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with a rival belonging to the ancient house of Ella, Oswin by name. For six years Oswin ruled Deira, and when, after an unsuccessful rebellion against his superior, he was put to death, was succeeded by a son of Oswald. The death of Oswin took place in 651. Penda, too, was growing more powerful. He had subjugated Wessex, and had even induced its king to renounce Christianity. When he threatened Northumbria, and indeed went so far as to invade it, he was bought off by presents, and by the surrender of hostages. Alliances, too, of marriage, knit the two kingdoms more closely together. The eldest son of Oswy married the daughter of Penda, and Penda's son, Peada, became the husband of his daughter, after having first received baptism. But Penda, though in his latter years he showed something like tolerance of the new faith, could not submit to the supremacy of a Christian overlord, and such a supremacy seemed at hand. In 655 (he was then nearly eighty years old) he marched into Northumbria, and met Oswy near Leeds. The Northumbrian vainly endeavoured to appease him with gifts and offers of submission. He declared that nothing would satisfy him but the extermination of the whole nation. The battle was long and furious. Thirty chieftains, British and English, had followed Penda to the battle, and of these two only survived, one of them being a Northumbrian chieftain who had gone over to the enemy, but who, on the morning of the battle, repented of his treachery. The old king was swept from the field by the crowd of fugitives. Many perished in the battle and in the field; many more in

the river Aire, which was then in flood. Its waters were afterwards said to have avenged the five kings, who had perished by the sword of the old pagan. Two events quickly followed on Penda's death. Mercia became Christian, and Oswy's dignity as Bretwalda became a reality.

For some years Mercia seems to have been actually subject to the Northumbrian king, and to have been governed by his deputies. Then the Mercian nobles took Wulfere, youngest son of Penda, who had been living in concealment, and put him on the throne. The Middle Angles and Lincolnshire returned to their allegiance. We hear, too, of domestic strife in Oswy's family, his son claiming an independent kingdom, and even turning, or threatening to turn, his arms against his father. Another trouble which came upon him in his later years was the great pestilence that raged through the island in 664. In 670 he died, and was succeeded by Egferth, his son. A few words will now suffice to finish the story of Northumbria as the leading power in England. At first, Egferth inherited the power and more than the power of his father. Wulfere of Mercia was compelled to own his superiority, and to surrender to him the newly occupied districts of Mid Anglia and Lincolnshire. Then he attacked the Welsh tribes on his north-western borders, and added the whole or part of the ancient British kingdom of Cambria to his dominions. In the pride of his success he resolved to push his conquests still further. He marched into. the territory of the Picts, who occupied the country north of a line between the Clyde and the Forth, where

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the wall of Severus had once stood. The Pictish king retired before the invaders till they were entangled in the mountains. Then he turned upon them. The battle was fought at a place which is called Dumnechtan by Bede. Egferth and his Northumbrians were defeated, it may be said, cut to pieces. Scarcely a messenger escaped to tell the tidings of disaster at his home. The king was buried at Iona. With his fall on May 20, 685, the history of Northumbria comes practically to an end.

XIV.

THE SUPREMACY OF MERCIA.

SOMETHING has been said of Wulfere, son and successor of Penda, in the preceding chapter; of the changes of fortune which befell him in his dealings with Northumbria, and which caused him, first to recover, and then to lose again, power which his father had held. Much the same thing happened to him in relation to Wessex. Cenwalh, king of that country, had been driven from his dominions by Penda, "because he had forsaken his sister." On Penda's death, after an exile of three years, he returned, and began at once to extend his power westwards by attacks upon the Welsh. In 661 he came into collision with Wulfere, who defeated him at Partesbury, in Shropshire. The Mercians ravaged the country of the West Saxons as far as Ashdown. Curiously enough, when we remember what had been the conduct of Penda, this victory of Mercia helped forward the spread of Christianity. The King of Sussex was persuaded or constrained to accept the new faith, and Wulfere, who had stood sponsor for him at his baptism, bestowed upon his godson the Isle of Wight, which he had recently conquered. That a Mercian king should bestow the sovereignty

. ETHELRED AND CEOLRED.

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of the Isle of Wight at his pleasure shows how complete was his mastery over his southern neighbours. Before his death, which happened in 675, after a battle with the West Saxons at Bedwin, Wulfere's power had greatly declined in the South as well as in the North.

Ethelred, brother and successor of Wulfere, seems to have recovered much that his predecessor had lost. We hear of him ravaging Kent, struggling with Egfrid of Northumbria for the middle region of England, and finally, in 704, resigning his crown to become a monk. He died twelve years afterwards, Abbot of Bardney, in Lincolnshire.

Ethelred's successor, Ceonred, son of Wulfere, followed his example of retiring from his throne. In 709, when his cousin Ceolred, son of Ethelred, was old enough to reign, he went on a pilgrimage to Rome, received the monastic habit from the Pope of that time, and died shortly afterwards in that city.

In Coelred's short reign (709-716) there seems to have been a decline in the Mercian power, due, perhaps, to the character of the king. He seems to have been a man of violent temper and evil life. Wessex appears no longer as an inferior power, but as contending with Mercia on equal terms. The two met in battle at Wednesbury, in Shropshire. Both sides claimed the victory, which, however, inclined to the West Saxons. This was in 715; the next year, Ceolred was smitten with sudden madness as he was feasting with his thanes, and died very soon after.

Biedanheafod in the Chronicle. Bedwin is on the edge of Savernake Forest, in Wiltshire.