Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/138

Edwin the full dignity of an archbishop. He died at Clare 20 May 1396, and was buried in his monastery. He was the author of 'Sermones Solemnes,' 'Determinationes Theologicæ,' and 'Lecturæ Scholasticæ.'

[Fuller's Worthies, Suflfolk, p. 59; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. p. 252; Stevens's Hist, of Abbeys and Monasteries, ii. 219; Bale's Scriptt. Brit. Cat. i. 513.]  EDWIN or EADWINE, Lat. (585?–633), king of Northumbria, son of Ælla, king of Deira, was three years old when, after his father's death in 588, he was forced to flee from Deira by the Bernician king, Æthelric, who conquered the country and ruled over both the Northumbrian kingdoms. He, perhaps, first found shelter in Gwynedd, or North Wales, and after some wanderings was received by Cearl, king of the Mercians, who gave him his daughter Coenburh to wife. By her he had two sons, Osfrith and Eadfrith, born during his exile. Æthelric's son and successor, Æthelfrith, sought to get him into his power, and probably made it unsafe for him to remain longer in Mercia, for in 617 he sought refuge with Rædwald, king of the East-Angles, who promised that he should be safe with him. As soon as Æthelfrith heard that he was with Rædwnld, he sent messengers to the East-Anglian king offering him a large sum of money if he would slay his guest, and when his offer was refused sent a second and a third embassy with larger offers and with threats of war. Rædwald promised either to slay the exile or to deliver him to his enemy. The promise was heard by one of Eadwine's friends, who came to him in the evening, called him from his sleeping-chamber, and when he had come out of doors told him of the king's intentions and offered to guide him to a place of safety. Eadwine's greatness of soul is shown by his reply: 'he would not,' he said, 'be the first to treat the king's pledge as worthless; up to that time I Rædwald had done him no wrong and he would not distrust him; but if he was to die, it were better that the king should slay him than any meaner man; he had sought refuge in every part of Britain, and was weary of wandering.' He spent the night in the open air in doubt and sorrow, and as he sat on a stone in front of the palace a man of foreign mien and in a foreign garb drew near to him, and asked him why he sat there at that hour of night. When Eadwine answered that it was nothing to him, the stranger declared that he knew the cause of his trouble, and asked what he would give to one who should persuade Rædwald to change his mind, and would promise that he should have greater power than all the kings that had reigned over the English race; would he listen to the counsel of such a one when he bade him live a nobler life than any of his house? Eadwine gave the required promise, and the stranger laid his right hand upon his head, saying: 'When this sign shall come to thee, remember this hour and my words,' and then vanished so quickly that Eadwine was sure that it was a spirit that had appeared to him. Soon afterwards his friend came to him again and told him that the king had changed his intentions, and had resolved to keep faith with him, and that this change had been brought about by the queen, who had remonstrated privately with her husband on the treachery he contemplated. The stranger who appeared to Eadwine was doubtless the Roman priest Paulinus, who seems to have come from Kent to East Anglia about this time; for Rædwald had been baptised, though he had in a measure relapsed. Paulinus had, of course, heard how matters stood, and hoped by this interview with Eadwine to prepare the way for the evangelisation of the north in case Eadwine overcame his enemy. And it is not unlikely that Rædwald's seeming intention to betray his guest was only a device to deceive Æthelfrith; for almost as soon as the messengers of the Northumbrian king had returned, the East-Anglian army attacked him, before he had time to gather his whole force together, and he was defeated and slain in a battle on the eastern bank of the river Idle.

The victory of Rædwald gave Eadwine his father's kingdom of Deira, and he at once made war on Bernicia, drove Æthelfrith's sons, and a large number of young nobles who adhered to them, to take refuge among the Picts or the Scots of Dalriada, and ruled over a united Northumbrian kingdom, making York the centre of his government. He appears to have extended his dominions northwards and to have fortified Edinburgh (Eadwinesburh), which seems to preserve his name (, Celtic Scotland, 1. 240). On the west he conquered from the Britons the kingdom of Elmet, which may be described as roughly represented by the West Riding of Yorkshire, perhaps raised the earthworks at Barwick, and had a royal residence at the ruined Campodunum, which has been identified both with Doncaster and with Tanfield on the Yore (, p. 63;, Hist. Eccles. ii. c. 14; Making of England, pp. 253-257; Archæologia, i. 221; Fasti Eboracenses, p. 43). The conquest of Elmet may have led to that of the southern part of the present Lancashire, and also of Chester, for