by H A CULLEY
Most kings had a small personal bodyguard of companions – called a gesith – and a warband - that is a permanent army of trained warriors. These were usually no more than a few hundred strong, if that. Nobles and some thegns would also keep a small gesith or warband to protect them, collect taxes and the like. The rest of the army was composed of a militia called the fyrd. It was made up of freemen, or ceorls, who provided their own weapon, and armour if they possessed any. Their standard of training and equipment varied.
When the Anglo-Saxons moved from paganism – about which little is known – to Christianity, being a churchman instead of a warrior became an acceptable career for the well-bred. We know that several kings abdicated to become monks. Most other kings died in battle. Oswiu died in bed in his late fifties, but that was a rarity.
The spread of Christianity started with Augustine in the south and the converted recognised the Pope in Rome as their spiritual leader. In the north it was Aidan and the Celtic church who were largely responsible for the religion’s growth. Inevitably the two churches came into conflict, resolved in Rome’s favour by Oswiu at the Synod of Whitby.
The Anglo-Saxons were a cultured people, as surviving artefacts testify. The standard of illumination of religious tomes, intricate jewellery and well-made ornaments all demonstrate the high standard of their craftsmanship and their culture.
There was a parliament of sorts called the Witan, or more properly the Witenaġemot, in most kingdoms. It was an assembly of the ruling class whose primary function was to advise the king and elect a replacement when there was a vacancy. It was composed of the most important noblemen and the ecclesiastic hierarchy, but its membership could be expanded to include the thegns when the most important matters were to be discussed.
Thegns owned land of sufficient size to qualify for recognition by the king as such. A freeman could become a thegn by acquiring more land. Their estate was known as a vill, which corresponded roughly to the post-Norman manor.
Apart from members of the royal family, nobles also included the eorls, and later the ealdormen. They were appointed by the king to administer sub-divisions of the kingdom. Later the word was combined with the Norse jarl (meaning chieftain) to produce the title earl. However Anglo-Saxon earls ruled what had been the old major kingdoms of a dis-united England (for example Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria). The function of the earlier eorl gradually became that of the ealdorman, who was a royal official and chief magistrate of an administrative district called a shire.
ANGLO-SAXON KINGDOMS
In the early seventh century AD Britain was divided into over twenty petty kingdoms. I have listed them here for the sake of completeness, though only a few of them feature significantly in the story. A few others get a passing mention. From north to south:
Land of the Picts – Probably divided into seven separate kingdoms in all in the north and north-east of present day Scotland at this time. Later they became one kingdom. The names of the individual kingdoms seem to vary depending on the source. The names I have used are listed in the Glossary at the start of this novel
Dalriada – Western Scotland including Argyll and the Isles of the Hebrides. Also included part of Ulster in Ireland where the main tribe – the Scots – originated from
Goddodin – Lothian and Borders Regions of modern Scotland – then subservient to Bernicia and therefore part of Northumbria. Later called Lothian
Bernicia – The north-east of England. Part of Northumbria
Strathclyde – South west Scotland
Rheged – Modern Cumbria and Lancashire in the north-west of England. A client kingdom of Northumbria and later absorbed within it
Deira – North, East and South Yorkshire
Elmet – West Yorkshire. Originally a Brythonic kingdom rather than an Anglo-Saxon one
Essex – Similar to the present day county of Essex
Lindsey – Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire
Gwynedd – North Wales
Mercia – Most of the English Midlands
East Anglia – Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire
Powys – Mid Wales
Middle Anglia – Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and Warwickshire
Dyfed – South-west Wales
Kingdom of the East Saxons – Essex
Hwicce – South-east Wales, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire
Kingdom of the Middle Saxons – Home counties to the north of London
Wessex – Southern England between Devon and Surrey/Sussex
Kent – South-eastern England south of the River Thames
Kingdom of the South Saxons – Sussex and Surrey
Dumnonia – Devon and Cornwall in south-west England
It’s worth noting that the coastline fourteen centuries ago was very different to what it is today. In particular, much of Cambridgeshire, part of Kent and the land around York was under water.
