Of Knights and Bishops: Part I

Early England and How We Got There

The following is a brief history of the early peoples and cultures of England up to the Norman invasion. It's important to understand what was happening in England, and why, in order to understand the Wharton side of our ancestry. Many of our ancestors arrived in England with the Norman Invasion of 1066. It was a time of great upheaval in England and understanding how they arrived is tied to all of the events that formed modern England.

From Celts to Saxons

Great Britian was originally populated by Celts. ▼

The Celts (pronounced with a hard “c” or “k” sound) were early tribes whose culture started to evolve as early as 1200 BC in central Europe. They spread throughout western Europe via migration and by the third century BC, controlled much of the European continent north of the Alps, including present-day Ireland and Great Britain. Their existence was first documented in the seventh or eighth century BC by the Roman Empire. At that time, they were called Galli, meaning barbarians.

During the reign of Julius Caesar in the first century BC, the Romans launched a military campaign against the Celts, killing them by the thousands and destroying their culture in much of mainland Europe. In Great Britain, Celtic tribes of primarily Britons and Picts, were pushed west to Wales and Cornwall, and north to Scotland.

Roman armies were eventually stopped short of conquering all of the United Kingdom near the modern border between Scotland and England. That's why people of Celtic background continue to dominate in Scotland and Ireland. The Romans built Hadrian’s Wall (remnants of which still stand today) near what is now the England-Scottish border in 120 AD. The wall was designed to protect the Roman settlers from the Picts who had fled north.

These ancient tribes fell under Roman rule during the height of the Roman Empire. Though the most stalwart tribes continued to fight a war of rebellion, most of the Celtic culture in what is now England was either destroyed or absorbed by the Roman way of life.

While we may or may not have Celtic blood in us, the Wharton family may have one important connection. The name Wharton, which was originally Querton, may be the Celtic name of a village in northeastern England where our ancestors eventually settled and from which they took their name (more on that in The First Whartons: How We Got Our Name).

Rome began to give up the idea of conquering Britian in the 400s becase of the eastern barbarian threat to their empire. By that time, they had swelled their ranks with mercenaries, primarily from the germanic tribes such as the Angles (southern portion of the Denmark Peninsula) and Saxons (northern Germany just below the Angles).

With the departure of Rome, these mercenaries remained behind and began to overtake the country on their own, helped by the slow by steady trickle of their fellow tribesman from the mainland, and joined by the Jutes of northern Denmark. It was not so much an invasion as had been previously thought, but a gradual migration of Germanic people throughout Europe between 300 and 700 (Figure 1).

Figure 1—Routes of Northern European migration, 400-600 AD. [1]

Eventually the Angles and Saxons formed an alliance, which is where the term Anglo-Saxon comes from. The language of these Anglo-Saxons was Olde English, a west Germanic language of the Angles (Anglish), from which England eventually got it's name. These Anglo-Saxons (along with other invaders from what is now Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands) began to predominate over British Celtic and Roman Latin. By 600, a new order was forming in Britain, with dozens of kingdoms and territories comprised of Anglo-Saxons forming the upper society and remnants of Celtic tribes who had assimilated being the lower class.

While we have a long line of Saxon ancestry, as far as I've been able to determine, none of them migrated to England. They largely migrated to other parts of Europe, most notably to the Low Countries of the Netherlands, Belgium, and the northeastern portions of France. However, when the Vikings began invading England, our ancestors from Scandinavia joined in the fun.

The Viking Era

With no centralized form of government, the early English kingdoms became easy pickings for raiders from Scandinavia, known as Vikings. The first raids ocurred in the late 8th century—mainly churches and monasteries because more wealth was stored there. It was not, however, unusual for whole villages to be sacked.

Much of the area from which the Vikings attacked included Norway, Denmark, northern Germany, the lowlands, and northern France. It actually became a bit muddled up with Viking attacking Viking, though the term itself is overly broad and too inclusive for it to identify a distinctive group of peoples. It should be sufficient to say that a great deal of western and northern Europeans had set their sights on the lush and tiny island of England.

Then, in 860, the Danes decided to mount a full-scale invasion. When one thinks of Denmark today, perhaps the most common comment you'll hear is, "It's just a happy little country." It was not alway so. As a matter of fact, they were a powerful seafaring people, part of the larger Viking legions that swarmed western Europe from the 8th thru 11th century.

Within ten years of mounting the invasion, nearly all of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms had fallen to the Danish invaders. Centres of learning, archives, and churches all fell before the onslaught from the invading Danes. Only the Kingdom of Wessex—one of the places where the Saxons had established themselves in the southwestern portion of the island—was able to survive.

