Percies being now crushed, and their head, Henry Percy, being | east and south, much faulted and repeated in places, but passing in prison. Northumberland did not at first join his brother Warwick and the other Nevilles when they revolted against Edward IV., but neither did he help the king. Edward, doubtless suspecting him, restored the carldom of Northumberland and its vast estates to Henry Percy, while John Neville's only recompense was the barren title of marquess of Montagu. At Pontefract in 1470 he and his men declared for Henry VI., a proceeding which compelled Edward IV. to fly from England, and under the restored king he regained his position as warden, but not the carldom of Northumberland. He did not attempt to resist Edward IV. when this king landed in Yorkshire in March 1471, but he fought under Warwick at Barnet, where he was slain on the 14th of April 1471. His son George (d. 1483) was betrothed to Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV., and was created duke of Bedford in 1470, but the marriage did not take place and he was deprived of his dukedom in 1477. into Coal Measures and Magnesian Limestone in the south-eastern NORTHUMBERLAND, the northernmost county of England, Deep glens and valleys, scoring the uplands, and richly wooded except at their heads, are characteristic of the rivers. Of these the chief are the Tweed, forming the north-eastern part of the Scottish border, its tributary the Till (with its feeders the Glen and College), the Aln and the exquisite Coquet, flowing into Alnmouth Bay, the Wansbeck, with its tributary the Font, the Blyth and the Tyne, forming part of the boundary with Durham, the union of the North and South Tynes. Many of the upland streams attract trout-fishermen. Geology. The core of the county, in a geological aspect, is the northern Cheviots from Redesdale head nearly to the Tweed. Its oldest rocks are gritty and slaty beds of Silurian age, about the head of the rivers Rede and Coquet and near the Breamish south of Ingram-a part of the great Silurian mass of the southern uplands of Scotland. Volcanic activity about the period of the Old Red Sandstone resulted in the felspathic porphyrites, passing into the syenites and granites, that form the mass of the northern Cheviots. Round this core there now lie relays of Carboniferous strata dipping The top of the Coal Measures is wanting. After a slight tilting of the strata and the denudation that removed it, the Permian rocks were deposited, consisting of Magnesian Limestone, a thin fish-bed below it, and yellow sands and some red sandstone (with plants of removed. They form Tynemouth rock, and lie notched-in against Coal Measure species) at the base. These rocks are now all but the 90-fathom dyke at Cullercoates, and again are touched (the base only) at Seaton Sluice. No higher strata have been preserved. The chief faults of the county extend across it. Its igneous rocks, other than the Cheviot porphyrites and a few contemporaneous sheet of basalt forced between planes of bedding (perhaps at the traps in the lowest Carboniferous, are all intrusive. An irregular close of the Carboniferous period) forms the crag-making line of the Great Whinsill, which, with many shifts, breaks and gaps, of basalt dykes cross the county, and were probably connected with the plateau of Miocene volcanic rocks in the Hebrides. Everywhere the Glacial period has left rocks rounded and scored, and rockfragments from far and near rubbed up into boulder-clay. The glaciers at first held with the valleys, but as the ice-inundation grew they spread out into one sheet-the Cheviot tops, heavily ice-capped, alone rising above it. Two great currents met in confluence around these hills-one from across the western watershed, the other skirting the coast from the north. Boulders from Galloway; Criffel, the Lake District and other places adjacent, and from the Lammermuirs and Berwickshire, lie in their track. Of moraines there are only a few towards the hills. Glaciated shell-fragments have been detected at Tynemouth. Laminated brick clays occur among the boulder-clays. Sheets and mounds of gravel of the nature of kames exist here and there on the low grounds, and stretch in a chain over the low watershed between Haltwhistle and Gilsland, sparsely dotting also some more upland valleys. An upper boulderclay, containing flints, skirts the coast. The older valleys are all pre-Glacial, and may date from the Miocene period. They are much choked up with Glacial deposits, and lie so deep below the surface that, if they were cleared-out arms of the sea, one of them, 140 ft. deep at Newcastle, would extend for miles inland. After the departure of the glaciers the streams here and there wandered into new positions, and hence arises a great variety of smooth slope and rocky