Urbs Iudeu

In or about 616 AD, the Northumbrians, apparently attempting to expand their Anglo-Saxon kingdom under King Æthelfrith, fought the native Britons and their allies at the Battle of Chester. The Northumbrians had the victory and allegedly slaughtered a large number of monks nearby who had prayed for a Briton victory.[1] The Northumbrians were then able to take control of the area north of the River Trent.[2] The Britons (later the Welsh), supported by the Anglo-Saxon Mercians, then attempted to regain control of the area from the Northumbrians. This resulted in a war which took place up and down Ryknield Street, Ermine Street and lesser known north–south Roman routes. These roads gave entry, respectively, to Northumbria from the south and to Mercia from the north.

The series of battles and sieges was recorded in the Historia Brittonum (History of the Britons).[3] Later, in a more incoherent way, the battles were noted from the Northumbrian viewpoint by the Venerable Bede in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Ecclesiastical History of the English People).[4]

• 616: Battle of Chester – A Northumbrian victory, the Briton and Mercian army defeated. Recent archaeological work at Heronbridge near Chester has identified the battle site.[5]
• 633: Battle of Hatfield Chase – A Northumbrian army was defeated by an alliance of Mercia and Gwynedd, and Edwin of Northumbria was killed.[6] There are two possible locations which lay claim for this battle site. Either Hatfield Chase near Doncaster, near where a small former Roman fort at Kirk Sandall guards the south bank of the Don; or Hatfield near Cuckney in Nottinghamshire, near a former Roman camp at Gleadthorpe.
  

  Wirksworth Stone, a sarcophagus lid of Northumbrian sculpture
• 636: Morfael, a British leader, attacks Caer Lwytgoed (a.k.a. Cair Luit Coit) and kills a bishop during the battle. Several locations lay claim to being this place, though most of which are not in the battle zone or cannot be dated to the period. Wirksworth church in the Peak District is a possible location.[7] This episode appears to represent the first known battle or siege of Urbs Iudeu. Caer Lwytgoed is synonymous with Urbs Iudeu / Urbs Judeu, the Welsh and Northumbrian place-names for the same location.
• 642: The Battle of Aberford (a.k.a. the battle of Maes Cogwy [Battle of Maserfelth / Maserfield]) in which Oswald of Northumbria was defeated by Penda of Mercia. The battle took place where the western branch of Ermine Street crosses the Cock Beck at the Aberford Dykes (ancient fortifications).[8]
• 655: The siege of Urbs Iudeu at which King Oswiu of Northumbria was compelled to buy off Penda of Mercia and Cadafael of Gwynedd by "delivering all the treasures which were in the city into the hands of Penda, and Penda distributed them to the Kings of the British, this is called the Restitution of Iudeu".[9]
• 655: Battle of the Winwaed (Maes Gai) – Penda continued attempts to eject the Northumbrians building to this November battle. Penda was killed and the Mercians and Britons defeated. Oswiu of Northumbria then set up Peada as 'King' of Mercia under Northumbrian control. It was said of the battle that the river rose in flood and as many were killed by drowning as in the battle.
• 657–674: The Mercian nobility rebel, kill Peada and make Wulfhere king of Mercia. In 670, Oswiu dies and is succeeded by his son Ecgfrith as King of Northumbria. In 674, Wulfhere dies and is replaced by Æthelred as King of Mercia.[10]
• 679: Battle of the Trent – The Northumbrians are wholly defeated by the Mercians at an unknown site near the River Trent.

The battles of the Northumbrian–Mercian war resulted from Northumbrian attempts to expand their kingdom, which originally comprised the provinces of Deira and Bernicia, including all the region north of the River Trent and in close proximity to it. This destroyed Briton supremacy in "the old North" and resulted in the war. Its eventual outcome and legacy, however, was the development and expansion of the Mercian kingdom beyond its original focal point in the Trent Valley around Tamworth and Repton. After the Battle of the Trent in 679, the border between Mercia and Northumbria appears to have been settled, with the provinces of Elmet and Heathfield becoming part of Northumbria and the provinces of The Peak District and Lindsey becoming part of Mercia. The Britons appear to retire quietly to Wales and, at least at the start of the Mercian kingdom, relations between the Mercians and the Welsh were of equal respect.[11]

The place-names of this war cause the very greatest difficulty. Only some of these can be accurately located with modern knowledge and many have been spuriously located by antiquarians for years: Lichfield, for example, has long and wrongly claimed to be Caer Luit Coit (sometimes spelt Cair Loit Coit), but it is outside the battle area and unlike Wirksworth contains no Northumbrian stone sculpture nor remains of any Northumbrian presence: it is, in any case, south of the Trent. Stirling and Cramond have also been suggested as Urbs Iudeu, but these are far beyond the kingdoms involved in the war (Penda is simply not fighting a war in Scotland). Oswestry has been suggested as the site of the battle of Maserfelth, though it is also far too far from the battle zone and an unlikely location as the Welsh and the Mercians were allies at this time. Wirksworth in the Peak District is the principal candidate for the location of Urbs Iudeu due to its antiquity, its strategic location and its Roman and Northumbrian remains. Greater consideration of circumstances and a clearer understanding of the geography and archaeology of the conflict may help in determining the battle sites.

• List of Anglo-Welsh wars