Post by Admin on Aug 6, 2016 18:10:23 GMT
The group becoming a local source of fear and legend, that has been raiding every spring since their arrival with the host of Niall, is now known as the Southern Scots (Scoti Australi), or the Is-Gwyddelion. Their leader, Aergol mac Niell, has started claiming to be a bastard son of Niall, to endear him to the Gaels, and has taken a Roman-inspired name (Aergol being derived from Agricola) to endear him to the Britons. This has been the case ever since his gradual move from perpetual menace to protector in many Romano-British settlements. Aergol has been receiving tribute from Venta Belgarum and Durnovaria, and raiding into Dumnonia with increasing tenacity. In 415 A.D. he even managed to sack the important Romano-British town of Glevum, and has conducted a number of slaving raids across the channel into Armorica, where a number of local British kings have been replaced by Aergol's kindred.
Now wealthy and feared throughout his own little corner of Britannia, Aergol has become confident enough to give up his protection racket in favour of permanent settlement. The cities of Venta Belgarum and Durnovaria find their magistrates banished from their own civitates, and Gaelic halls are erected in the forums, as a home for the conquerors. Most of the Gaels of Ulaid settle in small defensible hilltop settlements, from where they can control the landscape, but Aergol prefers to seat himself in Durngueir (Durnovaria) in the style of a British king. While his own household still speak Gaelic, his hall is also home to the Brythonic and Latin peoples of his new home, although his band of one thousand Gaels now comprises the majority of his kingdom's landowning elite. Monasteries and other British institutions are left unchanged, and allowed to continue operation, possibly to make conquest more palatable for the Britons.
Now wealthy and feared throughout his own little corner of Britannia, Aergol has become confident enough to give up his protection racket in favour of permanent settlement. The cities of Venta Belgarum and Durnovaria find their magistrates banished from their own civitates, and Gaelic halls are erected in the forums, as a home for the conquerors. Most of the Gaels of Ulaid settle in small defensible hilltop settlements, from where they can control the landscape, but Aergol prefers to seat himself in Durngueir (Durnovaria) in the style of a British king. While his own household still speak Gaelic, his hall is also home to the Brythonic and Latin peoples of his new home, although his band of one thousand Gaels now comprises the majority of his kingdom's landowning elite. Monasteries and other British institutions are left unchanged, and allowed to continue operation, possibly to make conquest more palatable for the Britons.