gorge. In the open country atmospheric waste has hollowed out the shales at their outcrops, leaving the sandstones, &c., as protruding "edges," roughened here and there into crags. In the lower grounds, where this surfacedissection first began, the " have much run together; on edges the heights, whose turn came last, they are often prominent and crest-like, but have glacier-rounded brows. Many old tarns are now sheeted over with peat. The sloping peat-fields are often the sites of straggling birch-woods, now buried. Climate. The climate is bracing and healthy, with temperate summers (e.g. the average July temperature at Alnwick is 57.9° F.). In spring east winds prevail over the whole county. The lambing season in the higher uplands is fixed for the latter half of April, and is even then often too early. In summer and autumn west winds are general. The rainfall gradually increases as the country rises from the coast, thus the mean annual fall at Shields is 26-32 in., at Alnwick 31-04 in., while on the western borders 40 to 60 in. are recorded. East winds in summer bring rain to the interior. The smell from the coal-field, the lighter grime of which is detected as far as Cumberland, is taken by the shepherd for a sign of wet. Agriculture, &c.-About five-ninths of the total area is under cultivation, and of this nearly five-sevenths is in permanent pasture. There are also about 470,000 acres under hill pasture. South of the river Coquet there is a broad tract of cultivation towards the coast that sends lessening strips up the valleys into the interior. From the Coquet northwards another breadth of enclosed ground stretches almost continuously along the base of the Cheviot hills. In the basin of the Till it becomes very fertile, and towards the Tweed the two breadths unite. In the porphyritic Cheviots the lower hills show a great extent of sound surface and good grass. The average hill-farms support about one sheep to 2 acres. A coarser pasturage covers the Carboniferous hills, and the proportion of stock to surface is somewhat less. In the highest fells the congeries of bogs, hags and sandstone scars, with many acres dangerous to sheep are worthless to the farmer. The lower uplands are a patchwork of coarse grasses (mown by the "muirmen heather, or, in the popular terms, heather and "white ground,' into "bent-hay ") and for it is blanched for eight months in the year. Heather is the natural cover of the sandstones and of the sandy glacier-débris ncar them. On the uplands they grow bents; lower down they are apt to be cold and strong, but are much relieved by patches and inworkings of gravel, especially north of the Wansbeck. The prevalent stream-alluvium is sandy loam, with a tincture of peat. The arable regions are very variable. Changes of soil are probably as numerous as fields. The bulk of the acreage under corn crops, which has greatly diminished, is under oats and barley, and turnips occupy some five-sixths of the area under green crops. Northumberland is one of the largest sheep-rearing counties in Great Britain. Of these, the half-breds-crosses between the Leicester (or Shropshire) and Cheviot breeds-occupy the lower enclosed grounds, the pure Cheviots are on the uplands and the hardier black-faced breeds lie out on the exposed heathery heights. The cattle are chiefly shorthorns and Galloways. They are very largely raised, chiefly for fattening purposes. The practice of paying wages in kind has passed greatly into disuse. Some of the shepherds still receive "stock-wages," being allowed to keep forty or fifty sheep and several cows on their employers' farms in lieu of pay. them really copartners, has probably done much to render them the This arrangement, which makes singularly fine class of men they are. Other Industries.-The manufactures of the county chiefly come from the Tyne, which is a region of ironworks, blast-furnaces, shipbuilding yards, ropeworks, coke-ovens, alkali-works and manufactories of glass, pottery and fire-bricks, from above Newcastle to the sca, Machines, appliances, conveyances and tools are the principal articles of manufacture in metal. There is great activity in all trades concerned in pit-sinking and mine-working. In the other parts of the county there are a few small cloth-mills, a manufactory of tan gloves at Hexham, some potteries and numbers of small brick and tile works. There are several sca-fishing stations, of which North Shields is by far the most important. The salmon fisheries are also valuable. Communications.