%0 Journal Article
%T Divide and rule? The military infrastructure of eighth‐ and ninth‐century Mercia
%J Early medieval Europe
%D 2007
%A Bassett, Steven
%V 15
%N 1
%P 53-85
%X 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 />
%G 
%I John Wiley and Sons
%@ 1468-0254
%U http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0254.2007.00198.x