Edwin of Northumbria - Edwin As King

Edwin As King

With the death of Æthelfrith, and of the powerful Æthelberht of Kent the same year, Raedwald and his client Edwin were well placed to dominate England, and indeed Raedwald did so until his death a decade later. Edwin annexed the minor British kingdom of Elmet following a campaign in either 616 or 626. Elmet had probably been subject to Mercia and then to Edwin. The much larger kingdom of Lindsey appears to have been taken over c. 625, after the death of king Raedwald.

At this time Edwin and Eadbald of Kent were allies, and Edwin arranged to marry Eadbald's sister Æthelburg. It is said by Bede that Eadbald would only agree to marry his sister to Edwin if he converted to Christianity. The marriage of Eadbald's Merovingian mother Bertha had resulted in the conversion of Kent, and Æthelburg's would do the same in Northumbria.

Edwin's expansion to the west may have begun early in his reign. In the early 620s, there is firm evidence of a war being waged between Edwin and Fiachnae mac Báetáin of the Dál nAraidi, king of the Ulaid in Ireland. A lost poem is known to have existed recounting Fiachnae's campaigns against the Saxons, and the Irish annals report the siege, or the storming, of Bamburgh in Bernicia in 623–624. This should presumably be placed in the context of Edwin's designs on the Isle of Man, a target of Ulaid ambitions. Fiachnae's death in 626, at the hands of his namesake, Fiachnae mac Demmáin of the Dál Fiatach, and the second Fiachnae's death a year later in battle against the Dál Riata probably eased the way for Edwin's conquests in the Irish sea province.

The routine of kingship in Edwin's time involved regular, probably annual, wars with neighbours, to obtain tribute, submission and slaves. By Edwin's death, it is likely that these annual wars, unreported in the main, had extended the Northumbrian kingdoms from the Humber and the Mersey north to the Southern Uplands and the Cheviots.

The royal household moved regularly from one "royal villa" to the next, consuming the food renders given in tribute and the produce of the royal estates, dispensing justice, and ensuring that royal authority remained visible throughout the land. The royal sites in Edwin's time included Yeavering in Bernicia, where traces of a timber amphitheatre have been found. This "Roman" feature makes Bede's claim that Edwin was preceded by a standard-bearer carrying a "tufa" (OE thuuf, this may have been a winged globe) appear to be more than antiquarian curiosity, although whether the model for this practice was Roman or Frankish is unknown. Other royal sites included Campodunum in Elmet (perhaps Barwick), Sancton in Deira and Goodmanham, the site where the pagan high priest Coifi destroyed the idols according to Bede. Edwin's realm included the former Roman cities of York and Carlisle, and both appear to have been of some importance in the 7th century, although it is not clear whether urban life continued at this period.