-Communications are provided almost wholly by the North-Eastern railway, of which the main line enters the county at Newcastle and runs N. by Morpeth, and near the coast. to Berwick, where a junction on the East Coast route from London to Scotland is effected with the North British railway. Numerous branch railways serve the populous south-eastern district, and there are connexions westward to Hexham and Carlisle, up the Tweed valley into Scotland and (by the North British line) up the North Tyne valley from Hexham. The principal ports besides the Tyne ports are Blyth, Amble (Warkworth Harbour), Alnmouth and Berwick. The Tyne is one of the most important centres of the coal-shipping trade in the world. Population and Administration.-The area of the ancient county is 1,291,530 acres with a population in 1891 of 506,442, and in 1901 of 603,498. In physique the Northumbrian is stalwart and robust, and seldom corpulent. The people have mostly grey eyes, brown hair and good complexions. The inhabitants of the fishing villages appear to be Scandinavian; and parts of the county probably contain some admixture of the old Brit-Celt, and a trace of the Gipsy blood of the Faas of Yetholm. The natives have fine characteristics: they are clean, thrifty and plodding, honest and sincere, shrewd and very independent. Their virtues lié rather in solidity than in aspiration. Northumbrian speech is characterized by a "rough vibration 791 r, well of the soft palate" or pharynx in pronouncing the letter known as the burr, a peculiarity extending to the town and liberties of Berwick, and absent only in a narrow strip along the north-west. Over the southern part of the county there is the same duplication of vowel-sounds, such as "peol" for "pool," English forms of speech strike the car, such as " to butch a beef," that is found in the English counties adjacent. Many Oldi.e, to kill a bullock, and curious inversions, such as can help." There is the Old-English distinction in the use of they not "thou to familiars and "ye" to superiors. county is divided into nine wards, answering to hundreds. PopulaThe area of the administrative county is 1,291,515 acres. The tion is densest in the south-east, where the mining district and the Tyneside industrial area are situated. The municipal boroughs in this district are: Newcastle-upon-Tyne (city, county of a city and 51,366), Morpeth (6158), Wallsend (20,918). In this district the following are urban districts: Amble (4428), Ashington (13.956). county borough; pop. 215,328), Tynemouth (county borough, Bedlington (18.766), Blyth (5472), Cowpen (17,879), Cramlington (6437), Earsdon (9020), Gosforth (10,605), Newbiggin-by-the-Sea (2032), Newburn (12,500), Seghill (2213), Weetslade (5453). Whitley and Monkseaton (7705), Willington Quay (7941). The remainder Tweed (13,437) and the urban districts of Alnwick (6716), Hexham of the county contains the municipal borough of Berwick-upon(7071) and Rothbury (1303). The county is in the north-eastern circuit, and assizes are held at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The total number of civil parishes is 523. The ancient county, which is in the in that of Durham, contains 173 ecclesiastical parishes or districts, diocese of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, with the exception of a small portion wholly or in part. The parliamentary divisions of the county are Berwick-upon-Tweed, Hexham, Wansbeck and Tyneside, each returning one member; while the parliamentary borough of Newcastleupon-Tyne returns two members, and those of Morpeth and Tynemouth one member each. Bernicia, which included what is now Northumberland, was History. The first English settlement in the kingdom of effected in 547 by Ida, who, accompanied by his six sons, pushed royal seat of the Saxon kings. About the end of the 6th century through the narrow strip of territory between the Cheviots and the sea, and set up a fortress at Bamburgh, which became the the rule of Ethelfrith, and the district between the Humber Bernicia was first united with the rival kingdom of Deira under lies in the modern parish of St John Lee) by Oswald, under whom and the Forth became known as the kingdom of Northumbria. In 634 Cadwalla was defeated at Hefenfeld (the site of which Christianity was definitely established in Northumbria, and the bishop's see fixed at Hexham, where Bishop Wilfrid erected the famous Saxon church. Oswald also erected a church of stone the Danes under Hinguar and Hubba. The extent of Danish at Tynemouth, which was destroyed in 865 in an incursion of influence in Northumberland has been much exaggerated, however, for though in 876 Halfden, having conquered the whole the permanent settlements were confined to the southern portion of Northumbria, portioned out the lands among his followers, land, the English princes continued to reign at Bamburgh as vassals of the Danes, and not a single place-name with the Danish of the kingdom. In the northern half, which is now Northumbersuffix" by" or "thorpe" is found north of the Tyne. In 938 Athelstan annexed Northumberland to his