The history of medieval Cumbria has several points of interest. The region's status as a borderland coping with 400 years of warfare is one. The attitude of the English central government, at once uninterested and deeply interested, is another. As a border region, of geopolitical importance, Cumbria changed hands between the Angles, Norse (Norwegians, Danes and Hiberno-Norse), Strathclyde Brythons, Picts, Normans, Scots and English; and the emergence of the modern county is also worthy of study.
Early Medieval Cumbria, 410–1066
After the Romans: warring tribes and the Kingdom of Rheged, c. 410–600 By the official Roman break with Britannia in 410, most of the parts of Britain which had been formerly occupied by them were already effectively independent of the empire. In Cumbria, the Roman presence had been almost entirely military rather than civil, and the withdrawal is unlikely to have caused much change. Many of the Roman forts may have continued in use as places of local government and habitation; there is evidence suggesting that Birdoswald was inhabited until at least the 6th century, for example. However, many questions remain as to what post-Roman Cumbria looked like, in terms of its political and social life.
Sources – history and legend
The questions mentioned above remain to be answered because now we enter the period that used to be called the Dark Ages, due to the lack of archaeological and paleobotanical finds, and the unreliability of the documentary sources that we are forced to use as a result (although the last few decades have provided more in the way of archaeological evidence due to the improvement in dating, especially by means of radiocarbon analysis).Newman (2014), p.–30 Some historians, therefore, dismiss some well-known figures of the 5th and 6th centuries, potentially connected with Cumbria, as being legendary or -pseudo-historical. Higham, for example,Higham (1986), pp. 242–243. consigns to this category such people as King Arthur, Cunedda (due to the unreliability of the 9th-century source, the Historia Brittonum), and Coel Hen (due to the unreliability of the source known as the Harleian genealogies). He argues that we are left with the not un-biased source, the De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae of Gildas, as well as an oral and poetic tradition that includes the work of Taliesin and Aneirin, as much, if not more, literary works than historical ones. The information gleaned from all of these sources may not necessarily be factually incorrect, but in terms of the standard expected of historical verifiability, they fall short.
Arthur and Cumbria As far as Arthur is concerned, as with many other areas with Celtic connections, there are a number of Arthurian legends associated with Cumbria.Rowling (1976), pp. 37–49 Arthur's father Uther Pendragon is supposed to have lived at Pendragon Castle, high in the upper Eden Valley, although the castle itself is probably 12th century and was originally called Mallerstang Castle. It is likely that Robert de Clifford, 1st Baron de Clifford, joining in with the Arthurian obsession of the time, as well as pointing to his Welsh forebears, assumed the name of Uther Pendragon and renamed the existing castle to fit in with the cult.Rowling (1976), pp. 43–45 King Arthur's Round Table, a prehistoric earthwork near Penrith, has no actual associations with Arthur but is said to have been a duelling ground for Lancelot. It, too, was near Clifford's castle at Brougham and was probably given the name by him.Rowling (1976), pp. 45–46
It was also believed that Arthur's last battle at Camlann, in which he was fatally wounded, was fought near the fort of Birdoswald, whose Roman name was thought to have been Camboglanna (although it is now thought that Birdoswald was really called Banna, with Castlesteads being Camboglanna).Rowling (1976), p.38-39 The Roman bath-house at Ravenglass, known locally as Walls Castle, was thought to be the Arthurian Lyons Garde, or Taliesin's Caer sidi or Avalon where Arthur was taken after the battle.Rowling (1976), pp. 39–40
More popular in local legend are associations with Arthur's knight Gawain, who is linked with Tarn Wadling, formerly a lake but drained in the 19th century near High Hesket (and overlooked by Owain mab Urien's Castle Hewen). The source of this romance is The Awntyrs off Arthure at the Terne Wathelyne, written in the 14th century, probably by someone local.Rowling (1976), pp. 47–49
There is some validation of a " mansion house of King Arthur" in Carlisle to be found in a charter of Henry II confirming another charter of Henry I. This latter charter grants 'land which was around Arthur's burh in Carlisle, next to the house of the canons'. If nothing else, this reference shows that the linking of Arthur's stronghold to Carlisle dates back to the early 12th century, well before the later Arthurian romances were written.Rowling (1976), pp. 41–43
Warring tribes Even before the Romans left Britain, Welsh tradition has it that Coel Hen was an important figure in the Roman province of Northern Britain, which covered everything between the River Humber and the River Tweed. He is seen as the last Dux Britanniarum ("leader of the Britons") and as such would have commanded the army in this region, with there being no great abandonment of Hadrian's Wall. After the withdrawal, Coel Hen became the High King of Northern Britain (in the same vein as the Irish Ard Rí) and ruled, supposedly, from Eboracum (now York). This scenario is doubted by historians who are given to think that the Welsh genealogical tracts which mention Coel were later, 9th century, attempts to bolster Brythonic history against the encroaching English. There is "scant archaeological evidence for continuity" of Roman garrisons in the north.Clarkson (2010), pp. 20–22
It is probably safer to say that successive withdrawals of Roman troops from Cumbria throughout the 4th and early 5th centuries created a power vacuum which, by necessity, was filled by local warlords and their followers, often just based around a single village or valley. After the withdrawal of Stilicho in 401, the troops on the Wall were barely able to confront the raids of the barbarians to the north. These raids, as in the 360s, concentrated on the capturing of cattle and slaves, and they were seen off by the local communities themselves, so that by around 450, after the Third Pictish War, the Scots had withdrawn to Ireland and the Picts had left for Scotland north of the Forth.Higham (1986), pp. 250–251.
