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Wihtwara

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Whitwara
5th century–7th century
CapitalCarisbrooke
Common languagesOld English (Englisc)
Religion
Paganism
GovernmentTribal Kingdom
History 
• Established
5th century
• Disestablished
7th century
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Sub Roman Britain
Kingdom of Wessex

The Whitwara were one of the tribes of Anglo-Saxon Britain. Their territory was a tribal kingdom located on the Isle of Wight before it was conquered by the Kingdom of Wessex in the late seventh century. The tribe's name is preserved in the name of the eponymous island.

Etymology

The origin of the root Whit is uncertain, though it likely derives from gweiθ, a proto-Brythonic, word for “fortification, earthwork or fort.”[1] [a] The suffix -wara is the genitive plural of the Old English noun waru, which means "those that care for, watch, guard, protect, or defend." The literal translation of Whitwara is thus “the defenders of the fortification” and was the tribe's endonym.[2] [3] [b] [c] [4]

Origins

The Whitwara were Jutes,[5] an amalgam of Cimbri, Teutons, Gutones and Charudes[d] called Eudoses, [6] Eotenas,[7] Iutae[8] or Euthiones[9] in other sources.[e] This ethnic distinction was recorded by Bede in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People in the early eight century:

" Those who came over were of the three most powerful nations of Germany—Saxons, Angles, and Jutes. From the Jutes are descended the people of Kent, and of the Isle of Wight, and those also in the province of the West Saxons who are to this day called Jutes, seated opposite to the Isle of Wight."

— Bede 1910, 1.15

Attributions to Wihtgar and Stuf as the earliest kings[10] are examples of non-historical founding myths [11] and have been disproven by archaeology.[12] [f] They appear to have acted initially as foederati to the Visigoths much as the Visigoths acted as foederati to Ancient Rome.

History

The Anglo-Saxon settlements of south east Britain c. 572 AD

Settlement patterns on the island - known as Vectis[13] - suggest the prosperity of local agriculture based on the villa system during the Roman era.[14] Exports of hides, slaves, hunting dogs, grain, cattle, silver, gold, and iron[13] were made from a port at Brading[15] until the collapse of Roman authority during the Great Conspiracy of 367-368 AD.[16]

There is some indication of a small Geatish kingdom emerging on the island, likely called the Kingdom of Vectis. Archaeology has confirmed Germanic burials at Bowcombe and Gatcombe that took place at least 50 years before the dates suggested by historical sources,[12] concurrent with Honorius's award of land in Gallia Aquitania to the Visigoths in 418 AD. They in turn appear to have occupied and/or fortified nearby Carisbrooke and within the next few decades established colonies across the Solent on the mainland. Circa 476 AD a Geatish component appears on the island and in Hampshire.[17] [g]

Across the English Channel there was a short-lived attempt to maintain a Romano-Germanic political structure in the region prior to the coming of the Franks. The Kingdom of Soissons - Regnum Romanorum - occupied northern Gaul from 457–486 AD while the Visigothic Kingdom - Regnum Gothorum, also known as the Kingdom of Toulouse - occupied southern Gaul from 418-507 AD. This arrangement fell to Frankish power with the Battle of Soissons and the Battle of Vouillé at the end of the fifth and beginning of the sixth centuries, respectively. The fledgling Kingdom of Vectis was isolated as a result.

Aside from the mythical kings of Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, no kings of the Whitwara are known save the final one. Arwald was reportedly killed resisting an invasion in 686 AD by King Caedwalla of Wessex.[18] He appears to have been a real historical figure, and the stories of his sons escaping to the Great Ytene Forest at New Forest only to be betrayed and put to death[4] have the ring of historical truth. The genealogies serve a political purpose and are probably interpolations.

