Everything about Battle Of Hatfield Chase totally explained
» AC = "according to the
Annales Cambriae".
The
Battle of Hatfield (O.E.
Haethfelth) was fought on
October 12 633 near
Doncaster,
Yorkshire, in
Anglo-Saxon England between the
Northumbrians under
Edwin and an alliance of the
Welsh of
Gwynedd under
Cadwallon ap Cadfan and the
Mercians under
Penda. The site was a marshy area about 8 miles NE of Doncaster on the south bank of the River Don. It was a decisive victory for the Welsh and Mercians: Edwin was killed and his army was defeated, leading to the temporary collapse of the Northumbrian state.
Edwin, the most powerful ruler in
Britain at the time, had apparently defeated Cadwallon a few years before the battle. Bede refers to Edwin establishing his rule over what he called the Mevanian islands, one of which was
Anglesey, and another source refers to Cadwallon being besieged on the island of
Priestholm (
AC: Glannauc), which is off the coast of Anglesey. Later, Cadwallon, who allied with Penda (whose status in Mercia at this point is uncertain—
Bede suggests he wasn't yet king, but became king soon after Hatfield; the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, however, says that he became king in 626.), met Edwin in battle at
Hatfield, north of
Doncaster.
The battle was a disaster for Northumbria. With both Edwin and his son Osfrith killed, and his other son Eadfrith captured by Penda (and later killed), the kingdom was divided between its constituent kingdoms of
Bernicia and
Deira.
Eanfrith, a son of the former king
Æthelfrith, returned from exile to take power in Bernicia, while Edwin's cousin
Osric took over Deira. Cadwallon continued to wage a war of ruthless slaughter against the Northumbrians, and wasn't stopped until he was defeated by
Oswald at
Heavenfield (also known as Deniseburna,
AC : Cantscaul) a year after Hatfield.
The historian
D. P. Kirby suggested that the defeat of Edwin was the outcome of a wide-ranging alliance of interests opposed to him, including the deposed Bernician line of Æthelfrith; but considering the subsequent hostility between Cadwallon and Æthelfrith's sons, such an alliance must not have survived the battle for long.
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