Bernicia was an
Anglo-SaxonAnglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
kingdom established by
AnglianThe Angles is a modern English term for a Germanic people who took their name from the ancestral cultural region of Angeln, a district located in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany...
settlers of the 6th century in what is now
southeasternThe Scottish Borders is one of 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by Dumfries and Galloway in the west, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian in the north west, City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian to the north; and the non-metropolitan counties of Northumberland...
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and
North East EnglandNorth East England is one of the nine official regions of England. It covers Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, and Teesside . The only cities in the region are Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland...
.
The Anglian territory of Bernicia was approximately equivalent to the modern English counties of
NorthumberlandNorthumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...
and
DurhamCounty Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...
, and the former Scottish counties of
BerwickshireBerwickshire or the County of Berwick is a registration county, a committee area of the Scottish Borders Council, and a lieutenancy area of Scotland, on the border with England. The town after which it is named—Berwick-upon-Tweed—was lost by Scotland to England in 1482...
and
East LothianEast Lothian is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and a lieutenancy Area. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Scottish Borders and Midlothian. Its administrative centre is Haddington, although its largest town is Musselburgh....
, stretching from the
ForthThe River Forth , long, is the major river draining the eastern part of the central belt of Scotland.The Forth rises in Loch Ard in the Trossachs, a mountainous area some west of Stirling...
to the
TeesThe River Tees is in Northern England. It rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the North Pennines, and flows eastwards for 85 miles to reach the North Sea between Hartlepool and Redcar.-Geography:...
. In the early 7th century, it merged with its southern neighbour, Deira, to form the kingdom of
NorthumbriaNorthumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
and its borders subsequently expanded considerably.
British Bryneich
Etymologies
Bernicia is mentioned in the 9th-century
Historia Brittonum (§ 61) under the Welsh name of
Berneich or
Birneich and in Old Welsh poetry and elsewhere under the name of
Bryneich or
Brynaich. This may reflect the name of a preceding
BrythonicThe Britons were the Celtic people culturally dominating Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic...
kingdom or province, which was subsequently adopted by the Anglian settlers and rendered as
Bernice or
Beornice in the Old English tongue. If such forms represent a Welsh version of
Bernicia, it is unclear why Welsh would need to borrow a 'foreign' name for the area, so the former hypothesis is usually accepted, although no etymological analysis has produced a consensus. The etymology which is most widely cited is that tentatively proposed by Kenneth H. Jackson, which gives the meaning "Land of the Mountain Passes" or "Land of the Gaps". The earlier derivation from the tribal name of the
BrigantesThe Brigantes were a Celtic tribe who in pre-Roman times controlled the largest section of what would become Northern England, and a significant part of the Midlands. Their kingdom is sometimes called Brigantia, and it was centred in what was later known as Yorkshire...
has been dismissed as linguistically unsound. In 1997 John T. Koch suggested the conflation of a probable primary form *
Bernech with the native form *
Brïγent for the old
civitas Brigantum as a result of Anglian expansion in that territory during the 7th century.
Whatever the etymology, other linguistic evidence suggests political activity in the area before the advent of the Angles. A few important Anglian centres in Bernicia bear names of British origin or are known by British names elsewhere:
BamburghBamburgh is a large village and civil parish on the coast of Northumberland, England. It has a population of 454.It is notable for two reasons: the imposing Bamburgh Castle, overlooking the beach, seat of the former Kings of Northumbria, and at present owned by the Armstrong family ; and its...
is called
Din Guaire in the
Historia Brittonum;
DunbarDunbar is a town in East Lothian on the southeast coast of Scotland, approximately 28 miles east of Edinburgh and 28 miles from the English Border at Berwick-upon-Tweed....
(where Saint Wilfrid was once imprisoned) represents
Dinbaer; and the name of
ColdinghamColdingham is a historic village in Berwickshire, Scottish Borders, on Scotland's southeast coastline, north of Eyemouth.As early as AD 660, Coldingham was the site of a religious establishment of high order, when it is recorded that Etheldreda, the queen of Egfrid, became a nun at the Abbey of...
is given by
BedeBede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...
as
Coludi urbs ("town of Colud"), where
Colud seems to represent the British form, possibly for the hill-fort of
St Abb's HeadSt. Abb's Head is a rocky promontory at the village of St. Abbs, Berwickshire, Scottish Borders, and a National Nature Reserve administered by the National Trust of Scotland...
.
