Bretwalda: Difference between revisions

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Template:Title language Template:Anglo-Saxon society Bretwalda is an Old English term, of contested etymology, applied to some of the rulers of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms from the 5th century onwards. It appears to denote a degree of 'overlordship' over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms although the extent of this power, and its 'official' nature, is contested.

Etymology

The second element of the name is taken to mean 'ruler' or 'sovereign'. The first, however, is more controversial, and two possibilities have been proposed:

The Old English adjective brytten ('broad', from the verb breotan meaning 'to break' or 'to disperse'),^[1] an element also found in the terms bryten rice ('kingdom'), bryten-grund ('the wide expanse of the earth') and bryten cyning ('king whose authority was widely extended').^[2]
An allusion to Briton or Britain, giving 'sovereign of Britain'.^[3]^[4]

The former of these etymology has proved more popular amongst scholars. It was first suggested by John Mitchell Kemble^[5] who alluded that "of six manuscripts in which this passage occurs, one only reads Bretwalda : of the remaining five, four have Bryten-walda or -wealda, and one Breten-anweald",^[5] which Kemble translates as 'ruler of all these islands'; and that bryten- is a common prefix to words meaning 'wide or general dispersion' and that the similarity to the word bretwealh ('Briton') is "merely accidental".^[5]

Bede

Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed in 731, is the first surviving text to allude to the notion of overlordship among the Anglo-Saxon kings. His account of the death of King Æthelberht of Kent, in the year 616, notes:

He [Æthelberht] was the third English king to rule over all the southern kingdoms, which are divided from the north by the river Humber and the surrounding territory; but he was the first to enter the kingdom of heaven. The first king to hold the like sovereignty was Ælle, king of the South Saxons; the second was Cælin, king of the West Saxons, known in their own language as Ceawlin; the third, as we have said, was Æthelberht, king of Kent; the fourth was Rædwald, king of the East Angles, who even during the lifetime of Æthelberht was gaining the leadership for his own race; the fifth was Edwin, king of the Northumbrians, the nation inhabiting the district north of the Humber. Edwin had still greater power and ruled over all the inhabitants of Britain, English and Britons alike, except for Kent only. He even brought under English rule the Mevanian Islands (Anglesey and Man) which lie between England and Ireland and belong to the Britons. The sixth to rule within the same bounds was Oswald, the most Christian king of the Northumbrians, while the seventh was his brother Oswiu who for a time held almost the same territory. The latter overwhelmed and made tributary even the tribes of the Picts and Irish who inhabit the northern parts of Britain; but of this more later.^[6]
— Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People

Despite introducing the idea of the 'overking', Bede never employs the Old English term bretwalda. Instead, his Latin text alludes to those holding imperium over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

Mercia was arguably the most powerful Anglo-Saxon kingdom for much of the late 7th though 8th centuries, yet they Mercian kings are absent from Bede's list. For Bede, Mercia was a traditional enemy of his native Northumbria and he regarded powerful kings such as the pagan Penda as standing in the way of the Christian conversion of the Anglo-Saxons.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

File:Entry for 827 in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which lists the eight bretwaldas.gif

The entry for 827 (recte 829) in manuscript C of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which lists the eight bretwaldas (shown as bretenanwealda in this manuscript)^[7]

The only contemporary use of the term bretwalda is in manuscript A of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 827 (recte 829). Manuscript A is a recension of the original "common stock" of the 890s, and in the view of the historian Sarah Foot bretwalda is unlikely to have been the original spelling.^[8] Other manuscripts of the Chronicle used similar terms such as brytenwuldu and bretenanwealda in the entry for 829.

This entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the conquest of Mercia by Ecgberht, King of Wessex, making him king of all England south of the Humber. Ecgberht is described as the eighth bretwalda, ruler of Britain, and the eight are listed with descriptions:^[9]

Ælle, king of the South Saxons
Ceawlin, king of the West Saxons
Æthelberht, king of the people of Kent
Rædwald, king of the East Angles
Edwin, king of the people of Northumbria
Oswald, Edwin's successor
Oswiu, Oswald's brother
Ecgberht, king of the West Saxons

The Chronicle mirrors the list provided by Bede, with the addition of Ecgberht's name.^[10]^[11] Much like Bede, the Chronicle omits the Mercian kings, most notably Offa, from its list, likely a result of the West Saxon text's anti-Mercian bias. The Annals of Wales continued to recognise the kings of Northumbria as "Kings of the Saxons" until the death of Osred I of Northumbria in 716.

