons saw the irish christians at least as a far preferable choice of overlord to the anglians [Music] we don't actually know whether ethel frith was present at the battle though it's likely he was his father had likely been killed by the britons when he was a boy and ever since that time all he'd known was war and by the time he came of age he didn't just have one axe to grind he had thousands of them outnumbered as they were the anglians were probably better armed and better motivated [Music] they marched in several detachments led by largely independent war leaders followed by incredibly loyal followers ethel frith's brother theodbold led one of the anglian detachments supported by elite hearth troops professional career soldiers whose code and very way of life demanded they fight to the death if their lord was killed no doubt many of them veterans of catrath trailed by a swarm of less well-equipped regular farmer soldiers eager for glory [Music] herring son of husser the warlord who'd fought against yurian at lindisfarne a generation earlier may even have fought on the irish side or perhaps opted to watch the fighting and join the winner as so many precariously allied noblemen would do throughout history [Music] the fighting was brutal lasting all day we can imagine the anglian shield wall shattering the british cavalry charge again and again those suffering horrendous casualties in the process according to adam nan aidan's son dominguard was killed in the fray along with the irish prince male 1 yet theodbold died too we can imagine his retainers going to their doom around him devastated at the death of their lord their sole means of attaining glory and power even hundreds of years later long after christianity took hold anglo-saxon soldiers still saw it as their god-given duty to either die for their lord or triumph against the enemy that killed him tradition dictated they would be cast out from society if they didn't and this grim determination may be one of the reasons for their success in the battle chopping off the head of the snake simply didn't work with this enemy they would fight harder and if victorious another would take the lord's place in the aftermath of the battle not just the dalriatans and the britons but all christians in britain suffered a devastating blow aidan had been chosen by god which meant god was on the side of the pagans [Music] it must have been a terrifying existential crisis within a year or two ethelfrith successfully annexed daera unifying the two anglian kingdoms into one laying the foundation for the kingdom of northumbria adding its young warriors to his growing force for him the battle was especially beneficial taking out anglian rivals as well as the irish [Music] beed tells us that not only was almost the entire dalriatan force wiped out but never again even right up until his own time well over a century later would the irish ever dare to attack english lands thus putting an end to almost 300 years of irish piracy and raiding on british shores in the space of a single day everything had changed had the alliance won history would have been very different but they didn't the old north was doomed the choice was now simple resist and be destroyed or pay tribute and join ethel frith in the years to come ethel frith's warriors ranged far and wide as far as the welsh stories are concerned brutalizing those who opposed them driving them out killing or taking slaves of anyone who hadn't already fled [Music] for bede although they were still pagan at the time god was on the anglian side divine justice against the heretical british church playing its part in growing the borders of the first great power of the north [Music] and now with the lack of anyone to oppose it that swift advance to the west seen in archaeology as well as history continued unabated by 613 in an especially bold move ethelfrith advanced all the way to the river d in what is now cheshire perhaps seeking to drive a wedge between the northern and the western britons dedicated to a celtic war goddess in days gone by perhaps still venerated by some the d was a stronghold of british rule a great walled city of the romans stood there still once home to an entire legion today we know the place as chester perhaps allied to the city of viriconium to the south before the anglian mercians rose to prominence under their own conquering king pender the region is thought to have been ruled by a prince of poes one of the most powerful of the welsh kingdoms sometimes known as solomon in the welsh triads selif son of kynan was a feared fighter in his day known as serpent in battles and it wasn't just the men of poes who came to oppose the anglian menace that day bardic tradition suggests the entire power of north wales may have come to their aid notably a contingent from gweneth and it wasn't just fighters either hundreds of monks from the nearby monastery of bangor came too praying for the victory of their countrymen [Music] when ethelfruit arrived at the battlefield however he spotted these priests working their christian magic yet separated from the main force ordering his men forwards they were cut down to a man as the main welsh force entered the fray their morale already low having witnessed the slaughter of their holy men they too fell to the anglian swords zelith's death is recorded in the annals cambrie chester became an english city and cheshire an english stronghold [Music] turning what had