Elmet

The precise borders of the original kingdom of Elmet are unclear. Some have argued that, until the 7th century, it was bounded by the rivers Sheaf in the south and Wharfe in the east. It adjoined the kingdom of Deira to the north and Mercia to the south, and its western boundary appears to have been near Craven, which was possibly also a minor British kingdom. As such, it was not conterminous with other territories of the Britons at the time, being well to the south of others in the Hen Ogledd ("Old North"), such as Strathclyde, and north-east of Wales, Cornwall and Dumnonia. As one of the south-easternmost Brittonic regions for which there is reasonably substantial evidence, Elmet is notable for having survived relatively late in the period of Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain.[2]

The term was used in medieval times as an affix to place names in the West of the old Barkston Ash and East of the old Skyrack wapentakes (between Leeds and Selby) including Burton Salmon, Sutton (east of Castleford), Micklefield, Sherburn in Elmet, Kirkby Wharfe, Saxton, Clifford and Barwick in Elmet.[3] In the Tribal Hidage the extent of Elmet is described as 600 hides of land, an area slightly more than the total of the wapentakes of Barkston Ash and Skyrack. Some have concluded that those two wapentakes approximately represented the area of Elmet,[3] although a hide is not a true measure of land area.

Elmet is attested mainly in toponymic and archaeological evidence; a reference to one Madog Elfed in the medieval Welsh poem The Gododdin and to a Gwallog also operating somewhere in the region in one of the putatively early poems in the Book of Taliesin; and historical sources such as the Historia Brittonum and Bede.[4] One source, the Anglo-Saxon Historia Brittonum states that Elmet was a kingdom, although it is the only source that says this directly. While Bede does not specifically describe Elmet as a kingdom, but rather as silva Elmete the "forest of Elmet", it is clear from his discussion that it was a distinct polity, with its own monarchs.

From this evidence it appears that Elmet was one of a number of Sub-Roman Brittonic realms in the Hen Ogledd – what is now northern England and southern Scotland – during the Early Middle Ages. Other kingdoms included Rheged, the Kingdom of Strathclyde, and Gododdin. It is unclear how Elmet came to be established, though it has been suggested that it may have been created from a larger kingdom ruled by the semi-legendary Coel Hen. The historian Alex Woolf suggests that the region of Elmet had a distinct tribal identity in pre-Roman times and that this re-emerged after Roman rule collapsed.

The name of Elmet is probably Brythonic, but its origin is obscure. It is probably similar to the Welsh Elfed, the name of a cantref in Dyfed.[3] Elmet appears to have had ties with Wales; an early Christian inscription found in Gwynedd reads "ALIOTVS ELMETIACOS HIC IACET", or "Aliotus the Elmetian lies here". A number of ancestors of Ceretic are recorded in Welsh sources: one of Taliesin's poems is for his father, Gwallog ap Lleenog, who may have ruled Elmet near the end of the 6th century.

Towards the end of the 6th century, Elmet came under increasing pressure from the expanding Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Deira and Mercia. Forces from Elmet joined the ill-fated alliance in 590 against the Angles of Bernicia who had been making massive inroads further to the north. During this war it is thought Elmet's king Gwallog was killed. The northern alliance collapsed after Urien of Rheged was murdered and a feud broke out between two of its key members.

After the unification of the Anglian Kingdom of Northumbria, King Edwin of Northumbria led an invasion of Elmet, and overran it in 616 or 617. Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People says that a Northumbrian noble, Hereric (father of Hilda of Whitby), an exiled member of the Northumbrian royal house was killed with poison, while living at the court of King Ceretic of Elmet. It has been suggested that this was either the casus belli for the invasion, if Hereric was poisoned by his hosts, or a pretext for a Northumbrian annexation of Elmet, if Edwin himself had Hereric poisoned. The Historia Brittonum says that Edwin "occupied Elmet and expelled Certic [sic], king of that country". It is generally presumed that Ceretic was the same person known in Welsh sources as Ceredig ap Gwallog, king of Elmet. Bede mentions that "subsequent kings made a house for themselves in the district, which is called Loidis".

After the conquest of Elmet, the realm was incorporated into Northumbria on Easter in 627.[5] Its people were known subsequently as the Elmetsæte. They are recorded in the late 7th century Tribal Hidage as the inhabitants of a minor territory of 600 hides. They were the most northerly group recorded in the Tribal Hidage. The Elmetsæte probably continued to reside in West Yorkshire as a distinct group throughout the Anglo-Saxon period and may have colluded with Cadwallon ap Cadfan of Gwynedd when he invaded Northumbria and briefly held the area in 633.

A major battle between Northumbria and Mercia, the Battle of the Winwaed took place in the area in 655, according to Bede, somewhere in the region of Loidis.

The Life of Cathróe of Metz mentions Loidam Civitatem as the boundary between the Norsemen of Scandinavian York and the Celtic Britons of the Kingdom of Strathclyde: if this refers to Leeds, it suggests that some or all of Elmet may have been returned to Brittonic rule for a brief period in the first half of the 10th century before Anglo-Saxon reconquest, but not as an independent state.[6][7][8]

According to a genetic study published in Nature (19 March 2015), the local population of West Yorkshire is genetically distinct from the rest of the population of Yorkshire.[9] The article compared the genetic distribution to the historical kingdoms, but the results for West Yorkshire actually found a higher proportion of Germanic descent than in other areas.

The name survives throughout the area in place names such as Barwick-in-Elmet and Sherburn-in-Elmet. A local parliamentary constituency is also called Elmet and Rothwell.

The area to the western Calder Valley side of Elmet is the subject of a 1979 book combining photography and poetry, the Remains of Elmet by Ted Hughes and Fay Godwin. The book was republished by Faber and Faber in 1994 as Elmet, with a third of the book being new poems and photographs.

A novel by Fiona Mozley called Elmet was shortlisted for the 2017 Booker Prize.[10]

• Koch, John T., ed. (2006). Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1-85109-440-7.
• Rollason, David (2003). Northumbria, 500–1100. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Snyder, Christopher (2003). The Britons. Blackwell Publishing.
• Woolf, Alex (1998). "Romancing the Celts: a segmentary approach to acculturation". In Laurence, Ray; Berry, Joanne (eds.). Cultural Identity in the Roman Empire. London: Routledge.

• Skea, Ann (2001) [1994]. "Regeneration in Remains of Elmet". Ann Skea.
• Echoes of Elmet group
• The Elmet Trust – Ted Hughes Festival, Mytholmroyd