from Paulinus and eventually converted, gaining “greater power over all inhabitants
of Britain, English and Briton alike, except for Kent only” including Isles of Man and Anglesea. 55 Bede describes that “there was so great a peace in Britain wherever the dominion of King Edwin reached, that, as the proverb still runs, a woman with a newborn child could walk throughout the island from sea to sea and take no harm.” 56
And thus, “The Northumbrian Race… together with their king Edwin, also accepted
the word of faith… So, like no other English king before him, he held under his sway
the whole realm of Britain, not only English Kingdoms but those ruled over by Britons as w ell.” 57 Here, the conversion of Edwin directly gains him peaceful dominion over
the peoples of Britain. King Oswald is presented as “anxious that the whole race
under his rule should be filled with the grace of the Christian faith of which he had had so wonderful an experience in overcoming the barbarians”. 58 Through this he
“gained from the one God… greater earthly realms than any of his ancestors had
possessed. In fact, he held under his sway all the peoples and kingdoms of Britain,… he wielded supreme power over the whole land”. 59 Once again, Bede shows faith as
fortifying unity among the peoples of Britain through pious kingship. In contrast,
Cenwealh of Wessex refused the “mysteries of the heavenly kingdom and not long
afterwards lost his earthly kingdom”. When, in exile, Cenwealh “accepted the true
faith” and was restored to his kingdom. Bede’s use of God’s particular favour
towards certain kings, such as King Edwin’s mastery over the Britons and the
‘English’ and the unity of the ‘English’, Britons, Picts and Irish in faith under “Oswald,
the most Christian king of Northumbria” illustrates how the roles of Christian kings in
protecting and defending their people and Church directly affected the spiritual unity of the ‘English’ people, and others, in Britain. 60
Another way to examine ‘Englishness’ in Bede is through the uses and
mentions of language. Early ideas of the ‘English’ come through the pontifical
epistles of Gregory, Boniface, and Honorius. In letters to Augustine, Gregory always refers to the “English Church”, the “Church of the English” and the “English race”. 61
55 Bede, pp. 78, 86, 95-6 56 Bede, p. 100 57 Bede, p. 84 58 Bede, p. 113 59 Bede, p. 118 60 Bede, p. 124; Higham, ‘Bede’s vision of an English Britain’, p. 18; Brown, p. 106 61 Bede, pp. 42-59
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