Edwin of Northumbria

“ His position was assured, at least temporarily, in 617, when he decided to espouse the cause of the Northumbrian prince Edwin, then a fugitive at his court, and defeated Æthelfrith of Northumbria on the banks of the Idle, a tributary of the Trent, in Mercian territory. ”

“ When the venerable monk of Jarrow reaches the period of Edwin of Northumbria [Pg 7] his narrative somehow has fresh life and vigour breathed into it, and the following half–century receives the same welcome treatment. We see real progress being made in the civilisation of the country and the condition of the people, which, though checked, was not put a stop to even by the desolating invasions of Penda and Cadwalla. ”

“ When the Romans had left, and the Saxons taken possession, the first king of Northumbria was Ida, who, it is said, landed at Flamborough, and who first built the grand Castle of Bamborough, part of the original of which remains to this day. The first Christian king of Northumbria was Edwin. His life is a striking illustration of the assertion, "It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth," for he was but three years old when his parent died, and all his early years were passed in exile, having been kept from the throne of which he was the lawful heir. ”

“ Christianity, fulfilling Divine promise, had brought “not peace, but a sword” to the Romans, and the Saxon king, Edwin of Northumbria, had not long been converted and baptized at York, on the site of the present Minster, before he was slain in conflict with the heathen. It was Paulinus, first Archbishop of York, who had baptized Edwin in 625. ”

“ The earldom of Mercia, the whole centre of England, was ruled by Edwin, third in succession of a family which had been permanently hostile to the house of Godwine. Northumbria was in the hands of his younger brother Morcar, who had replaced Harold's brother Tostig, against whose tyrannous rule the men of Northumbria had revolted. The young earls were in every way contemptible, feeble in action, narrow-minded, selfish, short-sighted. They saw no reason why Harold should be preferred to themselves, and in their hatred of him lost sight of their own true interests. ”

“ Edwin went to battle. He was victorious. This fact led to the conversion of Northumbria, and through Northumbria of nearly the whole of England.
On his return from battle, Edwin called together a Council of his wise men and heathen priests, at Godmundham, to consider the question of renouncing their heathenism. The High Priest Coifi was called upon to speak of the merits of heathenism. [7] "The old worship," he said, "seems to me to be worth nothing: no man has practised it more than I, and yet many fare better, and have more favours at your hand. ”

“ With this intent he formed an alliance with the ruler of Mercia, Penda, who became king in 626, a year before Edwin’s baptism; who was still pagan; and who in his dull ferocity was as typical a specimen of the old faith as Edwin of the new. The alliance of the Welsh Christian and the English pagan for the overthrow of the newly born Christianity of Northumbria was scarcely felt to be unnatural, so intense was the bitterness engendered by the Paschal controversy and the varying fashions of ecclesiastical tonsure. ”

“ Such is the story of the Christianizing of England as told in the ancient chronicle of the venerable Bede, the earliest of English writers. [Pg 15]
As yet only Kent had been converted. North of it lay the kingdom of Northumbria, still a pagan realm. The story of its conversion, as told by Bede, is of no less interest than that just related. Edwin was its king, a man of great ability for that early day. His prowess is shown in a proverb: "A woman with her babe might walk scathless from sea to sea in Edwin's day." ”

“ Consequent on the conversion of Edwin, King of Northumbria, to Christianity, resulting from his marriage to Ethelburga, daughter of King Ethelbert of Kent, the city was erected in 624 into an archiepiscopal see, over which Paulinus, the confessor of the Queen, was made primate. In addition to this, Edwin had constituted the city as the metropolitan of his kingdom. Edwin's work upon the church, which he dedicated to St. Peter, and the missionary work of Paulinus, were suddenly suspended by an attack of the Britons under Cadwallo in 633. ”

“ On the death of Ella in 588 his son Edwin fled before Ethelric King of Bernicia, who conquered Deira, but, after the death of Ethelric, Edwin took heart and not only [Pg 6] reconquered his own kingdom of Deira but Bernicia also, and united them both in one great kingdom of Northumbria.
The history of the early struggles into existence of any of the peoples who, in later centuries, have formed the nations of modern Europe is unfortunately so obscure that it can only furnish us with a mere general outline of the course of events. ”

