0:00:04 > 0:00:10The story of the British is one of the most extraordinary tales in history.
0:00:10 > 0:00:15It's a tale of invention and creativity, but of constant struggle...
0:00:16 > 0:00:20..against outsiders, and against ourselves.
0:00:21 > 0:00:25Over the centuries, the British people have faced many tests
0:00:25 > 0:00:28and endured many hardships.
0:00:30 > 0:00:36And it was the people themselves who wove the fabric of our history,
0:00:36 > 0:00:40often forced to start from the bottom to create communities,
0:00:40 > 0:00:42to make justice, rights, freedoms.
0:00:49 > 0:00:54Today, we're many tribes - Welsh, Scots, English and Irish.
0:00:54 > 0:00:58But how did our modern identities as Britons emerge?
0:00:59 > 0:01:02In the next part of The Great British Story,
0:01:02 > 0:01:07the coming of the Vikings and the beginnings of our nations.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27Here on Tyneside, in the 8th century,
0:01:27 > 0:01:34the Anglo-Saxon monk and teacher, Bede, wrote a portrait of Britain and its people.
0:01:36 > 0:01:38It's our first view of Britain since the Romans...
0:01:40 > 0:01:43..the world that was once Britannia.
0:01:46 > 0:01:52In his day, Bede says Britain was made up of four nations,
0:01:52 > 0:01:56and those four peoples and their interweaving destinies
0:01:56 > 0:02:01will define the history of the British Isles from then until now.
0:02:05 > 0:02:08First were the Britons, or the Welsh,
0:02:08 > 0:02:12the original inhabitants of Britain who, Bede says,
0:02:12 > 0:02:18once had all the island to themselves and now live in their own kingdoms to the west.
0:02:21 > 0:02:25In the north was another branch of Britons, related to the Welsh,
0:02:25 > 0:02:30whom Bede, like the Romans, called the Picts - the painted people.
0:02:34 > 0:02:40Britain's third nation Bede called Scots, a word that originally meant Irish.
0:02:40 > 0:02:42The Scots spoke Irish Gaelic,
0:02:42 > 0:02:45and they lived in the west of Scotland and the Western Isles.
0:02:52 > 0:02:56The last of Bede's four nations were the English.
0:02:56 > 0:02:59Bede says, more precisely than we would,
0:02:59 > 0:03:05that they came 285 years before his day, after the fall of Rome.
0:03:05 > 0:03:10The English, as he saw it then, were the newcomers to the world of Britain.
0:03:13 > 0:03:15Treble's going. She's gone.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23Our four nations, Bede says, had very different customs,
0:03:23 > 0:03:25although united by their Christian faith.
0:03:25 > 0:03:30But they're the routes of our modern societies, their destinies intertwined,
0:03:30 > 0:03:34even though our identities are still obstinately distinct.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40In the story of the peoples of Britain,
0:03:40 > 0:03:45we've reached what we might call the end of the Dark Ages.
0:03:45 > 0:03:47Of course, they didn't see it that way at all.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50They weren't aware that they were living in a dark age.
0:03:50 > 0:03:54The people of Britain lived and struggled as passionately
0:03:54 > 0:03:57and as full-bloodedly as any of us do today.
0:03:57 > 0:04:01But from round about the year 700, right across the British Isles,
0:04:01 > 0:04:08we see the crystallisation of identities - cultural, linguistic and political.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13And the catalyst for that, as so often in history,
0:04:13 > 0:04:18is not only the natural human desire for cooperation and order,
0:04:18 > 0:04:25for law and justice, but also what is endemic in human nature - war.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36'In this next stage of the story, people right across the UK
0:04:36 > 0:04:40'will be helping us build up a picture of Bede's British world.'
0:04:40 > 0:04:43Yeah, yeah. Gosh, those classic Celtic...
0:04:43 > 0:04:47'In the far north of Scotland, the people of Old Deer are searching
0:04:47 > 0:04:51'for their Pictish roots, shared by most of today's Scots.
0:04:51 > 0:04:55'And for their lost Dark Age monastery.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00'They've raised £10,000 to fund this community dig.'
0:05:00 > 0:05:04So while you're here, when you're in those trenches,
0:05:04 > 0:05:07you are going to be doing the work that we expect archaeologists to do.
0:05:07 > 0:05:10This is not pretend. This is real.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15We rather think that this was a very important place, small as it is,
0:05:15 > 0:05:19people coming from all over, up here.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23We think it was a central place that people were radiating out from.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29'Legend said it was an Irish missionary, St Columba,
0:05:29 > 0:05:34'who converted their Pictish ancestors here in the 6th century.'
0:05:34 > 0:05:38It's a wonderful story, isn't it? St Columba, Drosdyn and all that.
0:05:38 > 0:05:40But how much do you think that's true?
0:05:40 > 0:05:44Is there a different history to be uncovered, Andrew, do you think?
0:05:44 > 0:05:46I think it's a lovely bit of marketing.
0:05:46 > 0:05:48They knew exactly what they were doing.
0:05:49 > 0:05:51The legend is first found
0:05:51 > 0:05:55in Scotland's oldest surviving manuscript, The Book of Deer.
0:05:57 > 0:06:01This is the oldest manuscript that we have from mainland Scotland,
0:06:01 > 0:06:02by a long stretch.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08Completely different from what you would be used to
0:06:08 > 0:06:10in southern Britain, in England, aren't they,
0:06:10 > 0:06:14with a Roman influence? This is a different tradition altogether.
0:06:14 > 0:06:19It's very stylised, very reduced, very geometric.
0:06:19 > 0:06:20It's really, really special.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27About 200 years after the manuscript was made,
0:06:27 > 0:06:30the monks at Deer had a spot of bother.
0:06:30 > 0:06:35There began to be disputes over the title to the land,
0:06:35 > 0:06:40and especially the tributes or the taxes that were due on the land.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43And so they realised that they had to come up with
0:06:43 > 0:06:46some kind of evidence or proof to support their claim.
0:06:46 > 0:06:51And so what they did was they wrote, in the blank spaces around the manuscript,
0:06:51 > 0:06:54records of these grants of land.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57And they wrote them in the language of the time, which was Gaelic.
0:06:57 > 0:07:01And this is the earliest surviving Gaelic prose that we have.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10The Gaelic notes describe the boundary of the monastery at Deer,
0:07:10 > 0:07:13in the land of the Picts where the book was written.
0:07:18 > 0:07:24The whole idea of having a book with Gaelic instructions in it,
0:07:24 > 0:07:29as to where the monastery was, but not having found the monastery,
0:07:29 > 0:07:31really spurred us to say, "Right, let's dig!"
0:07:31 > 0:07:37But what we're really talking about is a Pictish centre up here.
0:07:39 > 0:07:44And the Picts have become much more important in understanding the roots of Scotland, haven't they?
0:07:44 > 0:07:47Their skills are becoming more apparent.
0:07:48 > 0:07:54No text in the Pictish language has yet been found, but their art has.
0:07:55 > 0:08:02Mysterious symbols, animals, mythical beasts, stars and planets.
0:08:05 > 0:08:09And the ghostly shapes of the Pictish ancestors.
0:08:11 > 0:08:14The Romans said there were 40 tribes beyond the Firth of Forth
0:08:14 > 0:08:16that together made up the Picts.
0:08:18 > 0:08:23And when the kingdom of Scotland was created in the 9th century,
0:08:23 > 0:08:26it was a union of Irish-speaking Scots
0:08:26 > 0:08:29and the majority British-speaking Picts.
0:08:29 > 0:08:34As historic landscapes in Scotland go, this is second to none.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38This is Strathearn, and there's the river below us.
0:08:38 > 0:08:43The ancient east coast route, still followed by the road and the railway
0:08:43 > 0:08:46from Edinburgh and Stirling up to Dundee and Aberdeen.
