Th e Battle of Heavenfi eld, and its place in English history

THE BATTLE OF HEAVENFIELD

and its place in English history

A column by MATTHEW MCCUSKER

During the last week of June, I walked the Hadrian’s Wall national trail to raise money for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children. The 84mile route follows the course of the wall, from Wallsend in the west to Bowness-on-Solway in the east. The wall was constructed between 122-128 AD on the orders of the Emperor Hadrian to defend the northern frontier of the Roman Empire.

The walk is certainly a good way to explore the archaeology of the Roman wall, but it is a much richer experience than just that. As well as the extraordinary natural beauty of the route, you also encounter many sites of great historical importance, from every period of British history. For example, not long after I left Newcastle, on the fi rst day of the walk, I unexpectedly came across the site of the battle of Newburn Ford.

This was a battle fought on 28 August 1640 between the forces of King Charles I and the Scottish Covenanters. It was the only battle of the Second Bishops’ War, in which Scottish Presbyterians resisted the establishment of an episcopal hierarchy in Scotland and the introduction of a liturgy closely modelled on that of the Church of England. The king’s forces were defeated and Charles I was forced to recall Parliament after his eleven years of personal rule, triggering the events that would lead to the Civil War two years later.

However, there was one battle site that was not unexpected – in fact, I was looking forward to seeing it more than any other site, including the wall itself. This was the site of the battle of Heavenfi eld, at which, in 634, St Oswald, king of Northumbria, defeated Cadwallon, king of Gwynedd. His victory secured the future of Northumbria as a Catholic kingdom in which an English civilisation developed that arguably exceeded anything known in the Europe of the seventh and eighth centuries. The Northumbria of St Bede was secured at Heavenfi eld. It is one of the most important events in English history and, as it is now almost entirely unknown, I will make it the subject of this column.

Before looking at the battle itself it will be helpful to establish some context. From the mid-fi fth century, Germanic peoples had been migrating into post-Roman Britain and carving out new kingdoms. Around the year 550, an Angle warlord named Ida established a foothold in the modern county of Northumberland,

HADRIAN’S WALL LESSONS FROM HISTORY

and over the following decades, his successors established a new kingdom, Bernicia, between the rivers Tyne and Tweed. Around the year 604, his grandson Aethelfrith forcibly united Bernicia with its southern neighbour Deira, uniting all the English north of the Humber and laying the foundations of the kingdom of Northumbria. Aethelfrith was a mighty warrior, successful in battle against most of the peoples of northern and central Britain, but he never succeeded in eliminating his great rival - Edwin, a prince of the Deiran royal house.

In 616 Edwin defeated Aethelfrith in battle and took control of both Bernicia and Deira. Aethelfrith’s queen, Acha, fled with her children and sought sanctuary at the court of Eochaid Bruide, the king of the Scottish (Ulster Irish) kingdom of Dal Riata. She may have fled there because of kinship ties forged by intermarriage between the two royal houses. Her choice had profound consequences, not only on the history of England but on the whole western world, leading, as it ultimately did, to the introduction of Irish learning and spirituality into Northumbria, alongside that brought from Rome by Augustine and his companions of the Roman mission. The union of Roman and Irish would bear much fruit in the new English Christian culture of Northumbria.

Acha fled to Dal Riata with her sons Oswald and Oswiu, each of whom would eventually become kings of Northumbria, and one daughter Aebbe. They were English pagans, arriving in an Irish Christian kingdom. Oswald and Oswiu were baptised and educated at the monastery of Iona, founded a generation earlier by St Columba. Their sister Aebbe would become a nun – one of the first in English history.

