513:
718:, with Hinton Hill Camp behind them as their stores depot. Burne speculated that if the Saxon attack drove the Britons back from their first line onto the second ridge near the edge of the escarpment, the slightest further retreat would leave their flanks open to a downhill pursuit. He imagined that this is what occurred, with the three Briton leaders and their main body being driven back into the fort while the flanking Saxons driving forwards swept round behind the promontory on which the fort stands. A last stand in this position would explain why none of the three Briton leaders was able to escape. Burne went so far as to speculate that the battle was the starting point for
50:
714:, employing his theory of "inherent military probability", opted for a simpler explanation for the battle than Baddeley. In his view, Ceawlin was methodically advancing towards the Severn and the three forces of Britons concentrated to stop him. Burne suggests that they formed up along two slight ridges across the trackway that skirted the
646:
the long story of the gradual encroachments of the conquerors on the native tribes retiring step by step, only yielding up their territory after bloody defeats, the battles of
Charford, and Badbury, and Barbury and Old Sarum, within a mile or two of the place of our meeting, until the decisive battle
767:
and the vale to their north-west following Mercia's conquest of that area in the eighth century, he noted that the Battle of
Deorham too might have been used by West Saxons to counter Mercian claims in the Severn Valley. But he thought more likely the possibility that the annal was based on a
651:
Guest's conception of the reality of the battle and its place in a coherent narrative of Anglo-Saxon military conquest and settlement of southern
Britain remained prominent among historians into the 1980s, partly on the basis of the natural strategic importance of the
696:
defensive structures at the site) the
Britons of those three towns were compelled to unite and make a combined attempt to dislodge them. Their attempt failed and the three opposing British kings were killed. Their routed forces were driven north of the
750:
of place-names, and that its material for the sixth century may reflect later West-Saxon attempts to legitimise their politics in the seventh, eighth, and/or ninth centuries by circulating stories of an imaginary past. Showing how the
692:, and disrupted communications north and south between Bath and the neighbouring Romano-British towns of Gloucester and Cirencester. Once the Saxons were in occupation of the site (and, he supposed, had begun reinforcing the existing
541:
577: Her Cuþwine ⁊ Ceawlin fuhton wiþ Brettas, ⁊ hie .iii. kyningas ofslogon, Coinmail, ⁊ Condidan, ⁊ Farinmail, in þære stowe þe is gecueden
Deorham. ⁊ genamon .iii. ceastro Gleawanceaster, ⁊ Cirenceaster, ⁊ Baþanceaster.
647:
of
Deorham sealed the fate of southern Britain, and the Weals , severed from one another by the broad expanse of the Severn Sea, were finally cooped up among the mountain ridges of Wales, or in the peninsula of Cornwall.
203:
575:
escarpment a few miles north of Bath, and that it is here that the battle is portrayed as taking place. The identification of the other cities is even less controversial; they correspond to
512:
548:
577: Here
Cuthwine and Ceawlin fought against the Britons, and they killed 3 kings, Coinmail, Condidan and Farinmail, in the place which is called Deorham, and took 3 cities:
772:, itself unlikely to be historically accurate, arising from a similar tradition to medieval Welsh literature which places an English-battling seventh-century king called
196:
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688:. In 1929 he supposed that the Saxons launched a surprise attack and seized the hill fort at the Hinton Hill Camp (near Dyrham) because it commanded the
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shows no signs of being a contemporary record for the sixth century and many signs of being a later fabrication based on oral tradition and
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1005:
Simon T. Loseby, "Power and towns in Late Roman
Britain and early Anglo-Saxon England" in Gisela Ripoll and Josep M. Gurt, eds.,
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Scholars also argued that the importance given the towns more likely reflects ninth and tenth-century polities, of the time the
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account was substantially reliable—notwithstanding its obvious brevity—encouraged elaborate speculation by antiquarians such as
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was underway regarding the fifth-to-seventh centuries in
Britain, and the Battle of Deorham was prominently tackled by
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build that was edited into its current form in the later ninth century. As given in the earliest manuscript, the
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and south of Bath where it appears they began the construction of the defensive earthwork called the
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In an influential lecture of 1849 on "The Early
English Settlements in South Britain",
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argued that the battle was (in the words of one of his audience) the culmination of
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The Battle of Deorham and its aftermath features in the early chapters of
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Sixth- and seventh-century battles of West-Saxon kings according to the
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The Age of Arthur: A History of the British Isles from 350 to 650
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was given its present form, than the de-urbanised sixth century.
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in a doomed attempt to prevent more territory from being lost.
