EAST LOTHIAN – THE FIRST MILLENIUM
I used to wonder about the dark ages, the time after the Romans left Britain, i.e., what is now known as England. But what of Scotland’s and East Lothian’s jousts with Romans in pre-dark ages?
It is now believed that Scotland had the earliest Roman frontier. When Julius Agricola, who became emperor of Britain in AD 78 headed Rome’s first futile push northwards after his welsh campaign.
After getting past Dunblane and Perth, his troops were thought to have built a 20-mile long series of forts and watchtowers known as the Gask ridge, about AD 80.
The Romans were assumed to have only been able to stay in Scotland for about 18 months. But now that site has been excavated by archaeologists, the finds at the site indicate that the forts were set up a decade earlier which predates the earliest the oldest previously thought frontier in Germany by around 15 years, so how long were the Romans in Scotland? If this is true about the date of the Gask Ridge then it is doubtful that Agricola was the first Roman Emperor in Scotland. Dr Wooliscroft says this surely points to an earlier invasion by Petelius Cerealas, who was probably the greatest general in the entire roman empire at that time, who he believes arrived fresh from putting down a bloody uprising in Holland and that it was he who made the first push north and build the forts on the Gask ridge in Perthshire.
Their next foray into Scotland was 60 years after they tried to colonise Perthshire, when they again invaded to build the Antonine wall between the Forth and Clyde and hoping to annexe and keep all the rich farmlands to the south.
They took 8 years to build the Antonine wall but only held it another 8 years as they were under constant assault from Celts and Picts who were also out flanking the wall by sailing around the ends and getting in behind them. So the Romans abandoned the wall and fled south where the natives were friendlier but of course the Romans couldn’t seek safety behind Hadrian’s Wall, as it wasn’t started until 40 years later.
As far as East Lothian was concerned, the hill forts like Traprain Law and the Votatini people who lived here seemed to accept the Roman presence without too much trouble between them.
According to the contemporary historian Ammianus Marcellinus who says that the Saxons invaded the roman province of Britain as early as AD 360 but not how soon after they invaded Scotland. But the presence of Frisians in Dumfriesshire possibly before AD 400. The leaders of the Frisians, Octa and Ebissa could have been established in Lothian AD 500; and at any rate, Angles and Frisians i.e. men from the swamps and plains around the Weser, Rhine and Scheldt rivers had spread from the river Tees to the shores of East Lothian by AD 547. Ida, ‘the Flame bearer’ set up the kingdom of Northumbria soon after.
The Forth Estuary used to be called the Frith of Forth and the name Frith itself was written on old maps as mare Freisicum on Frisian Sea and a district on the south side of the Forth which could have been on the East Lothian shore was known long as the ‘Frisian Shore’. Frisians were of course the Dutch or low Germans of Holland and and Hanover in modern terms of course.
It is said that Lothian was for 400 years (560 – 960 and perhaps a good deal later) an integral part of England, forming the northern half of the Northumbrian kingdom of Bernicia. But it can hardly have been so purely English as historians like Freeman thinks, because according to King Constantine II, who ruled Scotland, which was known as Alba at the time and ruled from AD 900-940, the consensus was that the Lothians had come under his control before the end of his reign.
Although it must be said that Southeast Scotland, including East Lothian was an integral part of the see (Bishopric) of Durham into the 11th century on the cession of Lothian in AD 1020 to the Scottish King and the jurisdiction of the Bishop of St. Andrews was established in this district.
This must have come about after the battle of Carham on Tweed when the Scots won a decisive battle with the Northumbrians, which also fixed the border where it is now.
In AD 500, Boece asserts that about this period, Loth king of Picts gave his name to the Lothians which then formed part of Pictland; while others say that the Saxon settlers at a later date gave it the name of Lothian because of it’s situation on a disputed frontier.
Towards the end of the fifth century, St Colme preached the faith of the cross in Lothian. Kentigern (who later became St.Mungo) heard him preach before Brudeus, King of the Picts, when he was so taken by his words that he was instantly converted.
Kentigern was the son of Thametis, daughter of Loth, King of the Picts by Eugene the Scottish King. Kentigern was succeeded in Lothian by Baldred, one of his disciples, who appears to have been the first Christian priest in east Lothian.
Around AD 600, a Saxon monastery of St.Baldred was established at Tyninghame.
AD 606-7 Baldred, Scottish priest and confessor, died while residing on the Bass rock, the three neighbouring parishes of OldHame, Tyninghame and Preston laid claim to his remains when to settle the disputes in a convenient manner. His body is recorded to have assumed polypuses power, (Greek ‘polu’ meaning ‘many’) and such was the credulity of the age that they believed or were made to believe that he was buried in three different villages.
AD 815 – Around this time, Athelstane, a Northumbrian prince or chief, having invaded Lothian was defeated by Hungus, King of the Picts, at a rivulet near the village of Athelstaneford, which hence it derived it’s name. The legend states that Hungus and his army beheld the sign of the cross in the heavens as a token of victory: which emblem they afterward adapted as their ensign armorial.
There is always some truth in legends but whether this is entirely true I cannot say. I have seen other dates for this battle and the name could have been given by Saxon settlers who gave it to the place, and also, I would have thought that in the 9th Century the Picts were more likely to have been the invaders. (Motherwell 2003).
In AD 856, the Castle of Dunbar was burnt by Kenneth, King of Alba, who is said to have conferred it upon a valiant captain of the name of Bar, for his services against the Picts; hence the fortress acquired it’s name.
In AD 968, the men of Lothian, under the captains Dunbar and Graham, restored the victory to Indulph when nearly defeated by the Danes in Buchan. This shows that the surname of Dunbar existed before that of the potent family we will shortly have occasion to notice.
In 1020, the Saxon settlers in East Lothian were ceded to the Scottish king. Eadulf Cudel, was the brother and successor to the Northumbrian earl Uchtred.
Mr. David J. Motherwell