Kingdom of Northumbria

Northumbria was an early medieval English kingdom, existing between 654 and 1066 AD, spanning modern-day Northern England and Southern Scotland. The name derives from the Old English Norþhymbre meaning "the people or province north of the Humber", as opposed to the people south of the Humber Estuary. What was to become Northumbria started as two kingdoms, Deira in the south and Bernicia in the north. Conflict in the first half of the seventh century ended with the murder of the last king of Deira in 651, and Northumbria was thereafter unified under Bernician kings. At its height, the kingdom extended from the Humber, Peak District and the River Mersey on the south to the Firth of Forth on the north..