Regiones
Regiones (singular: regio) or provinciae,(singular: provincia),
Regiones were self-sufficient units of mixed
Regiones gradually fragmented in the later Anglo-Saxon period as land was granted into private or ecclesiastical ownership by
Some historians have identified regiones with the concept of the Anglo-Saxon multiple estate. Others have argued that, while similarly organised, multiple estates represent a later stage of territorial organisation, after the concept of folkland or tribal occupation and obligation began to be replaced by that of bookland or documented private ownership.[8]
Naming and areas
Primary historical sources refer to these areas exclusively in Latin as regiones or provinciae and it is not known what the equivalent contemporary Old English term would have been.[1] Several different terms were used when original Latin texts were later translated, including -ge, which meant "district" and survived as the second element of the names of several regiones including Eastry and Ely;[1] and meagth, which meant "kindred", suggesting the areas had tribal origins.[1]
In areas of
Similar units with names ending in "-ingas" meaning "people of..." can be found in areas of
Examples in areas of
Within the area of the
Origins
Various explanations exist for how these territorial units may have formed in the 5th and 6th centuries.[15] The first elements in names ending in -ingas have often been interpreted as personal names, and the territories have often been seen as the areas settled by families or tribes led by those named individuals, or perhaps with them as their earliest known common ancestor.[15] This view sees regiones as the areas of previously autonomous tribal groupings, that retained their identity when absorbed into larger kingdoms in the later 6th and 7th centuries, coming to pay tribute to a king rather than an earlier tribal chieftain.[16]
Alternatively regiones may have formed from earlier units based around centres such as
Many small shires have been identified in the area of the south east of modern
Structure and role
Regiones were characterised by well-defined areas,[21] generally of the order of 100 square miles (26,000 ha)[20] and often made up of 12 vills.[22] They generally conformed to local topography, occupying a geographically coherent area such as a defined stretch of a river valley.[23] They constituted self-contained and organised economic units of subsistence agriculture[24] including a diverse range of scattered settlements practising a mix of arable and pastoral farming[23] and sharing common grazing land.[25]
Regiones were typically centred upon a royal vill.[21] Anglo-Saxon England lacked the high volume trade in essential foodstuffs necessary to sustain a large royal household in a single location.[26] Royal vills therefore formed a network of halls and accommodation across a kingdom through which a royal household would tour in an itinerary, where each regio would provide food renders to support the royal household and from where the regio and the wider kingdom would be administered.[27]
Where they are recorded in charters or by Bede the rulers of regiones are referred to as principes (princes), reguli (kings) or subreguli (sub-kings).[28]
Later territorial continuity
The regio as a basic territorial unit gradually fragmented during the later Anglo Saxon period as the concept of tribal ownership and organisation declined and was replaced with the concept of private land-holding.[29] The smaller manors that characterise the Domesday Book emerged from within regiones through the endowment of churches with land, the rewarding of officials and the division of a family's land among inheritors.[30]
In Kent the areas of the regiones survived as the lathes into which the later county was subdivided.[31] The rapes of Sussex, which similarly each included several hundreds, may also reflect the regiones that made up the earlier Kingdom.[32]
Away from those areas traces of earlier regiones can be found where later groups of hundreds contributed to a single royal manor.[33] In 1066 the 19 hundreds of Oxfordshire were annexed in this manner to 7 royal manors that included Headington, Kirtlington and Bensington.[34] In Berkshire and north Hampshire the regio centres of Reading, Sonning and Basingstoke remained centres of distinctive groupings of hundreds throughout the Middle Ages,[15] with the "Six hundreds of Basingstoke" and the "Seven hundreds of Cookham and Bray" referred to in medieval records closely resembling the earlier territories of the Basingas and Sunningas.[35] The Surrey hundreds of Chertsey and Woking correspond to the earlier territory of the Woccingas.[14]
The defined territories of regiones also formed the basis for later ecclesiastic geography. Conversion to christianity was frequently followed by the establishment of a minster for the tribe, with the boundaries of the tribe's territory frequently defining the minster parishes which the minsters served.[21]
References
- ^ a b c d Stenton 1971, p. 293.
- ^ Rippon 2012, pp. 188, 190.
- ^ a b Yorke 1995, p. 39.
- ^ Faith 1999, pp. 3–5.
- ^ Faith 1999, p. 9.
- ^ Faith 1999, pp. 5–8.
- ^ Faith 1999, p. 8.
- ^ Rippon 2012, p. 151.
- ^ a b c Yorke 1995, p. 40.
- ^ Yorke 1995, pp. 40, 41.
- ^ Bailey 1989, p. 121.
- ^ Williamson 2013, p. 83.
- ^ Stenton 1971, p. 295.
- ^ a b Thornton 2009, p. 93.
- ^ a b c Yorke 1995, p. 42.
- ^ Williamson 2013, pp. 82–83.
- ^ Yorke 1995, pp. 42–43.
- ^ Williamson 2013, pp. 83–84.
- ^ Rippon 2012, p. 191.
- ^ a b Campbell 2008, p. 32.
- ^ a b c Bassett 1989, p. 19.
- ^ Campbell 2008, p. 40.
- ^ a b Faith 1999, pp. 3–4.
- ^ Bassett 1989, p. 21.
- ^ Campbell 2008, pp. 32, 35.
- ^ Charles-Edwards 1989, p. 28.
- ^ Charles-Edwards 1989, pp. 28–29.
- ^ Bassett 1989, p. 17.
- ^ Bassett 1989, p. 20.
- ^ Bassett 1989, pp. 19–20.
- ^ Stenton 1971, p. 503.
- ^ Stenton 1971, p. 504.
- ^ Stenton 1971, p. 300.
- ^ Stenton 1971, pp. 300–301.
- ^ Stenton 1971, p. 301.
Bibliography
- Bailey, Keith (1989), "The Middle Saxons", in Bassett, Steven (ed.), The Origins of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms, Leicester: Leicester University Press, pp. 108–122, ISBN 0718513177
- Bassett, Steven (1989), "In search of the origins of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms", in Bassett, Steven (ed.), The Origins of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms, Leicester: Leicester University Press, pp. 3–27, ISBN 0718513177
- Campbell, James (2008), "A Nearly, but Wrongly, Forgotten Historian of the Dark Ages", in Barrow, Julia; Wareham, Andrew (eds.), Myth, Rulership, Church and Charters: Essays in Honour of Nicholas Brooks, Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, pp. 31–44, ISBN 0754651207, retrieved 2014-08-31
- Charles-Edwards, Thomas (1989), "Early medieval kingships in the British Isles", in Bassett, Steven (ed.), The Origins of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms, Leicester: Leicester University Press, pp. 28–39, ISBN 0718513177
- Faith, Rosamond (1999), The English Peasantry and the Growth of Lordship, Leicester: Leicester University Press, ISBN 0718502043, retrieved 2014-08-30
- Rippon, Stephen (2012), Making Sense of an Historic Landscape, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0199533784, retrieved 2014-06-22
- Stenton, Frank (1971), Anglo-Saxon England (third ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press (published 1989)
- Thornton, David E. (2009), "Communities and Kinship", in Stafford, Pauline (ed.), A Companion to the Early Middle Ages: Britain and Ireland c.500-1100, London: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 91–106, ISBN 1444311018, retrieved 2014-06-15
- Williamson, Tom (2013), Environment, Society and Landscape in Early Medieval England: Time and Topography, Woodbridge: Boydell Press, ISBN 1843837374, retrieved 2014-06-15
- Yorke, Barbara (1995), Wessex in the early Middle Ages, Leicester University Press, ISBN 071851856X, retrieved 2014-06-15