Political history and memory
The Brythonic kingdom of the area was formed from what had once been the southern lands of the
VotadiniThe Votadini were a people of the Iron Age in Great Britain, and their territory was briefly part of the Roman province Britannia...
, possibly as part of the division of a supposed 'great northern realm' of Coel Hen in c. AD 420. This northern realm is referred to by Welsh scholars as
Yr Hen OgleddYr Hen Ogledd is a Welsh term used by scholars to refer to those parts of what is now northern England and southern Scotland in the years between 500 and the Viking invasions of c. 800, with particular interest in the Brythonic-speaking peoples who lived there.The term is derived from heroic...
or, literally, "The Old North". The kingdom may have been ruled from the site that later became the
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
BamburghBamburgh is a large village and civil parish on the coast of Northumberland, England. It has a population of 454.It is notable for two reasons: the imposing Bamburgh Castle, overlooking the beach, seat of the former Kings of Northumbria, and at present owned by the Armstrong family ; and its...
, which certainly features in Welsh sources as
Din Guardi. Near this high-status residence lay the island of
LindisfarneLindisfarne is a tidal island off the north-east coast of England. It is also known as Holy Island and constitutes a civil parish in Northumberland...
(formerly known, in Welsh, as
Ynys Metcaut), which became the
seatA diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance...
of the Bernician bishops. It is unknown when the Angles finally conquered the whole region, but around 604 is likely.
Kings of British Bryneich
There are several Old Welsh pedigrees of princely "
Men of the NorthYr Hen Ogledd is a Welsh term used by scholars to refer to those parts of what is now northern England and southern Scotland in the years between 500 and the Viking invasions of c. 800, with particular interest in the Brythonic-speaking peoples who lived there.The term is derived from heroic...
" (
Gwŷr y Gogledd) which may represent the kings of the British kingdom in the area, which may have been called
Bryneich.
John MorrisJohn Robert Morris was an English historian who specialised in the study of the institutions of the Roman Empire and the history of Sub-Roman Britain...
surmised that the line of a certain
Morcant BulcMorcant Bulc was a Brythonic prince, probably a king, from Northern Britain, during the period between the end of the Roman Empire and the establishment of an English state during the early Middle Ages....
referred to these monarchs, chiefly because he identified this man as the murderer of Urien Rheged who was, at the time, besieging
LindisfarneLindisfarne is a tidal island off the north-east coast of England. It is also known as Holy Island and constitutes a civil parish in Northumberland...
.
English Bernicia
Some of the
AnglesThe Angles is a modern English term for a Germanic people who took their name from the ancestral cultural region of Angeln, a district located in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany...
of Bernicia may have been employed as
mercenariesA mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...
along
Hadrian's WallHadrian's Wall was a defensive fortification in Roman Britain. Begun in AD 122, during the rule of emperor Hadrian, it was the first of two fortifications built across Great Britain, the second being the Antonine Wall, lesser known of the two because its physical remains are less evident today.The...
during the late
RomanRoman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
period. Others are thought to have migrated north (by sea) from Deira ( or
Dere) in the early 6th century. The first Anglian king in the historical record is
IdaIda is the first known king of the Anglian kingdom of Bernicia, which he ruled from around 547 until his death in 559. Little is known of his life or reign, but he was regarded as the founder of a line from which later Anglo-Saxon kings in this part of northern England and southern Scotland...
, who is said to have obtained the throne and the kingdom about 547. His sons spent many years fighting a united force from the surrounding Brythonic kingdoms until their alliance collapsed into civil war.
A forcibly united Northumbria
Ida’s grandson,
ÆthelfrithÆthelfrith was King of Bernicia from c. 593 until c. 616; he was also, beginning c. 604, the first Bernician king to also rule Deira, to the south of Bernicia. Since Deira and Bernicia were the two basic components of what would later be defined as Northumbria, Æthelfrith can be considered, in...
(Æðelfriþ), united Deira with his own kingdom by force around the year 604. He ruled the two kingdoms (united as Northumbria) until he was defeated and killed by
Rædwald of East AngliaRædwald ; also Raedwald or Redwald, was a 7th century king of East Anglia, a long-lived Anglo-Saxon kingdom which today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. He was the son of Tytila of East Anglia and a member of the Wuffingas dynasty , who were the first rulers of the East Angles...
(who had given refuge to
EdwinEdwin , also known as Eadwine or Æduini, was the King of Deira and Bernicia – which later became known as Northumbria – from about 616 until his death. He converted to Christianity and was baptised in 627; after he fell at the Battle of Hatfield Chase, he was venerated as a saint.Edwin was the son...
