Re: [Britannia Expansion - Custom Submod] The Isles of Chaos (Roleplay Hotseat)
Scouts reported the disaster and retreat of Samuel lewe's forces racing back to the ships as fast as they had departed from them , and Nicolas the scarred , a more cautious general, than the younger more impetuous Samuel gave a small smile of satisfaction at his more cautious approach with the second army that had invaded ireland. Taking up position on a prominent outpost, with a more defensible position, he sent out scounts to investigate whether his forces could push onto Downpatrick with the irish taking more punishment,as this might be the time to move forward. The scouts however, that he had pushed out to check the ground ,ran into a small irish ambush consisting of Deisi Javelinmen, who threw first javelins into their midst, and then charged into the english units in the trees attacking them with wooden clubs , causing a few deaths and many casualties.
The combat was short and bloody however, as the billmen and spearmen soon rallied after the shock, with shield and bill hooks caused massive damage to the ill equipped and poorly armoured irish troops, whose battered remnants retreated back into downpatrick. But this was not what stalled the movement of the duchy of Yorks second army , rather the appearance of a welsh army that appeared near the irish city. To Nicolas's eyes , to siege Downpatrick would be a risk, of a irish counterattack would be one thing, but to have a army behind your whilst doing so, whilst not sure of their allegiance was another.
Therefore he took the more cautious option of besieging Downpatricks port from the landward side, [whilst Scottish shipping blockaded the port from sea] and requested more troops from Castletown, taking a more defensive stance whilst still being a pain in the bum to the irishmen, to keep his promise to the Scottish.
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In the South however, there was dire news for the English Nobility , as the King Anselm made some troop movements, but a shadowy figure , kept watch on the english royalties movements, as he had been given another contract to perform. This contract however was on the king of england's head. The contract was however for a particular person with a particular agenda , that made a secondary target worthwhile, so whilst the king of england was out of range, for the moment, the secondary target was within reach.....
Prince Leonard had high hopes for these times, moving at the head of a giant english army, looking forward to the dividends that his father might provide him from the battlegroup he had been awarded to command , as thanks for his loyalty. Little did he know that night, whilst the army had formed camp, and he slept in a rough bed in his tent, that a small needle that penetrated the skin might bring him harm. He moved his hand up, still mostly asleep, to swat the fly away that perhaps had taken a bite, whilst a grey shady figure retreated away , melding into the camp , as people shuffled this way and that, until he disappeared into the night, into history.
As for the prince, his followers found his body cold and grey in the morning , and could only assume that the poor lad, had a weak heart of somesuch malady , and messages where quickly sent to the english monarch that he would need a new heir to the throne.
{with kind permission of turkafinwe to add to the storytelling]
turn to England
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lunejuplbu...d_114.sav?dl=0
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Shaftsbury
[this might be the last english settlement i think?]
[IMG][/IMG]
[Castle site is shown with red circle]
Shaftsbury is a town of mixed fortunes, showing the signs of the times, a anglo saxon settlement, growing though the building of a abbey that encouraged markets and commerce, knocked down both in population and wealth during the norman invasion, it rose again, in strenght after, till the Dissolution of the monastries, by Henry VIII with his power struggle for money and the church. It wouldnt rise again till the wool trade began to bring wealth and trade back to the people.
Shaftesbury has acquired a number of names throughout its history. Writing in 1906, Sir Frederick Treves referred to four of these names from Celtic, Latin and English traditions in his book Highways & Byways in Dorset:
The city has had many names. It was, in the beginning, Caer Palladour. By the time of the Domesday Book it was Sceptesberie. It then, with all the affectation of a lady in an eighteenth-century lyric, called itself Sophonia. Lastly it became Shaston, and so the people call it to this day, while all the milestones around concern themselves only with recording the distances to "Shaston".
— Sir Frederick Treves, Highways & Byways in Dorset (1906)
The original Celtic name is first recorded in Medieval Welsh literature as Caer Vynnydd y Paladr (The Mountain Fort/City of the Spears) and Thomas Gale records the name as Caer Palladour in his work of 1709. Though "Palladour" was described by one 19th-century directory as "mere invention", it has continued to be used as a poetic and alternative name for the town.
The English name was recorded in the Domesday Book as Sceptesberie, and the use of "Shaston" (/ˈʃæstən/) was recorded in 1831 in Samuel Lewis's A Topographical Dictionary of England and in 1840 in The parliamentary gazetteer of England and Wales.
There is no substantive evidence that Shaftesbury was the "Caer Palladur" (or "Caer Palladwr") of Celtic and Roman times, and instead the town's recorded history dates from Anglo-Saxon times. By the early 8th century there was an important minster church here, and in 880 Alfred the Great founded a burgh (fortified settlement) here as a defence in the struggle with the Danish invaders. The burgh is recorded in the early-10th-century Burghal Hidage as one of only three that existed in the county (the others being at Wareham and 'Bredy' - which is probably Bridport).
Growth of the Town
In 888 Alfred founded Shaftesbury Abbey, a Benedictine nunnery by the town's east gate, and appointed his daughter Ethelgifu as the first abbess. Æthelstan founded two royal mints, which struck pennies bearing the town's name, and the abbey became the wealthiest Benedictine nunnery in England. On 20 February 981 the relics of St Edward the Martyr, the teenage King of England, were transferred from Wareham and received at the abbey with great ceremony, thereafter turning Shaftesbury into a major site of pilgrimage for miracles of healing.
King Canute died here in 1035, though he was buried at Winchester. Edward the Confessor licensed a third mint for the town. By the time of the Norman conquest in 1066 Shaftesbury had 257 houses, though many were destroyed in the ensuing years of conflict, and by the time the Domesday Book was compiled twenty years later, there were only 177 houses remaining, though this still meant that Shaftesbury was the largest town in Dorset at that time. In the first English civil war (1135-1154) between Empress Matilda and King Stephen, an adulterine castle or fortified house was built on a small promontory at the western edge of the hill on which the old town was built. The site on Castle Hill, also known locally as Boltbury, is now under grass and is a scheduled monument.
In 1240 Cardinal Otto of Tonengo, legate to the Apostolic See of Pope Gregory IX visited the abbey and confirmed a charter of 1191, the first entered in the Glastonbury chartulary. During the Middle Ages the abbey was the central focus of the town; the abbey's great wealth was acknowledged in a popular saying at the time, which stated that "If the abbot of Glastonbury could marry the abbess of Shaftesbury their heir would hold more land than the king of England". In 1260 a charter to hold a market was granted. By 1340 the mayor had become a recognised figure, sworn in by the steward of the abbess. In 1392 Richard II confirmed a grant of two markets on different days. Edwardstow, Shaftesbury's oldest surviving building, was built on Bimport at some time between 1400 and 1539. Also in this period a medieval farm owned by the Abbess of Shaftesbury was established, on a site now occupied by the Tesco supermarket car park.
