48-485: Deira ( / ˈ d aɪ r ə , ˈ d ɛər ə / DY -rə, DAIR -ə ; Old Welsh / Cumbric : Deywr or Deifr ; Old English : Derenrice or Dere ) was an area of Post-Roman Britain , and a later Anglian kingdom. The name of the kingdom is of Brythonic origin, and is derived from the Proto-Celtic * daru , meaning 'oak' ( derw in modern Welsh), in which case it would mean 'the people of
96-426: A Bretwalda , a later concept invented by West Saxon kings in the 9th century. Put simply, success confirmed Edwin's overlordship, and failure would diminish it. Edwin's supposed foster-brother Cadwallon ap Cadfan enters the record circa 629, but Cadwallon was defeated and either submitted to Edwin's authority or went into exile. With the defeat of Cadwallon, Edwin's authority appears to have been unchallenged for
144-505: A "tufa" ( OE thuuf , this may have been a winged globe) appear to be more than antiquarian curiosity, although whether the model for this practice was Roman or Frankish is unknown. Other royal sites included Campodunum in Elmet (perhaps Barwick ), Sancton in Deira, and Goodmanham , the site where the pagan high priest Coifi destroyed the idols according to Bede. Edwin's realm included
192-611: A copy of a text from the 6th or 7th centuries. Words in bold are Latin , not Old Welsh. surexit tutbulc filius liuit ha gener tutri dierchi tir telih haioid ilau elcu filius gelhig haluidt iuguret amgucant pel amtanndi ho diued diprotant gener tutri o guir imguodant ir degion guragon tagc rodesit elcu guetig equs tres uache, tres uache nouidligi namin ir ni be cas igridu dimedichat guetig hit did braut grefiat guetig nis minn tutbulc hai cenetl in ois oisau Tudfwlch son of Llywyd and son-in-law of Tudri arose to claim
240-521: A number of years, until Penda of Mercia and Cadwallon rose against him in 632–633. Edwin faced Penda and Cadwallon at the Battle of Hatfield Chase in the autumn of 632 or 633 and was defeated and killed. For a time his body was (allegedly) hidden in Sherwood Forest at a location that became the village of Edwinstowe (trans. Edwin's resting place), his head being eventually buried at York and
288-709: A saint by some, although his cult was eventually overshadowed by the ultimately more successful cult of Oswald, who was killed in 642. They met their deaths in battle against similar foes, the pagan Mercians and the British, thus allowing both of them to be perceived as martyrs; however, Bede's treatment of Oswald clearly demonstrates that he regarded him as an unambiguously saintly figure, a status that he did not accord to Edwin. Edwin's renown comes largely from his treatment at some length by Bede, writing from an uncompromisingly English and Christian perspective, and rests on his belated conversion to Christianity. His united kingdom in
336-402: Is said proverbially right up to today, even if a woman with a recently born child wanted to walk across the whole island, from sea to sea, she could do so without anyone harming her.” Kershaw indicates that “Bede’s decision to couch Edwin’s peace in proverbial terms offers ...a chilling insight into the levels of lawlessness accepted in eighth-century England”. Furthermore, a definition of “peace”
384-631: Is to be understood "as an inversion of the piercing of the temple of Christ’s body." All of these details support an understanding that Bede had great "warmth and admiration" for Edwin. The brief speech by the unnamed counselor, a nobleman, has attracted much attention; suggesting the "wisdom and hopefulness of the Christian message", it has inspired poets such as William Wordsworth and was called "the most poetic simile in Bede": The present life man, O king, seems to me, in comparison with that time which
432-725: Is to be understood as “freedom from robbery, rape, or violence; security to travel at will and to literally ‘go in peace.’” Edwin's conversion and Eorpwald's were reversed by their successors, and in the case of Northumbria the Roman Paulinus appears to have had very little impact. Indeed, by expelling British clergy from Elmet and elsewhere in Edwin's realm, Paulinus may have weakened the Church rather than strengthening it. Very few Roman clergy were present in Paulinus's time, only James
