Summary. Many medieval writers claimed the location of a massacre of 1000 Christians in the 3rd or 4th-century was Lichefeld; the name meaning a field of dead bodies. This was an 11th-century myth, but widely believed to be true.
There is an enduring and disturbing origin myth said to explain how Lichfield began.[1] Repetition and reimagination over eight centuries have given it credence. The foundation story does not even start in Lichfield, but begins in St Albans and involved St Alban and his priest-friend St Amphibalus. It supposedly occurred in the third or fourth century, well before the existence of Lichfield. The story concerns how Alban protected his priest friend Amphibalus from Roman persecution and was subsequently beheaded instead. Miracles happened at the time of the execution.[2]
A mid-11th century manuscript entitled Tale of God’s saints who first rested in England listed 89 saints at 56 locations and Albanus at Wætlingeceastre (St Albans) was the first mentioned and became England’s protomartyr saint. Other saints included Alban, Columba (Iona), Cuthbert (Durham), Oswald (Bamburgh, Durham, Gloucester), John (Beverley), Ecgberht and Wilfrid (Ripon), Chad, Cedd and Ceatta (Lichfield). In 1982 to 1984, an excavation in the cloister of St Albans Abbey revealed 20 graves and two coins dated to the mid-4th century. The archaeologist surmised it could have been the cemetery for the grave of Alban since it fitted the description of where he was martyred. King Offa of Mercia and his Archbishop Hygeberht visited the shrine at St Albans in 793, which, according to the monks had been neglected. Offa paid for a new shrine (later lost to Viking plundering) and a dedicated church, and gave an endowment to the monastery. Offa was re-founding Britain’s primary martyr and beginning an association between St Albans and Lichfield. Several historians in recent years have questioned the existence of Alban, also his dates, his place of execution and even the reason for such a cult.
King Offa cherishing St Albans. In
catalogue of the benefactors of St Albans Abbey. BL Cotton Nero. Wikimedia
Commons, Public Domain.Geoffrey of Monmouth, c.1095–1155,
embellished the story. Around 1136 he wrote a History of the kings of Britain and in this mix of fact and
fantasy, he recreated Amphibalus, connected him with the priest sheltering
Alban and made him the abbot of Winchester monastery. William, a monk at St
Albans, then claimed Amphibalus moved to the north whilst Alban was imprisoned
for six months. After Alban’s execution, a great light shone from his tomb
which caused 1000 residents of St Albans to search for Amphibalus and seek an
explanation. Somehow, they found him in Wales preaching the Christian faith to
a crowd and upon listening were converted and baptised. Pagan residents in St
Albans upset by this mass conversion to a new faith set out to avenge what they
thought was heresy. On finding the 1000 new Christians, they killed all except
one. John Leland in his travels 1535 to 1543[3] placed this massacre at Caerleon. The pagans
returned to St Albans (some accounts have Rebourn 4 miles from St Albans) with
Amphibalus and had him martyred. Matthew Paris considered the site of the
massacre was at Lichfield and this was repeated at St
Albans in a late 14th-century document. John Lydgate, 1370–1451, monk and poet,
wrote about Alban and Amphibalus in 1439. John Rous of Warwick, 1411 or 1420–1492,
a medieval historian and antiquary penned a local history of Warwickshire and
repeated the story. John Leland, d. 1552, preserved Rous's account and being an
antiquary helped to spread the story. It was referred to by John Stow, 1525–1605,
William Camden, 1551–1623, Michael Drayton 1563–1631 and Thomas Fuller 1608–1661.
The legend was now fully accepted. Ward, 1892, said the name of Lichfield can
be naturally derived from the field of dead. Fuller,1655, claimed Lichfield in
the ‘British’ tongue signified Golgotha, a place bestrewed with skulls. The Cathedral
Sacrist’s roll of 1345 included the dust of Amphibalus amongst its long list of
relics, but it was not listed in the incomplete roll of 1445. Shaw, 1798, said Amphibalus
was mere fiction founded on ignorance and
the whole story was ridiculous. There is no statue, image in glass or record of
Alban and Amphibalus in the current cathedral.
In
the 16th century the legend was again reimagined and restored by the
townsfolk. The restoration of the myth began when Lichfield was granted its
Royal Charter and to mark the occasion a new seal was made in 1549. Previous
Guild seals had depicted Mary and child and another showed Chad. The new seal
depicted three dismembered males on a green background with two trees depicted.