Shaftesbury occupies a strong natural position, and the name suggests that it was from the beginning a fortified settlement. Local tradition, embodied in a stone inscription copied by William of Malmesbury, ascribes the foundation of the town to King Alfred in the year 880—more than a decade before the organisation of the chain of fortresses with which Alfred defended his frontiers against the Danes. A fragment of this inscription, rediscovered in 1902, shows, however, that it was carved during the period c. 975 to 1050; hence the earliest reliable reference to Shaftesbury as a borough is that of the year 926 in Athelstan's law about currency. Asser reports that Alfred also founded Shaftesbury Abbey for nuns, but nothing remains of the original nunnery; a few pre-conquest carved stones have been found on the site, but the most important appears to come from a cross-shaft. The present church, represented by little more than foundations, dates from late in the 11th century.
Domesday Book records that 80 houses out of the 257 in existence twenty years earlier, then lay waste and in 1125 William of Malmesbury calls Shaftesbury a village which had formerly been a town . The combined evidence suggests that the stone defences of Shaftesbury date from the first half of the 11th century, and that the 11th-century inscription records the tradition of the foundation of the town, but not necessarily the building of the defences, by King Alfred. That the foundation took place early in the reign is borne out by Alfred's charter to the Abbey. Although this is spurious or at best interpolated in the form handed down to us, the inclusion among the witnesses of Eahlfrith, Bishop of Winchester, implies the existence of an original charter bearing that prelate's name. Since Eahlfrith had been succeeded by Tunbeohrt by 877 that charter must have been granted between 871 and 877. The text of the charter, as preserved, records the presentation to the abbey of Alfred's daughter Aethelgeofu, who took the veil on account of ill health. In 877 Aethelgeofu was an infant; she was Alfred's third child and can scarcely have been born before 871.
Gold Hill
Was one of the steep road to the main market place on the hilltop , which was famously used in a old Hovis TV ad, which most of my generation can perhaps remember ...again perhaps this video link to a ronnie barker spoof of that TV ad, might bring back some memories
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJi_5T0jSnA
Shaftsbury castle
There seems to have been a castle on Castle Green, a little west of St. Mary's. The site is also called Boltbury and is the traditional site of the old town. Castle Hill is a small steep promontory at the west end of the hill on which Shaftesbury stands. A deep artificial ditch has transformed the promontory into a triangular enclosure. There is an inner bank along all three sides. The interior is level, except for a large pit, dug much later than the rest of the earthworks. It has sometimes been suggested that the pit was caused by the removal of a free-standing tower. There is no sign of a motte and no documentary evidence of a properly constituted castle. The enclosure was trenched by E.Jervoise, 1947-9, and the following finds made, now in Shaftesbury Museum:- The remains of three tripod pitchers of C12-13. and a halfpenny of Stephen; the latter came from a trench dug in the bottom of the pit - Cobbler's Pit. From the finds the site would seem early Md., possibly C12. The earthwork is surrounded by steep natural slopes on all but its eastern side where a ditch up to 18.0m. wide and with an average depth of 2.0m. has been cut to complete the all round defence. The inner bank in this quarter varies between 13.0 and 17.0m. wide and has an average height of 1.0m. Elsewhere it is considerably weaker and fades to nothing in parts. The pit referred to is steep sided and is up to 3.0m deep. There is no visible indication of a motte, entrance or stonework. The position and nature of the fortification, the dateable material found and lack of documentary evidence suggest that this was an adulterine[illegally built caslte] castle. It is under grass. This is the site of a fortified Norman farm-house with three walls and two angle towers. It has been excavated and is now a garden. A small motte and bailey existed to the east
Medieval fortified houses were residences belonging to some of the richer and more powerful members of society. Their design reflects a combination of domestic and military elements. The nature of the fortification varies, but can include moats, curtain walls, a gatehouse and other towers. The buildings normally included a hall used as communal space for domestic and administrative purposes with kitchens and storage areas. Some medieval fortified houses had outer courts beyond the main defences in which stables, granaries and barns were located. The principal of building a fortified house dates back to the periods such as the first English Civil War when 'adulterine castles' were constructed privately without licence and to the period between the reigns of Edward I and Edward II when there were increased levels of issued licences to crenellate. Despite partial excavation, the medieval fortified house at Castle Hill survives comparatively well and will contain further archaeological and environmental evidence relating to its construction, function, longevity, domestic arrangements, strategic significance, abandonment and overall landscape context.
The monument includes a medieval fortified house, situated on a small steep promontory of the prominent Castle Hill in Shaftesbury. The medieval fortified house survives as a triangular enclosed area defined by steep natural slopes topped with a bank up to 17m wide and 1m high on two sides and by an 18m wide and 2m deep ditch and rampart on the third. Within the interior is a central steep-sided circular depression up to 0.3m deep. Other earthworks within the interior include a low bank on the south west; a roughly rectangular mound of up to 0.3m high to the east; and several roughly rectangular platforms of varying size. The central pit also known as 'Cobbler's Pit' is thought to have marked the site of a central free-standing tower which was completely removed. Excavations by Jervoise in 1947-9 found a cut half-penny of Stephen in the bottom of the 'pit' with 12th -13th century pottery and beyond the defences to the south east the footings of several stone structures, including a circular building with rectangular chambers to the east. A human skull was found nearby. The lack of documentary evidence coupled with the dates of the finds suggest this is an adulterine castle, built without a Royal licence to crenellate during the first English Civil War between King Stephen and the Empress Matilda in 1135 - 1154. It is also known locally as 'Boltbury' and is according to tradition the site of the old town.
After the Conquest Shaftesbury Abbey jointly held held the manor and town of Shaftesbury and this site must represent the holding of a sub-tenant, of knightly status. This site is not unusually in form from the many small mottes of the welsh marches but it is unusual in a larger town, but this may be because other such sites in larger towns have all been built over and destroyed.
No one else seems to have noticed Teulon-Porters 'small motte and bailey' which are presumably some sort of disturbed ground. A small motte of symbolic function would not be unusual for such small castles but Gatehouse suspects, in this case, this is a misidentification.
Shaftsbury abbey
{Shaftsbury abbey ruins]
Alfred the Great founded the convent in about 888 and installed his daughter Æthelgifu as the first abbess. Ælfgifu, the wife of Alfred's grandson, King Edmund I, was buried at Shaftesbury and soon venerated as a saint, and she came to be regarded by the house as its true founder.
The bones of St Edward the Martyr were translated from Wareham and received at the abbey with great ceremony. The translation of the relics was overseen by St Dunstan and Ælfhere, Ealdorman of Mercia. This occurred in a great procession beginning on 13 February 981; the relics arrived at Shaftesbury seven days later. The relics were received by the nuns of the abbey and were buried with full royal honours on the north side of the altar. The account of the translation reports that on the way from Wareham to Shaftesbury, a miracle had taken place: when two crippled men were brought close to the bier and those carrying it lowered the body to their level, the cripples were immediately restored to full health. This procession and events were re-enacted 1000 years later in 1981. Reports from Shaftesbury of many other miracles said to have been obtained through Edward's intercession helped establish the abbey as a place of pilgrimage.