Meanwhile, in Northumbria, King Edwin too was receiving the gospel. In 601, St Gregory the Great had sent a second group of missionaries to support those sent to England under the leadership of St Augustine in 597. In 625 one of these missionaries, St Paulinus, was consecrated a bishop and travelled north to Northumbria, accompanying a princess of the Kentish royal house, who was to marry Edwin. Bede’s account of Edwin’s own conversion in 627 is one of the most beautiful passages of his Ecclesiastical History, and gives us a profound glimpse into the character of our English ancestors: “[T]he king… holding a council with the wise men, he asked of every one in particular what he thought of the new doctrine, and the new worship that was preached... [One] of the king's chief men [said]: ‘The present life of man, O king, seems to me, in comparison of that time which is unknown to us, like to the swift flight of a sparrow through the room wherein you sit at supper in winter, with your commanders and ministers, and a good fire in the midst, whilst the storms of rain and snow prevail abroad; the sparrow, I say, flying in at one door, and immediately out at another, whilst he within, is safe from the wintry storm; but after a short space of fair weather, he immediately vanishes out of your sight, into the dark winter from which he had emerged. So this life of man appears for a short space, but of what went before, or what is to follow, we are utterly ignorant. If, therefore, this new doctrine contains something more certain, it seems justly to deserve to be followed.’ The other elders and king's councillors, by divine inspiration, spoke to the same effect. “But Coifi [the chief pagan priest] added, that he wished more attentively to hear Paulinus discourse concerning the God whom he preached; which he having by the king's command performed, Coifi, hearing his words, cried out, ‘I have long since been sensible that there was nothing in that which we worshipped; because the more diligently I sought after truth in that worship, the less I found it. But now I freely confess, that such truth evidently appears in this preaching as can confer on us the gifts of life, of salvation, and of eternal happiness. For which reason I advise, O king, that we instantly abjure and set fire to those temples and altars which we have consecrated without reaping any benefit from them.’

“In short, the king publicly gave his licence to Paulinus to preach the Gospel, and renouncing idolatry, declared that he received the faith of Christ: and then he inquired of the high priest who should first profane the altars and temples of their idols, with the enclosures that were about them, he answered, ‘I; for who can more properly than myself destroy those things which I worshipped through ignorance, for an example to all others,

through the wisdom which has been given me by the true God?’ Then immediately, in contempt of his former superstitions, he desired the king to furnish him with arms and a stallion; and mounting the same, he set out to destroy the idols; for it was not lawful before for the high priest either to carry arms, or to ride on any but a mare. Having, therefore, girt a sword about him, with a spear in his hand, he mounted the king's stallion and proceeded to the idols. The multitude, beholding it, concluded he was distracted; but he lost no time, for as soon as he drew near the temple he profaned the same, casting into it the spear which he held; and rejoicing in the knowledge of the worship of the true God, he commanded his companions to destroy the temple, with all its enclosures, by fi re… “King Edwin, therefore, with all the nobility of the nation, and a large number of the common sort, received the faith, and the washing of regeneration, in the eleventh year of his reign, which is the year of the incarnation of our Lord 627, and about one hundred and eighty after the coming of the English into Britain. He was baptised at York, on the holy day of Easter, being the 12th of April, in the church of St. Peter the Apostle, which he himself had built of timber, whilst he was receiving catechesis and instruction in order to receive baptism. In that city also he appointed the see of the bishopric of his instructor and bishop, Paulinus.”

Edwin was thus baptised in the fi rst York Minster, and St Paulinus became the fi rst bishop at York.

For six years the faith fl ourished and took root in Northumbria. Then, on 12 October 633, King Edwin was killed, along with his son and heir, in battle against a powerful alliance of King Penda of Mercia, a rising pagan English power, and Cadwallon of Gwynedd. Bede tells us that Cadwallon’s armies ravaged Northumbria:

“With bestial cruelty he put all to death by torture and for a long time raged through all their land, meaning to wipe out the whole English nation from the land of Britain. Nor did he pay any respect to the Christian religion which had sprung up among them.”

ST OSWALDS, HEAVENFIELD

Edwin’s successors in Northumbria, who were pagan and hostile to the Church, were unable to defend the land from Cadwallon’s depredations and were both killed in turn. It was now that Oswald, after his long exile among the Scots, took the opportunity not only to restore his family to the throne of Northumbria but also to restore Northumbria to the kingdom of Christ.

Returning from exile, he had to quickly raise an army, for Cadwallon’s forces were occupying much of Northumbria. Cadwallon marched north from York to confront Oswald, who took up a defensive position by Hadrian’s Wall, a short distance north of Hexham.

