Wirral's Hidden History Revealed
The Battles of Maes Garmon
The Romano British defeat a force of Saxons & Picts 429 – 430 AD. In the confusion that followed the end of Roman Britain it is often difficult to establish fact from fiction. The records of the period, those that survive, are often difficult to verify and many of the sources are both contradictory and were not written by contemporary authors who…
The Battles Of Alfred The Great
The Great Heathen Viking army (mycel hæþen here) arrived in England in 865. This time the Vikings or Danes intended to stay and they were intent of carving out their own Kingdom.
Anglo Saxon Tribes & Clans
When the Germanic Anglo-Saxon tribes began to settle in what we now call England, they were a group of different peoples, namely Saxon, Angles and Jutes, who would in time be referred to as Anglo-Saxons. The tribal Hidage, a document or list, which was written between the 7th and 9th centuries, named 34 tribes.
The Saxon Seige Of Anderitum
By 490 AD, it had been 80 years since the Roman army had departed from the Province of Britannia. The Western Empire had officially dissolved some 15 years previously, when the Senate had sent the Imperial Regalia of Rome to the Eastern Emperor in Constantinople.
The Great Barbarian Conspiracy
Saxons, Scotti, Franks, Attacotti, Picts, Rebellious Britons & Renegade Roman Troops Overrun Hadrians Wall & Attack The Province Of Britannia.
The Viking Raid on Lindisfarne
The monastery at Lindisfarne was the pre-eminent religious centre in Northumbria and was acknowledged as such throughout the Kingdom’s of Anglo-Saxon England.
The Five Boroughs of the Danelaw
After years of fighting, Alfred the Great was able to bring the Vikings or Danes to the negotiating table, following his decisive victory at the battle of Edington in 878 AD.
Welsh & The Anglo Saxons
The relationships between the Welsh and the Anglo-Saxons were a complex and often confusing subject. Following the withdrawal of the Roman military in about 410 AD, Southern Britain still maintained Roman Civic and Military organisation whilst various small Kingdoms formed in the North and the West. The Saxons and Angles as well as Jutes and other Germanic groups had been settled in…
Sweyn Forkbeard
Following Athelstan’s victory at Brunanburh in 937 AD, a path lay open to a united England which would see a dynasty of Anglo-Saxon kings rule a country which had, after centuries of warfare with the Vikings finally defeated the northern menace.
Hengist and Horsa
Hengist and horsa, founders of the english people or mythical Legend? Legend states that the Germanic brothers Hengist and Horsa were the leaders of warbands of Saxons, Jutes and Angles who invaded post Roman Britain in the 5th century. Sources state that they had landed at Ebbsfleet (Eopwinesfleot) on the Isle of Thanet and that they had been employed by the British…
Post Conquest Fyrd
It is often assumed that after the Norman conquest, that many Anglo-Saxon institutions became redundant or were replaced by others, of Norman origin.
Paris Siege – 885-886 AD
In the recent TV series Vikings, Ragnar Lothbrok’s attack on Paris was a visual masterpiece in portraying a dramatic and brutal fight which was certainly entertaining, but what really happened? Was the film a true representation of what had occurred?
Offa
Offa became King of Mercia in 757 AD. The son of Thingfrith, he claimed descent from Eowa, the brother of Penda, the great pagan King of Mercia who defeated the Christian Northumbrian King, Oswald at the battle of Maserfield in 641 or 642 AD
Eric Bloodaxe
Hail to you Eric, be welcome here and come into the hall, gallant King. The Eiriksmal So reads the epitaph, the Eiriksmal, written by an unknown Norse poet in the service of Eric’s widowed wife.
Constantinople 860AD
On the 18th of October 860 AD, the city guards of the great city of Constantinople were alerted to a fleet of over 200 longships appearing on the horizon. They had entered the Bosporus from the Black Sea. The city’s warning bells rang out and the guards stationed at the many gates of the city prepared to close and bar the entry…