Stanwick- Cartimandua and Venutius

It's an exciting time of the month! It's Day 28 of my April blog posts that have some relevance to Before Beltane, and there are only a few hours left before the official launch of the eBook of Before Beltane (as I write this).

Today's post is about Stanwick Hillfort the stronghold of King Venutius, or Queen Cartimandua,… or both?

So much of this Brigante stronghold of Stanwick is unknown, but many theories abound about it.

Only a tiny part of what developed into a very sizeable Late Iron Age Brigante hillfort at Stanwick has ever been excavated. Starting off quite modest in size, the area now named as ‘Hill of Toft’ was covered by small defences, though were enlarged and grew to being extremely large. Eventually, the rampart and ditch is estimated to have enclosed some 310 ha (766 acres). Those numbers have only come to mean something more tangible to me since I learned that Durno, the largest Roman temporary camp found in Aberdeenshire (to date), covered some 58 ha. Stanwick, in comparison, would be about 6 times bigger than that Roman encampment which might have comfortably sheltered some 30,000 Roman soldiers with plenty of space for horses.     

Wheeler's Wall - Stanwick
Wikimedia Commons

The Stanwick hillfort has been referred to as an oppidum, meaning a larger native settlement which seems to have been relatively rare in the northern areas of Britannia. It probably began as a modest hillfort at some point before the Claudian Roman invasion of Britannia in AD 43. The dealings that Queen Cartimandua and her (then) husband had with the Roman Empire seems to have kept full-scale invasion of the area at bay for a couple of decades, yet there were sizeable expansions of the settlement during that time.

In the early 1950s, the renowned archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler supervised excavations of a small area which dated the site as being first century AD.  Lots of conjectural theories have emerged over who used the site, and what the political situation was at that time. The only main historical prime source for the location and era comes from the Roman writer Cornelius Tacitus. He wrote that Cartimandua (or perhaps her husband as well)  had made some form of treaties with Rome which meant that their lands remained largely uninvaded, probably so long as her Brigantes did not attack any Roman settlements or installations built to the south of Brigante territory (which was extensive across northern England).

A Stanwick archaeological find-
Wikimedia Commons

Some theories to explain the increase of land covered by the settlement at Stanwick cover the ideas that not all Brigantes were happy with Cartimandua’s dealings with Rome. A read of Tacitus indicates that Cartimandua’s handing over of Caractacus in AD 51 to the Romans was a turning point. The ‘betrayal’ of Caractacus, who had been a bastion of Roman resistance, was perhaps a dealing too many for many of the Brigante tribes. At some point between AD 51 and 69, the ripples of insurrection amongst Brigantes came to a serious conflict between those who followed Cartimandua and Rome, and those who followed King Venutius and resistance.  

During those years leading to what is termed the Brigante civil war, the expansion of Stanwick probably happened as the rallying call went out.

By AD 69, it may be the case that  Cartimandua retreated to a southern hillfort (Almondbury?) after a defeat against Venutius. Her fate is unknown, but has been a subject of conjecture amongst scholars for a very long time.

Venutius’ fate is unknown, but it may be that he survived till the end of the period when Petillius Cerialis was Governor of Britannia (71-74).  By the mid to end of the AD 70s, it’s thought that the influence of the Stanwick hillfort had declined, the main reason being that the Roman invasion of Brigantia had been successful and resistance to Rome had been largely stamped out. The hillfort excavations point to the possibility that there was fire destruction, possibly caused during a confrontation with the troops of the Legio IX, under the command of the  Roman Governor Petillius Cerialis.

A grave site was discovered near Stanwick which indicated a burial of some importance. It has been suggested it was the burial site of King Venutius. 

In Before Beltane, I have included scenes where Lorcan of Garrigill is in the company of King Venutius. My details are scant, but sufficient to indicate that the area covered by Stanwick Hillfort is quite extensive. I’ve also included mention that Lorcan is given hospitality by Chief Thoft,  a venerable chief of the area, though I don't mention in the novel that the area of the original Stanwick Hillfort may have been Thoft/Toft's land before being used by Queen Cartimandua and King Venutius!

Happy Reading.

Slàinte!