The term bretwalda is also used in some spurious documents from the period.^[12]

Modern interpretation

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File:Anglo-Saxon England 2.svg

The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms

For some time, the existence of the word bretwalda in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which was based in part on the list given by Bede in his Historia Ecclesiastica, led historians to think that there was perhaps a "title" held by Anglo-Saxon overlords. This was particularly attractive as it would lay the foundations for the establishment of an English monarchy. The 20th-century historian Frank Stenton said of the Anglo-Saxon chronicler that "his inaccuracy is more than compensated by his preservation of the English title applied to these outstanding kings".^[13] He argued that the term bretwalda "falls into line with the other evidence which points to the Germanic origin of the earliest English institutions".

It is certainly clear, that a complex array of dominance and subservience existed during the Anglo-Saxon period. A king who used charters to grant land in another kingdom indicated such a relationship. If the other kingdom were fairly large, as when the Mercians dominated the East Anglians, the relationship would have been more equal than in the case of the Mercian dominance of the Hwicce, which was a comparatively small kingdom.

However, over the later 20th century, this assumption was increasingly challenged. The historian Simon Keynes comments:

Template:Bq

Patrick Wormald interpreted it as "less an objectively realized office than a subjectively perceived status" and emphasised the partiality of its usage in favour of Southumbrian rulers.^[14] In 1991, Steven Fanning argued that "it is unlikely that the term ever existed as a title or was in common usage in Anglo-Saxon England".^[15]^: 24 The fact that Bede never mentioned a special title for the kings in his list implies that he was unaware of one.^[15]^: 23 In 1995, Simon Keynes observed that "if Bede's concept of the Southumbrian overlord, and the chronicler's concept of the 'Template:Langr', are to be regarded as artificial constructs, which have no validity outside the context of the literary works in which they appear, we are released from the assumptions about political development which they seem to involve [...] we might ask whether kings in the eighth and ninth centuries were quite so obsessed with the establishment of a pan-Southumbrian state".^[16]

Notes

↑ St Clair Feilden, H. (2009), A Short Constitutional History of England, BiblioBazaar, p. 33, ISBN 978-1-103-28759-8.
↑ Kendall, Calvin B.; Wells, Peter S. (1992), Voyage to the Other World: The Legacy of Sutton Hoo, University of Minnesota Press, p. 111, ISBN 978-0-8166-2024-1
↑ Webster, "Kingly titles", Online dictionary, archived from the original on 16 May 2008, retrieved 16 September 2009.
↑ Dunham, Samuel Astley (1834), Europe During the Middle Ages, Books.
↑ ^5.0 ^5.1 ^5.2 Kemble, John Mitchell (1876). The Saxons in England: A History of the English Commonwealth till the Period of the Norman Conquest. II. London: Bernard Quaritch. pp. 19–21.
↑ Colgrave, Bertram (1969). Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Oxford University Press. p. 149-151.
↑ O'Brien O'Keeffe, Katherine, ed. (2001). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, A Collaborative Edition, 5, MS C. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer. p. 53. ISBN 978-0-85991-491-8.
↑ Foot, Sarah (1996). "The Making of Angelcynn: English Identity before the Norman Conquest". Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. 6: 40 n. 65. ISSN 0080-4401.
↑ Whitelock, Dorothy, ed. (1979). English Historical Documents, Volume 1, c. 500–1042 (2nd ed.). London, UK: Routledge. p. 186. ISBN 978-0-415-14366-0.
↑ Bede (1994). McClure, Judith; Collins, Roger (eds.). The Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 77–78. ISBN 978-0-19-953723-5.
↑ Keynes, Simon (2014). "Bretwalda or Brytenwlda". In Lapidge, Michael; Blair, John; Keynes, Simon; Scragg, Donald (eds.). The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England (2nd ed.). Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell. pp. 76–77. ISBN 978-0-470-65632-7.
↑ Whitelock, English Historical Documents, p. 186 n. 2
↑ Stenton, F. M. (1971), Anglo-Saxon England (3rd ed.), Oxford: University Press, pp. 34–35.
↑ Wormald, Patrick, Bede, Bretwaldas and the Origins of the Gens Anglorum, pp. 118–119.
↑ ^15.0 ^15.1 Fanning, Steven (1991), "Bede, Imperium, and the Bretwaldas", Speculum, 66.
↑ Keynes, Simon (1995), "England, 700–900", in McKitterick, R. (ed.), The New Cambridge Medieval History, II, c. 700 – c. 900, Cambridge: University Press, p. 39.

