NORTHUMBRIA

Oswald’s father, Æthelfrith, king of Bernicia, had, somehow, secured control of Deira, and by so doing became the first to rule Bernicia and Deira as a single kingdom, Northumbria. Æthelfrith had married Acha, daughter of the erstwhile king of Deira, Ælle, and exiled Edwin, Ælle’s son. In 616, with the backing of Rædwald, king of the East Angles, Edwin succeeding in supplanting Æthelfrith as king of all Northumbria. Æthelfrith’s sons were expelled, and found refuge with the Scots and Picts. During their exile they adopted Christianity. Bede reports that Edwin went on to acquire the overlordship of “all the inhabitants of Britain, both English and Britons, except only the people of Kent” (HE II, 5), and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle grants him the title Bretwalda.

In 627 Edwin had converted to Christianity and been baptized. On 12th October 633, Cadwallon, the Christian king of Gwynedd, aided by Penda, a pagan prince of Mercia, defeated and killed Edwin. Edwin’s wife, Æthelburh, taking with her a daughter, a son and a grandson of Edwin, fled to Kent, where her brother Eadbald was king. Northumbria fractured – Osric, Edwin’s cousin, succeeded to the throne of Deira, whilst Æthelfrith’s sons returned from exile, and the eldest, Eanfrith, became king of Bernicia. Both Eanfrith and Osric renounced Christianity on their accession. Bede takes up the story:

But soon after, the king of the Britons, Cædwalla [i.e. Cadwallon, king of Gwynedd], the unrighteous instrument of rightful vengeance, slew them both.[*] First, in the following summer [i.e. of 634], he put Osric to death; for, being rashly besieged by him in the municipal town [presumably York is meant], he sallied out on a sudden with all his forces, took him by surprise, and destroyed him and all his army. Then, when he had occupied the provinces of the Northumbrians for a whole year, not ruling them like a victorious king, but ravaging them like a furious tyrant, he at length put an end to Eanfrith, in like manner, when he unadvisedly came to him with only 12 chosen soldiers, to sue for peace. To this day, that year is looked upon as ill-omened, and hateful to all good men; as well on account of the apostasy of the English kings, who had renounced the mysteries of the faith, as of the outrageous tyranny of the British king. Hence it has been agreed by all who compute the dates of kings, to abolish the memory of those faithless monarchs, and to assign that year to the reign of the following king, Oswald, a man beloved of God. This king, after the death of his brother Eanfrith, advanced with an army, small, indeed, in number, but strengthened with the faith of Christ; and the impious commander of the Britons, in spite of his vast forces, which he boasted nothing could withstand, was slain at a place called in the English tongue Denisesburna, that is, the brook of Denise [identified as Rowley Burn, near Hexham, Northumberland].

HE III, 1

The place is shown to this day, and held in much veneration, where Oswald, being about to engage in this battle, erected the symbol of the Holy Cross, and knelt down and prayed to God that he would send help from Heaven to his worshippers in their sore need. Then, we are told, that the cross being made in haste, and the hole dug in which it was to be set up, the king himself, in the ardour of his faith, laid hold of it and held it upright with both his hands, till the earth was heaped up by the soldiers and it was fixed. Thereupon, uplifting his voice, he cried to his whole army, “Let us all kneel, and together beseech the true and living God Almighty in His mercy to defend us from the proud and fierce enemy; for He knows that we have undertaken a just war for the safety of our nation.”  All did as he had commanded, and accordingly advancing towards the enemy with the first dawn of day, they obtained the victory, as their faith deserved. In the place where they prayed very many miracles of healing are known to have been wrought, as a token and memorial of the king’s faith; for even to this day, many are wont to cut off small splinters from the wood of the holy cross, and put them into water, which they give to sick men or cattle to drink, or they sprinkle them therewith, and these are presently restored to health.
The place is called in the English tongue Hefenfeld, which may be rendered in Latin Caelestis campus [Heavenly field], which name it undoubtedly received of old as a presage of what was afterwards to happen, denoting, that the heavenly trophy was to be erected, the heavenly victory begun, and heavenly miracles shown forth to this day. The place is near the wall to the north, which the Romans formerly drew across the whole of Britain from sea to sea, to restrain the onslaught of the barbarians, as has been said before. Hither also the brothers of the church of Hagustald [Hexham], which is not far distant, long ago made it their custom to resort every year, on the day before that on which King Oswald was afterwards slain, to keep vigils there for the health of his soul, and having sung many psalms of praise, to offer for him in the morning the sacrifice of the Holy Oblation. And since that good custom has spread, they have lately built a church there, which has attached additional sanctity and honour in the eyes of all men to that place; and this with good reason; for it appears that there was no symbol of the Christian faith, no church, no altar erected throughout all the nation of the Bernicians, before that new leader in war, prompted by the zeal of his faith, set up the standard of the Holy Cross when he was about to fight his most savage enemy.[*]

HE III, 2

Having disposed of Cadwallon, Oswald appears to have been readily accepted as king of Deira as well as Bernicia.

