HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

ETHNIC AND NATIONAL HISTORY CA. 500‒1000 69“overkings” who have had power over many nations of the Englishsouth of the Humber (II,5). Taken over from Bede by MS. A (Parker)of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, this office is attributed there to a“Bretwalda” or “brytenwalda” (‘ruler of the British,’ or ‘wide ruler’).Recent studies, however, show convincingly that Bede’s list of rulersincludes widely different sorts of overlordship and that his use of theword imperium for power over various English groups indicates thathe did not see the English as forming one nation or gens. 79 The ideologyof national unity found in this passage and elsewhere in theHE can be traced more plausibly to Canterbury and the ecclesiasticalauthorities, given that the English church had been one fromthe time of Archbishop Theodore. 80Of late, more attention has been paid to Bede’s Northumbrianbias. A good half of the HE is exclusively dedicated to the affairsof the historian’s native kingdom, and it has been pointed out thathe often identifies the Northumbrians with the English. 81 This privilegingof the country he knew best may be explained by the unavailabilityof sources and information for the other Anglo-Saxon realms. 82Bede’s sustained effort to tell the history not only of East Saxons,East Angles, West Saxons, Mercians, and men of Kent but also ofsuch elusive groups as the Middle Angles, Hwiccas, Gyrwas, andGewissae becomes even more significant and deserving of study inlight of his struggle to obtain reliable information on the kingdomsto the south.A recent and much debated study has added to the new pictureof Bede as rooted Northumbrian historian, aloof neither from hisown narrower ethnicity nor from the church politics of his time, byproviding considerable evidence that the HE follows a precise agenda:it is intended to contradict on every point of substance the accountof Northumbrian church history in the vita of Wilfrid of York attributedto Eddius Stephanus. 83 Even Bede’s unwavering Romanism canbe read as a response to the Wilfridians: since they claimed the triumphof Roman ways in Northumbria as an achievement of theirleader, Bede had to argue from the same premises, but only in order79Fanning (1991).80Wormald (1983).81Fanning (1991), 21.82Kirby (1965–66).83Goffart (1988), 235–328.