dominions, and the Danish authority was annulled until its re-establishment by Canute in 1013. The vigorous resistance of Northumbria to the Conqueror was punished by ruthless harrying. The Normans Tynemouth; Eustace Fitz John founded Alnwick Abbey, and rebuilt the Saxon monasteries of Lindisfarne, Hexham and other Norman abbeys were Brinkburn, Hulne, Blanchland and Newminster. Castles were set up at Alnwick, Warkworth, Prudhoe, Dunstanborough, Morpeth, Ford, Chillingham, Langley, Newcastle, Bamburgh, Wark and Norham, a stronghold of the palatine bishops of Durham. E modern sense in 1065 in an entry in the Saxon Chronicle relating The term Northumberland is first used in its contracted Domesday Survey, but the account of the issues of the county, to the northern rebellion. The county is not mentioned in the as rendered by Odard the sheriff, is entered in the Great Roll of Northumberland was found to comprise the whole district of the Exchequer for 1131. In the reign of Edward I. the county NORTHUMBERLAND between the Tees and the Tweed, and to have within it the several liberties of Durham, Sadberg and Bedlington south of Scotland under James I., Northumberland was the scene of the Coquet, and Norham beyond the Coquet, all subject to the perpetual inroads and devastations by the Scots. Norham, From the Norman Conquest until the union of England and bishop of Durham; the liberty of Hexham belonging to the Alnwick and Wark were captured by David of Scotland in the archbishop of York; that of Tynedale to the king of Scotland; wars of Stephen's reign, and in 1290 it was at Norham Castle that of Emildon to the earl of Lancaster; and that of Redesdale that Edward I. decided the question of the Scottish succession to Gilbert de Umfraville, earl of Angus. These franchises were all held exempt from the ordinary jurisdiction of the shire. By of Athol and Menteith ravaged Redesdale, Coquetdale and statute of 1495-1496 the lordship of Tynedale was annexed to Tynedale. In 1314 the county was ravaged by Robert Bruce, in favour of John Baliol. In 1295 Robert de Ros and the earls Northumberland on account of flagrant abuses of the liberties and in 1382 by special enactment the earl of Northumberland of the franchise; the liberty of Hexham was annexed to Northumberland in 1572; Norhamshire, Islandshire and Bedlington-county from the Scots. In 1388 Henry Percy was taken prisoner shire continued to form detached portions of Durham until 1844, and 1500 of his men slain at the battle of Otterburn, immortalized was ordered to remain on his estates in order to protect the when they were incorporated with Northumberland. division into wards existed at least as early as 1295, the Hundred Dunstanborough were garrisoned for the Lancastrian cause in Roll of that year giving the wards of Coquetdale, Bamburgh, 1462, but after the Yorkist victories of Hexham and Hedgley The in the ballad of " Glendale and Tynedale. Chevy Chase." Alnwick, Bamburgh and Bamburgh was taken by storm. In 1513 the king of Scotland Moor in 1464, Alnwick and Dunstanborough surrendered, and During the Civil War of the 17th century Newcastle was garrisoned for the king by the earl of Newcastle, but in 1644 it was slain in the battle of Flodden Field on Branxton Moor. Charles was led there a captive under the charge of David Leslie. Many of the chief Northumberland families were ruined was captured by the Scots under the carl of Leven, and in 1646 in the rebellion of 1715. The shire-court for Northumberland was held at different times at Newcastle, Alnwick and Morpeth, until by statute of 1549 it was ordered that the court should thenceforth be held | in the town and castle of Alnwick, and under the same statute the sheriffs of Northumberland, who had lately been in the habit of appropriating the issues of the county to their private use, were required to hereafter deliver in their accounts to the Exchequer in the same manner as the sheriffs of other counties. The assizes were held at Newcastle, and the itinerant justices, on their approach to the county, were met by the king of Scotland, the archbishop of York, the bishop of Durham and the prior of Tynemouth, who pleaded their liberties either at a well called Chille near Gateshead, if the justices were proceeding from York, or, if from Cumberland, at Fourstanes. In these franchises the king's writ did not run, and their owners performed the office of sheriff and coroner. Among other Northumbrian landowners claiming privileged jurisdiction in 1293 was Robert de Quonla, who claimed that he and his men were quit of the suits of the shire and wapentake; the prior of St Mary of Carlisle claimed to exclude the king's bailiffs from executing their office in his fee of Corbridge, and that he and his men were quit of the suits of the shire and wapentake. The