References

Fanning, Steven. "Bede, Imperium, and the Bretwaldas." Speculum 66 (1991): 1–26.
Wormald, Patrick. "Bede, the Bretwaldas and the Origins of the Gens Anglorum." In Ideal and Reality in Frankish and Anglo-Saxon Society, ed. P. Wormald et al. Oxford, 1983. 99–129.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{Short description|Title given to some Anglo-Saxon rulers}}
-{{Use dmy dates|date = August 2014}}{{Use British English|date=November 2017}}
+{{title language|ang}}
-[[File:Entry for 827 in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which lists the eight bretwaldas.gif|400px|thumb|right|The entry for 827 in the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', which lists the eight bretwaldas]]
+{{Use dmy dates|date = August 2014}}
-'''''Bretwalda''''' (also '''''brytenwalda''''' and '''''bretenanwealda''''', sometimes capitalised) is an [[Old English]] word. The first record comes from the late 9th-century ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]''. It is given to some of the rulers of [[Heptarchy|Anglo-Saxon kingdoms]] from the 5th century onwards who had achieved overlordship of some or all of the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. It is unclear whether the word dates back to the 5th century and was used by the kings themselves or whether it is a later, 9th-century, invention. The term ''bretwalda'' also appears in a 10th-century charter of [[Athelstan of England|Æthelstan]]. The literal meaning of the word is disputed and may translate to either 'wide-ruler' or 'Britain-ruler'.
+{{Use British English|date=November 2017}}
+{{Anglo-Saxon society}}
+'''{{lang|ang|Bretwalda}}''' is an [[Old English]] term, of contested etymology, applied to some of the rulers of [[Heptarchy|Anglo-Saxon kingdoms]] from the 5th century onwards. It appears to denote a degree of 'overlordship' over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms although the extent of this power, and its 'official' nature, is contested.
-The rulers of [[Mercia]] were generally the most powerful of the Anglo-Saxon kings from the mid 7th century to the early 9th century but are not accorded the title of ''bretwalda'' by the ''Chronicle'', which had an anti-Mercian bias. The ''[[Annales Cambriæ|Annals of Wales]]'' continued to recognise the [[List of monarchs of Northumbria|kings of Northumbria]] as "Kings of the Saxons" until the death of [[Osred I of Northumbria]] in 716.
+==Etymology==
+The second element of the name is taken to mean 'ruler' or '[[sovereign]]'. The first, however, is more controversial, and two possibilities have been proposed:
+* The [[Old English]] adjective {{lang|ang|brytten}} ('broad', from the verb {{lang|ang|breotan}} meaning 'to break' or 'to disperse'),<ref>{{Citation | title = A Short Constitutional History of England | first = H. | last = St Clair Feilden | publisher = BiblioBazaar | year = 2009 | isbn = 978-1-103-28759-8 | page = 33}}.</ref> an element also found in the terms {{lang|ang|bryten rice}} ('kingdom'), {{lang|ang|bryten-grund}} ('the wide expanse of the earth') and {{lang|ang|bryten cyning}} ('king whose authority was widely extended').<ref>{{Citation | title = Voyage to the Other World: The Legacy of Sutton Hoo | first1 = Calvin B. | last1 = Kendall | first2 = Peter S. | last2 = Wells | publisher = University of Minnesota Press | year = 1992 | isbn = 978-0-8166-2024-1 | page = [https://archive.org/details/voyagetootherwor00kend_0/page/111 111] | url = https://archive.org/details/voyagetootherwor00kend_0/page/111 }}</ref>
+* An allusion to ''[[Britons (historical)|Briton]]'' or ''Britain,'' giving 'sovereign of Britain'.<ref>{{Citation | last = Webster | title = Online dictionary | url = http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/Ki/Kingly+Titles.html | contribution = Kingly titles | access-date = 16 September 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080516015422/http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/Ki/Kingly+Titles.html | archive-date = 16 May 2008 | url-status = dead }}.</ref><ref>{{Citation | series = Books | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=4pxJAAAAIAAJ&q=%3B&pg=PA11 | title = Europe During the Middle Ages | author-link = Samuel Astley Dunham | first = Samuel Astley | last = Dunham| year = 1834 }}.</ref>
