Lindsey
Lindsey or
Linnuis is the name of the
Anglo-Saxon kingdom that lay between the
Humber and
the Wash, forming its inland boundries from the course of the
Witham and
Trent rivers (with the inclusion of an area inside of a marshy region south of the Humber known as the Isle of Axholme), and the
Foss Dyke between them. It is believed that
Lincoln was the capital of this kingdom.
Lindsey's greatest power was before the historical period. At the time of the first historical records of Lindsey, it has become a subjugated polity, under the alternating control of Northumbria then Mercia. All trace of its individuality vanished before the Viking assault. Its territories evolved into the historical English county of Lincolnshire.
A collection of genealogies, created in the last years of Offa's reign, gives the names of the ruling lineage of Lindsey:
- Woden
- Winta
- Cretta
- Queldgils
- Ceadbed
- Bubba
- Bedeca
- Biscop
- Eanferth
- Eatta
- Ealdfrith
Only the last individual (Ealdfrith) can be securly dated: Frank Stenton refers to an Anglo-Saxon charter (BCS 262) that mentions Ealdfrith, and dates its writing to some time between AD
787 and
796.
The kingdom gave its name to a traditional subdivison of
Lincolnshire, which includes most the urbanised areas. Places in Lindsey today include -