burgesses of Newcastle claimed return of writs in their borough, and Edmund, the brother of Edward I., claimed return of writs and exemptions from the sheriff's jurisdiction in his manor of Stamford. Newcastle was made a county by itself by Henry IV. in 1400, and has jurisdiction in admiralty cases. Ecclesiastically the county was in the diocese of Durham, and in 1291 formed the archdeaconry of Northumberland, comprising the deaneries of Newcastle, Corbridge, Bamburgh and Alnwick. In 1535 the archdeaconry included the additional deanery of Morpeth. The archdeaconry of Lindisfarne was formed in 1845, and subdivided into the rural deaneries of Alnwick, Bamburgh, Morpeth, Norham and Rothbury; the archdeaconry of Northumberland then including the deaneries of Bellingham, Corbridge, Hexham and Newcastle-uponTyne. In 1882 Northumberland was formed into a separate diocese with its see at Newcastle, the archdeaconries and deaneries being unaltered. In 1885 the additional deaneries of Tynemouth and Bedlington were formed in the archdeaconry of Northumberland, and in 1900 the deanery of Glendale in the archdeaconry of Lindisfarne. " much impeded by the constant ravages of internal and border warfare, and in 1376 the commonalty of Northumberland begged The early industrial development of Northumberland was consideration for their-sheriff, who, although charged £100 for the profits of the county, through death and devastation by the Scots could only raise £53, 3s. 4d. Piccolomini (Pope Pius II.), who passed through the county and desolate condition, and as late as the 17th century, Camden, Again Aeneas Sylvius the antiquarian, describes the lands as rough and unfit for cultidisguised as a merchant in 1436, leaves a picture.of its barbarous vation. The mineral resources, however, appear to have been exploited to some extent from remote times. It is certain that coal was used by the Romans in Northumberland, and some coal ornaments found at Angerton have been attributed to the 7th century. In a 13th-century grant to Newminster Abbey a road for the conveyance of sea-coal from the shore about Blyth is mentioned, and the Blyth coal-field was worked throughout the 14th and 15th centuries. The coal trade on the Tyne did not exist to any extent before the 13th century, but from that period it developed rapidly, and Newcastle acquired the monopoly of the river shipping and coal-trade. Lead was exported from Newcastle in the 12th century, probably from Hexhamshire, the lead mines of which were very prosperous throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. In a charter from Richard I. to Bishop Pudsey creating him earl of Northumberland, mines of silver and iron are mentioned, and in 1240 the monks of Newminster had an iron forge at Stretton. A salt-pan is mentioned at Warkworth in the 12th century; in the 13th century the salt industry flourished at the mouth of the river Blyth, and in the 15th century formed the principal occupation of the inhabitants of North and South Shields. In the reign of Elizabeth glasshouses were set up at Newcastle by foreign refugees, and the Pre-eminent among the great families connected with North-leather and of nets, was largely practised in the 13th century, umberland is that of Percy (q.v.). Ford and Chipchase were and the salmon fisheries in the Tyne were famous in the reign industry spread rapidly along the Tyne. Tanning, both of seats of the Heron family. The Widdringtons were established of Henry I. at Widdrington in the reign of Henry I. and frequently filled the office of sheriff of the county. The barony of Prudhoe was granted by Henry I. to the Umfravilles, who also held the castles of Otterburn and Harbottle and the franchise of Redesdale. From the Ridleys of Willimoteswyke was descended Bishop Ridley, who was martyred in 1555. Aydon Castle was part of the barony of Hugh Baliol. The Radcliffes, who held Dilston and Cartington in the 15th century and afterwards acquired the extensive barony of Langley, became very powerful in Northumberland after the decline of the Percies, and were devoted adherents of the Stuart cause. Corbridge and Newcastle-upon-Tyne each returned two members. The county of Northumberland was represented by two From 1297, however, Newcastle was the only borough repremembers in the parliament of 1290, and in 1295 Bamburgh, sented, until in 1524 Berwick acquired representation and returned two members. Morpeth returned two members from 1553. Under the Reform Act of 1832 the county returned four members in two divisions; Berwick and Newcastle were represented by two members each, and Morpeth and Tynemouth by one member each. Under the act of 1885 the county now returns four members in four divisions. Antuities-Of Anglo-Saxon buildings the Danes left almost | He greatly extended his territories