Slavery in Britain and Ireland - Before 1066

Before 1066

From before Roman times, the practice of slavery was normal in Britannia. Slaves were routinely exported. Slavery continued as an accepted part of society under the Roman Empire and after; Anglo-Saxons continued the slave system, sometimes in league with Norse traders often selling slaves to the Irish. In the early fifth century the Romano-Briton Saint Patrick was captured by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to Ireland. St. Brigit, a patron saint of Ireland, was herself the daughter of Brocca, a Christian Pict and slave in Ireland who had been baptised by Saint Patrick. Early Irish law makes numerous reference to slaves and semi-free sencléithe. A female slave (cumal) was often used as a currency unit, e.g. in expressing the honour price of people of certain classes. From the ninth to the twelfth century Dublin in particular became a major slave trading center which led to an increase in slavery. In 870 A.D. Vikings besieged and captured the stronghold of Alt Clut (the capital of the Kingdom of Strathclyde) and took most of the site's inhabitants; most likely by Olaf the White, and Ivar the Boneless to the Dublin slave markets in 871 A.D. Maredudd ab Owain (d. 999) paid a large ransom for 2,000 Welsh slaves, which demonstrates the large-scale slave raiding upon the British Isles. Vikings however would trade with the Gaelic, Pictish, Brythonic and Saxon kingdoms while continuing to raid the British Isles for slaves.

The legacy of Viking raids can be seen in the DNA of the Icelandic people. Recent evidence suggests that approximately 60% of the Icelandic maternal gene pool is derived from Scotland and later by Norse-Gaels who later settled in both Scotland and Ireland which is much higher than other Scandinavian countries, although comparable to the Faroese one.

Some of the earliest accounts of the Anglo-Saxon English comes from the account of the fair-haired boys from York seen in Rome by Pope Gregory the Great. In the seventh century the English slave Balthild rose to be queen of the Frankish king Clovis II. Anglo-Saxon opinion turned against the sale of English abroad: a law of Ine of Wessex stated that anyone selling his own countryman, whether bond or free, across the sea, was to pay his own wergild in penalty, even when the man so sold was guilty of crime. Nevertheless, legal penalties and economic pressures that led to default in payments maintained the supply of slaves, and in the 11th century there was still a slave trade operating out of Bristol, as a passage in the Vita Wulfstani makes clear. Under ecclesiastical pressure, however, as the feudal order congealed in England during the 12th century, villeinage took the place of outright slavery.