XIII.

THE NORTHUMBRIAN BRETWALDAS.

THE story of Edwin of Northumbria, fifth on Bede's list of Bretwaldas, has already been told in part, chiefly in its bearing on the progress of the Christian faith. Something remains to be said of his position as overlord of England. It was his claim to this dignity that brought him into the danger of assassination from which he so narrowly escaped. The assassin was sent by a West Saxon king, who hoped thus to rid himself of a rival who was growing dangerously powerful. The treacherous plot--for the man had come in the guise of a peaceable envoywas fully punished. Edwin, as soon as he was recovered from his wound, and had eased his conscience by fulfilling his long-delayed purpose of baptism, marched against Wessex, and amply avenged the wrong that had been done him. Elsewhere, too, he displayed his power. As the Chronicler somewhat strangely puts it, "he ravaged all Britain, save Kent only." And from Kent he had taken, as we have seen, his second wife. His conquests, too, are said to

See p. 126,

PEACEFUL BRITAIN.

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have extended both westward and northward. His name is still preserved in the city-Edinburgh— which marked the northern limit of his dominion. At Chester, in the west, he built a fleet, with which he subdued the two Monas, Man and Anglesey. At home peace and order prevailed. The laws were so strictly enforced that theft and violence became unknown. "In the days of Edwin," says Bede, "a woman with a babe at her breast might have travelled over the island without suffering harm." The highways, thus made safe, were also furnished with the "drinking fountains," a convenience which we have only now again begun to erect. “He placed cisterns of stone at convenient intervals to collect water from the nearest springs, and attached to them cups of brass for the refreshment of the passers-by." In his own person he made more show of royal state than had any of the princes before him. It is possible that he had some thought in his mind. of the Roman dominion when he had carried before him the Roman tufa, a globe, or, as some think, a bunch of feathers attached to a spear.

Edwin's reign lasted for sixteen years. But during the latter part of this period a formidable rival had been gathering strength. In the year before that in which Edwin was baptized, Penda, grandson of Crida of Mercia, and twelfth in descent from Woden, came to the throne of Mercia. He held the kingdom thirty winters," a long reign mainly spent in unceas ing hostility to the Christian faith. We next find him doing battle with the King of Wessex at Cirencester, in Gloucestershire, and coming to an agreement

with them. With his southern border thus secure, he turned to the west, and found an ally in Cadwalla, King of North Wales. Cadwalla was presumably a Christian, but he seems to have had no scruple in allying himself with a pagan for the conquest of a dangerous neighbour (we have already heard in this chapter of Edwin's conquests in Wales). Penda and Cadwalla encountered Edwin at a place which is called in the Chronicle Heathfield, and which has been identified, not, one would think, with much probability, with Hatfield Chase in Hertfordshire. Edwin was defeated and slain. Penda did not feel himself strong enough to attempt the conquest of Northumbria, but turned his arms elsewhere. The English of Leicestershire and of Lincolnshire submitted to him, and he wrested from Wessex some of its territories. In fact, he busied himself with building up the powerful Mercia of which we shall hear so much hereafter. Northumbria, meanwhile, had leisure to recover itself. Oswy, a kinsman of Edwin, had been placed on the throne of Deira; and Eanfrid, eldest son of the Ethelfrid who had been the enemy of Edwin, to that of Bernicia. Both had been baptized, both relapsed into paganism, and both, it is said, perished by the hands of Cadwalla. The eyes of the people were then turned to Oswald, Eanfrid's younger brother. His first act was to march against the British princes, whom he found encamped at Hexham, near the Roman Wall. Oswald was a firm adherent to the faith which his kinsmen had deserted.

I

"North Wales," it will be remembered, was so called to distinguish it from West Wales, the south-western portion of the island.

OSWALD KNEELS TO THE CROSS.

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He bade his followers make a cross of wood, and fix it when made in the ground. He is said to have held it with his own hands till the hole in which it was to stand was filled in with earth. Then turning to his men he said, "Soldiers, let us bend our knees, and beg of the true and living God to protect us from the insolence and fierceness of our enemies, for he knows that our cause is just." He then bade them kneel down and pray. In the battle that followed the soldiers of the cross, though far inferior in numbers to their enemies, were completely victorious. Cadwalla fell on the field of battle. After the victory, Oswald's right to reign over the two kingdoms was no longer doubted. He inherited, too, something, we cannot say how much, of his predecessor's superiority,1 and stands accordingly sixth in Bede's list of the Bretwaldas.

Oswald's reign was short, lasting only for nine years, or, eight only, if we exclude "the unhappy year," as it was afterwards called, when paganism was in the ascent. He was overthrown by the same king who had defeated and slain Edwin. The struggle was for East Anglia, if it did not actually take place in that region, and it was, in its chief motive, a struggle of the old faith against the new. East Anglia had acknowledged the supremacy of Oswald, and Penda of Mercia marched into it. The East Anglian king, Sigebert, had retired into monastery; but the people

We hear of his standing sponsor for Cynegils of Wessex, and of his confirming, in the character of Bretwalda, that prince's gift of Dorchester (of the Thame) to Birinus. Bede also speaks of his having compelled the Picts and Scots to do him homage.

insisted that he should leave his cell to lead them into battle. He so far consented that he joined the army, but he refused to carry any arms. He was slain in the battle, his army was routed, and his kingdom passed for a time into the hands of Penda. Oswald marched against the conqueror, and met him at Maserfield, a place which has been variously located at Oswestry in Shropshire, Winwick in Lancashire, and Mirfield in Yorkshire. The battle went against the Northumbrians, and Oswald was slain, exclaiming, it is said, with his last breath, "Lord, have mercy on the souls of my people."

Penda marched eastward, ravaging as he went, till he came to the strong fortress of Bamborough. Unable to take it by assault, he had a vast pile of combustibles heaped up by its walls, and set fire to. It was through the prayers of St. Aidan, as the legend goes on to say, that the direction of the wind was suddenly changed, and the place saved. Oswald died in 642, and was succeeded by his brother Oswy, seventh and last of the Bretwaldas.

For some time Oswy seemed to have little claim to the rank or power implied in this title. He had troubles at home. He had to divide Northumbria

A beautiful story is told of Oswald. Sitting one day at the table with St. Aidan, he was told that a crowd of poor was waiting at his gate and asking for alms. The king commanded that the dishes, of which the guests had not yet begun to partake, should be divided among the poor, and even broke up into small pieces the great silver dish which had been placed before him, and distributed the fragments. The saint caught the king's right hand in his own and said, "May the hand that has done this thing never decay!" and when, by Penda's orders, the limbs of the dead king were exposed on stakes till they rotted, the hand which had been thus blessed was found uncorrupted.