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The Battle of Deorham was fought in southwestern Britain in 577, between the Saxons of Wessex and the Britons to their west. Deorham is usually taken to refer to Dyrham in South Gloucestershire, on the Cotswold escarpment a few miles north of Bath. Since the only evidence of the battle is a brief mention in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, no details of it are known.
The battle was won by the Saxons, who afterward occupied the three cities of Cirencester (Corinium), probably a provincial capital in the Roman period, Gloucester (Glevum), a former legionary fortress and a colonia, and Bath (Aquae Sulis), a renowned pagan religious centre and spa-city. The remains of many villas are found around these cities, which suggests that the area was both wealthy and relatively sophisticated, and thus that this Saxon advance was a heavy blow to the Britons.
The battle is also considered by some to have begun the differentiation of Welsh and Cornish into two separate languages, by cutting off the Britons in Wales from those in Devon and Cornwall, by land. Against this, it has been objected that, although the battle may have prevented large-scale movements, the passage of British-speakers between the two areas seemingly stayed possible, given that a Welsh genealogy appears to record that, in the 7th century, the descendants of kings of Pengwern founded a dynasty in the Glastonbury region. The journey by boat is not difficult. Further, archaeology suggests that, although the Anglo-Saxons quickly took over the Cirencester region after the battle, it took some time for them to colonize Bath and Gloucester.
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- This page was last modified on 8 October 2008, at 21:19.
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