CHAPTER IV.

Norwich in the Anglo-Saxon Period.

THE destruction of all documents relating to East Anglia, during the irruptions of the Danes, has rendered this period the most obscure of any period of our history. The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes having subjugated the fair territory of England, they divided it into seven kingdoms, called the Heptarchy, in which Norfolk formed a part of East Anglia. The Anglo-Saxon leader, Uffa, established himself in this part of the island, in 575; and assumed dominion over that portion of the eastern district now divided into Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire, giving it the name of East Anglia, of which Norwich was made the metropolis. Norwich was, therefore, a royal city, and the residence of the kings. Uffa, the first king, is supposed to have formed here a strong entrenchment of earth on the site of the present castle, encircled by broad ramparts and a ditch, as under the present Saxon arch. Uffa, who died A.D. 578, was succeeded by his son Titul; on whose demise, in 599, his son Redwald assumed the reins of government and embraced Christianity, but by the influence of his wife renounced it again. He was succeeded, A.D. 624, by his son Erpenwald, who was killed by a relation named Richbert, A.D. 633. His half brother Sigebert, who succeeded to the crown, established the bishopric of Dunwich, in Suffolk, and formed the first seminary for religious instruction, which led to the establishment of the university in Cambridge. Fatigued with the crown and its cares, he resigned it, A.D. 644, to his kinsman Egric, and retired into the famous monastery at Bury St. Edmund’s.

Norwich then became one of the chief seats of Anna, king of the East Angles, who gave the castle, with the lands belonging to it, to his daughter Ethelfrida on her marriage with Tombert, a prince of the _Gyrvii_ or Fenmen, who inhabited the fens of Lincolnshire and the adjacent parts of Norfolk. At the same time Tombert granted to Ethelfrida, as a marriage settlement, the isle of Ely, which for greater security was to be held by castle guard service to the castle of Norwich.

From the time of Anna till the reign of Alfred the Great there are few events on record except the frequent incursions of the piratical Danes, who at last over-ran East Anglia, and had their head quarters at Thetford in 870. But the reign of the Great Alfred was distinguished by his decisive victories over those Northern marauders. One of his chief objects was to fortify the principal parts of his kingdom against hostile attacks. Finding the walls or ramparts of Norwich Castle too weak for repelling the attacks of the Danes, he caused others to be erected with the most durable materials. That it was a noted military station, and a royal castle in his time, is evident from a coin struck here in the year 872, having round the head _AElfred Rex_, and on the reverse _Northwic_. After making peace with the Danes in 878, he assigned to them, for their residence, the whole of East Anglia, and their leader Guthrum fixed his seat at Norwich; but, breaking his faith, the city and county were wrested from him, and reverted again to the Angles under six successive sovereigns.

Edward the Elder succeeded his father, the illustrious Alfred, in the year 901, and kept the Danes at bay. Ericke, one of their chiefs, held East Anglia under the king, till he rebelled in 913, when he was overthrown and slain. Athelstan, who succeeded Edward, totally expelled the Danes, and reduced the whole kingdom under his government. In his reign Norwich flourished, and it is probable that he was here in 925, for a coin still extant has on the obverse _Ethalstan_, and on the reverse “_Barbe Mon Northwic_,” that is “Barbe, mint master of Norwich.” Among the other East Anglian coins struck here, the following may be mentioned; one of Edmund, the successor of Athelstan, inscribed round the head _Edmund Rex_, and on the reverse _Edgar Mon Northwic_; several of Edred, coined about 946, and inscribed round the head _Eadred Rex_, and on the reverse _Hanne Mo Northwic_; two of Edward the Martyr, having on the obverse _Edward Rex. Angl._ and on the reverse _Leofwine Mon Nor._; and three of Ethelred the Unready, having on the obverse _Edelred Rex_.

There is no account of the castle after the time of Anna till the Danish wars; and then it was often won and lost by the contending powers.

Blomefield, in his History of Norfolk, vol. II. p. 4, notices the coins of several Anglo-Saxon princes, Alfred, Athelstan, Edmund I., Edred, Edward the Martyr, and Ethelred II. The circumstance of Alfred coining money here is remarkable, as at the date of this coinage, (872) the government of East Anglia could only have just come into his hands, upon the extinction of the East Anglian dynasty in the person of St. Edmund, and the country either was or had just been in the military possession of the Danes.

During the reign of Athelstan the city appears to have been in a flourishing state. In the reign of Edward, 941, and his successor Edred, 945, it greatly increased in wealth and extent. The greater part of the city was then built on the north side of the river Wensum, with a small population. The city is certainly of Anglo-Saxon origin, but as an Anglo-Saxon city it was destroyed by the Danes, and no vestiges remain of its Anglo-Saxon buildings, excepting, perhaps, one or two round towers of churches.