This is not an argument for or against ‘Home Rule for Yorkshire’ but the most common response from those who opposed a Yorkshire government is a mistaken understanding of ‘Yorkshire Identity’ that needs to be put right. They commented that unlike Scotland or Wales, Yorkshire has only ever been a county of England and for that reason has no right to home rule. The simple answer to this is that they are very wrong. What we now call Yorkshire was a Kingdom in its own right that only became part of England in 954, just 112 years before the Battle of Hastings.

Until around 71AD what we now call the East Riding of Yorkshire, my birthplace, was the Brythonic Kingdom of the Parissii whilst the rest of Yorkshire made up approximately 66% of the Brythonic Kingdom of the Brigantes. Those Kingdoms then came under the Roman region of Maxima Ceasariensis until the end of Roman occupation in around 407. The former Roman region returned to Brythonic rule as the Kingdom of Northern Brittain until it subdivided into separate Kingdoms in around 470. Broadly, the North and East of the county formed the Brythonic Kingdom of Ebrauc whilst the West and South became the Brythonic Kingdom of Elmet.

Angles invaded from across the North Sea and in 581 took Ebrauc which became the Angle Kingdom of Diera. In 617 they deposed King Certic of Elmet and annexed that Kingdom making the Kingdom of Diera, broadly the area we now know as Yorkshire. In 679 Diera merged with the Angle Kingdom of Bernicia to the north to become the Kingdom of Northumbria until Vikings took control in 875 and Diera became the Danish Kingdom of Jorvik. Whilst other Kingdoms were subject to the Danelaw, the Kingdom of Jorvik was the only true Viking Kingdom ever in Britain.

Norwegian Vikings settled to the west broadly in the area we now know as Lancashire which also became part of the Kingdom of Jorvik. Jorvik continued as a Viking kingdom until the death of King Eric ‘Bloodaxe’. His rule over his subjects, as his nickname suggests, had been so bloodthirsty that they accepted the neighbouring Saxon King as their monarch after Eric was assassinated in 954 and the Kingdom of Jorvik became an Earldom of the English Realm.

The borders of the the Earldom continued as those of the former Kingdom until the time of the Domesday Book under Norman England when, broadly, that part settled by Norwegian Vikings was separated from that part settled by Danish Vikings, the area of the former Angle Kingdom of Diera, which we now call Yorkshire.

So there we have it; not only has Yorkshire been other than just a county of England, its borders became those of a Kingdom as long ago as 617, almost three and a half centuries before they became within English sovereignty. With its Danish, Angle, Brigante and Parissii bloodlines and the fact that it was the only true Viking Kingdom ever within the shores of Britain, God’s own County and those fortunate enough to call themselves her sons and daughters truely have an identity apart from the rest of England.

I just hope you’ll cover one of Yorkshire’s best events of the year as we get towards Christmas – the Pantomime at the York Theatre Royal. It’s such a contrast with the cheap and tacky pantos which so many towns and city have to suffer annually. I’ve covered on my own blog (http://eastmoor.blogspot.com/2009/01/me-babbies-me-baines.html) and I hope you’ll include here.

Regards,

James