In 1001, it was recorded that the tomb in which St Edward lay was observed regularly to rise from the ground. King Æthelred instructed the bishops to raise his brother's tomb from the ground and place it into a more fitting place. The bishops moved the relics to a casket, placed in the holy place of the saints together with other holy relics. This elevation of the relics of Edward took place on 20 June 1001.
Shaftesbury Abbey was rededicated to the Mother of God and St Edward. Many miracles were claimed at the tomb of St Edward, including the healing of lepers and the blind. The abbey became the wealthiest Benedictine nunnery in England, a major pilgrimage site, and the town's central focus. A large grange, Place Farm was established at Tisbury to administer the abbey’s Wiltshire estates.
In 1240 Cardinal Otto Candidus, the legate to the Apostolic See of Pope Gregory IX, visited the abbey and confirmed a charter of 1191, the first entered in the Glastonbury chartulary. Elizabeth de Burgh, Queen of Scots was imprisoned here from October 1312 to March 1313. By 1340, the steward of the abbess swore in the town's mayor.
[The great seal of Shaftsbury abbey]
The Abbey Church of St. Mary and St. Edward , now reduced to little more than its foundations, lies on the E. of the area formerly occupied by Alfred's borough. Shaftesbury Abbey was the wealthiest Benedictine nunnery in England; its foundation is generally ascribed to King Alfred, whose daughter Aethelgeofu is the first recorded abbess:
Monasterium juxta orientalem portam Sceftesburg, habitationi sanctimonialium habile, idem praefatus rex aedificari imperavit; in quo propriam filiam suam Aethelgeofu, devotam Deo virginem, abbatissam constituit.
The 10th century saw many munificent gifts to the abbey. The most highly venerated relic came in 979 when the body of King Edward was brought there from Wareham minster, where it lay for a year after the king had been murdered at Corfe. The original dedication in honour of the Virgin was subsequently augmented to include the name of St. Edward. In the late 11th-century church St. Edward's tomb was on the N. side of the chancel; the empty grave, lined with dressed ashlar, was opened in 1861. William of Malmesbury, writing c. 1125, records that portions of the relics had been removed to Leominster and Abingdon, and that the remains of the body at Shaftesbury had long perished, although a lung, still preserved, could be seen miraculously pulsating:
miraculo sane ostentatur pulmo, toto dudum consumpto corpore, adhuc integra viriditate palpitans.
There cannot be much doubt that William saw the squat glass jar which was rediscovered, probably in 1901–3, 'under a heart-shaped white marble slab in front of the high altar'; probably it was set in this place early in the 14th century as a focus for the devotion of the community when the relics were translated to a newly built chapel on the N.
Of the pre-conquest church no remains have been identified, although carved stones preserved on the site include some that can be dated to the 10th or early 11th century. A few architectural fragments imply that the church was of stone, but they provide no information as to its form.
At the Dissolution, on 23 March 1539, the abbey was surrendered by the abbess, Elizabeth Zouche, to the King's Commissioner, Sir John Tregonwell (Hutchins III, 30–2). In 1544 much of the abbey property was bought by Sir Thomas Arundel and in 1553, after Arundel's attainder, it was sold to the Earl of Pembroke, whose descendants still possess Sir Thomas Arundel's terrier. The sketch in the terrier proves that the abbey church was already in ruins by the middle of the 16th century; in course of time it disappeared altogether and gardens and houses took its place.
The list that follows is clearly incomplete. Unless specified, the dates given are those of mentions in the historic record.
Elfgiva or Æthelgeofu or Algiva, first abbess about 888
Ælfthrith (948)
Herleva (966; died 982)
Alfrida (1001 or 1009)
Leueua (in the reign of Edward the Confessor)
Eulalia (appointed 1074)
Eustachia
Cecilia (perhaps appointed 1107)
Emma
Mary (1189)
J. (elected 1216)
Amicia Russell (elected 1223)
Agnes Lungespee (elected 1243)
Agnes de Ferrers (elected 1247)
Juliana de Bauceyn (died 1279)
Laurentia de Muscegros (elected 1279; died 1290)
Joan de Bridport (elected 1290; died 1291)
Mabel Gifford (elected 1291)
Alice de Lavyngton (elected 1302; died 1315)
Margaret Aucher (elected 1315, died 1329)
Dionisia le Blunde (elected 1329, died 1345)
Joan Duket (elected 1345, died 1350)
Margaret de Leukenore (elected 1350)
Joan Formage (elected 1362, died 1394)
Egelina de Counteville (appointed 1395)
Cecilia Fovent (1398, died 1423)
Margaret Stourton (elected 1423; died 1441) She was the sister of John Stourton (died 1438) of Preston Plucknett in Somerset, 7 times MP for Somerset, in 1419, 1420, December 1421, 1423, 1426, 1429 and 1435.
Edith Bonham (elected 1441; died 1460)
Margaret St. John (elected 1460)
Alice Gibbes (died 1496)
Margaret Twyneo (elected 1496; died 1505)
Elizabeth Shelford (elected 1505; died 1528)
Elizabeth Zouche or Zuche, elected 1529 and forced to surrender the abbey in 1539
Two famous buriels in the abbey were :-
Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury
Saint Ælfgifu of Shaftesbury, also known as Saint Elgiva (died 944)[2] was the first wife of Edmund I (r. 939–946), by whom she bore two future kings, Eadwig (r. 955–959) and Edgar (r. 959–975). Like her mother Wynflaed, she had a close and special if unknown connection with the royal nunnery of Shaftesbury (Dorset), founded by King Alfred, where she was buried and soon revered as a saint. According to a pre-Conquest tradition from Winchester, her feast day is 18 May.
Her mother appears to have been an associate of Shaftesbury Abbey called Wynflaed (also Wynnflæd). The vital clue comes from a charter of King Edgar, in which he confirmed the grant of an estate at Uppidelen (Piddletrenthide, Dorset) made by his grandmother (ava) Wynflæd to Shaftesbury. She may well be the nun or vowess of this name in a charter dated 942 and preserved in the abbey's chartulary. It records that she received and retrieved from King Edmund a handful of estates in Dorset, namely Cheselbourne and Winterbourne Tomson, which somehow ended up in the possession of the community.
Married life
The sources do not record the date of Ælfgifu's marriage to Edmund. The eldest son Eadwig, who had barely reached majority on his accession in 955, may have been born around 940, which gives us only a very rough terminus ante quem for the betrothal. Although as the mother of two future kings, Ælfgifu proved to be an important royal bed companion, there is no strictly contemporary evidence that she was ever consecrated as queen. In a charter of doubtful authenticity dated 942-946, she attests as the king's concubine (concubina regis). but later in the century Æthelweard the Chronicler styles her queen.