0:08:46 > 0:08:51And below us, Fort Teviat. This is the place where, in the 9th century,
0:08:51 > 0:08:57the Gaelic-speaking dynasties of the Scots, from Strathclyde,
0:08:57 > 0:08:59assimilated the British-speaking kingdom of the Picts,
0:08:59 > 0:09:03here in the rich agricultural land of the east coast,
0:09:03 > 0:09:06to form the kingdom of the Scots.
0:09:09 > 0:09:10So who were the Scoti, the Scots?
0:09:10 > 0:09:14Well, they weren't originally from Scotland at all.
0:09:14 > 0:09:18Round the time of the fall of Rome they migrated to Britain from Ireland,
0:09:18 > 0:09:22and their dialect is still spoken in the Western Isles.
0:09:23 > 0:09:25Bede tells us that in the 8th century
0:09:25 > 0:09:29they ruled a kingdom spanning the Western Isles and Northern Ireland.
0:09:29 > 0:09:31The kingdom of Dalriada,
0:09:31 > 0:09:36founded in the Dark Ages by the legendary King Erk.
0:09:39 > 0:09:43These children from the Dalriada School in Antrim
0:09:43 > 0:09:46are doing a project on the Dalriada kingdom.
0:09:46 > 0:09:48No-one knows how far it extended,
0:09:48 > 0:09:53but few places show better how closely the early histories
0:09:53 > 0:09:59and identities of Ireland and northern Britain are linked.
0:09:59 > 0:10:00We've already got Isle of Dun.
0:10:03 > 0:10:07It's a long sort of narrow kingdom along the coast.
0:10:07 > 0:10:13It was about 20 miles inland, but where the sort of
0:10:13 > 0:10:15north-western boundary of it was,
0:10:15 > 0:10:19and where this southern boundary was, the border fluctuated.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25The main site of the kings was Dunseverick,
0:10:25 > 0:10:30and that's where St Patrick visited King Erk.
0:10:30 > 0:10:32This headland?
0:10:33 > 0:10:34This is a bendy Ireland.
0:10:34 > 0:10:37And he made the famous prophecy that, of course,
0:10:37 > 0:10:40Fergus the youngest son would become the king.
0:10:42 > 0:10:46And not only the kings of the Irish territory, but over Forthen,
0:10:46 > 0:10:51which was Scotland, and his line would be kings forever.
0:10:51 > 0:10:53And, as every football fan knows,
0:10:53 > 0:10:55the sons of Fergus have done quite well ever since.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57Job done!
0:11:03 > 0:11:07As for the Welsh in his day, Bede writes about them
0:11:07 > 0:11:09with some acrimony.
0:11:09 > 0:11:11They'd fought many wars with the English.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14The Welsh lived in small tribal kingdoms.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18Their coasts dotted with ancient Christian sites,
0:11:18 > 0:11:21like this one here in Ceredigion.
0:11:21 > 0:11:23Llangrannog.
0:11:25 > 0:11:30It takes its name from a wandering Celtic saint in the Dark Ages.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33In Cornwall, they call him St Crantog.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40His wanderings took him down from Wales to the south-west
0:11:40 > 0:11:43and on to Brittany, although he may have been Irish in origin.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47All of which goes to show that, in the Dark Ages, whether you're
0:11:47 > 0:11:51sailing in the region of Strathclyde, or down the Irish Sea,
0:11:51 > 0:11:57to the English Channel, the sea was not a separator, it was a unifier.
0:12:01 > 0:12:04If you look at the tree, as it were.
0:12:04 > 0:12:09From the same tree we have Basque
0:12:09 > 0:12:13and Breton, Scottish Gaelic, Irish Gaelic and Welsh.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16Cornish. They all come from the same base.
0:12:16 > 0:12:19Now I don't understand Scottish Gaelic or Irish Gaelic.
0:12:19 > 0:12:21I understand Cornish very well.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24The language is far more for us than just a cultural medium.
0:12:24 > 0:12:26It defines us in many ways.
0:12:26 > 0:12:31It's almost a political expression as well.
0:12:31 > 0:12:36A suggestion of being, of wanting to hold on to that what is special.
0:12:36 > 0:12:38How far back does the earliest Welsh poetry go?
0:12:38 > 0:12:40I think it goes back to about the 6th Century,
0:12:40 > 0:12:46the Llenarian going up to Catterrick in Yorkshire.
0:12:48 > 0:12:50So in the 8th century, you could travel
0:12:50 > 0:12:53all the way down from north Britain to Cornwall,
0:12:53 > 0:12:56making yourself understood in different dialects of Welsh.
0:12:58 > 0:13:00Down in the south-west, the British people of Devon
0:13:00 > 0:13:03and Cornwall had also become Christian in the age of saints.
0:13:04 > 0:13:08And their biggest known Dark Age settlement has just been found,
0:13:08 > 0:13:10on the seashore near Land's End.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14The settlement stretched from here, all the way up
0:13:14 > 0:13:15and all the way around the coast,
0:13:15 > 0:13:18which we think dates from the 7th to the 11th century.
0:13:23 > 0:13:27These are all fish bones and crab shell, they had crabs.
0:13:27 > 0:13:28So they had all sorts of fish.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31- This is a descaler of fish. - Oh, yeah, yeah.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34There's an edge for scraping the fish.
0:13:34 > 0:13:36Yes, for scraping fish.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39Pigs and cows and sheep.
0:13:39 > 0:13:40So not a bad diet?
0:13:40 > 0:13:44- Eating the kind of things that you eat in Cornwall today.- Dog!
0:13:46 > 0:13:51It obviously met an untimely end somewhere, or died.
0:13:51 > 0:13:57What's very interesting is that this pottery is very, very rarely
0:13:57 > 0:13:59decorated and at this excavation,
0:13:59 > 0:14:05we actually found the first example of decoration, and it's a cross.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08So Cornish Christianity really emerges in this Dark Age period.
0:14:08 > 0:14:09Definitely.
0:14:09 > 0:14:13St Ives and St Just, and the saints are everywhere, aren't they?
0:14:13 > 0:14:18St Morgan, St Mellion. Wherever you go.
0:14:18 > 0:14:22It's really when the society that we know actually became visible to us.
0:14:22 > 0:14:27When you start getting Christianity and rectangular houses, and a diet
0:14:27 > 0:14:32that you can appreciate, that we see ourselves in the past perhaps.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39So Britain in the 8th century was divided between British peoples
0:14:39 > 0:14:42and the Anglo-Saxons.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46They'd started off as poor migrants, come to Britain for a better life.
0:14:46 > 0:14:52By the 700s they were living in many tribes, and small kingdoms.
0:14:52 > 0:14:56And in Sedgeford in Norfolk, a dig organised by the community itself
0:14:56 > 0:15:00is uncovering the local roots of the English nation.
0:15:04 > 0:15:06It's the other side of the coin from spectacular royal treasures
0:15:06 > 0:15:09like Sutton Hoo and the Staffordshire Hoard.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15Sedgeford is ordinary people's lives.
0:15:15 > 0:15:17The site just gets bigger and bigger.
0:15:17 > 0:15:2215 years work, at least, on the main Anglo-Saxon site.
0:15:24 > 0:15:26Oh gosh, I'll come with my zimmer frame.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36When we were last here we found the Anglo-Saxon settlers
0:15:36 > 0:15:38surviving on a bare subsistence diet.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42Now towards 800, things are changing.
0:15:48 > 0:15:53I've gently moved away the soil and it's quite clear that
0:15:53 > 0:15:58it's been worked as a little half of a whole that's been drilled through.
0:15:58 > 0:16:02Which tells me that it's half of an amber bead.
0:16:03 > 0:16:04Oh, terrific.
0:16:04 > 0:16:05Beautiful colour.
0:16:05 > 0:16:08And the Anglo-Saxons liked that for their broaches?
0:16:08 > 0:16:13Oh they did, and for their necklaces, they were quite popular.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16Rows of different shapes, sometimes circular,
0:16:16 > 0:16:19sometimes sort of flattened circular.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21And this one's complete.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26It is gorgeous, a lovely wavy pattern there.
