@article{ref1,
title="Divide and rule? The military infrastructure of eighth‐ and ninth‐century Mercia",
journal="Early medieval Europe",
year="2007",
author="Bassett, Steven",
volume="15",
number="1",
pages="53-85",
abstract="Military might is widely recognized as having been a key element in the Mercian kings’ ability to forge and maintain a large kingdom in midland England in and after the seventh century. The paper argues that its basis was a network of fortified places – all major royal settlements that were given substantial defences in the eighth and early ninth centuries – and a systemic mechanism for manning them. The archaeological evidence of these defences at Hereford, Tamworth and Winchcombe is reviewed; the probable locations of other such early fortified places in midland England are considered; and the significance of this burghal system for our understanding of ‘the supremacy of the Mercian kings’ is weighed.<p />",
language="",
issn="1468-0254",
doi="10.1111/j.1468-0254.2007.00198.x",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0254.2007.00198.x"
}