BRETWALDA: Kings of Northumbria Book 3

by H A CULLEY

  The two Mercian brothers were bent diligently over their work, though Catinus did glance his way and gave him a tentative smile. Oswiu shouldn’t have encouraged the boy’s impudence but he couldn’t resist smiling back. There was something about the boy that Oswiu liked. He found himself hoping that he would decide to become a warrior and not a monk. Alweo and his cousin sat opposite them and it was obvious that the four were a close knit group. It wouldn’t be long before the two elder boys were old enough to train as warriors and he decided there and then to ask Ceadda to oversee their training.

  The next day they travelled on to Coldingham and Oswiu introduced Eanflæd to his sister. She took Eanflæd off to meet Cyneburga and Keeva and they didn’t reappear for over two hours. Oswiu was left kicking his heels with Eormenred, Ceadda and the rest of his gesith but he didn’t mind. He knew that his prospective bride would be learning a lot about him, hopefully most of it good.

  When they rode back to Bebbanburg the next day Eanflæd rode beside him and she was far less shy. They talked amicably, learning about each other, and there was even a little mild flirting.

  Over the next week he took her to visit Yeavering and she marvelled that the first snow had fallen on the tops of the Cheviot Hills so early in the year. They had snow in Kent, of course, but never before January or February. The wild hill country was so very different from the cultivated rolling countryside of Kent and she was captivated by it.

  They went hunting the next day and managed to bring a stag back. Of course, Eanflæd was only a spectator but the chase had excited her and, far from being reticent and shy, she was now full of chatter and laughter. Oswiu decided to set a date for their wedding the following week.

  ~~~

  Eanflæd lay in the bed nervously watching as her husband disrobed and climbed under the blankets with her. Over the past two weeks she had come to know and to like Oswiu and he had always behaved towards her with consideration, but his reputation as a violent man and the lustful way he looked at her made her fearful.

  To her surprise he started by kissing her gently and then used his hands and his tongue to excite her. This was not what her mother and the other women she knew had led her to expect. Gradually she found herself becoming more and more aroused. Her whole body was tingling and she moaned in excitement.

  ‘I want you inside me, Oswiu,’ she told him.

  He smiled to himself. He had forced himself to control his lust so that he could awaken her libido first. He knew that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Eanflæd and he didn’t want her to just like him, he wanted her devotion. He’d fancied himself in love with Fianna and with Rhieinmelth but he had been attracted to the elfin qualities of the first and the pretty face of the second. From the conversations he’d had with his new wife he knew that he was attracted, not just to her beauty, but also to her personality.

  Once he’d overcome her shyness he found her witty and knowledgeable. He actually enjoyed her company and missed her when they were apart. He knew that this wasn’t another infatuation but love, and a love that he was certain would grow deeper as time went on.

  Finally he did what she wanted and she screamed, not in pain, but with pleasure when he inserted himself into her. Yes, it had hurt a little, but he had done it slowly and allowed her to get used to him inside her, then gradually increased the pace until she felt a euphoria she hadn’t thought possible as her whole body shook with pleasure. They made love three times more that night and once again when they woke. By the time that they joined the household to break their fast in the hall she was utterly besotted with Oswiu.

  That morning he introduced her to Fianna as his children’s nurse and to Aldfrith, who was now ten, the four year old Ehlfrith, and his baby daughter, Alchflaed. She was enchanted by the younger two but Aldfrith just scowled at her. Oswiu sighed. He’d neglected the boy since Rhieinmelth’s death when he’d returned to his mother’s care. He’d be eleven in two months and he knew that the boy hated being expected to help look after his half-siblings. He didn’t want him to turn into another Œthelwald but he wasn’t sure what to do to improve their relationship.

  Smitten as he was with his young wife, he soon forgot about his eldest son and, despite the imminent onset of winter he took her on a tour of his kingdom. They spent Christmas at Caer Luel and had reached Dùn Phris on the way back to Bebbanburg in March when the news reached him that Penda had crossed the River Wharfe inside Deira.

  He was sitting eating the evening meal with Kenric and their respective wives when the messenger arrived. Cuthbert and his two elder brothers had also joined them and Oswiu was reminded that he needed to do something about Aldfrith, who was the same age as Cuthbert.

  ‘Penda is ravaging Deira on his way north towards the River Tees, Cyning,’ the messenger told him. ‘It looks as if he is making for Bernicia.’

  ‘So much for Oswine’s treaty of friendship with Penda. He might have known that a pagan’s word wasn’t to be trusted. How old is this news?’

  ‘The message came from the Eorl of Eoforwīc and arrived at Bebbanburg yesterday. It came by sea so I imagine it’s three of four days old by now.’

  ‘You did well to get here so quickly, I’ll reward you later. For now go and wash and get some sleep.’

  ‘Thank you, Cyning.’

  ‘Well, if tidings of Penda’s advance reached Eoforwīc three or four days ago, we can expect Penda to be well on his way to the Tees by now.’

  He turned to Kenric.

  ‘Can you send out messengers at dawn to the other eorls in Goddodin and meet me with their war host at Heavenfield in ten days’ time? I shall make my stand on the Tyne.’

  ‘I’ve a birlinn to take you back to Bebbanburg, if you need it.’

  ‘Thank you, Kenric, I’ll do that. There’s no point in sending a messenger there as I can reach it by tomorrow night with a fair wind. However, can you summon the Eorl of Rheged to join us with as many men as he can muster in that time?’

  ‘What about me, Oswiu?’ Eanflæd asked timidly, a little scared by what was happening.

  He looked at his wife and smiled. ‘You’ll be coming with me to Bebbanburg. You’ll be safe there whatever happens on the Tyne.’

