HUNTINGDONSHIRE, with the adjacent counties of CAM

BRIDGE, NORFOLK, and SUFFOLK, composed the extensive territory of the ICENI, a powerful British tribe, whose name, according to Owen, was derived from Cyn, signifying, 'first, a-head, forward, before, or foremost; with the article Y, or the, prefixed;" and thence, he continues, the people would be called Cyni, Cyniad, Cynion, Cynwys, &c. or, with the article, Y-Cyni, &c. i. e. the first, or most forward. They were also called Cenimagni, or, more properly, Cenimanni, Cenomanni, and Cenomes; all these appellations being deduced from the British language, and denoting the inhabitants of the head-most, or forward, regions.'t The Iceni formed an alliance with the Romans at a very early period; but the oppressions inflicted during the proprætorship of Ostorius, in the time of the Emperor Claudius, incensed them so highly, that they flew to arms, and, in conjunction with some of the neighbouring states, took the field in great force. Their undisciplined bravery, however, proved of little avail against Roman weapons, and Roman discipline; and, after a sanguinary conflict, they were obliged to submit to the harsh terms proposed by their conquerors. The peace was of short duration. Exasperated by new oppressions, combined with atrocities still more galling, the Iceni had again recourse to arms. 'The death of Prasutagus, their Sovereign, and the impolitic arrangements of his will, had furnished the Romans with a pretext for coercive measures, and, with the most insulting rapacity, the native chiefs were deprived of their estates, and the people generally inflamed to revenge by VOL. VII. APRIL, 1808. Y.. repeated

Cambrian Register, Vol. II.

+ Ibid. See also under Cambridgeshire, Vol. II. p. 3.

repeated spoliations. The widow of Prasutagus, the brave Boadicea, was ignominiously scourged; and her daughters were violated by the Roman officers. These successive outrages excited a general spirit of resistance; and, under the conduct of Boadicea, the Iceni commenced an exterminating war. The Roman cities at Camalodunum (Colchester) and Verulam (St. Alban's) were reduced to ashes; the infantry of the ninth legion were cut to pieces; and the inhabitants of London were massacred with unsparing fury, from the consideration of their being in alliance with the Romans. Seutonius Paulinus, the Roman General, who was in Anglesea at the commencement of the insurrection, marched hastily to arrest the progress of the exulting foe, whose numbers had now increased to between 200 and 300,000 men. The utmost he could oppose to this immense force, was a body of scarcely 10,000 troops; yet these were veteran soldiers, accustomed to victory, and regardless of every thing but the disgrace of discomfiture. With this intrepid band he awaited the threatened attack in a spot encircled with woods, narrow at the entrance, and sheltered in the rear by a thick forest,' the force of the enemy being extended over an open plain which lay before him. The dire conflict terminated in the total defeat of the Britons, who, flushed with their former success, fought in such tumultuous disorder, that their vast superiority of numbers tended only to their own destruction. "The glory of the day," says Tacitus," was equal to the most splendid victory of ancient times. The waggons in the rear of the Britons obstructed their flight a dreadful slaughter followed. Neither sex nor age was spared; and the cattle falling in one promiscuous carnage, added to the heaps of slain."* When the pursuit had ceased, the British chiefs endeavoured to collect their scattered troops, and for some time kept the field; but they durst not again contend with the Roman power; and from this period history is silent as to the annals of the Iceni as a separate nation. In the Roman division of the kingdom, their country was included in the district named FLAVIA CESARIENSIS.

The

* Ann. B. XIV. S. 37.

The principal Roman stations in Huntingdonshire, were DUROLIPONTE, or Godmanchester; and DUROBRIVE, near Dornford Ferry, about midway between Chesterton in this county, and Castor in Northamptonshire. The principal ancient roads, of which there appear to have been three, intersected each other at Godmanchester: one of them has been called the British Ermin. This seems to have entered the county from the neighbourhood of Casar's Camp, or Salene, in Bedfordshire, and to have proceeded by Crane Hill, in the track since known by the name of Hell Lane, whence passing through Toseland, Godmanchester, and Huntingdon, it continued by Alconbury, Weston, and Upton; and falling into what is now called the Bullock Road, passed to the east of the spot marked in our maps, the Ruins of Ogerston;' and finally, entered Northamptonshire at Wandsford. The Roman Ermin Street entered this county from Cambridgeshire, in the vicinity of Papworth St. Agnes, and proceeding to Godmanchester, nearly in the line of the present high road, followed the course of the British Ermin to the neighbourhood of Alconbury; when branching off to the eastward, it again assumed the line of the high road, through Sawtry, St. Andrews, Stilton, and Chesterton, to Durobriva, whence crossing Northamptonshire, it entered Rutlandshire near Stamford. The Via Devana, the third and last of the principal ancient roads in Huntingdonshire, entered from Cambridgeshire, in the neighbourhood of Fenny Stanton, and proceeded to Godmanchester, in the same course as the present turnpike road: thence pursuing the tract of the British Ermin to Alconbury, it passed to the north of Buckworth and Old Weston, and entered Northamptonshire in the vicinity of Clapton. In the early Saxon times, this county formed part of the kingdom of East Anglia, and was then called Huntedunescyre, and Huntandunescyre. It was afterwards subjugated by the Mercian Sovereigns, and continued under their dominion till the union of the Saxon states into one monarchy by Egbert.

