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 Lindisware (Lindsey / Lincoln)
This kingdom was founded circa AD 480 by invading
Angles who may have mingled with Germanic
peoples who had been settled there beforehand as foederati, as well
as the native British
population. They called themselves the Lindisware, taking the name, as was the
usual Anglo-Saxon practice, from the locality, in this instance the regional capital,
Linnius
(Roman Lindum, modern Lincoln), which had formerly been part of the tribal
territory of the Coritani.
A separate tribe of Angles, the Spaldingas, settled in what is now the South
Holland district of Lincolnshire, and apparently retained their administrative
independence right into the ninth and tenth centuries, when the region formed
one of the Five Boroughs of the kingdom of
York.
Two Lincolnshire villages, Winteringham and Winterton, lying almost side by side
on the banks of the Humber, are named after what was in all probability the first
historical king, Winta, and suggest the starting point of the Humbrensian settlement
of the region. Winteringham, which is likely on formal grounds to be the earlier of
the two settlements, is exactly on the line of the main Roman road from the south at
the point where its course must have been continued by means of a ferry in Roman times
across the river from Winteringham Haven to Brough on the north bank of the Humber.
 Based in Lincoln
(to the north of the Wash, covering much of modern Lincolnshire), and for
most of its life isolated from the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms by the
extensive marshes and wetlands to the south and thick forest to the north
and west, Lindsey has almost
no recorded history, even before its conquest, but the name of its fourth king
suggests strong links to the Britons living there.
Excavations in the area of the important Saxon church at Barton-on-Humber,
close to the east of Winteringham, have clearly suggested that there is no
reason to suggest a break of occupation between the
Roman and
Saxon
periods. Combined with similar evidence from Winteringham itself it seems
likely that the incoming Anglian authorities directly succeeded the previous
Romano-British administration. |
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617 |
Edwin has been restored as king of Deira and
Bernicia to become ruler of
all the Angles
north of the Humber. He now begins a push westwards that will gain him the entire
British Pennine region,
starting with the invasion of the kingdom of
Elmet, which borders Lindsey to
the west. The Elmetians are outnumbered by Edwin's host and are chased to the River
Don, where they finally make a stand.
The doomed stand is defeated in a battle fought near the former
Roman
settlement of Bawtry (approximately ten kilometres (six miles) south-east of
Danum (Doncaster), on the Roman road to Linnius. Edwin is able to subdue the
kingdom. Lindsey, protected from the north by the Humber, is now exposed on
its western flank to Northumbrian attacks.
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The Roman Newport Gate at Linnius, through which passes Ermine
Street, is today the world's only surviving Roman arch that is
still open to traffic
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629 |
St Paulinus, the first bishop of the
Roman
Church in York, within the Anglian kingdom of
Deira, meets a
Praefectus Civitatis named Blecca in Lincoln and
converts him and his household to Christianity.
The title reveals a continuation of
Roman
practices, or at least titles, in the Angle kingdom, further reinforcing
the probability of a smooth transition of power from sub-Roman to Anglian
rule. Some time in the seventh century a new church is built on the site
of the old Roman Cathedral, with the body of a wealthy
British chief
complete with Celtic hanging-bowl being interred within. |
796 - 875 |
Aldfrith's
ancestors may have ruled Lindsey but the kingdom has normally been subject to
Mercia or
Northumbria.
From this point Lindsey is directly controlled by Mercia alone, until it is
conquered by the
Danes
of the Scandinavian kingdom of York.
The region of the Spaldingas, situated around the Wash and now called
Stamford, becomes one of York's Five Boroughs (in 940). |
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