Manaw Gododdin - Regional History

Regional History

The earliest reliable information on the region of the Firth of Forth during the time when Manaw Gododdin existed is from archaeology that researches Roman Britain. The homeland of the Votadini, like those of the Damnonii and Novantae, was not planted with forts, suggesting (but not confirming) that the peoples of these regions had reached an amicable understanding with the Romans (such as an unequal alliance), and consequently these tribes or kingdoms continued to exist throughout the Roman Era. There is no indication that the Romans ever waged war against any of these peoples.

However, the Romans were frequently at war with the more northerly peoples now known as Picts, and their military lines of communication (i.e., their roads) were well-fortified. This includes the road through Manaw Gododdin, the northern end of Dere Street.

The earliest reliable historical reference to the peoples of Northern Britain is from the Geography of Ptolemy in c. 150. He says that this was the territory of the Otadini (i.e., the Votadini), a people later known as the Kingdom of Gododdin (i.e., the Kingdom of the Votadini). Their lands were along the coast of southeastern Scotland and northeastern England, and included the lands along the Firth of Forth, both north and south of it.

Ptolemy says that in 150 both the Damnonii and the Otadini possessed the land north of the Firth of Forth and south of the Firth of Tay. The Picts were constantly pressing southward, and by the early 3rd century the Roman Emperor Severus ineffectively campaigned against them. Known then as the Maeatae, the local Picts would ultimately push south to the Firth of Forth and beyond, and by the 7th century the Votadini were being squeezed between them and the Anglian Bernicians, who were expanding northward.

Neither Gododdin nor Manaw Gododdin could have existed as a kingdom beyond the 7th century. The Kingdom of Northumbria was ascendant, and it would conquer all of Scotland south of the Firths of Clyde and Forth. The definitive years were the middle of the 7th century, when Penda of Mercia led an alliance of Mercians, Cymry (from both the north and from Gwynedd), East Anglians, and Deirans against Bernicia. Penda would be defeated and killed at the Battle of Winwaed in 655, ending the alliance and cementing Bernician control over all of Britain between the English Midlands and the Scottish firths. Bernicia would again be united with Deira to form Northumbria as the premier military power of the era. Alt Clut would soon re-establish its independence, but all other Brythonic kingdoms north of the Solway-Tyne were gone forever.