EDWIN, Kill of Northumbria, was the son of Ella, who appears to have reigned in that kingdom from about A.D. 559 to 539. On the death of Ella the throne was seized by Edilfrid, or Ethilfrith, the husband of his daughter Acca, and Edwin, an infant, of only three years old, was conveyed to the court of Cadvau, the king of North Wales. Edilfrid on this madu war upon Cadvan, and defeated him near Chester, on which occasion it is said that 1200 monks of the monastery of Bangor, who had assembled on a neighbouring hill to offer up their prayers for the success of Cadent), were put to death by the pagan victor. After this Edwin wandered about for some years till he was, at last, received and protected by Itedweld, king of the East Angles. It appears to have been while resident here that he married Cwenburgha, the daughter of Ceorl, king of Mercia. Edilfrid however, who had made himself by his military success very formidable to all tho neighbouring princes, still pursued him, and partly by threats, partly by promises, had nearly induced Redwald to give him up, when (by a miraculous interposition, as Bede would have us believe) more generous counsels prevailed, and the East Anglian king determined to brave the hostility of Edilfrid. Redwald ie the fifth in the list of the Bretwaldas, or supreme kings of Britain, as given by Bede • and as he succeeded Ethelbert of Kent, who died in 616, he now held that dignity. The consequence of his refusal to deliver up Edwin was a war with Edilfrid ; they met on the right bank of the Idel in Nottinghamshire in 617, and in a great battle which was there fought, Edilfrid was defeated and slain. His children, of whom the names of six are recorded, fled, and Edwin ascended the throne of Northumbria. His valour and abilities eventually acquired for him great power. On the death of his friend Itedwald in 624, he was acknowledged as his successor in the dignity of Bret welds ; and two years after he made war upon the powerful state of Wessex, whose king Cuichelm is accused of having attempted to take him off by assassination, and reduced it for the moment to subjection, though it does not appear that he retained his conquest. Bede affirms that his sovereignty extended over all the English, excepting only the people of Kent, and that he also subjected to his dominions all the Britons, and the islands of Man and Anglesey. It is probable that he was accounted the leading power among the sovereigns of Britain in his time. Bede says that he was addressed by Pope Boniface as 'Rex Anglorum.' The event for which the reign of Edwin in Northumbria is chiefly memorable is the introduction of Christianity into that kingdom.
The legend is related at great length by Bede in the second book of his 'History.' Of the dreams or visions, the prophecies, and the supernatural visitations, which constitute the greater part of it, it is impossible to make anything in the absence of all other testimony except that of the credulous historian ; but the result appears to have been brought about by the exertions of Edwiu's second wife, Edil berga, the daughter of Augustine's patron, Ethelbert, king of Kent, and of Pulliam, a Roman missionary whom she had been allowed to bring with her from her father's court. Edwin had long stood out sgainst the persuasions of his queen and radians ; but his escape from the attempt against his life by the King of Wessex, or of the West Saxons, and the birth of a daughter, happening simultaneously, powerfully affected him, and Edilberga and her chaplain, taking advantage of the moment of emotion, prevailed with him to call a meeting of hie witan to discuss the question of the two religious. When the nobility of Northumbria assembled, Coif, the high priest, was himself the first to profess his disbelief in the deities he had been accustomed to serve. This ended the dispute ; the chief temple of the idols, which stood at a place still called Godwundham (that is, tho hamlet of the inclosure of the God), was profaned and set fire to by the band of Coif ; the king and all the chief men of the country offered themselves to be baptized, and the commonalty soon followed their example. l'aulinus was made bishop of Northumbria, his resideuce being established at York, in conformity with the design of Gregory the Great, when tha original mission to England was arranged. The archiepiscopal dignity was soon after conferred upon Pauline by Pope llonoriu& Edwin however did not long survive these events. The Mercian, under their king l'enda, revolted against the supremacy claimed by Northumbria; and n war which arose in consequence was ended on the 12th of October 633 by a battle fought at licathfield, or Hatfield, in Yorkshire, in which Edwin was defeated by l'enda and his ally Ceadwalla, king of North Wales, and lost at once his kingdom and his life. His eldest son was slain at the same time; another, whom he also had by his first wife, was afterwards put to death by Panda ; aud Edilberga, with her children and Puulinus, wan compelled to fly to the court of her brother in Kent. One of Divehi'. daughters, Itanfied, afterwards married Oswio, a 601.1 of Edilfrid, who mounted the throne of Northumbria in 642 and reigned till 670. Ile defeated Pend& and regained the title of 13retwalda, which Edwin had first brought into his house.