“ Having consolidated his power over Northumbria, Edwin became the mightiest of all the English kings. The title of Bretwalda was recognised as rightfully belonging to him, and all the other kings of Britain, Anglian, Saxon, Celtic, for a time at least acknowledged him as in a certain sense their superior. Even the islands of Man and Anglesey were added by him to his dominions, the latter island probably deriving from this conquest by the Angles the name which it still bears. Only Jutish Kent still maintained its independence, and with its king Edwin before long formed a close tie of alliance. ”

“ Edwin thus slain, the sons of Ethelfrid, who were also the nephews of Edwin, Oswald, and Oswy, now grown up, and in the budding prime of youth, re-sought their country, together with Eanfrid, their elder brother, whom I forgot before to mention. The kingdom, therefore, was now divided into two. Indeed, Northumbria, long since separated into two provinces, had elected Alla, king of the Deirans, and Ida, of the Bernicians. Wherefore Osric, the cousin of Edwin, succeeding to Deira, and Eanfrid, the son of Ethelfrid, to Bernicia, they exulted in the recovery of their hereditary right. ”

“ Ethelfrid, in consequence, raised an army for the invasion of East Anglia, but was met by Redwald, and a desperate battle ensued on the banks of the river Idle, in which the usurper was defeated and slain, and Eadwine proclaimed King of Northumbria. He [Pg 37] proved himself to be an able and vigorous ruler, adding the Isles of Man and Anglesea to his dominions, and extending his territories northward to the Forth, where he built a fortress, around which a town gradually grew up, which was called Edwin's burgh—the infant Edinburgh. ”

“ Harold said. "Edwin has been always conspiring. He stirred up the Welsh, he has encouraged the Norwegians, he has intrigued in Northumbria. He and his brother have ever been a source of trouble, and yet he has never openly rebelled; he sets others to do the fighting for him, prepared if they are successful to reap the fruits of their victory. ”

“ The Anglian power was not thoroughly established over Wales, and already the destined rival of Northumbria, the Mercian kingdom, was rising into baleful pre-eminence. Singularly enough, it was from these two powers which are said to have sheltered Edwin in the time of his evil fortunes that his ruin came. Cadwallon, King of Gwynedd, descended from that Maelgwn whom Gildas vituperated under the name of “The Great Dragon of the Island,” was son of Cadvan, at whose court, it is said, Edwin had passed his boyhood. ”

“ It depends not upon Northumbrians nor Saxons, but upon Edwin and Morcar. They have made a great step forward towards their end; they have united under their government the northern half of England, and have wrested Northumbria from Godwin's family. After making this great step, will they rest and abstain from taking the next? Northumbria and Mercia united are as strong as Wessex and East Anglia. Will they be content to remain under a West Saxon king? Above all, will they submit to the rule of one of Godwin's sons? I feel sure that they will not. ”

“ Therefore, if these strangers can tell us anything that we may know whence a man cometh, and whither he goeth, let us hear them and follow their law." [30] So Northumbria became Christian for the time being, and a church was built at York with Paulinus as its bishop. But in 633 Edwin was defeated and slain at Heathfield by the King of the Welsh, and Penda the heathen king of Mercia, and the country relapsed for a time into heathendom, until Oswald, Edwin's nephew, known as St. ”

“ The office was given to Paulinus, and before setting out he was consecrated Bishop of the Northumbrians by Archbishop Justus. For some little time Edwin remained Pagan, but he allowed his daughter to be baptised so soon as she was born. Finally, a conference took place between Paulinus and the nobles of Northumbria, probably at Londesborough, as a result of which Edwin, two of his children, and many of his court were baptised at York on Easter Day, 627 ”

“ Edwin (Eadwine) , king of Northumbria, received baptism from the Kentish missionary Paulinus on Easter Eve, 627. The process of conversion was continued by the Celtic missionary, Aidin, who died in 651. The Christianity of Northumbria had begun before the latter date, however, to influence the surrounding states. East Anglia.--630-647. East Anglia had one Christian king prior to this period; but it was only with the accession of Sigebert (630) that great progress was made in the conversion of the people. The reign of king Anna witnesses the practical completion of this work. ”

