Aldfrith was king of Northumbria from 685 until his death in 670. He was the son of Oswiu and an Irish princess named Fín. His reign saw the creation of works of Hiberno-Saxon art such as the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Codex Amiatinus.
About Aldfrith of Northumbria in brief
Aldfrith was king of Northumbria from 685 until his death. He was the son of Oswiu and an Irish princess named Fín. His reign saw the creation of works of Hiberno-Saxon art such as the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Codex Amiatinus. He is described by early writers such as Bede, Alcuin and Stephen of Ripon as a man of great learning. Aldfrith’s reign was relatively peaceful, marred only by disputes with Bishop Wilfrid, a major figure in the early Northumbrian church. He died in 670 and was succeeded by his son Ecgfrith, who was killed at the battle of Nechtansmere. He may have been sent to Ireland to discourage support for any claim to the throne, though other motives are possible. The first marriage to the saintly virgin Æthelfrith was not considered a lawful marriage by Northumbrians of his day, and he is described as a son of a concubine in early sources. His second wife was Eanflæd, who died in 679. His third wife was probably Fín the daughter of Colmán Rímid, a member of the Uí Néill dynasty, and may have married a princess of the northern Irish kingdom of Dál Riata. His date of birth is unrecorded, but he was probably a cousin or nephew of the noted scholar Cenn Fáelad mac Aillila, and perhaps a nephew of Bishop Finan of Lindisfrne.
He had a son, Oswald, who became King of Northumberland before his death in 658. Oswiu’s overlordship was ended by the rise of Wulfhere of Mercia, but his reign continued until his second sons, by his second wife, succeeded him in 670, when he was killed in a battle on the River Trent. The reign of Oswald and Oswiu is often seen as the start of the golden age of the kingdom. The combined kingdom became known as the kingdom ofNorthumbria: it stretched from the River Humber in the south to the River Forth in the north. In his early-8th-century account of his reign, Bede states that he “ably restored the shattered fortunes of the kingdom, though within smaller boundaries”. In 684 he ravaged the plain of Brega, destroying churches and taking hostages, taking hostages from the king’s son Ean flæd. In 685 he sent an army under his general, Berhta, to Ireland in a raid intended to discourage the support of the second virgin, Æthelthburth, to the second Æththelryen Ethormen, to support the third virgin, Ethryen Æhlfryen, who had died in battle. The raid may have taken place to discourage Eththelth’s support for the first virgin.
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