1.
Kingdom of England
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In the early 11th century the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, united by Æthelstan, became part of the North Sea Empire of Cnut the Great, a personal union between England, Denmark and Norway. The completion of the conquest of Wales by Edward I in 1284 put Wales under the control of the English crown, from the accession of James I in 1603, the Stuart dynasty ruled England in personal union with Scotland and Ireland. Under the Stuarts, the kingdom plunged into war, which culminated in the execution of Charles I in 1649. The monarchy returned in 1660, but the Civil War had established the precedent that an English monarch cannot govern without the consent of Parliament and this concept became legally established as part of the Glorious Revolution of 1688. From this time the kingdom of England, as well as its state the United Kingdom. On 1 May 1707, under the terms of the Acts of Union 1707, the Anglo-Saxons referred to themselves as the Engle or the Angelcynn, originally names of the Angles. They called their land Engla land, meaning land of the English, by Æthelweard Latinized Anglia, from an original Anglia vetus, the name Engla land became England by haplology during the Middle English period. The Latin name was Anglia or Anglorum terra, the Old French, by the 14th century, England was also used in reference to the entire island of Great Britain. The standard title for all monarchs from Æthelstan until the time of King John was Rex Anglorum, Canute the Great, a Dane, was the first king to call himself King of England. In the Norman period Rex Anglorum remained standard, with use of Rex Anglie. The Empress Matilda styled herself Domina Anglorum, from the time of King John onwards all other titles were eschewed in favour of Rex or Regina Anglie. In 1604 James VI and I, who had inherited the English throne the previous year, the English and Scottish parliaments, however, did not recognise this title until the Acts of Union of 1707. The kingdom of England emerged from the unification of the early medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdoms known as the Heptarchy, East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria, Kent, Essex, Sussex. The Viking invasions of the 9th century upset the balance of power between the English kingdoms, and native Anglo-Saxon life in general, the English lands were unified in the 10th century in a reconquest completed by King Æthelstan in 927 CE. During the Heptarchy, the most powerful king among the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms might become acknowledged as Bretwalda, the decline of Mercia allowed Wessex to become more powerful. It absorbed the kingdoms of Kent and Sussex in 825, the kings of Wessex became increasingly dominant over the other kingdoms of England during the 9th century. In 827, Northumbria submitted to Egbert of Wessex at Dore, in 886, Alfred the Great retook London, which he apparently regarded as a turning point in his reign. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that all of the English people not subject to the Danes submitted themselves to King Alfred, asser added that Alfred, king of the Anglo-Saxons, restored the city of London splendidly
2.
Norsemen
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Norsemen are the group of people who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language between the 8th and 11th centuries. The language belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages, Norseman means man from the North and applied primarily to Old Norse-speaking tribes living in southern and central Scandinavia. In history, Norse or Norseman could be any person from Scandinavia, even though Norway, Denmark, in some other historical references, the term may also refer to the East Norse, meaning mainly Danes and Swedes, for instance, Cnuts Empire and Swedes adventures East. In the early Medieval period, as today, Vikings was a term for attacking Norsemen, especially in connection with raids and monastic plundering by Norsemen in the British Isles. The Norse were also known as Ascomanni, ashmen, by the Germans, Lochlanach by the Gaels, the Gaelic terms Finn-Gall, Dubh-Gall and Gall Goidel were used for the people of Norse descent in Ireland and Scotland, who assimilated into the Gaelic culture. Dubliners called them Ostmen, or East-people, and the name Oxmanstown comes from one of their settlements, they were known as Lochlannaigh. However, British conceptions of the Vikings origins were not quite correct and those who plundered Britain lived in what is today Denmark, Scania, the western coast of Sweden and Norway and along the Swedish Baltic coast up to around the 60th latitude and Lake Mälaren. They also settled on the island of Gotland, the border between the Norsemen and more southerly Germanic tribes, the Danevirke, today is located about 50 kilometres south of the Danish-German border. The southernmost living Vikings lived no further north than Newcastle upon Tyne, archaeologists and historians of today believe that these Scandinavian settlements in the Slavic lands formed the names of the countries of Russia and Belarus. The Slavs and the Byzantines also called them Varangians, and the Scandinavian bodyguards of the Byzantine emperors were known as the Varangian Guard. In the Old Norse language, the term norrœnir menn, was used correspondingly to the modern English name Norsemen, referring to Swedes, Danes, Norwegians, Faroe Islanders, Icelanders, etc. The modern people of Norway, Sweden and Denmark never identify themselves as skandinaver, as they are Norwegians, Swedes, the Vikings were simply people partaking in the raid. On occasions Finland is also mentioned as a Scandinavian country, Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands are also geographically separate from the Scandinavian peninsula. The term Nordic countries is used to encompass the Scandinavian countries, Iceland, Greenland
3.
