Antiquities.—Of Anglo-Saxon buildings the Danes left almost 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.
“It may be said of the houses of the gentry herein,” writes Fuller, “ ‘quot mansiones, tot munitiones,’ as being all castles or castle-like.” Except a few dwellings of the 16th century in Newcastle, and some mansions built after the Union of England and Scotland, the older houses are all castles. A survey of 1460 mentions thirty-seven castles and seventy-eight towers in Northumberland, not probably including all the bastle-houses or small peels of the yeomen. At the Conquest Bamburgh, the seat of the Saxon kings, 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. A grass mound represents Wark Castle. Alnwick Castle is an array of walls and towers covering about five acres. Warkworth, Prudhoe and Dunstanburgh castles are fine groups of ruins. Dilston Castle has still its romantic memories of the earl of Derwentwater. Belsay, Haughton, Featherstone and Chipchase castles are joined with modern mansions. The peel-towers of Elsdon, Whitton (Rothbury) and Embleton were used as fortified rectory-houses. Seaton Delaval was the work of Vanbrugh.
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, dwr (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, A 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, &c. (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).
NORTHUMBRIA (regnum Northanhymbrorum), one of the most important of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, extended from the Humber to the Forth. Originally it comprised two independent kingdoms, Bernicia and Deira (q.v.). Each of these had a dynasty of its own. The first known king of the former was Ida, who, according to tradition, acquired the throne in 547 and reigned twelve years. To him the foundation of Bamburgh is attributed. Four of Ida’s sons successively occupied his throne: Glappa 559–560, Adda 560–568, Aethelric 568–572, and Theodoric 572–579. Of the first three nothing is known, but Theodoric is said (Historia Brittonum) to have been besieged by the Welsh under Urien in Lindisfarne. Theodoric was succeeded by Frithuwald 579–585 or 586 and Hussa 586–592 or 593. Then Æthelfrith (q.v.), son of Æthelric, came to the throne. He greatly extended his territories at the expense of the Welsh, 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. Æthelfrith 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 Bernicia was occupied by Eanfrith son of Æthelfrith. Both these kings were slain by Ceadwalla in the following year, but shortly afterwards the Welsh king was overthrown by Oswald (q.v.), brother of Eanfrith, who reunited the whole of Northumbria under his sway and acquired a supremacy analogous to that previously held by Edwin. After Oswald’s defeat and death at the hands of Penda in 642 Bernicia fell to his brother Oswio, while Oswine son of Osric became king in Deira, though probably subject to Oswio. Oswine’s death was compassed by Oswio in 651, and the throne of Deira was then obtained by Æthelwald son of Oswald. He is not mentioned, however, after 655, so it is probable that Deira was incorporated in the Bernician kingdom not long afterwards. After Oswio’s victory over Penda in 654–655 he annexed the northern part of Mercia 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 early in his reign, but was in turn defeated by them in 679, his brother Ælfwine being slain. From this time onwards the Humber 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 kings and the extravagance of their donations; Osred was slain in 716. He was succeeded by Coenred 716–718, and Coenred by Osric 718–729. The next king was Ceolwulf, to whom Bede dedicated his Historia Ecclesiastica in 731. In the same year he was deposed and forced to become a monk, but was soon restored to the throne. In 737 he voluntarily retired to a monastery and left the kingdom to his cousin Eadberht. The latter appears to have been a vigorous ruler; in the year 740 we hear of his being involved in war with the Picts. Æthelbald of Mercia seems to have taken advantage of this campaign to ravage Northumbria. In 750 Eadberht is said to have annexed a large part of Ayrshire to his kingdom. Finally in 756, having now allied himself with
