This able prince perished with his son, Osfrid, in a great battle which he fought against Penda, King of Mercia, and Caedwalla, King of the Britons

Eanfrid, the elder surviving son, fled to Penda, by whom he was treacherously slain.

9.] He died in battle against Penda, King of Mercia, and was succeeded by his brother Oswy, who established himself in the government of the whole Northumbrian kingdom, by putting to death Oswin, the son of Osric, the last king of the race of Deiri.

Wibba, the son of Crida, founder of the monarchy, being placed on the throne, by Ethelbert, King of Kent, governed his paternal dominions by a precarious authority, and after his death, Ceorl, his kinsman, was, by the influence of the Kentish monarch, preferred to his son Penda, whose turbulent character appeared dangerous to that prince.

Penda was thus fifty years of age before he mounted the throne, and his temerity and restless disposition were found nowise abated by time, experience, or reflection.

The place of Ceolred was supplied by Ethelbald, great-grand-nephew to Penda, by Alwy, his brother; and this prince, being slain in a mutiny, was succeeded by Offa, who was a degree more remote from Penda, by Eawa, another brother.

The place of Ceolred was supplied by Ethelbald, great-grand-nephew to Penda, by Alwy, his brother; and this prince, being slain in a mutiny, was succeeded by Offa, who was a degree more remote from Penda, by Eawa, another brother.

This last prince, having made a vow of chastity, notwithstanding his marriage with Keneswitha, a Mercian princess, daughter to Penda, went in pilgrimage to Rome, and shut himself up during the rest of his life in a cloister.

Pembroke, Countesse of, i. Penaunce, i. Penda, ii. Pendragon, v. Penelope, iv.

After the death of Oswald, his conqueror Penda, the fierce King of the Mercians, harried Northumbria, and appearing before the walls of Bamburgh prepared to burn it down.

Raising his hands to Heaven, he exclaimed, "See, Lord, what ill Penda is doing!"

Scarcely had he uttered the words, when the wind changed, and drove the flames away from Bamburgh, blowing them against Penda's host, who thereupon ceased all further attempts against the city.

Penda came again the next year, and this time both village and church were burnt, all except, says tradition, the beam of wood against which Aidan had rested in his last moments.

When Penda of Mercia, and the British Prince Cadwallon, were warring against Northumbria, the greatest Northumbrian King, Edwin, was defeated and slain by them; and on their return to the attack, Ethelfrith's eldest son, called back from exile to take the vacant throne, and rule in his father's seat of Bamburgh, also fell before their fierce onslaught.

After the long and glorious reign of Edwin, his successor, Ethelfrith's sons came back to Bamburgh; the eldest, Eanfrid, was slain within a year, and his brother Oswald carried on the struggle against Penda of Mercia.

We have seen how he fought against Penda and Cadwallon on the Heavenfield near Chollerford, and gained a victory which obtained for him many years of peace.

Penda was finally slain by Oswald's successor Oswy in a great battle which is supposed to have taken place on the banks of the Tweed.

Earlier than this, however, in the seventh century, Bamborough was besieged by Penda, the pagan king of Mercia, who, although having recently gained several victories, made great efforts to burn down the castle.

Having set his men to work to accumulate a great mass of brushwood, Penda had huge piles heaped up beneath the walls.

After the final defeat of the Mercians, under their king Penda, at Winwoed, in 655, the struggle was practically over.

Finan spread the faith beyond the borders of Northumbria and succeeded so well that he himself baptized Penda, king of the Mid-Angles, and Sigebert, king of the East Saxons.

EDWIN, king of Northumbria in the 6th century; through the influence of his wife Ethelburga Christianity was introduced into England by St. Augustine; founded Edinburgh; was defeated and slain by the Mercian King Penda in 634.

In the 6th century; it rose to greatness under Penda 626-655, subsequently succeeded Northumberland in the supremacy, but after the death of Cenwulf 819, waned in turn before Wessex and the Danes.

OSWALD, ST., king of Northumbria, where by the aid of AIDAN (q. v.) he established the Christian religion, after his conversion to it himself in exile among the Scots; he died in battle fighting against Penda, king of Mercia; d.642.

PENDA, a Mercian king of the 7th century, who headed a reactionary movement of heathenism against the domination of Christianity in England, and for a time seemed to carry all before him, but Christianity, under the preaching of the monks, had gained too deep a hold, particularly in Northumbria, and he was overpowered in 665 in one final struggle and slain.