, son of
Ælle, king of DeiraÆlla , is the first certain king of Deira. One of his sons was Edwin of Northumbria and his daughter Acha married Æthelfrith of Bernicia....
) around the year 616. Edwin then became king. The early part of Edwin's reign was possibly spent finishing off the remaining resistance coming from the Brythonic exiles of the old British kingdom, operating out of
GododdinThe Gododdin were a Brittonic people of north-eastern Britain in the sub-Roman period, the area known as the Hen Ogledd or Old North...
. After he had defeated the remaining Brythonic population of the area, he was then drawn towards similar subjugation of
ElmetElmet was an independent Brythonic kingdom covering a broad area of what later became the West Riding of Yorkshire during the Early Middle Ages, between approximately the 5th century and early 7th century. Although its precise boundaries are unclear, it appears to have been bordered by the River...
(a Cumbric speaking territory which once existed in the modern-day
West Riding of YorkshireThe West Riding of Yorkshire is one of the three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county, County of York, West Riding , was based closely on the historic boundaries...
, near
LeedsLeeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
) which drew him into direct conflict with Wales proper.
Following the disastrous
Battle of Hatfield ChaseThe Battle of Hatfield Chase was fought on October 12, 633 at Hatfield Chase near Doncaster, Yorkshire, in Anglo-Saxon England between the Northumbrians under Edwin and an alliance of the Welsh of Gwynedd under Cadwallon ap Cadfan and the Mercians under Penda. The site was a marshy area about 8...
on 12 October 633, in which Edwin was defeated and killed by
Cadwallon ap CadfanCadwallon ap Cadfan was the King of Gwynedd from around 625 until his death in battle. The son and successor of Cadfan ap Iago, he is best remembered as the King of the Britons who invaded and conquered Northumbria, defeating and killing its king, Edwin, prior to his own death in battle against...
of
GwyneddGwynedd was one petty kingdom of several Welsh successor states which emerged in 5th-century post-Roman Britain in the Early Middle Ages, and later evolved into a principality during the High Middle Ages. It was based on the former Brythonic tribal lands of the Ordovices, Gangani, and the...
and
Penda of MerciaPenda was a 7th-century King of Mercia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom in what is today the English Midlands. A pagan at a time when Christianity was taking hold in many of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, Penda took over the Severn Valley in 628 following the Battle of Cirencester before participating in the...
, Northumbria again was divided into Bernicia and Deira. Bernicia was then briefly ruled by
EanfrithEanfrith was briefly King of Bernicia from 633 to 634. He was the son of Æthelfrith, a Bernician king who had also ruled Deira to the south before being killed in battle around 616 against Raedwald of East Anglia, who had given refuge to Edwin, an exiled prince of Deira.Edwin became king of...
, son of Aethelfrith, but after about a year he went to Cadwallon to sue for peace and was killed. Eanfrith's brother
OswaldOswald was King of Northumbria from 634 until his death, and is now venerated as a Christian saint.Oswald was the son of Æthelfrith of Bernicia and came to rule after spending a period in exile; after defeating the British ruler Cadwallon ap Cadfan, Oswald brought the two Northumbrian kingdoms of...
then raised an army and finally defeated Cadwallon at the
Battle of HeavenfieldThe Battle of Heavenfield was fought in 633 or 634 between a Northumbrian army under Oswald of Bernicia and a Welsh army under Cadwallon ap Cadfan of Gwynedd. The battle resulted in a decisive Northumbrian victory. The Annales Cambriae record the battle as Bellum Cantscaul in 631...
in 634. After this victory, Oswald appears to have been recognised by both Bernicians and Deirans as king of a properly united Northumbria. The kings of Bernicia were thereafter supreme in that kingdom, although Deira had its own sub-kings at times during the reigns of
OswiuOswiu , also known as Oswy or Oswig , was a King of Bernicia. His father, Æthelfrith of Bernicia, was killed in battle, fighting against Rædwald, King of the East Angles and Edwin of Deira at the River Idle in 616...
and his son
EcgfrithKing Ecgfrith was the King of Northumbria from 670 until his death. He ruled over Northumbria when it was at the height of its power, but his reign ended with a disastrous defeat in which he lost his life.-Early life:...
.
