As the story would later be told by the Anglo-Saxon monk and historian Bede, Gregory was struck by the unusual appearance of the slaves and asked about their background.

Ælle was the first king recorded by the 8th century chronicler Bede to have held " imperium ", or overlordship, over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

Bede states that Theodore, a Greek, was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 668, and he taught Greek.

Bede ( ; ; 672 / 673 – 26 May 735 ), also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede (), was an English monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow ( see Monkwearmouth-Jarrow ), both in the Kingdom of Northumbria.

In 1899, Bede was made a Doctor of the Church by Leo XIII, a position of theological significance ; he is the only native of Great Britain to achieve this designation ( Anselm of Canterbury, also a Doctor of the Church, was originally from Italy ).

Bede was moreover a skilled linguist and translator, and his work with the Latin and Greek writings of the early Church Fathers contributed significantly to English Christianity, making the writings much more accessible to his fellow Anglo-Saxons.

It was completed in about 731, and Bede implies that he was then in his fifty-ninth year, which would give a likely birth date of about 672 – 673.

Bede says nothing of his origins, but his connections with men of noble ancestry suggest that his own family was well-to-do.

Bede's first abbot was Benedict Biscop, and the names " Biscop " and " Beda " both appear in a king list of the kings of Lindsey from around 800, further suggesting that Bede came from a noble family.

The name " Bede " was not a common one at the time.

Some manuscripts of the Life of Cuthbert, one of Bede's own works, mention that Cuthbert's own priest was named Bede ; it is possible that this priest is the other name listed in the Liber Vitae.

The name probably derives from the Old English bēd, or prayer ; if Bede was given the name at his birth, then his family had probably always planned for him to enter the clergy.

Bede does not say whether it was already intended at that point that he would be a monk.

Monkwearmouth's sister monastery at Jarrow was founded by Ceolfrith in 682, and Bede probably transferred to Jarrow with Ceolfrith that year.

The young boy was almost certainly Bede, who would have been about 14.

When Bede was about 17 years old, Adomnan, the abbot of Iona Abbey, visited Monkwearmouth and Jarrow.

In about 692, in Bede's nineteenth year, Bede was ordained a deacon by his diocesan bishop, John, who was bishop of Hexham.

Bede was a teacher as well as a writer ; he enjoyed music, and was said to be accomplished as a singer and as a reciter of poetry in the vernacular.

Translations of this phrase differ, and it is quite uncertain whether Bede intended to say that he was cured of a speech problem, or merely that he was inspired by the saint's works.

There might have been minor orders ranking below a deacon ; but there is no record of whether Bede held any of these offices.

York later became the diocesan city partly because it had already been designated as such in the earlier Roman-sponsored mission of Paulinus to Deira, so it is not clear whether Bede is simply echoing the practice of his own day, or whether Oswiu and Chad were considering a territorial basis and a see for his episcopate.

For example, Bede quotes at length some speeches by people who were not his contemporaries and whose speeches do not appear in any other surviving source ; it is doubtful whether oral traditional history supported these ostensible quotations.

What little is known about him comes from 8th-century writer Bede, but inconsistencies between various works have led to confusion about the exact circumstances of Wighard's election and whether he was ever confirmed in that office.

A late seventh-century hagiography of Pope Gregory I claims that Paulinus was the stranger in the vision ; if true, it might suggest that Paulinus spent some time at Rædwald's court, although Bede does not mention any such visit.

Saint Wihtburh, the youngest daughter of Anna, King of the East Angles, founded a monastery there in the seventh century after seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary ; the monastery is mentioned by Bede, but little further is known of it.

Whereas Adomnán just tells us that Columba visited Bridei, Bede relates a later, perhaps Pictish tradition, whereby the saint actually converts the Pictish king.

Bede says that Oswald held imperium for the eight years of his rule ( both Bede and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle say that Oswald's reign was actually considered to be nine years, the ninth year being accounted for by assigning to Oswald the year preceding his rule, " on account of the heathenism practised by those who had ruled that one year between him and Edwin "), and was the most powerful king in Britain.