started is essentially a pirate band operating out of bambra just over a decade before into the most powerful military force in all of britain scores of armies had tried to stop them they'd all failed no doubt many more unrecorded battles taking place too [Music] but then in 616 in one of the great changes of fortune in british history ethelfrith master of the north triumphant in battle outstretched himself [Music] corpses of his enemies splayed on the shields and spears of his followers he went south ever searching for the deposed prince of dara edwin rival to his power there on the southern borderlands of his realm with only a small force around him he was ambushed by another king for edwin had found a powerful ally [Music] this one with far reaching trade contacts across europe direct influence stretching from lindsay to the isle of wight of course it was redwald of east anglia writing hundreds of years later henry of huntingdon describes what happened next hemmed in onto the banks of the river idol ethelfrith lurched forward charging towards redwald's son rayna cutting him down in his battle fury massively outnumbered with just a few select men ethelfrith raged into the east anglian line reveling in the slaughter systematically slicing down man after man yet redwald's numbers were simply too much he may have even sailed his army up the coast into the humber to cut the benissians off and it was only a matter of time before ethelfruit was surrounded overwhelmed and slain allegedly on a pile of corpses stacked up around him [Music] florent of worcester even implies that it was redwald himself who dealt the killing blow meaning the remote possibility exists the sword found at sutton who could have taken ethel frith's life at the idol the famous helmet the protection he wore whether he dealt the killing blow or not his strategy put an end to the benissian expansion for a time the only thing that could kill this anglian warlord was another redwald who may have died of old age probably at least partly a christian ethel frith joined the ranks of practically every other king of northumbria in a hundred years cut down in the prime of his life resolutely a pagan he went on to feast in the halls of his ancestors unfortunately no candidate for ethel frith's grave has ever been found and very little evidence of swords or helmets for this period in northumbria there is a grave at yevering that could have originally contained a helmet like that at sutton who perhaps worn by ethelfrith though it long ago rotted away like almost every other item from this age only 16 years into the seventh century and the british were effectively out there was a new order the anglo-saxons definitively in the driver's seat [Music] there was a new king in northumbria too this one hailing from the southern kingdom edwin initially under the overlordship of redwald of east anglia though soon enough he would pass away allowing edwin to go it alone [Music] in 617 the obscure kingdom of elmet in the pennines which survives only in a handful of place names was invaded its king keratic who may have poisoned edwin's brother under ethel frith's orders was driven out [Music] what happened to its population we don't know though edwin later became a christian and as search is praised by bede as a great and just ruler in reality edwin may have been just as warlike as his predecessor nevertheless the old north had a significant influence on the anglians some welsh sources even suggest edwin had been raised or spent time at the court of gwyneth in north wales alongside his future enemy cadwalan they also suggest he was baptized by a son or grandson of urian suggesting a level of prestige and influence still for the descendants of the great king of reggaeth though we're also told he was baptized by paulinus from rome as redwald may have been it may be he was baptized by both faiths having slightly differing creeds by the 620s christianity was certainly seeping into the north though it didn't make the anglians any less warlike declining in influence over the years to the point of obscurity it would nevertheless be several decades yet until the strongholds of regeth and godothin would fall unfortunately we have scant little knowledge of this bead writing in the 8th century has almost nothing to say on the matter his is a tale of christianity it simply wouldn't do to dwell on the destruction of christian kingdoms but disappear they would [Music] one particularly important event is spoken of in the irish annals in 638 during the time of edwin's successor oswald a son of ethelfrith who rose to power after the death of edwin at the hands of cadwallen of gwyneth and pender of murcia an unlikely alliance between british christian and anglian pagan oswald had been raised in dalriata in the wake of his father's downfall and it was to irish christianity that he looked for spiritual guidance and yet he was no less warlike than his predecessors though his irish right-hand man haydon continued to spread the faith amongst the anglians in 638 we're told in the irish sources that oswald and his brother ozwi captured the fortress of den eden modern day edinburgh the kingdom of godhead was no more by 642 all of lothian came under their direct control beginning the long overlordship of what would become large swathes of the scottish lowlands by the anglians of northumbria dividing the kingdom between northumbria the britons of old glute and the scots