By Thomas Bainbridge
It is curious to imagine: what if England had not entered on the path of becoming a Christian nation? Or what if this conversion had been delayed by just a century or so? Would Britain have still become the global superpower it did? Or would its retention of paganism have relegated it to mediocrity at home and abroad?
Such questions are academic, but there is certainly some merit in looking at an event in which this question hung in the balance.
The Battle of the River Winwaed, in which the Christian forces of Northumbria were marshalled against the pagan King Penda, represents the final clash that determined the religious settlement of England for centuries to come.
Power Struggle
The war between Northumbria and Mercia had been raging for generations as both powers vied for a position of dominance.
While Northumbria had accepted the light of Christianity, the Mercians retained their obscure creed of paganism, the last remaining to do so among all the kingdoms of Britain.
By 655 AD, Northumbria had suffered numerous setbacks in the struggle, as the Mercians were victorious in arms, having killed two successive kings, Edwin and Oswald at the battles of Hatfield Chase and Maserfield.
According to Bede, Oswy, the brother of Oswald, had claimed the Northumbrian throne, and was thrown on the defensive. He was unwilling to do battle against the formidable Mercians in order to preserve his people from the ravages of war.
Penda, though, was bent upon domination of his northern counterpart, and had even recruited Aethelwlad of Deira — nominally under the lordship of Oswy — as a fifth-columnist prepared to throw open the gates to Northumbria.
Penda, guided by Aethwald, invaded Northumbria and marched as far as Bamburgh, laying siege to the citadel and capital of Bernicia.
Low Ebb
Oswy, dejected, was forced to retreat with his army north to the city of Iudeu on the Firth of Forth, still within his kingdom, where he lay forlorn. His fate seemed to be sealed: his lands were overrun and his crown hung in the balance. In desperation, Oswy promised Penda a large sum of gold as a last ditch attempt to ward him away.
Iudeu, thought to be Inveresk next to Musselburgh, was once a Roman fort at the end of the Antonine Wall. Some fanciful chroniclers even took Iudeu to be Judea, believing Oswy took refugee in the Holy Land… In a sense, he did take refuge in God’s spiritual kingdom.
Realising the foolishness of appeasement, Oswy declared that:
“Since the heathen condemns our gifts, let us offer them to One who will accept them, the Lord our God.”
The fires of Christian devotion kindled in his heart and he fervently prayed for three days that he might vanquish his foe and be restored to his rightful throne. Erecting a cross, he vowed before it to enter his daughter into a nunnery if he should be victorious, and that he would grant twelve parcels of land to the Church to found monasteries.
From there, with his meagre warband and his revived spirit, he headed southward to do battle once more.
Change of Fortunes
Meanwhile, all was not well in Penda’s camp. He was not a man to easily inspire devotion, and despite his successes, his allies were not thrilled at fighting in a cause which might see him become overlord of all Britain.
As battle drew nearer, Cadafael of Gwynedd turned about and retreated with his men, being dubbed Catguommed, ‘the runaway’. His name was never more heard of.
The traitor Aethelwald of Deira, too, stood on the sidelines, hoping to double-cross his erstwhile ally if the opportunity should arise.
Slaughter
The location of the battle remains obscure, the name ‘Winwaed’ having been lost to history.
If fought in the region of Inveresk, as we might be led to believe, then, as C.J. Bates claimed in 1897, the battle occurred around Stow of Wedale in the Borders, six miles north of Melrose, with the prefix ‘Wed’ offering a clue.
However, another eminent historian, Frank Stenton, believed it to have taken place much further south, in the region around Leeds, in line with Bede’s history:
“King Oswy brought the campaign to a close in the district of Loidis [Leeds] on 15th November in the thirteenth year of his reign.”
Whether by this Bede meant that the end of the campaign was identical with the location of battle is unclear.
Whatever the case, it was decisive. Outnumbered three to one, Oswy, with his son Alcfirth, trusting to the greater skill of their men, fell upon the enemy in an ambitious night attack. The gambit paid off and Penda was killed alongside thirty princes he counted as allies.
The slaughter was great and the river ran red with blood. As Penda had promised to give no quarter, so Oswy’s army gave none, wreaking their vengeance on the invaders.
The reversal of fortune was staggering. The hitherto dominant Penda was laid ignominiously in his grave, while Oswy, who had lately seemed defeated, had successfully repelled an invasion which had even been aided and abetted by traitors within his own kingdom.
Photo: Gary Holland
Clemency to Traitors
Yet towards Aethelwald, who he could have executed without so much as an afterthought, Oswy was magnanimous. As he held to his faith, he recalled the power of forgiveness, and gave Aethelwald his life if he would devote it to the power that had saved him. The latter thus became a hermit in Kirkdale to the end of his days.
The battle was, in the words of Bede:
“To the great benefit of both peoples; for he freed his own subjects from the hostile devastations of the heathen people and converted the Mercians and the neighbouring kingdoms to a state of grace in the Christian faith, having destroyed their heathen ruler.”
[In PenBal articles, AI imagery is sometimes used where an appropriate historical photograph or illustration doesn’t exist.]
Brytenwealda — Overlord of Britain
Oswy annexed all the lands of Mercia north of the Trent to his kingdom, while the remainder was granted to Penda’s son, Peada, who, by his marriage to Oswy’s daughter, was too converted to Christianity.
Flushed with the laurels of his victory, Oswy remembered his promises. Not least among the monasteries he founded was Streoneshalh, now Whitby. Here he would hold the great Synod which adopted the Roman forms of worship, the final ornament to his momentous legacy.
Bates, considering its implications, asserted:
“In the whole annals of Christendom, no one battle perhaps has had such far-reaching consequences; yet the circumstances of the campaign that led to it, nay even the very locality of the fight itself has been allowed to fade from our national history.”
