york00orns

72 YORK.
v,-as anxiously awaiting tidings. She ended her days
as the inmate of a monasten-.
This battle, fought in May, 685, struck a blow at
the greatness of the Northumbrian kingdom. From
henceforth the Tweed instead of the Forth was its
northern boundary. Bishop Trumwin and his monks,
and the nuns who had established themselves in
Pictland, were obliged to flee and abandon their
work. Trumwin taking refuge in the monastery of
AVhitby.
Ecgfrid was succeeded by his illegitimate brother
Aldfrid, whose life had been passed in retirement and
study, a man, says Bede, who was " most learned in
the Scriptures, the first of our literary kings ; a man
of practical vigour, and well able to ' restore, though
within narrower limits, the humble state of the
realm.' " 1
About this time Wilfrid had become acquainted
with Cadwalla, who, like himself, was living as a
fugitive in the country of the South Saxons. Cadwalla
was a descendant of the West Saxon royal
house, and had been banished from Wessex through
some jealous feeling on the part of Kentwin the king,
or of some of his chief men. On Kentwin's death in
685, he succeeded to the throne, and soon after
made an attack upon Sussex. Ethehvalch fell. A
campaign against Kent followed, and Cadwalla
shortly afterwards made a descent upon the Isle of
Wight. This had formerly belonged to Wessex, but
had been acquired by \\'ulfhere, who gave it to
Bright's "Early English Church History," p- 33^-