POLITICAL HISTORY 



THE area now known as the county of Durham was formerly part of 

 the Bernician Province of the kingdom of Northumbria, and was 

 described as having been in the seventh century ' a waste wilder- 

 ness, the habitation of animals, and therefore subject to no man's 

 sway.'* Of its early history whilst part of Northumbria but little is known. 

 Whilst the evidence of place names indicates but slight traces of Danish 

 settlement in Durham and Northumberland,^ the invasion of Halfdene in 

 875 has left a permanent mark — the transfer of the seat of the great northern 

 diocese from Lindisfarne to the district south of the Tyne. In 883, after 

 several years of wandering, Bishop Eardulf and the congregation of St. Cuth- 

 bert settled at Chester-le-Street, under the youthful King Guthred, a converted 

 Dane, who had succeeded the pagan Halfdene as king of Northumbria. 

 Guthred gave to St. Cuthbert (and the grant is said to have been confirmed 

 by King Alfred) the whole of the district lying between the rivers Wear and 

 Tyne, with sac and soc and infangthief. Thus was laid the foundation 

 of the franchise which ultimately developed into the Palatinate of Durham." 



During the period (883-995) that the seat of the bishopric was settled 

 at Chester-le-Street the power of Northumbria declined. In the seventh 

 century, after Oswy's victory over Penda, the Northumbrian kingdom, 

 stretching possibly from Aberdeen to near the Wash, was the predominant 

 state in Britain, and Bamburgh seemed destined to become the capital of 

 England. By the end of the ninth century it had sunk to the level of an 

 earldom. The earls, however, enjoyed an independence and exercised powers 

 almost as extensive as the Danish kings, whose rule ceased on Eric's death in 

 954. In the year 995 the seat of the ancient see of Lindisfarne was trans- 

 ferred to Durham. According to Simeon the reason for this transfer was the 

 fear of a Danish raid. In the spring of 995 Bishop Aldhun, warned, Simeon 

 informs us, of the irruption about to be made by some pirates {piratarum), 

 fled with the congregation of St. Cuthbert to Ripon. After three or four 

 months, peace being restored, they started on their return journey, but, when 

 near the site of the present city, it was revealed to one of their number that 

 Durham should become the resting-place of St. Cuthbert. The work of 

 preparing the site of the future city was performed by the inhabitants of the 

 district between the rivers Coquet and Tees, under the supervision of Uchtred 

 the son of Waltheof, the earl of Northumbria.* It is possible that the Scots 

 were responsible for the transfer of the see from Chester-le-Street to Durham. 

 For over a century there had been a fierce struggle for the possession of the 



' Simeon, Hist. Eccl. Dun. (Rolls Ser.), i, 339. ' Hodgkin, Political Hist, of Engl, to 1066, p. 316. 



' Simeon, op. cit. i, 70. For early grants of land to St. Cuthbert, see ' Historia de Sancto Cutiiberto,' 

 best studied for the purpose in Hodgson Hinde's edition of Simeon, Hist. Eccl. Dun. (Surtees Soc), I 38 et seq.; 

 also Hardy's preface to Kellaw's Register (Rolls Ser.), i, p. Ix. 



' For a fuller description of the foundation of Durham see ' Eccl. Hist.' ante, 7. 



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