Deira ( ; Old Welsh/

Cumbric Cumbric was a variety of the Common Brittonic language spoken during the Early Middle Ages in the ''Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North" in what is now the counties of Westmorland, Cumberland and northern Lancashire in Northern England and the souther ...

: ''Deywr'' or ''Deifr''; ang, Derenrice or ) was an area of

Post-Roman Britain Sub-Roman Britain is the period of late antiquity in Great Britain between the end of Roman rule and the Anglo-Saxon settlement. The term was originally used to describe archaeological remains found in 5th- and 6th-century AD sites that hin ...

, and a later Anglian kingdom.

Etymology

The name of the kingdom is of Brythonic origin, and is derived from the

Proto-Celtic Proto-Celtic, or Common Celtic, is the ancestral proto-language of all known Celtic languages, and a descendant of Proto-Indo-European. It is not attested in writing but has been partly reconstructed through the comparative method. Proto-Celti ...

*''daru'', meaning 'oak' ( in modern Welsh), in which case it would mean 'the people of the Derwent', a derivation also found in the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

name for Malton, . It is cognate with the modern

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

word (); the names for County Londonderry and the city of Derry stem from this word.

History

Brythonic Deira

Following the

Roman withdrawal from Britain The end of Roman rule in Britain was the transition from Roman Britain to post-Roman Britain. Roman rule ended in different parts of Britain at different times, and under different circumstances. In 383, the usurper Magnus Maximus withdrew t ...

a number of successor kingdoms rose in northern England, reflecting pre-Roman tribal territories. The area between

the Humber The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers Ouse and Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between ...

and River Tees known as ''Deywr'' or ''Deifr'' corresponds to the tribal lands of the Parisi, bordered to the west and north by the Brythonic kingdoms of '' Elfed'' and '' Bryneich'' respectively, and to the east by the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

. Early Deira may have centred on

Petuaria Petuaria (or Petuaria Parisorum) was originally a Roman fort situated where the town of Brough in the East Riding of Yorkshire now stands. Petuaria means something like 'quarter' or 'fourth part', incorporating the archaic Brythonic *''petuar'', ...

(modern Brough) and archaeological evidence shows that the town was refortified. Petuaria was a great tribal centre for the Parisi, but declined in importance from the mid-fourth century (possibly as the harbour silted up). After this period, Derventio (modern Malton) may have functioned as the region's capital. It is not known if Deira was ever an independent Brythonic kingdom, and no British king has been identified with the area from the surviving genealogies, poems or chronicles. However the area was subject to the same fractious inheritance traditions and changing power dynamic (following the Roman withdrawal) that allowed Elfed and Bryneich to become independent hereditary kingdoms in the early fifth century. In Welsh literature Deira is part of the ''

Hen Ogledd Yr Hen Ogledd (), in English the Old North, is the historical region which is now Northern England and the southern Scottish Lowlands that was inhabited by the Brittonic people of sub-Roman Britain in the Early Middle Ages. Its population sp ...

'' (Old North) region, which was divided into many related kingdoms after the death of

Coel Hen Coel (Old Welsh: ''Coil''), also called ''Coel Hen'' (Coel the Old) and King Cole, is a figure prominent in Welsh literature and legend since the Middle Ages. Early Welsh tradition knew of a Coel Hen, a 4th-century leader in Roman or Sub-Roman ...

(Coel the Old).

Anglian Deira

The kingdom was previously inhabited by Britons and was probably created in the third quarter of the fifth century when Anglian warriors invaded the Derwent Valley. Anglian Deira's territory also extended from the

Humber The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers Ouse and Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between t ...

to the Tees, and from the sea to the western edge of the

Vale of York The Vale of York is an area of flat land in the northeast of England. The vale is a major agricultural area and serves as the main north–south transport corridor for Northern England. The Vale of York is often supposed to stretch from the R ...

. It later merged with the kingdom of

Bernicia Bernicia ( ang, Bernice, Bryneich, Beornice; la, Bernicia) was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom established by Anglian settlers of the 6th century in what is now southeastern Scotland and North East England. The Anglian territory of Bernicia was ap ...

, its northern neighbour, to form the kingdom of

Northumbria la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria , common_name = Northumbria , status = State , status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...

. According to

Simeon of Durham __NOTOC__ Symeon (or Simeon) of Durham (died after 1129) was an English chronicler and a monk of Durham Priory. Biography Symeon entered the Benedictine monastery at Jarrow as a youth. It moved to Durham in 1074, and he was professed in 1085 o ...

(writing early in the 12th century), it extended from the

to the Tyne, but the land was waste north of the Tees. After the Brythonic kingdom centred on , which may have been called

Ebrauc The history of York, England, as a city dates to the beginning of the first millennium AD but archaeological evidence for the presence of people in the region of York dates back much further to between 8000 and 7000 BC. As York was a town i ...

, was taken by King Edwin, the city of became its capital, and ("boar-place") was taken by the Angles. Archaeology suggests that the Anglian royal house was in place by the middle of the fifth century, but the first certainly recorded king is Ælla in the late sixth century. After his death, Deira was subject to king

Æthelfrith Æthelfrith (died c. 616) was King of Bernicia from c. 593 until his death. Around 604 he became the first Bernician king to also rule the neighboring land of Deira, giving him an important place in the development of the later kingdom of Nor ...

of Bernicia, who united the two kingdoms into Northumbria. Æthelfrith ruled until the accession of Ælla's son

Edwin The name Edwin means "rich friend". It comes from the Old English elements "ead" (rich, blessed) and "ƿine" (friend). The original Anglo-Saxon form is Eadƿine, which is also found for Anglo-Saxon figures. People * Edwin of Northumbria (die ...

, in 616 or 617, who also ruled both kingdoms until 633.

Osric Osric is an Anglo-Saxon name and may refer to: __NOTOC__ People Anglo-Saxon kings * Osric of Deira, king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Deira in the 630s * Osric of Northumbria, king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria in the 720s * Osric of ...

, the nephew of Edwin, ruled Deira after Edwin, but his son Oswine was put to death by

Oswiu Oswiu, also known as Oswy or Oswig ( ang, Ōswīg; c. 612 – 15 February 670), was King of Bernicia from 642 and of Northumbria from 654 until his death. He is notable for his role at the Synod of Whitby in 664, which ultimately brought the chu ...

in 651. For a few years subsequently, Deira was governed by Æthelwald son of Oswald of Bernicia.D. P. Kirby, ''The Earliest English Kings'' (1991, 2000), page 78. Bede wrote of Deira in his '' Historia Ecclesiastica'' (completed in 731).

Anglian kings of Deira

Notes

References

* *Higham, N.J. (1993). ''The Kingdom of Northumbria AD 350–1100.'' Stroud: Sutton. * * * * *