Free A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons by Geoffrey Hindley Page A

important element in their wealth. War booty was a prime source of income for a warrior society. As it advanced, the northern kingdom absorbed British kingdoms on the Pennines, such as Elmet, while their British enemies further west could exploit the gold mines of North Wales. Nor should one forget that Eboracum (later York) was one of the richest of Roman centres. The conquest of Pictish territories to the north (at one point the Bernician kingdom embraced what is now Edinburgh – ‘Din Eidyn’ or ‘Edwin’s burh’, according to rival theories) no doubt yielded profits.
    Most theories relating to post-Romano-British society and the transition to the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms rely on speculation. The archaeological evidence for continuity can be ambiguous and limited even at such extensive and complex settlements as West Heslerton in North Yorkshire. But a peaceful transition from late Romano-British occupation to Anglian overlordship in the southern regions of Northumbria would have yielded dividends in terms of agrarian organization and prosperity.
    Northumbria was secure and, in a gesture of triumph that would have been understood by every warrior, King Oswiu annexed to himself land in North Mercia reputedly 7,000 hides in area – exactly the extent of the lands that Hygelac, king of the Geats, awarded to Beowulf when he slew Grendel. He also founded twelve monasteries, among them Gilling, the site of Oswine’s murder, and Whitby (then called Streanæshalch). Deira was obliged to accept his son, Alchfrith, as its sub-king. But even now Northumbria’s southern kingdom still followed an independent line, above all in religion.
    In addition to the short-lived dynastic alliance with Peada (to whom he gave the kingdom of Southern Mercia, but who diedsoon after that), Oswiu dispatched Irish and English clergy into Middle Anglia and beyond, and persuaded Sigeberht, king of the East Saxons, to accept both baptism and Cedd, of Lindisfarne, as bishop. Cedd built a church dedicated to St Peter at Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex, which is the oldest Anglo-Saxon building still more or less intact. Built on the site of a Roman fort about 653, using the original brick, it was in later generations used as a farm building. At the time it was an outpost of Northumbrian Irish Christianity, deep in the sphere of influence of the archbishops of Canterbury. Cedd also built a church at Tilbury, a further encroachment by the Ionian–Bernician bishop well beyond the boundaries of Northumbria but a fitting extension of influence for an appointee of Oswiu, holder of the imperium in Britain.
    But now, under Alchfrith, Deira was going the Roman way. He ejected the Irish monks at the monastery of Ripon and in their place established his mother Queen Eanflæd’s dynamic favourite, Wilfrid. There were numerous points of difference between the Roman and parts of the Irish church: points of doctrine and biblical teaching; the style of the monks’ tonsure; and the date for the celebration of Easter. There were at least four systems for its calculation, one of which was used in the Roman church and by Canterbury, and another used in parts of Ireland and at Iona and Lindisfarne, and hence in Northumbria. The Northumbrian court was blessed with two factions: the king’s, what one might call the Iona/Lindisfarne party, and the Canterbury Queen’s party. At the very least it was inconvenient for the court to be celebrating this major religious event on days that might vary by as much as four weeks – and was led up to by forty days of fasting. But Oswiu and Eanflæd had accommodated the inconvenience for the best part of twenty years. Why was it that in 664 the king decided to settle the allegiance of the Northumbrian church? It is hard not to see Wilfrid as the prime mover.
    Kings and noble clerics
     
    It is now time to look at three of the most influential men in seventh-century Northumbrian society and politics, all born around the year 630 and entering