Have We Found the Lost Battlefield of Brunanburh?

these metal detectorists and archaeologists are just part of a team that is looking for the great lost battles of medieval history a battle that continues to shape the political geography of these islands right up to the present day in 937 the king of the English athelstan fought a coalition of his enemies including the Irish the Scots the northumbrians and the Vikings it was the Battle of bruneburg one of the bloodiest and biggest battles of early medieval history but since that day the site of the battle has remained a mystery until now the Battle of brunon fought 1100 years ago saw King athelstan win a crushing Victory the enemy's Shield wall was penetrated their troops ran back to their ships for safety thousands died apart from this we know little else no physical evidence exists where the battle was even fought but recently a stunning Discovery has been made countless hours of metal detecting and other remote sensing have uncovered thousands of objects in Northwest England by the coast on the Wirral peninsula I'm meeting early medieval historian Dr Fiona Edmonds from the University of Lancaster to find out why this particular battle was so crucial we're standing what might be one of the most important battlefields in English and British history tell me how did the all the different players all different Armies come to fight here okay so I'd say brother is really the epic battle of the 10th Century in Britain and it's really significant for several reasons firstly that many of the key players of the time are involved so on the Victorious side we have athelstan of the Wessex Dynasty but by now ruling a substantial portion of what would become the English Kingdom and then we have Constantine the king of Alaba that's the core of what becomes the kingdom of the Scots and then we also have a wine King of the cumbrians which is a lost kingdom now one maybe people haven't heard of but it had just expanded quite significantly and was an important political player of the time and then of course we have all our godfreison who has come from a dynasty that had dominated York and had Ambitions to do so again so you can see how really many very significant players in the politics of the time are here and we also have the Irish North the Irish things affected as well yeah so so this dynasty had a really control of Dublin and an old Alpha and those who came before him had dominated Dublin he by now is dominating many of the other hibernos Scandinavian settlements Limerick for example he he's managed to to set his stamp on so so he would have strong backing from from these Gaelic Scandinavian groups potentially from from the Isles as well but York is a glittering prize and and you know say four of his relatives had been ruling in York so it's understandable that he would have an interest in in coming back to rule in in that part of what's now Northern England so so this is a battle unlike later medieval battles where they're fighting over the kingdom of Scotland the king of England this seems to be a battle where the whole political complexion of the Isles is is kind of up for grabs here I'd say there's been a lot of turbulence during the Viking age and really Bruno is is encapsulating some of that turmoil and then pointing the way to the Future and really what's at stake here is control of what we now know as Northern England but at that point there was not necessarily any inevitability about where that large swathe of territory would end up it had been part of the north Marine Kingdom an autonomous Kingdom of which really the key part by now is York and so it's still really all to play for but athelstan has a strong interest in this territory and as of 97 had been ruling in York talked about athelstan Alfred the Great's grandson the forgotten the Kings really that made England say Alfred the Great his son Edward the elder athel stone a pretty extraordinary run of Kings uh he talked to me about his his plans and and why he ended up fighting it really the decade leading up to Bruno Mars crucial for Apple Stan after the death of uh Cedric who had been ruling in York afstan seizes his opportunity to gain power there he also is showing a strong interest in other parts of the northumberean Kingdom so areas that we we would Now call Lancashire he clearly has some control there as well and his Ambitions don't stop there there are signs that he he has aspirations to be what he would know is Rex totius Britannia or king of all Britain now I'd say that's really an aspiration rather than the reality but he's quite serious about this and in 934 he leads an expedition through Northern England and then both the land and Naval Expedition right into the hearts of the kingdom of the Scots this is very ambitious and shows serious intent really not only to take control of the northumbrian Kingdom as was but but to to set his dominance elsewhere however this is fragile and really what we're seeing at brunenbury is athelstan's Ambitions being significantly challenged by other key players so athelstan was from the West Saxon Dynasty it's been a lot of time in Mercy didn't it to what extent are these two formerly independent Kings were coming fused together now as this new English Kingdom well Cigna by this time and we know that there were the wormsians fighting at the batch battleborn the brimbra poem tells us so explicitly so as far as Wessex and Mercier go there is a real fusion underway but what is still to play for is the north of what is now England and this had been part of an autonomous Kingdom the northumbrian kingdom now now athelstan is showing serious intent to dominate the north he has already taken control of York he has various Slants in what is now Lancashire but it's still not the the England that we know today there's another kingdom as far south as the Lake District that's the cumbrian kingdom and the areas in between are really disputable territory I would say so this this is still the England as we know it now is still very much in the process of formation I'd say there's not yet an inevitability it will take the form that we're familiar with we've got the hiberno Scandinavians from the north of England parts of Ireland um we've got uh britons if you like from Cumbria tell me more about concerning the Scots because