Capital gains
THOMAS PICKLES is impressed by an account of how London rose to become England’s pre-eminent city
Citadel of the Saxons: The Rise of Early London by Rory Naismith IB Tauris & Co, 256 pages, £20 London is now the dominant city in Britain. In this impeccably researched, engagingly written and handsomely presented book, Rory Naismith sets out to discover why and how this came about, focusing on the period from AD 400 to 1066. This focus is not unprecedented. From the 1890s on, murals depicting the city’s history were commissioned for the Royal Exchange, emphasising Alfred the Great (reigned 871–99) and William the Conqueror (r1066– 87) as influential founding fathers.
Nevertheless, the focus here is unusual and the argument is original, albeit the outlines of the story are well understood. Roman Londinium ceased to be a city in the fifth century, but retained a physical presence and remained a status symbol. In the seventh century a trading centre, Lundenwic, developed to the west of Londinium, around the Strand. During conflicts between the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings in the ninth century Lundenwic declined and Londinium was refortified, becoming Lundenburh. In the 10th century, Lundenburh became a town, with a mint, a market and guilds.
Within this over-arching narrative, Naismith expertly combines written sources with archaeological evidence to provide a wealth of detail on what life was like. Moreover, he successfully presents a new model for the origins of London. The legacy of Londinium meant that Lundenwic and Lundenburh lay at the heart of a communication network, even if they had much in common with other trading sites and forts. Post-Roman political developments placed them between several peoples and their kingdoms – especially the Kentish people, the West Saxons, the Mercians,
and the East Saxons – and this produced particularly good conditions for trade.
The creation of an English kingdom and national administrative framework in the 10th century, followed by renewed Viking raiding, meant that Lundenburh became a prominent administrative centre under Kings Æthelred II (reigned 978–1016) and Cnut (r1016–35). It created coin dies for the kingdom and its own mint was the most productive in the kingdom.
Quite apart from the intrinsic interest, this is a timely reminder that the prominence of London was historically contingent rather than inevitable.