480-425: Is unknown to us, like to the swift flight of a sparrow through the room wherein you sit at supper in winter amid your officers and ministers, with a good fire in the midst whilst the storms of rain and snow prevail abroad; the sparrow, I say, flying in at one door and immediately out another, whilst he is within is safe from the wintry but after a short space of fair weather he immediately vanishes out of your sight into
528-584: The Derwent ', a derivation also found in the Latin name for Malton , Derventio . It is cognate with the modern Irish word doire ( pronounced [ˈd̪ˠɛɾʲə] ); the names for County Londonderry and the city of Derry stem from this word. Following the Roman withdrawal from Britain a number of successor kingdoms rose in northern England, reflecting pre-Roman tribal territories. The area between
SECTION 10
#1732766167955576-695: The Juvencus Manuscript and in De raris fabulis . Some examples of medieval Welsh poems and prose additionally originate from this period, but are found in later manuscripts; Y Gododdin , for example, is preserved in Middle Welsh . A text in Latin and Old Welsh in the Lichfield Gospels called the "Surrexit Memorandum" is thought to have been written in the early 8th century but may be
624-536: The Angles. Archaeology suggests that the Anglian royal house was in place by the middle of the fifth century, but the first certainly recorded king is Ælla in the late sixth century. After his death, Deira was subject to king Æthelfrith of Bernicia, who united the two kingdoms into Northumbria. Æthelfrith ruled until the accession of Ælla's son Edwin , in 616 or 617, who also ruled both kingdoms until 633. Osric ,
672-586: The Deacon being known, so that the "conversion" can have been only superficial, extending little beyond the royal court. Paulinus's decision to flee Northumbria at Edwin's death, unlike his acolyte James who remained in Northumbria for many years afterwards until his death, suggests that the conversion was not popular, and the senior Italian cleric unloved. The first challenge to Edwin came soon after his marriage-alliance with Kent, concluded at Canterbury in
720-653: The Franks, but died soon afterwards. Eanfled, however, lived to marry her first cousin, King Oswiu , son of Acha and Æthelfrith. Edwin's realm was divided at his death. He was succeeded by Osric , son of Edwin's paternal uncle Ælfric, in Deira, and by Eanfrith , son of Æthelfrith and Edwin's sister Acha, in Bernicia. Both reverted to paganism , and both were killed by Cadwallon; eventually Eanfrith's brother Oswald defeated and killed Cadwallon and united Northumbria once more. After his death, Edwin came to be venerated as
768-628: The Humber and River Tees known as Deywr or Deifr corresponds to the tribal lands of the Parisi , bordered to the west and north by the Brythonic kingdoms of Elmet ( Elfed ) and Bernicia ( Bryneich ) respectively, and to the east by the North Sea . Early Deira may have centred on Petuaria (modern Brough ) and archaeological evidence shows that the town was refortified. Petuaria
816-772: The Irish sea province. The routine of kingship in Edwin's time involved regular, probably annual, wars with neighbours to obtain tribute, submission, and slaves. By Edwin's death, it is likely that these annual wars, unreported in the main, had extended the Northumbrian kingdoms from the Humber and the Mersey north to the Southern Uplands and the Cheviots . The royal household moved regularly from one royal vill to
864-614: The Old). The kingdom, which was previously ruled by a British dynasty, was probably created in the third quarter of the fifth century when Anglian warriors invaded the Derwent Valley . Anglian Deira's territory also extended from the Humber to the Tees , and from the sea to the western edge of the Vale of York . It later merged with the kingdom of Bernicia , its northern neighbour, to form
912-506: The area was subject to the same fractious inheritance traditions and changing power dynamic (following the Roman withdrawal) that allowed Elmet and Bernicia to become independent hereditary kingdoms in the early fifth century. In Welsh literature , Deira is part of the Hen Ogledd (The Old North) region, which was divided into many related kingdoms after the death of Coel Hen (Coel
