Æthelric (died ''c''. 604?) was supposedly a
King
King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...
of
Deira
Deira ( ; Old Welsh/ or ; or ) was an area of Post-Roman Britain, and a later Anglian kingdom.
Etymology
The name of the kingdom is of Brythonic origin, and is derived from the Proto-Celtic , meaning 'oak' ( in modern Welsh), in which case ...
(''c''. 589/599–''c''. 604). He is thought to have succeeded
Ælla of Deira, but his existence is historically obscure.
Manuscript A of the ''
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons.
The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the ninth century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of ...
'' reports that Ælle, king of Deira, was succeeded by Æthelric in 588, who reigned for five years. According to
Bede
Bede (; ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, Bede of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (), was an English monk, author and scholar. He was one of the most known writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most f ...
, Deira was invaded and taken over by
Æthelfrith
Æthelfrith (died ) was King of Bernicia from c. 593 until his death around 616 AD at the Battle of the River Idle. He became the first Bernician king to also rule the neighboring land of Deira, giving him an important place in the developme ...
of
Bernicia
Bernicia () was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom established by Anglian settlers of the 6th century in what is now southeastern Scotland and North East England.
The Anglian territory of Bernicia was approximately equivalent to the modern English cou ...
in about the year 604.
[Bede, ''Historia Ecclesiastica'', I.34, III.6; ''Historia Brittonum'', chapter 61.] The circumstances of this are unclear, and Æthelric's fate is unknown. The fact that
Edwin, a son of Ælla and possibly Æthelric's brother, had to flee into exile suggests that Deira may have been conquered by Æthelfrith, and in this case Æthelric may have been killed during warfare. Æthelfrith ruled both Deira and Bernicia, the two components of Northumbria, until he was killed in battle and the Deiran line was restored for a time under
Edwin.
References
Further reading
*Kirby, D.P. ''The Earliest English Kings''. London, 1991. 56-8.
*Miller, M. "The dates of Deira." ''Anglo-Saxon England'' 8 (1979): 35–61.
*Yorke, Barbara. ''Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England''. London, 1990. p. 77.
External links
*
6th-century births
600s deaths
Anglo-Saxon warriors
Deiran monarchs
6th-century English monarchs
7th-century English monarchs
Year of birth unknown
{{England-bio-stub