“ In the ceaseless strife between the old English kingdoms, therefore, it was the personality of the king which was the main factor in determining the hegemony of one state over another. If in the 7th century the successive great Supremacy of Northumbria. Northumbrians—Edwin, Oswald, Oswio and Ecgfrith—were reckoned the chief monarchs of England, and exercised a widespread influence over the southern realms, yet each had to win his supremacy by his own sword ”

“ Edwin called himself Earl of Mercia, and held the Danish burghs. On the extreme northwest, the Roman city of Chester was his; while on the extreme southeast (as Domesday book testifies) , Morcar held large lands round Bourne, and throughout the south of Lincolnshire, besides calling himself the Earl of Northumbria. The young men seemed the darlings of the half-Danish northmen. Chester, Coventry, Derby, Nottingham, Leicester, Stamford, a chain of fortified towns stretching across England, were at their command; Blethyn, Prince of North Wales, was their nephew. ”

“ When the decisive battle of Hastings had been fought, and the Norman conqueror had overcome the Saxons, the people in the North were determined not to yield. The sorrow which the patriotic northern hearts felt was increased and stirred into active resentment by the treachery of William.
We learn from the "History of Northumbria," that Edwin, Earl of Mercia, brother to the Northumbrian Earl Morcar, was promised one of the daughters of William as his bride ”

“ Ædan, the King of the Scots, was assembling an immense army with the object of invading Northumbria and destroying Ethelfrith, his forces, and his kingdom. Ethelfrith's followers were very numerous, and both he and his brother Theobald were valiant soldiers. But they were ignorant of the art of war, head–strong, and without judgment. Alca consulted privately with her young friends. It was ascertained that Ædan would advance up the valley of the Eden, intending thence to pour his forces down the western valleys and converge on York. ”

“ Calendar Patent Rolls, 25 Edward I.
[25] The modern house built upon the knoll had a well within it, and behind the house—where a hidden runner gushes out by a rock—there are traces of old pavement.
[26] Levens Hall MSS.
[27] Bright's Early Church History, p. 291. Bishop Browne's Theodore and Wilfrith, pp. 132 and 690.
[28] It may possibly represent an old sub-kingdom of Northumbria, and is suggestive of Edwin's conquest of a district to the north-west called by the Britons Teyrnllwg. See Rhys's Celtic Britain (quoted in "Rydal," Westmorland Gazette, May 2nd, 1903) . ”

“ And yet men felt that it was a new departure in English life and customs for one who had in his veins no drop of royal blood to be chosen as king. His sister was Edward's wife, he was Edward's friend and counsellor, but although the men of the South felt that he was in all ways fitted to be king, they saw too that Northumbria would assuredly stand aloof, and that the Mercian earls, brothers-in-law as they were to be to Harold, would yet feel jealous that one of their own rank was to be their sovereign. ”

“ He was “chosen as father and lord” by the Scottish king and nation, by Rægenald, the Norwegian king of Northumbria, by Ealdred of Bamborough, and by the English, Danes or Norwegians in Northumbria, and by the Strathclyde Welsh.
With the conclusion of his wars Edward’s activity ceased, and we hear no more of him until in 924 he died at Farndon in Cheshire and was buried in the “New Minster” at Winchester. He was thrice married: (1) to Ecgwyn, a lady of rank, by whom he had a son Æthelstan, who succeeded him, and a daughter Eadgyth, who married Sihtric of Northumbria in 924. ”

“ AT this time the nation of the Northumbrians, that is, the nation of the Angles that live on the north side of the river Humber, with their king, Edwin, received the faith through the preaching of Paulinus, above mentioned. This Edwin, as a reward of his receiving the faith, and as an earnest of his share in the heavenly kingdom, received an increase of that which he enjoyed on earth, for he reduced under his dominion all the borders of Britain that were provinces either of the aforesaid nation, or of the Britons, a thing which no British king had ever done before ”