Everything about Northumbrian totally explained
Northumbria (sometimes spelled
Northhumbria) is primarily the name of both a medieval
petty kingdom of
Angles, in what is now north east England and southern Scotland, and of the
earldom which succeeded it when a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom became England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory: the
Humber estuary.
Northumbria was formed in central
Great Britain in Anglo-Saxon times. At the beginning of the 7th century the two kingdoms of
Bernicia and
Deira were unified. (In the 12th century writings of
Henry of Huntingdon the kingdom was defined as one of the
Heptarchy of
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.) At its greatest the kingdom extended at least from just south of the
Humber, to the River
Mersey and to the
Forth (roughly, Sheffield to Runcorn to Edinburgh) - and there's some evidence that it may have been much greater (see map).
The later (and smaller) earldom came about when the southern part of Northumbria (ex-Deira) was lost to the
Danelaw. The northern part (ex-Bernicia) at first retained its status as a kingdom but when it become subordinate to the Danish kingdom it had its powers curtailed to that of an earldom, and retained that status when England was reunited by the Wessex-led reconquest of the Danelaw. The earldom was bounded by the
River Tees in the south and the
River Tweed in the north (broadly similar to the modern
North East England). Much of this land was "debated" between England and Scotland, but the Earldom of Northumbria was eventually recognised as part of
England by the
Anglo-
Scottish Treaty of York in 1237. On the northern border,
Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is north of the Tweed but had changed hands many times, was defined as subject to the laws of England by the
Wales and Berwick Act of 1746.
The land once part of Northumbria at its peak is now divided by modern administrative boundaries.
In a modern sense, Northumbria is mainly used as a romantic tourist name for the North East of England, or, often, just for Northumberland, though the
regional tourist organisation
refers to North East England. It is also used in the names of some regional institutions : particularly the police force (
Northumbria Police) which covers Northumberland and
Tyne and Wear) and a university
Northumbria University based in Newcastle. The local Environment Agency office, located in Newcastle Business Park, also uses the term Northumbria to describe its patch. Otherwise, the term isn't used in everyday conversation, and isn't the official name for the UK and EU region of North East England.
Kingdom (654 – 878)
» See also: List of monarchs of Northumbria and Timeline of Northumbria
Northumbria was originally composed of the union of two independent kingdoms,
Bernicia and
Deira. Bernicia covered lands north of the
Tees, whilst Deira corresponded roughly to modern-day
Yorkshire. Bernicia and Deira were first united by
Aethelfrith, a king of Bernicia who conquered Deira around the year 604. He was defeated and killed around the year 616 in battle at the
River Idle by
Raedwald of East Anglia, who installed
Edwin, the son of
Aella, a former king of Deira, as king.
Edwin, who accepted
Christianity in 627, soon grew to become the most powerful king in England: he was recognized as
Bretwalda and conquered the
Isle of Man and
Gwynedd in northern
Wales. He was, however, himself defeated by an alliance of the exiled king of Gwynedd,
Cadwallon ap Cadfan and
Penda, king of
Mercia, at the
Battle of Hatfield Chase in 633.
King Oswald
After Edwin's death, Northumbria was split between Bernicia, where
Eanfrith, a son of Aethelfrith, took power, and Deira, where a cousin of Edwin,
Osric, became king. Cumbria tended to remain a country frontier with the Britons. Both of these rulers were killed during the year that followed, as Cadwallon continued his devastating invasion of Northumbria. After the murder of Eanfrith, his brother,
Oswald, backed warriors sent by
Domnall Brecc of
Dál Riata, defeated and killed Cadwallon at the
Battle of Heavenfield in 634.
Oswald expanded his kingdom considerably. He incorporated
Gododdin lands northwards up to the
Firth of Forth and also gradually extended his reach westward, encroaching on the remaining
Cumbric speaking kingdoms of
Rheged and
Strathclyde. Thus, Northumbria became not only part of modern
England's far north, but also covered much of what is now the south-east of
Scotland.
King Oswald re-introduced Christianity to the Kingdom by appointing
St. Aidan, an Irish
monk from the Scottish island of
Iona to convert his people. This led to the introduction of the practices of
Celtic Christianity. A
monastery was established on
Lindisfarne.
War with Mercia continued, however. In 642, Oswald was killed by the Mercians under Penda at the
Battle of Maserfield. In 655, Penda launched a massive invasion of Northumbria, aided by the sub-king of Deira,
Aethelwald, but suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of an inferior force under
Oswiu, Oswald's successor, at the
Battle of Winwaed. This battle marked a major turning point in Northumbrian fortunes: Penda died in the battle, and Oswiu gained supremacy over Mercia, making himself the most powerful king in England.
Religious union and eventual decline
In the year 664 a great synod was held at Whitby to discuss the controversy regarding the timing of the Easter festival. Much dispute had arisen between the practices of the Celtic church in Northumbria and the beliefs of the Roman church. Eventually, Northumbria was persuaded to move to the Roman practice, the Celtic Bishop Colman of Lindisfarne returned to Iona.
