Travel to other Cities in... Northumbria
	York
	Create a new City in Northumbria

York

District Leader: Position is currently vacant   

Northumbria, Danelaw, archbishopric

The Vale of York had been populated since prehistoric times but it took the Romans to recognize its importance and build a town there. After the Romans pulled out of Britain, the city (then known as Eboracum) was largely abandoned. Archaeological evidence seems to indicate there was widespread flooding of the town at this time. There still some occupation in some areas of old Roman York. Ancient Welsh genealogies indicate that a local York family seized power at this time in the North - with their home city as capital. The founder, one Coel Hen (the Old) - the 'Old King Cole' of Nursery Rhyme fame - may have been the last Dux Britanniarum or military commander of late Roman Britain.

The mid-fifth century saw these Kings of Ebrauc (as it was now know) fighting alongside Anglian mercenaries to keep Pictish invaders away from the city. Life alongside these new settlers appears to have been quite peaceful. About a hundred years later, however, King Eliffer Gosgorddfawr (of the Great Army) felt obliged to muster a large armed troop around him - probably at York - in order to ensure that this state of affairs continued. There were more hostile Germanic forces emerging to the north of his territory. When Eliffer's twin sons, Gwrgi and Peredyr Arueu Dur (Steel-Arms) clashed with these foreigners around AD 580, both were killed, along with much of the Ebraucan nobility. The Germanic settlers of Deira moved into the subsequent power-vacuum in the area. The protectors of Peredyr's young son felt it best to flee and York quickly fell under Anglian control.

Anglian York is particularly associated with the great King Edwin of Deira who reasserted an independent Deira in AD 616 and even conquered the more northerly kingdom. The monarch took a keen interest in spiritual matters and, after an apparent brief dabble with Christianity in his youth, he was eventually fully converted to this new religion within two years of his marriage to the Christian Princess Ethleburga of Kent in AD 625. Edwin is portrayed by the Venerable Bede as the English successor to the high command of the Roman Dux Britanniarum.

In AD 735, Bishop Egbert persuaded Pope Gregory III to confirm York's status as an Archiepiscopal See. Archbishop Egbert also founded the cathedral school which became such a renowned international center of learning that it earned the city the name of Altera Roma, the Alternate Rome.

The Vikings (mainly from Denmark), under Princes Ivarr the Boneless and Halfdan Wide-Embrace of Sjaelland & Uppsala, captured York during a surprise attack on 1st November AD 866. They quickly transformed Jorvik, as they called the city, into the capital of their Kingdom of York and it was used as their base as they swept across Saxon England.

York grew into a substantial city: a commercial center and a busy port. Using the old Roman fortress of Eboracum as part of Jorvik's defences, the Vikings constructed new streets lined by regular building plots for timber houses between AD 900 and 935. There was a new bridge over the River Ouse and in th e10th century the population was estimated at 10,000, possibly at above 15,000 by 1066. It was a rich trading centre of international importance, with contacts across the British Isles, North-West Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East. It remained so even after the Viking kingdom was absorbed into England in AD 954 and also later, after the Normans invaded England in 1066 and made York their main administrative and judicial center in northern England.

The Articles of York:

---

Write an article for York...