The Cilternsæte (or ''Chiltern Sætna'') were a tribe that occupied the Chilterns, probably in the 6th century AD. It is unclear whether the Cilternsæte were native

Britons British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.: British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, w ...

or Germanic-speaking newcomers such as

Angles Angles most commonly refers to: *Angles (tribe), a Germanic-speaking people that took their name from the Angeln cultural region in Germany *Angle, a geometric figure formed by two rays meeting at a common point Angles may also refer to: Places ...

Saxons The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

Mortimer Wheeler Sir Robert Eric Mortimer Wheeler Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, CH Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire, CIE Military Cross, MC Territorial Decoration, TD (10 September 1890 – 22 July 1976) was a British archaeolo ...

noted the absence of Anglo-Saxon evidence from the Chilterns and suggested the area was a Brittonic (or Romano-British) enclave into the 6th century—possibly the remnants of a sub-Roman polity encompassing an area that included

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in northeastern Essex, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the county, with a population of 130,245 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census. The demonym is ''Colcestrian''. Colchester occupies the ...

, and

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 ...

. Kenneth Rutherford-Davis would later expand on Wheeler's Romano-British remnant, linking it to the shadowy territory known as Calchfynydd, Welsh for " lime mountain".

Eilert Ekwall Bror Oscar Eilert Ekwall (8 January 1877 in Vallsjö – 23 November 1964 in Lund) was a Swedish academic, Professor of English at Sweden's Lund University from 1909 to 1942 and one of the outstanding scholars of the English language in the firs ...

suggested that "Chiltern" might be cognate with the ethnic name "

Celt The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

", such as the adjective ''celto-'' "high". Earlier, J. Brownbill had suggested the Cilternsæte were a branch of the West Saxons. Other sources claim that they were originally a Middle Angle tribe. There is some circumstantial evidence linking four towns supposedly captured from Britons in 571 by a Saxon or Anglian leader named Cuthwulf to the Cilternsæte. The ''

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the ninth century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of ...

'' states "Her Cuþwulf feaht wiþ Bretwalas æt Bedcan forda. & .iiii. tunas genom, Lygeanburg. & Ægelesburg. Benningtun. & Egonesham. & þy ilcan geare he gefor" ("This year Cuthwulf fought with the Britons at Bedford and took four ''tuns'', Limbury,

Aylesbury Aylesbury ( ) is the county town of Buckinghamshire, England. It is home to the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery and the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre, Waterside Theatre. It is located in central Buckinghamshire, midway between High Wycombe and Milt ...

, Benson and

Eynsham Eynsham is a village and civil parish in the West Oxfordshire district, in Oxfordshire, England, about north-west of Oxford and east of Witney. The 2011 Census recorded a parish population of 4,648. It was estimated at 5,087 in 2020. Etymolo ...

. And this same year he died"). (An Anglo-Saxon ''tun'' "town" included significant surrounding countryside.) While Cuthwulf and his battles may be retrospective constructions, the ''

Tribal Hidage Image:Tribal Hidage 2.svg, 400px, alt=insert description of map here, The tribes of the Tribal Hidage. Where an appropriate article exists, it can be found by clicking on the name. rect 275 75 375 100 w:Elmet rect 375 100 450 150 w:Hatfield Ch ...

'' (7th to 9th century) described the territory of the Cilternsæte as comprising 4,000 hides. This assessment is relatively large, compared to those of some other tribes of central England. In the ''

Burghal Hidage The Burghal Hidage () is an Anglo-Saxon document providing a list of over thirty fortified places (burhs), the majority being in the ancient Kingdom of Wessex, and the taxes (recorded as numbers of hides) assigned for their maintenance.Hill/ Rumb ...

'' (10th century) 4,000 hides are also recorded for the three ''

burh A burh () or burg was an Anglo-Saxon fortification or fortified settlement. In the 9th century, raids and invasions by Vikings prompted Alfred the Great to develop a network of burhs and roads to use against such attackers. Some were new constru ...

s'' of Oxford, Buckingham and Sashes, corresponding to the ''tuns'' of Limbury, Aylesbury, Benson and Eynsham. The Cilternsæte were definitely part of

Mercia Mercia (, was one of the principal kingdoms founded at the end of Sub-Roman Britain; the area was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlan ...

in the 7th century.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cilternsaete Chiltern Hills Peoples of Anglo-Saxon Mercia