they seem that they're a long way from home here that's right um but Constantine was a very significant King in his own right he'd had a very long Reign his Reign lasts for more than 40 years which is extraordinary in this period of history and indeed the number of poem notes that he he's an old man by this time however we shouldn't underestimate the significance of his kingdom the kingdom of the Scots is in a process of formation is is really now a very significant player and of course the the former northumbrian Kingdom lies just to the south of of their core area north of the third or fourth so any goings-on in York will be of interest to them any goings on on the west coast of Mercier and what have been North America will be significant to them and most significantly Apple Stan has really threatened Constantine in 934 when he launched a naval and a land Expedition into the core of the kingdom of the Scots so so I would say it's understandable why Constantine would wish to join this Alliance and make the effort to come so far south if indeed he did in order to fight the battle what you can see really is athelstan's ambition not only to set his stamp on on the north of England but really to play a dominant role elsewhere in Britain as he would Proclaim as Rex totius Britannia king of all Britain that's his aspiration and at brunebra we're seeing a certain resistance to that of course and although on this occasion the resistance is not Successful by two years later athelstan is dead the Dublin York Dynasty is back in control of York however I would say that it does point the way to what we see in the later 10th Century which is a formation of an English Kingdom moving towards what we would know as the England of today why do you think the battle was most likely fought on the Wirral rather than in the east of England voice kept in mind about the location but what what I've always thought is that the West Coast is so much more likely than the east coast and and of course the Wirral has really a good strong claim because it has the place named brombora which is the only modern place name that can understand from brunebra although there are other West Coast candidates now the East Coast has been supported by some historians because a chronicler John of Worcester and various other sources from the 12th century say the Olas Fleet came in via the river Humber but it has to be said that those are later sources even if they have some earlier elements to them and sheer geography the logistics of taking a fleet around the northern tip of Scotland would suggest that that was unlikely and Olaf is much more likely to have brought his ships to the West Coast so is this quite exciting for for Scholars like you if the archaeologist here can prove that this is the battlefield does that solve the big mystery that dominates your period Well I'm I'm sure there's long been debate there will probably always be debate but obviously any new fines that are suggestive um and and point towards the location which always did seem to be a strong candidate um would indeed be very helpful um and I imagine the debates will continue but it's it's really great to have the the possibility of finding new evidence to support that location which which has long seemed really the front runner for the battle of bruneburger an archaeological discovery of this magnitude doesn't happen overnight it requires a lot of hard work and passion this entire excavation this entire Discovery has been made thanks to a group of wonderful volunteers metal detectorists archaeologists place name Experts New musicnologists they're called the Wirral archaeological society and you'll never meet anyone more passionate more enthusiastic about their subject matter Pete Jenkins shows me what some of the team is Unearthed so far you're right Pete so Peter you seem to be the lead metal detectorist on this outfit I wouldn't say I'm the lead one but we I generally do the planning to to come out and they leave it to me but it's uh you know we're a Collegiate attitude to everything really right now you've must have walked these fields a fair few times uh over the last two and a half years I seem to spend most of my time here in this particular field or right across whole battle mostly in this one field right now and where we are we have had some uh benches in but we found a site that is uh produced a lot so we stay in there to be clear right now kinds of objects are you lifting out of the ground here well in the last two and a half years we've recovered over to 2 200 pieces of metal approximately of mainly of iron but we've got bronze we've got silver traces of gold in some of that lots of Alloys brasses uh about seven or eight metals to date and that's a lot more than you'd expect to find in a random Farmers field I've never ever experienced anything like it none of the other team members have either it really is quite unique we think and can they be linked to the 10th Century can they be linked to this battle there we do we have artifacts that have been locked out some of them have been Quantified already we have a number of weapons personal objects uh gaming pieces numerous things that can be attributable to the uh that period and we have we have pieces with rings on them as well which is rather exceptional wow can I see if you've got any I have a few on me here uh right here we have a bronze boat uh it's been metal tested we think it was possibly uh covered in Gold it looks like some Stone has been moved out of it you can see the depression there wow but that is compatible with the type of Broach that would have been worn by both the haberno North and maybe the Anglo-Saxons sort of fixing yeah it's a bit of bling it would have shown like gold at the time even though it's uh it's an alloy so uh yeah that's that's one of the we have several brochures to be honest [Applause] this here is the uh of a pommel and we believe it's uh North and we think it's actually originated in Dublin if you look very closely at the bottom you can see some circles which have been stamped in to here it's not very good but that would have been covered in something like bronze or even silver depends how high stasis uh the owner was and we have had traces of silverine uh identified on this particular piece these are the that's the very bottom of