+The former of these etymology has proved more popular amongst scholars. It was first suggested by [[John Mitchell Kemble]]<ref name="kemble">{{cite book| last= Kemble |first= John Mitchell | author-link= John Mitchell Kemble | title= The Saxons in England: A History of the English Commonwealth till the Period of the Norman Conquest | year= 1876 | publisher= Bernard Quaritch | location =London | volume= II |pages = 19–21}}</ref> who alluded that "of six manuscripts in which this passage occurs, one only reads {{lang|ang|Bretwalda}}{{hsp}}: of the remaining five, four have {{lang|ang|Bryten-walda}} or {{nowrap|{{lang|ang|-wealda}}}}, and one {{lang|ang|Breten-anweald}}{{-"}},<ref name="kemble" /> which Kemble translates as 'ruler of all these islands'; and that {{nowrap|{{lang|ang|bryten-}}}} is a common prefix to words meaning 'wide or general dispersion' and that the similarity to the word {{lang|ang|bretwealh}} ('Briton') is "merely accidental".<ref name="kemble" />
-==Bretwaldas==
+== Bede ==
-[[File:Anglo-Saxon England 2.svg|thumb|The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms]]
+[[Bede]]'s  ''[[Ecclesiastical History of the English People]]'', completed in 731, is the first surviving text to allude to the notion of overlordship among the Anglo-Saxon kings. His account of the death of King Æthelberht of Kent, in the year 616, notes:
-===Listed by the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle''===
+{{Blockquote
-[[File:Edwin - John Speed.JPG|thumb|An imaginary depiction of Edwin of Northumbria, from [[John Speed|John Speed's]] ''Saxon Heptarchy'' (1611)]]
+|text=He [Æthelberht] was the third English king to rule over all the southern kingdoms, which are divided from the north by the river Humber and the surrounding territory; but he was the first to enter the kingdom of heaven. The first king to hold the like sovereignty was Ælle, king of the South Saxons; the second was Cælin, king of the West Saxons, known in their own language as Ceawlin; the third, as we have said, was Æthelberht, king of Kent; the fourth was Rædwald, king of the East Angles, who even during the lifetime of Æthelberht was gaining the leadership for his own race; the fifth was Edwin, king of the Northumbrians, the nation inhabiting the district north of the Humber. Edwin had still greater power and ruled over all the inhabitants of Britain, English and Britons alike, except for Kent only. He even brought under English rule the Mevanian Islands (Anglesey and Man) which lie between England and Ireland and belong to the Britons. The sixth  to rule within the same bounds was Oswald, the most Christian king of the Northumbrians, while the seventh was his brother Oswiu who for a time held almost the same territory. The latter overwhelmed and made tributary even the tribes of the Picts and Irish who inhabit the northern parts of Britain; but of this more later.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Colgrave |first1=Bertram |title=Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People |date=1969 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=149-151}}</ref>
-* [[Ælle of Sussex]] (488–{{circa}} 514)
+|author=Bede
-* [[Ceawlin of Wessex]] (560–592, died 593)
+|source=''Ecclesiastical History of the English People''
-* [[Æthelberht of Kent]] (590–616)
+}}
-* [[Rædwald of East Anglia]] (c. 600–around 624)
-* [[Edwin of Northumbria|Edwin of Deira]] (616–633)
-* [[Oswald of Northumbria]] (633–642)
-* [[Oswiu of Northumbria]] (642–670)
-* [[Egbert of Wessex]] (829–839)
-* [[Alfred of Wessex]] (871–899)
-===Mercian rulers with similar or greater authority===
-* [[Penda of Mercia]] (626/633–655)
-* [[Wulfhere of Mercia]] (658–675)
-* [[Æthelred of Mercia]] (675–704, died 716)
-* [[Æthelbald of Mercia]] (716–757)
-* [[Offa of Mercia]] (757–796)
-* [[Coenwulf of Mercia|Cœnwulf of Mercia]] (796–821)
-===Other claimants===
+Despite introducing the idea of the 'overking', Bede never employs the Old English term ''bretwalda''. Instead, his Latin text alludes to those holding ''imperium'' over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
-* [[Æthelstan|Æthelstan of Wessex]] (927–939)
-==Etymology==
+Mercia was arguably the most powerful Anglo-Saxon kingdom for much of the late 7th though 8th centuries, yet they Mercian kings are absent from Bede's list. For Bede, Mercia was a traditional enemy of his native Northumbria and he regarded powerful kings such as the pagan Penda as standing in the way of the Christian conversion of the Anglo-Saxons.
