defending the ‘dark ages’ _ history today

8/17/2019 Defending the ‘Dark Ages’ _ History Today

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14/05/2016 Defending the ‘Dark Ages’ | History Today

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In describing the violent culture of the fifth and sixth

centuries, the term ‘Dark Ages’ has both meaning and resonance.

Defending the ‘Dark Ages’

By Ian Mortimer (/author/ian-mortimer)

Posted 12th May 2016, 9:10

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Statue of the sixth-century monk Gildas

Recently, Kate Wiles took English Heritage to task

(http://www.historytoday.com/kate-wiles/back-dark-ages) for describing the

period c.410 to 1066 as the ‘Dark Ages’, which the organisation does both in its

timeline Story of England and in information boards at historical sites around the

country.

Wiles is not alone in championing Anglo-Saxon England as being anything but ‘dark’.

However, her call to arms suffers from similar flaws to the English Heritage timeline.

It is not the term ‘Dark Ages’ per se that is wrong, it is how it is applied.

The root of the problem lies in the use of a single term to describe the period c. 410-

1066 – 656 years is too long for a period to have any meaning. It amounts to more

than 150 per cent of the late medieval period (1066-1485), which English Heritage

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


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considers too long and which it therefore divides into two sections (before and after

the Black Death).

The massive variations of government and culture mark out these 656 years as a

whole succession of tumultuous periods. England went from a state of post-Roman

collapse to an emerging set of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, fringed by Celtic ones. The

number of those kingdoms diminished and rose and fell in importance until

Æthelstan became king of England in 927. Before and after that date Britain was

riven by Viking invasions. Parts of the kingdom were occupied by invaders;

eventually the whole kingdom was subsumed in Cnut’s empire.

It is in describing the violent culture of the fifth and sixth centuries, combined with

the obscurity of the politics of the period, that the term ‘Dark Ages’ has both

meaning and resonance. When states collapse, the process is usually obscured by

the confusion that surrounds that violence. Therefore the term is useful for those of

us who need to explain to the public what happened when the Roman Empire

crumbled.

However, the evidence that Wiles cites to diminish the idea that the Anglo-Saxon

period was ‘dark’ dates from the seventh century or later. She states that the Anglo-

Saxons ‘had an elaborate legal system’, that the country was ‘peopled with learned

men and women, highly educated in Latin and English’, that ‘charters show that

laws, administration and learning were not just for an educated elite’, that the

coinage ‘shows an elaborate and controlled economy’, and that the Saxons ‘had

trade routes stretching across the known world and were… 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).’

None of these things were true of England between 410 and 597. No set of law codes

was written down until that of Æthelberht of Kent, after his conversion to

Christianity (between 597 and 601). No charter or copy of a charter dates frombefore 600. No original Anglo-Saxon document of any sort – let alone one decorated


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all the columns were levelled with the ground by the frequent strokes

of the battering-ram, all the husbandmen routed, together with their

bishops, priests, and people, whilst the sword gleamed and the flames

crackled around them on every side. Lamentable to behold, in the

midst of the streets lay the tops of lofty towers, tumbled to the ground,

stones of high walls, holy altars, fragments of human bodies, covered

with livid clots of coagulated blood, looking as if they had been

squeezed together in a press; and with no chance of being buried, save

in the ruins of the houses, or in the ravening bellies of wild beasts and

birds;

in lapis lazuli – dates from those years. No coins were minted in England. No

buildings survive beyond excavated post-holes, a few stone foundations and some

walls incorporating re-used Roman bricks. The best evidence for long-distance

trade is the excavated shards of pottery from abroad, but these could be as muchdue to the work of pirates as long-distance traders. The term ‘dark’ is appropriate

for how little we can see of these two centuries and how little cultural achievement

or innovation is visible.

A glimpse of what these ‘Dark Ages’ were was like for those that lived through them

may be gleaned from Gildas’s Of the ruin and conquest of Britain, written in the first

half of the sixth century. He wrote of the Saxon invasion that

When Gildas set out to write of the decline of Roman authority in Britain and the

ensuing invasion, he could find no domestic sources at all and had to use

continental sources. Even though his literary style shows that there were still men of

education and erudition in Dark Age Britain, he was one of a very small number.

Even in the period 960-1060, there were probably no more than a thousand literatemen in England at any one time. It is unlikely that there were more than a few dozen


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in Gildas’s time. The fact that his work alone has survived, and that later Saxon

compilers had no alternative authors on whom to draw, indicates that he was a

brilliant jewel in a very dark age.

It was around 600 that the kings of Kent started granting charters, had sets of their

laws written down and commenced minting their own coins. The marriage of

Æthelberht of Kent to a Frankish bride, Bertha, and his adoption of her religion of

Christianity, further linked him to Continental powers, with their long-distance

information networks and trading routes. These cultural features, which are all

indicative of a more stable state, contrast with the preceding period. Indeed, they

may be counted as constituting something of a renaissance, and thus a terminationof the cultural crises that perpetuated the Dark Ages.