The same Oswald, as soon as he ascended the throne, being desirous that all the nation under his rule should be endued with the grace of the Christian faith, whereof he had found happy experience in vanquishing the barbarians, sent to the elders of the Scots, among whom himself and his followers, when in exile, had received the sacrament of baptism, desiring that they would send him a bishop, by whose instruction and ministry the English nation which he governed might learn the privileges and receive the sacraments of the faith of our Lord.

HE III, 3

“It is said”, writes Bede, that the first bishop sent to Northumbria by the Scots fared badly:

… after preaching for some time to the English and meeting with no success, not being gladly heard by the people, [he] returned to his country, and in an assembly of the elders reported, that he had not been able to do any good by his teaching to the nation to whom he had been sent, because they were intractable men, and of a stubborn and barbarous disposition.

HE III, 5

The elders held a council, to decide on a course of action. Having impressed the council by his reasoning, Aidan, a monk of Iona, was consecrated and despatched to Northumbria.

On the arrival of the bishop, the king appointed him his episcopal see in the island of Lindisfarne, as he desired. Which place, as the tide ebbs and flows, is twice a day enclosed by the waves of the sea like an island; and again, twice, when the beach is left dry, becomes contiguous with the land. The king also humbly and willingly in all things giving ear to his admonitions, industriously applied himself to build up and extend the Church of Christ in his kingdom; wherein, when the bishop, who was not perfectly skilled in the English tongue, preached the Gospel, it was a fair sight to see the king himself interpreting the Word of God to his ealdormen and thegns, for he had thoroughly learned the language of the Scots during his long exile. From that time many came daily into Britain from the region of the Scots, and with great devotion preached the Word to those provinces of the English over which King Oswald reigned, and those among them that had received priest’s orders administered the grace of baptism to the believers. Churches were built in divers places; the people joyfully flocked together to hear the Word; lands and other property were given of the king’s bounty to found monasteries; English children, as well as their elders, were instructed by their Scottish teachers in study and the observance of monastic discipline. For most of those who came to preach were monks. Bishop Aidan was himself a monk, having been sent out from the island called Hii [Iona], the monastery of which was for a long time the chief of almost all those of the northern Scots and all those of the Picts, and had the direction of their people.[*]

HE III, 3

In 635, Oswald, whom Bede (HE III, 7) refers to as “the most holy and victorious king of the Northumbrians”, stood as godfather to Cynegils, the West Saxon king,[*] and subsequently married Cynegils’ daughter. (In 626, Cynegils’ son, Cwichelm, who evidently reigned alongside his father, had engineered an attempt to murder Edwin.) The Historia Brittonum (§57) reports that Oswald’s brother, Oswiu, married Riemmelth, the granddaughter of a certain Rhun. This Rhun is generally accepted as being the son of Urien – ruler of the British kingdom of Rheged (the lands of which may have spread north and south of the Solway Firth) celebrated in poems attributed to the bard Taliesin. Oswiu had two children who were, themselves, of marriageable age by 653, so his marriage to Riemmelth presumably occurred early in Oswald’s reign,[*] and should probably be seen in the same light as Oswald’s marriage to Cynegils’ daughter – cementing relations between an independent (for the time being anyway) Rheged and the dynasty of Æthelfrith.[*]

Northumbrian rule of Lindsey (northern Lincolnshire) had evidently been lost on Edwin’s death, but Oswald retook it.[*]

The Annals of Ulster place “the siege of Etin” in 638. Etin is normally identified as Din Eidyn, i.e. ‘Fort of Eidyn’, which is more familiar in the Anglicized form: Edinburgh. It is generally supposed that this brief notice marks the capture of Edinburgh and the conquest of the British kingdom of Gododdin (south-east Scotland) by Oswald.

Æthelfrith, Oswald’s father, was Bernician, and Oswald may have used his political clout to engineer the removal of potential rivals from the Deiran dynasty of his mother, Edwin’s sister, Acha. Bede notes (HE II, 20) that, during the war in which Edwin was killed, Edwin’s son, Eadfrith: “compelled by necessity, went over to King Penda, and was by him afterwards slain in the reign of Oswald, contrary to his oath.”  Bede doesn’t accuse Oswald of demanding Eadfrith’s murder, but he mentions that Edwin’s wife, Æthelburh, who was in Kent, where her brother Eadbald was king, had: “for fear of the kings Eadbald and Oswald, sent Uscfrea [Edwin’s son] and Yffi [Edwin’s grandson] over into Gaul to be bred up by King Dagobert [of the Franks], who was her friend; and there they both died in infancy”, so, clearly, Æthelburh believed Oswald was capable of, and had the power to order, the killing of Edwin’s heirs in Kent.

