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Acknowledgments: Canute Group: Event & Publication Sponsorship Forestry Commission England: Event support, Venue and Advertising Regia Anglorum: Arena Events and Displays Public Information Research Organisation Severn Trent Mercian Archaeological Services Adam Mckillop 13souls.com Friends of Thynghowe: Committee and members
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Canute: The Danelaw and the Vikings of Sherwood. Stuart Reddish & Lynda Mallett
Photography Lynda Mallett Front Cover Design & Artwork Adam Mckillop
The Friends of Thynghowe Publication Sponsors: Canute Group
Published in 2016 in conjunction with the Canute1000 Spring Thing & Nottinghamshire1000 anniversary events .
Š The Public Information Research Organisation
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Introduction Nottinghamshire and it's Viking Heritage In the calendar of Nottinghamshire the year 2016 is a special year. One thousand years has passed since the crowning of a Danish Viking called Canute as king of England. Our link to this event is through the many villages and farms that were populated by Danish Viking warrior farmers in the Sherwood area. Coincidentally, it is also one thousand years since the shire county of Nottinghamshire was first recorded in the Anglo Saxon Chronicles. The borders of Nottinghamshire today are very nearly the same as the ones laid down by the families of the first Viking settlers. Also, this year, we are celebrating the 200 th anniversary of the Perambulation of the Lordship of Warsop as recorded in 1816 as villagers walked along a boundary trackway that dates back to those early farming settlements. All these events connect with the Viking assembly site Thynghowe situated in the heart of Sherwood Forest. There are special circumstances surrounding the Viking connections in Nottinghamshire and they began with Ivar the Boneless more than 150 years before the reign of King Canute (the use of Canute includes the other recognised spellings of Cnut and Knut). This account of events leading up to the crowning of Canute is drawn from some documentary evidence and academic publication but some of the local story also includes an element of probability as very little local written evidence exists. So, in the tradition of Sherwood this is a narrative of events that did happen (and maybe would have happened) that tells a story of the people of Sherwood and their Viking public assembly site at Thynghowe.
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Illustration 1: Thynghowe Skyline
Photo: Lynda Mallett
Thynghowe In 2004 we acquired a number of old documents. Among them was an original account of the 1816 Lordship of Warsop Boundary Perambulation. This document described how a number of local people and jurors, walked the boundary of the Lordship and engaged in marking it in different ways to make it memorable. Included in this account was a simple reference, 'according to ancient custom', describing the act of historical assembly on a place called Hanger Hill. This assembly of the people of Warsop included the 'drinking of ale and the eating of bread and cheese brought from the village; and the running of races'. The document also identified the special significance of this particular place by mention of three stones on the summit, two boundary stones and an unmarked standing stone. In 2005 we located this 'meeting' place and could identify it by the presence of the stones as recorded in the perambulation document. At that stage the site had been absorbed into the middle of dense forest, and had been lost local memory.
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When we searched the archives and records we discovered that this site, up until the early 1600's, had been called Thynghowe, and the unmarked stone was called the Birklands Forest Stone. Thynghowe then seems to have had its name changed as on all future maps it became Hanger Hill. This appears to coincide with estates around Sherwood Forest passing from Crown ownership to ducal ownership and Hanger Hill is therefore the name by which it is known today. Realising the significance of a Thyng (or Thing) as a Viking assembly site, we knew we were looking at a possible Danish Viking or Danelaw assembly site in Sherwood Forest. This was a part of the forest history that had never been fully recorded before. Also, this site appeared to have undergone little change over time apart from being reclaimed by the forest.