0:16:26 > 0:16:28They're doing more than surviving.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31They've got their little creature comforts maybe as well.
0:16:33 > 0:16:35But of course building societies
0:16:35 > 0:16:39and nations is about more than creature comforts.
0:16:39 > 0:16:42Even more than language, it's about shared identity,
0:16:42 > 0:16:45common values, getting on with your neighbours.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48And in Sedgeford there's graphic evidence
0:16:48 > 0:16:51that that wasn't always easy.
0:16:51 > 0:16:53This person was found in a double grave with another person
0:16:53 > 0:16:56that also died from serious cranial trauma.
0:16:56 > 0:17:00We think the weapon used was some kind of large axe, for we've
0:17:00 > 0:17:04got injuries to the lower arms which we think are defence fractures,
0:17:04 > 0:17:08from where this person was attacked and raised his arms in defence.
0:17:11 > 0:17:14And then we've got a series of cuts, we've got one that came here
0:17:14 > 0:17:16and took off part of the skull.
0:17:16 > 0:17:18That's a big cut as well, isn't it? Right through.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21We've also got a cut to the back of the skull here.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25Either of these could have been the cause of death.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28It's almost certain he would have been unconscious at this point,
0:17:28 > 0:17:29and on the ground.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32And then they carried on, and really laid into him,
0:17:32 > 0:17:36and carved right into his face, at least two different angles.
0:17:36 > 0:17:38It's gone right through the mandible,
0:17:38 > 0:17:41taken some of the brow ridge off too.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45At least seven cuts into his skull there.
0:17:46 > 0:17:51So whoever killed Aethelweard really had it in for him, then?
0:17:51 > 0:17:52They did, yeah.
0:17:52 > 0:17:55It certainly seems they went beyond what they needed to do to kill him.
0:17:55 > 0:17:57They were trying to give some kind of message.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08To keep a lid on the violence, the early Anglo-Saxons had begun
0:18:08 > 0:18:13to make law, at first just simple tariffs of compensation for injury.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18If you cut off an ear, you must pay 12 shillings,
0:18:18 > 0:18:20a finger will cost you four shillings.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25If your genitals are disabled, 150 shillings.
0:18:26 > 0:18:28If any of your front teeth are knocked out,
0:18:28 > 0:18:30that'll be six shillings per tooth.
0:18:31 > 0:18:33It was a start.
0:18:38 > 0:18:40Between the 700s and 800s,
0:18:40 > 0:18:43the myriad Anglo-Saxon tribes were beginning to be swallowed up
0:18:43 > 0:18:49by bigger kingdoms - Northumbrians, West Saxons, Mercians.
0:18:54 > 0:18:56# Gerald was a footman for Queen Victoria. #
0:18:56 > 0:18:59It was the inevitable process of nation building.
0:18:59 > 0:19:06# Gerald wor a gor old man, his real name I know. #
0:19:06 > 0:19:11But even now you can pick up signs of these older regional identities.
0:19:11 > 0:19:14In the Black Country, the area of Dudley and Halesowen
0:19:14 > 0:19:17belonged to a tribe called the Hwicce.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22In the Dark Ages Britain was a land of tribes, hundreds of them.
0:19:22 > 0:19:24Well, it still is, isn't it?
0:19:24 > 0:19:28Here in the West Midlands, dozens just in this area.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31And some of them have left very long lasting traces.
0:19:31 > 0:19:33Just come and listen to this.
0:19:33 > 0:19:40Well it's old Liza's bloke from down the road. He's dead.
0:19:40 > 0:19:42I said, "Ooh, me wench, he ay is he?" I said,
0:19:42 > 0:19:45"Well, how did that happen?"
0:19:45 > 0:19:49She says, "Well old Liza had been giving him cat food to eat!"
0:19:49 > 0:19:51Listen to the long vowels.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54The use of 'heo' for 'she'.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57They come from the Mercian dialect,
0:19:57 > 0:19:59which was spoken here in the 8th century,
0:19:59 > 0:20:04when the ordinary people were still a mix of Anglo-Saxon and Welsh.
0:20:04 > 0:20:08Liza says, "No it wor the cat food".
0:20:08 > 0:20:11Heo said he liked that.
0:20:12 > 0:20:16Heo says he was up a ladder painting the sailing,
0:20:16 > 0:20:20and he fell off when he turned round to lick his back!
0:20:23 > 0:20:28Bryan Dakin is recording these local dialects before they go.
0:20:28 > 0:20:30The Anglo-Saxons invaded,
0:20:30 > 0:20:33and they made the effort to climb over our bonks and come onto
0:20:33 > 0:20:36the plateau because we're like 900 feet above sea level here.
0:20:36 > 0:20:39And then, after that, nobody really made the effort.
0:20:39 > 0:20:41The Vikings sort of touched on the issue.
0:20:41 > 0:20:43The Normans really couldn't be bothered
0:20:43 > 0:20:45because they were talking French.
0:20:45 > 0:20:49So we stayed as we were for centuries upon centuries.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52As a region, there's a massive tribalness about it.
0:20:52 > 0:20:55You even say du bist I've heard in somewhere round here.
0:20:55 > 0:20:57Have I, or was I mistaken?
0:20:57 > 0:21:00Oh yeah, bist and bin and bisn't yeah, costn't.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06And today Black Country and Brummies are still divided
0:21:06 > 0:21:07over who owns their words.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10'Bostin'. Where does bostin come from?
0:21:10 > 0:21:13That's a good point, that is, because one of the interviews
0:21:13 > 0:21:15I did was with a Brummie, Spoz,
0:21:15 > 0:21:17a Brummie poet, Richard would know.
0:21:17 > 0:21:19Now Spoz reckons it's a Brummie word,
0:21:19 > 0:21:21Black Country folks reckon it's a Black Country word.
0:21:21 > 0:21:24He said that we borrowed it and we wouldn't give it back,
0:21:24 > 0:21:26but it's actually a Black Country word, of course it is.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29- But it means 'great', 'good'? - It means 'brilliant'
0:21:29 > 0:21:33- I've got things to do and folks to see.- Like who?
0:21:35 > 0:21:37Ola senoritas!
0:21:37 > 0:21:42So the Anglo-Saxon past is not so far away after all.
0:21:42 > 0:21:46From the 8th century the Midlands were ruled by the Mercians,
0:21:46 > 0:21:51whose kings were the first to claim rule over all the English.
0:21:51 > 0:21:55And close by Halesowen is the border of the Mercians
0:21:55 > 0:21:59and the Hwicce, where you can see that nation building in action.
0:21:59 > 0:22:03Excellent, thanks Steve, fantastic. Come on Mick, come on you two.
0:22:05 > 0:22:08Believe it or not, the boundary of the Mercians and the Hwicce
0:22:08 > 0:22:11is still the West Midlands Metropolitan Boundary today.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21You're looking at the central watershed of England.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26And it could have been the northern boundary of the Kingdom of the Hwicce.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29The Anglo-Saxon kingdom was to be drawn into Mercia.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33But a lot of folk groups, which are the small building bricks
0:22:33 > 0:22:38of the Kingdoms, were established, and some of them met near here.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42Somewhere near that tower block you can see in the distance.
0:22:42 > 0:22:47From Staffordshire, from the river Thame area, you have the Tomsaete.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50From the Penc area you have the Pencersaete.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53You also have groups from the Aro Valley, who may have been
0:22:53 > 0:22:58called the Arosaete, coming into this area for the seasonal pastures.
0:23:00 > 0:23:03It's almost like, the Brummies over there
0:23:03 > 0:23:05and the Black Country over here, isn't it?
0:23:05 > 0:23:06Or am I being fanciful?
0:23:06 > 0:23:08This is an important boundary.
0:23:08 > 0:23:10Later you've got a watch hill over there.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13Who they're watching, for or against, we may not know.