Bede:

King Oswald, with the English nation which he governed, being instructed by the teaching of this bishop, not only learned to hope for a heavenly kingdom unknown to his fathers, but also obtained of the one God, Who made heaven and earth, a greater earthly kingdom than any of his ancestors. In brief, he brought under his dominion all the nations and provinces of Britain, which are divided into four languages, to wit, those of the Britons, the Picts, the Scots, and the English. —

— Though raised to that height of regal power, wonderful to relate, he was always humble, kind, and generous to the poor and to strangers. To give one instance, it is told, that when he was once sitting at dinner, on the holy day of Easter, with the aforesaid bishop [Aidan], and a silver dish full of royal dainties was set before him, and they were just about to put forth their hands to bless the bread, the thegn [minister] whom he had appointed to relieve the needy came in on a sudden, and told the king that a great multitude of poor folk from all parts was sitting in the streets begging alms of the king; he immediately ordered the food set before him to be carried to the poor, and the dish to be broken in pieces and divided among them. At which sight, the bishop who sat by him, greatly rejoicing at such an act of piety, clasped his right hand and said, “May this hand never decay.”  This fell out according to his prayer; for when he [Oswald] was slain in battle, his hands with the arms were cut off from the rest of his body, and they remain uncorrupted to this day. In fact they are preserved in a silver casket in St Peter’s church, in the royal city which has taken its name from a former queen called Bebba [i.e. Bamburgh], and are venerated with due honour by all.[*]

HE III, 6

… Oswald was killed in a great battle, by the same pagan nation and pagan king of the Mercians [i.e. Penda], who had slain his predecessor Edwin, at a place called in the English tongue Maserfelth, in the 38th year of his age, on the fifth day of the month of August [642]. How great his faith was towards God, and how remarkable his devotion, has been made evident by miracles even after his death; for, in the place where he was killed by the pagans, fighting for his country, sick men and cattle are frequently healed to this day. Whence it came to pass that many took up the very dust of the place where his body fell, and putting it into water, brought much relief with it to their friends who were sick. This custom came so much into use, that the earth being carried away by degrees, a hole was made as deep as the height of a man. Nor is it surprising that the sick should be healed in the place where he died; for, whilst he lived, he never ceased to provide for the poor and the sick, and to bestow alms on them, and assist them. Many miracles are said to have been wrought in that place, or with the dust carried from it [Bede proceeds to give a couple of examples] …

HE III, 9

… the king who slew him commanded his head, and hands, with the arms, to be cut off from the body, and set upon stakes. But a year later, Oswiu, the successor to his kingdom, coming thither with an army, took them away, and buried the head in the cemetery of the church of Lindisfarne, and the hands and arms in the royal city [i.e. Bamburgh].

HE III, 12

Nor was the fame of this renowned man [Oswald] confined to Britain, but, spreading rays of healing light even beyond the sea, reached also to Germany and Ireland.

HE III, 13

Bede:

Oswald being translated to the heavenly kingdom, his brother Oswiu, a young man of about 30 years of age, succeeded him on the throne of his earthly kingdom, and held it 28 years with much trouble … Oswiu, during the first part of his reign, had a partner in the royal dignity called Oswine, of the stock of King Edwin, that is, the son of Osric of whom we have spoken above, a man of wonderful piety and devotion, who governed the province of the Deirans seven years in very great prosperity, and was himself beloved by all men.

HE III, 14

Osric, Oswine’s father and a cousin of Edwin, had ruled Deira for less than a year after Edwin’s death. Oswald, of the Bernician royal line (though his mother was Edwin’s sister), had subsequently reunited Bernicia and Deira. Oswiu succeeded to a united Northumbria, but his hold on Deira would appear to have been tenuous, and, presumably to bolster his claim to rule, he arranged for Edwin’s daughter, Eanflæd, to be brought from Kent to be his wife.[*] In 644, however, Oswine somehow managed to acquire the throne of Deira.

Bede:

At some point after his victory over Oswald in 642, and before 651, Penda, the pagan king of Mercia, had campaigned deep into Northumbrian territory:

… during the time that he [Aidan] was bishop, the hostile army of the Mercians, under the command of Penda, cruelly ravaged the regions of the Northumbrians far and near, even to the royal city which has its name from Bebba, a former queen [i.e. Bamburgh]. Not being able to take it by storm or by siege, he endeavoured to burn it down; and having pulled down all the villages in the neighbourhood of the city, he brought thither an immense quantity of beams, rafters, partitions, wattles and thatch, wherewith he encompassed the place to a great height on the land side, and when he found the wind favourable, he set fire to it and attempted to burn the city.
At that time, the most reverend Bishop Aidan was dwelling in the Isle of Farne, which is about two miles from the city; for thither he was wont often to retire to pray in solitude and silence; and, indeed, this lonely dwelling of his is to this day shown in that island. When he saw the flames of fire and the smoke carried by the wind rising above the city walls, he is said to have lifted up his eyes and hands to heaven, and cried with tears, “Behold, Lord, how great evil is wrought by Penda!”  These words were hardly uttered, when the wind immediately veering from the city, drove back the flames upon those who had kindled them, so that some being hurt, and all afraid, they forebore any further attempts against the city, which they perceived to be protected by the hand of God.

