If the sources for north-eastern Britain, the lands of the kingdom of Northumbria and the former Pictland, are limited and late, those for the areas on the Irish Sea and Atlantic coasts — the modern regions of north-west England and all of northern and western Scotland — are non-existent, and archaeology and toponymy are of primary importance.

While the sources for north-eastern Britain, the lands of the kingdom of Northumbria and the former Pictland, are limited and late, those for the areas on the Irish Sea and Atlantic coasts — the modern regions of north-west England and all of northern and western Scotland — are non-existent, and archaeology and toponymy are of primary importance.

A story in the Fragmentary Annals of Ireland, perhaps referring to events some time after 911, claims that Queen Æthelflæd, who ruled in Mercia, allied with the Irish and northern rulers against the Norsemen on the Irish sea coasts of Northumbria.

The word arose on the basis that the seven kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, Kent, East Anglia, Essex, Sussex and Wessex were the main polities of south Britain.

King Nechtan of Pictland would later choose to expel the Columbian church in favour of the Roman, principally to restrict the influence of the Scoti on his kingdom and to avoid a war with Northumbria.

He refused William's request for the earldom of Northumbria, but did not intervene in Scotland itself and focused on his continental problems.

The three rulers had their claims to the English crown ( Harald probably primarily on the overlord-ship of Northumbria ) and it was this that motivated the battles rather than the lure of plunder.

While marching north again, Malcolm was ambushed by Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northumbria, whose lands he had devastated, near Alnwick on 13 November 1093.

In the 10th century, after the power of Northumbria was destroyed by Viking incursions and settlement, large areas west of the Pennines fell without warfare under the control of the British kingdom of Strathclyde, with Leeds recorded as being on the border between the Britons and the Norse Kingdom of York.

After Cadwallon ap Cadfn, the king of Gwynedd, in alliance with the pagan Penda of Mercia, killed Edwin of Deira in battle at Hatfield Chase in 633 ( or 632, depending on when the years used by Bede are considered to have begun ), Northumbria was split between its constituent kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira.

While there are few records, the Vikings are thought to have led their first raids in Scotland on the holy island of Iona in 794, the year following the raid on the other holy island of Lindisfarne, Northumbria.

After the conquest of England by the Danish king Cnut in 1016, he established earldoms based on the former kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia, but initially administered Wessex personally.

The Danes went on to subjugate the kingdom of Northumbria, and take all but the western portion of Mercia.

The English earls Edwin of Mercia and Morcar of Northumbria were defeated by the invading forces of Harald Hardrada and Tostig at the Battle of Fulford near York on 20 September.

In November 1043 he rode to Winchester with his three leading earls, Leofric of Mercia, Godwin and Siward of Northumbria, to deprive her of her property, possibly because she was holding on to treasure which belonged to the king.

If the Vikings had a great impact on Pictland and in Ireland, in Dál Riata, as in Northumbria, they appear to have entirely replaced the existing kingdom with a new entity.

After being shipwrecked on the English coast during a freak storm, he was captured by Anglian king Ælla of Northumbria and put to death in an infamous manner by being thrown into a pit of vipers.

Hoping to take advantage of Henry's absence at the siege of Thérouanne, he led an invading army southward into Northumbria, only to be killed, with many of his nobles and common soldiers, at the disastrous Battle of Flodden on 9 September 1513.

King Eadred responded harshly to the northern defectors by launching a destructive raid on Northumbria, which notably included burning the Ripon minster founded by St Wilfrid.

The Danes then placed an Englishman, Ecgberht I of Northumbria, on the throne of Northumbria as a puppet.

Exactly in what sense the Eric of the sagas may have been based on the historical Eric of Northumbria, and conversely, to what extent later evidence might or might not be called upon to shed light on the historical figure, are matters which have inspired a variety of approaches and suggestions among generations of historians.

Conversely the use of true brass seems to have declined in Western Europe during this period in favour of gunmetals and other mixed alloys but by the end of the first Millennium AD brass artefacts are found in Scandinavian graves in Scotland, brass was being used in the manufacture of coins in Northumbria and there is archaeological and historical evidence for the production of brass in Germany and The Low Countries areas rich in calamine ore which would remain important centres of brass making throughout the medieval period, especially Dinant – brass objects are still collectively known as dinanterie in French.