0:23:13 > 0:23:15Yeah.
0:23:15 > 0:23:18There are several of them along the northern boundary of the Hwicce.
0:23:20 > 0:23:22We're divided into all these little tribal groupings.
0:23:22 > 0:23:24It's fantastic, isn't it?
0:23:24 > 0:23:26Different dialects too are there?
0:23:26 > 0:23:27Absolutely.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31And some of these of course may be pre Anglo-Saxon, easily.
0:23:31 > 0:23:33How long did people carry on speaking Welsh
0:23:33 > 0:23:36in the West Midlands, do we know?
0:23:36 > 0:23:37No, we do not know.
0:23:37 > 0:23:39We've got the placenames, though.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43Do they tell us about Welsh people living among the Anglo-Saxons?
0:23:43 > 0:23:47Quite a lot of British names. The river names are British.
0:23:47 > 0:23:49The River Alne which is a British word.
0:23:49 > 0:23:51We have the Thame, which is a British word.
0:23:51 > 0:23:54And they have come through, and so have the major hills.
0:23:54 > 0:23:59Particularly for instance, Malvern, Malbrin, the bear hill,
0:23:59 > 0:24:01Bredon is a beauty of course.
0:24:02 > 0:24:07Bre is the British name for hill, Dun is the Anglo-Saxon
0:24:07 > 0:24:10name for hill, and by the time we've got to the Middle Ages
0:24:10 > 0:24:13people had forgotten that this was hill, and they added hill.
0:24:13 > 0:24:16So we've got Bredon Hill, which means hill, hill, hill!
0:24:18 > 0:24:22In time all these lowland tribes and kingdoms, with their mix
0:24:22 > 0:24:26of Welsh and Anglo-Saxon, would come to call themselves English.
0:24:29 > 0:24:30But not quite yet.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36One mark of the Anglo-Saxons was their willingness to learn,
0:24:36 > 0:24:40to borrow - ideas, technologies, craft skills.
0:24:42 > 0:24:44And it was up here in the north-east,
0:24:44 > 0:24:47where they mixed with Picts and Scots and Irish,
0:24:47 > 0:24:49that the big leap took place.
0:24:54 > 0:24:56Bede tells how the Northumbrians
0:24:56 > 0:24:58sent to France to find masons who could build like the Romans,
0:24:58 > 0:25:02craftsmen who could revive the lost Roman art of making glass.
0:25:06 > 0:25:09Unlike Medieval glass where you get surface painting, the colours
0:25:09 > 0:25:13are actually baked into the glass during the glass making process.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18And there's a whole range of colours, this one's a very deep red.
0:25:22 > 0:25:26With no cities yet, no urban societies,
0:25:26 > 0:25:30the monasteries were the centres of industry, arts and crafts.
0:25:35 > 0:25:37That's quite a nice green piece.
0:25:41 > 0:25:44What they created here was a fusion of British
0:25:44 > 0:25:48and Anglo-Saxon culture, with Roman ideas.
0:25:52 > 0:25:54Nice little streaky red
0:25:54 > 0:25:56and green pieces here seems to have been something
0:25:56 > 0:26:00they quite liked and probably it was quite good for, you know, flowing
0:26:00 > 0:26:04robes of evangelists and biblical figures and that kind of thing.
0:26:04 > 0:26:09So Anglo-Saxon England became a centre of European civilisation.
0:26:09 > 0:26:11Watch it doesn't shatter.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15So this is what lies behind the scenes?
0:26:15 > 0:26:18- This is some of it. - An amazing quantity of stuff.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22Well over 1,000 fragments of 7th century glass found.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25Which makes it the largest collection of glass
0:26:25 > 0:26:26of that date from any European site.
0:26:30 > 0:26:31Tell us about this wonderful window.
0:26:31 > 0:26:34Well they are fragments of glass which were found
0:26:34 > 0:26:37during the 1972/73 excavations.
0:26:37 > 0:26:41And so they were formed into a mosaic and placed at the end there.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44And that's the oldest window glass in Western Europe.
0:26:46 > 0:26:48And it wasn't just glass.
0:26:48 > 0:26:50From Wearmouth and Jarrow,
0:26:50 > 0:26:52they sent wonderful manuscripts to Rome itself.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57Textiles made by English needlewomen were prizes across Europe.
0:27:01 > 0:27:06The inspiration was the stained glass windows in the church.
0:27:08 > 0:27:10Some of the pieces are longer than others.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13And it all has to be cut all smooth
0:27:13 > 0:27:14like as if you were cutting the lawn.
0:27:17 > 0:27:20You've got to clip every long piece off,
0:27:20 > 0:27:22so that's where you get "clippy mat".
0:27:22 > 0:27:24Love your fingernails by the way!
0:27:27 > 0:27:32It's putting part of the history onto the walls, you know.
0:27:33 > 0:27:35In Wearmouth and Jarrow,
0:27:35 > 0:27:38the Anglo-Saxon past has never been forgotten.
0:27:42 > 0:27:44The glass has got a life.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47They've taken inspiration from something 1,300 years old,
0:27:47 > 0:27:49and they've given it a new lease of life.
0:27:49 > 0:27:52And it's just fab, it's absolutely fab, and you know,
0:27:52 > 0:27:56you just cannot, you couldn't put it in a bottle and market it.
0:27:56 > 0:27:58Do you know what I mean?
0:27:59 > 0:28:01That's what Wearmouth Jarrow's about.
0:28:01 > 0:28:03That's what Bede was about, wasn't it?
0:28:03 > 0:28:08This huge cultural centre, this centre of innovation.
0:28:15 > 0:28:18In our story, we've reached the late 8th century.
0:28:19 > 0:28:23Britain after the Dark Ages was still small scale
0:28:23 > 0:28:26compared to the powerhouses of world civilisation.
0:28:26 > 0:28:30The potential of our history, as yet unforeseeable.
0:28:34 > 0:28:40Bede's four nations, still mutable, their future path as yet unclear.
0:28:43 > 0:28:46But their story would be transformed now,
0:28:46 > 0:28:48by the arrival of a new tribe.
0:28:51 > 0:28:53Raiders from Scandinavia - the Vikings!
0:28:57 > 0:29:00AD 793.
0:29:00 > 0:29:02In this year, dreadful foreboding omens came over
0:29:02 > 0:29:06the land of Northumbria and terrified the wretched people.
0:29:07 > 0:29:11Whirlwinds and fiery dragons were seen in the sky.
0:29:12 > 0:29:16And in the same year, on January 8th, heathen men ravaged
0:29:16 > 0:29:20and destroyed the church of God at Lindisfarne,
0:29:20 > 0:29:22brutally robbing and slaughtering all.
0:29:26 > 0:29:29These were the first ships of the Danish men
0:29:29 > 0:29:32who sought the land of the English nation.
0:29:36 > 0:29:39Rich monasteries like Bede's Jarrow and Wearmouth
0:29:39 > 0:29:41were the first targets.
0:29:41 > 0:29:45At some point, probably during the Viking invasions of Northumbria,
0:29:45 > 0:29:49there was such a hot fire across the building itself that it
0:29:49 > 0:29:53actually warped some pieces of glass, so you can see that there,
0:29:53 > 0:29:56that would obviously originally have been flat.
0:29:56 > 0:29:58Just look at that, isn't that astonishing?
0:29:59 > 0:30:02The fire storm of a Viking attack on Jarrow, maybe,
0:30:02 > 0:30:06in the late 9th century perhaps.
0:30:08 > 0:30:13Across the British Isles, people entered a new age of anxiety.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18Viking fleets terrorised the coast of Britain.
0:30:21 > 0:30:24And in Ireland too, the land of saints and monasteries.
0:30:26 > 0:30:31The same year here in Ulster, an Irish chronicler heard
0:30:31 > 0:30:36the news that the islands of Britain had been devastated by the pagans.
