The ''Brahhingas'' or ''Brahingas'' 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 of ...

whose territory was centred on the settlement of

Braughing Braughing is a village and civil parish, between the rivers Quin and Rib, in the non-metropolitan district of East Hertfordshire, part of the English county of Hertfordshire. Braughing gave its name to a county division in Hertfordshire, know ...

in modern-day

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 gov ...

. The name of the tribe means "the people of Brahha", with Brahha likely to have been either a leader of the tribe or a real or mythical ancestor. The tribe are first recorded in a

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the re ...

dating from the 830s or 840s, and their '' regio'' or administrative territory is likely to have included the later

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

es of

Reed Reed or Reeds may refer to: Science, technology, biology, and medicine * Reed bird (disambiguation) * Reed pen, writing implement in use since ancient times * Reed (plant), one of several tall, grass-like wetland plants of the order Poales * ...

Barkway Barkway is a long-established village and civil parish in the North Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England, about five miles south-east of Royston, 35 miles from London and 15 miles from the centre of Cambridge. The Prime Meridian pa ...

Barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley p ...

Nuthampstead Nuthampstead is a small village and civil parish in North East Hertfordshire located a few miles south of the town of Royston. In the 2001 census the parish had 139 residents, increasing to 142 at the 2011 Census. Nuthampstead was historically ...

, Buckland,

Wyddial Wyddial is a village and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England. It is located around a mile and a half north-east of Buntingford (OS grid reference ), and lies due north of Greenwich on the Prime Meridian ...

, Anstey, Throcking,

Aspenden Aspenden is a village and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England. It is just to the south of Buntingford. The Prime Meridian passes just to the east of it. Its name, which means 'valley of aspen trees', was ...

Layston Layston is a former village and parish located about a kilometre north-east of Buntingford in Hertfordshire, England, at 51°57′50″N 0°00′45″E. In 1931 the parish had a population of 724. On 1 April 1937 the parish was abolished and me ...

Great Hormead Great Hormead is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Hormead in the East Hertfordshire district, in the county of Hertfordshire, England. It stands near the River Quin, on the B1038 road. The village of Little Hormead ...

, Little Hormead,

Westmill Westmill is an English village and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, with an area of 1036 hectares. A population of 264 was recorded in the 2001 National Census. It lies just to the south of Buntingford, beside ...

and Standon, in the valleys of the

River Rib The River Rib originates near the East Hertfordshire village of Therfield and runs parallel with the A10 through Chipping, Wyddial, Buntingford, Westmill, Braughing, Puckeridge and Standon, before dividing the villages of Thundridge and ...

and

River Quin The River Quin is a small watercourse which rises near Barkway in north east Hertfordshire, England. The river is fed by a number of sources including springs from Biggin Moor, Great Hormead Brook, Little Hormead Brook and various field ditches ...

. The ''Brahhingas'' were originally within the area of the Middle Saxons but fell under the control of the East Saxons at an early date. The area remained part of the

Archdeaconry of Middlesex The Archdeacon of Middlesex is a senior cleric in the Church of England, co-responsible for the Archdeaconry of "Middlesex", which mirrors the "Kensington" episcopal area of the Diocese of London — the other person responsible being the Bi ...

even after it became part of

. The territory of the ''Brahhingas'' exhibits a high degree of continuity with pre-Saxon eras. Immediately to the south of the tribe's royal vill in Braughing lay the site of the second largest Roman town in modern Hertfordshire, and next to that lay an

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...

oppidum An ''oppidum'' (plural ''oppida'') is a large fortified Iron Age settlement or town. ''Oppida'' are primarily associated with the Celtic late La Tène culture, emerging during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, spread across Europe, stretchi ...

''. The location of the Roman town is called Wickham Hill, a form of name including the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

word ''

vicus In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (plural ) designated a village within a rural area () or the neighbourhood of a larger settlement. During the Republican era, the four of the city of Rome were subdivided into . In the 1st century BC, Augustus ...

'' and the

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 settlers in the mid-5th ...

suffix ''-ham'', which often indicates continuity between Roman and Anglo-Saxon settlement. These suggest that the territory of the ''Brahhingas'' may have developed gradually from an earlier ''

pagus In ancient Rome, the Latin word (plural ) was an administrative term designating a rural subdivision of a tribal territory, which included individual farms, villages (), and strongholds () serving as refuges, as well as an early medieval geogra ...

'' of the

Catuvellauni The Catuvellauni (Common Brittonic: *''Catu-wellaunī'', "war-chiefs") were a Celtic tribe or state of southeastern Britain before the Roman conquest, attested by inscriptions into the 4th century. The fortunes of the Catuvellauni and their ...

during the Romano-British period. Alongside the ''

Waeclingas The ''Waeclingas'' (Old English ''Wæclingas'') were a tribe or clan of Anglo-Saxon England. Their territory or '' regio'' was based in the modern city of St Albans, whose name is recorded as ''Wæclingaceaster'' ("the former Roman fortification of ...

'' and the '' Hicce'', the ''Brahhingas'' were one of the most important tribes of the Anglo Saxon era within the area that would later become

, and the central places and territories of these areas were to be important building-blocks of the later administrative structure of the

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

References

Bibliography

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