960-431: The brother of king Anna of East Anglia . The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reported that on Ælle's death a certain " Æthelric " assumed power. The exact identity of Æthelric is unclear. He may have been a brother of Ælle, an elder brother of Edwin, an otherwise unknown Deiran noble, or the father of Æthelfrith. Æthelfrith himself appears to have been king of " Northumbria "—both Deira and Bernicia—by no later than 604. During
1008-670: The conversion of Kent and Æthelburg's would do the same in Northumbria. Edwin's expansion to the west may have begun early in his reign. There is firm evidence of a war waged in the early 620s between Edwin and Fiachnae mac Báetáin of the Dál nAraidi , king of the Ulaid in Ireland. A lost poem is known to have existed recounting Fiachnae's campaigns against the Saxons, and the Irish annals report
SECTION 20
#17327661679551056-520: The dark winter from which he has emerged. So this life of man appears for a short space but of what went before or what is to follow we are ignorant. If, therefore, this new doctrine contains something more certain, it seems justly to deserve to be followed. Noteworthy is Bede's summation of the nature of Edwin's reign as King of Northumbria: “It is told that at the time there was so much peace in Britannia, that whenever King Edwin’s power extended, as
1104-399: The former Roman cities of York and Carlisle , and both appear to have been of some importance in the 7th century, although it is not clear whether urban life continued in this period. The account of Edwin's conversion offered by Bede turns on two events. The first, during Edwin's exile, tells how Edwin's life was saved by Paulinus of York . The second, following his marriage to Æthelburg,
1152-423: The idols and temples they had hitherto worshiped. King Edwin agrees and embraces Christianity; Coifi himself will set fire to the idols, declaring "I will do this myself, for now that the true God has granted me knowledge, who more suitably than I can set a public example, and destroy the idols that I worshipped in ignorance?” Bede goes on to describe the scene as Coifi "formally renounces his superstitions, and asked
1200-400: The king to give him arms and a stallion." Armed with both a sword and spear, Coifi rides Edwin's horse towards the idols, all within view of the crowd gathered to witness Edwin's conversion. Upon reaching the temple, Coifi "cast a spear into it and profaned it." In an article titled "How Coifi Pierced Christ’s Side", Julia Barrow examines Bede's Latinate text and pays particular attention to
1248-449: The kingdom of Northumbria . According to Simeon of Durham (writing early in the 12th century), it extended from the Humber to the Tyne , but the land was waste north of the Tees . After the Brythonic kingdom centred on Eboracum , which may have been called Ebrauc , was taken by King Edwin, the city of Eboracum became its capital, and Eoforwic ("boar-place") was taken by
1296-527: The land of Telych, which was in the hand of Elgu son of Gelli and the tribe of Idwared. They disputed long about it; in the end they disjudge Tudri's son-in-law by law. The goodmen said to each other 'Let us make peace'. Elgu gave afterwards a horse, three cows, three cows newly calved, in order that there might not be hatred between them from the ruling afterwards till the Day of Judgement. Tudfwlch and his kin will not want it for ever and ever. Page 141 (on which
1344-537: The nephew of Edwin, ruled Deira after Edwin, but his son Oswine was put to death by Oswiu in 651. For a few years subsequently, Deira was governed by Æthelwald son of Oswald of Bernicia . Bede wrote of Deira in his Historia Ecclesiastica (completed in 731). Old Welsh Old Welsh ( Welsh : Hen Gymraeg ) is the stage of the Welsh language from about 800 AD until the early 12th century when it developed into Middle Welsh . The preceding period, from
1392-402: The next, consuming the food renders given in tribute and the produce of the royal estates, dispensing justice, and ensuring that royal authority remained visible throughout the land. The royal sites in Edwin's time included Yeavering in Bernicia, where traces of a timber amphitheatre have been found. This "Roman" feature makes Bede's claim that Edwin was preceded by a standard-bearer carrying