"In the decline of the Saxon government," says Camden, "this county had an officiary Earl (named) Siward; for earldoms Y 2

Brit. Gough's Edit. Vol. II. p. 155.

were

were not yet hereditary in England, but the governors of shires were, according to the custom of that period, called Earls, with the additional title of the shires they presided over; as this Siward, while Governor here, was called Earl of Huntingdon; but afterwards having the government of Northumberland conferred on him, was called Earl of Northumberland."

Waldeof, or Waltheof, son of Siward, a brave and potent English chief, being taken into favor by William the Conqueror, was by him married to Judith, his own niece. He was also made Earl of Huntingdon; and, after the death of Earl Morcar, of Northumberland likewise; and the greater part of the lands in both these counties appears to have belonged to him. Whilst heated with wine at an entertainment given by the Earls of Suffolk and Hereford, (anno 1074,) he was by them persuaded to engage in a conspiracy to depose the King, who was then in Normandy: repenting, however, of his engagement the next morning, he communicated the scheme to Archbishop Lanfranc, who advised him to lay the particulars before his Sovereign, and solicit his pardon. This Waltheof performed, and was readily excused in the moment of confidence excited by the disclosure; but, after William had returned to England, he was basely seized by the King's command, and beheaded at Winchester. His remains were at first buried beneath the scaffold; but being afterwards removed to Croyland Abbey, are asserted, by Ingulphus, and other monkish historians, to have worked divers miracles.' Judith, his widow, was afterwards offered in marriage to Simon de St. Liz; but "she disliking his person," says Dugdale, was turned out of her estate; and Simon married her eldest daughter" by Waltheof. Her name was Maud, or Matilda: with her Simon received the Earldom of Huntingdon; but dying in the beginning of the reign of Henry the First, his widow was re-married to David, brother to Alexander, King of Scotland, and afterwards his succcessor in the Throne, who, in her right, inherited the possessions of Waltheof, and was niade Earl of Huntingdon and Northumberland.

66

Camden

Dug. Bar. Vol. I. p. 58.

Camden states, that, after these events, " by the revolutions of fortune, and the King's favor, sometimes the Scots, and another while the St. Lizes, held this honor:" that is, the Earldom of Huntingdon; and with it they possessed the greater part of the lands in this county. Henry, Prince of Scotland, son of David by Matilda, was at first admitted Earl; but on the refusal of his father to acknowledge Stephen, Earl of Blois, as Sovereign of England, to the exclusion of the Empress Matilda, daughter of Henry the First, by the good Queen Maud,' who was sister to David, Stephen seized all his possessions in England, and restored this Earldom to the young Simon de Liz. He appears to have retained it during the subsequent war between the two countries, on which both David, and his son Henry, invaded England at the head of a large army, and much blood was spilt on both sides. At length, through the interference of the Empress, a peace was finally concluded on these conditions: "That the counties of Northumberland and Huntingdon should remaine in the govern ment of Henrie, Prince of Scotland, as Leire to the same by right of his mother; but Cumberland should be reputed as the inheritance and right of his father, King David: and for these lands and seigniories, the fore-named Prince Henrie and his successors, Princes of Scotland, should doo homage unto King Stephen, and his successors, Kings of England for the time being."

This agreement was solemnly ratified; yet the jealousies, and opposing interests, of the rival crowns, continuing in full force, the possession of the counties above-named was frequently the occasion of new disputes. Prince Henry died in 1152, and David, his father, in the following year. His successor in the throne of Scotland, was Malcolm, Henry's eldest son by a daughter of the great Earl Warren. This Prince began his reign at the age of thirteen, and was soon afterwards summoned by Henry the Second, 'by counsel of his nobles,' to "come up to London, there to doo his homage unto him, for the lands of Cumberland, NorthumberJand, and Huntingdon, in maner and forme as his grandfather King

Y 3

* Hol. Chron. Vol. V. p. 290. Edit. 1808,