R. L. Poole ( Studies in Chronology and History, 1934 ) put forward the theory that Bede began his year in September, and consequently November 655 would actually fall in 654 ; Frank Stenton also dated events accordingly in his Anglo-Saxon England ( 1943 ).< sup > 1 </ sup > Others have accepted Bede's given dates as meaning what they appear to mean, considering Bede's year to have begun on 25 December or 1 January ( see S. Wood, 1983: " Bede's Northumbrian dates again "

While presented by Bede as being fought simply over the issue of Edwin, this war may have actually involved questions of power and territory between the two rulers.

Bede tells us that Chad was actually the third bishop sent to Wulfhere, making him the fifth bishop of the Mercians.

Unfortunately the sole source of information concerning Eanhere is Bede, who just mentioned his name in passing, and did not actually state that Eanhere was a king:

In his own time, Bede was as well known for his biblical commentaries and exegetical, as well as other theological works.

Bede makes the claim that Oswald " brought under his dominion all the nations and provinces of Britain ", which, as Bede notes, was divided by language between the English, Britons, Scots, and Picts ; however, he seems to undermine his own claim when he mentions at another point in his history that it was Oswald's brother Oswiu who made tributary the Picts and Scots.

Some of what is known about Penda comes through the hostile account of Bede, who disliked him both for being an enemy king to Bede's own Northumbria and for being a pagan.

Bede explains how each of the four Evangelists was represented by their own symbol: Matthew was the man, representing the human Christ, Mark was the lion, symbolizing the triumphant Christ of the Resurrection, Luke was the calf, symbolizing the sacrificial victim of the Crucifixion, and John was the eagle, symbolizing Christ ’ s second coming ( The British Library Board ).

That his merits as a scholar were early recognized in his own country is shown by the encomium of Bede ( Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum 5. 18 ), who speaks of him as a wonder of erudition.

Osthryth was murdered in 697, for reasons unknown ; according to Bede the murderers were " her own people, the Mercian chieftains ".

Bede records that Peada's death, forty years earlier, stemmed from " the treachery, it is said, of his own wife "; Peada's wife was Ealhflæd, Osthryth's sister.

Bede writes that after Wulfhere became king: " Free under their own king, they Mercians gave willing allegiance to Christ their true king, so that they might win his eternal kingdom in heaven ".

Bede notes that Queen Eafe " had been baptised in her own country, the kingdom of the Hwicce.

Bede says that Æthelfrith's victory was so great that the Irish kings in Britain would not make war on the English again, right up to Bede's own time.

After first killing the monks, Æthelfrith prevailed over the enemy army, although Bede notes that Æthelfrith's own forces suffered considerable loss.

C. Warren Hollister so ranks him among the most talented generation of writers of history since Bede, " a gifted historical scholar and an omnivorous reader, impressively well versed in the literature of classical, patristic and earlier medieval times as well as in the writings of his own contemporaries.

However, the Chronicle continues, " Peada ruled no length of time, because he was betrayed by his own queen at Eastertide "; Bede also reports that Peada was " very wickedly killed " through his wife's treachery " during the very time of celebrating Easter " in 656.

After this defeat, according to Bede, the Irish kings in Britain would not make war against the English again, right up to Bede's own time ( 130 years later ).

In fact, Bede attributes the general pattern of Chad's ministry to the example of Aidan and his own brother, Cedd, who was also a student of St. Aidan.

Bede was concerned to validate the Church practices and structures of his own time.

However, Chad was the teacher of Bede's own teacher, Trumbert, so Bede has an obvious personal interest in rehabilitating him, to say nothing of his loyalty to the Northumbrian establishment, which not only supported him but had played a notable part in Christianising England.

Bede tells us that Alfrid sought a bishop for himself and his own people.

In fact, Bede has stressed throughout his narrative that Chad's holiness communicated across boundaries of culture and politics, to Theodore, for example, in his own lifetime.