Page:Chronicles of the Picts, chronicles of the Scots, and other early memorials of Scottish history.djvu/124

 cxvi PEEFACE. 642, a battle was fought in Strathcarron, between the Britons and Donald Brec, king of the Scots of Dalriada, in which the latter was slain, in the year 642, according to Tighernac, which corresponds to the year 644 of Bede ; and in the same year a battle was fought between Oswy, king of Bemicia, and the Britons. Ten years afterwards, Penda, the Pagan king of Mercia, invaded Bernicia. He is described by Bede, in one passage, as coming to Bamborough with a hostile army, destroying aU he could with fire and sword, and burning down the town and the church ; and after a vain attempt to buy him off with gifts, Oswy encountered him at a place near the river, called by Bede, Uinuaed, where he was entirely defeated, and, of thirty royal commanders who were with him, almost the whole were slain. Bede adds that Oswy brought this war to a conclu- sion in " Regione Loidis," in the thirteenth year of his reign, on the 17th of the Kalends of December, that is, on the 15th of November, 655. Tighernac mentions the same battle under two different years, 650 and 656. The identity of the events is shown by the mention of thirty kings on each occasion. It has generally been assumed that Penda was kdled in the battle of Uinuaed, and that it must therefore have been fought within the " Eegio Loidis." Bede uses this latter expression, undoubtedly, for the district around the town of Leeds ; but it is admitted that no trace can be