Abbot Adomnan of Iona, the biographer of St Columba, recorded that the night before the battle St Columba appeared to St Oswald in a dream:

“…the Saxon prince Oswald went forth to fi ght with Cadwallon, a very valiant king of the Britons. For as this same King Oswald, after pitching his camp, in readiness for the battle, was sleeping one day on a pillow in his tent, he saw St. Columba in a vision, beaming with angelic brightness, and of fi gure so majestic that his head seemed to touch the clouds. The blessed man having announced his name to the king, stood in the midst of the camp, and covered it all with his brilliant garment, except at one small distant point; and at the same time he uttered those cheering words which the Lord spoke to Joshua Ben Nun before the passage of the Jordan, after Moses' death, saying, ‘Be strong LESSONS FROM HISTORY

and of a good courage; behold, I shall be with thee,’ etc. Then St. Columba having said these words to the king in the vision, added, ‘March out this following night from your camp to battle, for on this occasion the Lord has granted to me that your foes shall be put to flight, that your enemy Cadwallon shall be delivered into your hands, and that after the battle you shall return in triumph, and have a happy reign.’ The king, awaking at these words, assembled his council and related the vision, at which they were all encouraged; and so the whole people promised that, after their return from the war, they would believe and be baptised, for up to that time all that Saxon land had been wrapt in the darkness of paganism and ignorance, with the exception of King Oswald and the twelve men who had been baptised with him during his exile among the Scots. What more need I say? On the very next night, King Oswald, as he had been directed in the vision, went forth from his camp to battle, and had a much smaller army than the numerous hosts opposed to him, yet he obtained from the Lord, according to His promise, an easy and decisive victory for King Cadwallon was slain, and the conqueror, on his return after the battle, was ever after established by God as the Bretwalda of all Britain.”

Bede gives us his own account of Oswald’s preparations for battle:

“The place is shown to this day, and held in much veneration, where Oswald, being about to engage, erected the sign of the holy cross, and on his knees prayed to God that he would assist his worshipers in their great distress. It is further reported, that the cross being made in haste, and the hole dug in which it was to be fixed, the king himself, full of faith, laid hold of it and held it with both his hands, till it was set fast by throwing in the earth and this done, raising his voice, he cried to his army, ‘Let us all kneel, and jointly beseech the true and living God Almighty, in His mercy, to defend us from the haughty and fierce enemy; for He knows that we have undertaken a just war for the safety of our nation.’ All did as he had commanded, and accordingly advancing towards the enemy with the first dawn of day, they obtained the victory, as their faith deserved. In that place of prayer very many miraculous cures are known to have been performed, as a token and memorial of the king's faith; for even to this day, many are wont to cut off small chips from the wood of the holy cross, which being put into water, men or cattle drinking thereof, or sprinkled with that water, are immediately restored to health.

“The place in the English tongue is called Heavenfield, or the Heavenly Field, which name it formerly received as a presage of what was afterwards to happen, denoting, that there the heavenly trophy would be erected, the heavenly victory begun, and heavenly miracles be wrought to this day. The same place is near the wall with which the Romans formerly enclosed the island from sea to sea, to restrain the fury of the barbarous nations, as has been said before.”

It was in this place, near the wall with which the Romans formerly enclosed the island from sea to sea, that I knelt in prayer on 25 June 2019. For many centuries it was a place of pilgrimage. Today there is still a church dedicated to St Oswald on the site, and though the current building dates only from the eighteenth century, its location in a circular enclosure in the midst of the field gives a sense of its antiquity.

The victory of Heavenfield assured not only the re-establishment of the Catholic faith in Northumbria, but also led to a golden age of piety and scholarship, which reached its culmination in Bede and Alcuin, and during which Northumbria, and England, led the world in culture and learning.

Heavenfield was just the beginning of the remarkable reigns of St Oswald (634-642) and his brother Oswiu (642-670). Bede tells the story of their rule in books III and IV of his Ecclesiastical History. St Oswald was to die a martyr at the battle of Maserfield, fought against Penda and pagan Mercia on 5 August 642. His corpse was dismembered and offered by Penda as a sacrifice to the god Woden. But his arm, which remained incorrupt, was taken back to Northumbria and venerated until it was destroyed at the Reformation. Penda was finally killed in battle by Oswiu, on 15 November 655 near Leeds, as he attempted another invasion of Northumbria.

St Oswald’s feast day is 5 August.