Bede was a monk of the joint monastery of Monkwearmouth and Jarrow in
the late seventh century into the early eighth, and England’s first
historian: his ‘Ecclesiastical History of the English People’ is our
greatest source for the history of early Anglo-Saxon England. Yet Bede
was also a leading scholar of the Church, and much of his effort went
into biblical exegesis, many of his works in this field surviving to
this day.

In this book, Clive Tolley looks at some events in the
reigns of three early kings of Northumbria, Bede’s own homeland, and
seeks to develop a better understanding not only of what took place from
a secular point of view, but also of how the recounting of these events
was informed by a spiritual perception of history such as Bede and his
contemporaries espoused.

The topics dealt with include the battle
of Chester and the slaughter of the monks of Bangor-is-Coed by
Æthelfrith, the conversion of Eadwine and desecration of the pagan
sanctuary of Goodmanham, and the victory of Oswald following his raising
of the cross at Heavenfield.