Kingdom of Northumbria
| Kingdom of Northumbria | ||||||||||||||||||
| Norþhymbra rīce | ||||||||||||||||||
| Unified Angle kingdom (before 876) North: Angle kingdom (after 876) South: Danish kingdom (876–914) South: Norwegian kingdom (after 914) |
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Extent of Northumbria in 800
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| Capital | Northern: Bamburgh Southern: York |
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| Languages | Old English, Cumbric, Latin | |||||||||||||||||
| Government | Monarchy | |||||||||||||||||
| King | ||||||||||||||||||
| • | 654–670 | Oswiu | ||||||||||||||||
| • | died 954 | Eric Bloodaxe | ||||||||||||||||
| History | ||||||||||||||||||
| • | Established | 653 | ||||||||||||||||
| • | South is annexed by the Danelaw | 876 | ||||||||||||||||
| • | South is conquered by Norse warriors | 914 | ||||||||||||||||
| • | Annexed by Wessex | 954 | ||||||||||||||||
| Currency | Sceat (peninga) | |||||||||||||||||
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| Today part of |
 United Kingdom∟ North East of England ∟ North West of England (except Cheshire) ∟ Yorkshire and the Humber ∟ City of Edinburgh ∟ East Lothian ∟ Midlothian ∟ West Lothian ∟ Scottish Borders |
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The Kingdom of Northumbria (/nɔːrˈθʌmbriə/; Old English: Norþhymbra rīce, "kingdom of the Northumbrians") was a medieval Anglian kingdom in what is now northern England and south-east Scotland, which subsequently became an earldom in a unified English kingdom. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber estuary.
Northumbria was formed by Æthelfrith in central Great Britain in Anglo-Saxon times. At the beginning of the 7th century, the two kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira were unified. (In the 12th century writings of Henry of Huntingdon, the kingdom was defined as one of the Heptarchy of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms). At its height, the kingdom extended at least from just south of the Humber to the River Mersey and to the Forth (roughly, Sheffield to Runcorn to Edinburgh)—and there is some evidence that it may have been much greater (see map).
The later (and smaller) earldom came about when the southern part of Northumbria (ex-Deira) was lost to the Danelaw. The northern part (ex-Bernicia) at first retained its status as a kingdom but, when it became subordinate to the Danish kingdom, it had its powers curtailed to that of an earldom and retained that status when England was reunited by the Wessex-led reconquest of the Danelaw. The earldom was bounded by the River Tees in the south and the River Tweed in the north (broadly similar to the modern North East England).
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