Northumbria

“ Still, I will give thee one chance of life. Renounce thy false god; restore the worship of Woden in Northumbria, and thou shalt be replaced on thy throne as my tributary, whilst I, as monarch of Mercia, Northumbria, and East Anglia, extending from the Thames to the Forth, and from sea to sea, shall become the Bretwalda of Britain. ”

“ He with Collingwood conquers and dies.
From thy hills, too, at sound of the heart-rousing drum,
Thy war breathing soldier retires;
In lion-like strength seeks the carnage field’s hum,
Fights—blesses thy name—and expires!
Such, such are the heroes in thy vallies rear’d,
Such, Northumbria, thy children still be:
Proud commerce, from Tyne’s banks in glory uprear’d,
To her breast clasps the lords of the sea.
Come forward ye dark rolling clouds of the north,
Who shrinks from your blasts but the coward and slave? ”

“ Decline of Northumbrian Literature. The same northern energy which had built up learning and literature so rapidly in Northumbria was instrumental in pulling it down again. Toward the end of the century in which Cynewulf lived, the Danes swept down on the English coasts and overwhelmed Northumbria. Monasteries and schools were destroyed; scholars and teachers alike were put to the sword, and libraries that had been gathered leaf by leaf with the toil of centuries were scattered to the four winds. ”

“ Under the warmth of a first love, all these advantages were moulded together, and resulted in making Northumbria for three or four generations the centre of European culture. The seat of this culture was York, the old Roman capital, and its culmination was under Archbishop Egbert (734-766) , and his successor Albert. The great writings of this period are in Latin, and the chief names are Aldhelm, Eddi, Winfrid (Bonifacius) , Danihel, Beda, Alcuin. ”

“ The kingdom of England, imperfectly welded together by Egbert and Alfred, and since then modified by the large infusion of Scandinavian blood into its northern and eastern districts, showed throughout this period a strong tendency to split up again into its three old divisions, Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex. Northumbria, as we have seen, was reconstituted as one earldom by the bloody deed of Siward the Strong, who slew his uncle Eadwulf, and so joined Bernicia to Deira. ”

“ Advancing civilization, again, has, it is to be feared, made havoc of the proud insularity of the Northumbrian squirearchy. No longer are they content, like the Osbaldistones of yore, to devote themselves to cellar and stable, to stay at home, contemptuous of London and its politics, of travel and of new ideas. ‘Markham’s Farriery’ and the ‘Guide to Heraldry’ have lost their pristine charm, and the Northumbrian is, as a consequence, foregoing his ancient characteristics merely to become provincial.
‘Geordie Pitman’ alone makes a stand against all modern innovation. ”

“ The ancient kingdom of Northumbria comprised the present counties of Durham, Northumberland, and Yorkshire, and a part of the south-east of Scotland as far north as the 4Firth of Forth. This kingdom was sub-divided into two portions. The Southern, or Deira, extended from the Tees to the Humber, and the Northern, or Bernicia, reached from the Tees to the Firth of Forth. ”

“ From the island of Iona, missionaries of the Irish Church had effected the conversion of the Northumbrians. Augustine with his handful from Rome had introduced Christianity into the little subject Kingdom of Kent. From Northumbria the disciples of Iona penetrated Essex and made converts also there. But in Mercia Mid-England paganism was supreme, and the terrible Penda made himself paramount from the Thames and Wash to the Severn. The West Saxons were cowed.
259But S. Oswald, the Northumbrian king, restored the older domination of Northumbria, only to fall again. ”

“ He travelled from his home, on the western coast of Scotland, to Northumberland, bringing the bread of life to many who were aware of the heart-hunger that consumed them. He is described, in the "History of Northumbria," as "a man of truly noble spirit, of deep learning, and the most devoted piety, energetic and ardent in temperament, patient in the removal of obstructions to the cause which he came to advocate ”

“ But though Eadberht might beat back the inroads of the Mercians and even conquer Strathclyde, before the anarchy of his own kingdom he could only fling down his sceptre and seek a refuge in the cloister of Lindisfarne. From the death of Bæda the history of Northumbria became in fact little more than a wild story of lawlessness and bloodshed. King after king was swept away by treason and revolt, the country fell into the hands of its turbulent nobles, its very fields lay waste, and the land was scourged by famine and plague. ”

