What are the difficulties facing a Historian?
Historiography is
fraught with pitfalls particularly when faced with a lack of archaeological
evidence, written sources, popular mythology and a reliance on memory.
During the first Lockdown, I started to write an article exploring my own
issues relating to the problems of writing one's own Historical accounts.
The article had been placed on the backburner for many months but now I am in a
position to complete my blog post regarding the matter.
History is a subject that has interested me as far back as I can remember. Indeed, I can remember, as a child, being outraged how the Bash street kids, Minnie the Minx and Dennis the Menace, in my comic books, would fall asleep whenever their teacher started delivering a lesson on History. To me, History was one of the most interesting and important lessons on the curriculum. A conviction I have stuck with right up to the present day.
I must state that I am an amateur Historian. I have not published a paper, I have not been Peer reviewed, I cannot speak Latin, Old Welsh, Old English or any other language which would prove useful for the budding Historian who is interested in looking at any part of the UK in the so-called Dark ages. However, I do have an enthusiasm for the subject and an interest in the small City I grew up in, namely the City of Lichfield.
The History of the so-called Dark ages and indeed pre-Roman times is somewhat sparse in the secondary source department for several reasons. Before the Romans, the intellectuals of the isles had a tendency, it has been argued by some, to look down on writing. It has been claimed by some, that the Druids, the religious hierarchy of the Brythonic cultures, took a dim view of writing as they believed any druid worth his salt would have memorised for years the major teachings of the Druids and would be able to recite them from memory. Apparently, anybody who had to write down their knowledge was considered an intellectual inferior. There is some scant archaeological evidence to suggest the depth of sophistication in Druidic and Brythonic/ Celtic societies such as old roads constructed using timber and the creation of complex and accurate Lunar calendars such as The Coligny calendar. Another factor in a lack of written sources from these civilisations was the very fact these earlier civilisations were overcome by the Romans, certainly in the British isles, and to a lesser extent the Greeks in other parts of Europe. This means that a lot of our surviving Histories were written by the victors meaning any written histories by the Celts or Druids, if they existed, were often destroyed or relegated to the status of barbarian scratchings either willingly or unwillingly by academic scholars from the Romans and the Greeks. Having said that Tacitus did refer to the Druids of Britain in his writings and did refer to their impressive knowledge of Mathematics, Astronomy and Physics.
After the fall of Rome, the so-called Dark ages, resulted, according to popular theory, in a retrograde step in Western European civilisations and a lack of written work is considered to be a result of this. Are we to say that no writing occurred in this time where all people were illiterate Barbarians? Of course not, however, written records were often kept by the Church, one of the most important bases of power at the time, resulting in these records being stored away and translated by Monks. Does this mean that only work considered to be Christian and non-heretical was preserved and copied down by the monks to keep in perpetuity? Possibly. Can we say for certain this happened? No we cannot, there's enough mis-information or speculation posing as facts on the internet without me adding to it, not that anybody is likely to read this but that's another issue. There are those who argue that the so-called Dark ages were a myth created during the Enlightenment and that the Dark ages were not as fractious as some Historiographies suggest,
In addition to possible censorship and possible destruction of ancient texts, we have the very nature of time itself and how this can contribute to a scarcity of historical records. Written works are prone to degradation and fire. Indeed, a lot of old work from the time of Alfred the great and even before had been stored in Monasteries right up to the time when Henry VIII ordered the dissolution of Monasteries. After this time collectors bought the surviving texts from the monasteries of England culminating in the largest collection of Medieval Manuscripts being collected by Robert Cotton. Unfortunately, the collection became too unwieldy and cumbersome for the Cottons to maintain. Consequently, his Grandson donated it to the nation in the hope that it would lay the foundations of the British library. At the time the thought of storing historical works at the tax payers expense horrified the powers that be. It was with great reluctance that the collection was rehoused. Unfortunately, the new residence of the collection proved to be an even greater fire hazard than the old residence and on one night, October 23rd 1731 it set on fire. Despite the valiant efforts of the staff looking after the collection, much of it perished. The predictable outcry after the fire resulted in Parliament adding another tale to the voluminous tract of times when the Government shut the stable door long after the horses were mere dots on the horizon, by funding a British National library.
