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8/17/2019 Back to the Dark Ages _ History Today

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14/05/2016 Back to the Dark Ages | History Today

http://www.historytoday.com/kate-wiles/back-dark-ages 1/17

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The 'Dark Ages' is an outdated stereotype aba ndoned by

historians years ago, which makes its use by English Heritage all

the more disappointing.

Back to the Dark Ages

By Kate Wiles (/author/kate-wiles)

Posted 5th May 2016, 12:42

To academic historians the Dark Ages are a thing of the past. And yet EnglishHeritage, in their timeline of the Story of England (http://www.english-

heritage.org.uk/learn/ story-of-england/) from the prehistoric to the modern

period, shows that, aft er the Romans left Britain, the nation fell into the ‘Dark Ages’

before resurfacing for two distinct Middle Ages, neatly chopping medieval England

into pieces.

The term ‘Dark Ages’ found a foothold in the 17th and 18th centuries, with historians

like Edward Gibbon writing a bout the ‘darkness’ of the period, and reached its peak

in the mid-19th century as, w ith a fervent belief in the dawn o f a modern age, a

growing Empire needed to build a dark past from which to emerge. The Dark Ages

cling to Victorian ideals.

As a concept it is steeped in intellectual and cultural superiority used to dismiss theearly Middle Ages as a period of ‘intellectual darkness’ before the Renaissance. In

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Monogram at the start of the Gospel of Matthew, from the Lindisfarne Gospels (c. 700 AD)


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fact, we know far more about late Anglo-Saxon England than we do about Roman

Britain.

The phrase feeds into a romanticised view of the period: lost to the mists of time,savage and lawless. But that could not be further from the truth. We might not have

the overwhelming wealth of materials of later periods but enough survives to see

the extent of their intellectual and cultural development. Pre-Conquest England was

not without law, culture and politics.

The Anglo-Saxons had an elaborate legal system, which was written down in law

codes (http://www.earlyenglishlaws.ac.uk) from the early seventh century, andthese were often written in Old English, one of many intellectual innovations unique

to Anglo-Saxon England. The law codes predate Magna Carta by 600 years and laid

the groundwork for it. Yet it is Magna Carta that we now credit as the foundation of

English law.

Certainly there was instability, as various powers fought among themselves and

against interlopers, but it is out of this instability that the concept of a unified

‘English people’ and, later, ‘England’ was born.

Anglo-Saxon England was peopled with learned men and women, highly educated in

Latin and English, who circulated and read Classical texts as well as composing their

own, continuing the traditions they had inherited. There survives a large corpus of

literature showing a deep understanding of the physical and the metaphysical and

many productions showing great learning – take the writings of Bede, who is still

regarded as the father of English history.

Charters show that laws, administration and learning were not just for an educated

elite. Laypeople were involved in the ceremonies and had documents created for

them: land grants, wills, dispute settlements (take, for example, the Fonthill Letter,

http://www.earlyenglishlaws.ac.uk/


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which exerts considerable bureaucracy on the theft of a sword and some oxen). And

the coinage across the period shows an elaborate and controlled economy. This was

a well-managed society not given to lawlessness and chaos.

The Anglo-Saxons were also skilled artists. It is impossible to look at manuscriptslike the Lindisfarne Gospels or the Benedictional of Æthelwold and conclude that

this was a society living in intellectual darkness. They drew influence from Classical

art and developed their own distinct artistic styles with as much skill and flair as

later medieval artists. And we must not forget the breathtaking metal-, glass-, gold-

and garnet-work of sites like Sutton Hoo and the Staffordshire Hoard, worn by

warriors who would have sparkled in the sunlight. This was not just craft fornecessity; they had the means and the ability to create objects of beauty for its own

sake.

The Norman Conquest of 1066 saw the start of a closer political relationship with

the Continent, but this was not the first time England had connected with Europe.

Similarly, the end of Roman Britain did not mean Britain was suddenly isolated and

fell back into savagery. These great feats of cultural production would not bepossible had Anglo-Saxon England existed in isolation. They had trade routes

stretching across the known world and were familiar with and able to buy spices,

pigments and cloth from thousands of miles away (many manuscripts use a blue

pigment made from lapis lazuli, brought from Afghanistan, for example).

From the end of the late sixth century and the beginning of the seventh, Anglo-

Saxon England was a part of the Christian world. The English church was in close

contact with Rome, with correspondence travelling back and forth; new bishops

would be sent to Rome to collect the pallium; and King Alfred visited the city as a

young boy. Later in life he collected around him a group of learned men influenced

by the cultural life he encountered through contact with the Continent. English men

in turn influenced the Frankish kingdoms under the Carolingians.


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The Conquest is a useful boundary, but we must remember both that it is artificial

and that it only applies to England. The Conquest may have marked the end of many

things but it is certainly not the case that Anglo-Saxon England ceased to exist in

1066. This is a moment when England was both Anglo-Saxon and medieval: a stageof continuities and transition. Many important political, religious and cultural

changes were underway but the Anglo-Saxons did not stop being Anglo-Saxons. As

an artificial divide it also separates England’s story from its European contexts and

puts it out of step with – and centuries behind – a world it was categorically in step

with.

We should have moved past the image of a savage Dark Ages by now, certainly innational institutions which purport to authority and to provide public education, but

that seems not to be the case.

I am not denying that the Anglo-Saxon period be considered as distinct from the

later Middle Ages: culturally and politically they were different beasts, although

continuities can and should be recognised. But to dismiss it as a 'Dark Age' is to

ignore a rich and vibrant society, which saw the beginning of so many things wenow think of as inherently English. Civilisation did not begin with the arrival of the

light-bearing Normans.