Much of Ælfgifu's claim to fame derives from her association with Shaftesbury. Her patronage of the community is suggested by a charter of King Æthelred, dated 984, according to which the abbey exchanged with King Edmund the large estate at Tisbury (Wiltshire) for Butticanlea . Ælfgifu received it from her husband and intended to bequeath it back to the nunnery, but such had not yet come to pass (her son Eadwig demanded that Butticanlea was returned to the royal family first).
Ælfgifu predeceased her husband in 944. In the early 12th century, William of Malmesbury wrote that she suffered from an illness during the last few years of her life, but there may have been some confusion with details of Æthelgifu's life as recorded in a forged foundation charter of the late 11th or 12th century .Her body was buried and enshrined at the nunnery.
Sainthood
Ælfgifu was venerated as a saint soon after her burial at Shaftesbury. Æthelweard reports that many miracles had taken place at her tomb up to his day, and these were apparently attracting some local attention. Lantfred of Winchester, who wrote in the 970's and so can be called the earliest known witness of her cult, tells of a young man from Collingbourne (possibly Collingbourne Kingston, Wiltshire), who in the hope of being cured of blindness travelled to Shaftesbury and kept vigil. What led him there was the reputation of “the venerable St Ælfgifu [...] at whose tomb many bodies of sick person receive medication through the omnipotence of God”. Despite the new prominence of Edward the Martyr as a saint interred at Shaftesbury, her cult continued to flourish in later Anglo-Saxon England, as evidenced by her inclusion in a list of saints' resting places, at least 8 pre-Conquest calendars and 3 or 4 litanies from Winchester.
Ælfgifu is styled a saint (Sancte Ælfgife) in the D-text of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle at the point where it specifies Eadwig's and Edgar's royal parentage. Her cult may have been fostered and used to enhance the status of the royal lineage, more narrowly that of her descendants. Lantfred attributes her healing power both to her own merits and those of her son Edgar. It may have been due to her association that in 979 the supposed body of her murdered grandson Edward the Martyr was exhumed and in a spectacular ceremony, received at the nunnery of Shaftesbury, under the supervision of ealdorman Ælfhere.
According to William of Malmesbury, Ælfgifu would secretly redeem those who were publicly condemned to severe judgment, she gave expensive clothes to the poor, and she also had prophetic powers as well as powers of healing.
Ælfgifu's fame at Shaftesbury seems to have eclipsed that of its first abbess, King Alfred's daughter Æthelgifu, so much so perhaps that William of Malmesbury wrote contradictory reports on the abbey's early history. In the Gesta regum, he correctly identifies the first abbess as Alfred's daughter, following Asser, although he gives her the name of Ælfgifu (Elfgiva), while in his Gesta pontificum, he credits Edmund's wife Ælfgifu with the foundation. Either William encountered conflicting information, or he meant to say that Ælfgifu refounded the nunnery. In any event, William would have had access to local traditions at Shaftesbury, since he probably wrote a now lost metrical Life for the community, a fragment of which he included in his Gesta pontificum:
Nam nonnullis passa annis morborum molestiam,
defecatam et excoctam Deo dedit animam.
Functas ergo uitae fato beatas exuuias
infinitis clemens signis illustrabat Deitas.
Inops uisus et auditus si adorant tumulum,
sanitati restituti probant sanctae meritum.
Rectum gressum refert domum qui accessit loripes,
mente captus redit sanus, boni sensus locuples
{translation}
For some years she suffered from illness,
And gave to God a soul that it had purged and purified
When she died, God brought lustre to her blessed remains
In his clemency with countless miracles.
If a blind man or a deaf worship at her tomb,
They are restored to health and prove the saint's merits.
He who went there lame comes home firm of step,
The madman returns sane, rich in good sense.
Edward the Martyr
(Old English: Eadweard, pronounced [ˈæːɑdwæɑrˠd]; c. 962 – 18 March 978) was King of the English from 975 until he was murdered in 978. Edward was the eldest son of King Edgar the Peaceful but was not his father's acknowledged heir. On Edgar's death, the leadership of England was contested, with some supporting Edward's claim to be king and others supporting his younger half-brother Æthelred the Unready, recognised as a legitimate son of Edgar. Edward was chosen as king and was crowned by his main clerical supporters, the archbishops Dunstan of Canterbury and Oswald of York.
The great nobles of the kingdom, ealdormen Ælfhere and Æthelwine, quarrelled, and civil war almost broke out. In the so-called anti-monastic reaction, the nobles took advantage of Edward's weakness to dispossess the Benedictine reformed monasteries of lands and other properties that King Edgar had granted to them.
Edward's short reign was brought to an end by his murder at Corfe Castle in 978 in circumstances that are not altogether clear. He was hurriedly buried at Wareham, but was reburied with great ceremony at Shaftesbury Abbey early in 979. In 1001 Edward's remains were moved to a more prominent place in the abbey, probably with the blessing of his half-brother King Æthelred. Edward was already reckoned a saint by this time.
A number of lives of Edward were written in the centuries following his death in which he was portrayed as a martyr, generally seen as a victim of the Queen Dowager Ælfthryth, mother of Æthelred. He is today recognized as a saint in the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Communion.
Family
Edward's date of birth is unknown, but he was the eldest of Edgar's three children. He was probably in his teens when he succeeded his father, who died at age 32 in 975. Edward was known to be King Edgar's son, but he was not the son of Queen Ælfthryth, the third wife of Edgar. This much and no more is known from contemporary charters.
Later sources of questionable reliability address the identity of Edward's mother. The earliest such source is a life of Dunstan by Osbern of Canterbury, probably written in the 1080s. Osbern writes that Edward's mother was a nun at Wilton Abbey whom the king seduced. When Eadmer wrote a life of Dunstan some decades later, he included an account of Edward's parentage obtained from Nicholas of Worcester. This denied that Edward was the son of a liaison between Edgar and a nun, presenting him as the son of Æthelflæd, daughter of Ordmær, "ealdorman of the East Anglians", whom Edgar had married in the years when he ruled Mercia (between 957 and Eadwig's death in 959). Additional accounts are offered by Goscelin in his life of Edgar's daughter Saint Edith of Wilton and in the histories of John of Worcester and William of Malmesbury. Together these various accounts suggest that Edward's mother was probably a noblewoman named Æthelflæd, surnamed Candida or Eneda—"the White" or "White Duck".