Dublin
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Dublin is the capital and largest city of Ireland. Dublin is in the province of Leinster on Irelands east coast, the city has an urban area population of 1,345,402. The population of the Greater Dublin Area, as of 2016, was 1,904,806 people, founded as a Viking settlement, the Kingdom of Dublin became Irelands principal city following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire before the Acts of Union in 1800, following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, later renamed Ireland. Dublin is administered by a City Council, the city is listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network as a global city, with a ranking of Alpha-, which places it amongst the top thirty cities in the world. It is a historical and contemporary centre for education, the arts, administration, economy, the name Dublin comes from the Irish word Dubhlinn, early Classical Irish Dubhlind/Duibhlind, dubh /d̪uβ/, alt. /d̪uw/, alt /d̪u, / meaning black, dark, and lind /lʲiɲ pool and this tidal pool was located where the River Poddle entered the Liffey, on the site of the castle gardens at the rear of Dublin Castle. In Modern Irish the name is Duibhlinn, and Irish rhymes from Dublin County show that in Dublin Leinster Irish it was pronounced Duílinn /d̪ˠi, other localities in Ireland also bear the name Duibhlinn, variously anglicized as Devlin, Divlin and Difflin. Historically, scribes using the Gaelic script wrote bh with a dot over the b and those without knowledge of Irish omitted the dot, spelling the name as Dublin. Variations on the name are found in traditionally Irish-speaking areas of Scotland, such as An Linne Dhubh. It is now thought that the Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, beginning in the 9th and 10th century, there were two settlements where the modern city stands. Baile Átha Cliath, meaning town of the ford, is the common name for the city in modern Irish. Áth Cliath is a name referring to a fording point of the River Liffey near Father Mathew Bridge. Baile Átha Cliath was an early Christian monastery, believed to have been in the area of Aungier Street, there are other towns of the same name, such as Àth Cliath in East Ayrshire, Scotland, which is Anglicised as Hurlford. Although the area of Dublin Bay has been inhabited by humans since prehistoric times and he called the settlement Eblana polis. It is now thought that the Viking settlement was preceded by a Christian ecclesiastical settlement known as Duibhlinn, beginning in the 9th and 10th century, there were two settlements where the modern city stands. The subsequent Scandinavian settlement centred on the River Poddle, a tributary of the Liffey in an area now known as Wood Quay, the Dubhlinn was a small lake used to moor ships, the Poddle connected the lake with the Liffey. This lake was covered during the early 18th century as the city grew, the Dubhlinn lay where the Castle Garden is now located, opposite the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Castle
4.
Wirral Peninsula
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Wirral or the Wirral is a peninsula in northwest England. It is bounded to the west by the River Dee, forming a boundary with Wales, to the east by the River Mersey, the roughly rectangular peninsula is about 15 miles long and 7 miles wide. Historically, the Wirral was wholly within Cheshire, in the Domesday Book, however, since the passing of the Local Government Act 1972, only the southern third has been in Cheshire, with the rest in metropolitan borough in the county of Merseyside. The name Wirral literally means myrtle corner, from the Old English wir, a tree, and heal. It is supposed that the land was overgrown with bog myrtle, a plant no longer found in the area. The name was given to the Hundred of Wirral around the 8th century, whether the name should be preceded by the definite article is the subject of debate, as is whether something should be described as being in the Wirral or on the Wirral. In 2014, a poll of Liverpool Echo readers indicated that 73% of respondents would use the phrase on the Wirral in everyday conversation. The earliest evidence of occupation of the Wirral dates from the Mesolithic period. Later Neolithic stone axes and pottery have found in Oxton, Neston. At Meols and New Brighton there is evidence of continuing occupation through to the Bronze Age, around 1000 BC, before the time of the Romans, the Wirral was inhabited by a Celtic tribe, the Cornovii. Artefacts discovered in Meols suggest it was an important port from at least 500 BC, traders came from Gaul and the Mediterranean seeking minerals from North Wales and Cheshire. There are also remains of a small Iron Age fort at Burton, around 70 AD, the Romans founded Chester. Evidence of their occupation in the Wirral has been found, including the remains of a road near Mollington, Ledsham and this road may have continued to the port at Meols, which may have been used as a base for attacking the north Wales coast. Storeton Quarry may also have used by Romans for sculpture. By the end of the Roman period, pirates were a menace to traders in the Irish Sea, and soldiers may have been garrisoned at Meols to combat this threat. Although Roman rule ended with the departure of the last Roman troops in 410, later coins, the Celtic names of Liscard and Landican both suggest an ancient British origin. The name of Wallasey, meaning Welsh island, is evidence of British settlement, the Welsh name, both ancient and modern, for the Wirral is Cilgwri. In Welsh mythology, the ouzel of Cilgwri was one of the most ancient creatures in the world, the Anglo-Saxons under Æthelfrith, king of Northumbria, laid waste to Chester around 616
5.