  ~~~

  Oswiu had based himself at Wylam, some three miles from where he expected Penda to cross the Tyne. It seemed the sensible choice as there were only six possible places where you could wade across the river, and four of them were within three miles of Wylam. Beyond the easternmost ford there were a couple of ferries, but they couldn’t take more than ten men at a time. His scouts were across the other side of the Tyne shadowing Penda’s advance.

  So far he had gathered some four hundred trained Bernician warriors on foot, a few dozen mounted men in addition to his gesith, and fifteen hundred men of the fyrd, including Britons from Rheged and some Deirans who had fled north. According to his scouts Penda’s army consisted of sixty mounted warriors and another five hundred wearing armour of some sort. There were another two thousand members of the fyrd. Oswiu was therefore outnumbered.

  Much against his better judgement and Fianna’s protests, he had brought Aldfrith, now eleven, with him. The boy was thrilled and Oswiu managed to re-establish a better relationship with his son, though he was too busy to devote as much time as he would have liked to him. He took him along with him whatever he was doing in the hope that the boy would learn something about leading an army and preparing for battle. That seemed to be working as the boy asked lots of intelligent questions and was useful as a messenger.

  ‘Cyning, Penda has camped for the night five miles south of here,’ the scouts reported.

  Shortly afterwards Eormenred arrived with his gesith. He had stayed in Northumbria for the winter but the last that Oswiu had heard of him he’d been visiting Oswine in Eoforwīc. Even better, he’d brought with him Hrothga, the elderly Eorl of Eoforwīc, and his warband of fifty trained warriors, all mounted.

  ‘I’m surprised that Oswine gave permission
for you join me.’

  ‘He didn’t,’ the eorl replied with a grin. ‘I told him that I was going to defend my lands, which is true in a way, although they lie east of Penda’s line of march.’

  ‘Well, I’m delighted to see you. Now, I have a task for you, if you’re willing.’

  Both men listened to what Oswiu wanted them to do and a grin spread across each of their faces as what he was planning sunk in.

