Brunnanburgh 937AD – A Nation is Born – Paul Atherton

A large audience gathered to hear another of Paul’s much appreciated talks, but this time, as he explained, it is unlikely that anyone knew much about the main topic - the battle that determined the course of English history. Indeed, it’s still disputed just where it took place, with several claimants but no conclusive proof by way of archaeological finds or documentation, other than the poem preserved in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles.

Paul deftly explained the background, no mean feat given the complex nature of the distribution of regional rulers in that period. King Alfred, known as the Great, was the King of Wessex who had died in 900 AD with his great ambition to unite all the seven kingdoms unfulfilled. It was left to his descendant, Athelstan, King of Mercia, to pursue that ambition, requiring him to subdue the combined forces of the Dublin Vikings led by Anlaf, and the Northumberland and the York Vikings who moved massive armies to the borders with Mercia where Athelstan had gathered his forces.

Athelstan had been acknowledged as King of Scotland by Constantine II and other earls, and all the Welsh Kings, who though conceding him King with a payment of twenty-five thousand sheep per year, failed to turn up to battle.

Tales of the size of the armies and huge losses vary, as does the actual site. Paul explained the strong pointers to claims of Bromborough, on the Wirral, lying on the Roman Carlisle to Lancaster route and with easy access to Hiberno-Norse settlements. Alternatively, Dingmere in present day Yorkshire has topographical claims and reports in the Chronicles of a Norse fleet in the Humber.

The merits of historical claims make for fascinating listening, and Paul left us eagerly anticipating his future book.