Illustration 2: Representation of an Assembly
Whilst previously, local historians felt there may have been an AngloSaxon Moot at the Thynghowe site, there is now the consideration to be made to the indication that the Viking Danish Warrior-Farmers, may have chosen the area of Sherwood Forest because of its geology
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and they were the first to create a legislative assembly here. Bunter Sandstone was regarded as marginal farming land and was therefore sparsely populated. This decision for the Viking Danish settlement in this area could have been a deliberate choice to limit the Viking Danish settlers from coming into direct conflict with Anglo-Saxon farmers. The Anglo-Saxon's had already developed farming communities along the fertile Trent River Valley. It is therefore unlikely that a major moot would have already existed on this site before the arrival of the Viking Danes. The Viking site of Thynghowe could have evolved later into a Kingdom boundary assembly or developed as a Shire-moot in Shirewood. There is certainly evidence that local customary law had a strong Danish influence. This style of customary law later became known as Dane-law and was probably developed in north Nottinghamshire from the late 800's onwards to it's more formal recognition in the early part of the 11 th century. The Five Boroughs of this part of the Danelaw included Nottinghamshire, along with Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Rutland, and was recognised as a separate administrative area under Danish influence. The name of Sherwood is yet to be fully defined. The first references are over a thousand years old and come from an ancient English family surname derived from the Old English elements 'Scir' (pronounced 'sher') meaning 'bright' or 'shire', and 'Wudu' - a Wood or collection of trees. So the name may have begun to describe a 'dweller in the bright wood' or a 'dweller in a wood near a Shire or County boundary'. That would mean the name is of topographic origin (like the surname Wood) and may have developed independently in several regions at the same time. As it is the name of the forest and the place in Nottinghamshire it could be associated with a surname of toponymic origin. The earliest reference is in 958AD, when a SCIRWUDU was a prominent Saxon during the reign of the Wessex King Edwig ('The Literary Digest', 29 December 1928). Another early reference is to William de Shirewude 1219 Assize Rolls: Yorks.
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There are other possible explanations. This is from The place-names of Nottinghamshire by John Eric Bruce Gover, Allen Mawer, F. M. Stenton: "Others connect the first element with the modern shire. In the earliest records, Sherwood is often spoken of as the "forest of Nottingham " (Victoria County Hist. I 365), which would seem to support the derivation from shirewood, " the wood belonging to, or forming part of, the county." This explanation is not thought to be wholly satisfactory either. The authors venture to suggest that the word scir- is used here in the same sense as in Shireoaks, and Shire Dyke, a little stream forming part of the boundary between the counties of Nottingham and Lincoln. Its meaning is "boundary, division." Gover et al quoting from the work of Jellinghaus connects the word with modern Westphalian 'Sckier' of the same meaning, which enters into numerous Low German field names, such as Sckiereneiken "Shire-oaks", Schierenboken "beeches�, Schierholz "holt or wood." There exists also a Shirland in Derbyshire, which goes back to older Scirlund, lund being the Scandinavian word for " wood." And, of course, we have our own Shirebrook on the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire border alongside the forest. If this explanation is adopted, the meaning would be " boundary forest." This seems a most appropriate name, seeing that Sherwood Forest stretches along the boundary between Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, and that part of its ancient bounds, as laid down in the perambulations, actually coincides with the modern line dividing the two counties. Our research at Thynghowe has included a further early boundary implication between Mercia and Northumbria and maybe a Viking role between the Five boroughs of the Danelaw and the Kingdom of York. This emphasis on boundary and dispute resolution underpins the long history of the Thynghowe assembly site in the heart of Sherwood.
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Illustration 3: 13th Century Perambulation Document Bromley House Forest Book Photo: Lynda Mallett
Our conjecture is that Thynghowe was a significant meeting and assembly place during the period of Viking Danish settlement. The site may also have continued in use for assemblies under the Normans as part of the Royal Forest administration. There are references to the resistance of the local free peasantry to the implementation of Norman Forest Law over the freedoms of the Sokemen (free farmers) of the area and that may have provided many causes of dispute that were arbitrated at an assembly. The need for a continuing assembly may be acknowledged, as Thynghowe is recorded as being on the Forest boundary in the earliest perambulations four hundred years after the first possible Viking Danish occupation of Birklands. Thynghowe is marked significantly on a 14th century map of deer parks in northern Nottinghamshire,
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and again four hundred years later in 1609 during a further Forest survey. Thynghowe probably enjoyed continued use as meeting place until at least our last written record in 1816. Soon after that date Enclosure or Inclosure Acts changed the use of the landscape and forest management intensified. The Welbeck Estate and the 4 th Duke of Portland began a complete re-planting of Birklands in 1821 to create much of the layout of the forest as we see it today. (See Mallett & Reddish et al Community Archaeology at Thyngowe) A topographical survey undertaken for The Friends of Thynghowe by the County archaeologists in 2011 gave us the opportunity to look at Thynghowe in relation to the surrounding landscape and define the area from which Thynghowe would have been clearly visible. When cleared of tree cover Thynghowe could have been seen from many miles away especially towards the old Roman river crossing of the Trent at Littleborough and the Viking Danish winter camp at Torksey (winter 872-3) also on the River Trent. The summit results show a number of raised features. The hilltop has been steepened. Two of the three boundary stones which once stood at the summit have been moved.
