The Paladins of Edwin the Great

by Sir Clements R. Markham

CHAPTER III

DEATH OF ALCA

It was in the autumn of the year 603 that the battle was fought which finally settled the question of supremacy between Scots and English. Sivel had already introduced the system of counting time Anno Domini among the associates of the Coelred–Gemót, which was a valuable help to them, both in discussing the past and forecasting the future. This year was a great epoch in their lives. Lilla and Bassus were comparatively veterans. All the rest were about to fight in their first battle.

Ethelfrith's army was in the upper part of the Eden valley. It was known that a mighty host was being led by Ædan and by Hering the son of Hussa up the course of the river. Bassus had arranged with his friends that strong parties of scouts should be thrown out to watch the movements of the enemy. They were led by Forthere, Godric, and Sivel. After a few days Forthere came back with the news that a large body of the enemy, apparently nearly half their army, had been detached, and was marching up the hills to the west. "Our plan works," said Bassus to Lilla, "just as the plan of Narses worked, our great master in the art of war." "But," said Lilla, "the King's brother is not another John the Prefect. The reckless Theobald will never avoid an action." An hour afterwards Ethelfrith sent a message to his brother with reiterated commands to retreat before the advancing foe. Then the English host, by rapid marches, hurried down the valley and attacked the weakened army of Ædan with overwhelming force. The result was never doubtful. The Scots were nearly exterminated, and Ædan fled almost alone from the field. After two days to rest and recruit their strength, the English warriors were fresh and ready to complete their work. Then a messenger arrived with the news that Theobald had refused to obey his brother's orders. He would retreat before no man, he declared. He attacked the superior force of the enemy when weather and ground and everything was against him. He gave himself no chance. There was a desperate fight, followed by the death of Theobald and a prodigious slaughter of the Bernicians. But the Scots were reported to be much weakened and worn out with long marches.

"Now for the final blow," said Bassus. The scouts, under the direction of Forthere, kept him well informed of the movements of the enemy and the nature of the ground. The Scots were marching so as to expose their flank. At the right moment the English army was set in motion and came upon the enemy at a place which was long famous, called Degsastan. The remnant of the army of the Scots was here literally annihilated.

The news of this great victory spread over the island. It was thought that no leader so skilful and prudent, so wise and valorous, had ever been known in England as Ethelfrith the Wild. The fame of his generalship continued long. A hundred years afterwards the Venerable Bede declared that Ethelfrith "ravaged the Britons more than all the great men of the English, insomuch that he might be compared to Saul. To him might justly be applied the saying of the Patriarch, 'Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.' He was a most worthy king, and ambitious of glory." Lilla and Bassus, the real generals, had far more precious fame in the praise of the Queen, and the full and ample reward of all the friends was in the approval and smiles of Alca. Bede says that "from that time no King of the Scots dared to come into Britain to make war on the English to this day."

For the next few years all the leaders in the service of Ethelfrith had much harassing work in repelling incursions from the direction of Strathclyde, and it became known that the King of Gwynedd was assembling a great army to stake his fortune where the Scots had failed. His standard was raised at Chester. Bassus was deeply impressed with the maxim that knowledge was power. He acquired a minute personal acquaintance with the routes across the moors to Chester. Forthere again commanded the bands of scouts, and kept Lilla and Bassus well informed of the numbers and movements of the enemy. There was no difficulty in marching through Elmet, as old Certicus was neutral, indeed he had only too good an understanding with Ethelfrith. The English army was assembled at York. The Deiran chiefs were at the head of their people, who were more numerous than the Bernicians, the latter having suffered severely in the war with the Scots.

Lilla and Bassus explained their plans to the Queen, and a few days afterwards Ethelfrith announced them in council as his own. That wild King was managed with consummate tact. The march was made direct over the moors to Chester. The men of Gwynedd were found drawn up outside the old Roman camp of the 20th Legion. It was their colony of Deva. As battle was about to be joined, Ethelfrith observed a crowd of priests, who had come from the adjacent monastery of Bangor–Iscoed to offer up prayers for the soldiers, standing apart in a place of more safety. The King asked who they were, and Forthere told him that they were monks praying for his defeat, and that there was a guard to protect them, commanded by a British chief named Brochvael. "If, then," said Ethelfrith, "they cry to their God against us, though they do not bear arms, yet they fight against us because they oppose us by their prayers." He ordered them to be attacked first, and then the chiefs of Deira charged the host of Gwynedd, and, after a long and desperate fight, the English gained a complete victory. About two hundred priests were slaughtered, and only fifty escaped, their defender Brochvael having decamped at the first appearance of danger. Their great monastery of Bangor–Iscoed was destroyed. The holy monks of Canterbury taught that the massacre of British priests at Chester was a sign of Divine vengeance on them for presuming to differ in opinion from Augustine on the subject of the time of keeping Easter. That charitable prelate, who died in 604, had already cursed them on the same account.

The victory of Chester was gained in 607, and from that time there was peace in Northumbria for many years. The Deiran thegns returned to their homes. Coelred and Porlor were at Stillingfleet, and Hereric was generally with them. Lilla and Bassus abode at Hemingborough, Forthere and Sivel at Ulfskelf, and Godric was now at Markham, near the banks of the Idle, his father, Ulchel, having died. Queen Alca, in these latter years, passed most of her time at her old home at Aldby. She had her little child Oswald, and the charge of Osric the Atheling, both future kings. There were also several sons of Ethelfrid, fine little fellows, to whom she was very kind—Eanfrid, Oslac, Oswudu, Oslaf, and Offa, who adored her, and a little child named Oswy, recently born to Ethelfrith, but who was not her son. The King was almost always near the northern frontier of his dominions, making raids into the country of the Picts.