kingdom of Northumbria

kingdom of Northumbria , one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in England. It was originally composed of two independent kingdoms divided by the Tees River, Bernicia (including modern E Scotland, Berwick, Roxburgh, E Northumberland, and Durham) and Deira (including the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire), both settled by invading Angles c.500. Sparse records tell of a King Ida of Bernicia and a King Ælli or Ælle of Deira in the middle of the 6th cent. Æthelfrith of Bernicia (593-616) united the kingdoms to form Northumbria and added Scottish and Welsh territory. He was defeated by Edwin of Deira (616-32), who accepted (627) Roman Christianity and established Northumbrian supremacy in England. Edwin was killed by Cadwallon of the Welsh kingdom of Gwynned, an ally of Penda of Mercia . After a year of anarchy he was succeeded by Oswald of Bernicia (633-41), who brought in St. Aidan to introduce Celtic Christianity. Oswald was killed by Penda. Under Oswald's successors, Osiu (641-70) and Ecgfrith (670-85), Northumbria's power gradually declined as that of Mercia increased. Osiu, however, established the Roman Church over the Celtic Church at the Synod of Whitby (663). The late 7th and 8th cent. saw almost constant political discord during the golden age of the Church, arts, scholarship, and literature in Northumbria. The Danes invaded with their victory at York in 867. They occupied S Northumbria, and the Angles were able to keep only a small kingdom stretching from the Tees N to the Firth of Forth. The conquering Canute (1015) and his successors installed Danish earls, of whom Siward (d. 1055) was the last and most powerful. The Northumbrians expelled his successor, Tostig, in 1065. He was replaced by Morcar, the brother of Edwin, earl of Mercia. The next year Tostig returned with Harold Hardrada of Norway and defeated Morcar and Edwin at Fulford. Harold II of England, however, soon came north to defeat the Danes.

Northumbria, Kingdom of Largest kingdom in Anglo-Saxon England. Formed in the early 7th century, it included ne England and se Scotland up to the Firth of Forth. In the age of the historian Bede and the Lindisfarne Gospels, Northumbria experienced a blossoming of scholarship and monastic culture. Its power declined in the 8th century.

Northumbria, kingdom of From the middle of the 6th cent. to the 870s when the Danes took York, the Anglo‐Saxons who dwelt north of the Humber achieved their own institutional life, ruled by kings. The borders of their territories fluctuated widely. At its greatest extent the kingdom of Northumbria stretched from the Humber and the Mersey in the south to the Clyde and the Forth. Its political roots grew from two principal sources, the northern kingdom of Bernicia based on the gaunt fortress rock of Bamburgh, and the kingdom of Deira in the fertile vale of York. In the 7th cent. under a succession of powerful rulers, Æthelfryth of Bernicia (d. 616), Edwin of Deira (616–32), the brothers St Oswald (633–41) and Oswiu (641–70), Northumbria was a dominant force in English political life. But after the defeat and death of Oswiu's son Ecgfrith at the hands of the Picts in 685 Northumbria lost aspirations to overlordship and the 8th and 9th cents. provide a sorry tale of unrest and violence at the royal level. Yet the age of Bede (672–735) saw the flowering of the so‐called Northumbrian renaissance when some of the finest literary and artistic work of the early Middle Ages was produced in the northern kingdom in the shape of the writings of the Venerable Bede and the great Gospel Books, of which the Lindisfarne Gospels is a supreme example. Towards the end of the century a fresh and disastrous new element was introduced into the life of the kingdom with the first Viking attacks. In June 793 they brutally sacked the monastery at Lindisfarne, an event which sent shock waves throughout western Christendom. Scandinavian control of communications over the North Sea put Northumbria in the front line. When the Danes in the reign of Alfred (871–99) made their serious attempt to conquer England, the Northumbrian kingdom collapsed, leaving Danish kings after 878 in firm control of York and only vestiges of native English authority under ealdormen in the more northerly parts of the kingdom. The Danes remained in political control of York until 954. Thereafter no attempt was made to revive the kingship of Northumbria which was integrated, though with occasional manifestations of independence, in the kingdom of England.