Illustration 4: Birklands Forest Stone
Photo: Lynda Mallett
The much older Birklands Forest Stone still appears to be in its original place but the hilltop site may have used a large existing
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evergreen holly clone as a landmark feature. The mound can be seen to dominate the skyline and is a prominent feature when viewed from its surroundings. The wider occupation of this area dates back to the Bronze Age and this hill top would have been a prominent feature then. Our recent topographical survey also shows other earthwork features on the site. When taken together some of the features could suggest the presence of a 'Court Circle' which is adjacent to the raised mound or 'Law Rock'. These underlying features could be much older and possibly date from the Bronze Age. (See A. Gaunt Topographic Survey of Thynghowe & S. Reddish According to Ancient Custom) This site would therefore have been a special boundary monument for many hundreds of years and it would have been a prominent place in the landscape for a new king to rally his followers. Canute's father Svein Forkbeard based himself at Gainsborough only a few miles away from Thynghowe and the boundary forest of 'Sherwood' was inhabited by generations of Viking warrior-farmers; where better to start a military campaign. We are at present carrying out further investigations to identify all the potential incarnations of this assembly site. There is a brief mention in D.M. Hadley's book on the Northern Danelaw to coinage of an “otherwise unknown king Halfdan (who) ruled somewhere in the north-east Midlands around the year 900�. Was Thynghowe connected to his Kingdom? Interestingly, the story of events leading up to the Danish rule of England in the early 11 th century suggests a further possible link to Thynghowe. This link may have been vital in the strategic preparations for the arrival of a Danish invasion fleet via the river Humber and the river Trent. For king Svein Forkbeard and his son Canute to ensure their military success they would require the support of a large number of followers already in England with sympathies for a Danish king. This support would come from those very families of the early Viking warrior farmers of the northern Danelaw and their support would make a lasting invasion possible.
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Again the source of this conjecture is limited to one document that is mentioned in the book by Sir Frank Stenton Anglo Saxon England. In a footnote to page 388 he refers to a short lived extended confederation of the Danelaw's 'Five Boroughs' around the time of the Danish invasions of 1013 and 1016. In the summer of 1015 Canute landed in England. During a great council held at Oxford earlier in the year Eadric of Mercia had procured the murder of Siferth and Morcar, sons of Angrim, the Chronicle describes them as the chief thegns belonging to the 'Seven Boroughs�. The phrase does not occur again and the exact meaning is uncertain but Stenton clearly felt that it included the five Danish boroughs of Nottingham, Derby, Lincoln, Leicester, and Stamford. The sixth borough was thought to be Torksey on the river Trent. Torksey was strategically placed on the Nottingham Lincoln boundary and had an influential growing population that eventually totaled over 200 burgeeses. The seventh borough was likely to have been York as under Edward the Confessor many thegns belonging to Danish Mercia also held land in Yorkshire. Was this confederation part of the preparation for the Danish invasion at this time? As mentioned previously, Torksey was in close proximity to Thynghowe and also the main route from the south to York passed through the boundary forest of Sherwood. This would suggest that Thynghowe's central geographic location, being in close proximity to Gainsborough, York, Nottingham, Torksey, Lincoln, Leicester, Derby and Stamford, and having a high topographical border location, would have made it a perfect assembly site for the confederation of the Seven Boroughs. The tradition of Viking legal assemblies was that their location was on a convergence of boundaries and borders. This geographic position was to strengthen the independence of the court and to ensure its freedom from any one kingdom's 'ownership' or patronage. Thynghowe as an established higher regional Thing site would have been an obvious choice. In any event something happened at Thynghowe that was so significant that the site was still recorded on maps hundreds of years later.