-The first syllable of the term ''bretwalda'' may be related to [[Britons (historical)|''Briton'']] or ''Britain''. The second element is taken to mean 'ruler' or '[[sovereign]]'. Thus, one interpretation might be 'sovereign of Britain'.<ref>{{Citation | last = Webster | title = Online dictionary | url = http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/Ki/Kingly+Titles.html | contribution = Kingly titles | access-date = 16 September 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080516015422/http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/Ki/Kingly+Titles.html | archive-date = 16 May 2008 | url-status = dead }}.</ref><ref>{{Citation | series = Books | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=4pxJAAAAIAAJ&q=%3B&pg=PA11 | title = Europe During the Middle Ages | author-link = Samuel Astley Dunham | first = Samuel Astley | last = Dunham| year = 1834 }}.</ref> Otherwise, the word may be a [[Compound (linguistics)|compound]] containing the [[Old English]] adjective ''brytten'' ('broad', from the verb ''breotan'' meaning 'to break' or 'to disperse'),<ref>{{Citation | title = A Short Constitutional History of England | first = H. | last = St Clair Feilden | publisher = BiblioBazaar | year = 2009 | isbn = 978-1-103-28759-8 | page = 33}}.</ref> an element also found in the terms ''bryten rice'' ('kingdom'), ''bryten-grund'' ('the wide expanse of the earth') and ''bryten cyning'' ('king whose authority was widely extended'). Though the origin is ambiguous, the draughtsman of the charter issued by [[Æthelstan]] used the term in a way that can only mean 'wide-ruler'.<ref>{{Citation | title = Voyage to the Other World: The Legacy of Sutton Hoo | first1 = Calvin B. | last1 = Kendall | first2 = Peter S. | last2 = Wells | publisher = University of Minnesota Press | year = 1992 | isbn = 978-0-8166-2024-1 | page = [https://archive.org/details/voyagetootherwor00kend_0/page/111 111] | url = https://archive.org/details/voyagetootherwor00kend_0/page/111 }}</ref>
-The latter etymology was first suggested by [[John Mitchell Kemble]]<ref name="kemble"/> who alluded that "of six manuscripts in which this passage occurs, one only reads ''Bretwalda'': of the remaining five, four have ''Bryten-walda'' or ''-wealda'', and one ''Breten-anweald'', which is precisely synonymous with Brytenwealda"; that Æthelstan was called ''brytenwealda ealles ðyses ealondes'',<ref name="kemble">{{cite book| last= Kemble |first= John Mitchell | author-link= John Mitchell Kemble | title= The Saxons in England: A History of the English Commonwealth till the Period of the Norman Conquest | year= 1876 | publisher= Bernard Quaritch | location =London | volume= II |pages = 19–21}}</ref> which Kemble translates as 'ruler of all these islands'; and that ''bryten-'' is a common prefix to words meaning 'wide or general dispersion' and that the similarity to the word ''bretwealh'' ('Briton') is "merely accidental".<ref name="kemble"/>
+==The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ==
+[[File:Entry for 827 in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which lists the eight bretwaldas.gif|upright=1.22|thumb|right|The entry for 827 (''recte'' 829) in manuscript C of the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', which lists the eight {{lang|ang|bretwaldas}} (shown as {{lang|ang|bretenanwealda}} in this manuscript)<ref>{{cite book|editor-first=Katherine|editor-last=O'Brien O'Keeffe |title=The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, A Collaborative Edition, 5, MS C|page=53 |publisher= D. S. Brewer|location =Cambridge |year=2001|isbn=978-0-85991-491-8}}</ref>]]
+The only contemporary use of the term {{lang|ang|bretwalda}} is in manuscript A of the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' for 827 (''recte'' 829). Manuscript A is a [[recension]] of the original "common stock" of the 890s, and in the view of the historian [[Sarah Foot]] {{lang|ang|bretwalda}} is unlikely to have been the original spelling.<ref name=Foot>{{cite journal| last=Foot |first=Sarah | journal=Transactions of the Royal Historical Society |title=The Making of Angelcynn: English Identity before the Norman Conquest|volume=6 |number=  |date=1996 |page=40 n. 65 |issn= 0080-4401 }}</ref> Other manuscripts of the ''Chronicle'' used similar terms such as {{lang|ang|brytenwuldu}} and {{lang|ang|bretenanwealda}} in the entry for 829.
-==Contemporary use==
