Meavy Pre Conquest
Life for my ancestors, during what is known as the Dark Ages, was nothing more than a struggle to survive, the ‘family’ known as Meavy would be oblivious to the changes that were taking place in distant parts of Devon, let alone England itself.
By 878, the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England had fallen into the hands of the Viking invaders, it was King Alfred’s kingdom of Wessex that stood alone. One story that sums up England's position at this point in time, is the tale of King Alfred burning the cakes of some poor peasant woman who left him in charge. It is unlikely that this event ever happened, but as a tale it shows quite clearly the danger that England's last kingdom faced, and how much responsibility was placed on Alfred’s head. In reality, by the May of 878 Alfred’s Wessex was secured, and after years of fending off the Viking invaders King Alfred finally struck a deal with the Scandinavians following his famous victory at the Battle of Edington in Wiltshire. Not only did he gain some control of these marauding Vikings, but he paved the way for the future unity of England. Soon after the Viking defeat, Alfred encouraged the Viking leader Guthrum to convert to Christianity. Guthrum’s baptism is said to have taken place at Wedmore and where, it is also said, a formal treaty, sometimes called the Treaty of Wedmore, was signed. However, historians think that this may have occurred else where and that the passing of time has merged the two events into one. Regardless of this, under this ‘treaty’ the vikings agreed to leave Wessex in peace and return to East Anglia to the area we know now as Danelaw. Cessation of violence did not happen immediately, there were sporadic attacks in the West Country, such as two attacks in 997, one at Lydford and one at Tavistock where its abbey was burnt to the ground.
By 878, the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England had fallen into the hands of the Viking invaders, it was King Alfred’s kingdom of Wessex that stood alone. One story that sums up England's position at this point in time, is the tale of King Alfred burning the cakes of some poor peasant woman who left him in charge. It is unlikely that this event ever happened, but as a tale it shows quite clearly the danger that England's last kingdom faced, and how much responsibility was placed on Alfred’s head. In reality, by the May of 878 Alfred’s Wessex was secured, and after years of fending off the Viking invaders King Alfred finally struck a deal with the Scandinavians following his famous victory at the Battle of Edington in Wiltshire. Not only did he gain some control of these marauding Vikings, but he paved the way for the future unity of England. Soon after the Viking defeat, Alfred encouraged the Viking leader Guthrum to convert to Christianity. Guthrum’s baptism is said to have taken place at Wedmore and where, it is also said, a formal treaty, sometimes called the Treaty of Wedmore, was signed. However, historians think that this may have occurred else where and that the passing of time has merged the two events into one. Regardless of this, under this ‘treaty’ the vikings agreed to leave Wessex in peace and return to East Anglia to the area we know now as Danelaw. Cessation of violence did not happen immediately, there were sporadic attacks in the West Country, such as two attacks in 997, one at Lydford and one at Tavistock where its abbey was burnt to the ground.
The raid on Tavistock Abbey in 997, was one of the last recorded raids on Devon, previous attacks took place in 918, 977 and 988, however it is probable that there were other smaller raids that went undocumented. Steep Holm, an island in the Bristol Channel, may well have been used as a base for attacks to the mainland during the winter months, the Danes using the island to over winter in preference to returning home. The raid at Tavistock is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, from this we can visulise how horrendous these attacks were.
“The Danes went around Devonshire into the mouth of the Severn and there ravaged in Cornwall, Wales and Devon. Then they put into Watchet and did much evil by burning and slaughtering. After that they went around Land's End again on the south side and went into the mouth of the Tamar, continuing up until they came to Lydford, burning or killing each thing they met - they burnt down Ordulf's monastery at Tavistock and brought with them to their ships indescribable plunder.'
“The Danes went around Devonshire into the mouth of the Severn and there ravaged in Cornwall, Wales and Devon. Then they put into Watchet and did much evil by burning and slaughtering. After that they went around Land's End again on the south side and went into the mouth of the Tamar, continuing up until they came to Lydford, burning or killing each thing they met - they burnt down Ordulf's monastery at Tavistock and brought with them to their ships indescribable plunder.'
