The Welsh borderlands in the Anglo‑Saxon Chronicle

Abstract

Chapter four argues for a significant pattern of political alliance in the Welsh borderlands in the later Anglo-Saxon period, beginning in the tenth century, where half a dozen raids carried out jointly by Mercian earls and northern Welsh rulers have gone unnoticed because they are recorded largely in Welsh sources. This pattern of political cohesion within the Welsh borderlands continues in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle throughout the eleventh century, both before and after the Norman arrival in 1066. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle represents the Welsh borderlands as a region which acted as an independent political force throughout the eleventh century. Chapter four also argues that the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle represents the military culture of the Welsh borderlands in a distinctive way which aligns its inhabitants with outlaws.