Chapter 24

At this period King Oswy was subjected to savage and intolerable attacks by Penda the above-mentioned King of the Mercians who had slain his brother. At length dire need compelled him to offer Penda an incalculable quantity of regalia and presents as the price of peace, on condition that he returned home and ceased his ruinous devastation of the provinces of his kingdom. But the treacherous king refused to consider his offer, and declared his intention of wiping out the entire nation from the highest to the humblest in the land. Accordingly Oswy turned for help to the mercy of God, who alone could save the land from its barbarous and godless enemy; and he bound himself with an oath, saying: ‘If the heathen refuses to accept our gifts, let us offer them to the Lord our God.’ So he vowed that, if he were victorious, he would offer his daughter to God as a consecrated virgin and give twelve estates to build monasteries. This done, he gave battle with an insignificant force to the pagan armies, which are said to have been thirty times greater than his own and comprised thirty battle-hardened legions under famous commanders. Oswy and his son Alchfrid, trusting in Christ as their leader, met them, as I have said, with very small forces. His other son Egfrid was at the time held hostage at the court of Queen Cynwise in the province of the Mercians. But Oswald’s son Ethelwald, who should have helped them, had gone over to the enemy and had acted as guide to Penda’s army against his own kin and country, although during the actual battle he withdrew and awaited the outcome in a place of safety. When battle had been joined, the pagans suffered defeat. Almost all the thirty commanders who had come to Penda’s aid were killed. Among them Ethelhere, brother and successor of King Anna of the East Angles, who had been responsible for the war, fell with all his men. This battle was fought close by the River Winwaed, which at the time was swollen by heavy rains and had flooded the surrounding country: as a result, many more were drowned while attempting to escape than perished by the sword.¹

In fulfilment of his vow to the Lord, King Oswy gave thanks to God for his victory and dedicated his daughter Aelffled, who was scarcely a year old, to his service in perpetual virginity. He also gave twelve small grants of land, where heavenly warfare was to take the place of earthly, and to provide for the needs of monks to make constant intercession for the perpetual peace of his nation. Six of these lay in the province of Deira, and six in Bernicia, each of ten hides in extent, making one hundred and twenty in all. The daughter whom King Oswy had in this way dedicated to God entered the monastery of Heruteu² or Hart’s Island, at that time ruled by Abbess Hilda. Two years later, the Abbess acquired a property of ten hides at a place called Streanaeshalch,³⁴ where she founded a monastery. In this the king’s daughter became first a novice and later a mistress of the monastic life, until at fifty-nine years of age this holy virgin departed to the wedding-feast and embrace of her heavenly Bridegroom. In the church of this monastery, dedicated to the holy Apostle Peter, she herself, her father Oswy, her mother Eanfled, her mother’s father Edwin, and many other noble folk are buried. This battle was won by King Oswy in the region of Loidis⁵ on the fifteenth of November in the thirteenth year of his reign, to the great benefit of both nations. For not only did he deliver his own people from the hostile attacks of the heathen, but after cutting off their infidel head he converted the Mercians and their neighbours to the Christian Faith.

The first Bishop in the province of the Mercians, together with the people of Lindsey and the Middle Angles, was the above-mentioned Diuma, who died and was buried among the Middle Angles. The second was Ceollach, who resigned the bishopric and returned to the land of the Irish; for both he and Diuma were of Irish race. The third was Trumhere, an Englishman trained and ordained by the Irish, who was abbot of the monastery of In-Getlingum.⁶ As I have said, this was the place where King Oswin had been killed and where his kinswoman Queen Eanfled, in expiation for his unjust death, petitioned King Oswy to grant God’s servant Trumhere, who was also a near relative of the king, land on which to build a monastery; in this way, prayer could be offered for the eternal salvation of both kings, slayer and slain alike. For three years after the death of Penda, King Oswy ruled both the Mercians and the other peoples of the southern provinces; he also subjected most of the Picts to English rule.

At this time he granted Peada, son of Penda, because he was his kinsman, the Kingdom of the South Mercians, which consists of five thousand hides of land and is divided by the River Trent from the land of the North Mercians, which consists of seven thousand hides. In the following spring, however, during the Festival of Easter, Peada was foully assassinated through the treachery, it is said, of his own wife. And three years after Penda’s death the Mercian leaders Immin, Eafa, and Eadbert rebelled against Oswy and proclaimed as king Wulfhere, son of Penda, a youth whom they had kept hidden; and having driven out the representatives of a king whom they refused to acknowledge, they boldly recovered their liberty and lands. Free under their own king, they gave willing allegiance to Christ their true King, so that they might win his eternal kingdom, in heaven. King Wulfhere ruled the Mercians for seventeen years and, as I have said, had Trumhere as his first bishop. The second bishop was Jaruman; the third, Chad; the fourth, Wynfrid. All these in turn held the bishopric of the Mercians under King Wulfhere.