OSWIU, KING AND SAINT
Oswiu became King of Bernicia, possibly as Penda’s vassal, after the death of his elder brother, Oswald, who had also ruled Deira. However, Oswine became King of Deira until deposed by Oswiu seven years later. Oswald’s son, Œthelwald, then became king but he was a constant thorn in Oswiu’s side. After he betrayed Oswiu and sided with the Mercians at the battle where Penda was slain (although for some reason his men didn’t take part in the battle itself) he disappeared, possibly going into exile or, more likely, Oswiu had him quietly disposed of. Oswiu’s son, Alchfrith, became sub-king of Deira as a vassal of his father.
The early part of Oswiu’s reign was defined by struggles with Oswine and then Œthelwald to assert control over Deira, as well as his contentious relationship with Penda. In 655 Oswiu's forces killed Penda at the Battle of the Winwæd. This established Oswiu as the most powerful ruler in Britain. For three years after the battle Oswiu's rule also extended over Mercia, earning him recognition as bretwalda over much of England.
Oswiu was a devoted Christian, promoting the faith among his subjects and establishing a number of monasteries, including Gilling Abbey and Whitby Abbey. He was raised in the Celtic Christian tradition rather than the Roman Catholic faith practiced by the southern Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and some members of the Deiran nobility, including Oswiu's queen. In 664, Oswiu presided over the Synod of Whitby, where clerics debated which of the two traditions - Celtic or Roman Catholic - should prevail. Oswiu decided that Northumbria should follow the Roman Church, a momentous decision which would affect England for the next millennium.
Oswiu is thought to have had children as follows:
Out of wedlock by Fin (Fianna in the novels):
Aldfrith. King of Northumbria 685 – 705.
By Rhieinmelth:
Alchfrith. Sub-king of Deira 655-664.
By Eanflaed:
Osthryth (dau).
Ecgfrith. Sub-king of Deira 664 – 670. King of Northumbria 670 – 685.
Ælfflaed (dau). Abbess of Whitby.
Ælfwine. Sub-king of Deira 670-679.
Like Oswald, Oswiu too was recognised as a saint, though some of his actions weren’t very saintly. The first half of Oswiu's reign was spent in the shadow of Penda, who dominated much of Britain from 642 until 655. The once and future Kingdom of Northumbria was again composed of two separate countries for part of Oswiu's reign. The northerly kingdom of Bernicia, which extended from the River Tees to the Firth of Forth, was ruled by Oswiu. The kingdom of Deira, lying to the south of it as far as the Humber, was ruled by a series of Oswiu's kinsmen, initially as a separate kingdom, later as a vassal state.
After Oswiu slew Penda in battle he ruled Mercia for three years as well. The Mercians eventually revolted and installed one of Penda’s sons as their king, but Oswiu remained as lord paramount or Bretwalda over most of England and, through an alliance with his nephew, who was High King of the Picts, and his successors, most of Scotland.
BUBONIC PLAGUE
The first recorded epidemic affected the Eastern Roman Empire and was named the Plague o
f Justinian after Emperor Justinian I who was infected but survived. The pandemic resulted in the deaths of an estimated 25 million to 50 million people throughout the world over the next two centuries.
In the spring of 542 the plague arrived in Constantinople. Travelling mainly from port to port it spread around the Mediterranean Sea, later migrating inland eastward into Asia Minor and westwards into Greece and Italy. The disease spread along the trade routes.
The so-called Plague of Justinian seems to have arrived in Ireland around 544 AD. There is no conclusive evidence that it spread to mainland Britain, apart from one report that the death of King Maelgwn of Gwynedd in 547 was due to the plague. However, information about this period of history is notoriously scarce and unreliable.
