Chapter 26

In the year of our Lord 684, King Egfrid of the Northumbrians sent an army into Ireland under the command of Bert, which brutally harassed an inoffensive people who had always been friendly to the English, sparing neither churches nor monasteries from the ravages of war. The islanders resisted force by force as well as they could, and implored the merciful aid of God, praying Heaven long and earnestly to avenge them. And although those who curse may not inherit the kingdom of God, one may well believe that those who were justly cursed for their wickedness quickly suffered the penalty of their guilt at the hands of God their Judge. For in the following year King Egfrid, ignoring the advice of his friends and in particular of Cuthbert, of blessed memory, who had recently been made bishop, rashly led an army to ravage the province of the Picts. The enemy pretended to retreat, and lured the king into narrow mountain passes, where he was killed with the greater part of his forces on the twentieth of May in his fortieth year and the fifteenth of his reign.¹ As I have said, his friends had warned him against this campaign; but in the previous year he had refused to listen to the reverend Father Egbert, who begged him not to attack the Irish who had done him no harm; and this was his punishment, that he now refused to listen to those who tried to save him from destruction.

Henceforward the hopes and strength of the English realm began

‘to waver and slip backward ever lower.’²

The Picts recovered their own lands that had been occupied by the English, while the Irish living in Britain and a proportion of the Britons themselves regained their freedom, which they have now preserved for about forty-six years. Many of the English at this time were killed, enslaved, or forced to flee from Pictish territory. Among them, the most reverend man of God Trumwine, who had been appointed their bishop, withdrew with his people from the monastery of Abercurnig, which was situated in English territory but stood close to the firth that divides the lands of the English from those of the Picts. Wherever he could, he recommended his own people to friends in various monasteries. He himself chose to live in the often-mentioned monastery of Streanaeshalch. There, for several years, he lived an austere life with a few of his own folk, to the benefit of many besides himself. On his death, he was buried in the church of blessed Peter the Apostle with the honours due to his life and dignity. The royal nun Aelffled, with her mother Eanfled whom I mentioned earlier, ruled the monastery at this period: and when Bishop Trumwine came, she found him a great help in the administration of the monastery and a great comfort in her own life. Egfrid’s successor on the throne was Aldfrid, a man well-read in the Scriptures, who was said to be brother of Egfrid and son of King Oswy. He ably restored the shattered fortunes of the kingdom, though within smaller boundaries.

On the sixth of February in the same year of our Lord 685, King Hlothere of Kent died after a reign of twelve years, his brother Egbert having reigned nine years. He was wounded in battle against the South Saxons, whom Edric, son of Egbert, had raised against him, and he died as his wound was being dressed. This Edric succeeded him and reigned a year and a half; on his death, various alien kings and usurpers plundered the kingdom for a while, until Wictred, son of Egbert, its rightful king, established himself on the throne, and freed the nation from foreign invasion by his devotion and diligence.