Bede wrote a preface for the work, in which he dedicates it to Ceolwulf, king of Northumbria.

Kenneth's son Constantine died in 876, probably killed fighting against a Viking army which had come north from Northumbria in 874.

Bede records Aethelbert of Kent as being dominant at the close of the 6th century, but power seems to have shifted northwards to the kingdom of Northumbria, which was formed from the amalgamation of Bernicia and Deira.

Malcolm III fought a succession of wars against the Kingdom of England, which may have had as their goal the conquest of the English earldom of Northumbria.

Equally, Malcolm's raids in Northumbria may have been related to the disputed " Kingdom of the Cumbrians ", reestablished by Earl Siward in 1054, which was under Malcolm's control by 1070.

The same was true of Malcolm ; his agreement with the English king was followed by further raids into Northumbria, which led to further trouble in the earldom and the killing of Bishop William Walcher at Gateshead.

Oswald's father Æthelfrith was a successful Bernician ruler who, after some years in power in Bernicia, also became king of Deira, and thus was the first to rule both of the kingdoms which would come to be considered the constituent kingdoms of Northumbria ( Bernicia in the northern part and Deira in the southern part ); it would, however, be anachronistic to refer to a " Northumbrian " people or identity at this early stage, when the Bernicians and the Deirans were still clearly distinct peoples.

Following the victory at Heavenfield, Oswald reunited Northumbria and re-established the Bernician supremacy which had been interrupted by Edwin.

From 1138 onwards, Stephen gave them the earldoms of Worcester, Leicester, Hereford, Warwick and Pembroke, which — especially when combined with the possessions of Stephen's new ally, Prince Henry, in Cumberland and Northumbria — created a wide block of territory to act as a buffer zone between the troubled south-west, Chester and the rest of the kingdom.

Northumbria is also used in the names of some regional institutions: particularly the police force ( Northumbria Police, which covers Northumberland and Tyne and Wear ) and a university ( Northumbria University ) based in Newcastle.

He realised he needed to control Northumbria, which had remained virtually independent of the Kings of England, to protect his kingdom from Scottish invasion.

Northumbria played an important role in the formation of Insular art, a unique style combining Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Pictish, Byzantine and other elements, producing works such as the Lindisfarne Gospels, St Cuthbert Gospel, the Ruthwell Cross and Bewcastle Cross, and later the Book of Kells, which was probably created at Iona.

Northumbria has its own check or tartan, which is similar to many ancient tartans ( especially those from Northern Europe, such as one found near Falkirk and those discovered in Jutland that date from Roman times ( and even earlier ).

Apart from standard English, Northumbria has a series of closely related but distinctive dialects, descended from the early Germanic languages of the Angles, of which 80 % of its vocabulary is derived, and Vikings with a few Celtic and Latin loanwords.

In 655, after a period of confusion in Northumbria, Penda brought 30 sub-kings to fight the new Northumbrian king Oswiu at the Battle of Winwaed, in which Penda in turn lost the battle and his life.

In October 1065 Harold's brother, Tostig, the earl of Northumbria, was hunting with the king when his thegns in Northumbria rebelled against his rule, which they claimed was oppressive, and killed some 200 of his followers.

The earl of Northumbria was Siward, but Earl Eadwulf of Bernicia ruled the northern part in semi-independence, a situation which did not please the autocratic Harthacnut.

He grew up near the new offshoot from Lindisfarne at Melrose Abbey, which is today in Scotland but was then in Northumbria.

Cuthbert was perhaps of a noble family, and born in the Kingdom of Northumbria in the mid-630s, some ten years after the conversion of King Edwin to Christianity in 627, which was slowly followed by that of the rest of his people.

Saint Cuthbert was possibly a second cousin of King Aldfrith of Northumbria ( according to Irish genealogies ), which may have been the reason for his later proposal that Aldfrith should be crowned as monarch.