Battle of Maserfield

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The battle of Maserfield (also Maserfeld ; Welsh "Maes Cogwy" ) was fought on August 5, 642 between the Anglo-Saxon kings Oswald of Northumbria and Penda of Mercia . Penda would leave the battlefield victorious while Oswald was killed.

Participants, local and temporal context

The battle is also known as Cogwy by the Welsh . If you believe the Welsh Canu Heledd , Welsh people from Pengwern also took part , under the leadership of Cynddylan ap Cyndrwyn , presumably as an ally of the Mericer. Beda Venerabilis dates the battle to the year 642, which is now generally accepted as correct. In contrast, the Welsh Annales Cambriae finds the year 644. The location of the battle is also controversial, although the majority of Oswestry ( Oswalds Tree ) in Shropshire is accepted as the scene.

background

After the death of Oswald's uncle Edwin at the Battle of Hatfield Chase in 633, Northumbria and Mercia kept getting in each other's way over control of the lands south of the Humber . Oswald had defeated the Welsh under Cadwallon ap Cadfan at the Battle of Heavenfield in 634 and subsequently restored Northumbrian hegemony in Britain. It is generally accepted that Penda recognized Oswald's supremacy to a certain extent, but that he was still hostile to Northumbria, or at least perceived as a threat by Oswald.

The real background to the Battle of Maserfield is still unclear. The aforementioned Bede, who lived in the next century, depicts Oswald as a saint in the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum ; This image of the ruler in front of his eyes may well have led him to conceal Oswald's aggressive war policy. He only states that Oswald died for his country at Maserfield and tries to portray the battle as a just war . If the assumption that the Battle of Oswestry took place is correct, it means that Oswald was operating in enemy territory.

Result

The battle ended in defeat for Northumbria. Bede relates that Oswald began to pray for the souls of his warriors when he saw that he was going to die. His body was torn to pieces and his head and arms impaled on lances. Only in the next year could the body parts be brought home by his brother and successor Oswiu .

Since Penda was a pagan , but Oswald was a Christian , the latter was subsequently venerated as a martyr and saint . Bede therefore names some miracles that Oswald is said to have worked and ascribes them to his place of death. To reduce the battle to a war between pagans and Christians, however, would not do justice to the facts, since the Christian Welsh fought on Penda's side. A territorial war for the areas south of the Humber is much more likely.

consequences

The History Of The Britons and the Annales Cambriae following also Pendas brother fell Eowa in this battle. Some consider it possible that Eowa was the dominant king in Mercia and that he ruled northern Mercia while Penda ruled only the southern areas. This would also explain why the Historia Brittonum Penda ascribes only 10 years of government, while Beda gives 22.

As a result of the battle, the southern part of Northumbria ( Deira ) chose its own king, Oswine , while the north was ruled as Bernicia by Oswald's brother Oswiu. In this respect, the battle led to a significant weakening of the Northumbrian supremacy. This situation was not to change until after the Battle of Winwaed in 655, and the murder of Oswine in 651, which was commissioned by Oswiu, could not change anything.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Clare Stancliffe, "Where Was Oswald Killed?", In C. Stancliffe and E. Cambridge (ed.), Oswald: Northumbrian King to European Saint (1995, 1996).
  2. ^ Beda, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum , Book III, Chapter 12.
  3. ↑ Beda, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum , Book III, Chapters 9-12.
  4. ↑ Historia Brittonum , Chapter 65
  5. ↑ Annales Cambriae , 644.
  6. ^ DP Kirby, The Earliest English Kings (1991, 2000), pp. 76f.
  7. ^ Nicholas Brooks , "The Formation of the Mercian Kingdom," in S. Bassett, The Origins of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms (1989), p. 166.

Coordinates: 52 ° 51 '36 "  N , 3 ° 3' 14.4"  W.