  When Penda reached the four fords the next morning he found Oswiu’s army drawn up ready to oppose his crossing. All four crossing places were in sight of one another and Oswiu had constructed earthworks topped with a short palisade to defend the north bank. Behind each low timber wall stood his archers with the various warbands of trained warriors behind them. He had kept the fyrd and less experienced fighters with him as a reserve to go to the assistance of whichever of the four crossing points needed it.

  He sat astride his horse on higher ground so that he could see all four fords. Aldfrith sat on his pony on one side of him and Ceadda on the other with his gesith, now forty strong, behind them.

  Penda tried to rush all four fords at once using his unarmoured men. They had shields, which gave them some protection, but nevertheless scores were wounded or killed by the archers on the north bank before they got halfway across.

  When the Mercian archers came forward to respond, they made the mistake of firing their arrows in one volley. Oswiu’s men ducked behind the palisades and then sent a withering hail of arrows back which killed or wounded nearly a quarter of the enemy archers. They quickly retreated behind their shield wall.

  Oswiu was just thinking how well it was all going and wondering how Eormenred and Hrothga were doing when to his amazement they and the hundred horsemen he had sent with them came galloping back.

  ‘What’s wrong? I was expecting you to be on the other side of the river by now.’

  He had sent them to capture and set fire to Penda’s baggage train.

  ‘Penda’s smarter than we thought,’ Eormenred replied.

  ‘He’s sent Peada and the Middle Anglians downstream to cross at the ford we were going to use. There are eight hundred of them not far behind us,’ Hrothga added.

  Oswiu thought quickly and gestured to them, pointing to the low hill covered in a wood to the north of them.

  ‘Take up a position in the front edge of the trees as quickly as you can. I’ll engage them with the fyrd; we’ll heavily outnumber Peada’s men but they’ll have experienced warriors with them. Nevertheless, I expect to be able to hold them for a while. When you see my standard lowered and raised once again that’ll be the signal for you to charge them in the flank. Now go.’

  After they had galloped off, he turned to Ceadda.

  ‘Take charge here. Aldfrith you stay with him. I’m leaving ten of the gesith with you. If it goes badly I’m relying on you to get my son to safety at Bebbanburg. Utta, you make sure Aldfrith does as he’s told.’

  The boy was about to protest that he wanted to stay with his father, but one look at Utta’s ferocious grin with its pointed teeth changed his mind.

  ‘Barduwulf, you are to take charge of the rest of my gesith and come with me. We’ll be fighting on foot so tether the horses here.’

  Barduwulf nodded and dismounted, ordering the gesith to do the same, whilst Oswiu went over to brief the various eorls commanding the fyrd and others in the reserve. Nerian was left holding Oswiu’s helmet and shield, which Oswiu had obviously forgotten about in the heat of the moment. After sitting on his horse indecisively for a minute or so, he kicked his heels into its flanks and trotted after his master.

  Peada and his men had been too busy negotiating the ford to notice Eormenred’s horsemen at the edge of the wood. The ford was not as shallow of the four being used by his father and was really only safe for mounted men to use. By the time that he’d got his army across he’d lost thirty men carried away by the current and the sun was far higher in the sky that he’d hoped.

  ‘Your father will have expected us long before this,’ one of his eorls commented.

  ‘My father is safely on the south bank,’ Peada shot back. Knowing that that the eorl’s criticism was correct didn’t help. ‘Let’s get moving, at the run.’

  ‘Cyning, if we run for the next three miles the men will be too exhausted to fight,’ another of his nobles pointed out.

  ‘I’m well aware of that, I’m not an idiot. We run for a mile or so and then march the rest of the way to allow the men to recover.’

  ‘Yes, Cyning. I didn’t mean ….’

  ‘I know exactly what you meant, now shut up and run.’

  Peada knew as soon as he’d spoken that he’d upset an important man unnecessarily and that made his mood even worse.

  Being late March, the sun would set in less than four hours and, being overcast, it would get dark before that. Peada calculated that they would have about two hours of daylight left by the time they reached the four fords.