at the expense of the Welsh, nothing. The crypt of Wilfrid's abbey of St Andrew at Hexham is one undoubted remnant; portions of several other churches are very doubtfully pre-Norman. Some thousand Saxon stycas found buried at Hexham, the "fridstool" there, and an ornate cross now shared between Rothbury and Newcastle are the other principal vestiges of Saxon times. The Black Dyke, a bank and ditch crossing the line of the Roman wall about 3 m. east of the Irthing, is supposed by some antiquaries to be the continuation of the Catrail at Peel Fell; the latter was the probable boundary-fence between the Saxon Bernicia and the British Strathclyde. " The ecclesiastical buildings of the county suffered greatly at the hands of the Scots. Not a few of the churches were massive structures, tower-like in strength, and fit to defend on occasion. Lindisfarne Priory, the oldest monastic ruin in the country, dates from 1093. Hexham Abbey Church, raised over the crypt of Wilfrid's cathedral, has been termed a text-book of Early English architecture." Of Brinkburn Priory the church remains, and has been well restored. Hulne Abbey was the first Carmelite monastery in Britain. Besides these there are fragments of Newminster Abbey (1139), Alnwick Abbey (1147) and others. An exquisitely graceful fragment of Tynemouth church is associated with some remains of the older priory. St Nicholas's church, Newcastle (1350), was the prototype of St Giles's, Edinburgh. There is a massive Norman church at Norham, and other Norman and Early English churches at Mitford, Bamburgh, Warkworth (with its hermitage), Alnwick (St Michael's) &c., most of them with square towers. The stone roof of the little church at Bellingham, with its heavy semicircular girders, is said to be now unique. and eventually provoked an invasion of Aidan, king of the Scots, whom he defeated at a place called Daegsastan (603). The first king of Deira of whom we know was Ella, or Aelle, who, according to Bede, was still reigning when Augustine arrived in 597. The Saxon Chronicle, which is a less reliable authority for Northumbrian history, places his death in the year 588. The compiler of this work, however, seems to have used a regnal list of the Bernician kings, which differed considerably from most of those found in our early authorities. Ethelfrith eventually acquired possession of Deira, probably in 604 or 605, perhaps on Ella's death, expelling his son Edwin (q.v.). Thenceforward, with rare intervals, the two kingdoms remained united. Æthelfrith became involved in war with the Welsh towards the end of his reign and captured Chester, probably about 613. Shortly afterwards, in 616, he was defeated and slain in battle on the river Idle by Edwin, who was assisted by the East Anglian king Raedwald. Edwin now became king over both Northumbrian provinces. By his time the kingdom must have reached the west coast, as he is said to have conquered the islands of Anglesea and Man. Under Edwin the Northumbrian kingdom became the chief power in the country. At his death in 633 the kingdom was again divided, Deira falling to his nephew Osric, while "It may be said of the houses of the gentry herein," writes Bernicia was occupied by Eanfrith son of thclfrith. Both Fuller," quot mansiones, tot munitiones,' as being all castles or these kings were slain by Ceadwalla in the following year, but castle-like." Except a few dwellings of the 16th century in New- shortly afterwards the Welsh king was overthrown by Oswald castle, and some mansions built after the Union of England and Scotland, the older houses are all castles. A survey of 1460 mentions (q..), brother of Eanfrith, who reunited the whole of Norththirty-seven castles and seventy-eight towers in Northumberland, umbria under his sway and acquired a supremacy analogous to not probably including all the bastle-houses or small peels of the that previously held by Edwin. After Oswald's defeat and yeomen. At the Conquest Bamburgh, the seat of the Saxon kings, death at the hands of Penda in 642 Bernicia fell to his brother was the only fortress north of York. Norham Castle was built in 1121. None of the baronial castles are older than the time of Henry I. Oswio, while Oswine son of Osric became king in Deira, though A grass mound represents Wark Castle. Alnwick Castle is an array probably subject to Oswio. Oswine's death was compassed by of walls and towers covering about five acres. Warkworth, Prudhoe Oswio in 651, and the throne of Deira was then obtained by and Dunstanburgh castles are fine groups of ruins. Dilston Castle Ethelwald son of Oswald. He is not mentioned, however, has still its romantic memories of the earl of Derwentwater. Bel after 655, so it is probable that Deira was incorporated in the say, Haughton, Featherstone and Chipchase castles are joined