Kings of Bernicia
(see also
List of monarchs of Northumbria)
- Ida
Ida is the first known king of the Anglian kingdom of Bernicia, which he ruled from around 547 until his death in 559. Little is known of his life or reign, but he was regarded as the founder of a line from which later Anglo-Saxon kings in this part of northern England and southern Scotland...
son of Eoppa (547–559)
- Glappa
Glappa of Bernicia ruled from 559 to 560. He was the second known king of Bernicia.He was one of between 8 to 12 sons born to Ida of Bernicia, founder of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Bernicia. Nothing is known of his life and reign...
son of Ida (559–560)
- Adda
Adda was the third known ruler of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Bernicia.Adda was one of several sons born to Ida, the first ruler of Bernicia, as was his successor Æthelric....
son of Ida (560–568)
- Æthelric
Aethelric was the fourth known king of the Kingdom of Bernicia which he ruled from 568 to 572. Aethelric was the father of Æthelfrith, who was the first monarch to rule both Bernicia and Deira, the two constituent parts of what came to be considered Northumbria.Aethelric was one of the sons born...
son of Ida (568–572)
- Theodric
Theodric ruled from 572 to 579. He was the fifth known ruler of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Bernicia.Theodric was the son of Ida of Bernicia, founder of the kingdom of Bernicia. Little is known of Theodric's life and reign although Urien, the king of Rheged, was said to have subjected Theodric and...
son of Ida (572–579)
- Frithuwald
Frithuwald of Bernicia ruled from 579 to 585. He was the sixth known ruler of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Bernicia.Frithuwald was the son of Ida of Bernicia, founder of the kingdom of Bernicia. Nothing is known of Frithuwald's life and reign...
(579–585)
- Hussa
Hussa ruled from 585 to 592 and was the seventh known ruler of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Bernicia.It is not entirely certain whether Hussa was the son of Ida, founder of the kingdom of Bernicia, or rather the leader of a rival Anglian faction. Little is known of Hussa's life and reign, however...
(585–593)
- Æthelfrith
Æthelfrith was King of Bernicia from c. 593 until c. 616; he was also, beginning c. 604, the first Bernician king to also rule Deira, to the south of Bernicia. Since Deira and Bernicia were the two basic components of what would later be defined as Northumbria, Æthelfrith can be considered, in...
(593–616)
Under
DeiraDeira was a kingdom in Northern England during the 6th century AD. Itextended from the Humber to the Tees, and from the sea to the western edge of the Vale of York...
n rule 616–633)
- Eanfrith of Bernicia
Eanfrith was briefly King of Bernicia from 633 to 634. He was the son of Æthelfrith, a Bernician king who had also ruled Deira to the south before being killed in battle around 616 against Raedwald of East Anglia, who had given refuge to Edwin, an exiled prince of Deira.Edwin became king of...
son of Æthelfrith (633–634)
Under Oswald son of Æthelfrith, Bernicia was united with Deira to form
NorthumbriaNorthumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
from 634 onward.
Sources
- Bede
Bede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...
, Historia ecclesiastica gentis AnglorumThe Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum is a work in Latin by Bede on the history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict between Roman and Celtic Christianity.It is considered to be one of the most important original references on...
.
- Jackson, Kenneth H.
Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson was an English linguist and a translator who specialised in the Celtic languages. He demonstrated how the text of the Ulster Cycle of tales, written circa AD 1100, preserves an oral tradition originating some six centuries earlier and reflects Celtic Irish society of the...
(1953). Language and History in Early Britain. Edinburgh University Press.
- Jackson, Kenneth H. (1969). The Gododdin: The Oldest Scottish poem. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
- Koch, John T. (1997). The Gododdin of Aneurin: Text and context from Dark-Age North Britain. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-1374-4
- Rollason, David W. (2003). Northumbria, 500–1100: Creation and Destruction of a Kingdom. Cambridge. ISBN 0521813352.
Further reading
- Alcock, Leslie, Kings and Warriors, Craftsmen and Priests in Northern Britain AD 550–850. Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2003. ISBN 0-903903-24-5
- Alcock, Leslie, Arthur's Britain: History and Archaeology, AD 367–634. Penguin, London, 1989. ISBN 0-14-139069-7
- Higham, N.J., The Kingdom of Northumbria AD 350–1100. Sutton, Stroud, 1993. ISBN 0-86299-730-5
- Lowe, Chris, The Making of Scotland: Angels, Fools and Tyrants: Britons and Angles in Southern Scotland. Canongate, Edinburgh, 1999. ISBN 978-0862418755
- Morris, John, The Age of Arthur. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1973. ISBN 0-297-17601-3
- Ziegler, Michelle. "The Politics of Exile in Early Northumbria." The Heroic Age 2 (1999). Online.