HE III, 16

Aidan was at a royal residence, not far from the city of which we have spoken above, at the time when death caused him to quit the body, after he had been bishop 17 years; for having a church and a chamber in that place, he was wont often to go and stay there, and to make excursions from it to preach in the country round about, which he likewise did at other royal residences, having nothing of his own besides his church and a few fields about it. When he was sick they set up a tent for him at the west end of the church, so that the tent touched the wall of the church. Hence it happened that he breathed his last, leaning against a prop that was set up on the outside of the church to strengthen it. He died in the seventeenth year of his episcopate, on the day before the Kalends of September [31st August, 651].[*] His body was thence presently translated to the isle of Lindisfarne …
Finan, who had likewise been sent thither from Hii [Iona], the island monastery of the Scots, succeeded him, and continued no small time in the bishopric.

HE III, 17

During the early 650s there was evidently a period of peace between the Mercians and the Northumbrians. Bede says that, in 653, Penda’s son, Peada:

… came to Oswiu, king of the Northumbrians, requesting to have his daughter Alhflæd given him to wife; but he could not obtain his desire unless he would receive the faith of Christ, and be baptized, with the nation which he governed.

HE III, 21

Peada ruled the Middle Angles on behalf of his father. It now becomes apparent that a son of Oswiu had already married a daughter of Penda:

When he [Peada] heard the preaching of the truth, the promise of the heavenly kingdom, and the hope of resurrection and future immortality, he declared that he would willingly become a Christian, even if he did not obtain the maiden; being chiefly prevailed on to receive the faith by King Oswiu’s son Alhfrith, who was his brother-in-law and friend, for he had married his sister Cyneburh, the daughter of King Penda.
Accordingly he was baptized by Bishop Finan, with all the nobles and soldiers, and their servants, that came along with him, at a famous township of the king [Oswiu] called At the Wall. And having received four priests, who by reason of their learning and good life were deemed proper to instruct and baptize his nation, he returned home with much joy.

HE III, 21

Sigeberht, king of the East Saxons, was, says Bede (HE III, 22), “a friend to King Oswiu”. He used to visit Northumbria regularly, and Oswiu persuaded him to become a Christian. Sigeberht and his entourage were, like Peada, baptized by Bishop Finan at At the Wall.

Despite the marriage links that now existed between Oswiu and Penda, the latter once more renewed his assault on the Northumbrians.

At this time, King Oswiu was exposed to the cruel and intolerable invasions of Penda, king of the Mercians, whom we have so often mentioned, and who had slain his brother; —

— at length, compelled by his necessity, he [Oswiu] promised to give him [Penda] countless royal ornaments and gifts, greater than can be believed, to purchase peace; provided that he would return home, and cease to waste and utterly destroy the provinces of his kingdom. The pagan king refused to grant his request, for he had resolved to blot out and extirpate all his nation, from the highest to the lowest; whereupon King Oswiu had recourse to the protection of the Divine pity for deliverance from his barbarous and pitiless foe, and binding himself by a vow, said, “If the pagan will not accept our gifts, let us offer them to Him that will, the Lord our God.”  He then vowed, that if he should win the victory, he would dedicate his daughter to the Lord in holy virginity, and give 12 pieces of land whereon to build monasteries. After this he gave battle with a very small army; indeed, it is reported that the pagans had an army thirty times larger; for they had 30 legions, drawn up under most noted commanders. King Oswiu and his son Alhfrith met them with a very small army, as has been said, but trusting in Christ as their Leader; his other son, Ecgfrith, was at that time kept as a hostage in the province of the Mercians, at the court of Queen Cynewise. King Oswald’s son Œthelwald, who ought to have helped them, was on the enemy’s side, and led them on to fight against his country and his uncle; although at the very time of fighting he withdrew from the battle, and awaited the outcome in a place of safety. The engagement began, the pagans were put to flight or killed, the 30 royal commanders, who had come to Penda’s assistance, were almost all of them slain; among whom was Æthelhere, brother and successor to Anna, king of the East Angles. He [Penda] had been the occasion of the war, and was now killed, having lost his army and auxiliaries.[*] The battle was fought near the river Winwæd, which then, owing to the great rains, was in flood, and had overflowed its banks, so that many more were drowned in the flight than destroyed in battle by the sword.