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The First Viking Settlers In Nottinghamshire
Illustration 5: Re-enactment of Danish Viking Warrior Farmers on Nether Warsop Gate Birklands Photo: Lynda Mallett
So how did these Vikings end up settling in north Nottinghamshire? There are many history books but few that tell us of the importance of the Vikings in this period. Frank Stenton was a historian who lived in the town of Southwell in Nottinghamshire and he had a life long interest in the Danelaw and the Danish Viking occupation of the Five Boroughs. He felt that the Danish settlement of the ninth century may have been an event of greater historical importance than would appear from the brief references which contemporary writers make to it. The same goes for the historical importance of the reign of Canute but, there are some notable exceptions and the following background history in this booklet is drawn from the extensive work of Stenton, Larson and Lawson. References for this work can be found at the end of the booklet.
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Ivar Ragnarsson, or Ivar the Boneless as he was oddly referred to, was a Viking warlord and a man of exceeding cruelty and ferocity. He was the son of Ragnar Lodbrok and Aslaug Sigurdsdottir. Ivar, who ruled over an area covering parts of modern Denmark and Sweden, was reputed to be a berserker. Berserkers were Viking warriors who are said to have fought in a trance-like fury, later giving rise to the English phrase 'going berserk'. The name derived from their custom of wearing a coat (Old Norse- serkr) made from the skin of a bear (Old Norse- ber) in battle. The Viking sagas describe Ivar as 'Only cartilage was where bone should have been , but otherwise he grew tall and handsome and in wisdom he was the best of their children.' It is recorded that his height was such that he dwarfed all his contemporaries, in battle he was always at the front of his army. His arms were so strong that his bow was more powerful and his arrows heavier than those of his companions. Accompanied by his brothers Halfdan and Ubbe, Ivar crossed the North Sea to England and led what the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle referred to as the Great Heathen Army (mycel hĂŚĂžen) in the invasion of East Anglia in 865. He unfurled the Viking Raven banner in East Anglia and according to legend it was woven by three of the daughters of Ragnar Lodbrok. The East Anglians were forced to make peace with the invaders and provided them with horses and winter quarters. (See A.C. Wood A History of Nottinghamshire) The following year, Ivar led his army north and took the city of York, known to the Vikings as Jorvik. The Kingdom of Northumbria was at the time in a state of civil war, King Aelle of Northumbria had taken the throne from Osberht who had ruled Northumbria for the previous eighteen years. However, recognising the threat of the Viking army they both agreed to unite against their common enemy. It took 4 months for them to join their forces, and on 21st March 867 they stormed the city walls and gained entry to York in attempt to relieve it. The Vikings rallied, slaughtered all those who had entered the city and routed those who were outside, both kings Aelle and Osberht were killed. What was left of the Northumbrian court fled
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north, and Ivar installed Egbert as the puppet king of Northumbria. The Great Heathen Army army progressed into Mercia fixing their winter-quarters at Nottingham. Burgred, the King of Mercia, sought aid from Ethelred, King of Wessex and his brother Alfred, who led an army into Mercia and besieged Nottingham. However, the Vikings, heavily outnumbered, refused to fight. Henry of Huntingdon, writing almost 250 years later, described the situation at Nottingham: 'Ingwar [Ivar] then, seeing that the whole force of England was there gathered, and that his host was the weaker, and was there shut in, betook himself to smooth words - cunning fox that he was - and won peace and troth from the English. Then he went back to York, and abode there one year with all cruelty.' The Mercian leaders settled on paying the Vikings off. The Vikings agreed to leave and returned to Northumbria in the Autumn of 868. They spent the winter in York. But with these events the connection between Nottinghamshire and the Danish Armies began. The 10th and 11th century settlements of the Danes in Nottinghamshire differed from those of the English; they were the encampment of armies, and their boundaries were the fighting fronts sustained by a series of fortified towns. Stamford, Nottingham, Lincoln, Derby, and Leicester were the military bases of the new invading force. But as time passed behind their frontier lines the warriors of one decade were to become the colonists and landowners of the next. The Danish settlement in England was essentially military. They cut their way with their swords, and then planted themselves deeply in the soil, as did their English predecessors. This warrior type of farmer asserted from the first a status different from any ordinary agriculturist. They had a status of freemen or Sokemen. By the time of the Norman invasion free peasants formed the third largest group among the peasantry, almost 14% of the recorded population. In economic terms, they were among the most substantial groups within the peasantry, possessing on average 30 acres of land and two plough oxen. (See F.M Stenton The Free Peasantry of the Northern Danelaw ).
