A.D. 634.
Battle of Hefenfeld. Osuald becomes king of Northumbria.
After the death of Eanfrid, his brother Osuald advanced from the north with an army small indeed in number, as Bede tells us, but strengthened with the faith of Christ, and north of the Tweed, and encountered the army of the Britons, which was greatly more numerous, at a place near the Roman wall called in the Anglic tongue Devisesburn, where a complete victory was gained, and the impious commander of the Britons was slain. The field of battle, Bede tells us, was also called Hefenfelth, or the heavenly field, and was not far from Hexham, in the vale of the Tyne. It has been identified with a place called St. Osualds, close to the wall, and about seven or eight miles north of Hexham; and the British commander must have been driven across the wild moor on the south side of the wall through the Tyne, until he was overtaken at a distance of eight or nine miles from the battlefield, and slain at a little stream called Devisesburn, a tributary of the Rowley water. This battle is termed in the additions to Nennius the battle of Catscaul, and it has been well suggested that this name may be intended for Cad-ys-gual, the battle at the wall. It is somewhat remarkable that while Bede names Caedwalla whenever he has occasion to mention him, he does not name him as the commander who was slain at this battle. Adamnan, who was born in 624, and was therefore ten years old when the battle was fought, tells us that the day before the Saxon ruler Osuald went forth to fight Catlon, a very valiant king of the Britons, he saw Saint Columba in a vision, who told him to march out from his camp to battle the following night, when his foes would be put to flight and his enemy Catlon delivered into his hands; and that the next night King Osuald went forth from his camp to battle, and had a much smaller army than the numerous hosts opposed to him, yet he obtained an easy and decisive victory, for King Catlon was slain, and the conqueror on his return after the battle was ever after ordained by God emperor of all Britain. Adamnan adds that he had this narrative from the lips of his predecessor, the abbot Failbe, who solemnly declared that he had himself heard King Osuald relate it to the Abbot Segine.[[309]] We can hardly have better evidence than this as to the events of the battle, whatever may be said as to the vision, and Tighernac likewise names Catlon, king of the Britons, as King Osuald’s opponent,[[310]] but the name given to Caedwalla in recording the battle in which he slew King Aeduin was not Cathlon but Chon. In the Genealogies annexed to Nennius, Caedwalla is termed Catguollaun, king of Guenedotia, while King Osuald’s opponent is named Catgublaun, king of Guenedotia. It is therefore not impossible that the impious commander of Bede may not have been Caedwalla himself, and that there may be some truth in the account given in the Welsh Bruts that the Caedwalla, who slew Aeduin, survived for many years after; but this is not a matter which much affects our narrative so far as it concerns the history before us.
A.D. 635.
Battle of Seguise between Garnait, son of Foith, and the family of Nectan.
About the same time the family of that Nectan, king of the Picts, who had been dispossessed in 612 seem to have made an effort to recover the throne, for the Annals of Inisfallen have in 634 the death of Aengus, son of Nechtan, and Tighernac records in 635 the battle of Seguise, in which Lochene, son of Nechtan Cennfota, and Cumuscach, son of Aengus, fell. These names are purely Gaelic forms, and ‘Cennfota’ is a Gaelic epithet, meaning long-headed. The Annals of Ulster have the death of Gartnait, son of Foith, in the same year, and say he fell in this battle, which seems to leave little doubt that it was a contest for the throne.[[311]] The battle was probably fought on the west bank of the Tay, a few miles above Dunkeld, at a place now called Dalguise; and on the east side of the river, immediately opposite that place, a cairn once stood about thirty feet in diameter, which contained a single stone coffin, and near it two high upright stones, while at a small distance from the cairn were found a few rude stone coffins. These may have been memorials of the battle. Gartnaidh was succeeded by his brother Bredei, son of Uid or Foith.
A.D. 634.
Battle of Calathros, in which Domnall Breac was defeated.
