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 Magonset (Westerna / Herefordshire Saxons)
The British territory of Pengwern was
conquered by Oswiu of Northumbria
in 656, while he was overlord of the
Mercians.
Western Pengwern was then settled by
Saxon
groups who probably migrated northwards from the territory of
the West Saxons and the
Hwicce, although there is a
possibility that some of them were already in the area, perhaps as allies of
Pengwern.
They made the most of the sudden power gap to found small kingdoms. The first was
based on modern Wroxeter (Roman Viroconium, which evolved into British Caer Guricon),
and the new arrivals called themselves Wrocenset based on that name. The second was
in modern Kenchester, just west of Hereford in Herefordshire (Roman Magnis), which
was probably adapted as Caer Magnis by the Romano-British and bastardised as Magon
by the Saxons: Magonset (or Magonsæte) means settlers of Magon. The Magonset kingdom
also seems to have been known by several names, including Westerna, or Western Hecani.
The kingdoms were small, but they were not obscure, at least to the people
of the time, although few records have survived to describe them. Certainly
nothing seems to have been recorded about the Magonset after circa
680, apart from the names of its kings, and even that detail has been lost
for the Wrocenset. By the beginning of the eighth century, the
Anglian
Mercians had gained overall control of the territory of the Magonset and Wrocenset.
It is perhaps around this time that the name Westerna was used for the Magonset
territory by the Mercians, perhaps to describe the border region with Powys - the
Anglian word for borderlands, 'mercna' was already in use for Mercia itself, and its
borders did not yet reach as far as Powys.
(Additional information from The Oxford History of England: Anglo-Saxon
England, Sir Frank Stenton.) |
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656 - c.660 |
Pengwern
is destroyed by Oswiu of Northumbria,
and Saxon
and Angle groups which
become the Magonset and Wrocenset move into western Pengwern, near the modern
Welsh border. They may
extend farther to the west at the start, but it is territory that their
descendants cannot retain. English place names of an early type occur
sporadically beyond the borders of Offa's Dyke, showing a relatively brief
period of settlement there.
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Remains of a tessellated pavement at Kenchester (Magnis)
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c.650 |
Merewalh is an unusual name for a Saxon. It means
'illustrious Welshman' in Old
English, making it seem
likely the king is
British, either
from Pengwern or from
Hwicce, which has a mixed
Saxon/British population. The possibility arises that, after the fall of
the kingdom of Pengwern,
Merewalh forms his own minor kingdom within the territory. It is also
possible that he commands a mixed group of Britons and Saxons, just as the
Hwicce do at this time, and that he leads them to settle in the Kenchester
region.
Only the fact that Merewalh starts out as a pagan causes a problem with the
theory. If he is from Pengwern or Hwicce there is more of a likelihood that
he should already be a Christian (although this is by no means a certainty).
The West Saxons are more likely
to be pagan at this time, so perhaps Merewalh's origins lie here, although the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle seems to imply that he is a son of Penda of
Mercia (although this
statement is from the tenth century, which weakens its value). |
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c.680 |
Theodore of Tarsus, archbishop of
Canterbury establishes a
bishopric for the kingdom at Hereford, possibly as a result of a
re-organisation agreed at the Synod of Hertford in 673. Merewalh is believed
to erect a new cathedral at Hereford (although its location is uncertain)
for the new bishop Putta, the former bishop of Rochester in
Kent. |
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