the the grip of a silver it's on the top basically so you've got that you've got the uh the hand grip and then you've got the hilt and then you've got the blade right so if you came to balance really it's the cat exactly yeah and so that's clearly a piece of Weaponry from the box it's definitely it's definitely a sword problem we know that categorically uh this is one of 15 or 16. that doesn't leave you guessing does it it doesn't know let's just be ahead how do we know that's not from a Civil War battlefield The War of the Roses well we've got the continuity we've been finding where they've been smelting metal after the the uh whatever the events has been and uh the the turning the metal into bar billets and then the processing it into things that look like they could be a tool or a weapon and this seems to be the third stage that we have at this moment in time and so you're confident that is not from the 17th century that's got to be tense no we've had it locked up by a number of archaeologists and uh on people with historians from that period um they're quite sure that these are going to be finished off into spearheads what else have we got I'm very excited everything comes out of your pockets what was this uh this is uh it's a it's an ax and it's actually pattern welded and it's actually if you look very closely at The Cutting Edge it's more like a tomahawk it's not the two-handed battle Arc so this is a sidearm it's actually been split at some stage and some carbonized steel so it gives a hard Cutting Edge has been placed into there right now so this is next but it's not for chopping wood this is for chopping men I'm afraid you've got your pockets full of artifacts I mean how many war-like artifacts have you have you pulled out of the ground here on this battlefield well we pulled 2200 artifacts roughly out of the field but when it comes out uh the concretions really uh really heavy on it so we have to dry it out and then we have to preserve it uh so it's an ongoing it's a work in progress so you've been working on this for years you've found over 2 000 objects what percentage of the sort of Battlefield area do you feel you've surveyed comprehensively uh probably less than 10 percent I I think we're several years to work on this site the field that we have here I believe is unique uh I'm not sure that we didn't know of anything that composed and we need academic help we need the help of archaeologists and uh and historians we need to put this jigsaw into its right context holding these fines in my own hands is rather exciting somebody has to make sense of the thousands of objects discovered and that person is Dr Claire Downham from the nearby University of Liverpool Claire this is pretty exciting isn't it it is very exciting we might be on one of the most important battlefields uh really from the medieval period uh why why do you think this might be the Battle of bruneburg okay well there's there's two things there's the there's the the contextual information and then there's the specific fines um so brumbra on the world really is the only place name in Britain that um Can directly tie to the name Bruno and for years Scholars have thought that this is the most plausible location for the site there's never been consensus and I think that reflects how important the event is that there's many different theories people have wanted to locate it to other sites but this one has consistently been of a credible location also in terms of where the different combatants could meet together this is a good location and what rural archeology have been doing over the last few years is they've been studying the landscape of the area and they've also been metal detecting and come out with a very rich number of fines there's lots of bits of metalwork coming out the ground some of those are clearly 10th Century some of those are clearly weapons there needs to be a full review of The Evidence but it's pointing in a very hopeful direction that they have actually nailed where the battle site is where were people coming from okay so one of the main contingencies of course Apple Stan who is the king of Wessex but he's also supported by the peoples of mercy here at this stage and of course the river mersey not the northern boundary of the kingdom of Mercy the name means the border river you've then got the main opposition contingent which is the Vikings of Dublin under the leadership of unlaf and of course it makes sense that if you're Crossing from Dublin across the Irish sea the world is a sensible location on the boundaries of Mercia and then you've also got the northern contingent so Constantine of Alba and owain of strathclyde which is the area around modern Glasgow and it's assumed that their forces came down together perhaps as a land Army and again this perhaps would be a sensible meeting point for those different troops to converge the mersey is really just well just north of the world yeah just north just there yeah um so this is the this is the absolute North Western tip yes of athelstan's kingdom and we're sort of ideally placed for forces from the North and then across the RSC to kind of gather this feels like a kind of fulcrum really well yeah and also it is a defined space you know the world is surrounded on three sides by water we know that Vikings from Ireland had settled here at the early 10th Century so it's possible that the armies of Dublin thought they might have a sympathetic local audience here and the site of the conflict is more or less on that sort of cultural boundary between the area of Viking settlement in the world and where the people of Mercia had held land for centuries let's talk about that geography a little bit so we think the Vikings obviously came from the sea where was athelstan's English army coming from well they presumably might have gathered around the base at Chester first because that would obviously an existing Fortress that would be full of supplies that could you know the troops could refresh themselves before they came up and then met at the site here the Gathering of troops is obviously very large scale so it's possible there might have actually been a few days or maybe even a few weeks of standoff when the armies have sort of gathered before actually conflict takes place and we don't know of course the immediate circumstances