A charter of 966 describes Ælfthryth, whom Edgar had married in 964, as the king's "lawful wife", and their eldest son Edmund as the legitimate son of the king. Edward is noted as the king's son. Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester was a supporter of Ælfthryth and Æthelred, but Dunstan, the Archbishop of Canterbury, appears to have supported Edward, and a genealogy created at his Glastonbury Abbey circa 969 gives Edward precedence over Edmund and Æthelred. Ælfthryth was the widow of Æthelwald, Ealdorman of East Anglia, and perhaps Edgar's third wife. Cyril Hart argues that the contradictions regarding the identity of Edward's mother, and the fact that Edmund appears to have been regarded as the legitimate heir until his death in 971, suggest that Edward was probably illegitimate. However, Barbara Yorke thinks that Æthelflæd was Edgar's wife, but Ælfthryth was a consecrated queen when she gave birth to her sons, who were therefore considered more "legitimate" than Edward. Æthelwold denied that Edward was legitimate, but Yorke considers this "opportunist special pleading".
Edmund's full brother Æthelred may have inherited his position as heir. On a charter to the New Minster at Winchester, the names of Ælfthryth and her son Æthelred appear ahead of Edward's name. When Edgar died on 8 July 975, Æthelred was probably nine and Edward only a few years older.
Disputed succession
Edgar had been a strong ruler who had forced monastic reforms on a probably unwilling church and nobility, aided by the leading clerics of the day, Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury; Oswald of Worcester, Archbishop of York; and Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester. By endowing the reformed Benedictine monasteries with the lands required for their support, he had dispossessed many lesser nobles, and had rewritten leases and loans of land to the benefit of the monasteries. Secular clergy, many of whom would have been members of the nobility, had been expelled from the new monasteries. While Edgar lived, he strongly supported the reformers, but following his death, the discontents which these changes had provoked came into the open.
The leading figures had all been supporters of the reform, but they were no longer united. Relations between Archbishop Dunstan and Bishop Æthelwold may have been strained. Archbishop Oswald was at odds with Ealdorman Ælfhere, Ealdorman of Mercia, while Ælfhere and his kin were rivals for power with the affinity of Æthelwine, Ealdorman of East Anglia. Dunstan was said to have questioned Edgar's marriage to Queen Dowager Ælfthryth and the legitimacy of their son Æthelred.
These leaders were divided as to whether Edward or Æthelred should succeed Edgar. Neither law nor precedent offered much guidance. The choice between the sons of Edward the Elder had divided his kingdom, and Edgar's elder brother Eadwig had been forced to give over a large part of the kingdom to Edgar. The Queen Dowager certainly supported the claims of her son Æthelred, aided by Bishop Æthelwold; and Dunstan supported Edward, aided by his fellow archbishop Oswald. It is likely that Ealdorman Ælfhere and his allies supported Æthelred and that Æthelwine and his allies supported Edward, although some historians suggest the opposite.
Later sources suggest that perceptions of legitimacy played a part in the arguments, as did the relative age of the two candidates. In time, Edward was anointed by Archbishops Dunstan and Oswald at Kingston upon Thames, most likely in 975. There is evidence that the settlement involved a degree of compromise. Æthelred appears to have been given lands which normally belonged to the king's sons, some of which had been granted by Edgar to Abingdon Abbey and which were forcibly repossessed for Æthelred by the leading nobles.
Edward's reign
After recording Edward's succession, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that a comet appeared, and that famine and "manifold disturbances" followed. The "manifold disturbances", sometimes called the anti-monastic reaction, appear to have started soon after Edgar's death. During this time, the experienced Ealdorman Oslac of Northumbria, effective ruler of much of northern England, was exiled due to unknown circumstances. Oslac was followed as ealdorman by Thored, either Oslac's son of that name or Thored Gunnar's son mentioned by the Chronicle in 966.
Edward, or rather those who were wielding power on his behalf, also appointed a number of new ealdormen to positions in Wessex. Little is known of two of these men, and it is difficult to determine which faction, if any, they belonged to. Edwin, probably ruling in Sussex, and perhaps also parts of Kent and Surrey, was buried at Abingdon, an abbey patronised by Ælfhere. Æthelmær, who oversaw Hampshire, held lands in Rutland, perhaps suggesting links to Æthelwine.
The third ealdorman, Æthelweard, today best known for his Latin history, ruled in the west. Æthelweard was a descendant of King Æthelred of Wessex and probably the brother of King Eadwig's wife. He appears to have been a supporter of Edward rather than of either faction.
In some places, the secular clergy who had been driven from the monasteries returned, driving the regular clergy out in their turn. Bishop Æthelwold had been the main enemy of the seculars, and Archbishop Dunstan appears to have done little to aid his fellow reformer at this time. More generally, the magnates took the opportunity to undo many of Edgar's grants to monasteries and to force the abbots to rewrite leases and loans to favour the local nobility. Ealdorman Ælfhere was the leader in this regard, attacking Oswald's network of monasteries across Mercia. Ælfhere's rival Æthelwine, while a staunch protector of his family monastery of Ramsey Abbey, treated Ely Abbey and other monasteries harshly. At some point during these disorders, Ælfhere and Æthelwine appear to have come close to open warfare. This may well have been related to Ælfhere's ambitions in East Anglia and to attacks upon Ramsey Abbey. Æthelwine, supported by his kinsman Ealdorman Byrhtnoth of Essex and others unspecified, mustered an army and caused Ælfhere to back down.
Very few charters survive from Edward's reign, perhaps as few as three, leaving Edward's brief reign in obscurity. By contrast, numerous charters survived from the reigns of his father Edgar and half-brother Æthelred. All of the surviving Edward charters concern the royal heartland of Wessex; two deal with Crediton where Edward's former tutor Sideman was bishop. During Edgar's reign, dies for coins were cut only at Winchester and distributed from there to other mints across the kingdom. Edward's reign permitted dies to be cut locally at York and at Lincoln. The general impression is of a reduction or breakdown of royal authority in the midlands and north. The machinery of government continued to function, as councils and synods met as customary during Edward's reign, at Kirtlington in Oxfordshire after Easter 977, and again at Calne in Wiltshire the following year. During the meeting at Calne, some councillors were killed and others injured by the collapse of the floor of their room.
Death
[Commemorative sign for Edward the Martyr at Corfe Castle, Dorset, UK. The sign is an artist's impression of Edward, and underneath is written "Edward the Martyr King of Wessex treacherously stabbed at Corves gate in A.D. 978 by his stepmother Elfrida".]
The version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle containing the most detailed account records that Edward was murdered in the evening of 18 March 978, while visiting Ælfthryth and Æthelred, probably at or near the mound on which the ruins of Corfe Castle now stand. It adds that he was buried at Wareham "without any royal honours". The compiler of this version of the Chronicle, manuscript E, called the Peterborough Chronicle, says:
"No worse deed for the English race was done than this was, since they first sought out the land of Britain. Men murdered him, but God exalted him. In life he was an earthly king; after death he is now a heavenly saint. His earthly relatives would not avenge him, but his Heavenly Father has much avenged him."