0:30:37 > 0:30:40And the news was soon followed by the Vikings themselves.
0:30:54 > 0:30:57The year 802, Iona was burned by the heathens.
0:30:59 > 0:31:03The year 806, the community of Iona, to the number of 68,
0:31:03 > 0:31:05was killed by the heathens.
0:31:06 > 0:31:12The year 832, the first plundering of Armagh, by the heathens,
0:31:12 > 0:31:14three times in one month.
0:31:15 > 0:31:19St Patrick's legacy of learning went up in flames.
0:31:20 > 0:31:23Ireland too was engulfed by these events.
0:31:23 > 0:31:26And the great centre of Armagh here, with its church
0:31:26 > 0:31:31of St Patrick going back to the 5th century, was swept up in it too.
0:31:32 > 0:31:35The Vikings were driven by population growth
0:31:35 > 0:31:38in their own countries, by economic and political pressures,
0:31:38 > 0:31:40and they soon began to settle.
0:31:46 > 0:31:50The Vikings built their first permanent base in Ireland in 841.
0:31:53 > 0:31:56Here on the banks of the River Liffey at a place
0:31:56 > 0:31:59called the Black Pool - 'Dub Lin'!
0:32:00 > 0:32:04And from that moment until today, Dublin will be a key place
0:32:04 > 0:32:07not only in Irish history, but in British history.
0:32:11 > 0:32:14The founding of Viking Dublin also intensified
0:32:14 > 0:32:17the importance of the Irish Sea.
0:32:17 > 0:32:21Back in the Age of Saints, St Patrick had called it
0:32:21 > 0:32:24mare nostrum, 'our sea'.
0:32:24 > 0:32:28But from now on, the Irish Sea will belong to the Vikings.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36The Vikings settled right across northern Britain, married
0:32:36 > 0:32:41local girls, and now scientists are literally tracking them down.
0:32:41 > 0:32:45Welcome, everyone, to this year's St Olave's walk.
0:32:45 > 0:32:49And here in the Wirral, a DNA project has found them.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52We are here to celebrate the great Viking heritage
0:32:52 > 0:32:56that we have here on the Wirral.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00We're trying to find men with very old surnames
0:33:00 > 0:33:01that are tied to this area.
0:33:01 > 0:33:05Surnames that are found in medieval records. So, like, Matthew Lund.
0:33:05 > 0:33:08So his surname from Lunder, which is the Viking name for a copse,
0:33:08 > 0:33:10so that was an ideal one.
0:33:10 > 0:33:12And it's also just found in The Wirral, so if you find
0:33:12 > 0:33:15someone with that surname chances are their ancestry is from here.
0:33:18 > 0:33:21With my name, Kemp, I may have Viking ancestry.
0:33:21 > 0:33:25So I sent some DNA samples in and here I am today.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30My father, who is sadly no longer with us, but I've been reliably
0:33:30 > 0:33:33informed that the Y chromosome has been passed on to me.
0:33:35 > 0:33:38Now I currently live in Irby, which is also of Viking origin.
0:33:38 > 0:33:40So the whole thing is sort of coming home.
0:33:42 > 0:33:46So Pict, Scot, Welsh, English and now Viking.
0:33:46 > 0:33:50We search for our roots and in the past we find ourselves.
0:33:51 > 0:33:54If you look at this badge here, Tranmere Rovers.
0:33:56 > 0:34:00'Tran' comes from Old Norse, meaning crane bird, or heron.
0:34:00 > 0:34:02And 'mere', 'mel' is sandbanks.
0:34:02 > 0:34:04Tranmere is the sandbank with the crane birds.
0:34:04 > 0:34:06Actually, that's where I got interested in Vikings,
0:34:06 > 0:34:10really interested, when I found my football team was Viking.
0:34:10 > 0:34:13I'll never go to Prenton Park again and see it in the same light.
0:34:13 > 0:34:19Tranmere, Croxteth, Toxteth, Aintree - home of the Grand National -
0:34:19 > 0:34:20Merseyside is stuffed with Viking names.
0:34:27 > 0:34:31The Viking invasion of the Wirral even has its own beer mats.
0:34:38 > 0:34:42Soon enough, they become like us and we become like them.
0:34:42 > 0:34:43It's the British story.
0:34:45 > 0:34:49Chester has even got a church for a Viking saint.
0:34:51 > 0:34:53May you feel for all we love
0:34:53 > 0:34:55and care for, this day and unto eternity.
0:34:57 > 0:34:58Amen.
0:34:59 > 0:35:01And today's Liverpudlians
0:35:01 > 0:35:04even get their nickname from Norwegian - Scousers.
0:35:06 > 0:35:09People have said lobscouse, you just lob stuff in,
0:35:09 > 0:35:11that's why it's called such.
0:35:11 > 0:35:13It's a very practical stew.
0:35:14 > 0:35:17So, years ago, you lot got called Scousers
0:35:17 > 0:35:19and that's where it came from.
0:35:19 > 0:35:22It's another example of our great affiliation with the Norwegians.
0:35:22 > 0:35:24You didn't know that, did you?
0:35:26 > 0:35:32So, all round Britain, the Vikings changed society and attitudes.
0:35:32 > 0:35:37And in the great shipyard town of Govan, on the Clyde,
0:35:37 > 0:35:40a new layer is added to Glasgow's ancient past.
0:35:48 > 0:35:50The Vikings never ruled here,
0:35:50 > 0:35:54but the Scots got a taste for things Viking.
0:35:54 > 0:35:56They even followed their styles and fashions.
0:36:03 > 0:36:07Just looking at the ancient history, you walk down the main street
0:36:07 > 0:36:10and there, right in the middle of all this,
0:36:10 > 0:36:13is the most incredible sacred space.
0:36:15 > 0:36:17Who knows, Dark Ages? Maybe far back in time.
0:36:17 > 0:36:19It would be because at one time,
0:36:19 > 0:36:22there was standing stones round where the wall was.
0:36:24 > 0:36:28Govan Old Church was founded back in the 5th century, but its
0:36:28 > 0:36:31astounding collection of carved stones is from the Viking age.
0:36:33 > 0:36:36I remember when, as a wee boy, the humpbacked stones,
0:36:36 > 0:36:39we used to use them as sort of a goalpost.
0:36:39 > 0:36:42This was before they were moved inside.
0:36:42 > 0:36:44And to us, they were just lumps of stone.
0:36:44 > 0:36:49We did not realise they were Viking houses for their souls of the departed.
0:36:51 > 0:36:53We call them hogbacks.
0:36:53 > 0:36:57But, as Brian says, they're really houses, houses of the dead.
0:37:00 > 0:37:02It's astonishing.
0:37:04 > 0:37:07They are really representations of buildings.
0:37:07 > 0:37:11That curving sweep of the roof is the gable,
0:37:11 > 0:37:18and the sides have these shingles dated to about 925-950.
0:37:18 > 0:37:23These are local Scots wanting the latest fashion in Viking funerals.
0:37:25 > 0:37:28It's absolutely amazing, isn't it? Walk off the streets of Govan
0:37:28 > 0:37:31and come to 30 or 40 monuments from this period.
0:37:31 > 0:37:33Absolutely.
0:37:33 > 0:37:37A Scottish princess even married a Viking. What a party!
0:37:37 > 0:37:44We're in a Gaelic, British, Scottish region in the Viking age.
0:37:44 > 0:37:46And this is Viking-style sculpture.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49What's going on here then, in the Clyde Valley?
0:37:49 > 0:37:54What's going on is that whole Viking conquest of the Irish Sea.
0:37:54 > 0:37:58Dublin, the settlement of Cumbria, the conquest of the Isles.
0:37:58 > 0:38:01All of that kind of eventually finds its way to Govan.
0:38:02 > 0:38:04Are we allowed then,
0:38:04 > 0:38:07to talk about a mixed society here in this part of Scotland?