Northumbria lost control of
Mercia in the late 650s, after a successful revolt under Penda's son
Wulfhere, but it retained its dominant position until it suffered a disastrous defeat at the hands of the
Picts at the
Battle of Nechtansmere in 685; Northumbria's king,
Ecgfrith (son of Oswiu), was killed, and its power in the north was gravely weakened. The peaceful reign of
Aldfrith, Ecgfrith's half-brother and successor, did something to limit the damage done, but it's from this point that Northumbria's power began to decline, and chronic instability followed Aldfrith's death in 704.
In 867 Northumbria became the northern kingdom of the
Danelaw, after its conquest by the brothers
Halfdan Ragnarsson and
Ivar the Boneless who installed an Englishman, Ecgberht, as a puppet king. Despite the pillaging of the kingdom,
Viking rule brought lucrative trade to Northumbria, especially at their capital
Jórvík, (York).
Earldom (930 – 1217)
» See also: Earl of Northumbria
After the English regained the territory of the former kingdom, Scots invasions reduced Northumbria to an earldom stretching from the Humber to the Tweed. Northumbria was disputed between the emerging kingdoms of England and
Scotland. The land north of the Tweed was finally ceded to Scotland in 1018 as a result of the
battle of Carham. Yorkshire and Northumberland were first mentioned as separate in the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1065.)
Norman invasion and partition of the earldom
William the Conqueror became king of England in 1066. He realised he needed to control Northumbria, which had remained virtually independent of the Kings of England, to protect his kingdom from Scottish invasion. To acknowledge the remote independence of Northumbria and ensure England was properly defended from the Scots William gained the allegiance of both the
Bishop of Durham and the Earl and confirmed their powers and privileges. However, anti-Norman rebellions followed. William therefore attempted to install
Robert Comine, a
Norman noble, as the
Earl of Northumbria, but before Comine could take up office, he and his 700 men were massacred in the
City of Durham. In revenge, the Conqueror led his army in a bloody raid into Northumbria, an event that became known as the
harrying of the North.
Ethelwin, the Anglo-Saxon
Bishop of Durham, tried to flee Northumbria at the time of the raid, with Northumbrian treasures. The bishop was caught, imprisoned, and later died in confinement; his see was left vacant.
Rebellions continued, and William's son
William Rufus decided to partition Northumbria.
William of St. Carilef was made Bishop of Durham, and was also given the powers of Earl for the region south of the
rivers
Tyne and
Derwent, which became the
County Palatine of Durham. The remainder, to the north of the rivers, became
Northumberland, where the political powers of the Bishops of Durham were limited to only certain districts, and the earls continued to rule as clients of the English throne.
The city of
Newcastle was founded by the Normans in 1080 to control the region by holding the strategically important crossing point of the river Tyne.
Subsequent history
The Northumbrian region continued a history of revolt and rebellion against the government, as seen in the
Rising of the North in
Tudor times. A major reason was the strength of
Catholicism in the area after the
Reformation. Rural, thinly populated, and sharing a border with an often hostile Scotland, the region became a wild place where
reivers raided across the border and outlaws took refuge from justice. However, after the union of the crowns of Scotland and England under
King James VI and I peace was largely established. After the
Restoration, many inhabitants of the Northumbrian region supported the
Jacobite cause.
Flag
flag of the kingdom was "a banner made of gold and purple" (or red), first recorded in the
8th century as having hung over the shrine of
King Oswald. This was later interpreted as vertical stripes. A modified version (with
broken vertical stripes) can be seen in the
coat of arms and
flag used by
Northumberland County Council.
Culture
Northumbria was famed as a centre of religious learning and arts. Initially the kingdom was
evangelized by monks from the
Celtic Church, which led to a flowering of monastic life, and Northumbria played an important role in the formation of
Insular art, a unique style combining Anglo-Saxon,
Celtic and other elements. After the
Synod of Whitby in 664 Roman church practices officially replaced the Celtic ones but the influence of the Anglo-Celtic style continued, the most famous examples of this being the
Lindisfarne Gospels. The Venerable
Bede (673-735) wrote his
Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed in 731) in a Northumbrian monastery, and much of it focuses on the kingdom.
Northumbria has its own
check or
tartan, which is similar to a tartan that dates from
Roman times and may be the precursor of modern tartans.
Language
Apart from standard
English, Northumbria has a series of closely related but distinctive
dialects, descended from the early
Germanic languages of the Angles and Vikings with
Brythonic languages loanwords and influences. The
Scots language began to diverge from early Northumbrian
Middle English, which was called
Ynglis as late as the early 16th century. (Until the end of the 15th century the name Scots (or Scottis) referred to
Scottish Gaelic). There are many similarities between
modern Scots dialects and those of Northumbria.
The major Northumbrian dialects are
Geordie,
Mackem,
Pitmatic, and
Tyke. To an outsider's ear the similarities far outweigh the differences between the dialects. As an example of the difference in the softer South County Durham/Wearside the English 'book' is pronounced 'bewk', in Geordie it becomes 'bouk' while in the Northumbrian it's 'byuk'.
Due to the roots of Northumbrian dialects, it's often said that visitors from Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands often find it much easier to understand the English of Northumbria than the rest of the country. An example is the Geordie 'gan hyem' (to go home), which sounds identical to the Danish 'gå hjem', and means the same.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Northumbrian'.
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