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Freemen of this kind appear in large numbers only in the Danelaw counties where their numbers were very considerable, up to half the rural population in some counties. The peculiarities of this distribution have excited considerable debate. Most historians would agree that the distribution reflects the impact of the Viking invasions of the ninth century, though just how this effect was produced is disputed. Some believe that the free peasantry of the Danelaw recorded in the Doomsday Book represent descendants of the rank and file of the Danish armies who had settled in the ninth century, others that they were the descendants of a mass immigration of Scandinavian peasants which followed in the wake of this military conquest. A third view is that the effects of Viking conquest were indirect and cultural, the native peasantry of the Danelaw acquiring free status under Viking rule. It has also been argued that the free peasantry were widely distributed throughout the country before the Viking invasions, the once free peasantry of Wessex losing their freedom in the struggle for survival against the Vikings. However, in the area of the Five Boroughs within the Danelaw the rights and customs of freemen continued long after the Norman conquest so must have been part of Canute's customary law. (See F.M. Stenton The Danes in England).
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The Danish Invasion In the summer of 1013, the Danish king Svein, accompanied by his son Canute, launched an invasion of England – the first of the two successful conquests England would witness in the 11th century, but by far the less well known.
Illustration 6: Re-enactment of Battle with Viking Army
Photo: Lynda Mallett
Scandinavian armies had been raiding in England on and off for more than 30 years, extracting huge sums of money from the country and putting King Æthelred under ever-increasing pressure, but Svein’s arrival in 1013 seems to have been something different – a carefullyplanned, full-scale invasion. After years of raiding England, Svein knew enough about the English political situation to exploit its weaknesses and he also knew where he could find followers to support his army and where he could acquire horses and supplies. Nottinghamshire had long been part of a Danish community and the river Trent was well known and well navigated right to the heart of the Midlands. Æthelred's English court was at war with itself and plagued by
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internal rivalries. This poisonous atmosphere was attributed to the influence of Æthelred's untrustworthy advisor Eadric. Svein was able to prepare and strengthen his attack by making a strategic alliance with some of those who had fallen from the king's favour. (See M.K. Lawson Cnut: The Danes in England in the Early Eleventh Century) The invasion progressed with great speed: within a few weeks all the country north of Watling Street – the ancient dividing-line between the north and south of England – had submitted to the Danish king. Many communities like those in Sherwood welcomed a return to a strong Danish leader and provided immediate support. Next the south was subdued by violence, and before the end of the year king Æthelred and his family had been forced to flee to Normandy. Svein, now became king of England and Denmark. As Svein I, King of Denmark, son of Harold Bluetooth, he became known as the the first Christian king of Denmark. Svein was an experienced warrior, a born champion and buccaneer. His first military expedition, in alliance with the celebrated Jomsborg Viking Palnatoke, was against his own father, who perished during the struggle (c. 986). It was six years later that he conducted a large fleet of warships to England, where he inflicted considerable damage, but failed to capture London. During his absence, Denmark was temporarily occupied by the Swedish king, Eric Sersel, on whose death (c. 994) Svein recovered his birthright. After his first English expedition Svein was content to blackmail England instead of ravaging it, that was until the ruthless massacre of the Danes on St. Brice's day, the 3rd of November 1002. This massacre led by Æthelred raised the order to kill 'all the Danish men who were among the English race'. One of the many victims of this slaughter was Svein's sister and this brought the Danish king back to Exeter in 1003 to seek vengeance. (See L. M. Larson Canute the Great: 995 – 1035 and the Rise of Danish Imperialism During the Viking Age). During each of the following eleven years, the Danes, materially assisted by the universal and shameless disloyalty of the Saxon ealdormen, systematically ravaged England. It is thought that from
