Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-15T00:19:31.050Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - North-East England in the Late Middle Ages: Rivers, Boundaries and Identities, 1296-1461

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2023

Adrian Green
Affiliation:
Durham University
Get access

Summary

Introduction

A good case could be made that it was in the late middle ages that the North East enjoyed its greatest coherence as a region. Recent work has argued for the status of the historic counties of Northumberland and Durham as a distinct ‘cultural province’ within pre-modern England, delineated by two major rivers, the Tees and the Tweed. To the north of the region lay the drainage basin of the river Tweed and to the south was the river Tees, which cut across eastern England for around 100 miles to the sea, following a course through the enclosed environment of Teesdale in the west to the northern edge of the North York Moors in the east. These two physical features and the landscape associated with them, it has been argued, helped to create and define the region of North-East England, within which there was a regional pattern of settlement and network of towns. The North East, in this view, was a single region, determined by natural features of rivers and watersheds.

In the later middle ages, however, Durham and Northumberland were united not simply by natural features but by administrative and cultural connections. From the perspective of Westminster, the historic counties of Northumberland and Durham comprised a single county. For the routine purposes of government, Durham was simply a liberty within this county, a form of devolved local authority whose ruler, the bishop, was ultimately accountable to the crown. In certain circumstances the sheriff of Northumberland could assume jurisdiction there. Northumberland and Durham also formed a single ecclesiastical unit, the diocese of Durham. This administrative unity was reinforced by strong cultural links.The cult of St Cuthbert, whose earlier associations with Scotland tended to beconveniently forgotten, provided common cultural identity within the region. Cuthbert was a northern, even a national, saint, but it seems that he was particularly important within the diocese of Durham.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×