The Bailiwick of Ennerdale Est 1251 - Hon. George Mentz JD MBA CWM

🏞️ The Bailiwick of Ennerdale: A Successor to the Hen Ogledd

In the mists of antiquity, long before England or Scotland crystallized into unified states, there existed a vast, culturally rich region known as the Hen Ogledd—the “Old North”. This was the domain of the northern Brittonic-speaking peoples: warriors, poets, kings, druids, and tribal confederacies that ruled the lands stretching from the Southern Highlands of Scotland through Cumbria and into parts of Northumbria. Today, amid this historical backdrop, the Bailiwick, Liberty, and Forest of Ennerdale stands as a symbolic and territorial successor to this ancient civilization.

I. Hen Ogledd: The Tribal Heart of the North

The Hen Ogledd was composed of Brittonic kingdoms such as Rheged, Elmet, Gododdin, and Strathclyde. These were Celtic realms whose oral traditions, laws, and bardic lineages resembled those of early Wales and Cornwall. Ennerdale, nestled in what is now Cumbria, lies squarely within what would have been Rheged—one of the most powerful and artistically rich realms of the Hen Ogledd. Figures like Urien Rheged, the warrior-poet king, held dominion over these valleys and forests, and their legacy remains buried in both place-names and mythic memory.

The Hen Ogledd was governed not through modern bureaucracies, but through tribal assemblies, druids’ councils, warrior lords, and legal customs rooted in oral law and communal responsibility. The land was held in sacred trust—not simply as property, but as a living embodiment of ancestry, duty, and spiritual power. These concepts echo today in the enduring traditions of certain liberties and private jurisdictions that remain embedded in English legal memory.

II. Ennerdale as a Legal and Territorial Continuum

In the wake of conquest, colonization, and the Norman overlay of feudalism, many of the customary tribal jurisdictions of the Old North were extinguished or absorbed into larger state structures. But some—especially those designated as Liberties or Forest Bailiwicks—survived as anomalous pockets of independence. Ennerdale is one of these.

Through Crown and Parliament, the Liberty, Forest, and Bailiwick of Ennerdale was ultimately sold outright in the 19th century, effectively severing it from royal oversight. What this created was not just a feudal title, but a privately held jurisdiction that preserved many of the autonomous rights once common in Celtic and Norse society: the ability to manage forests, hold courts, appoint officers, and govern the land outside of county authority.

This Liberty reflects the structure and spirit of the Hen Ogledd—a place where a lord governs not merely by ownership but by stewardship, and where assemblies, titles, and rituals maintain a continuity with ancestral governance.

III. Norse and Celtic Fusion: A Unique Identity

The Viking and Norse-Gaelic incursions of the 9th and 10th centuries did not erase the Brittonic character of the region; rather, they added new layers. The Norse brought with them the Thing system, land laws, and maritime culture, blending with the Celtic Dál Riata and the remnants of Rheged. In Ennerdale, we find this fusion reflected in place-names, customs, and even governance structures like the Court Leet—reminiscent of the old Norse Thing and Celtic Moots.

Thus, the Bailiwick of Ennerdale is more than a manorial quirk; it is a living heir to dual inheritance: the tribal assemblies of the Britons and the community councils of the Norse.

IV. The Modern Lordship as Cultural Custodian

Today’s Lord of the Liberty, Forest, and Bailiwick of Ennerdale holds a rare and meaningful office. No longer merely symbolic, this lordship represents:

• Legal continuity with medieval liberties;

• Cultural continuity with ancient tribal governance;

• Environmental stewardship in the tradition of sacred groves and royal forests;

• And ceremonial sovereignty, echoing the authority once held by Celtic lords and Norse jarls.

By convening a modern assembly, appointing wardens, hosting rituals of land and law, and issuing charters or honors, the Lord of Ennerdale may revive the ancestral role of the Ard-Tigern, the high chief who stands between people and land, forest and law, sovereignty and service.

V. Conclusion: Ennerdale as Heir of the North

The Bailiwick of Ennerdale is not merely a relic of English legal history—it is a bridge across time, connecting the Hen Ogledd to the present. As the tribal north gave way to kingdoms and then to empires, few places retained their soul. Ennerdale, in its Liberty and Forest, has done so—not by conquest, but by quiet endurance.

