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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Northumbria
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The most powerful of the *Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the 7C, when its rulers controlled an area from coast to coast across the country, stretching from the Clyde and the Forth in the north to the Mersey and Humber in the south. Northumbria was noted for the learning and culture of its monasteries, particularly those on the east coast; *Bede wrote his history at Jarrow; the *Lindisfarne Gospels derive from Holy Island; and the Northumbrian decision on Christian ritual at the *Synod of Whitby set the pattern for the rest of England. The kingdom was much reduced from the late 9C by Danish invasions in the east and by pressure from the Scots in the north. In the mid-10C Northumbria ceased to exist as an independent kingdom and became an earldom within an England dominated by *Wessex.
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