1440-493: The north did not outlast him, and his conversion to Christianity was renounced by his successors. When his kingship is compared with his pagan brother-in-law Æthelfrith, or to Æthelfrith's sons Oswald and Oswiu, or to the resolutely pagan Penda of Mercia, Edwin appears to be something less than a key figure in Britain during the first half of the 7th century. Perhaps the most significant legacies of Edwin's reign lay in his failures:
1488-540: The other pages in the Lichfield Gospels . This language-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Wales -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to the history of Wales is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Edwin of Northumbria Edwin ( Old English : Ēadwine ; c. 586 – 12 October 632/633), also known as Eadwine or Æduinus ,
Deira - Misplaced Pages Continue
1536-399: The passage concerning Coifi's attack upon the temple. Barrow notes that Bede's use of lancea was "not the word medieval writers normally used for spear", while “ hasta was the usual choice." Barrow goes on to claim that lancea was likely used by Bede as a reference to the details of the crucifixion of Christ provided in the vulgate book of John , thus Coifi's desecration of the shrine
1584-616: The powerful Æthelberht of Kent the same year, Rædwald and his client Edwin were well placed to dominate England, and indeed Rædwald did so until his death a decade later. Edwin expelled Ceretic from the minor British kingdom of Elmet in either 616 or 626. Elmet had probably been subject to Mercia and then to Edwin. Edwin and Eadbald of Kent were allies at this time, and Edwin arranged to marry Eadbald's sister Æthelburg . Bede notes that Eadbald would agree to marry his sister to Edwin only if he converted to Christianity. The marriage of Eadbald's Merovingian mother Bertha had resulted in
1632-584: The protection of king Cearl , whose daughter, Cwenburg, he married. By around 616, Edwin was in East Anglia under the protection of king Rædwald . Bede reports that Æthelfrith tried to have Rædwald murder his unwanted rival, and that Rædwald intended to do so until his wife persuaded him otherwise with Divine prompting. Æthelfrith faced Rædwald in the Battle of the River Idle in 616, and Æthelfrith
1680-478: The reign of Æthelfrith, Edwin was an exile. The location of his early exile as a child is not known, but late traditions, reported by Reginald of Durham and Geoffrey of Monmouth , place Edwin in the kingdom of Gwynedd , fostered by king Cadfan ap Iago , so allowing biblical parallels to be drawn from the struggle between Edwin and his supposed foster-brother Cadwallon . By the 610s, he was certainly in Mercia under
1728-425: The rest of his body at Whitby. Of his two grown sons by Cwenburh of Mercia, Osfrith died at Hatfield, and Eadfrith was captured by Penda and killed some time afterwards. After his death, Edwin's Queen Æthelburg, along with Paulinus, returned to Kent, taking her son Uscfrea, daughter Eanfled, and Osfrith's son Yffi into exile with her. Uscfrea and Yffi were sent to the court of Æthelburg's kinsman Dagobert I , king of
1776-572: The siege, or the storming, of Bamburgh in Bernicia in 623–624. This should presumably be placed in the context of Edwin's designs on the Isle of Man , a target of Ulaid ambitions. Fiachnae's death in 626, at the hands of his namesake, Fiachnae mac Demmáin of the Dál Fiatach , and the second Fiachnae's death a year later in battle against the Dál Riata probably eased the way for Edwin's conquests in
1824-486: The summer of 625. By offering his protection to lesser kings, such as the king of Wight , Edwin thwarted the ambitions of Cwichelm of Wessex. Cwichelm's response was to send an assassin, as noted already. Edwin did not immediately respond to this insult, suggesting either that he felt unable to do so, or that Bede's portrayal of him as a rather indecisive ruler is accurate. Following the failed assassination, as noted, Edwin committed himself to Christianity provided only that he
1872-460: The tenets of Christianity, the king asks his counselors what they think of the new doctrine. Edwin's priest Coifi responds that they may be worthwhile; after all, he says, no one has been more respectful of and devoted to their gods than he, and he has seen no benefits from his dedication to them. Then, an unnamed counselor stands up and addresses the king, also seeing the benefit of the new faith. Coifi speaks again and announces that they should destroy
