Offa and the Mercian Wars by Chris Peers Page B

Degsastan, and two years later was responsible for the deaths of the ‘countless number of Welsh’ which the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says were killed at Chester. His expansionist aims, however, were not directed exclusively against the British. At some point early in his reign he married the daughter of the recently deceased Aelle, king of Deira, and incorporated his southern neighbour into a united kingdom, soon to become known as Northumbria.
    Aelle, however, had also left a son, Edwin, who had escaped into exile for fear that Aethelfrith would have him murdered as a potential rival. Edwin features prominently in Bede’s history because of his later role in spreading Christianity in Northumbria, and the chronicler relates how he wandered incognito through ‘many lands and kingdoms’, always just one step ahead of Aethelfrith’s assassins. As discussed above, there is evidence that he spent part of his exile in Mercia, but Cearl was probably not strong enough to resist pressure from Aethelfrith. It has even been suggested that Cearl fought against the Northumbrians at Chester in 605 and was killed there, but this is guesswork. Eventually Edwin was either forced to leave Mercia or decided to do so for his own safety, moving on to East Anglia where King Raedwald made him welcome at his court.
    When news of Edwin’s whereabouts reached Northumbria, Aethelfrith sent messengers to Raedwald with a bribe to induce him to kill his guest. The king at first refused, but the Northumbrians persisted, offering greater rewards, and at the same time threatening war if the fugitive was not disposed of or handed over. From subsequent events it seems that Aethelfrith backed up his threats by advancing southwards with an army, deep into what was to become Mercian territory. Eventually Raedwald, perhaps intimidated by Aethelfrith’s warlike reputation, agreed to comply, but one of Edwin’s friends at court informed him of the plan. Bede tells how the young prince refused to flee – believing that there was nowhere left where he would be safe, he prepared to meet his fate. In his misery he was visited by a spirit who promised that he would not only escape with his life, but would go on to become the greatest king there had ever been among the English people. In return Edwin agreed to follow the advice of whoever would help him to victory. He soon discovered that he had been saved by the intervention of Raedwald’s queen, who argued that for a king to betray a guest, especially for material reward, would be to sacrifice ‘the most valuable of all possessions’, his royal honour.
    Raedwald therefore decided on an aggressive policy, mustered his forces and struck at the Northumbrians without warning. The two armies met on the east bank of the River Idle, a tributary of the Trent, diverted in the seventeenth century, which once flowed as far north as Hatfield Chase near Doncaster. Bede describes the site as in Mercian territory, but there is no indication that the Mercians took any part in the battle. It is not unlikely that Aethelfrith had been expecting local reinforcements, but the speed of the East Anglian onslaught gave him no time to concentrate his forces. According to Bede he was greatly outnumbered by Raedwald’s men, but the battle must nevertheless have been hard fought. Henry of Huntingdon’s account has the East Angles advancing ‘in three bodies, with fluttering standards’. The ferocious Aethelfrith allegedly launched a desperate charge against the division led by Raedwald’s son Raegenhere, routing it and killing its commander. However, Raedwald stood firm in the face of this disaster, and the Northumbrian king became separated from his main body while pressing home the attack on the remaining two columns. He was surrounded and fought to the death, finally falling on top of a heap of East Anglian corpses slain by his own hand. The Northumbrians were decisively