MEDIEVAL ENGLAND and THE LAST KINGDOM (TV series)

Period drama and epics are often fiction mixed with actual events that had happened in the past. But its always fascinating to draw those narratives in a historical context and see if they match with the recorded history or not. One such TV show is the recent one on Netflix, The Last Kingdom. Based on the journey of Uhtred of Babbenburg (Bamburgh; based on the character Uhtred the Bold), a Saxon raised by Danes and often in a conflict of loyalty between the two groups. But this post isn't about the series but more about the historical place names used in the show. Mostly based in the medieval kingdom of Mercia and Wessex, The Last Kingdom is one of the finest written epic shows on television.

Middle Ages was a tough time for England as well as Europe. Killings, looting, pillage and murders and countless of battles and wars were a norm. Poverty was spread throughout and peasants lived quite miserable lives. Still, kingdoms flourished and empires expanded. The 8th century British Isles was still to be united under one single England and at this time, was divided into kingdoms of Mercia, Wessex, Sussex, Essex, Kent, East Anglia, Deira, Bernice (or Bernicia) and Cornwallum. Scotland was divided into Lothian, Strath Clyde, Daleriada, Pictland while Wales was known as Deheubarth or Wealas or Cymry. Ireland was referred to either as Hibernia or Irland (later in the modern era, Ireland is also referred a Eire).

Just to give a perspective that during this time, the Danes were in Britain and the territories they occupied known as 'Danelaw'. The only large empire in the then known world was the Umayyid Caliphate that expanded from Morocco to Pakistan, covering throughout northern Africa and Middle East and even Spain and Portugal. The conflict between the Saxons (natives of England) and Danes had resulted into massive bloodbath (something shown multiple times in the web-series). The Danelaw existed between 865 to 954 AD.

Wessex and Mercia has been used extensively in the show and places like Wintancaester (Winchester), Aegelsburg (Aylesbury), Saltwic (Droitwich) etc. are used quite frequently. But as its shown in the series, the normal life in medieval England was far from comfortable. Politically, the old kingdoms of Wessex, Northumbria (which would be formed by combining Deira, Bernice and Lothian), Mercia and East Anglia would soon give rise to a newer identity of an united England with the dominant 'English' culture (both words deriving from the tribe 'Angle') in the coming centuries.

Despite the peasant turmoil, medieval kingdoms in Britain were pretty wealthy since they had raised huge taxes during Viking invasions. New field systems, stone churches acting as anchors to slow down settlement shift, more nucleated villages etc. transformed the characteristic of rural English societies. Religion wise, Christianity was slowly being spread and conflict between paganism and Church increased in the coming centuries (something shown perfectly in the TV series as well). The Danish attacks were ferocious and Wessex was the only kingdom to successfully repel it under King Alfred the 'Great'. He also introduced educational reforms and ordered translation of manuscripts from Latin to English.

Although it's said that the origin of English people relate to the Celts who settled down on the island between 500 to 300 BC, but certain maps shows Denmark and northern Germany as the source of this migration. Jutes, Danes, Angles (or English) and Saxons were spread across today's Denmark and northern Germany. But still this wouldn't confirm whether or not original English were Vikings. Maybe this could be a possible reason for continuous Viking attacks on Britain since with all the exploration routes from Norway to as far as Greenland, Iceland and parts of Canada were all being covered under the Viking blanket, an exception of Britain as a lone Saxon kingdom would not have fit best with the Vikings.

Between the 9th and 10th centuries heavy Scandinavian settlements populated in Danelaw and East Anglia. Its influence can even be seen now when although there aren't any reported Viking architecture in modern England, but certain place names still reflect the Scandinavian culture. Copmanthorpe (in York), Langtoft (in Lincolnshire), Whitby (in North Yorkshire), Ormskirk (in Lancashire) etc. are some of the examples of modern names.

The timeline of Danish invasions in Britain would start from 800 to 1085 when King Cnut or Canute or Knut (also a character in the series) planned a major naval invasion on England but never actually practiced it, thus ending the 2 centuries conflict between the Danes and Saxons. Many names in the series are actually true - Uthred, Æthelwald, King Alfred, Sygtryggsson, Guthrum, King Æthelred etc. - although the timeline of these reigns might not be quite right as shown in the series. The map here shows the list of places mentioned in the series with their modern names. The red region is the Danelaw, while the grayish regions are the alluviums which were yet to be integrated firmly into fertile land.