Image Nicholas Roerich 1901
These raid’s in Devon, one so close to the settlement of Meavy, would have been horrific, the memory of which would be ever lasting. Centuries on, historian Frank Stenton suggested that the only historical importance of these raids were that they “brought England, for the first time, into diplomatic contact with Normandy.” No doubt the people of Devon saw it differently. With Meavy lying just seven miles east of the border with Cornwall, ten miles south of Lydford and five miles from Tavistock, I have to ask myself, when the Danes “went into the mouth of the Tamar, continuing up until they came to Lydford burning or killing each thing they met’ were some of the people killed my ancestors?
If the Danes had rampaged their way through Meavy, it must have acted as a terrible and unwelcomed kick start into a new age.
King Alfred had been dead for nearly eighty years, but his England had taken its first tentative steps to becoming a more civilised and literate country. Since his death Alfred’s legacy had passed through the hands of seven kings by the time Ethelred the Unready was king.
Athelstan, King Alfred’s grandson, had won a decisive victory against the kings of Scotland and Dublin at the Battle of Brunanburh in 937. He secured England’s borders and introduced new laws, he was, according to historian Michael Woods, one of the greatest Anglo-Saxon kings and “one of the more important lay intellectuals in Anglo-Saxon history.” Following his death in 939, the crown of England passed through three sets of brothers until 978 when the above mentioned Ethelred was crowned. Known as Unready, Ethelred takes his name from the Saxon word ‘ill advised’ or ‘taking poor council’ an undeserved nickname considering he was only twelve when he became king. Ethelred was king of England for thirty-six years until he was forced into exile in Normandy by the Sweyn Forkbeard, England’s shortest reigning king. Forkbeard, with the support of his son Canute, waged war on the people of England from his base at Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, a cruel man who allegedly impaled people on lances. However, and fortunately for the population of England, Forkbeard’s reign only lasted forty days. Following his death in the February of 1014, his embalmed body was returned to Denmark and the council of England sent for the deposed Aethelred to return as king. He arrived in the spring of 1014 and drove Canute out of England, but he soon returned to became King in 1016. From the death of Ethelred until the arrival of Canute, Edmund Ironside, so named for his bravery in standing up to the Danish king, reigned for just under seven months. Edmund Ironside fought a number of battles against the Danish army, but they ended in his defeat on the 18th October 1016 at the Battle of Assandun in Essex. The signing of a peace treaty gave Edmund control of lands south of the River Thames and Canute ruled north of the Thames. On Edmund's death, despite leaving two sons, Canute gained control of all of England.
Taking the English throne was the very beginning of a conquest that saw King Canute rule most of Northern Europe, by the time of his death he controlled England, Denmark, Norway and parts of Sweden, yet the one event he is only ever remembered for is his attempt at controlling an incoming tide, Canute probably didn’t paddle in the sea but what he is thought to have said was:
“Let all inhabiting the world know the power of kings to be empty and worthless and that there is no other king worthy of the name but He at whose will heaven earth, sea obey by the eternal laws.”
Not the words of arrogant and powerful foreign invader, just man suggesting that a kings were human.
Canute controlled much of Scandinavia, under his rule Viking raids on England’s coastline lessened, the economy improved, and by marrying Emma, Ethelred the Unready’s Norman widow, he consolidated his power.
If the Danes had rampaged their way through Meavy, it must have acted as a terrible and unwelcomed kick start into a new age.
King Alfred had been dead for nearly eighty years, but his England had taken its first tentative steps to becoming a more civilised and literate country. Since his death Alfred’s legacy had passed through the hands of seven kings by the time Ethelred the Unready was king.