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991 to 1014 the English had to pay its Danish invaders ÂŁ158,000 in ransoms alone. Svein after his invasion of 1013 based himself at Gainsborough on the River Trent. His reign was short however and he died suddenly at Gainsborough on the 13th of February 1014. Viking though he was, Svein was certainly a Christian Viking. We know that he built churches; that he invited English bishops to settle in Denmark; that on his deathbed he earnestly commended the Christian cause to his son Canute. He was cruel to his enemies no doubt, but he never forgot a benefit. He also laid down some of the tradition of the Danelaw by leadership and democratic law giving. He rewarded the patriotism of the Danish ladies who sacrificed all their jewels to pay the heavy ransom exacted from him by his captors, the Jomsborg pirates, by enacting a law whereby women were henceforth to inherit landed property in the same way as their male relatives. There is evidence of this customary law being recognised in the Mansfield and Edwinstowe area of Nottinghamshire as was the right for women to chose their husband. Of his valour as a captain and his capacity as an administrator there can be no question. His comrades adored him
Illustration 7: Re-enactment with Viking Army
Photo: Lynda Mallett
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for his liberality, and the frequent visits of an Icelandic skalder or poet to his court testify to a love of poetry and culture on his part. As to his personal appearance we only know that he had a long cleft beard, whence his nickname of Tiugeskaeg or Fork-Beard. On his death the Danish fleet chose Canute to succeed him, but the English nobles had other ideas: they contacted Æthelred, still in refuge in Normandy, and invited him to come back as king. They said, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells us, “that no lord could be dearer to them than their natural lord, if he would govern more justly than he had done before”. In response, Æthelred promised to be a better king, to forgive those who had deserted him, and to “remedy all the things of which they disapproved”. On these terms the agreement was made, and Æthelred returned to England. This time he managed to drive out Canute, and the fleet went back to Denmark. (See L. M. Larson Canute the Great: 995 – 1035 and the Rise of Danish Imperialism During the Viking Age). But a year later the young Danish king was back, hoping to repeat his father’s conquest. Despite his promises, Æthelred did not forgive those who had sided with the Danes: he viciously punished the northern leaders who had made an alliance with Svein, and in doing so caused his son, Edmund Ironside, to rebel against him. When Canute returned in 1015, Æthelred was ill and England was divided: large parts of the country submitted to the Danes, while Edmund, still unable to unite the English, struggled to put an army together. Only after Æthelred died in April 1016 did southern England finally unite behind Edmund, and six months of war followed, with the two armies fighting battles all over the south. The last battle was fought at a place called Assandun in Essex on 18 October 1016 (by strange coincidence, 50 years almost to the day before the battle of Hastings) and there the Danes were victorious. Edmund died six weeks later (likely by wounds received in battle or by disease, but some sources say he was murdered), and Canute was finally sole king of England. (See M. K. Lawson Cnut England's Viking King 1016 – 35)
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The immediate aftermath of Canute's conquest was violent, although not much more so than the last years of Æthelred's reign. Potential opponents were summarily killed, and the remaining members of the royal family were driven into exile. Cnut married Æthelred's widow, Emma, sister of the duke of Normandy, and between them they founded a new dynasty – part Danish, part Norman, but presenting itself as English. There had been Danish kings ruling in England before, some of them famous Vikings whose names were still something to conjure with in the 11th century: Canute's poets, extolling his conquest in Old Norse verse, compared him to the fearsome Ivar the Boneless and the sons of Ragnar Lothbrok, and in one sense, Canute was heir to the conquests of these larger-than-life Danish kings.
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Customs and Laws of the Forest
Illustration 8: Thynghowe Birklands Sherwood Forest
Photo: Lynda Mallett
It is hard to find documentary evidence of events in Nottinghamshire at the time of Canute but some of the laws attributed to him would have applied to the people of Sherwood Forest. Especially those parts of the Forest that were the King's land. Canute by his legislation claimed hunting rights in his own woods which were much the same as any other landowner – ‘I will that every man be entitled to his hunting in wood and in field, on his own estate. And let every man abstain from my hunting: take notice where I will have it untrespassed upon, under penalty of the full amercement.’ So offenses against the game in the king’s woods were to be punished by a fine, according to the ordinary law of the land, and not by a special forest court according to a separate forest law. The forest or Shire wood of Sherwood may have had a number of different areas that were subject to different laws relating to the kings deer and his forest as was described in the first recorded charter for the Danelaw and beyond.