Other recensions of the Chronicle report less detail, the oldest text stating only that he was killed, while versions from the 1040s say that he was martyred.
Of other early sources, the life of Oswald of Worcester, attributed to Byrhtferth of Ramsey, adds that Edward was killed by Æthelred's advisers, who attacked him when he was dismounting. It agrees that he was buried without ceremony at Wareham. Archbishop Wulfstan II alludes to the killing of Edward in his Sermo Lupi ad Anglos, written not later than 1016. A recent study translates his words as follows:
"And a very great betrayal of a lord it is also in the world, that a man betray his lord to death, or drive him living from the land, and both have come to pass in this land: Edward was betrayed, and then killed, and after that burned ..."
Later sources, further removed from events, such as the late 11th-century Passio S. Eadwardi and John of Worcester, claim that Ælfthryth organised the killing of Edward, while Henry of Huntingdon wrote that she killed Edward herself.
Modern historians have offered a variety of interpretations of Edward's killing. Three main theories have been proposed. Firstly, that Edward was killed, as the life of Oswald claims, by nobles in Æthelred's service, either as a result of a personal quarrel, or to place their master on the throne. The life of Oswald portrays Edward as an unstable young man who, according to Frank Stenton: "had offended many important persons by his intolerable violence of speech and behaviour. Long after he had passed into veneration as a saint it was remembered that his outbursts of rage had alarmed all who knew him, and especially the members of his own household."
In the second version, Ælfthryth was implicated, either beforehand by plotting the killing, or afterwards in allowing the killers to go free and unpunished.
A third alternative, noting that Edward in 978 was very close to ruling on his own, proposes that Ealdorman Ælfhere was behind the killing so as to preserve his own influence and to prevent Edward taking revenge for Ælfhere's actions earlier in the reign. John notes this and interprets Ælfhere's part in Edward's reburial as being a penance for the assassination.
Reburial and early cult
Edward's body lay at Wareham for a year before being disinterred. Ælfhere initiated the reinterment, perhaps as a gesture of reconciliation. According to the life of Oswald, Edward's body was found to be incorrupt when it was disinterred (which was taken as a miraculous sign). The body was taken to the Shaftesbury Abbey, a nunnery with royal connections which had been endowed by King Alfred the Great and where Edward and Æthelred's grandmother Ælfgifu had spent her latter years.
Edward's remains were reburied with lavish public ceremony. Later versions, such as the Passio S. Eadwardi, have more complicated accounts. It said that Edward's body was concealed in a marsh, where it was revealed by miraculous events. The Passio dates the reburial to 18 February.
In 1001, Edward's relics (for he was considered a saint, although never canonized) were translated to a more prominent place within the nunnery at Shaftesbury. The ceremonies are said to have been led by the then-Bishop of Sherborne, Wulfsige III, accompanied by a senior cleric whom the Passio calls Elsinus, sometimes identified with Ælfsige, the abbot of the New Minster, Winchester. King Æthelred, preoccupied with the threat of a Danish invasion, did not attend in person, but he issued a charter to the Shaftesbury nuns late in 1001 granting them lands at Bradford on Avon, which is thought to be related. A 13th-century calendar of saints gives the date of this translation as 20 June.
The rise of Edward's cult has been interpreted in various ways. It is sometimes portrayed as a popular movement, or as the product of a political attack on King Æthelred by former supporters of Edward. Alternatively, Æthelred has been seen as one of the key forces in the promotion of Edward's cult and that of their sister Eadgifu (Edith of Wilton). He was thought to make the charter in 1001 granting land to Shaftesbury at the elevation of Edward's relics, and some accounts suggest that Æthelred legislated the observation of Edward's feast days across England in a law code of 1008. It is unclear whether this innovation, seemingly drafted by Archbishop Wulfstan II, dates from Æthelred's reign. It may instead have been promulgated by King Cnut. David Rollason has drawn attention to the increased importance of the cults of other murdered royal saints in this period. Among these are the cults of King Ecgberht of Kent's nephews, whose lives form part of the Mildrith Legend, and those of the Mercian Saints Kenelm and Wigstan.
Later cult
During the sixteenth century and English Reformation, King Henry VIII led the dissolution of the monasteries and many holy places were demolished. Edward's remains were hidden so as to avoid desecration.
In 1931, the relics were recovered by Wilson-Claridge during an archaeological excavation; their identity was confirmed by Dr. T. E. A. Stowell, an osteologist. In 1970, examinations performed on the relics suggested that the young man had died in the same manner as Edward.[50] Wilson-Claridge wanted the relics to go to the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. His brother, however, wanted them to be returned to Shaftesbury Abbey. For decades, the relics were kept in a cutlery box in a bank vault at the Midland Bank in Woking, Surrey because of the unresolved dispute about which of two churches should have them.
In time, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia was victorious and placed the relics in a church in Brookwood Cemetery in Woking, with the enshrinement ceremony occurring in September 1984. The St Edward Brotherhood of monks was organized there as well. The church is now named St Edward the Martyr Orthodox Church, and it is under the jurisdiction of a traditionalist Greek Orthodox community. However, while the bones are of approximately the right date, they are of a man in his late twenties or early thirties rather than a youth in his mid teens.
In the Orthodox Church, St Edward is ranked as a Passion-bearer, a type of saint who accepts death out of love for Christ. Edward was widely venerated before the canonization process was formalized, and he is also regarded as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion. His feast day is celebrated on 18 March, the day of his murder. The Orthodox Church commemorates him a second time each year on 3 September and commemorates the translation of his relics into Orthodox possession on 13 February.
The Déisi
The Déisi were a socially powerful class of peoples from Ireland that settled in Wales and West England between the ancient and early medieval period. The various peoples listed under the heading déis shared the same status in Gaelic Ireland, and had little or no actual kinship, though they were often thought of as genetically related. During the Early Middle Ages some Déisi groups and subgroups exerted great political influence in various parts of Ireland, and certain written sources suggest a connection to Britain as well. During early medieval Munster, the Déisi were under the hegemony of the Eoganachta confederacy.
Etymology
Déisi is an Old Irish term that is derives from the word déis, which meant in its original sense a "vassal" or "subject", a designated group of people who were rent-payers to a landowner. Later, it became a proper noun for certain septs and their own subjects throughout Ireland.
History and contexts
The early histories of the Déisi groups are obscure. As a class that evolved from peoples tied by social status rather than kinship, groups had largely independent histories in different parts of Ireland. While some medieval texts attempt to give the Déisi an aristocratic origin, these are later fabrications dating to the period after the Déisi had gained political power. Despite their tributary origins, representatives of at least one Déisi population would eventually achieve spectacular success, founding a powerful medieval dynasty which is still in existence.