Athelstan, King Alfred’s grandson, had won a decisive victory against the kings of Scotland and Dublin at the Battle of Brunanburh in 937. He secured England’s borders and introduced new laws, he was, according to historian Michael Woods, one of the greatest Anglo-Saxon kings and “one of the more important lay intellectuals in Anglo-Saxon history.” Following his death in 939, the crown of England passed through three sets of brothers until 978 when the above mentioned Ethelred was crowned. Known as Unready, Ethelred takes his name from the Saxon word ‘ill advised’ or ‘taking poor council’ an undeserved nickname considering he was only twelve when he became king. Ethelred was king of England for thirty-six years until he was forced into exile in Normandy by the Sweyn Forkbeard, England’s shortest reigning king. Forkbeard, with the support of his son Canute, waged war on the people of England from his base at Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, a cruel man who allegedly impaled people on lances. However, and fortunately for the population of England, Forkbeard’s reign only lasted forty days. Following his death in the February of 1014, his embalmed body was returned to Denmark and the council of England sent for the deposed Aethelred to return as king. He arrived in the spring of 1014 and drove Canute out of England, but he soon returned to became King in 1016. From the death of Ethelred until the arrival of Canute, Edmund Ironside, so named for his bravery in standing up to the Danish king, reigned for just under seven months. Edmund Ironside fought a number of battles against the Danish army, but they ended in his defeat on the 18th October 1016 at the Battle of Assandun in Essex. The signing of a peace treaty gave Edmund control of lands south of the River Thames and Canute ruled north of the Thames. On Edmund's death, despite leaving two sons, Canute gained control of all of England.
Taking the English throne was the very beginning of a conquest that saw King Canute rule most of Northern Europe, by the time of his death he controlled England, Denmark, Norway and parts of Sweden, yet the one event he is only ever remembered for is his attempt at controlling an incoming tide, Canute probably didn’t paddle in the sea but what he is thought to have said was:
“Let all inhabiting the world know the power of kings to be empty and worthless and that there is no other king worthy of the name but He at whose will heaven earth, sea obey by the eternal laws.”
Not the words of arrogant and powerful foreign invader, just man suggesting that a kings were human.
Canute controlled much of Scandinavia, under his rule Viking raids on England’s coastline lessened, the economy improved, and by marrying Emma, Ethelred the Unready’s Norman widow, he consolidated his power.
Under Canute, my ancestors, long established at Meavy would have held the title of mesne lord, in this Anglo-Saxon manorial system a lord would have serfs and villains under him. The Meavy family would have allowed other families into their fold, often it would be those associated with marriage between the children of lords of neighbouring settlements such as Elfordtown and Yelverton that stand just outside Meavy’s boundaries. These ancient borders were established during the Anglo-Saxon period and fully established by the time the Normans arrived, it was however the Normans who introduced the word manor into our language. Detailed descriptions of manor boundaries can be found in Charter Bonds. Descriptions of borders took the form of a ‘walk’ that started in one corner and proceeded towards one natural feature to another until it returned to where it began.
Meavy's ancient boundary markers. Photographs by kind permission of John Stickland
Meavy’s boundaries can be found in one such charter and is marked by a number of natural elements such as brookes, springs, standing stones, and wayside crosses and within this boundary, but not quite in its centre is Meavy itself. The Meavy family did not own the land they lived on, no one man or family own any land at all, it all belonged to the king and was subject to subinfeudation. By the time of Edward the Confessor, the lands of Meavy that lay within the aforementioned border, had be divided into smaller units whose name are Hoo Meavy, GoodaMeavy, Loverton, and Gratton.
As mesne lords at Meavy, my ancestors would have provided shelter, food and protection in return for rent and services for those under them, each serf or villain paying their share of a tithe in support of the community itself. In a document dated to 1031, we find evidence to show how Meavy was no longer an isolated settlement but a typical Anglo-Saxon village, incidentally our modern parish system has its roots in this time. Lords were starting to provide their manor with small chapels, or field churches, so those under them could benefit from the services of a priest, in return each member of the village would pay one tenth of their yearly profits, a tithe, with commodities such as hay, grain, wool or wine, all of which would be held in a tithe barn. In 1031 a priest by the name of Aethelric was granted half a hide of Meavy's land (about fifteen acres) by King Canute. It may have been under Aethelric that a small church made of timber and sandstone, was built at Meavy. With its church, its tithe barn, and a few houses, it is very easy to visualise Meavy full of life - women weaving, children playing and animals roaming in and out of thatched sheds. However, it would not be for another ninety years that there is any reference to Meavy as the family surname.
