Anglo-Saxon Open-Air Governance and the East Anglian Hundred Moots

with Dr Sam Newton

at the Old Court, Sutton Hoo (map)
on Saturday, 2nd November 2013.

Building on The Landscapes of Governance project at University College London ( www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/research/projects/assembly ), we shall explore the landscape of the early hundred moot sites of the Eastern Angles.

T he custom of holding important meetings, or moots, in the open air appears to have been widespread in early England and Scandinavia. The reason for this prefrence is suggested by Bede’s reference to the famous meeting in 597 between Æthelberht, King of Kent, and the newly arrived missionary from Rome, Augustine, on the island of Thanet.

Such outdoor moots were usually held at fixed places in the landscape and the clearest, though largely unexplored, examples are those pertaining to the shires and hundreds. We shall look at Anglo-Saxon and Norse assembly sites in general before exploring the East Anglian hundreds in particular.

Sam Newton was awarded his Ph.D. in 1991 and is the author of The Origins of Beowulf and the pre-Viking Kingdom of East Anglia (1993) and The Reckoning of King Rædwald (2003). He has lectured widely around the country as an independent scholar and has contributed to many radio and television programmes. He is also a Director of Wuffing Education, NADFAS lecturer, and Time Team historian.

Anderson, Olof S., The English Hundred Names (Lund 1934) – you can download this essential work in three .pdf files from UCL www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/research/projects/assembly/ElectronicAnderson
Arnott, W.G., The Place-Names of the Deben Valley Parishes (Ipswich 1946)
Cam, H., Liberties and Communities in Medieval England (London 1963)
Reynolds, A., Later Anglo-Saxon England: Life & Landscape (Tempus 1999)
Scarfe, N., The Suffolk Landscape (Hodder & Stoughton 1972, Alastair 1986)
Sturluson, Snorri, Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway, tr. Lee M. Hollander, American-Scandinavian Foundation (Austin, Texas, 1964)
Sturluson, Snorri, Heimskringla: The Norse Kings Sagas, Everyman Library, 3 vols, tr.S.Laing (London 1844) – also at http://omacl.org/Heimskringla/
Warner, P., The Origins of Suffolk (Manchester 1996)
Williamson, T., The Origins of Norfolk (Manchester 1993)

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