VII. 633. lon's suc ON Edwin's death, the ancient divisions of CHA P. Northumbria again prevailed, and an heptarchy reappeared. His cousin Osric, the grandson of Ella, succeeded to Deira; and Eanfrid, the long exiled Cadwal son of Ethelfrith, to Bernicia: both restored cesses. paganism, though Osric had been baptised. The Welch king Cadwallon, full of projects of revenge against the nation of the Angles, continued his war. Osric rashly ventured to besiege him in a strong town30, but an unexpected sally of Cadwallon destroyed the king of Deira. For a year the victor desolated Northumbria: his success struck Eanfrid with terror, and his panic hurried him to his fate. He went with twelve soldiers to sue peace of the Welchman. Notwithstanding the sacred purpose of his visit, he was put to death. THE Swords of Cadwallon and his army seemed the agents destined to fulfil their cherished prophecy. The fate of the Anglo-Saxons was now about to arrive; three of their kings had been already offered up to the shades of the injured Cymry; an Arthur had revived in Cadwallon.But the lying prophecies of hope, and human augury, have been the experience and the com Sax. Chron. 29. bishop of Rochester. Bede, lib. ii. c. 20. 30 Bede, lib. iii. c. 1. The town was a municipium, and was therefore in all probability York. Smith's Notes on Bede, 103. BOOK plaint of ages, and are never more fallacious than in ambition and war. III. 634. TRIUMPHANT with the fame of fourteen great battles and sixty skirmishes", Cadwallon despised Oswald, the brother and successor of Eanfrid, who rallied the Bernician forces, and attempted to become the deliverer of his country. With humble confidence the royal youth committed his cause to the arbitration of Providence 32, and calmly awaited Oswald de- the decision on the banks of the Denise. 33 There, feats him. Cadwallon and the flower of his army were destroyed. The return of the Cymry to their ancient country never became probable again. 35 31 Llywarch Hen. p. 111. 32 The piety of Oswald previous to the battle is expressed by Bede. To his arrayed army he loudly exclaimed: "Let us kneel to the Omnipotent Lord, the existing and the true, and unite to implore his protection against a fierce and arrogant enemy. He knows that we have undertaken a just war for the safety of our people." - The army obeyed the royal mandate. Lib. iii. c. 2. 33 Camden places this battle at Dilston, formerly Devilston, on a small brook which empties into the Tine, 854., Gib. ed. — Smith, with greater probability, marks Erringburn as the rivulet on which Cadwallon perished, and the fields either of Cockley, Hallington, or Bingfield, as the scene of conflict. App. to Bede, 721. The Angles called it Hefenfield, which name, according to tradition, Bingfield bore. 34 Although Jeffry admits Oswald to have conquered at Havenfield, yet he has sent Penda to be the person defeated there; and instead of suffering his Cadwallon to perish, inflames him with rage at the disaster, and despatches him like lightning in chase of Oswald, whom he permits Penda to kill; Cadwallon then became possessed of all Britain. Lib. xii. c. 10, 11. Such is his history! 35 The ancient bard Llywarch Hen composed in his old age an elegy on Cadwallon, whose death he lived to witness; and thus speaks of his friend : Fourteen great battles he fought Of Lloegyr (England) The scourge and the oppressor, His hand was open; Honour flowed from it. Cadwallon encamped on the Yddon, On the top of Mount Digoll: Seven months, and seven skirmishes daily. He led the hand of slaughter in the breach ; Stubborn in an hundred battles, A hundred castles he threw down. He made the eagles full; Violent his wrath in the gash; As the water flows from the fountain, So will our sorrow through the lingering day, For Cadwallon! Welsh Arch. i. p. 121.; and Owen's Llywarch, VOL. I. A A p. 111-117. С НА Р. VII. III. A. D. CHAP. VIII. The Reign, Actions, and Death of PENDA.- History of the ANGLO- BOOK ABOUT this time the kingdom of Mercia was not only distinctly formed, but, by the extraordinary ability of one man, was at the same time raised to a greater eminence in the Saxon octarchy than any of its preceding kings, even those who had become Bretwaldas, had actually obtained. This man was Penda, who, though not classed among the Bretwaldas, would, if victory over the other Anglo-Saxon states had given the dignity, have possessed it more rightfully than any other. It has been mentioned that several petty adventurers of the Angles had successively penetrated into the inland districts, which were comprised in the kingdom of Mercia, and established settlements among the Britons in these regions. In 586, one of them, named Crida, also a descendant of Woden, began to attain a regal pre-eminence'; but as we may infer from an intimation of Nennius, that Penda first separated Mercia from the kingdom of the northern Angles, it must have been in subordination to the kingdom of Deira, which formed its 1 Crida is the first Mercian chief that is mentioned in the documents which remain to us, with the title of king. He began to reign in 586. 3 Gale Script. p. 229. Hunt. 315. Lel. Collect. ii. p. 56. Ibid. i. p. 258. Leland from an old chronicle observes, vol. i. p. 211., that the Trent divided Mercia into two kingdoms, the north and the south. northern frontier.2 VIII. 634. In 627, Penda, the grandson CHA P. of Crida, succeeded to the crown at that age, when men are usually more disposed to ease than actitivity. He was fifty years old before he became the king of Mercia, and he reigned thirty years; but it was to the terror and destruction of several of the other Anglo-Saxon kings. Mercia had neither displayed power nor ability before his accession; but Penda's military talents and uncommon vigour speedily raised it to a decided and overwhelming preponderance. In the year after he attained the crown, we find him in a battle with Cynegils, and his son Cwichelm, in Wessex, at Cirencester. The conflict was undecided during the whole day, and in the ensuing morning the war was ended by a treaty. Five years afterwards, at the age of sixty, he joined Cadwallon, and defeated Edwin of Northumbria, in that battle in which this prince was slain. 5 THE piety of Oswald was sincere, and influenced Oswald his conduct; he obtained a bishop from Icolm-kill Northumto instruct his rude subjects; and he earnestly bria. laboured to advance their moral tuition. His own example strengthened his recommendations on that essential duty, without which all human talents, 2 Nennius, p. 117. “Penda primus separavit regnum Merciorum a regno Nordorum." Ceorl acceded between Crida and Penda. Rad. Polych. p. 229. It was Ceorl's daughter Quenburga that Edwin married in his exile. Bede, lib. ii. c. 14. 3 Flor. Wig. dates his accession in 627, p. 232. Penda was the eleventh descendant from Woden, by his son Wihtlæg, ibid. and Hunt. 316. 4 Hunt. 316. Sax. Chron. 29. The pacification is mentioned by Flor. Wig. 233.; and Matt. West. 217. * See before, p. 350. |