The Battle of Maserfeld, 5th August 641 or 642
by MJ Porter
The Battle of Maserfeld, occurring in 641 or 642, was fought between the Saxon kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria and is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (which began life in the late ninth century) and also in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People (written by 731), as well as the Historia Brittonum (a Welsh source, written in Latin) from the ninth century.
Bede recounts as follows, ‘Oswald, the most Christian king of the Northumbrians, reigned nine years, including that year which was held accursed for the barbarous cruelty of the king of the Britons and the reckless apostacy of the English kings; for, as was said above, it is agreed by the unanimous consent of all, that the names and memory of the apostates should be erased from the catalogue of the Christian kings, and no year assigned to their reign. After which period, Oswald was killed in a great battle, by the same pagan nation and pagan king of the Mercians, who had slain his predecessor Edwin, at a place called in the English tongue Maserfelth, in the thirty-eighth year of his age, on the fifth day of the month of August.’ (Bede’s Ecclesiastical History) https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38326/38326-h/38326-h.html#toc125
The Historia Brittonum records, ‘Penda, son of Pybba, reigned ten years; he first separated the kingdom of Mercia from that of the North-men, and slew by treachery Anna, king of the East Anglians, and St. Oswald, king of the North-men. He fought the battle of Cocboy [Masefeld], in which fell Eawa [Eowa], son of Pybba, his brother, king of the Mercians, and Oswald, king of the North-men, and he gained the victory by diabolical agency. He was not baptized, and never believed in God.’ https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Six_Old_English_Chronicles/Nennius%27s_History_of_the_Britons#History_of_the_Britons
In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, it is written as follows. A.D. 642. ‘This year Oswald, king of the Northumbrians, was slain by Penda, king of the Southumbrians, at Mirfield [Maserfeld], on the fifth day of August; and his body was buried at Bardney. His holiness and miracles were afterwards displayed on manifold occasions throughout this island; and his hands remain still uncorrupted at Barnburgh [Bamburgh]. The same year in which Oswald was slain, Oswy his brother succeeded to the government of the Northumbrians, and reigned two less than thirty years.’ (taken from the readily available version on the internet)
The battle was a victory for Penda of Mercia, and saw him involved in the killing of his second Northumbrian king – Edwin having died at the battle of Hædfeld in October 632/3.
The site of Maserfeld (Oswestry), so far west, almost in modern-day Wales itself, and so deep inside Mercian territory, speaks volumes either of King Oswald’s ability and arrogance that he could march far across Mercia in pursuit of his enemy or of a ruse, orchestrated by Penda and his allies to effectively cut off Oswald’s options to retreat. D P Kirby has offered the view that Oswald was acting in Mercia to assist his sworn man, Eowa, who was Penda’s brother, and king of Mercia. It’s Penda’s name that has resounded through the ages, even if it’s because of the horror of his paganism to the religious men who recorded the events in Saxon England. His brother’s name is largely unknown, although many subsequent kings of Mercia did claim descent from Eowa and not Penda. Oswald, known as Oswald Whiteblade, was raised in exile in Dal Riata, and came to be revered as a saint after his death. His afterlife has a colourful history, whereas we don’t know where Penda was buried.
It would be impossible to have a greater contradiction between the two men, Penda the pagan, and Oswald, not only holy but sainted – and even the name of the place of his death remembered in Oswestry – Oswald’s Tree or Oswald’s Cross.
In writing Pagan King, I wanted to offer a more rounded view of the build-up and the battle itself than the writers of the era, and also bring the historical characters to life – with all their ambitions, fears and arrogance. And I confess, Penda the pagan became a real favourite of mine – the Saxon era writers would be horrified. 😊
The year is AD641, and the great Oswald of Northumbria, bretwalda over England, must battle against an alliance of the old Britons and the Saxons led by Penda of the Hwicce, the victor of Hæ∂feld nine years before, the only Saxon leader seemingly immune to Oswald's beguiling talk of the new Christianity spreading through England from both the north and the south.
Alliances will be made and broken, and the victory will go to the man most skilled in warcraft and statecraft.
The ebb and flow of battle will once more redraw the lines of the petty kingdoms stretching across the British Isles.
There will be another victor and another bloody loser.
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