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EDWIN FALLS IN BATTLE. 23
exorcised, and a fierce conflict was now about to
commence. Cadwallon, king of North Wales, though
a Christian in name, cherished a bitterly revengeful
feeling against Edwin for a defeat which he had sustained
at his hands some years before, when he invaded
Northumbria. He had been driven back into
Wales, and finally took refuge in Ireland. Penda,
king of Mercia, " combined in his own person the
fiercest energy of a Teuton warrior with the sternest
resistance to the progress of the new creed." They
joined their forces together to invade Northumbria,
and encountered Edwin at a place called Htethfeld,
or Hatfield, on the south-eastern borders of
Yorkshire, and here he was overpowered and slain.
[a.d. 633, Oct. 1 2th.] His gallant son Osfrid shared
the same fate, and his second son Eadfrid, who had
surrendered himself to Penda, under promise that his
life would be spared, was afterwards ruthlessly murdered
by that savage Pagan. A total rout ensued.
F>dwin's whole army was scattered, numbers having
])erished on the battle-field, and the remainder
escaping as best they could.^ The whole country of
Northumbria was devastated, and a terrible slaughter
(;f the Christians took place. Penda's bitter hatred of
(Christianity was intelligible, but it was rivalled, nay
exceeded, says Bede, by the atrocities wrought by
Cadwallon. Neither age nor sex were spared, and the
barbarity of torture added bitterness to death. The
weakness of womanhood and the innocence of childhood
were no protection. The so-called Christian
warrior was more savagely cruel than his heathen ally.
'
Bede's " Ecclesiastical History," ii. p. 20.