Strathclyde and the Anglo-Saxons in the Viking Age

The acclaimed medievalist examines the rise and fall of the last kingdom of the North Britons and their influence on the Anglo-Saxons. During the Viking period, the Kingdom of Strathclyde stretched across what is now southern Scotland and northern England. Also known as Cumbria, its kings ruled from Govan on the outskirts of present-day Glasgow. Shining a spotlight on these North Britons, or "Cumbrians, " this volume chronicles their relations with Anglo-Saxon England from the ninth to eleventh centuries AD. In the tenth century, Strathclyde extended its rule southward from Clydesdale to the Solway Firth, bringing their language and culture to a region that had been in English hands for more than two hundred years. They played a key role in the political events of the time, from leading their armies in battle to forging treaties and preserve a fragile peace. The extensive Cumbrian realm was eventually conquered by the Scots, but is still memorialized today by the English county of Cumbria. How this county acquired the name of a long-vanished kingdom centered on the River Clyde is one of the mysteries explored in this book. The story of Strathclyde and the Anglo-Saxons is an important chapter in the saga of England and Scotland as they emerged from the Dark Ages as the countries we know today.