‘Dark Ages’ thus has real relevance for describing the post-Roman period. It is useful

that it has become widely known as a plural, for it does consist of ages – the decline

of Roman Britain, the age of invasion by Continental warriors, a protracted period of

rule by warrior kings and finally the emergence of series of relatively stable

kingdoms, each capable of introducing the legal, social and economic reforms

necessary for the prosperity of its people.

However, that last ‘age’ is unlikely to have been experienced at the same time all

over England. The Dark Ages may have drawn to a close in Kent around 600 but they

lasted longer elsewhere. Wessex saw its first charters issued around 670 and its laws

written down in the reign of King Ine (r.688-726); its earliest coins may have been

minted in Ine’s reign, too. Genuine charters in Mercia date from the 690s and coins

appeared in the early eighth century. In Northumbria, coins were minted from at

least the reign of Aldfrith (685-705). At the same time, a cultural renaissance took

place there, which resulted in the greatest artistic and literary treasures of the age

to survive, including the Lindisfarne Gospels (c. 700) and the works of Bede.


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Few would argue that the Dark Ages extended much beyond 700 and Wiles was

right to object to English Heritage’s use of the label to describe the eighth century

and later. In addition to the flourishing of Kent and the Northumbrian renaissance,

there was a Carolingian renaissance under Charlemagne, in which Englishmen likeAlcuin played a role. The reign of Offa (who ruled over Mercia and most of southern

and central England) was also of international significance. Offa had a gold dinar

minted in his name with an Arabic inscription praising Allah in order to open up

trading opportunities for his subjects in the Muslim Iberian caliphate.

There is no doubt that separating the Dark Ages from the later Saxon period will

displease some educators, especially given the fact that there is no specific cut-off date that can be applied to the whole country. In that, the phrase is rather like ‘The

Renaissance’: it describes a phenomenon that has meaning in different places at

different times. But that is its virtue. It is a simple term that does something

complex: it transcends the usual dynastic borders and difficulties of date and

illustrates something of the character of the age. But it does not represent England

between the eighth and 11th centuries.

Lastly, I recognise that English Heritage have used the term ‘the Dark Ages’ out of a

desire to help people understand the past. However, it has dropped the professional

bar too low. Architects, when designing buildings for the public, are not expected to

lower their professional standards. Nor are politicians, doctors, lawyers and

members of any other profession. So why do heritage organisations and TV

producers think that they somehow improve their service to the public by

simplifying their subject to the level of misinformation? Those who stoop almost to

the level of amateurism to engage the public are doing no one any favours.

Ian Mortimer is author of The Human Race: Ten Centuries of Change on Earth

(Vintage, 2015).

More by Ian Mortimer (/author/ian-mortimer)

http://www.historytoday.com/author/ian-mortimer


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5 Comments 1

• •

Charles West •

Thanks for this piece: it's good to be having this discussion, which I think is actually quite

important, and I admire your courage in coming to the Dark Ages's defence! I also agree with

your final paragraph wholeheartedly. But I'm afraid I don't think the rest quite stacks up, at least

not to me. Some quick reflections:

1. I don't think we can read Gildas as accurately representing levels of violence: as you say, thisis rhetoric

2. I don't think it's possible to say whether the 5th and 6th centuries are more or less violent than

previous or later times (given that states often orchestrate large-scale violence, they were quite

probably less).

3. I don't think there's an inherent reason why periods can't stretch for six centuries or more

(some people after all talk about the pre-modern)

4. Our understanding of the period has been transformed since the term "DA" was coined in the

19th century, not least by vastly more archaeological evidence. I don't think it is particularly

mysterious these days.5. But the underlying problem is that Dark Ages is an emotive, othering term, which casts a moral

udgement on an entire society, even when placed between apostrophes. I think we as historians

can and should do better. In a sense, I think your excellent final paragraph cuts against the rest of

the argument.

• •

Oscarthe4th •

Great points. However, I'm inclined to disagree with your statement on violence. There is

another aspect of the dislocation that we know too little about, and that is starvation andthe struggle over resources.

The decline in trade forced more local agricultural production. One result is that cities

depopulated. Cities don't depopulate casually; not on that scale. And people shifting back

to the country side may or may not have had useful agricultur al skill beyond strong backs.

I'm inclined to think that lots of small scale violence happened in that process. It also

seems logical that lots of localized starvation occurred as trade broke down and poor

farming weather in isolated locations became more catastrophic as a result.

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• •

ou se u mer •

How do you inow there were only a thousand literate people?

• •

Lily Esmiol Minas •

I have a problem with that line, too. Alfred the Great promoted reading while he was king.His son and grandson and many ealdormen could most certainly read as could many

religious men and women and the other kingdoms most likely followed suit. I think 1000 is

probably quite low.

• •

TheRedTory •

Well argued. So would be fair to say the Dark Ages lasted from the collapse of the Roman Empire

in Britain to 600 AD (give or take a few decades depending on the geographical area)?

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