Déisi groups included the Déisi Muman (the Déisi of Munster), Déisi Temro (of Tara), Déisi Becc (located in the Kingdom of Mide) and the Déisi Tuisceart (the Northern Déisi; a sept of which would become famous as the Dál gCais).
Déisi Muman
The Déisi Muman were a prominent enough power to form their own regional kingdom in Munster from a fairly early date. In a recent title, Paul MacCotter states "The regional kingdom of Déisi Muman must have existed in roughly its present location from a very early period. Oghams dating perhaps from the fifth century record unique first names associated with its kings." According to Francis John Byrne, there are certain inscriptional hints that both the Eóganachta and their Waterford Déisi vassals may have been of fairly recent Gaulish origins. The ancestors of the Eóganachta are known as the Deirgtine and they are also believed to have been active in Roman Britain, one piece of evidence being the name of their capital Cashel, thought to be inspired by the Roman castella they observed on raids. The Déisi Muman enjoyed a position in the later Eóganachta overkingdom suggesting of a special relationship. Byrne mentions it was noticed by Eoin MacNeill that a number of the early names in the Eóganachta pedigrees are found in oghams in the Déisi country of Waterford, among them Nia Segamain (NETASEGAMONAS), after the Gaulish war god Segomo. According to MacNeill, the Waterford Déisi and the Eóganachta at Cashel "cannot well be disconnected".
The Uí Liatháin dynasty were western neighbors of the proto-Déisi Muman along the southern Irish coast and raided and colonized parts of Wales and Cornwall. They are the best characterized of the South Irish colonists because of clear references to them by name in both early Irish and early British sources, while a presence of the Déisi Muman cannot actually be confirmed. Also noted are the Laigin, particularly in North Wales.
Possible presence in Britain
The Déisi Muman are the subjects of one of the most famous medieval Irish epic tales, The Expulsion of the Déisi. This literary work, first written sometime in the 8th century, is a pseudo-historical foundation legend for the medieval Kingdom of Déisi Muman, which seeks to hide the historical reality that the kingdom's origins lay among the indigenous tributary peoples of Munster. To this end it attributes to "the Déisi" an entirely fictive royal ancestry at Tara. The term "Déisi" is used anachronistically in The Expulsion of the Déisi, since its chronologically confused narrative concerns "events" that long predate the historical development of déisi communities into distinct tribal polities or the creation of the kingdom of Déisi Muman. The epic tells the story of a sept called the Dal Fiachach Suighe, who are expelled from Tara by their kinsman, Cormac mac Airt, and forced to wander homeless. After a southward migration and many battles, part of the sept eventually settles in Munster.
At some point during this migration from Tara to Munster, one branch of the sept, led by Eochaid Allmuir mac Art Corb, sails across the sea to Britain where, it is said, his descendants later ruled in Demed, the former territory of the Demetae (modern Dyfed). The Expulsion of the Déisi is the only direct source for this "event". The historicity of this particular passage of the epic apparently receives partial "confirmation" from a pedigree preserved in the late 10th-century Harleian genealogies, in which the contemporary kings of Dyfed claim descent from Triphun (fl. 450), a great-grandson of Eochaid Allmuir, although the Harleian genealogy itself presents an entirely different version of Triphun's own ancestry in which he descends from a Roman imperial line traced back to St. Helena, whose alleged British origin the genealogist stresses. This manifest fiction apparently reflects a later attempt to fabricate a more illustrious and/or indigenous lineage for the Dyfed dynasty, especially as other Welsh genealogical material partially confirms the Irish descent of Triphun. If the relocation of some of the "Déisi" to Dyfed is indeed historical, it is unclear whether it entailed a large-scale tribal migration or merely a dynastic transfer, or both as part of a multi-phase population movement. However this movement is characterised, scholarship has demonstrated that it cannot have taken place as early as the date implied in The Expulsion of the Déisi (i.e. shortly after the blinding of Cormac mac Airt, traditionally dated AD 265), but must have begun during the second half of the 4th century at the earliest, while commencement in the sub-Roman period in the early 5th century cannot be excluded. It is further entirely possible that the historians and genealogists of the Déisi Muman were guilty of lifting these "verified" ancestors, who could have originally belonged to another Irish kindred entirely. Genealogical feats of this kind were famously performed by the Déisi Tuisceart or "Dál gCais".
The term déisi is also virtually interchangeable with another Old Irish term, aithechthúatha (meaning "rent-paying tribes", "vassal communities" or "tributary peoples"). From the 18th century it had been suggested that this term might be the origin of the Attacotti who are reported attacking Roman Britain in the 360s, although the argument has been doubted on etymological grounds. This argument has recently been reopened, however, by a proposed equation of déisi – aithechthúatha – Attacotti in a late 4th-century context.
Finally, MacNeill discusses the movements of the Uí Liatháin mentioned above at considerable length, arguing their leadership in the South Irish conquests and founding of the later dynasty of Brycheiniog, figures in the Welsh genealogies matching Uí Liatháin dynasts in the Irish genealogies. He argues any possible settlement of the Déisi would have been subordinate until the ousting of the Uí Liatháin by the sons of Cunedda.
Déisi Tuisceart
Byrne later discusses how the rise of the Dál gCais sept of Déisi Tuisceart in North Munster at the expense of the Eóganachta was not unlike the rise of that dynasty at the expense of the Dáirine several centuries before, and this may in fact have been the inspiration for Dál gCais claims. An earlier and frequently cited argument by John V. Kelleher is that this was a political scheme of the Uí Néill, Ireland's most dominant dynasty, whom he argues created the Kingdom of Thomond in the 10th century to further weaken the position of the already divided Eóganachta. If true, the Uí Néill were creating who would soon become their greatest military rivals in nearly the last four centuries, threatening Tara as much as Cashel. The Déisi Muman, on the other hand, remained prominent supporters of the Eóganachta throughout their career.
The movement of the Déisi Tuisceart into the modern County Clare is not documented, but it is commonly associated with the "annex" of the region to Munster after the decline of Uí Fiachrach Aidhne power in south Connacht. Byrne suggests this dates from the victory of the king of Cashel, Faílbe Flann mac Áedo Duib, over the celebrated king of Connacht Guaire Aidne mac Colmáin at the Battle of Carn Feradaig in 627.
A famous early 12th-century propaganda text detailing the rise of the Dál gCais is the Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib.
The Expulsion of the Déisi
The Expulsion of the Déisi is a medieval Irish narrative of the Cycles of the Kings. It dates approximately to the 8th century, but survives only in manuscripts of a much later date. It describes the fictional history of the Déisi, a group that had gained political power in parts of Ireland during the Early Middle Ages. Part of the text's purpose is to provide the kings of the Déisi – historically the descendants of unlanded vassals to other tribes – with a mythical noble origin as the heirs to a dynasty expelled from Tara.