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This charter of the forests was granted by Canute in the year 1016 and was called “The Charter and Constitution of Forests,” introduced by this royal declaration: “These are the Constitutions of the Forest, which I, Canute, King, with the advice of my nobles, do make and stablish, that both peace and justice may be done to all churches of our kingdom of England, and that every offender may suffer according to his quality, and the manner of his offence.” By this charter, four of the best freemen (Pagened, Verderors) were appointed in every province of the kingdom, to distribute justice, called “The Chief men of the Forest.” There were placed under each of these four men of middle sort (Lespegend, Regarders), to take upon themselves the care and charge by day, “as well of the vert as of the venison”. Under each of these, two meaner sort of men (Tinemen, Foresters) were appointed to take care of the vert and venison by night. These officers were supported at the cost of the state, the first class receiving a stipend of two hundred shillings a year, the second of sixty, and third of fifteen each, with certain equipments and immunities. “The Chief men of the Forest” were clothed with royal powers in the administration of the laws of forest. If any man offered violence to one of these chief men, if a freeman, he was to lose his freedom and all that he had; if a villein, his right hand was to cut off for the first offence ; for the second he suffered death, whether a freeman or a slave. Offences in the forest were punished according to the manner and quality of the offender ; any freeman, either casually or willfully chasing or hunting a beast of the forest, so that by swiftness of the course the beast pant for breath, was to forfeit ten shillings to king ; if not a freeman, twenty ; if a bondman to lose his skin. If the beast chased be a royal beast (a staggon) and he shall pant and be out of breath, the freeman to loose his liberty for a year, the bondman two years and the villein to be outlawed. A freeman or a bondman killing any beast of the forest, to pay double its value for the first offence, the same for the second offence, and for third to forfeit all that he possesses. Bishops, abbots
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and barons not to be challenged for hunting in forests, except they kill royal beasts, and then to make restitution to the king. Every freemen to be allowed to take his own vert, or venison, in the purlieus of the forest, or when hunting in his own ground, but he must refrain from the kings venery. Freemen only to keep the dogs called greyhounds, and the knees of those dogs to be cut, unless they be removed, and kept ten miles from the bounds of the royal forest. Velteres, or Langerans, small dogs as well as Ramhundt, might be kept without cutting their knees. If a dog became mad, and bit a beast of the forest, the owner was required to make recompense according to the price of the freeman – that is, twelve times two hundred shillings; but if a royal beast was bitten by a mad dog, then the owner was to answer as for the greatest offence in the forest – namely, with his own life. Such substantially were the forest laws of Canute the Dane.
Illustration 9: Viking Living History Camp Birkands Sherwood Forest Mallett
Photo: Lynda
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Canute's Reign We have concentrated on the Viking history of Sherwood and Nottinghamshire leading up to and including the year 1016. However, Canute went on to rule for another nineteen years and his reputation grew to level where became known as Canute the Great; a king who deserves remembering. “Canute presented himself as a conciliatory conqueror, eager to learn from the land he had captured: by gifts to churches and monasteries he made amends for the damage his father and previous Danish kings had done. When he made a diplomatic visit to Rome in 1027, he was welcomed as the Christian ruler of a new North Sea empire. Almost the only thing many people know about Canute is that he made a grand display of his inability to control the tide, and this story – first recorded in the 12th century – is not quite as silly as it is sometimes assumed to be: power over the sea was the very basis of Canute's authority, and a story in which Canute yields that sea-power to God might have helped to explain the remarkable transformation of a Viking king into a Christian monarch. When Canute died in 1035, after ruling for nearly 20 years, he was buried in Winchester, the traditional seat of power of the kings of Wessex. Compared to the Norman victory in 1066 – perhaps the single most famous date in medieval English history – the Danish Conquest has always seemed less important, with few enduring consequences. But the story of Svein’s wellplanned invasion and Canute’s successful reign tells us some interesting things about regional
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divisions within England, and England’s relationship with Scandinavia and the rest of Europe in the 11th century: in many ways – not least by destabilising the English monarchy and driving Edward into exile in Normandy – the Danish Conquest set the stage for much of what happened in 1066”. Dr Eleanor Parker Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Anglo-Norman England at the University of Oxford.