The seal was replaced in 1688 with a similar scene, but now in black and white,
and it is still used by Lichfield City Council.
Emblem used on a 1720 map, with Borrowcop
Hill, cathedral and bodies.
Plaque on the side of the railway bridge over Upper St. John Street, showing three victims (more like soldiers). Upton (2012) said the depiction appeared as part of the livery for the South Staffordshire Railway Company in the 1840s.
Then
came curiosity to know where the massacre occurred. Local history with early
excavations became a quest for those beginning to dabble in science. In 1686,
Robert Plot wrote his second book, The
Natural History of Staffordshire, and
in it he gave an account of how Lichefeld started. He said Romans
in 286 from Verulam (St Albans) and Erocetum (Wall) found Christians in the exercise of their Religion. They
brought them to the place where Lichefeld
now is and he described this as Christianfield, near Stitchbrook. 1000 of
the Christians where martyred leaving
their bodies unburyed to be devowered by birds and beasts. Plot claimed the
place had the name of Lichefeld or Cadaverum
campus, the field of dead bodies. He took this event to be the utmost antiquity of the city and so believed Lichefeld
started in the year 286.
Portrait of Robert Plot in British Museum. Wikimedia, public domain.
This version was repeated by later antiquarians including: Thomas Cox,1738, John Jackson, 1805, John C, Woodhouse, 1811, T.G. Lomax, 1819, and John B. Stone, 1870. Dr Samuel Johnson believed Lic in Lichfield referred to a corpse and his definition of Lichfield was a city in Staffordshire, so named from martyred Christians. Some still believe it is real history,
There
have been other narratives. In 1570, Prebendary Whitlock wrote St Michaels held
slain Christians, but this was from the result of heathen Saxons taking over
the Christian Celtic homelands. Dean Savage, 1914, doubted the Roman
persecution, and preferred instead the notion of Lichfield and St Michaels
being the Saxon Valhalla of Mercia, the
tribal burial-ground away from their centre at Repton. There is a tradition the site is where the church of St Chad lies. On
John Speed’s Map c1610, there is a sketch resembling the City Seal, showing
slain bodies and placed somewhere near the area now called Christian Fields
(SK1146 1124).
Martyrs
Wall in Beacon Park. A reconstructed sculpture originally on the front of the
Guildhall in 1740s. It is said to show 3 dismembered kings who led the
Christians into battle against the Romans. A lion, the cathedral and Borrowcop
Hill, where the kings were supposedly buried, are depicted. Yet another twist
to the story and can only be a source of confusion. Unsurprisingly it is in a
very quiet corner of the park. The inclusion of the cathedral must have caused
dismay.
Why did this founding myth
become such accepted history?
The origin of the name for
Lichfield comes from King Wulfhere and Bishop Wilfrid naming the site of the
first cathedral as Licitfelda, see
the post, ‘Wulfhere and Wilfrid, and later Bede, name Lichfield.’ The settlement grew around the
enclosure with the cathedral and its bishops dominating. By the 13th and 14th-century
the Close and cathedral, now strongly walled with gates, was a separated power
from the growing market town. There was resentment in the town with the
judicial powers of the bishops. Gradually the town gained recognition with its
markets and hostelries for the many visiting pilgrims and penitents. With this
came political recognition with members of parliament. There was a desire to
separate a hierarchical and isolated church from an early democratic state. If
the cathedral had humble Chad, the town would have Amphibalus and martyrdom.
The origin misbelief arises
at a time of doom with plague reoccurring, the event of a fire destroying much
of the town on 4 May 1291, occurrence of wars and the exaggerated fear of evil
spirits. This doom contrasted with the hope preached by the church. Indeed,
there are aspects of the origin myth that tries to include the hope of the
church as embodied in the story of St Chad. In time Licetfelda
became Lichfield, see the post, ‘Lichfield recasts its name.’ The recasted name
reflected the social disposition and identity of an emerging market town after
the importance of pilgrimage had been stopped at Reformation, 1534.
[1]
D. Johnson ‘Lichfield and St Amphibalus: The story of a legend. South
Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society for 1986–7. (1988), 28,
1–13.
[2]
Traditionally, Alban’s death was supposed to
have occurred in 305, though Bede placed it in the reign of Diocletian (286 –
303).
[3]
Leland left notes which were published later under the heading of Itinerary.
