485-486: Caercolun & Caerwent

[Luca Cherstich]

In Book of Uther there's a lot of tinkering, trying to change some details of the GPC chronology. I frankly like some of the events (like the bloody crowning of Aescwine in 487), however I feel there are also some errors.

Page 114

In 485 "Caercolun is occupied by Saxons", and I feel this is OK.

In 486 "All of Caerwent, farm and forest, falls to the Saxons".

QUESTION: is this second event an error???

Is King Aescwine really conquering not just Caercolun but ALL the Caerwent region (which means also the area which in 500 will be invaded by the Angli)?

The GPC maps for the year 487 and later (p.41 and 53, for example) do not show a  Saxon-occupied Caerwent, but maybe Greg was changing things heavility in Book of Uther.

Any suggestion?

[Morien]

1 hour ago, Luca Cherstich said:

QUESTION: is this second event an error???

It is an error.

One possible source is that Greg did change (or at least think about changing) the Caerwent and Caercolun names around at some point when coming up with his counties, and this was then not fixed when he settled on Caercolun as the southern county and Caerwent as the northern one.

In any case, it should be a War in Southern Caercolun, not Caerwent. Essex doesn't expand to Caerwent until Anarchy, and even then, they are beaten back. Caerwent falls to the Angles.