0:38:07 > 0:38:08I think you have to allow that,
0:38:08 > 0:38:13at least, at the kind of dynastic level, there's intermarriage,
0:38:13 > 0:38:16there are people with very Scandinavian tastes,
0:38:16 > 0:38:18commissioning monuments.
0:38:21 > 0:38:24Because the Clyde has such access to the sea,
0:38:24 > 0:38:27everyone can get in and out quite easily.
0:38:27 > 0:38:29That's, if you like, a continuity
0:38:29 > 0:38:32that takes you right down to the 20th century, really.
0:38:32 > 0:38:35That openness to mix society that you end up with
0:38:35 > 0:38:38in a place like Glasgow.
0:38:40 > 0:38:42So, in their own ways, the peoples of Britain came to terms
0:38:42 > 0:38:45with the Vikings just as they had with the Anglo-Saxons.
0:38:48 > 0:38:52But in Wales, the problem was not just the Vikings
0:38:52 > 0:38:54but the old enemy the English.
0:38:54 > 0:38:58And some here thought that the Vikings might help the Welsh
0:38:58 > 0:38:59win back their lost lands.
0:39:21 > 0:39:27Written around 930, a prophetic poem, in which it is
0:39:27 > 0:39:32hoped that it would be in legions between the peoples of,
0:39:32 > 0:39:35what I suppose we would call them, the fringes of the Isles of Britain.
0:39:35 > 0:39:38This alliance of Britons, Irish
0:39:38 > 0:39:42and the Vikings would push the English back into the sea.
0:39:42 > 0:39:45So there is a sense in the poem,
0:39:45 > 0:39:49of what has happened over the last 400 or 500 years.
0:39:49 > 0:39:53And the fact that the Welsh, the indigenous people of Britain,
0:39:53 > 0:39:55have lost all this territory.
0:39:55 > 0:39:58And are still losing territory.
0:39:58 > 0:40:01It's almost a hint, is it, that you know we've suffered
0:40:01 > 0:40:04a kind of ethnic cleansing, isn't it, do you think?
0:40:04 > 0:40:08That's right. Have been pushed back, all the time territorially,
0:40:08 > 0:40:12and on top of all that, the icing on the cake, is all the tribute
0:40:12 > 0:40:16that is then demanded for the Welsh's own lands, I suppose.
0:40:16 > 0:40:21The poet has very hostile words for the English, doesn't he?
0:40:21 > 0:40:25I mean they're thieves, they're traitors,
0:40:25 > 0:40:29they're drunkards, a lot of reference to the English's drinkers.
0:40:29 > 0:40:32They are scavengers. They are the lowest of the low.
0:40:32 > 0:40:35The word he uses is "Cathmin".
0:40:35 > 0:40:38These are the people of the dirt.
0:40:38 > 0:40:41These are scavengers, the lowest strata of society.
0:40:41 > 0:40:44Below that of slaves probably.
0:40:48 > 0:40:51The coming of the Vikings had many different reactions
0:40:51 > 0:40:53and consequences.
0:40:53 > 0:40:55But the Vikings had come for the same reasons
0:40:55 > 0:40:59the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons came for a better life.
0:40:59 > 0:41:02Britain was a land of opportunity.
0:41:02 > 0:41:04In England, in a few years,
0:41:04 > 0:41:08most of the old Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were swept away.
0:41:08 > 0:41:11The East and North, where the Vikings ruled,
0:41:11 > 0:41:14became known as the Danelaw.
0:41:14 > 0:41:19There, the chief centre of Viking power the Roman and Anglo-Saxon
0:41:19 > 0:41:22city of York, became Viking Jorvik.
0:41:22 > 0:41:27A perfect symbol of both continuity and change in British history.
0:41:27 > 0:41:28We've had everything
0:41:28 > 0:41:32from a Roman cemetery, through to Viking age buildings,
0:41:32 > 0:41:33through to a Medieval city dump.
0:41:33 > 0:41:3617th century market gardens,
0:41:36 > 0:41:39and an area that becomes heavily populated in the 19th century
0:41:39 > 0:41:40cleared as a slum in the 1930s.
0:41:40 > 0:41:44There quite literally is 2,000 years of people's lives
0:41:44 > 0:41:47within what is now modern day York.
0:41:48 > 0:41:52In the 10th century, this was a bustling, bilingual place
0:41:52 > 0:41:54frequented by merchants from Ireland,
0:41:54 > 0:41:58Scandinavia and the Continent.
0:41:58 > 0:42:00New contacts, new ways of seeing.
0:42:00 > 0:42:03We've found eight Viking age buildings, the late 10th Century.
0:42:03 > 0:42:06But, at the same time, you're seeing an Anglo-Saxon influence.
0:42:06 > 0:42:11There's undoubtedly characteristics that mark you out as Northern,
0:42:11 > 0:42:14or Anglo-Scandinavian or Anglo-Saxon,
0:42:14 > 0:42:16but these start to blur in daily life.
0:42:18 > 0:42:23A lot of the great events aren't really registered archaeologically.
0:42:23 > 0:42:26You don't really see evidence here of the Norman conquest, for example.
0:42:26 > 0:42:28People just seem to carry on.
0:42:28 > 0:42:33And the slight changes from cemetery to bustling Victorian slum
0:42:33 > 0:42:36landscape blends seamlessly and just keeps evolving.
0:42:40 > 0:42:44In this cosmopolitan city, the Vikings soon took on
0:42:44 > 0:42:48the native culture, enthusiastically embracing a money economy.
0:42:49 > 0:42:53The first of the Viking rulers to produce coins is Guthrif.
0:42:53 > 0:42:58I say produced coins, there's only one that survives at the moment.
0:42:58 > 0:43:00I say one, but not even a full one.
0:43:00 > 0:43:03And Guthrif died in 895.
0:43:03 > 0:43:05We don't know an awful lot about him.
0:43:05 > 0:43:07One of the things we do know about him
0:43:07 > 0:43:09is that he was buried in the church at York.
0:43:11 > 0:43:13- So these are Christians? - Christians, yes.
0:43:13 > 0:43:15Within a generation of settling,
0:43:15 > 0:43:18they've converted to Christianity, and they're doing
0:43:18 > 0:43:21what Christian kings do,
0:43:21 > 0:43:26which is issue coins to tell people they're Christian.
0:43:29 > 0:43:33This is a Viking king from round about 900,
0:43:33 > 0:43:36and his name is Cnut.
0:43:36 > 0:43:40He's really pushing home the Christian message.
0:43:40 > 0:43:43Rather than just putting Cnut Rex as a continuous line around it,
0:43:43 > 0:43:46he spells it out as though he's making the sign of the cross.
0:43:46 > 0:43:49So he's being more Christian than the Christians.
0:43:49 > 0:43:52They're not seeing themselves as Vikings, are they?
0:43:52 > 0:43:56- They're seeing themselves as Kings of Northumbria.- Absolutely.
0:43:56 > 0:43:59When we hear about them in the written sources of this period,
0:43:59 > 0:44:01we hear about kings of Northumbria.
0:44:01 > 0:44:04We don't hear about Viking kings or even kings of York.
0:44:04 > 0:44:05We hear about the Northumbrians.
0:44:08 > 0:44:11And you see a bird there. A bird with a hooked beak.
0:44:11 > 0:44:12Now, is that a raven?
0:44:12 > 0:44:16A raven, of course, is the traditional symbol of Odin.
0:44:16 > 0:44:18Or is it an eagle?
0:44:18 > 0:44:21The symbol of one of the evangelists.
0:44:21 > 0:44:26Or is it both? He's really making the point he is not an Anglo-Saxon.
0:44:26 > 0:44:31He's not a part of this expanding new Kingdom of England.
0:44:31 > 0:44:35And I think a lot of Northumbrians, of Anglo-Saxon extraction,
0:44:35 > 0:44:38were probably just as happy about that as the Vikings.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41We were never ruled by the South Angle, in one sense.
