The ''Brahhingas'' or ''Brahingas'' were a tribe or clan of

Anglo-Saxon England Anglo-Saxon England or early medieval England covers the period from the end of Roman Empire, Roman imperial rule in Roman Britain, Britain in the 5th century until the Norman Conquest in 1066. Compared to modern England, the territory of the ...

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, kno ...

in modern-day

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

. 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 ...

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 Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

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 * Re ...

Barkway Barkway is a 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 Greenwich Prime Meridian passes a ...

Barley Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...

, Nuthampstead, Buckland, Wyddial, Anstey,

Throcking Throcking is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Cottered, in the East Hertfordshire district, in the county of Hertfordshire, England. It is approximately 1.5 miles west-northwest of Buntingford and 7 miles east-northeast of ...

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 fir ...

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 mer ...

, Great Hormead,

Little Hormead Little Hormead is a village in the civil parish of Hormead, in the East Hertfordshire district, in the county of Hertfordshire, ENgland. It is a few miles away from the small town of Buntingford and near the village of Great Hormead. In 1931, the ...

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 th ...

and Standon, in the valleys of the

River Rib The River Rib is a tributary of the River Lea, which runs from Buckland in Hertfordshire, England. It flows into the River Lea to the east of Hertford. Course The River Rib originates near the East Hertfordshire village of Buckland, Hertfords ...

and River Quin. The ''Brahhingas'' were originally within the area 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 of ...

but fell under the control of the

East Saxons The Kingdom of the East Saxons (; ), referred to as the Kingdom of Essex , was one of the seven traditional kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was founded in the 6th century and covered the territory later occupied by the counties of Essex ...

at an early date. The area remained part of the Archdeaconry of Middlesex 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 A royal vill, royal ''tun'' or ''villa regalis'' () was the central settlement of a rural territory in Anglo-Saxon England, which would be visited by the King and members of the royal household on regular circuits of their kingdoms. The 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 historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

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

''. 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 spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

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 , or ), 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 developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

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 geograp ...

'' 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 thei ...

during the Romano-British period. Alongside the '' Waeclingas'' 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 purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

References

Bibliography

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