of dalriata in that year however it was oswald's time to die like almost every other king of this era meeting his end on the battlefield this time against pender of mercia fighting again with welsh support leaving a fragmented northumbria to his brother and right-hand man oswie regeth's end came later still yet it may have been of a different kind for ozwy's first wife and mother of one of his heirs ulfrith was a british princess we're told by the historia brutonum a great granddaughter of yorian thus for a brief time though the kingdom itself was annexed by around 650 a descendant of its greatest king sat on the now christian throne of northumbria a political act which fused the two kingdoms together an unthinkable arrangement during the previous century times were changing and it's very likely that britain's exercised influence within the kingdom only becoming gradually more anglian as time went on [Music] they may even have had an influence on the burgeoning literacy of the kingdom eventually growing into the likes of bead [Music] by the seventh century as we've seen significant evidence for northumbrian influence in galloway and cumbria can be found great crosses erected to signify the power of the new elite and just maybe an attempt to make the transition easier by 685 cumbria and galloway were securely in anglian hands northumbria with edgefrith son of ozwe the most powerful king in britain even launching raids across the sea to ravage the heartlands of ireland seizing man and launching campaigns far to the north taking vast swathes of picked land yet against all the odds one old north kingdom survived seated on its impenetrable fortress on the clyde near modern day glasgow alt klut the kingdom of the rock [Music] sometime in the fifth century a boy was kidnapped by slavers on the irish sea his father had been a decurian we're told a title of the late roman world along with his father's servants and everyone else who'd been seized in his community he entered a life of harsh servitude on the other side of the sea a life with little hope of escape though given a christian education in much the same way as gildas and other wealthy romano british families it was in pagan ireland tending sheep on high hillsides that the young man really came close to god [Music] and after he hatched his daring escape a few years later rejoining the learned literate world clinging on in britain by the skin of its teeth it was back to ireland that he'd return voluntarily this time bringing his faith with him to convert his former captors thus begins one of the greatest of all stories of the sub-roman period that of st patrick [Music] patrick's story is unique because we know it not just from the saints lives written about him later but also from his own words recorded in middling latin not quite the impressive pros of gildas but to be fair to patrick his education had been cut painfully short one of these accounts the confession reads as a short autobiography of his own tale [Music] the other is a letter to a certain king a ruler of the north who'd been slaving on the irish sea capturing newly converted christians for sale to pagan bias this ruler was probably at least nominally a christian otherwise patrick's threat of excommunication would have been entirely an empty one though this ruler did associate with heathen pics his name king caroticus often associated with ceretic galetic a king of dumbarton rock described as a seafaring kingdom capable of launching raids all along the irish coasts as well as influencing events in picked lands to the north if caroticus did rule from dumbarton rock as many scholars suggest patrick's letter shines a light on an otherwise entirely dark period [Music] in the 1970s excavations at the rock uncovered high status items from the inh roman period and onwards with continuity well into the 9th century the grip of rome never extended this far north not permanently anyway and it was from the celtic damnonii that the kingdom had its roots though the place soon disappears again in history until the very end of the sixth century when one of the most famous kings of the age appears redec heil known as the generous in the welsh sources seems to have ruled from around 580 to 6 14. a remarkably long period a contemporary of columba and a one-time ally of yorion who unlike most other figures of this time ruled for an extensive period perhaps even surviving to die of old age as we have already seen he may have fought it afterward as well as dexter stan sending a cavalry detachment under aidan mccabrine at the latter [Music] his existence is frequently corroborated by a slew of other sources irish welsh and scottish an unusual amount of historicity and yet his kingdom is awash with legends and myths tales of arthur and merlin for this was the very last of the old north where many of these tales may have originated surviving another 400 years or so after the demise of its neighbors weathering innumerable successive waves of invasion over its long history by rome irishmen picts and angles until finally in the 9th century came one they could not withstand yet they weren't entirely on the defensive either not by a long shot in 642 just as the anglians pushed ever onwards the annals of ulster report that the britons of old klute led by eugene son of belly went to do battle at a place called strathcarin their enemy this time wasn't the germanics but the irishman of dalriata led by