An outbreak occurred in England in the late seventh century which Saint Cuthbert succumbed to, but survived. Deusdedit, Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop Tuda of Lindisfarne died of the plague in 664 and the next archbishop, Wighard, similarly succumbed in 666. The plague must have lasted for decades as Bishop Eata of Lindisfarne is recorded as dying of the disease in 686 AD. There is no evidence that Ælfflaed contracted the plague, but it doesn’t mean she didn’t. If she did she recovered.
NORTHUMBRIA AFTER OSWIU
When Oswiu died of natural causes in 670 AD, Northumbria was ruled by Ecgfrith with his younger brother, Ælfwine, as King of Deira. As he was only nine at the time it was probable that the title was purely honorific. Northumbria continued to flourish under the rule of Oswiu’s sons and became culturally important. However, its political decline started with the loss of the territory Oswiu had gained in what would become Scotland.
When Oswiu’s eldest son, Aldfrith, died in 705 he was succeeded as King of Northumbria by his son Osred, an eight year old boy. When Osred was murdered by a usurper in 716 his brother Osric quickly regained the throne. He ruled for another eleven years. He was the last of his line and the throne passed to another branch of the descendants of Ida, the first King of Bernicia. After Osric Northumbria’s decline accelerated. There were ten kings in the space of eighty years who were murdered, deposed or abdicated to become monks.
On June 8th 793 a raiding party of Vikings from Norway attacked Lindisfarne. Monks fled in fear and many were slaughtered. More raids followed until eventually the invaders, mainly Danes, settled. There followed a period of Danish supremacy with England divided in two. The Danelaw in the north included much of Northumbria, but by then most of Rheged had disappeared, swallowed up by Strathclyde. However, the area around Bebbanburg was never conquered by the Danes and remained independent under Anglian rule, though the ruler contented himself with the title of earl.
The story of Northumbria during these turbulent times will be covered in subsequent novels in this series.
Northumbria eventually became an earldom as part of a united England. The last Earl of Northumbria was Robert de Mowbray, a Norman, who was removed from his earldom for joining a conspiracy to depose William Rufus, the son of the Conqueror. Much later there were earls and dukes of Northumberland but the county was defined by the rivers Tweed and Tyne and the county of Cumbria in the west – a pale shadow of the Kingdom of Northumbria that used to be.
Other Novels by H A Culley
The Normans Series
The Bastard’s Crown
Death in the Forest
England in Anarchy
Caging the Lyon
Seeking Jerusalem
Babylon Series
Babylon – The Concubine’s Son
Babylon – Dawn of Empire
Individual Novels
Magna Carta
The Sins of the Fathers (no longer available)
Robert the Bruce Trilogy
The Path to the Throne
The Winter King
After Bannockburn
Constantine Trilogy
Constantine – The Battle for Rome
Crispus Ascending
Death of the Innocent
Macedon Trilogy
The Strategos
The Sacred War
Alexander
Kings of Northumbria Series
Whiteblade
Warriors of the North
Bretwalda
About The Author
H A Culley was born in Wiltshire in 1944 was educated at St. Edmund’s School, Canterbury and Welbeck College. After RMA Sandhurst he served as an Army officer for twenty four years, during which time he had a variety of unusual jobs. He spent his twenty first birthday in the jungles of Borneo, commanded an Arab infantry unit in the Gulf for three years and was the military attaché in Beirut during the aftermath of the Lebanese Civil War.
After leaving the Army he became the bursar of a large independent school for seventeen years before moving into marketing and fundraising in the education sector. He has served on the board of two commercial companies and has been a trustee of several national and local charities. He has also been involved in two major historical projects. His last job before retiring was as the finance director and company secretary of the Institute of Development Professionals in Education.
He now divides his time between giving talks on a variety of historical topics and writing historical fiction. His first novel was the Bastard’s Crown about the Norman Conquest.
He has three adult children and one granddaughter and lives between Holy Island and Berwick upon Tweed in Northumberland.