POLITICAL HISTORY 



sence of direct evidence, certain deductions may be drawn. The Roman 

 city of Luguvallum, or Luguvallium as it is called on the itinerary of 

 Antonine, now known as Carlisle, 1 never lost its identity amid all the 

 changes and chances of tribal wars. One of the political legacies that 

 Rome left behind in Britain was the organization of cities as the centres 

 of local authority for the surrounding territory. There is every reason 

 to believe that Luguvallum, which was close to Hadrian's wall in a situa- 

 tion with great natural advantages for defence and or easy access from 

 the Romanized district to the south, formed the centre of a territorial 

 rule which was not obliterated by the departure of the legions, but which 

 was carried on by the native population and may have had something to 

 do indirectly with the ultimate evolution of the modern county. Of 

 all the Roman sites in this corner of the empire, Luguvallum is the 

 only political organism of importance that has survived. The district 

 in the neighbourhood had no distinctive designation except what it re- 

 ceived from its territorial association with the city. The Roman name 

 continued, though the language of the inhabitants had changed. When 

 the light of genuine history falls on the district, the city of Lugubalia is 

 revealed as a place of strength and a centre of settled government. It 

 is not known at what date or by what king the English conquest was 

 pushed to the western sea, but at some time in the seventh century, 

 earlier or later, the western districts from the Solway to the Mersey had 

 passed under English dominion. The Northumbrian supremacy was a 

 very real thing at that period. Lands in Lancashire between the Ribble 

 and the Cocker 2 were bestowed on Wilfrid about 666-9, an d the see of 

 Lindisfarne was endowed by King Ecgfrith in 685 3 with the city of 

 Lugubalia, then called Luel, and a circuit of fifteen miles around it. 

 Bede gave no name to the land in which the city was situated, but he 

 speaks as if it were the centre of a flourishing English community in 

 which the ecclesiastical organizations had reached a high standard under 

 the patronage of Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, and the royal family 

 of Northumbria. From Bede's pen we have a pleasant picture of Lu- 

 gubalia and its neighbourhood. From the city Cuthbert went forth on 

 his episcopal errands to ordain ministers or to dedicate a church, and 



1 Carlisle appears in the list of British cities given by Nennius (cap. 67) under the name of Caer- 

 Luadiit, Caer-Ligualid, or Cair-Lualid, which has been identified by Usher as Lugubalia (Man. Hist. 

 Brit. p. 77). Henry of Huntingdon, probably with the list of Nennius before him, mentions ' Kair-Lion 

 quam vocamusCarleuil ' (Historia Anghrum, p. 7), but he is apparently mistaken in that identification, for 

 the ' Cair-Legion ' of Nennius has the alternative reading of ' Cair-Legion guar Usic,' that is, Caerleon 

 on Usk. The statement of Geoffrey of Monmouth (bk. ii. 9) that Leil son of Brute, a lover of peace 

 and justice, succeeded his father and built a city in the north part of Britain and called it Kaerliel after 

 his own name, may be accepted as pure romance. 



This grant marks an important event in local history. Eddi (Vita Wilfridi, cap. 1 7) says that 

 Gaedyne, perhaps Castle or Little Eden, was given to Wilfrid with Caetlevum and other places. Caet- 

 levum is probably the ancient name of Cartmell in Furness. The anonymous author of the Historia de 

 S. Cuthbcrto, erroneously ascribed to Symeon of Durham, mentions that ' dedit ei (S. Cuthberto) rex Ecg- 

 fridus terram quae vocatur Cartmel, et omnes Britannos cum eo, et villam illam quae vocatur Suthged- 

 luit, et quicquid ad earn pertinet' (Symeon of Durham [Surtees Soc.], i. 141 ; [Rolls Ser.] i. 200). The 

 date of this tract has been ascribed by Mr. Hodgson Hinde to the tenth century. 



a Symeon, Hist, de S. Cuthbert. (Rolls Ser.), i. 199 ; Haddan and Stubbs, Councils and Eccles. Doc. 

 ii. pt. i. 6. 



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