Diocese of Bath and Wells
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The Diocese of Bath and Wells is a diocese in the Church of England Province of Canterbury in England. The diocese covers the county of Somerset and a area of Dorset. The Episcopal seat of the Bishop of Bath and Wells is located in the Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew in the city of Wells in Somerset, before 909, Somerset lay within the diocese of Sherborne. At this date, Athelm was appointed the first bishop of the Diocese of Wells and it was to this impoverished cathedral church that Gisa was appointed bishop in 1060. Under him, grants of land were obtained successively from the kings Edward the Confessor, Harold and William the Conqueror, robert of Lewes, appointed bishop in 1136, enhanced on the position of Wells. As well as rebuilding the cathedral he instituted the arrangement by which although Bath retained precedence, however the diocesan title remained the same. Reginald fitz Jocelin brought Saint Hugh of Lincoln to England and his successor and he moved his seat there, with the approval of Pope Celestine III, and the see became officially known as the Diocese of Glastonbury. Thereupon he adopted the style Diocese of Bath, further, he increased the thirty-five canons to fifty and founded a grammar school for the city. Following his death in 1242 however, the monks at Bath unilaterally elected one of their number, Roger, as successor and his appointment received confirmation from King Henry III and the new pope Innocent IV. The diocese of Bath and Wells proper dates therefore from 1245, the diocese contained the three archdeaconries of Bath, Wells, and Taunton. William of Bitton bishop from 1267–74 was renowned for his piety, the completion of the buildings was achieved under Ralph of Shrewsbury. Thomas Beckington was another noted liberal benefactor of the city, oliver King rebuilt Bath Abbey in the late Perpendicular style. The work was begun in 1499 and completed in 1530 under John Clerk, the abbey was the last complete monastic edifice to be completed before the impending Reformation. He was succeeded by Adriano Castellesi who was an absentee bishop, castellesis successor Thomas Wolsey was also an absentee bishop, held the see concurrently with that of York. The abbey at Bath was dissolved by King Henry VIII in 1538 during the English Reformation, thereafter the Church of England bishop, though retaining the old style, had his seat at Wells alone. William Barlow, was appointed in 1548, the diocesan offices, the bishops offices and residences and the cathedral are all located in Wells. The diocese is not referred to as Bath diocese or Wells diocese, the bishop is licensed as an honorary assistant bishop of the diocese in order to facilitate his work there. There are six retired honorary assistant bishops licensed in the diocese, 1993–present, 2001–present, Paul Barber, retired Bishop suffragan of Brixworth, lives in Street, Somerset
6.
Bishop of Sherborne
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The Bishop of Sherborne is an episcopal title which takes its name from the market town of Sherborne in Dorset, England. The see of Sherborne was established in around 705 by St Aldhelm and this see was the mother diocese of the greater part of southwestern England in Saxon times, but after the Norman Conquest was incorporated into the new Diocese of Salisbury. The title Bishop of Sherborne is now used by the Church of England for a bishop in the Diocese of Salisbury. In 1925, the title Bishop of Sherborne was revived by the Church of England as a bishopric in the Diocese of Salisbury. From 1981 to 2009, the suffragan Bishop of Sherborne was responsible as bishop for those parishes in Dorset. Since 2009, the suffragan Bishop of Sherborne, along with the suffragan Bishop of Ramsbury, has assisted the diocesan Bishop of Salisbury in overseeing the whole of the diocese. The post became vacant in 2015 on the resignation of Graham Kings, the present incumbent is the Right Reverend Karen Gorham, the first woman to have held the position. She was born in 1964 and was educated at Mayflower High School and she holds a B. A. degree from the University of Bristol and did her theological training for the ministry at Trinity College, Bristol. Before being ordained she held administrative posts with the Business and Technology Education Council, from 1995 to 1999 she served as a curate in the parish of Northallerton with Kirby Sigston in the Diocese of York, and was ordained priest in 1996. In 1999 she became Priest-in-Charge of St Paul’s Church, Maidstone and she was the Archdeacon of Buckingham from 2007 onwards, stepping down as archdeacon on 19 January 2016 in preparation for her consecration as bishop. She has served on the General Synod of the Church of England for twelve years
10th century in England 