HE III, 24

King Oswiu concluded this war in the region of Loidis [Leeds], in the thirteenth year of his reign, on the 17th of the Kalends of December [i.e. 15th November, 655], to the great benefit of both nations; for he delivered his own people from the hostile depredations of the pagans, and, having made an end of their heathen chief, converted the Mercians and the adjacent provinces to the grace of the Christian faith.

HE III, 24

At first Oswiu allowed his son-in-law, Peada, to govern the Southern Mercians (“divided by the river Trent from the Northern Mercians”), but Peada was assassinated, “as is said”, writes Bede (HE III, 24), through the treachery of “his wife” (i.e. Oswiu’s daughter, Alhflæd), at Easter 656. All Mercia was then ruled directly by Oswiu. In 658, however, Mercian rebels set-up Peada’s brother, Wulfhere, as king, and: “they bravely recovered at once their liberty and their lands”.  Oswiu’s hold over the south-Humbrian English kingdoms was broken, and Wulfhere began to extend his own authority.

In 660, Oswiu’s son, Ecgfrith, married Æthelthryth, daughter of Anna, the late king, and niece of Æthelwald, the incumbent king, of the East Angles.

Broadly speaking, there were two Christian doctrines prevalent in the British Isles at this time: that of the indigenous Churches, often lumped together under the umbrella-term ‘Celtic Church’, as exemplified by Bishop Aidan and the monks of Iona; and that of the Catholic Church of Rome, as promoted amongst the English by the mission of Pope Gregory the Great, which had landed in Kent in 597. When Oswiu’s wife, Eanflæd, had returned to Northumbria from Kent, she and her entourage had continued to follow Roman practices, whilst Oswiu and his courtiers followed the teachings of Aidan and his Scottish (i.e. Irish) successors at Lindisfarne. The major difference between the doctrines concerned the formula used to calculate Easter.

Thus it is said to have sometimes happened in those times that Easter was twice celebrated in one year; and that when the king, having ended his fast, was keeping Easter, the queen and her followers were still fasting, and celebrating Palm Sunday…
Now Oswiu, having been instructed and baptized by the Scots, and being very perfectly skilled in their language, thought nothing better than what they taught; but Alhfrith, having for his teacher in Christianity Wilfrid, a most learned man – for he had formerly gone to Rome to study ecclesiastical doctrine, and spent much time at Lyon with Dalfinus, archbishop of Gaul, from whom also he had received the crown of ecclesiastical tonsure[*] – knew that this man’s [i.e. Wilfrid’s] doctrine was rightly to be preferred to all the traditions of the Scots.

HE III, 25

In 664 a synod was convened at Abbess Hild’s monastery at Whitby,[*] attended by Oswiu, Alhfrith and clerics of both doctrines.

King Oswiu first made an opening speech, in which he said that it behoved those who served one God to observe one rule of life; and as they all expected the same kingdom in heaven, so they ought not to differ in the celebration of the heavenly sacraments; but rather to inquire which was the truer tradition, that it might be followed by all in common.

HE III, 25

Colman, bishop of Lindisfarne, put the case for the ‘Celtic’ method of calculating Easter, whilst Wilfrid argued for the Catholic method. Wilfrid’s argument won the day – Oswiu decided in favour of the Roman doctrine. Colman and other ‘Celtic’ clergymen who would not adopt the Catholic Easter, nor, indeed, the Roman style of “tonsure in the form of a crown” – Bede (HE III, 26) notes “there was no small dispute about that also” – retired to Iona, and thence to Ireland. One Tuda was appointed bishop in Colman’s stead. He was the only bishop in Northumbria. Lindisfarne, the bishop’s seat, was in Bernicia. Alhfrith decided that Deira should have its own bishop, and so he, with Oswiu’s agreement, sent Wilfrid off to Gaul to be consecrated[*].

In the same year, 664, a devastating plague swept through the British Isles. Bishop Tuda was a victim.

Oswiu sent Chad (Ceadda), brother of Bishop Cedd, to Canterbury to be consecrated bishop, but of York, not Lindisfarne. York was evidently the see that Alhfrith had intended for Wilfrid, who, says Bede: “stayed some time in the parts beyond the sea” (HE III, 28).  Nothing more is heard of Alhfrith. In his introduction to Oswiu’s career (HE III, 14), Bede remarks that he ruled: “with much trouble, being attacked by the pagan nation of the Mercians, that had slain his brother, and also by his own son Alhfrith, as well as by his nephew Œthelwald, that is, the son of his brother who had reigned before him.”  Bede’s meaning is obvious regarding the Mercians and Œthelwald, but his reference to Alhfrith is mysterious. It may be that Alhfrith rebelled against his father in 664, and came to an untimely end – hence Wilfrid’s dalliance across the Channel. At any rate, when Chad got to Canterbury, he found that Archbishop Deusdedit, who died in July 664 (probably of the plague), had not been replaced. Chad travelled on to Wessex, where he was consecrated by Wine, bishop of the West Saxons, who was the only Catholically ordained bishop in Britain at the time. Wine was, however, assisted by two British, that is ‘Celtic Church’, bishops.

