Edwin, king of Northumbria, born about 586, ascended the throne in 617, and died in 633. He was an infant when at the death of his father, .AElla, king of Deira, the throne was usurped by his brother-in-law, Ethelfrid, king of Bernicia, who in 593 united the two kingdoms under the name of Northumbria. Edwin was placed by his friends under the protection of Cadvan of North Wales. The British prince was assailed by the Northumbrian, and the two armies met in the vicinity of Chester. Victory decided for Ethelfrid; a body of monks who had stationed themselves on a neighboring hill to deprecate the success of the invader were put to the sword, and the great monastery of Bangor, containing 2,100 monks, was demolished. Edwin then wandered through the different principalities of the Britons and Saxons, till he found an asylum at the court of Redwald, king of the East Angles. Redwald made war on Ethelfrid; the armies met in 617 on the banks of the Idle, in Nottinghamshire; Ethelfrid was defeated and slain, and Edwin without further opposition ascended the throne. The martial genius of Edwin raised Northumbria to preeminence among the Anglo-Saxon states.

The islands of Anglesea and Man became subject to his authority, all the princes of the Britons paid him tribute, and among the Saxon kings Ead-bald of Kent alone retained a nominal independence. So inflexible was his administration of justice, that in his days it was a common saying that a woman or a child might openly carry everywhere a purse of gold with-out danger of robbery. The chief event of his reign was the introduction of Christianity into the kingdom of Northumbria. He married Ethelburga, a princess of Kent, daughter of that Bertha by whose influence the king and people of Kent had been already converted to Christianity. Yet neither the entreaties of the young queen, the arguments of the learned bishop Paulinus, nor the letters and presents of Pope Boniface V., could for a long time turn him from the worship of his fathers. He consulted alternately the priests on either side, revolved in solitude their opposite arguments, assembled the witenagemote for consultation, and at last avowed himself a convert, and was followed by his people.

Edwin perished in a disastrous battle with the combined armies of Penda, king of Mercia, and Cead-walla, king of the Britons, who had raised the standard of rebellion, and marched into Yorkshire; and the kingdom was soon after recovered by Oswald, son of Ethelfrid.