Until the early-to-mid 500s, Gildas reports only occasional raiding from outside the Cumbrian area. The main strife of this period was created by the local 'tyrants', or warlords, fighting amongst themselves, raiding and defending themselves against raids. The raids again concentrated on the stealing of goods, mainly cattle and slaves – slaving becoming an international market at this time as coinage was non-existent (Saint Patrick was one of these captured slaves, possibly taken by Irish pirates in the Irthing valley or possibly at Ravenglass).
Local 'kings', with successors, were continually being made and unmade in this intertribal warfare, and by the end of the 6th century some had gained a lot of power and had formed kingships over a larger area. One of these was Coroticus of Alt Clut (Strathclyde), and Pabo Post Prydain was another (he may have been based at Papcastle). Rheged seems to have been one of these members of the Old North kingdoms that emerged during this period of intertribal warfare.Higham (1986), p. 253. It has to be stressed, however, that the existence, historically, of something explicitly called the 'Kingdom of Rheged' remains in dispute by some.McCarthy (2011), pp. 9–22.
Rheged
Pabo was present at the Battle of Arfderydd (Arthuret) in 573, which may have been fought for control of the Solway.Clarkson (2010), p. –99 Peredur and Gwrgi were also there, and these two were supposedly descendants of the Coeling family (Coel Hen) as well as being first cousins of Urien Rheged, (c. 550 – c. 590) so may have been associated with the Rheged area. The sources that mention the battle, however, (the Annales Cambriae and Aneirin's poem Y Gododdin) mention neither Rheged nor Urien, (casting doubt in the minds of some on the existence of both).McCarthy (2011), p. 11. It may be that Urien took advantage of the confusion and weakness as a result of this savage battle to make his move to take over Rheged, or maybe he did this after the deaths of Peredur and Gwrgi some years later (the brothers were killed fighting the Angles in 580 or 584).
The extent of Rheged is disputed: none of the early sources tells us where Rheged was located.Clarkson (2010), p. 68-78 Some historians believe that it was based on the old Carvetii tribal region - mostly covering the Solway plain and the Eden valley. Others say that it may have included large parts of Dumfriesshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire. The Kingdom's centre was based, possibly, at Llwyfenydd, believed to be in the valley of the Lyvennet Beck, a tributary of the River Eden in east Cumbria, or, alternatively, at Carlisle. However, one archaeologist points out that there is no archaeological evidence in Carlisle or elsewhere to suggest the location of a 'capital' of Rheged, and the interpretations of the literary sources are equally suspect.McCarthy (2011), pp. 12–14. Rheged could have been a name for a territory, or a people occupying an area, or both.McCarthy (2011), pp. 14–15. A consideration of the landscape aspects of the question by the same archaeologist, suggests that the Eden valley or the Rhinns / Machars area of Dumfries and Galloway offer the best places in which to locate a sub-Roman kingdom (but probably not both).McCarthy (2011), pp. 21–22.
The little that is known about Rheged and its kings comes from the poems of Taliesin, who was bard to Urien, King of Catraeth and of Rheged (and possibly overlord of Elmet). It is known, from the poetic sources, that under Urien's leadership the kings of the north fought against the encroaching Angles of Bernicia and that he was betrayed by one of his own allies, Morcant Bulc, who arranged his assassination after the battle of Ynys Metcaut (Lindisfarne) around 585 AD.
The lack of documentary or even archaeological evidence from this period of Cumbria's history has meant that history and legend have become intertwined and the fragments of certainty have become the basis of local myth. One of Cumbria's greatest heroes is Urien Rheged's son, Owain (usually Ewain in Cumbria), who is supposed to have lived at Castle Hewen, believed to be a Romano-British hillfort south of Carlisle. The poetic sources name him as the last king of Rheged (c. 590), having fought with his father against the Angles of Bernicia.
The Battle of Catraeth, fought by the Brythons (c. 600 AD) to try to recover Catraeth after Urien's death, was a disastrous defeat for them. Aethelfrith, the victor, probably received tribute from the kings of Rheged, Strathclyde and Gododdin (and maybe even from the Scots of Dalriada) thereafter.Higham (1986), p. 261.
Christian saints One aspect of the sub-Roman period in Cumbria, that is also uncertain as regards its historical evidence, is the early establishment of Christianity. A number of early 'Celtic' saints are associated with the region, including Saint Patrick, Saint Ninian and Saint Kentigern. Whether the dedications to these saints denote a continuance of a Celtic polity or populace through this period and the subsequent Anglian and Scandinavian periods, or whether they are the result of 12th-century revivals of interest in them, is unclear.