Following the death of Deusdedit, in July 664, the see of Canterbury had been “vacant for no small time”, says Bede (HE IV, 1).

At this time the most noble kings of the English, Oswiu of the province of the Northumbrians and Egbert of the people of Kent, consulted together to determine what ought to be done about the state of the English Church, for Oswiu, though educated by the Scots, had rightly perceived that the Roman was the Catholic and Apostolic Church. They selected, with the consent and by the choice of the holy Church of the English nation, a priest named Wigheard, one of Bishop Deusdedit’s clergy, a good man and fitted for the episcopate, and sent him to Rome to be ordained bishop, to the end that, having been raised to the rank of an archbishop, he might ordain Catholic prelates for the churches of the English throughout all Britain.

HE III, 29

Sadly, Wigheard, along with most of his party, fell ill and died at Rome (in 667?) before he was ordained. Pope Vitalian eventually (on 26th March 668) ordained a monk called Theodore, who, though he was in Rome, hailed from Tarsus (in modern Turkey), in Wigheard’s stead.[*]

Archbishop Theodore took-up his position at Canterbury on 27th May 669.[*]

Soon after, he visited all the island, wherever the English peoples dwelt, for he was gladly received and heard by all … Theodore, journeying through all parts, ordained bishops in fitting places, and with their assistance corrected such things as he found faulty.

HE IV, 2

Theodore judged that Chad’s position at York was illegitimate – non-Catholic British bishops had participated in his ordination – and he had to relinquish it to Wilfrid. Chad was properly re-ordained, and, since Mercia was without a bishop, he was sent off to King Wulfhere to fill the vacancy – his diocese also included Lindsey, which was then a Mercian possession.[*]

… Wilfrid administered the bishopric of York, and of all the Northumbrians, and likewise of the Picts, as far as King Oswiu was able to extend his dominions.

HE IV, 3

In the year of our Lord 670, which is the second year since Theodore came to Britain, Oswiu, king of the Northumbrians, fell sick, and died, in the 58th year of his age.[*] He at that time bore so great affection to the Roman Apostolic usages, that he had designed, if he recovered from his sickness, to go to Rome, and there to end his days at the holy places, having asked Bishop Wilfrid, with a promise of no small gift of money, to conduct him on his journey. He died on the 15th of the Kalends of March [i.e. on 15th February], leaving his son Ecgfrith heir to the kingdom.

HE IV, 5

Stephen the Priest, biographer of Wilfrid (Wilfrid was at the time bishop of York[*]), says that in the “early years” of Ecgfrith’s reign:

… while the kingdom was still weak, the bestial tribes of the Picts had a fierce contempt for subjection to the Saxon and threatened to throw off from themselves the yoke of slavery; they gathered together innumerable tribes from every nook and corner in the north, and as a swarm of ants in the summer sweeping from their hills heap up a mound to protect their tottering house. When King Ecgfrith heard this, humble as he was among his own people and magnanimous towards his enemies, he forthwith got together a troop of horsemen, for he was no lover of belated operations; and trusting in God like Judas Maccabaeus and assisted by the brave sub-king, Beornhæth, he attacked with his little band of God's people an enemy host which was vast and moreover concealed. He slew an enormous number of the people, filling two rivers with corpses, so that, marvellous to relate, the slayers, passing over the rivers dry foot, pursued and slew the crowd of fugitives; the tribes were reduced to slavery and remained subject under the yoke of captivity until the time when the king [i.e. Ecgfrith] was slain.

Thereupon after this victory King Ecgfrith, ruling the people with the bishop of God, in righteousness and holiness, strong like David in crushing his enemies yet humble in the sight of God, breaking the necks of the tumultuous tribes and their warlike kings, emboldened as he was by the help of God, in all things always gave thanks to God.

Chs.19–20

Meanwhile, Wulfhere, king of Mercia, had become the most powerful king south of the Humber. Bede does not include him in his list of overlords of the southern English kingdoms, but it seems likely that by 674, when he turned his attention to Northumbria, he was in that position. Stephen the Priest:

Now Wulfhere, king of the Mercians, proud of heart and insatiable in spirit, roused all the southern nations against our kingdom, intent not merely on fighting but on compelling them to pay tribute in a slavish spirit. But he was not guided by God. So Ecgfrith, king of Deira and Bernicia, unwavering in spirit and true-hearted, on the advice of his counsellors trusted God, like Barak and Deborah, to guard his land and defend the churches of God even as the bishop taught him to do, and with a band of men no greater than theirs attacked a proud enemy, and by the help of God overthrew them with his tiny force. Countless numbers were slain, the king [of the Mercians] was put to flight and his kingdom laid under tribute, and afterwards, when Wulfhere died through some cause, Ecgfrith ruled in peace over a wider realm.