with modern mansions. The peel-towers of Elsdon, Whitton Bernician kingdom not long afterwards. After Oswio's victory (Rothbury) and Embleton were used as fortified rectory-houses. over Penda in 654-655 he annexed the northern part of Mercia Seaton Delaval was the work of Vanbrugh. to his kingdom and acquired a supremacy over the rest of England similar to that held by his predecessors. The Mercians. however, recovered their independence in 658, and from this time onward Northumbria played little part in the history of southern England. But Oswio and his son Ecgfrith greatly extended their territories towards the north and north-west, making themselves masters of the kingdoms of Strathclyde and Dalriada, as well as of a large part of the Pictish kingdom. Ecgfrith (q.v.), who succeeded on Oswio's death in 671, expelled the Mercians from Lindsey carly in his reign, but was in turn defeated by them in 679, his brother Elfwine being slain. this time onwards the IIumber formed the boundary between the two kingdoms. In 684 we hear of the first English invasion of Ireland, but in the following year Ecgfrith was slain and his army totally destroyed by the Picts at a place called Nechtansmere (probably Dunnichen Moss in Forfarshire). The Picts and Britons now recovered their independence; for Aldfrith, apparently an illegitimate son of Oswio, who succeeded, made no attempt to reconquer them. He was a learned man and a patron of scholars, and during his reign the Northumbrian kingdom partially recovered its prosperity. He was succeeded in 705 by his son Osred, and under him and his successors Northumbria began rapidly to decline through the vices of its The place-names of the county may be viewed as its etymological antiquities. The Danish test-suffix by is absent. Saxon tons, hams, cleughs (clefts or ravines) and various patronymics are met with in great numbers; and the Gaelic knock (hill) and Cymric caer, der (water), cefn (ridge), bryn (brow), &c., mingle with the Saxon. Many curiosities of place-nomenclature exist, some strange, some expressive, e.g. Blink-bonny, Blaw-wearie, Skirl-naked, Pity Me. AUTHORITIES.-Victoria County History, Northumberland; Northumberland County History Committee, A History of Northumberland (in process) (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1893, &c.); John Hodgson, 4 History of Northumberland, in 3 parts (1827-1840); E. Mackenzie, An Historical View of the County of Northumberland (2nd ed., 2 vols., Newcastle, 1811); Society of Antiquaries, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, A History of Northumberland, pt. i. containing the general history of the county, state of the district under the Saxon and Danish kings, (Newcastle, 1858); Archaeologia Aeliana, or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity, published by the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (4 vols., Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1822-1855; new series, 1857, &c.); William Wallis, The Natural History and Antiquities of Northumberland (2 vols., London, 1769); W. S. Gibson, Descriptive and Historical Notices of some remarkable Northumbrian Castles, Churches and Antiquities, series i. (London, 1848); Early Assize Rolls for Northumberland, edited by William Page, Surtees Society (London, 1891). &c. From NORTHUMBRIA (regnum Northanhymbrorum), one of the most important of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, extended from the Humber to the Forth. Originally it comprised two in-kings and the extravagance of their donations. Osred was slain dependent kingdoms, Bernicia and Deira (q.v.). Each of these in 716. He was succeeded by Coenred 716-718, and Coenred by had a dynasty of its own. The first known king of the former Osric 718-729. The next king was Ceolwulf, to whom Bede was Ida, who, according to tradition, acquired the throne in dedicated his Historia Ecclesiastica in 731. In the same year he 547 and reigned twelve years. To him the foundation of Bam- was deposed and forced to become a monk, but was soon restored burgh is attributed. Four of Ida's sons successively occupied to the throne. In 737 he voluntarily retired to a monastery and his throne: Glappa 559-560, Adda 560-568, Aethelric 568-572, left the kingdom to his cousin Eadberht. The latter appears to and Theodoric 572-579. Of the first three nothing is known, have been a vigorous ruler; in the year 740 we hear of his being but Theodoric is said (Historia Brillonum) to have been besieged involved in war with the Picts. Æthelbald of Mercia seems to by the Welsh under Urien in Lindisfarne. Theodoric was have taken advantage of this campaign to ravage Northumbria. succeeded by Frithuwald 579-585 or 586 and Hussa 586-592 or In 750 Eadberht is said to have annexed a large part of Ayrshire 593. Then Æthelfrith (q.v.), son of Æthelric, came to the throne. I to his kingdom. Finally in 756, having now allied himself with Engus king of the Picts, he successfully attacked Dumbarton | after which date little is known of Northumbrian history for a (Alcluith), the chief town of the Britons of Strathclyde. berht showed considerable independence in his dealings with | by Raegenald (Rögnvaldr grandson of I'varr), a Norwegian king Ead- number of years. About the year 919 the country was invaded the church, and his brother Ecgberht, to whom the well-known letter of Bede is addressed, was from 734 to 766 archbishop of York. In 758 Eadberht resigned the kingdom to his son Oswulf, and became a monk. After his abdication Northumbrian history degenerates into a record of dynastic murders. Oswulf was slain by his household at a place called Mechil Wongtun in 759. Moll Ethelwald, who may have been a brother of Eadberht, succeeded, and after a victory over a certain Oswine, who fell in the battle, abdicated and became a monk probably under compulsion in 765. His successor Alchred claimed descent from Ida, but Simeon of Durham appears to doubt the truth of his claim. He sent an embassy to Charlemagne in 768 and was deposed in 774, whereupon he fled to Bamburgh and afterwards to the Picts. His deposition has been ascribed to a formal act of the Witan, but this seems an antedating of constitutional methods and the circumstances point to a palace revolution. The successor of Alchred was Ethelred son of Moll Ethelwald. In 778 three high-reeves were slain at the instigation of the king. Ethelred was expelled during the next year, perhaps in consequence of this event, andÆlfwald son of Oswulf became king. Elfwald was murdered by Sicga in 789, whereupon Osred his nephew the son of Alchred succeeded. In 790 the banished Æthelred returned to the throne and drove out Osred, whom he put to death in 792. Ethelred, who had married Ælflaed the daughter of Offa, also killed Elf and Elfwine, the sons of Elfwald and was murdered himself at Corbridge in 796. Oswald, who is called patricius by Simeon of Durham, succeeded, but reigned only twenty-seven days, when he was expelled and eventually became a monk. Eardwulf dux, who had apparently fled abroad to escape the wrath of Ethelred, was now recalled and held the crown until 807 or 808. king, but Eardwulf was restored in 808 or 809 after appealing Elfwald then became to the emperor and the pope. Eanred, son of Eardwulf, probably came to the throne in 809 and reigned until 841. It was during his reign in 827 that Northumbria acknowledged the supremacy of Ecgberht, king of Wessex. Eanred was succeeded by his son Ethelred, who was slain in 850, when Osberht came to the throne and reigned until 863. On the expulsion of Osberht, Ella or Elle, succeeded. The chroniclers emphasize the fact that this king was not of royal descent. He is said to have slain Ragnarr Lodbrok. In the year 866 Lodbrok's sons Ingwacre (I'varr, q.v.), Hcalfdene, Ubba and others brought a vast army to England to avenge the death of their father. In the following year they obtained possession of York. Ella seems now to have made peace with the exiled king Osberht, and their united forces succeeded in recovering the city. In the great battle which ensued the Northumbrian army was annihilated and both kings slain (the death of Ella, according to Irish tradition, being due to the treachery of one of his followers). The southern part of Northumbria now passed entirely into the hands of the invaders, but they allowed a certain Ecgberht to reign over the portion of the kingdom north of the Tyne. Ecgberht was expelled in 872 and died in the course of the following year. His successor Ricsig died in 876 and was followed by Ecgberht II., who reigned until 878. He was the last English king who reigned in Northumbria. After him the chief power north of the Tyne came into the hands of a certain Eadulf of Bamburgh, who did not take the kingly title, but accepted the overlordship of Alfred the Great perhaps in 886. In the winter of 874-875 Healfdene returned to Northumbria, which he partitioned among his followers. He was probably killed in Ireland in 877. Simeon of Durham makes his death occur about the same time, after he had been expelled from his country and had lost his reason as a punishment for his misdeeds. After an interregnum of a few years a certain Guthred became king in 883. He is said to have been a slave and to have been appointed king at the command of St Cuthbert, who appeared to Eadred the abbot of Carlisle in a dream. There is some reason for the conjecture that he belonged to the family of Losbrok. He died in 894, from Ireland, who seized York and occupied the lands of St (Oxford, 1896); Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ed. Earle and Plummer |