  Penda was getting anxious. His son should have been here before this. He’d launched several more attacks across the fords but only twice had they reached the palisades. Once there, his warriors had been held whilst the Northumbrian archers sent arrow after arrow at high trajectory into the unarmoured men in the rear of the attacking column.

  ‘Surely they must run out of those bloody arrows soon,’ Penda commented to no-one in particular as his warriors beat yet another hasty retreat across the fords.

  Then, at last, he saw his son’s column appear from the east on the far bank. They halted as those in the rear hastened to move into formation facing the Northumbrian right flank. At the same time Oswiu led his reserve forward with his gesith in the centre to face them. Peada’s army had greater depth and overlapped his formation to the north but, he noticed with satisfaction, there were no more than about forty well armoured warriors.

  Half of the archers left the palisades to pour several volleys into the Middle Anglians, then ran back again as Penda launched yet another assault across the river. His men, hitherto demoralised by their lack of success and heavy losses, became positively enthusiastic when Peada’s men appeared and attacked with a ferocity that was lacking before. It was all that the seasoned warriors that manned the palisades could do to keep them from overwhelming their defences.

  Meanwhile Peada’s and Oswiu’s armies ran towards one another. Suddenly Oswiu’s men stopped and a shower of spears darkened the sky and fell amongst the enemy. As they were running most still had their shields on their backs and the few who had already swung them around to protect themselves had the shields facing forwards, not upwards. A hundred and fifty men fell dead or wounded: over a fifth of Peada’s men.

  That was unsettling enough but then, just as the two war hosts were about to meet, he was distracted by a roar from his left. He glanced that way and was dismayed to see a mass of horsemen charging at his flank.

  ‘Face left’, he yelled in panic.

  That totally confused his men and a large number in his centre and right flank also turned to their left just at the critical time when Oswiu’s reserves crashed into them. They might not be professional warriors like his gesith and his warband, but they knew how to kill a confused enemy, and they did so with gusto.

  Large numbers of Peada’s front three ranks were cut down before they could recover and by then the cavalry had charged into the flank, spearing the enemy first and then using their swords to slash and thrust at the milling footmen.

  Other than the trained warriors who stood in the in first three ranks, the Middle Anglians were members of the fyrd and they fled in panic leaving Peada, his gesith and the remainder of his warband stranded.

  Peada grabbed a riderless horse that had belonged to one of Oswiu’s horsemen who had been killed and made his escape. Seeing this his gesith and his warband surrendered in disgust.

  Oswiu looked around for either Eormenred or Hrotha but the horsemen had set off in pursuit of the routed enemy.

  ‘I hope they
remember to seize the baggage train,’ he thought to himself.

  Seeing his son’s army routed, Penda knew that the battle was lost and withdrew from the battlefield as dusk fell. Later that evening the sky the far side of the river was lit up by flames leaping high in the sky. The horsemen had indeed remembered their orders to fire the Mercian baggage train. Oswiu was confident that they had had the good sense to remove the gold, silver and any other valuables first.

  ~~~

  Eormenred had parted from Hrotha after looting and firing the baggage train. The elderly eorl had confessed to being exhausted and he returned to Oswiu bringing with him several chests of gold and silver, mainly items looted from churches and the odd monastery in the path of Penda’s advance north through Deira.

  The rest of the horsemen kept up the pursuit of Peada’s fleeing army until they came across Penda’s more disciplined retreat. By then most of the Middle Anglians were too dispersed to offer much sport. They followed Penda’s route, making numerous pinprick attacks on the marching army and then they harassed them all night. When the exhausted and dispirited Mercian army eventually stopped the next night they set fire to the dry undergrowth upwind of the Mercians and killed quite a few more of them – some were incinerated alive, many succumbed to the smoke and others were ambushed in the woods as they ran from the fire.

  Eormenred’s horsemen finally gave up the chase as they neared the border with Mercia. It took them a lot longer to return through Deira as they stopped to loot all the bodies they had left in the heat of the chase. Three weeks later Eormenred set off to return to Kent a lot richer than when he had come north with his niece.