The Romans
The great European power of this age, the Romans, came to Britain in 55 BC and 54 BC under their great general and dictator, Caius Julius Caesar.
However, for all of this great man’s exploits in Gaul, he never got past the south-east corner of what is now England. It seems that his intention was not to conquer but to communicate, and as such, his incursion was a success.
The stories of his dealings with the Catuvellauni, under their apparently eponymous chieftain Cassivallaunos, and Caesar’s duel with the brother of the great Briton, are the stuff of legend.
The Romans invaded successfully in 43 AD, during the reign of Rome’s fourth emperor, Claudius.
Four legions came, under the leadership of Aulus Plautius – the Second Augusta, the Ninth Hispana, the Fourteenth Gemina and the Twentieth Valeria Victrix – some 25,000 men.
The great Brigantian queen of this area, one Cartimandua, was sympathetic to the invaders, probably having made a treaty with Ostorius Scapula (died in AD 52), who succeeded Plautius as governor in 47 AD.
Cartimandua handed over to the Romans the rebel leader Caratacus, son of Cunobelinus, when he sought to take refuge in the area and was captured, in 51, despite the support of certain parts of the Brigantes – especially the Setantii. He was handed over to the Romans at Stanwick, near Richmond, a Brigante stronghold (this was excavated in 1951-2 by Sir Mortimer Wheeler). The Brigantes had their capital at Isurium Brigantium, an immense Iron Age fortification near to Aldborough and York.
The Brigantes, who, it is believed, during the reign of this queen were nominally independent from Rome, were conquered after a civil war, caused by Cartimandua’s disposal of one husband in favour of another. At this time, the husband of the queen was regarded as a king (it has been expostulated that the Welsh word for a king, brenin, is derived from the name *brigantinos, ‘consort of Brigantia’, who, besides being the eponym of this nation, was a powerful fertility goddess, associated with the idea of sovereignty).
In about AD 69, Cartimandua was divorced from the king, Venutius, in favour of his former armour-bearer, Vellocatus (the name means ‘better in battle’), who subsequently became king.
This prompted civil war, as most people favoured Venutius as king. Venutius now took an anti-Roman line, which proved to be his eventual downfall – he was on the verge of winning when the Romans, not wanting a large, hostile force immediately to the north of their as yet insecure province, intervened on Cartimandua’s (or, rather, their own) behalf – by this time, Cartimandua had been replaced by Venutius, who reigned from 69 – 71 AD, fighting the Romans in a series of battles, before a decisive defeat at Scotch Corner in 71 AD.
The fortress at Stanwick St. John was abandoned two years later.
The temper and libido of this queen, who was, incidentally, rescued from her former husband by her Roman allies, cost both her and her people their kingdom. A legion was stationed at York at this time by Petillius Cerealis, commander of the Ninth legion recently routed by another queen of the Britons, Boudicca or Boadicea. In later times, the Brigantes proved the most hostile and implacable enemies of Roman jurisdiction within Roman Britain.
It has been suggested that Venutius escaped to the Eden Valley or Ireland (substantiated by the similarity between grave goods on the ----- Islands off the Dublin coast and known Brigantian cemetaries). One reference was found to him in Lancashire, which would have provided a good route to the Dublin area, although this may also have left him open to capture.
The conquest of the area was completed between 71 and 84 AD, along with the occupation of the southern uplands of Scotland and a presence further north still, under successive governers Petilius Cerealis, Julius Frontinus and Julius Agricola.
The Brigantes were to rise again in or around the 150s, during the reign of Antoninus Pius, and again when the legions left these shores to follow Clodius Albinus in his bid for the Imperial throne in 195-6 AD, when the Hadrianic frontier was overthrown.
Due to the Roman road from Mamucium/Mancunium (Manchester) to Bremetennacum Veteranorum (Ribchester), earlier called Rigodunum, a fort built by Julius Agricola in about 78 AD, going through what is now the centre of Blackburn, it is believed that the origins of the town ware as rude huts in this vicinity.
George C. Miller, in his “Blackburn – the Evolution of a Cotton Town”, says:
“The ancient military way from Mamucium (Manchester) to Bremetennacum (Ribchester), passing over Blacksnape, plunges on its unswerving course through Blackamoor, over the scarp at Whinney Heights, to pass across the Blakewater in the vicinity of Salford.
This fact alone presents a reasonable argument for the existence of a British oppidum or walled village on the site, it being customary for such primitive communities to cluster in the vicinity of a ford or bridge.” (p. 4)
By the mid- to late-Roman period, Britannia, divided into two, then four provinces, came under heavy attack from ‘barbarians’ – usually Picts, ‘Scots’ (i.e. Gaelic tribes from Ireland) and Saxons (plus other North Sea Germans).
The Picts and other Caledonian tribes occasionally breeched the wall, in cooperation with Northern tribes (the Brigantes), and ravaged the Province, but the main threat to the peace of this region was the Scots.
Forts essentially defensive in nature were built on the east coast, forming a line of defenses known as the ‘Saxon Shore’, governed by a count. In addition to these, similar constructions were built at Cardiff, Wales and Lancaster.
According to Peter Hunter Blair’s “Roman Britain and Early England”, of these forts:
“… the construction at Lancaster and Cardiff of forts displaying the same prominently defensive features characteristic of the Saxon Shore forts suggests the beginning of raids from across the Irish Sea…” (p. 86)
Several raids by Irish pirates are said to have reached as far inland as Bremetennacum, by navigating up the wide River Ribble from its estuary some 30 miles to the west of the fortress – there is the possibility that the fort was destroyed by fire, perhaps during an Irish raid.
However, whereas the Irish successfully settled for a time in most parts of western Britain, there is no record of an influx of people in Lancashire from that direction until the Viking Age.
It is believed that Count Theodotius defeated them in battle, and created here the small province of VALENTIA, named in honour of Valentinian II, the then emperor.
Some Roman soldiers probably married local women and stayed around here, farming in the Ribble Valley and other parts of the area, although no evidence of the type of sedentary settlement seen in the South of England has been found this far north.