0:44:41 > 0:44:42Exactly.
0:44:42 > 0:44:45And some of them still feel that way!
0:44:45 > 0:44:48I don't think things have changed much.
0:44:48 > 0:44:50So England was divided.
0:44:50 > 0:44:52North of Watling Street, the Danelaw
0:44:52 > 0:44:56but to the South, Alfred the Great's Kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons.
0:44:56 > 0:44:59It's a new force in our history.
0:44:59 > 0:45:01The beginnings of an English State.
0:45:03 > 0:45:07Here in the South, Alfred and his successors beat off the Vikings
0:45:07 > 0:45:11and created a small but powerful Kingdom.
0:45:12 > 0:45:16They geared society to war. New towns were founded.
0:45:16 > 0:45:20And, from London to Exeter, the old Roman cities
0:45:20 > 0:45:25were restored as centres of defence and administration.
0:45:25 > 0:45:29You can see at the bottom here, the Roman face work, very clear.
0:45:29 > 0:45:30That's this stuff here.
0:45:30 > 0:45:35That's this stuff here. Above that, this white Triassic sandstone.
0:45:35 > 0:45:38And, above that again, if you see between those two crenellations
0:45:38 > 0:45:39there's a blocked in embrasure.
0:45:39 > 0:45:43The stonework blocking that in is thought to be Norman.
0:45:43 > 0:45:46- That's the purple stuff there? - The purple stuff directly above.
0:45:46 > 0:45:49- These crenellations here, and that one's very clear, isn't it?- Yes.
0:45:49 > 0:45:51They would be the Anglo-Saxons?
0:45:51 > 0:45:55These are thought to be Saxon. A very exciting discovery.
0:45:55 > 0:45:56It's as good as proved!
0:45:56 > 0:45:59Yes.
0:45:59 > 0:46:03Saxons rebuilding on Roman foundations.
0:46:03 > 0:46:08There you have the story a renewed Britannia, ruled by the English.
0:46:10 > 0:46:13And the great rebuilding was not just in stone,
0:46:13 > 0:46:15but in habits and mentalities.
0:46:19 > 0:46:21Safe inside their city walls,
0:46:21 > 0:46:25settlers were encouraged to take up housing plots.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28Churches were built. Markets and mints opened.
0:46:28 > 0:46:31The people got used to a money economy.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37Each chief town, or burh, had its own shire.
0:46:37 > 0:46:39This is where today's counties come from,
0:46:39 > 0:46:43our oldest units of local government, law and order.
0:46:45 > 0:46:50A national kingdom for all the English was on the way.
0:46:55 > 0:46:59And now, for the first time since the Romans,
0:46:59 > 0:47:03we begin to pick up signs of the kind of urban social life
0:47:03 > 0:47:05that we might recognise today.
0:47:09 > 0:47:12Governments fret about ideas
0:47:12 > 0:47:14like the Big Society.
0:47:14 > 0:47:17How do you create a sense of duties
0:47:17 > 0:47:22and obligations as well as rights in a changing world?
0:47:22 > 0:47:23There's nothing new in that.
0:47:23 > 0:47:27Anglo-Saxon governments tore their hair out about law and order.
0:47:27 > 0:47:30About the horrendous level of wanton violence
0:47:30 > 0:47:35and theft and feud in their society.
0:47:35 > 0:47:38Kings could legislate about it from the centre,
0:47:38 > 0:47:41but what's really interesting about the Viking period
0:47:41 > 0:47:44is what starts to happen at grass roots.
0:47:44 > 0:47:50And I'd almost call it the beginnings of civic society, Guilds.
0:47:50 > 0:47:54Guilds would become a massive thing in Britain in the Middle Ages.
0:47:54 > 0:47:57500 of them in Suffolk alone.
0:47:57 > 0:48:02And this is the great 14th century Guildhall here in Exeter.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05There's been a building on this site since 1160.
0:48:05 > 0:48:08It's probably the oldest civic building in Britain.
0:48:08 > 0:48:13But, astonishingly, the story of the Guild here in Exeter
0:48:13 > 0:48:14goes back to around 930.
0:48:14 > 0:48:20Guilds were associations of friends and neighbours who got together
0:48:20 > 0:48:24for mutual support and protection.
0:48:24 > 0:48:27They held dinners on the great festivals, as they still do.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31They did a huge amount of work for charity, as they still do.
0:48:31 > 0:48:33They held funeral feasts and prayers
0:48:33 > 0:48:36for the departed souls of their friends.
0:48:36 > 0:48:41And they did all they could to cut out blood feud and even insult.
0:48:41 > 0:48:45And, here in Exeter, the Guild statutes include
0:48:45 > 0:48:47a five-penny per member club fund
0:48:47 > 0:48:51to help those who went on pilgrimage to Rome,
0:48:51 > 0:48:54and even better, this one penny per member
0:48:54 > 0:48:58to help all those who'd lost their house in a house fire.
0:48:58 > 0:49:04It has to be the first example of house insurance in British history.
0:49:04 > 0:49:07The great, French political theorist, de Tocqueville,
0:49:07 > 0:49:11in the 19th century, said that if you want to understand the English,
0:49:11 > 0:49:14and they are a funny lot, what you must understand
0:49:14 > 0:49:20is that they are a nation of societies, associations and clubs.
0:49:20 > 0:49:26And, astonishingly, all that begins here in the Viking age.
0:49:29 > 0:49:32In Scotland and Wales too, national kingdoms rose in response
0:49:32 > 0:49:37to the Viking threat, a focus for ethnic and regional loyalties.
0:49:39 > 0:49:41Here in Wales this is the time
0:49:41 > 0:49:46when Welsh cultural Christian identity begins to emerge.
0:49:48 > 0:49:51And the transformation's political too, the small tribal
0:49:51 > 0:49:55groupings that emerged after the end of Rome turn into bigger
0:49:55 > 0:50:00kingdoms and with them will come the idea
0:50:00 > 0:50:02of Welsh political unity.
0:50:05 > 0:50:09The compilation of Welsh laws by King Hywel Dda in the 10th century
0:50:09 > 0:50:13marks the emergence of a Welsh nation.
0:50:13 > 0:50:17It's a commissioned manuscript.
0:50:17 > 0:50:20Illustrated with people like the distine, the pentelane
0:50:20 > 0:50:24who was the chief of the King's household
0:50:24 > 0:50:29and very importantly, the judge who, as you can see,
0:50:29 > 0:50:33is holding a small manuscript in his hands.
0:50:33 > 0:50:36All of the legal manuscripts are small of size, of course.
0:50:36 > 0:50:39As a travelling judge in the Viking age, you had it in your pocket.
0:50:39 > 0:50:42A travelling judge would have brought out
0:50:42 > 0:50:45his little manuscript in order to refer to one or two things
0:50:45 > 0:50:48and as a source of his authority.
0:50:48 > 0:50:50It's so beautiful, isn't it?
0:50:50 > 0:50:52He's almost sort of gesturing with it.
0:50:52 > 0:50:55Dispensing justice with one hand and holding it up his book.
0:50:55 > 0:50:57In the name of the law.
0:50:59 > 0:51:02Do we see ordinary people as well?
0:51:02 > 0:51:06After the law of the court you move into other aspects of law
0:51:06 > 0:51:09like the relationships between individuals,
0:51:09 > 0:51:11particularly things like Serhad,
0:51:11 > 0:51:14the relationship between men and their wives,
0:51:14 > 0:51:16all governed in the law.
0:51:16 > 0:51:20Women had a remarkably high status in Welsh society,
0:51:20 > 0:51:22therefore they were protected.
0:51:22 > 0:51:25Everything had a value in Welsh law.
0:51:25 > 0:51:30If you broke a man's arm, it had a value for compensation purposes.
0:51:30 > 0:51:33So everything had its monetary value
0:51:33 > 0:51:36or its equivalent in animals or whatever.
0:51:36 > 0:51:40- So those compensations are similar in English law.- In principle, yes.