So, the lack of written sources from the Pre-Roman times, the Dark ages and the Medieval era can be put down to a combination of factors such as Cultural snobbery, a distrust of writing, not having a culture of writing in the dominant civilisations of the era, degradation of written material over time, censorship and fire.
Before I carry on, I think it is necessary to state that I am aware that several works from the so called Dark ages have survived I am aware of works such as: Gildas's 6th-century historiography ‘The Ruin of Britain,’ Bede's 8th-century Ecclesiastical History of the English People, the 9th-century History of the Britons ascribed to Nennius, the 10th-century Welsh Annals, medieval Welsh genealogies (such as the Harleian Genealogies) and king-lists, the poems of Taliesin, the Welsh tale Culhwch and Olwen to name a few. However, next to nothing survives from Pre-Roman times and the surviving list of texts from the early Dark ages is frustratingly short.
When writing about the nature of History or attempting to write one's own reflections on a particular era, one has to address the issue of the writer and their cultural assumptions and how this affects the work they produce. I'm an amateur Historian who has a combined honours in History and literature. The History I focused on predominantly at that time was European History between 1870 and 1945. I am not suitably qualified to write a History of Lichfield other than I have an enthusiasm for discovering more about the small city I grew up in. I therefore, read sporadically on Lichfield and rely on my own family social history of Lichfield to inform me. I select certain information and probably, through my own ignorance, ignore other information other Historians would consider crucial in writing a History of Lichfield. Politically, I come from a working-class Conservative with a small 'c' background so obviously I've become social democrat much to the bewilderment and annoyance of my family. This will probably either consciously or sub consciously reflect on how I chose to frame my own historical narratives.
Finally, before writing my own potted history of Lichfield including personal and familial connections to the city, I feel that I should make a few remarks regarding the problem of memory, family folklore and the persistence of local myths. Memory is notoriously unreliable. Let me share with you a personal example. I have recently purchased a copy of Cuthbert Brown's 'Born in a Cathedral city: Memories between the two wars.' Whenever, I hear the name Cuthbert Brown, I immediately have a memory of my Nan, whose maiden name was Brown, smiling saying that he was a cousin, or second cousin of hers. I remember her telling me this in the kitchen of my Grandparent's house in Saint Michael's road. The only problem with this is the books, as far as I can tell, were published in 1988, about eleven years after my grandparents had moved to Saint Anne's road on the other side of Lichfield. I was also, until recently, under the impression that my Dad, who for a while in the late sixties worked as a gig promoter, had hired Black sabbath when they were still known as Earth. Although I distinctly remember him saying he had met them before they were famous and knew their first manager, I think I conflated what he told me, with some false recollections other people had told me years ago regarding my dad and the bands he hired to play in Lichfield. Recently, the guy, who had hired Black Sabbath in Lichfield, told me that my Dad had quit the Gig scene by the time Sabbath had played in Lichfield but he had been influential in getting bigger Blues bands to play in Lichfield. It was quite embarrassing to find what I had been saying about my Dad for years was incorrect but the chap said nice things about my Dad so it could have been worse: he could have said 'who is Colin Richardson? I've never heard of him.'
Another issue one has to consider when writing about a History of local area is that your own family folklore of the area maybe peppered with local myths. When I was growing up, I had no doubt in my mind that Lichfield was called Lichfield because in Latin it meant the city of the dead and that Lichfield was built on the site of a thousand massacred Christians; Charnwood forest once reached Lichfield's boundaries, Dr Johnson invented the English Dictionary and was born in Lichfield and three Saxon Kings were buried on the top of Borrowcop lane.
