Edwin of Northumbria - Early Life and Exile

Early Life and Exile

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reported that on Ælle's death a certain "Æthelric" assumed power. The exact identity of Æthelric is uncertain. He may have been a brother of Ælle, an elder brother of Edwin, an otherwise unknown Deiran noble, or the father of Æthelfrith. Æthelfrith himself appears to have been king of "Northumbria"—both Deira and Bernicia—by no later than 604. During the reign of Æthelfrith, Edwin was an exile. The location of his early exile as a child is not known, but late traditions, reported by Reginald of Durham and Geoffrey of Monmouth, place Edwin in the kingdom of Gwynedd, fostered by king Cadfan ap Iago, so allowing biblical parallels to be drawn from the struggle between Edwin and his supposed foster-brother Cadwallon. By the 610s he was certainly in Mercia, under the protection of king Cearl, whose daughter Cwenburg he married.

By around 616, Edwin was in East Anglia, under the protection of king Raedwald. Bede reports that Æthelfrith tried to have Raedwald murder his unwanted rival, and that Raedwald was minded to do so, only being persuaded otherwise by his wife with Divine prompting. Regardless of the exact course of events, Raedwald faced Æthelfrith in battle by the river Idle in 616, and Æthelfrith was killed, along with Raedwald's son Raegenhere.

Edwin was installed as king of Northumbria, effectively confirming Raedwald as bretwalda: Æthelfrith's sons went into exile in Irish Dál Riata and Pictland. That Edwin was able to take power not only in his native Deira, but also Bernicia, may have been due to his support from Raedwald, to whom he may have remained subject during the early part of his reign. Edwin's reign marks an interruption of the otherwise consistent domination of Northumbria by the Bernicians, and has been seen as "contrary to the prevailing tendency".