The Fall of the House of Æthelfrith

by H A CULLEY

  THE STORY OF THE KINGDOM OF NORTHUMBRIA WILL CONTINUE IN

  TREASONS, STRATEGEMS AND SPOILS

  Author’s Note

  This story is based on the known facts, but written evidence is patchy and there is some confusion in the main sources about dates, names and even relationships between family members. The main events are as depicted, even if the detail is invented. The chronology of events has sometimes been slightly altered in order to suit the story but this is, after all, a novel.

  NORTHUMBRIA AFTER OSWIU

  When King 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 eventually become Scotland.

  When Oswiu’s eldest son, Aldfrith, died in 705 his eldest son was Osred, a nine year old boy. Many nobles were uneasy about rule by a minor, fearing that he would become the pawn of magnates seeking power for themselves. They therefore chose Eadwulf, an ealdorman and descendant of Ida - the first King of Bernicia - through a different branch of the family. Eadwulf wasn’t a wise choice and within months he was deposed in favour of Osred with Bishop Wilfrid and the most powerful nobles as his regents.

  However, as he got older Osred exhibited flaws in his character and he alienated many of his supporters. Accounts of his death vary but most assume that he was murdered in 716. He was succeeded by a cousin but his reign didn’t last long and Osred’s younger brother, Osric, replaced him. He ruled for another eleven years but he was the last of his line and the throne passed to another branch of the descendants of Ida.

  After Osric Northumbria’s political decline accelerated. There were nine kings in the space of sixty years who were murdered, deposed or abdicated to become monks. The story of what happened in this turbulent period will be told in the next novel in the series – Treasons, Stratagems and Spoils – which will cover the period from 730 to 800 AD.

  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 except for the area around Bebbanburg, which remained under Anglian rule, and Cumbria, which had been swallowed up by Strathclyde.

  The last two novels in the series will deal with the coming of the Vikings and will conclude with the death of the last king of an independent Northumbria – Aelle.

  One of the main characters in these final two novels – The Wolf and the Raven and Blood Eagle - is the legendary Viking King, Ragnar Lodbrok. However, the story also features Catinus’ descendants as lords of Bebbanburg.

  ANGLO-SAXON ORGANISATION AND CULTURE

  The leaders of the Anglo-Saxons were constantly at war with one another during this period. Borders kept shifting and smaller kingdoms were swallowed up by larger ones. Kings had to pay their war bands and that took money, hence the need to plunder one’s neighbours. The peasantry were only there to feed the kings, his nobles and their warriors.

  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 might 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 (called a ceorl) 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 late seventh century Britain was divided into a number of 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 originally divided into seven separate kingdoms and lying in the north and north-east of present day Scotland in the seventh century. By the beginning of the eighth century it 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

  Strathclyde – The land between the above two kingdoms on either bank of the River Clyde and extending as far south as the Solway Firth

  Lothian – Lothian and Borders Regions of modern Scotland – then subservient to Bernicia and therefore part of Northumbria. Formerly called Goddodin.

  Bernicia – The north-east of England. Part of Northumbria. Included Rheged, later divided up.

  Strathclyde – South west Scotland

  Deira – Essentially modern Yorkshire. Part of Northumbria. Includes Elmet.

  Essex – Similar to the present day county of Essex

  Lindsey – Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, later part of Mercia

  Gwynedd – North Wales

  Mercia – Most of the English Midlands including the former kingdoms of Lindsey (Lincolnshire) and Middle Anglia (Bedfordshire, Warwickshire and Northamptonshire)

  East Anglia – Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire

  Powys – Mid Wales

  Dyfed – South-west Wales

  Kingdom of the East Saxons – Essex

  Hwicce – South-east Wales, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire. Fought over by Wessex and Mercia

  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.

  BUBONIC PLAGUE

  The first recorded epidemic affected the Eastern Roman Empire and was named the Plague of 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. Neither is the cause of Osric’s death recorded. As he was still relatively young, probably in his early thirties, I have attributed his death to the plague as well.

  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

  The Power and the Glory

  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. He has three adult children and one granddaughter and lives with his wife and two Bernese Mountain Dogs near Holy Island in Northumberland.