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Its name is a dead giveaway when it comes to its geographical position. Northumbria was the northernmost kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons, though it didn’t initially start out as a single kingdom. During the Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons, its territory was home to two smaller but equally influential kingdoms, those of Deira and Bernicia. Their common name after unification, Northumbria, comes from them being north of the Humber estuary on the east coast of Britain. It’s possible that Bede was the first to actually coin the term and that the kings of united Northumbria merely styled themselves “king of Bernicia and Deira.”
Of the two, Deira was closer to the Humber, bordering Bernicia at the river Tees. To the west, Deira bordered the edge of the Vale of York, and of course, York itself was the capital. Bernicia extended from Tees to the river Forth. Its own capital was the city of Bamburgh, which would become the only remaining independent earldom of the region in the 9th century before it was ultimately absorbed by England and Scotland years later.
It’s difficult to keep track of all the kings that ruled Northumbria mainly because the dynasties of the two kingdoms constantly shifted. A member of Bernicia’s royal line would take the throne of Deira only to be replaced a generation later by a ruler from Deira, who in turn would take Bernicia’s throne as well. Nevertheless, the kingdom gave Britain no less than three kings that would be named bretwalda by Bede and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
It’s important to note that we have more information about Northumbria than on all the other kingdoms. Bede himself was Northumbrian, so it’s safe to say that he had a clear bias in choosing which kingdoms he wanted to discuss in more detail. For example, he talks very little about Mercians and West Saxons because those two held the same level of power that Northumbria once had. It would also explain why he didn’t include any Mercians and only one West Saxon king when he talked about the bretwalda of the island. Nevertheless, his insight gives us plenty of information on how this northernmost kingdom grew, expanded, and interacted with others.