Vita Sancti Wilfrithi Ch.20

The Historia de Sancto Cuthberto (History of St Cuthbert – an anonymous, apparently mid-11th century, compilation):

… King Ecgfrith fought against the king of the Mercians, Wulfhere son of Penda, and having cut down [his] army he vanquished him and put him to flight with only one small boy accompanying [him]. And he [Ecgfrith] obtained this through the aid of St Wilfrid, who was with him, but especially through the prayers of St Cuthbert, who was absent.[*] After this battle King Ecgfrith gave Carham and whatever pertains to it to St Cuthbert and held him in the highest veneration as long as he lived …

§7

Bede mentions Ecgfrith’s victory over Wulfhere only in a passing reference whilst discussing the year 678: “the province of Lindsey, which King Ecgfrith had but newly acquired, having defeated Wulfhere and put him to flight” (HE IV, 12).  Neither the place nor date of Wulfhere’s defeat is recorded, but it evidently loosened his hold on the southern kingdoms and resulted in the Mercians having to pay tribute to Ecgfrith, and Lindsey was taken back into Northumbrian ownership. Wulfhere died in 675.

At some stage before 679, Wulfhere’s brother and successor, Æthelred, married Ecgfrith’s sister, Osthryth.

Wilfrid built another magnificent church, at Hexham[*], on land given to him by Ecgfrith’s wife, Æthelthryth. In 660, Ecgfrith, aged fifteen, had married Æthelthryth, saintly daughter of Anna, late king of the East Angles. Æthelthryth was older, and had been married before. Bede asserts that:

Though she lived with him [i.e. Ecgfrith] 12 years, yet she preserved the glory of perfect virginity, as I was informed by Bishop Wilfrid, of blessed memory, of whom I inquired, because some questioned the truth thereof; and he told me that he was an undoubted witness to her virginity, forasmuch as Ecgfrith promised to give him many lands and much money if he could persuade the queen to consent to fulfil her marriage duty, for he knew the queen loved no man more than [Wilfrid] himself.

HE IV, 19

Eventually, in 672, Æthelthryth persuaded Ecgfrith to allow her to become a nun, and:

… she entered the monastery of the Abbess Æbbe, who was aunt to King Ecgfrith, at the place called the town of Coludi [Coldingham, Berwickshire], having received the veil of the religious habit from the hands of the aforesaid Bishop Wilfrid …

HE IV, 19

A year later Æthelthryth became founding abbess of Ely[*].

Bede:

In the year of our Lord 678, which is the 8th year of the reign of King Ecgfrith, in the month of August, appeared a star, which is called a comet, and continuing for three months, it rose in the morning, sending forth, as it were, a tall pillar of radiant flame. The same year a dissension broke out between King Ecgfrith and the most reverend prelate, Wilfrid, who was driven from his see,[*] and two bishops substituted for him, to preside over the nation of the Northumbrians, namely, Bosa, to govern the province of the Deirans; and Eata that of the Bernicians; the former having his episcopal see in the city of York, the latter either in the church of Hagustald [Hexham] or of Lindisfarne; both of them promoted to the episcopal dignity from a community of monks. With them also Eadhæd was ordained bishop for the province of Lindsey, which King Ecgfrith had but newly acquired, having defeated Wulfhere and put him to flight; and this was the first bishop of its own which that province had … Eadhæd, Bosa and Eata were ordained at York by Archbishop Theodore …

HE IV, 12

Ecgfrith had remarried, and, according to Stephen the Priest, it was his new wife, Iurminburh, who stoked-up Ecgfrith’s hostility towards Wilfrid:

She eloquently described to him all the temporal glories of St Wilfrid, his riches, the number of his monasteries, the greatness of his buildings, his countless army of followers arrayed in royal vestments and arms. With such shafts as these the king’s heart was wounded. They both sought skilfully to humiliate the holy head of the Church to their own destruction and boldly to defraud him of the gifts which the kings had given him for God’s sake.

Vita Sancti Wilfrithi Ch.24

Stephen accuses Archbishop Theodore of accepting bribes (“for bribes blind the eyes even of wise men”) to further their plot against Wilfrid. On being replaced by Eadhæd, Bosa and Eata, Wilfrid decided to travel to Rome, to seek justice from the pope.

