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1 results

  • 23 - The Northern Seas (fifth to eighth centuries)

  • from PART III - THEMES AND PROBLEMS
  • Edited by Paul Fouracre, University of Manchester
  • Book:
    The New Cambridge Medieval History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    08 December 2005, pp 639-659

  • Summary

    Since the end of the third century, communications in the northern seaways, especially between the British Isles and the European continent, had been interrupted by maritime migrations and concomitant piracy. This was to be rampant for two or three centuries, even though an important part of these movements had been undertaken and controlled by the Roman Empire itself for the purpose of its coastal defence. The beginning of the seventh century saw an increase in port activity that affected not only the old cities, such as Nantes, London or Rouen, but above all the new sites, and which generally promised a great future. The whirlwind activity which reached the Northern Seas from around 600 had such an influence on the whole of the West because, throughout the seventh and eighth centuries, there was a progressive integration of the coastal area with its more distant hinterland.