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
Dr. Giles, in his annotation of Ethelwerd's Chronicle, fixes Brunanburh
at Brumby, in Lincolnshire, but he assigns no reasons for his
preference. Brunton, in Northumberland, and, I believe, some other
places, have been suggested. The mere identity of the name Brunanburh,
in some corrupted form, though important, is insufficient, without
corroborative evidence, simply because the names of so many places, in
various parts of the country, admit of such derivation. There are
several even in Lancashire, to which I shall afterwards call attention.
Localities on the east, the south, and the west coasts of England have
each found advocates, some, certainly, on very slight grounds. Mr.
Weddle, of Wargrove, near Warrington, in his essay on the site, in 1857,
pertinently reminds the investigator that the very "uncertainty of the
whereabouts of the battle-field" is a good reason why it should be
sought for "in some place half-forgotten." Such being the case, I may,
without much presumption, after studying the subject now for five and
twenty years, adhere to my previously suggested solution of this great
historical and topographical enigma.
The available evidence is very diversified in its character, and may be
dealt with under several distinct heads. In the first place I will
endeavour to show why I maintain that the discovery of the long buried
treasure at Cuerdale, in 1840, has furnished the key by which we may
probably unlock the mystery.
From its great value in the tenth century, the evidence of recent
mintage at the time of its deposition, and the vast number of rare and
foreign coins, many of which were struck by Scandinavian kings or jarls,
all lead to the conjecture that the treasure had not originally belonged
to some private individual or inferior chieftain. It must not be
forgotten that coin was first made "sterling" in the year 1216, before
which time Stowe says rents were mostly paid in "kind," and money was
found only in the coffers of the barons.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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