Part 1 of 2
EDWIN should have inherited the crown of Deira from his father Ælle. Instead, Edwin’s brother-in-law Æthelfrith, King of neighbouring Bernicia, emerged as King of a new and powerful joint kingdom called Northumbria, and Edwin was driven out.*
Edwin escaped to East Anglia and the protection of King Rædwald, but there he learnt that Æthelfrith had threatened invasion if Rædwald did not have his royal guest murdered.
As Edwin brooded anxiously in his bedchamber, he glanced up and was surprised to see a man standing before him. ‘What reward would you give’ the man asked ‘to the one who could deliver you from your troubles, make you the greatest of English kings, and give you the wisest counsel for this life and the next?’
Edwin assured him that he would give that man his complete trust and do whatever he asked. The man laid his hand gently on Edwin’s head. ‘Remember this sign’ he said, ‘and your promise.’ Then he vanished.
Deira corresponds roughly to an area from the Humber estuary to the River Tees; Bernicia to the north then stretched from the Tees to the Firth of Forth in what is now Scotland. Edwin had been displaced by Æthelfrith by about 604.
Précis
After he was forced off the throne of Deira in the 7th century, Edwin was murderously pursued by his rival, Æthelfrith. An unexpected visitor, however, promised to help Edwin regain his crown, in exchange for a promise of absolute trust, to be redeemed later - the sign would be a hand laid upon his head. (55 / 60 words)
Part Two
RÆDWALD’s queen convinced her husband that Æthelfrith’s demands were intolerable. He took the fight to Æthelfrith, who was slain in battle in 616, and Edwin succeeded to the throne of Northumbria.
Now one of England’s great kings, Edwin sought the hand of Ethelberga, sister to Eadbald of Kent. Ethelberga’s family, however, was Christian, and she refused to marry a pagan. Her chaplain, Paulinus, and even Pope Boniface piled on the pressure. But Edwin wavered.
Edwin was still wavering when Paulinus paid him a visit. He rested his hand gently on Edwin’s head, and asked him whether the sign meant anything to him?
The memory of his bedchamber in Rædwald’s palace, and his promises of gratitude and obedience, came flooding back to Edwin. The mighty King sank trembling to his knees before Paulinus. He entrusted himself at last to Ethelberga and to Christ, and was baptized on 12th April 627, Easter Day, in the Church of St Peter in York.
A similar story of hesitation and an unyielding princess is told of the conversion of Vladimir the Great, Prince of Kiev, in 988, three centuries later. See The Conversion of Vladimir the Great.
Précis
Edwin regained his throne in 616, and at once sought an alliance with the Kingdom of Kent by marriage. But he baulked at princess Ethelberga’s demand that he share her Christian faith, until her chaplain, Paulinus, showed him the secret sign of obedience he had long ago agreed. Chastened, the King gave way and was baptized the following Easter. (58 / 60 words)