In its woods, one may yet hear the whisper of bards. In its governance, one may sense the echo of the ancient council fires. And in the title of its Lord, one finds the dignified successor to kings not crowned by empire, but chosen by earth, kinship, and custom.

Thus, the Bailiwick of Ennerdale is not merely a manorial domain—it is the modern incarnation of the Hen Ogledd’s spirit, still sovereign in law, still sacred in memory.

The Kingdom of Cumbria, also known as the Kingdom of Strathclyde, was at various times an independent Brittonic kingdom, a Scottish client state, and eventually a province under Scottish control.
Here’s how that happened, step by step:

🏰 1. Origins — The Brittonic Kingdom of Rheged (5th–7th centuries)

After the Romans withdrew from Britain around 410 AD, the northwest region (modern Cumbria and southwest Scotland) became the Kingdom of Rheged, ruled by Celtic-speaking Britons — the same ethnic group as the Welsh.

• Its kings, such as Urien Rheged and his son Owain, are celebrated in early Welsh poetry (Y Gododdin, The Book of Taliesin).

• Rheged’s people spoke Cumbric, a Brythonic Celtic language closely related to Old Welsh.

By the late 7th century, Rheged was gradually absorbed into the expanding Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, though the old Cumbrian people remained.

🛡️ 2. The Rise of the Kingdom of Strathclyde (7th–10th centuries)

As Northumbria’s power waned, a new Celtic kingdom centered on Dumbarton Rock on the River Clyde rose to prominence — the Kingdom of Strathclyde, also called Cumberland or Cumbria in English sources.

• It included southwest Scotland and much of present-day Cumbria.

• Its kings were Brittonic, not Anglo-Saxon or Gaelic.

• For centuries, Strathclyde acted as a buffer kingdom between Scotland and England.

⚔️ 3. Submission to Scottish Suzerainty (10th century)

The decisive moment came in 945 AD.
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle:

“King Edmund [of England] harried all Cumberland and gave it to Malcolm, king of the Scots, on condition that he be his fellow-worker both by sea and land.”

This means that:

• King Edmund invaded and devastated Cumbria, which was still largely Brittonic (not Anglo-Saxon).

• He ceded it to Malcolm I of Scotland as a vassal or client territory, not as an outright gift.

• The idea was strategic — the Scots would guard the northern frontier for England in exchange for control over the region.

Thus, from 945 AD onward, Cumbria was under Scottish overlordship, though its native Cumbrian rulers (kings or princes) continued to govern locally under Scottish authority.

👑 4. Cumbric Princes under the Scottish Crown (10th–11th centuries)

Between 945–1050, Strathclyde/Cumbria remained semi-independent but recognized the Scottish king as overlord.

• The Annals of Tigernach (Irish chronicle) mention a “King of the Cumbrians” in this period.

• In 1018, the Cumbrians fought alongside the Scots at the Battle of Carham, confirming their alliance.

• By 1030, the Cumbrian monarchy had died out or been absorbed, and the kings of Scotland assumed the title “Rex Cumbrorum” (King of the Cumbrians).

This is when the southern part of Strathclyde, including Ennerdale, Copeland, and Carlisle, came effectively under Scottish royal control.

🗺️ 5. Transition to English Rule (11th–12th centuries)

• Around 1050, Earl Siward of Northumbria (under the English crown) extended his control westward over what’s now Cumbria, including Ennerdale.

• In 1092, King William II (William Rufus) of England conquered Carlisle and formally annexed Cumbria into England.

• The Treaty of York (1237) later fixed the Anglo-Scottish border roughly where it remains today.

📜 Summary Timeline

✅ In Summary

The Kingdom of Cumbria was under Scotland because in 945 AD, King Edmund I of England formally granted Cumberland to the King of Scots, making it a Scottish client kingdom.
For about a century afterward, it remained a semi-independent Cumbrian realm under Scottish overlordship — until the Norman kings of England reconquered it in the late 11th century.