On Some Ancient Battle-Fields in Lancashire: And Their Historical, Legendary, and Aesthetic Associations.Hardwick, Charles
History
On Some Ancient Battle-Fields in Lancashire: And Their Historical, Legendary, and Aesthetic Associations.
Hardwick, Charles
Battles -- England; Great Britain -- History -- Anglo-Saxon period, 449-1066; Lancashire (England) -- History
In the year 925, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle informs us that Athelstan and
Sihtric (or Sigtryg), king of the North-humbrians, "came together at
Tamworth, on the 3rd before the Kalends of February; and Athelstan gave
him his sister." But this marriage failed to secure the proposed future
alliance between the Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon sovereigns. The Dane,
who had embraced Christianity, relapsed into the faith of his
forefathers and returned his wife to her former home. Sihtric's death,
however, intervened between the repudiation of Queen Editha, who
afterwards became Abbess of Tamworth, and the vengeance of Athelstan,
which fell upon Anlaf and Godefrid, sons of Sihtric by a former
marriage. Anlaf fled to Ireland, on the east coast of which the Danes
held the supreme authority, and his brother sought refuge with
Constantine, king of the Scots. Referring to these events the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says--"A. 926. This year fiery lights appeared in
the north part of the heavens. And Sihtric perished; and king Athelstan
obtained the kingdom of the North-humbrians. And he ruled all the kings
who were in the island; first, Howel, king of the West-Welsh; and
Constantine, king of the Scots; and Owen, king of the Monmouth people;
and Aldred, son of Ealdulf, of Bambrough: and they confirmed the peace
by pledge, and by oaths, at the place which is called Eamot, on the 4th
before the Ides of July; and they renounced all idolatry, and after that
submitted to him in peace."
But the peace was not of very long duration, for the king of the Scots
raised the standard of revolt, and the old Chronicler, or perhaps a
successor, tells us that in the year 933, "Athelstan went into Scotland,
as well with a land army as with a fleet, and ravaged a great part of
it." This defeat of the Scottish king for a time restored Athelstan's
dominion, but the peace which followed was, four years afterwards,
broken by a powerful combination of Athelstan's enemies, which shook the
"overlordship" of the English monarch to its foundation, and threatened
the safety of his inherited kingdoms. The Scots, the Cumbrian Britons,
the North and West Welsh, entered into a league with Anlaf of Dublin and
the Danish chiefs of Northumbria and their Scandinavian allies to lower
the prestige of the English monarch, and to seat the son of Sihtric on
the throne of his ancestors. This fierce conflict culminated in the
great battle of Brunanburh, in the year 937, in which, after a
desperate two days' struggle, the confederate forces of his enemies were
utterly routed, and Athelstan reigned supreme monarch to the end of his
kingly career.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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