+This entry in the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' records the conquest of [[Mercia]] by [[Ecgberht]], King of [[Wessex]], making him king of all England south of the [[Humber]]. Ecgberht is described as the eighth {{lang|ang|bretwalda}}, ruler of Britain, and the eight are listed with descriptions:<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Whitelock|editor-first=Dorothy|editor-link=Dorothy Whitelock|title=English Historical Documents, Volume 1, c. 500–1042|page=186|edition=2nd |year=1979|publisher=Routledge|location=London, UK|isbn= 978-0-415-14366-0}}</ref>
-The first recorded use of the term ''Bretwalda'' comes from a [[Wessex|West Saxon]] chronicle of the late 9th century that applied the term to [[Egbert of Wessex|Ecgberht]], who ruled Wessex from 802 to 839.<ref>''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' MS A, 827 for 829.</ref> The chronicler also wrote down the names of seven kings that [[Bede]] listed in his ''[[Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum]]'' in 731.<ref>From Bede, ''[[Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum]]'' 2.5.</ref> All subsequent manuscripts of the ''Chronicle'' use the term ''Brytenwalda'', which may have represented the original term or derived from a common error.
+* [[Ælle of Sussex|Ælle]], king of the South Saxons
+* [[Ceawlin of Wessex|Ceawlin]], king of the West Saxons
+* [[Æthelberht of Kent|Æthelberht]], king of the people of Kent
+* [[Rædwald of East Anglia|Rædwald]], king of the East Angles
+* [[Edwin of Northumbria|Edwin]], king of the people of Northumbria
+* [[Oswald of Northumbria|Oswald]], Edwin's successor
+* [[Oswiu of Northumbria|Oswiu]], Oswald's brother
+* [[Ecgberht, King of Wessex|Ecgberht]], king of the West Saxons
-There is no evidence that the term was a title that had any practical use, with implications of formal rights, powers and office, or even that it had any existence before the 9th-century. Bede wrote in [[Latin]] and never used the term and his list of kings holding ''imperium'' should be treated with caution, not least in that he overlooks kings such as [[Penda of Mercia]], who clearly held some kind of dominance during his reign. Similarly, in his list of bretwaldas, the West Saxon chronicler ignored such [[List of monarchs of Mercia|Mercian kings]] as [[Offa of Mercia|Offa]].
+The ''Chronicle'' mirrors the list provided by Bede, with the addition of Ecgberht's name.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bede |editor1-first=Judith|editor1-last=McClure|editor2-first=Roger|editor2-last=Collins |title=The Ecclesiastical History of the English People |pages=77-78|publisher=Oxford University Press |location =Oxford, UK |year=1994|isbn=978-0-19-953723-5}}</ref><ref name="Keynes">{{cite encyclopedia|last= Keynes |first=Simon  |title=Bretwalda or Brytenwlda |pages=76-77|year=2014|editor1-first= Michael|editor1-last= Lapidge|editor2-first= John|editor2-last= Blair|editor3-first= Simon|editor3-last= Keynes |editor4-first= Donald|editor4-last= Scragg |encyclopedia=The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England|edition=2nd| publisher= Wiley Blackwell |location=Chichester, West Sussex |isbn=978-0-470-65632-7}}</ref> Much like Bede, the ''Chronicle'' omits the Mercian kings, most notably Offa, from its list,
+likely a result of the West Saxon text's anti-Mercian bias. The ''[[Annales Cambriæ|Annals of Wales]]'' continued to recognise the [[List of monarchs of Northumbria|kings of Northumbria]] as "Kings of the Saxons" until the death of [[Osred I of Northumbria]] in 716.
-The use of the term ''Bretwalda'' was the attempt by a West Saxon chronicler to make some claim of [[List of monarchs of Wessex|West Saxon kings]] to the whole of Great Britain. The concept of the overlordship of the whole of Britain was at least recognised in the period, whatever was meant by the term. Quite possibly it was a survival of a Roman concept of "Britain": it is significant that, while the hyperbolic inscriptions on coins and titles in [[charter]]s often included the title ''rex Britanniae'', when England was unified the title used was ''rex Angulsaxonum'', ('king of the Anglo-Saxons'.)
+The term ''bretwalda'' is also used in some spurious documents from the period.<ref>Whitelock, ''English Historical Documents'', p. 186 n. 2</ref>
-==Modern interpretation by historians==
+==Modern interpretation==
