London Before the Conquest

S AND CN

the Vikin

deal of t

s in level

ly in the H

tary occupation of Tower Hill.[105] I cannot think that the suggestion as to the limited meaning of burh is made out;[106] but the endowment of a garrison as suggested would give a perfect point of departure for the "English Cnihten gild," an association to which a part of the portlands adjoining the east wall was granted, Stow says, by King Edgar. Moreover, the resumption by Alfred of London from the Danes would not only make such a body of soldiers especially necessary, but give good reason for their being called "English"; besides, it is known that Alfred did set up town garrisons. Mr. Coote has alread

uccessors placed in their burhs. "That the system started with Alfred, rather than his son, seems to follow from two passages in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, where, under the year 8

a site of military importance. It has been doubted whether Roman buildings actually occupied the site, but some excavations in 1898-99 laid bare some remnants about three yards away from the south

O

NO

in the castrum at Richborough, and this goes to rai

the Tower at Trinovantum (London). All tradition is in favour of its having been a stronghold before the Conquest, and Henry of Huntingdon, c. 1130, says that Eadric's head after his execution by Cnut was placed on the highest battlement of the Tower of London. Again, there is no tradition of the Conqueror having taken land from the city for the foundation of his Tower. "Who built the Tower of London?" as

ke you my head,' said he, 'unto the White Mount in London and bury it there with the face towards France.' And they buried the head in the White Mount. It was the third ill-fated disclos

oul of a city. In Geoffrey of Monmouth a brazen horse on Ludgate figures as the protecting talisman; London Stone may have had some such mystical meaning attached to it by the Saxons (see p. 181), and the Shrine of Erkenwald in St. Paul's was the sacred heart of the city in the Middl

of Edward the Elder at the latest," gives us the earliest reference to Southwark. "It sets forth, so we believe, certain arrangements made early in the tenth century for the de

skringla, and "the Borough" par excellence to this day. In the Pipe Roll of 1130 it stands with Guildford as the second borough in Surrey, and it returned members to Parliament from the first. It must have been protected by a ditch, and remains of this, or of Cnuts dyke, might have given rise to the tradition recorded by Stow that the course of the Thames had been altered when the bridge was built by a trench cast from Rotherhithe to Battersea. The older Maitland seems to have gathered some evidence of its palisaded bank.[114] Even in the time of the C

the king. Godwine had a house here, and he must have held the burh. In the dispute of 1051-52 between the Confessor and Godwine, the earl carried his forces up the river to Southwark, the burghers of which f

and southward nearly to St. Margaret Hill. Two other adjoining manors were included in the parliamentary area. Even the site of the great earl's manor house can, with some probability, be pointed to.[118] Excavations have shown that before Saxon days there was a considerable Roman settlement on the site of Southwark, and that the present High Street lies over the Roman ap

forcing of the South-work which would have been necessary. As to the probable course of the dyke, see Allen's History of London, vol. i., and Faithorn's map, 1658, which shows a considerable stream flowing into St. Saviour's dock. It was required more for the investment of the stronghold than for

city to the South-work and barring progress up the river. The Knytlinga Saga refers to this when it says: "King Cnut went wi

up under the shelter of the bridge along

.-Danis

the T

on had most building from Ludgate towards Westminster, and little or none where the heart of the city is now, except in divers places was housing, but without order, so that many cities in England passed Lon

y existence of this western suburb would explain satisfactorily the name of Westminster, and possibly its origin. We first hear of the Abbey, independently of its own documents, towards the end of the tenth century, when in 997 Elfwic signs a charter as abbot of Westminster.[119] It is probable that Cnut was the first to choose Westminster for a

er inaccurate in detail, contains some in

s great. There was a fair there [in London] twice in every twelvemonth, one about midsummer, and the other about midwinter. The English thought it would be the easiest to slay the Thingamen while Cnut was young (he was ten winters old) and Sweyn dead. About Yule waggons went into the town to the market, and they were all tented over by the treacherous advice of Ulfkel Snilling and Ethelred's sons. Thord, a man of the Thingamannalid, went out of the town to the house of his mistress, who asked him to stay, because the death was planned of all the Thingamen by English men concea

ms to suggest that it was in consequence of an attack on Chertsey Abbey. Messrs. Napier and Stevenson, in a recent reference to this story in their Crawford Charters, are "inclined to think tha

sibility that the intention was to reach an English fleet lying there. The Thingamannalid appears to have manned a fleet of occupation; it seems to have been non

storical value. It seems probable that the Danish occupation of this quarter outside

fined by bars on the several roads, such as Temple Bar, Holborn Bar, Spital Bar, Red Cross Bar, and the bars without Aldersgate and Aldgate. These bar

inn at Holborn Bars, or Staples, and I find that this suggestion has already been made because "staple" is Saxon for "post."[124] The land out to the bars is called suburbs by FitzStephen, and later, franchises or liberties. I cannot but think that the whole of this land was at times included under the designation Portsoken, which more part

his is also shown by the way in which extensions of boundary overlie the main roads. The Portsoken Ward must formerly have been part of this pom?rium of the city, and it occupied most of the eastern side. Mr. Coote, in the

session of a Moor on the north side of the wall of London which the King gave to St. Paul's in consequence of the late disturbances."[128] It was fen land; FitzStephen tells how the citizens skated here, and bone skates of pre-Conquest date have been found in Moorfields. It is possible that all the common land surrounding the city was called the Fen or Moor, as a bou

very Friday, unless it be a feast, noble horses are here shown for sale. In another part of the field are implements of husbandry, swine, cows, great oxen, and woolly sheep.[130] On the north side there are pastures and pleasant meadow land, through which flow streams turning the wheels of mills. The tilled

ove London. And in summer a great body of the townsmen, and other folk beside, went forth even unto this stronghold. And there were they put to flight, and there were slain some four of the king's thanes. And after, throughout harvest, did the king camp hard by the town [London] while the folk were reaping, that the Danes might not rob them of their crop. Then one day the king rode along the stream, and saw where it might be shut in, so that never might they bring out their ships. And thus was

as late as the thirteenth century there were wild cattle at Osterley.[132] Scattered about the forest were village settlements, the nearest about the city mentioned in D

s: "This year died ?thered, and King Edward [Alfred's son] took possession of London and Oxford and of all the lands which owed obedience thereto."[135] A charter professedly dated as early as 704 names Twickenham in the province of Middlesex, but nothing is known to history of a Middle Saxon kingdom or people. Bede says London was a city of the East Saxons, and the London bishopric is coextensive with the East Saxon kingdom, including Middlesex. If

city," as Stow says, was made in 1282 on "an open space where, the way being very large and broad, had stood a pair of stocks." This looks like the "village green" o

and, whatever that may mean:[137] at the west of the city was St. Paul's Churchyard

ries of Holy Trinity, St. Helen's, Austin Friars, and Greyfriars. The orchards and gardens of citizens are frequently mentioned. A deed of 1316 refers to a grant of land called Andovrefi

t he had proved that the aldermen formed its members, and that it was the governing gild of London. Mr. Round, however, has adversely criticised this conclusion. It is certain that there were Cnihtengilds in other places, as Winchester and Exeter. As all such places appear to have been county st