With this timeline, English Heritage is holding on to a Ladybird book approach to

history, in which a new country can emerge from darkness. It is denying history.

I am indebted to Charles West ( @Pseudo_Isidore(http://twitter.com/Pseudo_Isidore) ), Fern Riddell ( @FernRiddell

(http://twitter.com/FernRiddell) ) and Robert Gallagher ( @Hwaetspur

(http://twitter.com/Hwaetspur) ) for their thoughts on this piece. #stopthedarkages

(https://twitter.com/hashtag/stopthedarkages)

https://twitter.com/hashtag/stopthedarkageshttp://twitter.com/Hwaetspurhttp://twitter.com/FernRiddellhttp://twitter.com/Pseudo_Isidore


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Read English Heritage's explanation as to why they used 'Dark Ages'

(http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about-us/search-news/eh-responds/the-

dark-ages)

Kate Wiles is contributing editor at History Today .

More by Kate Wiles (/author/kate-wiles)

Related articles

11 Comments 1

Niall •

A good p oint well mad e.

(/stephen-cooper/positively-medieval)

Positively Medieval (/stephen-cooper/positively-medieval)By Stephen Cooper

We should resist using ‘medieval’ as another wordfor backward.

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• •

• •

Andrew Smith •

The term is clearly bunk in terms of the academic study of history, but it will play on pre-conceptions an d capture the popular imagination. Otherwise Joe Public will see yet another bit of

academicese and decide it's not for them.

• •

Larchmont •

And before the Saxons? "The King of the North" gives a fascinating glimpse. It suggests thatchristianity was alive before the evangelism from Rome, that the Irish church had huge influencebut did not arrive to find a country that had completely forgotten Christianity (and it debunks theDark Ages myth that it was Rome that restored Christianity in the Britain). It does however suggest that the British Isles were significantly less sophisticated than their continentalcounterparts. For some reason it took the Britons (or whatever you want to label them) more timeto establish political and social stability after the collapse of Roman rule. Is that because of theway it was gradually taken over by sea borne incursions, was Roman rule simply not asencompassing as in continental Europe or was distance from the surviving Roman or Byzantiumempire a major factor?Your point is well made and could be applied as well to the popular myths about the Vikings whowere far m ore cultu red and complex than just a band of pirates.

• •

Christopher Monk •

Great article. Well argued. Using Dark Ages is indefensible in my opinion. Love your Ladybirdbook comm ent . Spot o n.

• •

John Scott-Harley •

Excellent. Clearly there are still some amongst he need to study their History in much more detail.It was during the so called 'Dark Ages' that woman were considered equal to men they could

inherit, possess property or even be warriors and should they be injured or their husband killedthe attacker was required to pay compensation for the wife & any children

Oscarthe4th •

Good comment. It is a misnamed period.

However, I think the article overstates the level of education and communication in 500s-900s.

When compared to the height of the Roman Empire as well as to the High Middle Ages, therewere far fewer commercial and intellectual exchanges. Literacy declined badly, as did theassumption that a leader should be literate. Charlemagne's hagiographer celebrates his attempt to

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• •

.

Also, agricultural trade declined. I assume that was due to a decline in agricultural efficiency, butwhatever the cause, less agricultural trade increased the possibility for starvation in isolatedareas.

So while it's not a dark age, the designation was not simply a result of misplaced culturalsuperiority but also of a real decline in living standards for many people.

• •

222adam222 •

Certainly a debate worth having but the answer to whether it was or was not a 'dark age' dependson what it is one wants illumined and from whose perspective one is looking. The invasions fromthe Continent that followed the Roman withdrawal caused instability and darkness for a largeproportion of the people. So from a human perspective, it was for many a 'dark age'. Much of the

Roman legacy in terms of roads and other structures fell into disrepair. So, from the perspectiveof engineering, it was also a dark age. As for trade, I think it is a bit of a stretch to imply that justbecause some luxury items are being consumed in Britain that this means long-distance tradingfor British merchants. It is much more likely that the longest distance a British merchant wouldhave travelled is to the Continent, certainly not to Afghanistan.

• •

Jonathan Dore •

A silly article debunking a straw-man position. If the term has ever been used to refer to the whole

of Europe for the whole period between the collapse of the western empire and the 12th century, itcertainly isn't today, and hasn't been for a long time, and to pretend otherwise is simply dishonest.In my experience it refers to the age for which it's precisely appropriate: Britain in the 5th and 6thcenturies. Since you link to the EH page explaining why they use the term, why not look at theboard in the photograph that clearly shows the definition they're using? "In the 5th and 6thcenturies AD, after the collapse of Roman rule ..."

In those two centuries almost all the written sources and material-culture artefacts available for Roman Britain before, and for the Anglo-Saxons from the 7th century onwards, are missing. Two

centuries for which the number of contemporary textual sources produced in, or about, Britaincan be counted on the fingers of one hand. Since the early AS settlers also happened to leavevery little archaeologically durable remains, the historical lacuna coincides with an archaeologicalone (even the several centuries before the Roman conquest have left more archaeologicalremains).

It isn't a value judgement to point out that, until you turn the light on, a windowless room is dark.

ordan • Do any of you know of one or a couple of good, authoritative books on Anglo-Saxon England?I've read Peter Ackroyd's Foundations, but I want something a little more scholarly. Any help

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• •

would be greatly appreciated

• •

Paul Gardner •

Jordan, it's getting on a bit now, but of you can find 'Anflo Saxon England' by Sir Frank

Stenton - part of the Oxford History of England series, it provides a good starting point.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anglo...

• •

Jordan •

Thank you very much, Paul!

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