The Heroic Age

by H. Munro Chadwick

In spite of what has been said above there is some evidence for the existence of councils consisting of a fixed number of men, namely twelve, whose position may have differed somewhat from that of the ordinary members of the court[552]. The Old Saxons had a council of twelve which met annually at a place called Marklo, on the Weser; but this case stands by itself, as the Old Saxons had no king. In Sweden however we meet with such councils both in tradition and in historical times, and what we know of them indicates that they were composed of the chief men. Moreover councils of twelve for judicial purposes occur both in provinces and small districts in various parts of the Scandinavian peninsula, as well as in the Scandinavian settlements in the British Isles. The gods too were credited with possessing a council of twelve which had both judicial and sacrificial duties[553]—a fact which is interesting as it points to a connection between the councils of which we have been speaking and bodies of twelve with sacrificial duties, of which we hear in stories relating to heathen times. If we take into account the legend of the twelve Frisian judges (asegen) and the fact that councils of twelve are known to have existed among the Celts and other European peoples, we can scarcely doubt that this type is of great antiquity. Yet there is nothing to show that such councils were at all general during the Heroic Age; in England they seem to be entirely unknown before the period of Scandinavian influence. It is probable therefore that in this, as in other respects, the Swedes had preserved an institution which other kingdoms had discarded.

From the stories quoted above we see that it was customary for the king to consult his council or court when any question involving difficulty or danger arose; and there can be little doubt that he would feel his position strengthened by so doing. But we have no reason for supposing that the opinion of the council possessed anything more than moral force; and consequently it would depend upon the king's strength of character or the security of his position whether he felt himself bound to follow their advice or not. Procopius (Goth. I 2) states that Amalaswintha was coerced by the leading men of the Goths with regard to her son's education; but she was only a regent at this time. Again, in another passage (ib. IV 27) he relates how Hildigisl, a claimant to the Langobardic throne, fled for refuge to Thorisin (Turisindus), king of the Gepidae. Audoin, king of the Langobardi, demanded that he should be given up; and his request was supported by Justinian. Thorisin consulted his distinguished men (οἱ λόγιμοι), but they replied that it would be better for the whole nation of the Gepidae to perish than to commit such an act of sacrilege. The king now, says Procopius, felt himself to be in a great difficulty. For he could not carry out what was demanded against the will of his subjects, and at the same time he was afraid to go to war against the Romans and Langobardi. So he contrived to get the fugitive murdered secretly, obtaining a quid pro quo in the murder of one of his own rivals. It must be observed that Thorisin himself had obtained the throne by violence. So the young Radiger, when he was captured and brought before the English princess, pleaded that he had been forced to renounce his promise to her by his father's commands and the insistence of the leading men (τὴν τῶν ἀρχόντων σπουδήν). Genseric on the other hand dismissed the envoys in accordance with the old councillor's advice; but we are told that both of them were ridiculed by the rest of the Vandals for so doing. Plainly then there was no question of having to follow the opinion of the majority.

It might naturally be expected that the authority of the council would make itself felt most on the occasion of the king's death; and the story of Radiger seems to bear this out. Yet it is worth noticing what is recorded in Beowulf on an occasion of great emergency. Hygelac, king of the Geatas, lost his life in the disastrous expedition against the Frisians and left an only son, Heardred, who seems to have been scarcely more than a child. Beowulf escaped from the slaughter, and on his return (v. 2369 ff.) "Hygd offered him the treasury and the government, the rings and the throne. She trusted not that her child would be able to hold his patrimony against foreign nations, now that Hygelac was dead." There is no reference to any action on the part of the council or court; but the queen offers the throne to the late king's nephew. The whole passage seems to indicate that the throne with all its rights was regarded very much like any ordinary family property. Its disposition is arranged by the family itself, without any notion of responsibility to others; and the members of the court are not taken into account any more than the servants in a private household.

It may perhaps be argued that court poets would be apt to exaggerate the power of the royal family and consequently that the picture of its authority given here is misleading. Yet Amalaswintha, who was a contemporary of Hygelac, appears to have acted on her own authority when she associated Theodahath, the nephew of Theodric, in the sovereignty with herself after her son's death. There is other evidence also which goes to show that this passage truly reflects the spirit of the times. In the story of Radiger we see how a young princess was able to gather together a huge army and bring about a sanguinary struggle between two nations on account of an insult offered to her by a neighbouring king. Again, Paulus Diaconus (Hist. Lang. I 20) states that the war between the Heruli and the Langobardi was due to the murder of the Herulian king's brother by a Langobardic princess. Even if this story is untrue, it is significant enough that it should obtain credit. To the prominent part played by women in determining the destinies of nations we have already alluded (p. [337] f.). In particular we may call attention to the position of Fredegond and Brunhild, who after the deaths of their husbands practically ruled the kingdom of the Franks. In the seventh century Hygd's action in disposing of the kingdom is easily outdone by Sexburg, the widow of the West Saxon king Coenwalh, who is said to have kept the throne for herself.

