All right, welcome to the British History Podcast.

My name is Jamie, and this is episode 137, Religious Ambitions, The Rise of Oswald,

and others.

When we last left off, Oswald, son of Ethel Frith and Acha, defeated and killed Ketwathlin

of Gwyneth, at the Battle of Heaven Field.

The defeat was a serious blow for the Northern Welsh Kingdom.

And actually, in the praise poem written about Ketwathlin, we see the first use of the

term which would become the modern name for Wales.

Cymru, the land of the Western Cymbrogi, or Conrads.

I love the fact that the term appears at this point in history.

After such an incredible advance, and then suffering such an awful blow, why wouldn't

you use a term that would emphasize that sense of communal bonds, who would bind you together,

even in sorrow.

But it was a terrible defeat, and the line of Ida was once again ruling the North.

But where was Ketwathlin's ally, Penda of Mercia?

Where did he go?

Well, it looks like he was back down in Mercia, with his prisoner, Aydfrith, the last son of

Edwin.

However, with the death of Ketwathlin in the rise of Oswald, the son of Edwin's enemy,

Aydfrith had suddenly lost pretty much all of his market value.

He wouldn't be useful as a hostage anymore, and as for creating some sort of marital alliance

through the line of Edwin, well, that was unlikely to happen because you had Oswald

...