The last 1000 years in the history of England has been shaped by the events of King Canute's reign. It began with his arrival on our shores in 1015 and the warrior farmers of Nottinghamshire would have been vital part in that event. Their assembly site at Thynghowe may have been the rallying point for Canute and his army of the Seven Boroughs and therefore crucial in the process to establish Canute as king in 1016. An event we celebrate in 2016 here in the boundary forest of Sherwood.
Illustration 10: Re-enactment Viking Hand to Hand Combat Lynda Mallett
Photo:
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Further Reading The Place-names of Nottinghamshire / by J.E.B. Gover, Allen Mawer and F.M. Stenton. (English Place-name Society ; v. 17). 1940 Community Archaeology at Thynghowe, Birklands, Sherwood Forest Lynda Mallett, Stuart Reddish, John Baker, Stuart Brookes and Andy Gaunt. Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire, Volume 116; 2012 According to Ancient Custom: Research on the possible origins & purpose of Thynghowe. Paper presented at the National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavik, in collaboration with Thingvellir National Park March 9, 2012 Stuart C. Reddish and Lynda Mallett. 2012 A topographic earthwork survey of Thynghowe, Hanger Hill, Nottinghamshire. Andy Gaunt, Nottinghamshire County Council Archaeology, Nottinghamshire County Council. 2011 A History of Nottinghamshire. A.C. Wood Thoroton Society 1947 Canute the Great: 995 – 1035 and the Rise of Danish Imperialism During the Viking Age. L. M. Larson G.P. Putnam's and Sons 1912 The Free Peasantry of the Northern Danelaw. F.M Stenton Oxford University Press, 1969 Cnut: The Danes in England in the Early Eleventh Century. M.K. Lawson, Longman, 1993 The Danes in England. F.M. Stenton, British Academy, 1927 Anglo-Saxon England. Sir Frank Stenton, Oxford University Press, 1971 The Northern Danelaw: Its Social Structure, c.800-100 D. M. Hadley, Leicester University Press, 2000
Contact: Friends of Thynghowe: thynghowe.org.uk & facebook.com/Thynghowe
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Other Places to Visit in Sherwood Forest ( P - Parking charges may apply R – Refreshments S – Shop ) A - The Thynghowe Trail: A waymarked trail through a thousand years of historical features in the Thynghowe Viking heritage landscape. B - Sherwood Pines Forest Park: All year round outdoor experiences, from walking and family cycling to mountain biking, Go Ape and adventure play. P R C - Sherwood Forest Country Park - See the world-famous Major Oak and some of the oldest trees in Europe in the Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve. P R S D - Vicar Water – A country park on a recleied colliery site transformed into rare heathland, mature woodland and species rich grassland, offering spectacular views across to Derbyshire and Lincolnshire. P R E - Warsop Carrs – Walk beside the River Meden along the ancient boundary of the ancient Sherwood Forest beside the mill pond and through the nature reserve that forms a wildlife corridor.
F - Thoresby Park – Walk through the grounds of the mansion and visit the gallery, museum and shops of Thoresby Courtyard. R S
G - The Harley Gallery - Treasures from Welbeck Abbey’s Portland Collection and contemporary exhibitions plus the nearby café and farm shop. R S
H - Creswell Crags – Visit the limestone gorge honeycombed with
caves and discover life in the last Ice Age in the visitor centre. P R S
I - Rufford Abbey Country Park – Visit the ruins of the medieval monastery, a craft centre, gardens, woodland walks, sculpture trail and the lake. P R
J - Clumber Park – Walk or cycle through more than 3,800 acres of National Trust parkland, heath and woods. P R S
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THYNGHOWE VIKING SPRING THING 2016 CELEBRATING CANUTE1000
The Friends of Thynghowe would like to thank the organisations that supported this event.
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