The rise of the Kingdom of Wessex seems to be linked with the decline of Visigothic authority in Hampshire after 517 AD, with the West Saxons taking advantage of their losses in Gaul to the emerging Frankish Empire. In the late 680s AD the West Saxons moved southward and absorbed the Jutish lands in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. The former seemed to be a relatively peaceful affair while the latter was particularly brutal.[19] [h] The subsequent establishment of the very large trading settlement at Hamwic suggests that control over the Solent was the motivating factor in the conquest of the Jutish folklands.[20]

Notes

  1. ^ Known as gweith, gwyeth and gwezh in the daughter languages of Welsh, Cornish and Breton, respectively.
  2. ^ The genitive plural of its exonym - Ytene, and its subsequent variation Itchen - is relatively common in Hampshire but absent from the Isle of Wight. This may indicate a more substantial Visigothic component on the island than on the mainland.
  3. ^ During the invasion of the island in 686 AD King Caedwalla of Wessex "endeavoured to destroy all the inhabitants" and replace them with his own followers. The Jutes, however, remained the majority population.
  4. ^ Jutes were a Gutonic rather than an Ingaevonic people.
  5. ^ Perhaps with a substantial Visigothic component as well, given their proximity to Visigothic Gaul and the insularity of the island.
  6. ^ More interesting is the Brittonic elements of the myth, with the names of Cerdic of Wessex and his founding tribe (the Gewisse) both stemming from that language. The latter comes from the same root as Whitwara - gweiθ - and suggests the tribe's origins in defense of another fortification in Sub-Roman Britain.
  7. ^ Yarmouth and Gatcombe appear to be Geatish settlements. Godshill and Yaverland appear to be Gothic. Yafford may be Jutish; the hamlets of Arreton and Horringford appear to be Jutish as well and may indicate an origin from Årre and Hjorring in Jutland.
  8. ^ This dichotomy was probably due to a Visigothic-Jutish stronghold on the Isle of Wight.

References

  1. ^ R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “gwaith”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies
  2. ^ Wolfram Euler: Das Westgermanische – von der Herausbildung im 3. bis zur Aufgliederung im 7. Jahrhundert — Analyse und Rekonstruktion (West Germanic: From its Emergence in the 3rd Century to its Split in the 7th Century: Analyses and Reconstruction). 244 p., in German with English summary, London/Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-9812110-7-8.
  3. ^ * Time Team - Season 9, Episode 13 - Seven Buckets And A Buckle (New Forest, Hampshire).
  4. ^ a b Bede, History of the English Church and People 4, 16
  5. ^ Leonard Neidorf, "The Dating of Widsith and the Study of Germanic Antiquity," Neophilologus (January 2013)
  6. ^ Tacitus, Germania, Germania.XLV
  7. ^ Stuhmiller, Jacqueline (1999). "On the Identity of the "Eotenas"". Neuphilologische Mitteilungen. Modern Language Society. 100 (1): 7–14. JSTOR 43315276.
  8. ^ Martin, Kevin M. (1971). "Some Textual Evidence Concerning the Continental Origins of the Invaders of Britain in the Fifth Century". Latomus. 30 (1): 83–104. JSTOR 41527856.
  9. ^ Stenton, F. M. (1971). Anglo-Saxon England 3rd edition. Oxford: OUP. ISBN 978-0-19-280139-5.
  10. ^ Brewer's Britain & Ireland: The History, Culture, Folklore and Etymology of 7500 Places in These Islands. Ayto, John; Crofton, Ian. Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006
  11. ^ Ingram, James Henry (1823). The Saxon chronicle, with an English Translation and Notes, Critical and Explanatory. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster-Row.
  12. ^ a b Archaeological Resource Assessment of the Isle of Wight: Early Medieval period. Compiled by Ruth Waller, Isle of Wight County Archaeology Service, August 2006 Oxford Archaeology.
  13. ^ a b "Roman Vectis". Imperivm Romanvm Wiki - Vectis. Retrieved 5 May 2022.
  14. ^ The Journal of the British Archaeological Association (PDF). December 1866. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 November 2016. Retrieved 28 November 2016.
  15. ^ "British Roman Ports miles away from the coast – when sea levels are rising". Prehistoric Britain. Prehistoric Britain. 7 March 2021. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
  16. ^ Ammianus Marcellinus, Rerum Gestarum (English) (ed. John C. Rolfe, Ph.D., Litt.D.)
  17. ^ Frassetto, Michael (2003). Encyclopedia of Barbarian Europe: Society in Transformation. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-57607-263-9.
  18. ^ "Britannia: The AngloSaxon Chronicle". www.britannia.com. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
  19. ^ * Time Team - Season 9, Episode 13 - Seven Buckets And A Buckle (New Forest, Hampshire).
  20. ^ Kings and Kingdoms of early Anglo-Saxon England. Yorke, Barbara A. E. (London: 1990).
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