that led to that but it seems that the forces came out from Chester and then approached the encampment of the Vikings they might have been settled here at that time ready for for combat and the conflict obviously took place now one of the frustrations we have really is that we don't have much in the way of contemporary evidence about the Battle our main source is really the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 937 and the poem that was written after the victory of the mercian and Wessex troops over this Coalition of Vikings and troops from North Britain and of course that's a very slanted Source because it's written by The Victors so they're obviously celebrating the extent to which they have crushed the opposition and obviously that the size of this conflict the fact it was such a big battle such a large Gathering troops meant that they felt they really obviously had something to Crow about what the Anglo-Saxon poem does tell us is that the conflict was fought over a whole day and that there was also quite a long retreat so once their troops of the Dublin side were realizing they were losing the battle they started to withdraw and then there was quite prolonged process where the army of the English was chasing them back to where they had moored their ships which we think is up at the top of the Wirral Peninsula up there yeah it's a kind of terrible rolling fighting which is the hardest thing to do in battle is to conduct a fighting Retreat so yeah and that would have happened to rock this Valley here yes absolutely and and the sort of topography of the landscape has changed a lot over the last thousand years so um but some very interesting study of this has been done by rural archeology where they're looking at natural Ravines in the landscape that might have channeled the troops in a certain direction they've also looked at the water courses so how that Vikings would have got back to their ships um but in such a way to make use of the sort of limitations of the landscape and landscape and water so that their ships could be got back to fairly safely because that would have been you know quite an epic thing to achieve to retreat but also get back in your ships and get away um so certainly quite a dynamic time okay so that's what we think now from the sources what have you but from the early findings that have been made here how do you think that marries with what you're learning on the ground well the work that's been conducted by rural archaeologists is a very team of very dedicated local metal detectorists and they've actually they've been looking for Bruno for a while and they have found some very productive sites it's clear that some of the finds are very relevant so that they found items for example there's a sword part of a sword blade that's part of a sword pommel they found um you know other things that are parts of Weaponry um sort of Bodkins which sort of sort of piercing in conflict and things like that so there's obviously a comprehensive review of that material needed but it really is pointing to the fact that we are narrowing down where the battle was fought and so forth what they found is maybe evidence for Associated activity with the battle so maybe where there was a camp maybe some evidence of metal breed processing um and there's still more work to be done and they know that they're doing some geophysical work as well to try and track down the exact battle location but we're still impressive at the moment this is a very exciting time when you know we're starting to gather a kind of critical mass of binds and evidence but we know there's also still more work to do to completely nail all the details of what might have happened here how exciting is it that this might be the site of the battle of bruneburg it's very exciting one of the real challenges of Battlefield archeology is that some of our most famous battles in England we've never really found credible evidence for what we seem to be finding here is a nice correspondence between historical sources which point to the location of the battlefield study of local topography and Landscape to understanding how a conflict might have been played out across this area but also a large number of archaeological finds which are pointing in the right direction to really nail the location of the battle of bruneburg which is of course one of the most famous early conflicts in English History so this is a great opportunity at the moment there's things still coming out of the ground there's more research still to do but hopefully in a short time we'll be able to bring all that evidence together and make a really conclusive argument as the search more evidence continues I'm feeling incredibly lucky to have been one of the first people to be shown around this site the results I've seen here today are compelling I'm looking forward to hearing the scientific evidence coming in over the next few months but it seems to me like these people have found the lost sight of the battle of bruneburg and if that's true that's massive it's one of the biggest archaeological finds of my lifetime uh this is the most important battle after Hastings of the whole of the Anglo-Saxon period for centuries it's been lost these guys might just have found it thanks for watching this video on the history Hit YouTube channel you can subscribe right here to make sure you don't miss any of our great films that are coming out or if you are a true history fan check out our special dedicated History Channel History hit dot TV you're gonna love it

Channel: History Hit

Views: 306,063

Keywords: history hit, history hit youtube, brunanburh, brunanburh battle, brunanburh poem, battle of brunanburh, battle of brunanburh summary, battle of brunanburh location, battle of brunanburh map, battle of brunanburh last kingdom, brunanburh battle site, battle of brunanburh history, last kingdom history, king athelstan, anglo-saxon vs vikings, anglo-saxon battles, king athelstan documentary, king athelstan the last kingdom, the last kingdom seven kings must die, history of england

Id: jy7Sw1BZOo0

Length: 24min 44sec (1484 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 19 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/Felicejayne]

I'm sort of, nonsensically, disappointed that the evidence points away from Bamburgh.