domino breck grandson of aiden domino was killed and the britons took the upper hand from then onwards throughout the eighth century alt klut may have exercised overlordship over a number of smaller kingdoms fighting wars for supremacy particularly over border areas of picked land the pictish king bradae is even called son of the king of old klute in a line of poetry attributed to adam nunn [Music] the pictish king list names broody's father as belly often seen as belly ap nathan an especially well connected ruler in the north with dynastic ties to pictland and one of his sons bridae iii was destined to be one of the most powerful and influential kings the picts ever had it is to pick land that we must turn to next by 685 edgefrith of northumbria stood unopposed in the north overlord of many kingdoms triumphant in wars across land and sea his armies pushed ever onwards deep into the north until finally they were met by a formidable opponent it wouldn't be the irish who would throw them back or the britons though both most likely had some small part to play in the battle [Music] it was the picts under their king bridae himself a cousin of edgefrith there at a place named don nectane somewhere in modern-day scotland english power over the north was finally broken edgefrith killed over the next 150 years or so his successors forced to deal with renewed mercy and aggression from the south as well as pictish raids from the north became increasingly hamstrung by a uniquely murderous culture of kinstrife known as the long winter [Music] the kingdom of the rock had weathered the storm it would survive even as the picts themselves disappeared into memory there are a few mentions of old glute over the rest of the seventh century few historical sources surviving though some mentions of battles in irish sources contain british fighters [Music] perhaps mercenaries or exiles scattered by the anglo-saxon conquest though there is a small chance of them being campaigns directed by the rulers of old clute roaming far and wide as pirate lords once more after all all of its neighbours northumbria pickland and dalriata are known to have sent armies to ireland at times in 7-eleven the annals of ulster record a battle between alt klute and dalriata at a place named lorg eklet and another in 717 at a rock called minak and by 744 the pictish king angus got involved too launching three unsuccessful campaigns against dumbarton rock by 7 50 angus was back in alt-glute territory this time fighting alongside edbert of northumbria though again he would face defeat at the hands of tedeburg of old glute whereas talagan brother of angus was killed tedebar died in 752 though and it was likely his son domnigul who faced a renewed attack by angus and edbert in 756 agreeing to submit to the invading army only after a siege after barton rock however soon enough edbert's army was all but wiped out on its way back south [Music] by 780 though the circumstances remain obscure the barton rock was apparently burned [Music] and by 849 the men of old klut perhaps under king arthgal burned the pictish ecclesiastical center at dunblane [Music] by 870 however an entirely new threat had arrived a four-month siege dumbarton rock was destroyed by a massive viking army perhaps under the sea king ivar the boneless sailing back to their lair of dublin with a huge prey of englishmen picts and britons the ruins smoldering on the horizon though dumbarton rock was gone its people survived [Music] moving further up the estuary rebranding themselves as strathclyde and surviving for yet more centuries to come and as northumbria similarly fell to vikings in the south the men of strathclyde would move back south to reclaim the ancient lands of regeth place names today in cumbria still bear testimony to this re-expansion brethonic influences revived until the kingdom was eventually consumed by scotland perhaps by marriage though retaining its unique culture the present border of england and scotland cuts across the kingdoms of the old north today old cumbrick still survives in shepherd talk on remote hilltops descended from the great heroes of old a testament to the memories of that heroic age and the british rulers who once held sway thanks for watching when it comes to making these things i'm still a one-man team so this was a very special project for me i visited somewhere around 30 locations to film read somewhere close to 100 books wrote narrated filmed and edited it all myself it took me around three years so if you enjoyed it please leave a comment and a like as this helps promote it in youtube's algorithm and makes the whole project worthwhile don't forget to subscribe too as i've already made countless videos on this era on this channel and over on my other one pete kelly where i've been traveling all over britain over the last few years to film at historical sites including many shown in this video [Music] thanks again for watching let me know what you'd like to see covered in the future in the comments and i'll see you next time [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: History Time

Views: 4,011,223

Keywords: history time, history, documentary, ancient history, archaeology, anthropology, mythology, early medieval, early middle ages, learning, history documentary, ancient history documentary, history medieval, medieval

Id: sXBgNNtEJ6M

Length: 207min 49sec (12469 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 14 2021