-For some time, the existence of the word ''bretwalda'' in the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', which was based in part on the list given by [[Bede]] in his ''Historia Ecclesiastica'', led historians to think that there was perhaps a "title" held by Anglo-Saxon overlords. This was particularly attractive as it would lay the foundations for the establishment of an English monarchy. The 20th-century historian [[Frank Stenton]] said of the Anglo-Saxon chronicler that "his inaccuracy is more than compensated by his preservation of the English title applied to these outstanding kings".<ref>{{Citation | first = F. M. | last = Stenton | title = Anglo-Saxon England | edition = 3rd | place = Oxford | publisher = University Press | year = 1971 | pages = 34–35}}.</ref> He argued that the term ''bretwalda'' "falls into line with the other evidence which points to the Germanic origin of the earliest English institutions".
+{{update|section|date=May 2026}}
+[[File:Anglo-Saxon England 2.svg|thumb|The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms]]
+For some time, the existence of the word {{lang|ang|bretwalda}} in the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', which was based in part on the list given by [[Bede]] in his {{lang|la|Historia Ecclesiastica}}, led historians to think that there was perhaps a "title" held by Anglo-Saxon overlords. This was particularly attractive as it would lay the foundations for the establishment of an English monarchy. The 20th-century historian [[Frank Stenton]] said of the Anglo-Saxon chronicler that "his inaccuracy is more than compensated by his preservation of the English title applied to these outstanding kings".<ref>{{Citation | first = F. M. | last = Stenton | title = Anglo-Saxon England | edition = 3rd | place = Oxford | publisher = University Press | year = 1971 | pages = 34–35}}.</ref> He argued that the term {{lang|ang|bretwalda}} "falls into line with the other evidence which points to the Germanic origin of the earliest English institutions".
-Over the later 20th century, this assumption was increasingly challenged. [[Patrick Wormald]] interpreted it as "less an objectively realized office than a subjectively perceived status" and emphasised the partiality of its usage in favour of [[Southumbrian]] rulers.<ref>{{Citation | first = Patrick | last = Wormald | title = Bede, ''Bretwaldas'' and the Origins of the ''Gens Anglorum'' | pages = 118–119}}.</ref> In 1991, Steven Fanning argued that "it is unlikely that the term ever existed as a title or was in common usage in Anglo-Saxon England".<ref name = "Fanning">{{Citation | last = Fanning | first = Steven | contribution = Bede, ''Imperium'', and the Bretwaldas | title = Speculum | volume = 66 | number = 1 | year = 1991}}.</ref>{{rp |24}}  The fact that Bede never mentioned a special title for the kings in his list implies that he was unaware of one.<ref name = "Fanning" />{{rp |23}}  In 1995, [[Simon Keynes]] observed that "if Bede's concept of the Southumbrian overlord, and the chronicler's concept of the 'Bretwalda', are to be regarded as artificial constructs, which have no validity outside the context of the literary works in which they appear, we are released from the assumptions about political development which they seem to involve... we might ask whether kings in the eighth and ninth centuries were quite so obsessed with the establishment of a pan-Southumbrian state".<ref>{{Citation | first = Simon | last = Keynes | contribution = England, 700–900 | title = The New Cambridge Medieval History | volume = II, c. 700 – c. 900 | editor-first = R. | editor-last = McKitterick | place = Cambridge | publisher = University Press | year = 1995 | page = 39}}.</ref>
+It is certainly clear, that  a complex array of dominance and subservience existed during the [[History of Anglo-Saxon England|Anglo-Saxon period]]. A king who used [[Anglo-Saxon Charters|charters]] to grant land in another kingdom indicated such a relationship. If the other kingdom were fairly large, as when the Mercians dominated the [[Kingdom of East Anglia|East Anglians]], the relationship would have been more equal than in the case of the Mercian dominance of the [[Hwicce]], which was a comparatively small kingdom.
-Modern interpretations view the concept of ''bretwalda'' overlordship as complex and an important indicator of how a 9th-century chronicler interpreted history and attempted to insert the increasingly powerful Saxon kings into that history.