Since my formative years, I have learnt that some of the 'truths' about my home city were in fact incorrect. There was no recollection of a Christian massacre in Lichfield until sometime after Matthew Paris identified the site of the massacre of Christians referred to in Geoffrey Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae as Lichfield. After that date it appeared that Lichfeldians adopted the myth resulting in it becoming an accepted foundation myth of Lichfield. Indeed, the celebrated writer Doctor Samuel Johnson believed it to be the case and a lot of the old Historiographies of Lichfield I have recently read repeat the same myth. A lack of archaeological evidence of such a massacre has now reduced the history to the status of myth. The Lich was taken from the Celtic word Dead according to the myth not a Latin word as I grew up believing. So not only was I influenced by a myth, I had got some of the 'facts' surrounding the story wrong.
While Dr Samuel Johnson was an eminent Lexicographer and writer and indeed born in Lichfield, his Dictionary wasn't the first Dictionary of the English language. However, his was the first attempt at a comprehensive, English Dictionary and not just a Dictionary of hard words. His explanations written in easy-to-understand terms lay down the template for subsequent English Dictionaries.
I cannot find any references to Charnwood forest reaching the boundaries of Lichfield, it certainly hasn't in the last thousand years. I believe that I came to this understanding from the badge of my Primary school, Charnwood Primary school which looks different now to how I remember it. I seem to remember it had a picture of St Chad's well in the middle with Charnwood forest near it and the Staffordshire Knot. Now it has a picture of the spires of the cathedral, the Staffordshire knot and Charnwood forest. I am starting to wonder whether I dreamt the whole thing.
There’s no archaeological evidence to support the assertion that three or four Kings were buried at Borrowcop. However, two Saxon kings were probably buried at Lichfield Cathedral: Wulfhere (probably) and Ceolred (almost certainly).
As you can see there was often a kernel of truth in my family folklore of Lichfield as I was growing up but the truth was often somewhat different to what I believed as true growing up. For example, there may not be any archaeological evidence of a battle at Lichfield, which resulted in the massacre of thousands of Christians, however, there is possible evidence of a battle on the outskirts of Lichfield at a place that is now known as Christian fields. In the Seventeenth century, Robert Plot in his ‘History of Staffordshire’, asserted that the fields by Elmhurst was the site of the battle. These assertions have been rejected due to a lack of archaeological evidence. However, there have been, according to some eighteenth-century reports, discoveries of pottery fragments and human bone fragments found in the fields leading people such as Dr Johnson to believe this was the site of the fabled massacre. However, there doesn’t simply seem to be enough fragments to justify this conclusion. So where have these bone and pottery fragments come from? Interestingly enough, as I started to read about this topic, I came across a theory in places such as the Lichfield Lore blog, among others, that the fragments could be the leftovers of a battle referred to in a Seventh century Welsh poem called ‘Marwnad Cynddylan’. This poem recounts the deeds of Cynddylan and his brother Moriael. This poem recounts a raid by the Welsh Princes in Lichfield the then seat of the Bishop of Mercia. During this raid, it is said the Welsh killed Monks and took a booty. This has led to several Historians to argue that the Staffordshire Hoard found two miles south of Lichfield near Hammerwich is the booty taken from the battle. I need to point out that there are several other theories as to what the Staffordshire Hoard is and this is just one of them. So, as I have already stated there is often a Kernel of truth to folklore but it is often misleading and can provide quite a challenge for the Historian when writing their own Historiography.
There are several issues facing a Historian when considering embarking on writing a Historiography not least whether they should write ‘a Historian’ or ‘an Historian. Issues of reliability of memory, lack of evidence, the power of popular folklore and resistance to challenges to it. Will I ever write a History of Lichfield and South Staffordshire? Who knows: I have several writing projects on the go and a job to hold down. It has however, been enjoyable to write down my thoughts on the nature of Historical writing and will hopefully write more blog post based on the topic in the future.
Texts that have shaped this article:
https://clasmerdin.blogspot.com/2010/06/staffordshire-hoard-battle-site-2.html
http://www.stonnall-history-group.org.uk/articles/Letocetum.html
https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/staffs/vol14/pp4-14
The Ancient Paths by Graham Robb, Picador books, 2009.
The Barbarians- an alternative Roman History by Terry Jones
and Alan Ereira BBC Books, 2006.
Alfred the Great- the man who made England by Justin Pollard,
John Murray, 2006.
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