Page:VCH Herefordshire 1.djvu/418

 A HISTORY OF HEREFORDSHIRE found it impossible to maintain his hold, and the outposts which he estab- lished suffered severe losses.'' The identification of the scene of the final overthrow of Caractacus in 50 a.d. with Coxall Knoll, near Brampton Bryan, is now generally abandoned in favour of some site in Shropshire. The battle was in the territory of the Ordovices, who did not extend so far south as Herefordshire. The Silures were finally subdued by Sextus Julius Frontinus, Agricola's predecessor, who commanded in Britain from 75 to 78,* but regained their independence before the final withdrawal of the Roman troops in 41 1. Their connexion with the mythical Uther and Arthur of Nennius can hardly be regarded as serious history ; * nor can much be made of the legendary connexion of the early Welsh saint, Dubricius, with the district, although there is no reason to doubt it entirely.' When the Anglo-Saxon settlements reached the confines of Wales the modern Herefordshire was occupied by folk termed by Florence of Worcester the Magesaetas and the Hecanas. It is impossible to determine the area of their occupation exactly, but roughly it coincided with the diocese of Hereford, comprising Herefordshire and southern Shropshire, with a fluctuating western boundary. Earle is indeed inclined to place the Magesaetas in Worcestershire, * and their position in the van of the invaders must have meant considerable changes in their geographical position at different times. To determine the relative position of the Magesaetas and Hecanas is impossible, and indeed the names do not appear to belong to the same period. The terms are used by Florence of Worcester as if they were different and successive names for the same folk, the Hecanas being the earlier.'' It is more than possible that the Hecanas were in reality a Welsh tribe, owning the political supremacy of the king of the Mercians, who in the time of Offa were replaced in eastern Herefordshire by the Magesaetas, an English folk. But this is conjectural. When the independent folk began to give place to the larger kingdoms, the Mercians were consolidated under Crida between 584 and 593. It is uncertain at what time the territory of the Hecanas was included in the dominions of the Mercian kings, but it is possible that it was in 628, the year of the convention at Cirencester between Penda the great king of the Mercians and Cynegils the king of the West Saxons.* The fall of Penda in Loidis in 654 or 655 ' broke up the kingdom of the Mercians for a time, but in 661 Wulfhere, the second son of Penda, again extended his rule over the West Hecanas, appointing his brother Merewald as under-king." Merewald is said to have resided at Kingland near Leo- minster." In 676 Putta, bishop of Rochester, took refuge in Mercia, and Sexwulf, the Mercian bishop, gave him a church among the Hecanas.^^ By 688 at latest they were formed into a separate bishopric.^' Under " Tacitus, Annals, xii, 38, 39. ' Tacitus, Agrtcola, c. 17. ' See Diet. Nat. Biog. s. v. Dubricius. ° Arch. Joum. xix, 5 i-z. ' Flor. Wore. Chron. (ed. Thorpe), i, 238. i, 184 ; cf. Green, Making of Engl. (1883), 267. » Angl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 50. '» Flor. Wore. Chron. (ed. Thorpe), i, 265. " Arch. Camhr. (Ser. 2), v, 103. " Bede, Hist. Eccl. iv, 12 (ed. Plummer), ii. 222 ; Flor. Wore. Chron. i, 238 ; Haddan and Stubbs, Concilia, iii, 130. " Stubbs, Reg. Sacr. (1897), s. a. 348
 * For a summary of the Arthurian question see Ramsay, Foundations of Engl. (1898), i. 124—6.
 * Angl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 44. The conjecture is Sir James H. Ramsay's. Foundations of Engl.