In the same year in which the battle was fought which placed Osuald on the throne of Bernicia, Domnall Breac, king of the Scots of Dalriada, appears to have made an attempt to wrest the district between the Avon and the Pentland Hills from the Angles,—whether as having some claim to it through his grandfather Aidan, or, what is more probable, as a leader of the Britons, but was defeated at Calathros,[[312]] or Calatria, now Callander—a name applied to a small district between the Roman wall and the Avon; and Bede, who ranks Osuald after Aeduin among those who held imperial authority in Britain, tells us that he held the kingdom within the same boundaries.[[313]]
Cummen the Fair, who was abbot of Iona from 657 to 669, tells us in his Life of Saint Columba, which is still preserved, that, when the saint inaugurated Aidan as king of Dalriada, and placed his hands upon his head, and blessed him, he prophesied of his sons, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, thus addressing him:—‘Believe unhesitatingly, O Aidan, that none of thy enemies shall be able to resist thee, unless thou first act unjustly towards me and my kin. Wherefore exhort thy sons with these words, lest they lose the kingdom,’ which, he adds, took place, for they transgressed the injunction of the man of God, and lost the kingdom. Adamnan, who is also a contemporary authority for the events of this period, quotes this passage, somewhat amplifying it, and adds—‘Now this prophecy hath been fulfilled in our own times in the battle of Roth, in which Domnall Breac, the grandson of Aidan, ravaged without the slightest provocation the territory of Domnall, the grandson of Ainmuireg; and from that day to this (between 690 and 700) they have been trodden down by strangers.’[[314]] The battle termed by Adamnan, Roth, was the battle of Magh Rath, fought in 637 between Domnall, son of Aed, king of Ireland, and Congal Claen, king of Uladh, that is of the Cruithnigh of Dalaradia, and appears to have been a great struggle between the Cruithnigh and kindred tribes with the dominant Scots of the race of Hy Neill. Congal Claen applied for assistance both to the Britons and to the king of Scottish Dalriada, and was supported by a large auxiliary force. His claim upon Domnall Breac arose probably from the connection of his father, Eochadh Buidhe, with the Picts, and the gravamen of the charge against the Dalriadic king was that, by the settlement at the convention of Drumceatt, the hostings and expeditions of Scotch Dalriada were to belong to the king of Ireland, and by ranging himself on the side of the Cruithnigh against him, he not only violated that condition, but assailed the head of the family to which Saint Columba belonged.[[315]]
A.D. 638.
Battle of Glenmairison, and siege of Edinburgh.
In the following year Domnall Breac seems to have made another attempt to wrest the territory between the Avon and the Pentlands from the Angles; and Tighernac records in 638 the battle of Glenmairison, or Glenmureson, which is probably the small stream now called the Mureston Water which flows from the Pentlands into the Linhouse Water near Midcalder, in which his people were put to flight, and the siege of Edinburgh.[[316]] During these wars there appears to have been hitherto a combination of the Britons of Alclyde and the Scots of Dalriada against the Angles and the Pictish population subject to them. It was, in fact, a conflict of the western tribes against the eastern, and of the Christian party against the pagan and semi-pagan, their common Christianity forming a strong bond of union between the two former nations, and after the death of Rhydderch Hael in 603 the Dalriadic kings seem to have taken the lead in the command of the combined forces. Rhydderch, we are told, but on no better authority than that of Jocelyn of Furness in the twelfth century, was succeeded by his son Constantine; but the throne of Alclyde had by this time passed to another branch of the same family, and from whatever cause it arose, a breach now took place between the Britons and the Scots, and we find the British king and the king of Dalriada in a hostile position to one another, and brought into violent conflict, which ended in the fate which Saint Columba predicted for any descendant of King Aidan who should attack |A.D. 642. Domnall Brecc slain in Strathcarron.| the head of the house of Hy Neill overtaking Domnall Breac, who, in December in the year 642, was slain in the upper valley of the river Carron, which was known afterwards as the forest of Strathcawin, by Oan, king of the Britons, in the fifteenth year of his reign.[[317]] Dalriada seems to have fallen into a state of anarchy on the death of Domnall Breac. During the remainder of this century we find no descendant of Aidan recorded bearing the title of king of Dalriada; and it is probable, from Adamnan’s remark that from that day to this they have been trodden down by strangers, that the Britons now exercised a rule over them.[[318]]
The same year which saw Domnall Breac slain in Strathcarron likewise brought Osuald’s reign over Northumbria to a disastrous end. His first effort, on finding himself firmly seated on the throne, had been to re-establish the Christian Church in his dominions, and to drive back the flow of paganism and apostasy which had overspread the country. He naturally turned to the form of Christianity in which he had been educated, and sent to the elders of the Scots, desiring them to send him a prelate who might instruct the nation of the Angles once more in the Christian faith, and ere long received Bishop Aidan from them for this purpose. The account of this mission belongs more to the History of the Early Christian Church in Scotland, and will be there more fully noticed. It is sufficient for our present purpose to say that his episcopal seat was fixed in the island of Lindisfarne, which the king gave him for the purpose. ‘From that time,’ says Bede, ‘many came from the region of the Scots into Britain, and preached the Word to those provinces of the Angles over which King Osuald ruled, and they among them who had received priests’ orders administered the sacrament of baptism. Churches were built. The people joyfully flocked to hear the Word. Possessions and lands were given of the king’s bounty to build monasteries. The Anglic youth were instructed by their Scottish masters, and there were greater care and attention bestowed upon the rules and observance of regular discipline. Most of those that came to preach,’ adds Bede, ‘were monks, and Bishop Aidan himself was a monk of the island called Hii,’ and now, corruptly, Iona.[[319]]