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914:(London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1973), pp. 5–6, 255–6;
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The Oxford History of England: The English Settlements
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Nineteenth-century narrative of Anglo-Saxon settlement
841:"The Settlement of England in Bede and the Chronicle"
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The only evidence for the battle is an entry in the
103:Saxon victory, permanently dividing Wales from the
27:
Supposed 577 battle between West Saxons and Britons
935:(London: Hart-Davis, MacGibbon, 1974), pp. 22–23.
215:Anglo-Saxon invasions and the founding of England
884:The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: An Electronic Edition
656:in British geography. These historians include
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436:as an important military encounter between the
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759:would have functioned to provide a West-Saxon
676:Twentieth-century military-history speculation
571:in what is now South Gloucestershire, on the
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948:(Oxford: Clarendon, 1986), , pp. 162–3, 168
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1013:, (Barcelona, 2000), esp. pp 329f (
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933:The Formation of England, 550–1042
880:Manuscript A: The Parker Chronicle
734:By the early 1980s, a new wave of
464:, resulting in the capture of the
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726:becoming two separate languages.
42:Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain
839:Sims-Williams, Patrick (1983).
1125:South Gloucestershire District
900:. London: Phoenix. p. 18.
583:, a provincial capital in the
1:
1110:Battles involving the Britons
567:here survives in the name of
978:More Battlefields of England
621:and pagan religious centre (
1009:Sedes regiae (ann. 400–800)
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992:The Towns of Roman Britain
898:The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles
246:Treason of the Long Knives
1032:The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
857:10.1017/S0263675100003331
686:Welbore St Clair Baddeley
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1115:Battles involving Wessex
1066:51.4891000°N 2.3737056°W
980:(London: Methuen, 1952).
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1071:51.4891000; -2.3737056
1043:The Modern Antiquarian
1038:History of War article
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133:Commanders and leaders
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744:Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
740:Patrick Sims-Williams
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526:Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
518:Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
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433:Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
231:Groans of the Britons
107:south-west of England
92:South Gloucestershire
896:Swanton, M. (1996).
800:'s historical novel
757:Battle of Bedcanford
742:. He noted that the
680:The belief that the
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994:. London: Batsford.
845:Anglo-Saxon England
537:, the annal reads:
484:Corinium Dobunnorum
57:around Hinton Hill,
931:H. P. R. Finberg,
791:In popular culture
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456:'s forces, led by
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798:Rosemary Sutcliff
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116:Belligerents
40:Part of the
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1069: /
770:Welsh triad
690:Avon Valley
662:John Morris
640:Edwin Guest
613:Aquae Sulis
599:, a former
589:Cirencester
554:Cirencester
496:Aquae Sulis
490:Cirencester
438:West Saxons
331:Heavenfield
316:Cefn Digoll
311:Cirencester
271:Alclud Ford
122:West Saxons
1084:Categories
811:References
607:Gloucester
550:Gloucester
478:Gloucester
411:Brunanburh
391:Bensington
351:Two Rivers
336:Maserfield
55:Earthworks
803:Dawn Wind
785:Chronicle
774:Cynddylan
753:Chronicle
682:Chronicle
573:Cotswolds
531:Chronicle
468:towns of
450:Chronicle
321:Caer-Uisc
301:Degsastan
266:Beranburh
241:Aylesford
94:, England
865:44510771
851:: 1–41.
780:region.
778:Wroxeter
704:Wansdyke
694:Iron Age
579:Corinium
508:Evidence
462:Cuthwine
460:and one
440:and the
406:Scotland
396:Ellandun
381:Hereford
296:Catraeth
226:Timeline
144:Cuthwine
83:Location
776:in the
755:'s 571
724:Cornish
609:); and
602:colonia
565:Deorham
492:), and
458:Ceawlin
444:in the
442:Britons
346:Peonnum
341:Winwaed
306:Chester
281:Deorham
236:Guoloph
172:†
163:†
154:†
140:Ceawlin
127:Britons
952:
918:
882:", in
863:
668:, and
595:Glevum
569:Dyrham
472:Glevum
454:Wessex
428:Dyrham
386:Otford
376:Pencon
105:Celtic
100:Result
88:Dyrham
61:Dyrham
861:JSTOR
720:Welsh
371:Hehil
356:Trent
291:Raith
261:Badon
1095:570s
950:ISBN
916:ISBN
722:and
623:Bath
558:Bath
556:and
552:and
502:Bath
426:(or
422:The
75:Date
1090:577
853:doi
625:).
619:spa
591:);
504:).
480:),
78:577
1086::
1017:).
859:.
849:12
847:.
843:.
819:^
672:.
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996:.
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878:"
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605:(
587:(
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205:e
198:t
191:v
20:)
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