The ''Waeclingas'' (

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''Wæclingas'') were a tribe or clan of

Anglo-Saxon England Anglo-Saxon England or Early Medieval England, existing from the 5th to the 11th centuries from the end of Roman Britain until the Norman conquest in 1066, consisted of various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms until 927, when it was united as the Kingdom o ...

. Their territory or '' regio'' was based in the modern city of

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

, whose name is recorded as ''Wæclingaceaster'' ("the former Roman fortification of the ''Wæclingas''") in the writings of

Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...

in the early 8th century, and in an early 10th century Anglo-Saxon charter. Before the territory came under Mercian control around 660 it may have formed part of the province of the

Middle Saxons The Middle Saxons or Middel Seaxe were a people whose territory later became, with somewhat contracted boundaries, the county of Middlesex, England. The first known mention of Middlesex stems from a royal charter of 704 between king Swæfred o ...

, or it may have fallen under the influence of the

Kingdom of Essex la, Regnum Orientalium Saxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the East Saxons , common_name = Essex , era = Heptarchy , status = , status_text = , government_type = Monarch ...

– neither is certain. The name of the tribe comes from a personal name, meaning "the people of ''Wæcla''". The tribe gave their name to

Watling Street Watling Street is a historic route in England that crosses the River Thames at London and which was used in Classical Antiquity, Late Antiquity, and throughout the Middle Ages. It was used by the ancient Britons and paved as one of the main R ...

, the former

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

from

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

to St Albans. The small town of Watlington in South Oxfordshire is also said to derive its name from the Waeclingas. The tribal territory of the ''Waeclingas'' may have corresponded to the territory of the ''

municipium In ancient Rome, the Latin term (pl. ) referred to a town or city. Etymologically, the was a social contract among ("duty holders"), or citizens of the town. The duties () were a communal obligation assumed by the in exchange for the privi ...

'' of

Verulamium Verulamium was a town in Roman Britain. It was sited southwest of the modern city of St Albans in Hertfordshire, England. A large portion of the Roman city remains unexcavated, being now park and agricultural land, though much has been built upon ...

, the Romano-British town that preceded St Albans. Together with the ''

Brahhingas The ''Brahhingas'' or ''Brahingas'' were a tribe or clan of Anglo-Saxon England whose territory was centred on the settlement of Braughing in modern-day Hertfordshire. The name of the tribe means "the people of Brahha", with Brahha likely to have be ...

'' and the '' Hicce'' the ''Waeclingas'' were one of the most important tribes of the area that would later become the

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, and its territory would evolve into some of the structures that would form the county's administrative framework.

References

Bibliography

* * {{Heptarchy Peoples of Anglo-Saxon England History of Hertfordshire