Bede:

In the ninth year of the reign of King Ecgfrith [in 679], a great battle was fought between him and Æthelred, king of the Mercians, near the river Trent, and Ælfwine, brother to King Ecgfrith, was slain, a youth about 18 years of age, and much beloved in both provinces; for King Æthelred had married his sister, who was called Osthryth. There was now reason to expect a more severe war, and more lasting enmity between those kings and their fierce peoples; but Theodore, the prelate beloved of God, relying on the Divine aid, by his wholesome admonitions wholly extinguished the dangerous fire that was breaking out; so that the kings and peoples on both sides were appeased, and no man’s life was given for the killing of the king’s brother, but only the due compensation in money to the avenging king;[*] and this peace continued long after between those kings and between their kingdoms.

HE IV, 21

In 680, Bishop Wilfrid returned from Rome with papers from Pope Agatho ordering his reinstatement. Far from being reinstated, however, he was imprisoned for nine months, and then exiled from Northumbria[*].

Wilfrid’s erstwhile diocese, already split-up in 678, was, in 681, further divided by Archbishop Theodore – Eata’s see was fixed at Lindisfarne, one Tunberht was appointed to Hexham, and: “Trumwine to the province of the Picts, which at that time was subject to English rule.” (HE IV, 12).  Bede notes: “Eadhæd returning from Lindsey, because Æthelred had recovered that province, was placed by Theodore over the church of Ripon.”  Ecgfrith had taken possession of Lindsey following his victory over Wulfhere in 674, but lost it again following the battle of the Trent in 679 (certainly a victory for Æthelred, though Bede doesn't explicitly say so). Northumbria never again had control of Lindsey.

Bede:

In the year of our Lord 684, Ecgfrith, king of the Northumbrians, sending Ealdorman Berht with an army into Ireland, miserably laid waste that unoffending nation, which had always been most friendly to the English; insomuch that the invading force spared not even the churches or monasteries. —

— But the islanders, while to the utmost of their power they repelled force with force, implored the assistance of the Divine mercy, and with constant imprecations invoked the vengeance of Heaven; and though such as curse cannot inherit the kingdom of God, yet it was believed that those who were justly cursed on account of their impiety, soon suffered the penalty of their guilt at the avenging hand of God. For the very next year [i.e. in 685], when that same king [i.e. Ecgfrith] had rashly led his army to ravage the province of the Picts, greatly against the advice of his friends, and particularly of Cuthbert, of blessed memory, who had been lately ordained bishop,[*] the enemy made a feigned retreat, and the king [Ecgfrith] was drawn into the narrow passes of inaccessible mountains, and slain, with the greater part of the forces he had led thither, in the 40th year of his age, and the 15th of his reign, on the 13th of the Kalends of June [20th May]. His friends, as has been said, advised him not to engage in this war; but since he had the year before refused to listen to the most reverend father, Egbert, advising him not to attack the Scots [i.e. the Irish], who were doing him no harm, it was laid upon him as a punishment for his sin, that he should now not listen to those who would have prevented his death.

HE IV, 26

Bede doesn’t name the battle-site, but the Annals of Ulster state that:

The battle of Dún Nechtain was fought on the twentieth day of May, a Saturday, and Ecgfrith son of Oswiu, king of the Saxons, who had completed the 15th year of his reign, was slain therein with a great body of his soldiers …[*]

Dún Nechtain (Fort of Nechtan) is conventionally identified as Dunnichen, near Forfar.[*] The equivalent entry in the Annals of Tigernach adds that the Pictish king responsible for Ecgfrith’s defeat and death was Bridei (Bruide in Irish) son of Bili. The Historia Brittonum (§57) says:

Ecgfrith is the one who made war against his cousin, who was king of the Picts, named Bridei; and there he fell with all the strength of his army, and the Picts with their king were victorious …

The Historia provides the Welsh name for the battle: “it is called gueith Lin Garan [the battle of Crane Lake].”  Symeon of Durham provides the English name:

… in the same year in which King Ecgfrith had caused this venerable father [Cuthbert] to be ordained bishop, he was killed at Nechtanesmere (that is, the Lake of Nechtan) … This happened as the same father Cuthbert had predicted,[*] upon the 13th of the Kalends of June [20th May], in the 15th year of his reign. His [Ecgfrith’s] body was buried in Iona, the island of Columba.

LDE I, 9

Bede continues:

From that time the hopes and strength of the English kingdom [i.e. Northumbria] began ‘to ebb and fall away’ [Virgil, Aeneid II, 169]; for the Picts recovered their own land which had been held by the English; and the Scots that were in Britain, and some part of the Britons, regained their liberty, which they have now enjoyed for about 46 years. Among the many English that then either fell by the sword, or were made slaves, or escaped by flight out of the country of the Picts, the most reverend man of God, Trumwine, who had been made bishop over them, withdrew with his people that were in the monastery of Aebbercurnig [Abercorn], which was situated in English territory but close by the firth [i.e. the Firth of Forth] that divides the lands of the English and the Picts.

HE IV, 26