Europe · The successor kingdoms
Kingdom of Deira
559 – 7th century
The Kingdom of Deira (Dere) was an Anglian kingdom north of the Humber, stretching roughly from the River Humber to the Tees (the later East Riding of Yorkshire and beyond), with the British kingdom of Elmet to its west and Bernicia to its north. Its first known king was Ælle (Ælla) (r. c. 559/560–588; Britannica gives "apparently 559," the Chronicle 560), son of Yffe, who established Deiran independence from Bernician overlordship.
- Existed
- 559 – 7th century
- Shown on the map
- AD 534–611, 633 (2 periods)
- Peak area
- 19k km²
- Region
- Europe
Overview
The Kingdom of Deira (Dere) was an Anglian kingdom north of the Humber, stretching roughly from the River Humber to the Tees (the later East Riding of Yorkshire and beyond), with the British kingdom of Elmet to its west and Bernicia to its north. Its first known king was Ælle (Ælla) (r. c. 559/560–588; Britannica gives "apparently 559," the Chronicle 560), son of Yffe, who established Deiran independence from Bernician overlordship. Ælle was almost certainly a pagan.
History
Ælle features in the most famous conversion anecdote of English history: per Bede, the future Pope Gregory the Great, seeing fair Anglian boys for sale in a Roman slave market and told they were Angli from the province of Deira whose king was Ælle, punned "Non Angli, sed angeli" ("not Angles but angels"), that they should be saved de ira ("from wrath"), and that Alleluia should be sung in Ælle's land — the story that reputedly inspired the mission of Augustine to Kent (597). The tale is a folk-etymological pun recorded by Bede a century and a half later.
Decline and legacy
Deira's history was one of rivalry and forced union with Bernicia. Æthelfrith of Bernicia annexed Deira (c. 604), married Ælle's daughter Acha, and drove Ælle's son Edwin into exile. Edwin (r. c. 616–632/633) regained both kingdoms after Rædwald of East Anglia defeated Æthelfrith at the Battle of the River Idle (616), became the most powerful ruler in Britain and the first Christian king of Northumbria (baptised by Paulinus, 627), and was killed by Cadwallon of Gwynedd and Penda of Mercia at the Battle of Hatfield Chase (632/633). Deira briefly separated again under Osric before being re-united with Bernicia by Oswald (634) and, durably, under Oswiu (from 651). The two kingdoms together formed Northumbria ("the land north of the Humber"), one of the great powers of 7th-century Britain and a centre of learning and art. Deira thereafter survived only as a Northumbrian sub-region until the Viking conquest of York (867).
Common questions
- What was the Kingdom of Deira?
- The Kingdom of Deira (Dere) was an Anglian kingdom north of the Humber, stretching roughly from the River Humber to the Tees (the later East Riding of Yorkshire and beyond), with the British kingdom of Elmet to its west and Bernicia to its north. Its first known king was Ælle (Ælla) (r. c. 559/560–588; Britannica gives "apparently 559," the Chronicle 560), son of Yffe, who established Deiran independence from Bernician overlordship.
- When did the Kingdom of Deira exist?
- The Kingdom of Deira existed 559 – 7th century. On this map it is drawn AD 534–611, 633.
- How large was the Kingdom of Deira?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Kingdom of Deira covered about 19,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
- Who ruled the Kingdom of Deira?
- Ælle features in the most famous conversion anecdote of English history: per Bede, the future Pope Gregory the Great, seeing fair Anglian boys for sale in a Roman slave market and told they were Angli from the province of Deira whose king was Ælle, punned "Non Angli, sed angeli" ("not Angles but angels"), that they should be saved de ira ("from wrath"), and that Alleluia should be sung in Ælle's land — the story that reputedly inspired the mission of Augustine to Kent (597).
- How did the Kingdom of Deira end?
- Deira's history was one of rivalry and forced union with Bernicia. Æthelfrith of Bernicia annexed Deira (c. 604), married Ælle's daughter Acha, and drove Ælle's son Edwin into exile.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each territory and its key figures as the primary basis, with Encyclopædia Britannica, the World History Encyclopedia, and academic and primary sources — Jordanes, Procopius, Gregory of Tours, Bede, Ammianus and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, read through the secondary literature. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Deira en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deira
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
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