“ A short distance from Amble, and practically encircled by the Coquet which here makes a wide sweep, we come upon Warkworth, prettiest of villages, combining the beauties of sea-shore and river scenery, and rich in the possession of that romantic castle, the ruins of which carry the mind back to Saxon times; for they stand on the site of an older fortress erected by Ceolwulf, a Saxon King of Northumbria. ”

“ Thus, in this eighth century the Anglo-Saxon race was in various ways making its mark on Europe; and in our own island its literary history during this period is not without interest; but politically the century is one of the most sterile in all our annals. It was an age of little men, of decaying faith, of slumberous inaction, or else of sanguinary and chaotic strife. Northumbria especially, during this period, was falling fast and far from her former high estate. Mercia and Wessex were engaged in perpetual objectless war, not ennobled by any great names or chivalrous deeds. ”

“ Using the various tests we find that the Scandinavian kingdom of Northumbria was considerably smaller than the earlier realm of that name, Northumberland and Durham being but sparsely settled, while South Lancashire and Cheshire were occupied chiefly along the coast. The kingdom would seem to fall into two isolated halves, Cumberland and Westmorland and North Lancashire in the north-west and Yorkshire in the south-east. The district of the Five Boroughs covered Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire (Lincoln and Stamford) , Leicestershire, and probably the whole of Rutland (Stamford) . ”

“ It is impossible not to be struck with the extraordinarily rapid way in which a body of fierce heathen invaders overran two great Christian and comparatively civilised states. We cannot but contrast the inertness of Northumbria and the lukewarmness of Mercia with the stubborn resistance finally made by Ælfred in Wessex. ”

“ Ethelfrith, who had effected the conquest of the central and western portion of Northumbria, and may be regarded as the founder of the Northumbrian kingdom, "conquered," as we read in Beda, "more territories from the Britons than any other king or tribune;" but although he was thus able to overrun a vast district of country, his followers were not sufficiently numerous to colonise it. ”

“ It had, indeed, virtually no history until the Church became the great civilizer in Northumbria. Its prehistoric remains are few, if interesting. Its occupation by Brigantes, a Celtic tribe, is a large fact with no details. In the days when Romans made the North of Britain their own, there is still no history beyond the evidence of Roman roads, with camps at Binchester, Lanchester, and Ebchester. ”

“ Chapter XV HOW ALFRED THE GREAT FOUGHT WITH HIS PEN WHILE Caedmon sang his English lays and Bede wrote his Latin books, Northumbria had grown into a center, not only of English learning, but of learning for western Europe. The abbots of Jarrow and Wearmouth made journeys to Rome and brought back with them precious MSS. for the monastery libraries. Scholars from all parts of Europe came to visit the Northumbrian monasteries, or sent thither for teachers. ”

“ Thanks to thee.”
“Nay, without thy quickness and thy courage I could have done nothing.”
“And now, Torfrida, I see not which way there is left for us to turn; for if the North Angles knew me so also will the men of Elmet [7] and Northumbria. But an we do not enter Northumbria there remains nothing but the [148] wilds that lie to the north-west in South Strathclyde and Cumbria, where no man is, nor food, nor bield nor bush to shelter us from the wind, nor anything but moss and moor. ”

“ The intruders became known as “the army,” and the appearance of “the army” in any district filled the inhabitants with terror. Our first definite story of the Northmen in England is connected with the appearance of “the army” in Yorkshire A.D. 867. We learn from the English chronicles that violent internal discord was troubling Northumbria at this time. The king of the Northumbrians was Osbert,14 but the people had risen up and expelled him, we know not for what reason,2 and had placed on the throne a man named Ælla, “not of royal blood,” who seems to have been the leader of the people. ”

“ Bæda ends his history with an account of the flourishing state of the kingdom of Northumbria in 731, noticing the large number of men of all ranks who at that time retired from the world to adopt a monastic life. It seems, however, as though a strong party in Northumbria disliked the increase of the ecclesiastical power, and was impatient of the rule of the studious king, for the next year an insurrection broke out, and Ceolwulf was seized and tonsured. ”

