Nations Reformed

Aldfrith died at Driffield, thirty kilometres north of Hull in the heart of Deira, on 14 December 704. The king's successor was Eadwulf, whose reign lasted a matter of weeks into the new year before he was driven from the kingdom by supporters of Aldfrith's son Osred, who was only eight years old. As she had done after the battle of Dún Nechtain, Aldfrith's sister Aelffled of Whitby acted to preserve her Aeðilfrithing dynasty, supporting the boy Osred in his sensational bid for the kingship. In 716 Osred was killed in Mercia, aged just nineteen. The assassination of Osred, like the strife at the time of his succession, reflects shifts among the Bernician nobility as regards the kingship of the regnum Nordanhymbrorum. Coenred son of Cuthwini, In the three years following on from the death of Aldfrith, both Adomnán of Iona and Bridei of Pictavia died, the last in 707. Bridei was succeeded by his brother Naiton.

Political science · Classical Antiquity Studies · Linguistics and language evolution · Medieval Literature and History