Battle of Brunanburh

The Battle of Brunanburh was an English victory in 937 by the army of Æthelstan, King of England, and his brother Edmund over the combined armies of Olaf III Guthfrithson, the Norse–Gael King of Dublin; Constantine II, King of Alba; and Owen I, King of Strathclyde. Though relatively little known today, it was called "the greatest single battle in Anglo-Saxon history before the Battle of Hastings." Michael Livingston claimed that Brunanburh marks "the moment when Englishness came of age." The site of the battle is not known, though modern scholarship suggests that somewhere in the Wirral Peninsula is likely.

Mention of the battle is made in dozens of sources, in Old English, Latin, Irish, Welsh, Icelandic, and Middle English, and there are many later accounts or responses to the battle, including those by Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Jorge Luis Borges. A contemporary record of the battle is found in the Old English poem Battle of Brunanburh, preserved in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

Background
Following Æthelstan's defeat of the Vikings at York in 927, at Eamont, near Penrith, King Constantine of Scotland, King Hywel Dda of Deheubarth, Ealdred of Bamburgh, and King Owain of Strathclyde (or Morgan ap Owain of Gwent) accepted Æthelstan's overlordship. He was proclaimed King of the English, and a period of relative peace followed.

Æthelstan's successful invasion of Scotland in 934, was suggested by John of Worcester to be the result of King Constantine's breaking of this treaty. Though they had all been enemies in living memory, the threat of Æthelstan was enough to bring together an alliance between the king of Dublin, Olaf Guthfrithsson; the Scottish King Constantine II; and Owen of Strathclyde. Livingston points out that to come together "they had agreed to set aside whatever political, cultural, historical, and even religious differences they might have had in order to achieve one common purpose: to destroy Æthelstan."

After defeating a rival Norse king whose name is recorded in Old Irish documents as Amlaíb Cenncairech at Limerick in August 937, Olaf Guthfrithsson crossed the Irish Sea with his army to join the forces of Constantine and Owen, suggesting that the Battle of Brunanburh probably occurred in early October of that year.

Livingston theorizes that the invading allied armies entered England in two waves: Constantine and Owen came from the north, possibly engaging in some early skirmishes with forces loyal to Æthelstan as they followed the Roman road across the Lancashire Plains between Carlisle and Manchester, with Olaf's forces joining with him en route. It is possible, Livingston speculates, that the eventual battlesite at Brunanburh was then chosen in an agreement with Æthelstan: "there would be one fight, and to the victor went England."

Battle
The medieval records of the battle are too elusive to trace the course of the battle with any surety, but the sources consistently describe it as a massive and bloody engagement even within the context of warfare in the Middle Ages.

The famous poem about the battle in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records the deaths of five kings and seven earls among Æthelstan's enemies, along with (or among them) Constantine's son:


 * Five lay still
 * on that battlefield – young kings
 * by swords put to sleep – and seven also
 * of Anlaf’s earls, countless of the army,
 * of sailors and Scotsmen. There was put to flight
 * the Northmen’s chief, driven by need
 * to the ship’s prow with a little band.
 * He shoved the ship to sea. The king disappeared
 * on the dark flood. His own life he saved.
 * So there also the old one came in flight
 * to his home in the north; Constantine,
 * that hoary-haired warrior, had no cause to exult
 * at the meeting of swords: he was shorn of his kin,
 * deprived of his friends on the field,
 * bereft in the fray, and his son behind
 * on the place of slaughter, with wounds ground to pieces,
 * too young in battle.

Æthelweard's Chronicle notes that the battle was still called "the great war" by people in his day. Henry of Huntingdon describes the aftermath of carrion:


 * Then the dark raven with horned beak,
 * and the livid toad, the eagle and kite,
 * the hound and wolf in mottled hue,
 * were long refreshed by these delicacies.
 * In this land no greater war was ever waged,
 * nor did such a slaughter ever surpass that one.

The Annals of Ulster describes the battle similarly:


 * A huge war, lamentable and horrible, was cruelly waged between the Saxons and Norsemen. Many thousands of Norsemen beyond number died although King Anlaf escaped with a few men. While a great number of the Saxons also fell on the other side, Æthelstan, king of the Saxons, was enriched by the great victory.

The largest list of those killed at the battle comes from the Annals of Clonmacnoise and names several kings and princes.

Battle site
The location of the battle appears in various forms in the sources: Brunanburh (in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle or the chronicle of John of Worcester, or in accounts derived from them), Brunandune (Aethelweard), Brunnanwerc or Bruneford or Weondune (Symeon of Durham and accounts derived from him), Brunefeld or Bruneford (William of Malmesbury and accounts derived from him), Duinbrunde (Scottish traditions), Brun (Welsh traditions), plaines of othlynn (Annals of Clonmacnoise), and Vinheithr (Egil's Saga), among others.