+However, over the later 20th century, this assumption was increasingly challenged. The historian [[Simon Keynes]] comments:
-==Overlordship==
+{{bq|
-A complex array of dominance and subservience existed during the [[History of Anglo-Saxon England|Anglo-Saxon period]]. A king who used [[Anglo-Saxon Charters|charters]] to grant land in another kingdom indicated such a relationship. If the other kingdom were fairly large, as when the Mercians dominated the [[Kingdom of East Anglia|East Anglians]], the relationship would have been more equal than in the case of the Mercian dominance of the [[Hwicce]], which was a comparatively small kingdom. Mercia was arguably the most powerful Anglo-Saxon kingdom for much of the late 7th though 8th centuries, though Mercian kings are missing from the two main "lists". For Bede, Mercia was a traditional enemy of his native Northumbria and he regarded powerful kings such as the pagan Penda as standing in the way of the Christian conversion of the Anglo-Saxons. Bede omits them from his list, even though it is evident that Penda held a considerable degree of power. Similarly powerful Mercia kings such as Offa are missed out of the West Saxon ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', which sought to demonstrate the legitimacy of their kings to rule over other Anglo-Saxon peoples.
+Bede's list is best understood as the product of personal reflection on his part. It is likely, in the same way, that the chronicler's use of the term {{lang|ang|bretwalda}} did not represent Ecgberht's succession to a recognised office, with powers and responsibilities particular to itself, but rather a flight of fancy, important to the chronicler but of no real importance in the unfolding course of political development.<ref name=Keynes/>
+}}
-==See also==
+[[Patrick Wormald]] interpreted it as "less an objectively realized office than a subjectively perceived status" and emphasised the partiality of its usage in favour of [[Southumbrian]] rulers.<ref>{{Citation | first = Patrick | last = Wormald | title = Bede, ''Bretwaldas'' and the Origins of the ''Gens Anglorum'' | pages = 118–119}}.</ref> In 1991, Steven Fanning argued that "it is unlikely that the term ever existed as a title or was in common usage in Anglo-Saxon England".<ref name = "Fanning">{{Citation | last = Fanning | first = Steven | contribution = Bede, ''Imperium'', and the Bretwaldas | title = Speculum | volume = 66 | number = 1 | year = 1991}}.</ref>{{rp |24}}  The fact that Bede never mentioned a special title for the kings in his list implies that he was unaware of one.<ref name = "Fanning" />{{rp |23}}  In 1995, [[Simon Keynes]] observed that "if Bede's concept of the Southumbrian overlord, and the chronicler's concept of the '{{langr|ang|Bretwalda}}', are to be regarded as artificial constructs, which have no validity outside the context of the literary works in which they appear, we are released from the assumptions about political development which they seem to involve [...] we might ask whether kings in the eighth and ninth centuries were quite so obsessed with the establishment of a pan-Southumbrian state".<ref>{{Citation | first = Simon | last = Keynes | contribution = England, 700–900 | title = The New Cambridge Medieval History | volume = II, c. 700 – c. 900 | editor-first = R. | editor-last = McKitterick | place = Cambridge | publisher = University Press | year = 1995 | page = 39}}.</ref>
-* [[List of monarchs of East Anglia]]
-* [[List of monarchs of Essex]]
-* [[List of monarchs of Kent]]
-* [[List of monarchs of Sussex]]
-* [[List of monarchs of Wessex]]
-* [[List of monarchs of Mercia]]
-* [[List of monarchs of Northumbria]]
-* [[List of English monarchs]] (to 1707)
-* [[List of legendary kings of Britain]]
-* [[King of the Britons|Kings of the Britons]] (contemporaries with Anglo-Saxon kings)
-* [[High King]]
-* [[Emperor]]
 ==Notes==

Bretwalda: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 03:29, 22 May 2026

Contents

Etymology

Bede

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

Modern interpretation

Notes

References

Further reading

Navigation menu

Bretwalda: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 03:29, 22 May 2026

Etymology

Bede

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

Modern interpretation

Notes

References

Further reading

Navigation menu

Search