Kingdom of Bernicia

Bernicia was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom established by Anglian settlers of the sixth century in what is now southeastern Scotland and North East England — the northern of the two Northumbrian kingdoms shown on the map. Its royal seat was the sea-rock fortress of Bamburgh, which the Britons knew as Din Guaire, and its Anglian centres bore names of British origin: Dunbar represents Dinbaer, and Coldingham was recorded by Bede as Coludi urbs, the town of Colud. From Bamburgh the kings of Bernicia warred with the Britons of the old north and with their southern rival, Deira, until Ida's grandson Æthelfrith united Deira with his own kingdom by force around 604, ruling the two kingdoms united as Northumbria until he was defeated and killed by Rædwald of East Anglia, who had given refuge to Edwin, son of Ælle, king of Deira. After Æthelfrith's fall Bernicia passed through exile and division until Oswald, Æthelfrith's son, restored the union in 634, when the separate record of the Bernician kingdom closes and Northumbria's begins.