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The earl having disobeyed the King's summons, and concerted matters with other accomplices, broke out into open rebellion, with intentions to depose King William, and set up Stephen Earl of Albemarle, son of a sister to William the Conqueror: but all was prevented by the celerity of this active prince; who, knowing that insurrections are best quelled in their beginnings, marched with incredible speed, and surprised the rebels at Newcastle, took the castles of Tynemouth and Bamburgh; where the obstinacy of the defendants provoked him, contrary to his nature, to commit cruelties upon their persons, by cutting off their hands and ears, and other the like inhumanities.
Sad to say, she died of consumption about two years afterwards, after having tried in vain to arrest the course of her sickness by change of air at Wooler and Alnwick; and she sleeps in Bamburgh churchyard, within sound of the sea by which she had spent her short life. "East and west and south acclaim her queen of England's maids.
Here reigned Ida and his sons six of them for more or less short and stormy periods, and Ethelric of Bernicia, who vanquished the neighbouring prince of Deira, and thus reigned as the first king of Northumbria as Northumbria. The fact that Bamburgh is the only pre-Conquest castle in Northumberland disposes of the claim of Alnwick.
Then there was weeping and dolor out of measure. Malory's Morte d'Arthur. Ethelfrith, who succeeded Ethelric, gave the fort to his second wife, Bebba, after whom it was named Bebbanburgh, which soon became Bamburgh.
The Spindlestone, a high crag not far from Bamburgh, and Bamburgh Castle itself, form the scene of this well-known legend. The whole district was in terror of this dreadful monster, which desolated the country-side in its search for food.
He captured Bamburgh the first time that stronghold of the Bernician kings had ever been taken and arranged for two earls to govern Northumbria for him. Athelstan advanced against them and challenged them to a pitched battle on this ground.
Raising his hands to Heaven, he exclaimed, "See, Lord, what ill Penda is doing!" Scarcely had he uttered the words, when the wind changed, and drove the flames away from Bamburgh, blowing them against Penda's host, who thereupon ceased all further attempts against the city.
This was at York; and when the king and queen went to the royal city of Bamburgh, or to their country dwelling at the foot of the Cheviots, Paulinus accompanied them; and wherever he went, he laboured to teach the North-country Angles and Saxons the gospel of Christ.
When the fierce and ruthless internal quarrels, which rent Northumbria after Edbert's glorious reign, had weakened it so that it fell a prey to the gradual encroachments of its northern neighbours, the once royal city of Bamburgh was left in the hands of a noble Saxon family, and the court was removed to Corbridge, which remained the abode of the kings of Northumbria until Northumbria possessed royal rank no longer.
The next year the Scots and the queen's French allies surprised it, and re-captured it for Henry VI. and his courageous queen; but Warwick, "the King-maker," came upon the scene, and after a stout resistance the garrison surrendered. When the Union of the Crowns took place in 1603, Bamburgh was no longer necessary as a defence against the Scots, and its defences were neglected.
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