London Before the ConquestLethaby, W. R. (William Richard)
History
London Before the Conquest
Lethaby, W. R. (William Richard)
London (England) -- History -- To 1500
According to Geoffrey, again, the Archbishops Theon of London and Thadiock
of York fled from their charges about 586. Now a small scrap of evidence
has been recently brought to light as to the existence of these bishops by
Mr. Round, who shows that a church dedicated to a St. Thadiock remained at
Monmouth in the twelfth century. Again, Jocelyn of Furness (cited by
Stow), a writer of the twelfth century, gives a list of the British
Bishops of London, which Bishop Stubbs is inclined to accept.[22] From
Bede, moreover, we gather that Pope Gregory at first intended to establish
the southern archbishopric, not at Canterbury, but at London. Then finally
we have the curious claim made by St. Peter's, Cornhill, to be the first
church in the kingdom. This legend appears in Jocelyn of Furness. Bishop
Foliot at the same time made the former dignity or London the basis of a
claim against Canterbury.
[Illustration: FIG. 10.--HEAD OF A PIN.]
It is often assumed that British London fell violently, and that the old
institutions were obliterated, but a comparison of evidence gathered from
the British legends with the Saxon Chronicle suggests that it is just
possible that the English may have entered the city on terms, as at
Exeter, where Briton and Saxon long dwelt side by side.
Of the time after the English invasion Bishop Stubbs writes: "There were
still Roman roads leading to the walls and towers of empty cities; camps,
villas, churches were become, before the days of Bede, mere haunted ruins.
It is not to be supposed that this desolation was uniform; in some of the
cities there were probably elements of continuous life: London, the mart
of the merchants; York, the capital of the North; and some others, have a
continuous political existence, although they wisely do not claim an
unbroken succession from the Roman municipality." Freeman held a similar
view: "London is one of the ties ... with Celtic and Roman Britain." Mr.
Coote believed that Roman institutions survived all changes, and Thomas
Wright says: "We have no reason for believing that this city, which was a
powerful commercial port, was taken and ravaged by the Saxon invaders; a
rich trading town, it appears to have experienced no check to its
prosperity."
[Illustration: FIG. 11.--ENAMELLED PLATE.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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