The name of Bromborough, a settlement in the Wirral, may be derived from Old English Brunanburh (meaning 'Brun's fort'). While the location will likely never be known with certainty, additional evidence has been claimed associating Brunanburh with Bromborough, taken from evidence of history, folklore studies, and literature. According to Michael Livingston, the case for a location in the Wirral has strong support among current historians. Additional onomastic arguments have been used to connect Dingesmere (a location associated with the battle in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle) with Thingwall in Wirral, in order to strengthen the Brunanburh-Bromborough link. Because the earliest sources in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle locate the battle as taking place "ymbe Brunanburh" ("around Brunanburh"), numerous locations on the Wirral near Bromborough have been put forward as the site of the battle, including the Brackenwood Golf Course in Bebington, Wirral.

Though many scholars today appear to have accepted a "near Bromborough" location, dozens of sites for the battle have been suggested in the past. Paul Hill has identified over thirty possibilities, some of which are still defended by local interest groups (see discussion of Shelfield Hill, below) or minority critics.

These alternatives include:


 * Additional sites in Merseyside:
 * Newton-le-Willows, St Helens
 * Sites in Northumberland
 * Burnswark in Dumfries and Galloway in southwest Scotland
 * Tinsley Wood in South Yorkshire
 * Near the Humber in Yorkshire/Lincolnshire
 * Axminster in Devon.
 * Sites in Lancashire:
 * Livesay. The Livesay Historical Society says that the names Livesay and Livesey came from the common Anglo-Saxon personal name Lēofsige (which means "beloved victory" or "he whose victory is beloved"), and that that name refers to the Battle of Brunaburh; but see Livesey.
 * Burnley. In 1856, Burnley Grammar School master and antiquary, Thomas T. Wilkinson, published a paper suggesting the moors above Burnley as the site of the battle, noting that the town stands on the River Brun. Local folklore told of a great battle at Saxifield during the Heptarchy, re-enforced by the occasional discovery of apparently human bones and iron arrowheads. The village of Worsthorne also had a tradition that the Danes constructed defences when a battle was fought on the moor that bares the same name, and that five kings were buried under tumuli apparent in the area.


 * Although he couldn't categorically identify a burh by the Brun, he referenced the work of Thomas Dunham Whitaker listing what he felt was a large number of earthworks. Some such as Castercliff, Twist Castle and Ringstones Camp, he thought of Roman origin, but showed the historical significance of the area. Others like an entrenchments on Broad Bank hill at Burwains farm 53.8132°N, -2.1497°W, and Bonfire hill 53.7992°N, -2.1988°W, a possible camp on Shelfield hill 53.8318°N, -2.1625°W around the site of the Victorian Walton Spire, and dykes at Saxifield, Thieveley, Ree Lees, and Broadclough near Bacup, he felt indicated military activity during the period. He also showed that the Heasandford area of the town is named for a ford of the River Brun on an ancient trans-pennine route known locally as the long causeway, but in part as the Danes road. He equated the estate of Emmott with Eamot the site of a treaty following the victory at York, the Swinden valley with Weondune, and Worsthorne with bishop Wærstan who supposedly died fighting for Æthelstan. He also suggested that local place names like Winewall, Daneshouse, and Warcock hill could be significant and that the Cuerdale Hoard represented a Danish war chest lost as a result of the battle.


 * His work was subsequently referenced and expanded by a number of local authors. New information was added including that around this time, the land between the rivers Ribble and Mersey had been re-conquered from Danish Northumbria and held by the crown until the Norman conquest. And although most of the sites mentioned have since been classified as much older, the story still interests some today.

In addition, Brunanburh is also named ‘Wendune’ by Symeon of Durham, the Wen- element remaining in the village of Winwall, next to the battlefield (near Colne) & the name ‘Vinheath’ given by Egil’s Saga. Both ‘heath’ & ‘dune’ relate to the wide, raised land that the field lies on, as the word dun being, ‘consistenly used for a low hill with a fairly extensive summit which provided a good settlement-site in open country (Margaret Gelling). One final named for the battle, on ‘The Plains of Othlynn (Annals of Clonmacnoise) connects to the Domesday Book’s Othlei, for Otley, whose lands stretched at least as far as Ilkley, a few short miles from the field.

These are not the only sites suggested, but they are those most commonly put forth.

Aftermath
Æthelstan's defeat of the combined Norse-Celtic force facing him confirmed England as a fully unified kingdom. However, he was militarily weakened and the battle effectively forced all constituent parts of the British Isles to consolidate in the positions they occupy today.

The Battle of Brunanburh still has a great deal of influence in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, 200 mi south of any probable site. The townsfolk of Malmesbury fought for King Æthelstan, and he granted them five hides (600 acre) of land and gave them all freemen status. This status and the organisation formed then exists today, as the Warden and Freemen of Malmesbury, and Athelstan is remembered in their ceremonies. When Æthelstan died, his body was transported from Gloucester to Malmesbury for burial.