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Bernicia (Brythonic, "Brynaich") was a kingdom of the
Angles in northern England during the
6th and 7th centuries AD.
It later merged with the kingdom of Deira to form the kingdom of Northumbria.
Its territory is said to have stretched from the Tyne northwards, ultimately reaching
the Firth of Forth, while its western frontier was gradually extended
westward, encroaching on the Cumbric speaking kingdoms of Rheged, Gododdin and Dunbarton.
The chief royal residence was Bamburgh, and near it was the island of Lindisfarne, which became the see of a
bishop.
The first king of whom we have any record is Ida, who is said to
have obtained the throne about 547. Aethelfrith, king of Bernicia, united Deira with his own kingdom around the year 604 and ruled the two kingdoms (united as the kingdom of Northumbria) until he was overthrown and
killed by Edwin, son of Aella, king of Deira, around the year 616.
Following the disastrous Battle of Hatfield
Chase on October 12, 633, in which
Edwin was defeated and killed by Cadwallon
ap Cadfan of Gwynedd and Penda of Mercia, Northumbria again was
divided into Bernicia and Deira. Bernicia was then briefly ruled by Eanfrith, son of Aethelfrith, but after about a year he went to Cadwallon to plea for peace and was
killed. Eanfrith's brother Oswald succeeded him, raised
an army and finally defeated Cadwallon at the Battle of
Heavenfield in 634; after this victory, he reunited Deira with Bernicia. The kings of
Bernicia were thereafter supreme in Northumbria, although Deira had its own sub-kings at times during the reigns of Oswiu and his son Ecgfrith.
Bede wrote about Bernicia in his Historia Ecclesiastica.
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