There is no doubt of course that the ease with which kings and princes were able to draw their nations into war was due largely to the restless spirit which animated their retinues. Sometimes indeed they appear to have been drawn into war against their own inclination. Procopius (Goth. II 14) differs from Paulus Diaconus in the cause which he assigns for the outbreak of the war between the Heruli and Langobardi. According to him it was due entirely to the fact that the Heruli could not endure a peace of more than three years duration, and consequently forced their king into hostilities. The Frankish king Lothair I is said by Gregory (IV 14) to have been driven into a disastrous campaign against the Saxons from the same cause. In this direction then we may certainly recognise the influence of the court; but the pressure probably came not from the old councillors, but from the younger men who hoped to gain riches and glory thereby.

This brings us to the question of international relations. What is said in the opening verses of Beowulf regarding Scyld Scefing, the eponymous ancestor of the Danish royal family, may probably be taken as a standard description of a typical successful king of the Heroic Age: "He deprived many dynasties of their banqueting halls ... and gained glory after glory, until every one of his neighbours across the whale's road had to obey him and pay him tribute." With increasing wealth however the love of peace frequently reasserted itself, especially perhaps towards the end of the period, by which time the kingdoms had materially decreased in number and consequently increased in size. We now see alliances more and more taking the place of conquest. Theodric organised an alliance not only with the Visigoths but also with the kings of the Thuringians, Heruli and Warni, which extended his influence from the Mediterranean to the North Sea; and his name seems to have carried weight as far as the eastern part of the Baltic. In Beowulf too we see the nations of the Baltic dealing with one another for the most part on friendly terms.

That such alliances were primarily of a personal rather than a national character is shown in two ways. In the first place they were often cemented by marriage. Thus two of Theodric's daughters were married to Alaric, king of the Visigoths, and Sigismund, king of the Burgundians, respectively, his sister to Thrasamund, king of the Vandals, and his niece to Irminfrith, king of the Thuringians, while Theodric himself married a sister of Clovis. We have seen (p. [98]) that similar marriages were contracted by the kings of the Warni, while the Frankish royal family was intermarried with those of practically all the surrounding nations. In the North the same custom seems to have prevailed, for in Beowulf one of the Swedish kings, probably Onela, is married to a sister of the Danish king Hrothgar. The term friðuwebbe (usually interpreted as 'weaver of peace'), which we find applied to ladies of royal rank in Anglo-Saxon poetry, probably owes its origin to this bond of union between kingly families. Such marriages seem to have sometimes taken place after a war, as in the case of Ingeld and Freawaru in Beowulf.

Secondly, we hear of kings entering into a relationship called 'fatherhood' and 'sonship' with other kings. For an example we may cite one of Cassiodorus' letters (Var. IV 2), addressed to a king of the Heruli and informing him that Theodric creates him his 'son in arms' (filius per arma), which is a great honour[554]. The letter is accompanied by a valuable present of arms and horses. Parallels are to be found in much later times. We may refer to the Saxon Chronicle, ann. 924, where the Scottish king (Constantine II) and several other princes in northern Britain accept Edward the Elder as 'father and lord.' It is scarcely to be doubted that in such cases the 'son' is expected to render assistance to the 'father' when required. The king of the Heruli appears to have been in alliance with Theodric[555], while Malcolm I, the successor of Constantine II, was under an engagement with Edmund to be his "cooperator both by sea and by land[556]." The imperium which Bede (H. E. II 5) ascribes to several English kings in all probability involved somewhat similar obligations; and it rested without doubt upon an acceptance of lordship, if not of fatherhood.

After the establishment of overlordship the next stage is that in which the smaller kingdoms are annexed and incorporated by the larger ones—generally in consequence of a revolt. The place of the native king or kings is often taken at first by a member of the victorious dynasty; but such arrangements were seldom lasting, and before long the national organisation was abolished. The completion of this process on the Continent belongs of course to times subsequent to the Heroic Age, while in this country it took place still later. But we can see such changes going on within the Heroic Age itself. At the end of the period the number of Teutonic kingdoms on the Continent was quite small. Several however, such as those of the Alamanni, the Burgundians and the Thuringians, had disappeared within the last half century; in the fourth century they were probably far more numerous. Many of them may have been quite insignificant, like the petty kingdoms which are said to have existed in Norway—eight apparently in the district of Trondhjem alone—down to the time of Harold the Fair-haired. Several of the nations which figure prominently in Tacitus' works had perhaps disappeared still earlier. At all events they are never mentioned either in historical works or traditions referring to the Heroic Age.