The story survives in two different Old Irish versions, which contain essentially the same narrative supplemented by singular additions, including tangential episodes, lists of names, and poetry. After violently recovering his niece from the depredations of the king's son of Tara, Óengus Gaíbúaibthech and his followers are dispossessed by the king and sent to wander Ireland. They tarry in Leinster for a period, but are eventually expelled from that kingdom as well. When military prowess fails them, they are able to forge a home for themselves through cunning and magic in Munster against the Osraige. As with much early Irish literature, the digressive onomastic and genealogical material is of great value. In particular, one passage describes a Déisi branch settling in Britain and founding the Kingdom of Dyfed, a matter of some interest in the context of early Irish migrations to Britain.
Versions and manuscripts
The story survives in an earlier and a later version, which Kuno Meyer dubbed "A" and "B". The A version dates to the 8th century, but exists only in manuscripts of a significantly later date. It survives complete in Laud MS 610 and Rawlinson MS 502, and in fragmentary form in the Book of Uí Maine and the Liber Flavus Fergusiorum. Of the complete copies, Meyer notes that the Rawlinson text contains fewer errors, but that Laud preserves more archaic spelling. The B version survives in some form in three manuscripts. The oldest of these is a fragment contained in the Book of the Dun Cow; this copy is complemented by the later two, found in H. 3. 17 and H. 2. 5, allowing for reconstruction of the text. The H. 2. 5 copy further contains several poems absent from the other manuscripts.
The title is recorded variously in the manuscripts. Rawlinson contains Tairired na n'Déssi, or The Journeying of the Déisi.Laud records it as De causis torche n'Déssi/acuis toirge na n'Déssi. The word torche/toirge is obscure, but Meyer associates it with "expedition". The B manuscripts all contain some reference to the injury visited upon Cormac mac Airt, one of the characters: the Book of the Dun Cow has Tucait innarba na n'Dési im Mumain & aided Cormaic, H. 3. 17 has Cóechad Cormaic i Temraig, and H. 2. 5 has Tucaid cháetcha Cormaic do Aengus Gaibuaibtheach & aigeag Ceallaig & fotha indarbtha na nDeissi do Muig Breag]
A version
In the A version, the Déisi are led by the four sons of Artchorp: Brecc, Óengus Gaíbúaibthech (Óengus of the Dread Spear), Eochaid Allmuir (Eochaid the Foreigner), and Forad. Forad's daughter Forach is raped and kidnapped by Conn (elsewhere Cellach), the "wanton son" of Cormac maic Airt. Óengus, who leads a band of fifty men, goes to Tara to rescue her. When Conn refuses to release the girl, Óengus runs him through with his "dread spear", which blinds Cormac in one eye in the process. Because the law forbids a high king to have a physical blemish, Cormac must retire to a ráth outside Tara, and defer the kingship to his son Cairbre Lifechair. Undeterred, Cormac raises his forces against the Déisi and expels them from Tara. Óengus, together with his brother Brecc's sons Russ and Eogan, engages the king in seven battles. After forty days Óengus succeeds Brecc as king of the Déisi, but steps down due to "murmurs" about his consolidation of the power of both champion and king. Cormac will not give the Déisi a fair fight, and pushes them into Leinster, where the local ruler Fiachu Bacceda drives the Uí Bairrche from their land and gives it to the Déisi. They remain there for three decades.
Eventually the Uí Bairrche warrior Eochu Guinech ejects the Déisi and they are compelled to move further south into Ard Ladrann, thereafter known as the "Land of the Wandering Host". Section 8 tells the story of Ethne the Dread, daughter of then King of Leinster Crimthann mac Énnai (d. 483) and an eventual fosterling of the Déisi. At her birth a druid prophesies that under Ethne her mother's kindred will seize what will be their homeland; hearing this her parents feed her the flesh of young boys to accelerate her growth. Meanwhile, Cormac continues to harass Óengus and the Déisi, stirring up discord among their warriors and leaders. He sends a peace offer to Russ and Eogan, the sons of Brecc, offering them absolution and land if they return to his service. Óengus promises them yet more land and preeminence over his children for them to remain.
When Crimthann mac Énnai dies, his sons turn on the Déisi, driving them out of Leinster altogether. They settle briefly in Osraige, but the king burns down their houses, leaving them homeless and forced to wander west into Munster. They receive some relief when Óengus mac Nad Froích (d. 489), King of Munster, proposes to marry Ethne the Dread, who has been traveling with the Déisi. He offers to grant her any three demands as the dowry. Ethne requests land for her mother's kindred, fulfilling her prophecy; she also requests that Osraige be cleared of its inhabitants and given to the Déisi, and that her people be as free as the "three Eoganacht of Munster". Óengus grants her wishes, but the Déisi are unable to oust the residents of Osraige. With the help of Lugaid Laigde Cosc, the seer-judge of the Corcu Loígde and Cashel, they devise a trick: learning of a prophecy that whichever side draws first blood the next day will be routed, the Déisi druids transform one of their men into a red cow. The men of Osraige kill the cow, thereby sealing their fate; they are pushed across the Lingaun River, which thereafter serves as the border between the Déisi and Osraige. The Déisi divide up their land, and most of the remainder of the text lists names of individual Déisi and septs descended from them..
B version
The B version contains the same basic narrative, with significant additions and subtractions.
It likewise begins with the kidnapping of Forach by Cormac's son (here Cellach), but in this version Óengus is initially too busy avenging family insults with his famous spear to save her. It is only after he is rebuked for his dithering by a woman – whom he kills – that he rescues Forach, killing Cellach and blinding Cormac in the process. The story continues with the Déisi's expulsion from Tara, their sojourn in Leinster, and their patriation in Munster following the marriage arrangement between Ethne the Dread and Óengus mac Nad Froích. Here, however, aid in exploiting the prophecy that ultimately allows them to displace the men of Osraige comes not from a seer-judge, but from the "haughty daughter" of the Osraige druid who delivers the prognostication.
Of the material not in the A version, by far the most substantial is in a lengthy tangential episode dealing with the birth and childhood of Óengus' foster son Corc Duibne, progenitor of the Corcu Duibne, whose name is merely mentioned in A. Corc and his brother are born of incest to Coirpre Múse and Duihind, children of the king of Munster Conaire Cóem, and their nativity brings famine to the land. The people want them immolated, but Corc is saved by a druid and his wife who take him to an offshore island so that his curse is removed from Ireland. The druid's wife, Boí, performs purification rituals that ultimately transfer Corc's curse to an otherworldy white cow, allowing him to return to his family. Eventually he serves as hostage in Cormac mac Airt's court, where he is fostered by Óengus; he accompanies his foster father when he is expelled from Tara. He tries to convince the wandering Déisi to settle on the island of his rearing, and stays there when the Déisi opt to move on to Cashel.
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Originally Posted by Der Böse Wolf
{Think of it, as someone with the english society is giving my assassin extra data&help to help in doing the deed 