Resurgence of the Anglo-Saxons

The Anglo-Saxons were on the verge of annihilation from the "Great Heathen Army." King Alfred "The Great," the reigning King of Wessex, had fled into an area known as the Isle of Athelney—a low isolated island of Somerset County in the midst of swampy and impassable marshes. With only a small remnant of his army, Alfred built a fort and regrouped the scattered Anglo-Saxon forces in 878. From there, he began to harass the Danes. He eventually won a great battle against them at Edington and then besieged their stronghold at Chippenham, starving them into submission.

Alfred and Guthrum of the Danes agreed to peace, followed by a celebration at Wedmore. While no formal documentation exists, a truce was certainly made. At a later date, a formal treaty was agreed to—this one was known as the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum, which defined the boundaries between Alfred and Danish territories (Figure 2). This document still survives and is part of the Laws of Alfred.

Figure 2—Territories in England following the Treaty of Wedmore. [2]

Three primary groups retained control: Anglo-Saxons, the Danes, and remnants of the Celtic Britons. The Anglo-Saxons in the Kingdom of Wessex controlled part of the Midlands (Mercia) and the whole of the South apart from Cornwall in the extreme southwest corner where the Cornish people even today maintain their Celtic origins. Wales, as well, retained its Celtic origins. Northumbria, in the northeast corner of England remained Anglo-Saxon. The Danes held East Anglia and the remainder of the North. This area ruled by the Danes became known as "The Danelaw."

Alfred's and his son, Edward, continued resistance against the Danes, which likewise continued under the reign of Alfred's three grandsons (Figure 3).

Figure 3—British Monarchs, 871-1016.

Following their father's and grandfather's example, Æthelstan, Edmund I, and Eadred made significant strides in taking back England. In 937, Æthelstan, defeated an alliance of Scots, Danes, and other Vikings at the Battle of Brunanburh to become King of England. Edmund I spent much of his reign trying to win back the northern lands still under Norse control, a fight which continued into Eadred's reign. The chief achievement of Eadred's reign was to bring the Kingdom of Northumbria under total English control, which occurred with the defeat and expulsion of Eric Bloodaxe in 954. It had taken almost half a millenium from the time the Romans left until England would became fully united.

There was peace for decades, until the reign of Æthelred, the grandson of Edmund I. Danish raids on English territory began again in the 980s. In 1002, Æthelred ordered what became known as the St. Brice's Day massacre of Danish settlers. While the intensity and extent of the massacre is questionable, among those killed was supposedly Gunhilde, the sister of Sweyn Forkbeard, the King of Denmark. In 1013, Forkbeard invaded England, as a result of which Æthelred fled to Normandy and was replaced by the Danish King.

This led to a period of tumult with alternating periods of Anglo-Saxon and Danish rule. Forkbeard was replaced by Cnut, King of Norway and Denmark in 1017, followed by his two sons Harold I "Harefoot" and Harthacnut. Altogether, Danes would rule from 1013 until 1042. Eventually the House of Wessex returned to the throne under King Edward "The Confesser," but the instability between Danes and Anglo-Saxons may have contributed to the ability of King William I "The Conquerer" to win dominion over England and bring about Norman rule.

Even though the time of Viking rule had ended, their impact was lasting. There are over 3,000 words in modern English that have Scandinavian roots. Additionally, more than 1,500 place-names in England are Scandinavian in origin. Many Danes who had settled there remained and were assimilated rather than conquered, being free to retain their lands and property.

So What?

The question remains, where do the Wharton's fit into this hodge-lodge of cultural mingling? The answer is that we certainly may have ancestors that are Celtic, Anglo-Saxon from the great migration, and yes, even Vikings from the "Great Heathen Horde"—one in particular that will be brought up in the chapter titled Angry Anglos and Dastardly Danes. Yet, the biggest impact on England was yet to come. It was roundhouse punch that came from across the English Channel and knocked the ruling class to it's knees, altering the culture of England forever. Our family played a role in what was to come, because our most prodigious family roots arose from the Norman invasion of 1066.

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FOOTNOTES

[1] Map courtesy of National Geographic Society. National Geographic. "Migration Routes and Raids, A.D. 400-600."   Nov. 2011. Accessed 30 March 2022.

[2] Map courtesy of Louis Henwood. Infographics, Map Design—History of English Podcast  Accessed 30 March 2022.

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