1920-513: The text is written) also has a Latin memorandum above the Old Welsh text. It appears to hold more text written below the main text, and a mysterious section where text appears to have been erased, both of which are partially overwritten with Old English text. No translations or transcripts have yet been offered for this section. It is unknown why that particular page was used for the glosses, as little or no text appears to have been added to any of
1968-592: The time Welsh became distinct from Common Brittonic around 550, has been called "Primitive" or "Archaic Welsh". The phonology of Old Welsh is as follows. The oldest surviving text entirely in Old Welsh is understood to be that on a gravestone now in Tywyn – the Cadfan Stone – thought to date from the 7th century, although more recent scholarship dates it in the 9th century. A key body of Old Welsh text also survives in glosses and marginalia from around 900 in
Deira - Misplaced Pages Continue
2016-465: Was a great tribal centre for the Parisi, but declined in importance from the mid-fourth century (possibly as the harbour silted up). After this period, Derventio (modern Malton ) may have functioned as the region's capital. It is not known if Deira was ever an independent Brythonic kingdom, and no British king has been identified with the area from the surviving genealogies, poems or chronicles. However
2064-459: Was able to take power not only in his native Deira but also in Bernicia may have been due to his support from Rædwald, to whom he may have remained subject during the early part of his reign. Edwin's reign marks an interruption of the otherwise consistent domination of Northumbria by the Bernicians and has been seen as "contrary to the prevailing tendency". With the death of Æthelfrith, and of
2112-562: Was defeated; Rædwald installed Edwin as king of Northumbria. Rædwald's son Rægenhere may have been killed at this battle, but the exact date or manner of Rædwald's death are not known. He likely died between the years 616–627, and the efficacy of Edwin's kingship ostensibly depended greatly on his fealty to Rædwald. Edwin was installed as king of Northumbria, effectively confirming Rædwald as bretwalda : Æthelfrith's sons went into exile in Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata and Pictland . That Edwin
2160-624: Was the King of Deira and Bernicia – which later became known as Northumbria – from about 616 until his death. He converted to Christianity and was baptised in 627. After he fell at the Battle of Hatfield Chase , he was venerated as a saint . Edwin was the son of Ælle , the first known king of Deira , and likely had at least two siblings. His sister Acha was married to Æthelfrith , king of neighbouring Bernicia . An otherwise unknown sibling fathered Hereric, who in turn fathered Abbess Hilda of Whitby and Hereswith, wife to Æthelric,
2208-492: Was the attempted assassination at York , at Easter 626, by an agent of Cwichelm of Wessex . Apart from these events, the general character of Bede's account is one of an indecisive king, unwilling to take risks, unable to decide whether to convert or not. Along with these events, the influence of Edwin's half-Merovingian Queen cannot be ignored, and the letters which Bede reproduces, sent by Pope Boniface V to Edwin and Æthelburg, are unlikely to have been unique. Given that Kent
2256-427: Was under Frankish influence, while Bede sees the mission as being "Roman" in origin, the Franks were equally interested in converting their fellow Germans and in extending their power and influence. Bede recounts Edwin's baptism, and that of his chief men, on 12 April 627. Edwin's zeal, so Bede says, led to Rædwald's son Eorpwald also converting. Bede's account of the conversion is oft-cited. After Paulinus explains
2304-462: Was victorious against Cwichelm. From about 627 onwards, Edwin was the most powerful king among the Anglo-Saxons, ruling Bernicia, Deira and much of eastern Mercia, the Isle of Man , and Anglesey . His alliance with Kent, the subjection of Wessex, and his recent successes added to his power and authority. The imperium , as Bede calls it, that Edwin possessed was later equated with the idea of
#954045