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Updated: June 19, 2025
Their progress may be traced in the names of English kingdoms and shires: in the south the Saxons founded the kingdoms of Sussex, Essex, Middlesex, and Wessex; in the east the Anglians founded East Anglia, though in the north they retained the Celtic names, Bernicia and Deira.
The West Saxons, on the other hand, and the West Engle, or Mercians, still remained free to conquer and expand on the south of the Humber, as the Englishmen of Deira and Bernicia remained free to the north of that river.
One day a rich merchant came to Bernicia, a man who traded with the far-away countries of Gaul and Italy, and the children were brought for him to see. The merchant looked at the rosy faces and strong limbs of the boys. 'They'll do, he said; 'I'll take the lot. One of my ships is just starting for Italy, and they can go on board. The Roman ladies like fine boys like these to wait upon them.
The country was divided into a number of little kingdoms, which were always at war with one another, for each king wanted to be more powerful than any other in the land. While England was in this state of continual warfare, the kingdom of Deira in the north was invaded by a band of raiders from a neighbouring kingdom called Bernicia.
He entirely subdued the county now called Northumberland, the bishopric of Durham, as well as some of the south- east counties of Scotland; and he assumed the crown under the title of King of Bernicia.
Matth. Westmin. reckoneth eight kingdoms as thus; The kingdom of Kent, the kingdom of Sussex, the kingdom of Essex, the kingdom of Eastangle, the kingdom of Mercia, the kingdom of Westsex, and the kingdom of Northumberland, which was diuided into two kingdoms, that is to say, into Deira and into Bernicia: wherevnto W. Harison addeth the ninth in the first part of his chronologie, and calleth it Wales.
Still more curious is the fact that West Saxon writers regularly speak of their own nation as a part of the Angelcyn and of their language as Englisc, while the West Saxon royal family claimed to be of the same stock as that of Bernicia.
Bernicia seized on the fall of Eadwine to recall the line of Æthelfrith to its throne; and after a year of anarchy his second son, Oswald, became its king. The Welsh had remained encamped in the heart of the north, and Oswald's first fight was with Cadwallon.
It is not known whether the Romans imparted to the local tribes of the Brigantes their own Christianity; but two centuries after the withdrawal of the legions the greater part of what is now Yorkshire was absorbed by the invading Angles into their kingdom of Deira, which had itself been united with the more northern kingdom of Bernicia to form the single realm of Northumbria.
It was the hostility of the states around it to the West-Saxon rule which had roused so often revolt in the Danelaw; but from the time of Brunanburh we hear nothing more of the hostility of Bernicia, while Cumbria was conquered by Eadmund and turned adroitly to account in winning over the Scots to his cause.
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