13th Century Tithe Barn at Lacock in Wiltshire taken in 2013
Four years after granting land to Aethelric at Meavy, King Canute was dead. The English crown of the Scandinavian kings, just like that of the Saxon kings, passed through a set of brothers. Harold Harefoot and Harthacnut, sons of Canute ruled for seven years between them. The third, a half brother was Edward the Confessor, son of Ethelred’s wife Emma, who would rule England for twenty-four years. It is under Edward the Confessor that we get our first glimpse of Anglo-Saxon hierarchy, that is who held what at Meavy. Lording it over my ancestors was Alwin, the king’s thegn.
Alwin was one of four thegns with land at Meavy. Alwin and Alward are named as ‘king's thegns’ both holding the majority of manors in Meavy, however Alwin held three-quarters of them. The two other thegns were Edward and Oswulf. King’s thegn's were important people, they were powerful and free men who were answerable to no one other than the king. One of the many laws King Canute implemented was that a royal thegn should received a heriot, that is all the military equipment, including horses, of any serf that died within his manor. The family of Meavy being lords, were answerable to Alwin, but unlike him were living in the community, a community that continued to grow in size under the rule of Canute’s successors.
For the first ten years following the end of Danish rule, the people of England had lived relatively peacefully, this peace is credited to “Edward, hero and saint, pre-eminent in all the praises of his virtues.” Edward was indeed gentle, pious, peaceful and if history is to be believed also celibate - despite the fact that he had married Edith, the young, beautiful and well educated daughter of Godwin, Earl of Wessex. From this marriage came the expectation that the union would produce a brood of healthy sons, but sadly for England this did not happen, the cause of which is still debated today. The lack of an heir in conjunction with Edward favouring his Norman relations angered the powerful lords of Mercia and Wessex and it was Robert of Jumieges, Edward’s Norman Archbishop of Canterbury that historians suggest, was at the centre of the troubles that began mid way through Edward’s reign. The Archbishop is thought to have persuaded Edward to discard Edith in favour of fathering an heir elsewhere and it was he, who according to two Norman writers, conveyed that it was Edward’s wish that William, later the Conqueror, should succeed to the English throne on Edward's death.
Edward and Edith’s marriage did remain childless, and an empty cradle would lead to an empty throne, and this in turn, would lead the one of the bloodiest periods in the history of England. It began when Edward the Confessor lay dying and named his brother in law, Harold Godwinson as his successor, supposedly with the words
“I commend my wife and all my kingdom to your care.”
Harold's succession was confirmed by the Witan, Edward’s council, and the crown of England passed from the third great grandson of King Alfred to the son of a Saxon thegn, seemingly without any trouble at all! However, as the crown was placed on Harold Godwinson’s head, others who considered that it was their rightful place to sit on the throne of England were preparing to stake their claim. In the 10th century Aelfric of Eynsham had written of Saxon kingship.
“No man can make himself king, but the people has the choice to choose as king whom they please; but after he is consecrated as king, he then has dominion over the people, and they cannot shake his yoke off their necks”
Alwin was one of four thegns with land at Meavy. Alwin and Alward are named as ‘king's thegns’ both holding the majority of manors in Meavy, however Alwin held three-quarters of them. The two other thegns were Edward and Oswulf. King’s thegn's were important people, they were powerful and free men who were answerable to no one other than the king. One of the many laws King Canute implemented was that a royal thegn should received a heriot, that is all the military equipment, including horses, of any serf that died within his manor. The family of Meavy being lords, were answerable to Alwin, but unlike him were living in the community, a community that continued to grow in size under the rule of Canute’s successors.