0:51:40 > 0:51:44You pay for your crime with an equivalent sum.
0:51:46 > 0:51:48Hywel's laws were a mix of old and new.
0:51:50 > 0:51:53If a woman is separated from her husband after seven years
0:51:53 > 0:51:57of marriage, all that belongs to them shall be divided into two.
0:51:59 > 0:52:01Should a husband be leprous or have fetid breath
0:52:01 > 0:52:03or be incapable of marital duties
0:52:03 > 0:52:07she is to have the whole of the property at any time.
0:52:10 > 0:52:13Brothers are to share their patrimony between them.
0:52:13 > 0:52:19Illegitimate sons are to receive a share equal to legitimate sons.
0:52:19 > 0:52:22The father's sin should not be set against the son.
0:52:26 > 0:52:30- There is a continuity, isn't there, in terms of...- Absolutely.
0:52:30 > 0:52:32You don't realise until you look back
0:52:32 > 0:52:35after you've passed the law. For example,
0:52:35 > 0:52:37Hywel Dda recognised the rights of children.
0:52:37 > 0:52:40And here we have a Children's Commissioner.
0:52:40 > 0:52:42We were the first in Europe on women's rights.
0:52:42 > 0:52:45If you're a women you could have a divorce after seven years
0:52:45 > 0:52:49and keep half your husband's belongings and property.
0:52:49 > 0:52:52And we're still leading the way because here at the Assembly,
0:52:52 > 0:52:57we have more women representatives than any other UK parliament.
0:52:57 > 0:53:00To be a nation, above all you need law,
0:53:00 > 0:53:03and to make law then was to take a stand
0:53:03 > 0:53:07against almost overwhelming forces of disorder and violence.
0:53:08 > 0:53:12Let's face it, these were bleak times.
0:53:12 > 0:53:17Most of us Britons were still unfree peasants working the fields,
0:53:17 > 0:53:20labouring to feed our betters, and only then ourselves.
0:53:22 > 0:53:25I go out at daybreak, driving the oxen to the field.
0:53:27 > 0:53:32I must plough a full acre a day, or face the anger of my lord.
0:53:34 > 0:53:38It is hard work because I am not free.
0:53:45 > 0:53:48Lord, when we first leased our land from you,
0:53:48 > 0:53:51it had been stripped bare by Viking raids.
0:53:53 > 0:53:58Now after this terrible winter, we have nine oxen left and little seed.
0:54:01 > 0:54:04We beg, for the love of God, to ask no more tax from us
0:54:04 > 0:54:06as it is a very hard time for the people.
0:54:12 > 0:54:14But change was on the way
0:54:14 > 0:54:20for with bigger kingdoms, the law was not enough.
0:54:20 > 0:54:22With such huge poverty and inequality,
0:54:22 > 0:54:24the great question for them was,
0:54:24 > 0:54:26"How do you create a just society?"
0:54:28 > 0:54:30The answer was with law.
0:54:30 > 0:54:32When we think about the creation of our rights
0:54:32 > 0:54:38we think of Magna Carta or the 18th-century Enlightenment
0:54:38 > 0:54:40but the key time was the 10th century.
0:54:41 > 0:54:45- When they have water in a church and put it over people...- Christened.
0:54:45 > 0:54:48Christened, that's right. Another word for that?
0:54:48 > 0:54:51Does anyone know another word for being christened?
0:54:51 > 0:54:53- Baptised.- Baptised, good.
0:54:53 > 0:54:55The impetus came from Christian ideas -
0:54:55 > 0:54:57charity, forgiveness, redemption.
0:55:00 > 0:55:03But the people too were making their voice heard now,
0:55:03 > 0:55:07high and low, and in their consultations with the kings
0:55:07 > 0:55:10are the early origins of Parliament.
0:55:10 > 0:55:13..documents, creating copies of the Bible, prayer books,
0:55:13 > 0:55:15and also legal documents.
0:55:15 > 0:55:17One of the documents they wrote here in Rochester
0:55:17 > 0:55:20was the Textus Roffensis.
0:55:20 > 0:55:23Now you probably haven't ever heard of the Textus Roffensis.
0:55:23 > 0:55:25You've probably heard of the Magna Carta
0:55:25 > 0:55:27but the Textus Roffensis is actually
0:55:27 > 0:55:30really even more important than the Magna Carta.
0:55:31 > 0:55:33It made sound a big claim,
0:55:33 > 0:55:35but along with our language and literature,
0:55:35 > 0:55:38English ideas about freedom and law
0:55:38 > 0:55:40are their greatest legacy to the world.
0:55:40 > 0:55:42A very exciting moment.
0:55:42 > 0:55:46'And this is THE book of English law.'
0:55:46 > 0:55:49The Textus Roffensis,
0:55:49 > 0:55:52which really means "Rochester's book".
0:55:52 > 0:55:56It's a compilation of law starting in the 600s
0:55:56 > 0:55:59with an eye for an eye and a tooth for six shillings -
0:55:59 > 0:56:02the earliest texts in English.
0:56:04 > 0:56:10Making law was part of what marked you out as a civilised people
0:56:10 > 0:56:12and then as you turn the pages
0:56:12 > 0:56:15and it's turning the pages of English social history, really,
0:56:15 > 0:56:19through the centuries, law becomes real legislation,
0:56:19 > 0:56:22flexible response to the times.
0:56:25 > 0:56:28This is from about 930.
0:56:28 > 0:56:30The people are talking to the king
0:56:30 > 0:56:33and the king is listening to the people.
0:56:33 > 0:56:37He's worried about the morality of capital punishment.
0:56:37 > 0:56:41"Se Cyng cwaed nu eft aet Wittan."
0:56:41 > 0:56:44The king speaks to his council, his wise men.
0:56:45 > 0:56:48But he thought it was profoundly distressing
0:56:48 > 0:56:52that so many young people, "yeongne man,"
0:56:52 > 0:56:56are being executed, as he sees is happening everywhere
0:56:56 > 0:56:59for such small crimes,
0:56:59 > 0:57:02"for swa lytlan." For so little.
0:57:03 > 0:57:06After consulting with his local assemblies,
0:57:06 > 0:57:10the king raises the death penalty from 12 to 15 years.
0:57:10 > 0:57:13"Man naenne yngran manne
0:57:13 > 0:57:16"ne sloge ponne 15 wintre."
0:57:16 > 0:57:18Still harsh, you might say,
0:57:18 > 0:57:23but remember, children of nine and ten were hanged for theft,
0:57:23 > 0:57:26even in Charles Dickens' childhood.
0:57:26 > 0:57:31It's the tentative beginnings, you might say, of a social contract.
0:57:36 > 0:57:38By the 10th century, in the Viking age,
0:57:38 > 0:57:42the kings who claimed to rule all England were now ruling
0:57:42 > 0:57:43Welsh speakers,
0:57:43 > 0:57:46Cornish speakers, Cumbrians,
0:57:46 > 0:57:49Danish speakers, along with Angles and Saxons.
0:57:49 > 0:57:54So no one code of law could really accommodate all that.
0:57:54 > 0:57:57They had to be flexible.
0:57:57 > 0:57:59"As regards my Danish subjects,"
0:57:59 > 0:58:02says one 10th-century English king,
0:58:02 > 0:58:04"With secular law, I leave it to them
0:58:04 > 0:58:10"which good laws they judge as being best for their people."
0:58:11 > 0:58:13So in the brutal 10th century,
0:58:13 > 0:58:17the peoples of Britain with all their tribal differences
0:58:17 > 0:58:20come into the light of day as nations,
0:58:20 > 0:58:23as people with hopes, aspirations and a voice.
0:58:23 > 0:58:29A dialogue has now begun between rulers and the people.
0:58:50 > 0:58:52Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:52 > 0:58:55- I'm Jason Lee, that's my younger brother.- See you.
0:58:56 > 0:58:58See you round.