Summary: When we last left off, Oswald son of AEthelfrith and Acha, defeated and killed Cadwallon of Gwynedd at the battle of Heavenfield. The defeat was a serious blow for the Northern Welsh kingdom. In fact, in the praise poem written about Cadwallon, we see the first use of the term which would become the modern name for the Wales… Cymru. The land of the western Cumbrogi…or comrades. I love the fact that the term appears at this point in the story. And after such an incredible advance, and then suffering a terrible blow, why wouldn’t you use a term that would emphasize a sense of communal bonds? But it was a terrible defeat, and the line of Ida was once again ruling the North. But where was Cadwallon’s ally, Penda of Mercia, in all of this? Well, it looks like he was back down in Mercia with his prisoner, Eadfrith, the last son of Edwin. However, with the death of Cadwallon and the rise of Oswald (the son of Edwin’s enemy) Eadfrith had suddenly lost all market value. He wouldn’t be useful as a hostage, and as for creating some sort of marital alliance through the line of Edwin… that was unlikely to happen since both Oswald and Oswiu could trace their lines to the royal houses of both Deira and Bernicia. So why keep Eadfrith around at all? Well, it looks like Penda wondered the same thing. Because soon after Oswald took Northumbria, Eadfrith was killed at the court of Penda. Edwin’s line was all but extinguished. All that was left that we know of is Eanflaed, the daughter of Edwin. For all intents and purposes, the House of Deira, with no male heirs, was gone. And with it, went the Northumbria hegemony. Edwin had made incredible strides, but in the end he lost everything. Had he been successful, though, we might have seen the rise of a unified English kingdom in the Seventh century.
