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Page 2:-
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Cartismandua
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Cartismandua
Caractacus
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time brought back Ostorius who was entring into a new war,
and who soon put a stop to them by the execution of a few
persons. At this time the Brigantes had a queen of their own
Cartismandua, of great power and noble birth, who took and
delivered Caratacus up to the Romans. Wealth and prosperity
making her despise her husband Venutius, she made his
armour-bearer Vellocatus partner of her bed and throne; the
introduction of which infamy into the family occasioned a
fatal war. The husband had on his side the affections of his
subjects, the adulterer only the queen's passion and cruelty
to support him. She by her artifices took off the brother
and relations of Venutius, who provoked by this disgrace
called in allies, and by their assistance and by the revolt
of the Brigantes, which soon followed, reduced Cartismandua
to extremities. On her applying to the Romans their light
troops and cohorts after various engagements extricated her
from her difficulties. The kingdom was however left to
Venutius, and the management of the war to the Romans [m],
who were not able to reduce the Brigantes before the time of
Vespasian. Then Petilius Cerealis invaded their kingdom,
fought many battles, sometimes bloody ones, and subdued or
wasted the greatest part of the Brigantes. But whereas
Tacitus says this queen of the Brigantes gave up Caratacus
to Claudius, and that that emperor exhibited him in his
triumph, it is certainly an antichronism in that excellent
author, and some time since noticed as such by Lipsius that
perfect master of the spirit of the antient writers. For
neither was this Caratacus king of the Silures led in that
triumph of Claudius, nor Caratacus son of Cunobeline (for so
he is styled in Fasti, though by Dio Catacratus) over whom
Aulus Plautius, if not the same year certainly the
following, obtained an ovation. But this I leave to the
discussion of others having treated of it before. In
Hadrian's time when, as Spartian [n] observes, "the Britans
could not be kept in obedience to the Romans," our Brigantes
also seem to have revolted from the Romans, and raised a
rebellion. Had this not been the case there was no reason
for Juvenal [o] who wrote then to have thus expressed
himself:
Dirue Maurorum attegias, castella Brigantum.
The tents of Moors and Brigant castles sack.
Nor do they seem to have been very quiet afterwards in the
reign of Antoninus Pius who dispossessed them of part of
their territory for making inroads into Genunia or Guinethia
a province in alliance with the Romans, as we before
observed.
Might I be allowed by our critics who now take extraordinary
liberties. I think I could correct two errors in Tacitus
relative to the Brigantes. The first is in the 12th book of
his Annals [p], where he says Venutius before-mentioned was
of the state of the Jugantes; I would read of the
Brigantes, which Tacitus himself seems to intimate in the 3d
book of his History. The other is in his life of Agricola
[q]. The Brigantes under the command of a woman,
began to fire the colony, &c, where historical truth
obliges us to read the Trinobantes; for he is
speaking of queen Boodicia who had nothing to do with the
Brigantes, but had stirred up the Trinobantes to revolt, and
driven out the colony at Camalodunum or Maldon.
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Northumberland
Deira
Bernicia
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The very extensive country inhabited by these people which
narrows as it runs, rises in the middle like the Appennines
in Italy, with a continued ridge of mountains parting the
counties, into which it is now divided. For under them to
the east and German ocean lie the county of York and the
bishopric of Durham; and to the west Lancashire,
Westmoreland, and Cumberland; all which counties in the
infancy of the Saxon government were comprehended in the
kingdom of Deira. For the Saxons called these counties the
kingdom of Northumberland, dividing it into two parts,
calling that Deira or [Deir-land], which lies nearest to us
on this side Tine, and Bernicia [r] that which lies further
on from the Tine to the Frith of Edenborough [s]; both which
parts had for some time kings of their own, but were at last
united under one. I must just observe by the way, that
whereas in the life of Charlemagne [t] we read, that
Eardulph, king of the Northumbrians, i.e. De Irland,
being driven from his native country, took refuge with that
prince, we must join the two words and read Deirland,
and understand it of this kingdom and not of Ireland.
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[m]
Tacit. Hist. III. 45.
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[n]
Vit. Adriani c.5.
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[o]
Sat. XIV. 196.
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[p]
c.40.
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[q]
c.31.
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[r]
Breniac, Briniac. mountainous, by transposition of
one letter Bernicii. MS. n. G.
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[s]
Historians differ greatly in their accounts of the precise
limits of these two divisions. Usser Primord. p.212. G.
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[t]
P.272. Annal Francor'. in 8o.
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YORK.
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gazetteer links
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-- Brigantes
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start of Lancashire (next page) |
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