For the first ten years following the end of Danish rule, the people of England had lived relatively peacefully, this peace is credited to “Edward, hero and saint, pre-eminent in all the praises of his virtues.” Edward was indeed gentle, pious, peaceful and if history is to be believed also celibate - despite the fact that he had married Edith, the young, beautiful and well educated daughter of Godwin, Earl of Wessex. From this marriage came the expectation that the union would produce a brood of healthy sons, but sadly for England this did not happen, the cause of which is still debated today. The lack of an heir in conjunction with Edward favouring his Norman relations angered the powerful lords of Mercia and Wessex and it was Robert of Jumieges, Edward’s Norman Archbishop of Canterbury that historians suggest, was at the centre of the troubles that began mid way through Edward’s reign. The Archbishop is thought to have persuaded Edward to discard Edith in favour of fathering an heir elsewhere and it was he, who according to two Norman writers, conveyed that it was Edward’s wish that William, later the Conqueror, should succeed to the English throne on Edward's death.
Edward and Edith’s marriage did remain childless, and an empty cradle would lead to an empty throne, and this in turn, would lead the one of the bloodiest periods in the history of England. It began when Edward the Confessor lay dying and named his brother in law, Harold Godwinson as his successor, supposedly with the words
“I commend my wife and all my kingdom to your care.”
Harold's succession was confirmed by the Witan, Edward’s council, and the crown of England passed from the third great grandson of King Alfred to the son of a Saxon thegn, seemingly without any trouble at all! However, as the crown was placed on Harold Godwinson’s head, others who considered that it was their rightful place to sit on the throne of England were preparing to stake their claim. In the 10th century Aelfric of Eynsham had written of Saxon kingship.
“No man can make himself king, but the people has the choice to choose as king whom they please; but after he is consecrated as king, he then has dominion over the people, and they cannot shake his yoke off their necks”
"Here sits Harold King of the English. and Archbishop Stigand" Bayeux Tapestry
Harold was king, but Edgar Aethling, Harald Hardrada and the aforementioned William of Normandy had every intention of holding that title themselves.
Edgar Aethling’s claim was by descent from Alfred the Great, having Ethelred the Unready as his great grandfather. Edgar’s would later be proclaimed king by the Witan following Harold’s defeat at Hastings. He had the support of both the Archbishop of York and Stigand, who had taken over from the ousted Robert of Jumieges as Archbishop of Canterbury, plus the Earls Edwin and Morcar, but his cause was abandoned when the Norman conqueror arrived in the capital. Norway’s king, Harald Hardrada’s claim was by way of a promise made by the younger of king Canute's son Hardicnut. William of Normandy would invoke Edward’s promise and a promise made by King Harold himself.
The law of succession followed the laws of primogeniture. However, in the 11th century, on the death of a king with no heir, the Witan had the right to choose the king from among the royal family. Edward had made his choice known to the Witan and all had agreed, therefore Harold’s claim to the throne was valid, but this made no difference when rule by the right of conquest was just as lawful.
The Battle of Hastings took place on the 14th of October 1066, and for those family members at Meavy it may as well have been fought on the moon. It's affects would be felt by them much later.
Edgar Aethling’s claim was by descent from Alfred the Great, having Ethelred the Unready as his great grandfather. Edgar’s would later be proclaimed king by the Witan following Harold’s defeat at Hastings. He had the support of both the Archbishop of York and Stigand, who had taken over from the ousted Robert of Jumieges as Archbishop of Canterbury, plus the Earls Edwin and Morcar, but his cause was abandoned when the Norman conqueror arrived in the capital. Norway’s king, Harald Hardrada’s claim was by way of a promise made by the younger of king Canute's son Hardicnut. William of Normandy would invoke Edward’s promise and a promise made by King Harold himself.
The law of succession followed the laws of primogeniture. However, in the 11th century, on the death of a king with no heir, the Witan had the right to choose the king from among the royal family. Edward had made his choice known to the Witan and all had agreed, therefore Harold’s claim to the throne was valid, but this made no difference when rule by the right of conquest was just as lawful.
The Battle of Hastings took place on the 14th of October 1066, and for those family members at Meavy it may as well have been fought on the moon. It's affects would be felt by them much later.
