The Anglo-Saxon Age C.400-1042 by Fisher D J V

Author:Fisher, D J V.
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-317-87319-8
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)

3. DIPLOMATIC AND ECONOMIC CONTACTS

Although the cause of ecclesiastical reform in the Frankish lands now under Charlemagne’s rule no longer needed external assistance, in other respects contacts between England and the Continent were fully maintained. Diplomatic relations between the Frankish court and the kings of Mercia and Northumbria became closer than ever before and they occasionally provide evidence of strongly maintained economic links.

In view of the Northumbrian mission effort it was natural that Northumbrians and Franks should be interested in events in each other’s kingdoms. Kings of Northumbria and archbishops of York exchanged letters with Charlemagne, and the early Northumbrian annals incorporated into Symeon of Durham’s History include notices of Charles’s campaigns. Conversely the murder of King Ethelred in 796 so outraged Charlemagne that he withheld gifts intended for Northumbrian churches. When Ethelred’s successor Eardwulf was expelled from Northumbria in 808 he first took refuge at the Frankish court and next year returned home accompanied by envoys from the pope and the emperor. With Offa of Mercia Charlemagne’s contacts were, as we have seen, frequent and variable.1

An interesting byproduct of the negotiations for a marriage alliance between the two royal families was a period of coolness during which Charlemagne prohibited the entry of English merchants to Gaul, to which Offa replied with an embargo on Frankish merchants wishing to come to England. Some years later, a letter from Charlemagne to Offa gives some indication that both parties regarded the trade as worth fostering and suggests that it was economically important. Charlemagne alleged that English merchants had been masquerading as pilgrims with the object of evading their customs dues; if discovered they would be required to pay the normal tolls on their goods. He agreed that English merchants in his dominions and his subjects in England should be under the protection of the kings of their respective countries and if they were oppressed might appeal to royal officers for justice. In reply to Offa’s request for certain ‘black-stones’ Charlemagne suggested that if Offa would send a representative who knew exactly what was wanted he would ensure that they were provided and asked in return that Offa should ensure that the cloaks exported by the English merchants conformed in size to those sent in former times.

This exchange of letters poses the question how far English trade had been affected by changes which may have occurred in the economy of western Europe in the late seventh and eighth centuries. By some historians it is argued that since European trade had been predominantly a commerce in luxury goods from the eastern Mediterranean, the dosing of that sea to Christian traders during the late seventh century, which was a consequence of Islamic expansion, must have affected the economy of western Europe adversely. Whereas Merovingian Gaul was wealthy and still able to operate a money economy based on gold, Carolingian Gaul was poor, with an economy based on great landed estates each striving for self-sufficiency as a consequence of the breakdown of commercial exchanges; the disappearance of gold currencies in both Francia and England was a symptom of the decline.

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