“ NORTHUMBERLAND, EARLS AND DUKES OF. The earldom, and later the dukedom, of Northumberland, famous in English history by its connexion with the noble house of Percy (q.v.) is to be traced, from an origin anterior to a strictly regulated system of peerage. The Saxon kingdom of Northumbria embraced a far more extensive territory than the modern county of Northumberland; and for at least a century after the Norman Conquest Northumberland, as the name imports, comprised a great portion of the country north of the Humber, including the cities of Durham and of York. ”

“ NORTHUMBRIA was at peace, after a long period of anarchy, bloodshed, battles, and murders. Christianity had been restored by St. Oswald, King and Martyr; York Cathedral, commenced by King Eadwine, had been completed; the great Abbey of Lindisfarne had become a centre of Christian light and civilisation; and several other churches and religious houses were growing up over the length and breadth of the land. Oswy, a wise, vigorous, and warlike King, one of the most illustrious of his line, ruled Northumbria in its integrity ”

“ FOOTNOTES
1 Northumberland Plate, or Pitmen’s Derby.
2 ‘Mevvies’ = maybe, perhaps. The true Northumbrian is in a threefold danger of betraying his origin: phonetically, by the ‘burr’; dialectically, by constant use of ‘mevvies,’ ‘wor’ (our) , and ‘I’s warned’ (I warrant you) ; psychologically, by a perpetual readiness to back himself, his dog, or any of his belongings, against any other man’s in the world, and for any amount, at a moment’s notice. ”

“ In the general calamity the inhabitants of these regions lying in the very centre of the island must have participated: and afterwards in the contentions of Northumbria and Mercia they must, from their frontier situation, have been peculiarly exposed to the calamities of war. Those two noble military earth-works called Castle-hill and Bailey-hill, both very near to the village of Bradfield, are evidently in their whole construction Saxon, and were doubtless thrown up for the defence of the kingdom of Northumbria. ”

“ In the year 1016 Uchtred, the earl of Northumbria who had inflicted so disastrous a defeat upon Malcolm in the early years of his reign, was slain by Cnut, a Dane who was then in possession of the greater part of England, and became its king in the following year, and the earldom of Northumbria was bestowed by him upon Eric, a Dane. Eadulf Cudel, however, the brother of Uchtred and the heir to his earldom, appears to have maintained possession of the northern division north of the Tyne. ”

“ He appears to have been a Saxon, or rather an Anglian noble of considerable consequence in the kingdom of Northumbria, and to have taken a conspicuous part in the political movements of that troublous period, when, as Speed narrates, "the Northumbrians were sore molested with many intruders or rather tyrants that banded for the soueraintie for the space of thirtie years." He was a man of gigantic stature and a champion of redoubtable energy in war, dealing death around him and cumbering the field with the bodies of those who had fallen beneath the blows of his ponderous mace. ”

“ While Northumbria was divided between the parties of the two kings, the Danish host, which had wintered in East Anglia, crossed the mouth of the Humber and took York. By the intervention of the chief men of the land peace was made between the rival kings. They joined their forces, and drove the Danes into York. Part of their army succeeded in entering the city. But the Danes rallied, and after a fierce battle the Northumbrians were defeated with great slaughter. ”

“ The Northumbrians succeeded in making a breach in the walls and entering the town; but, inspired by fear and necessity, the pagans made a fierce sally, cutting down their foes on all sides, inside and outside the walls alike. The city was set on fire, those who escaped making peace with the enemy. From that time onward the Northmen were seldom absent from Northumbria. York became one of their chief headquarters, and the constant succession of Norse ships along the coast gradually brought a considerable influx of Norse inhabitants to that part of England. ”

“ In the case of Northumbria, indeed, even after William’s presence had been felt in every part of the land, so acute an observer as Archbishop Lanfranc insisted on the subordination of the see of York to that of Canterbury on the ground that an independent archbishop of York might canonically consecrate an independent king of the Northumbrians. ”