EDWIN, or E ad wine, king of Northumbria, was the son of Aella, king of Deira, and was born about 586, At the death of Aella, in 588, Ethelfrid, king of Bernicia, Aella’s brother-in law, usurped the throne of Deira, and. united the two kingdoms Deira and Bernicia, under the name of Northumbria. Edwin ultimately found shelter with Raedwald of East Anglia, who, in 617, defeated and slew Ethelfrid near the river Idle, and enabled Edwin to mount the Northumbrian throne. In 625 Edwin married Ethelburgha, daughter of Edbert, king of Kent. She had been converted to Christianity, and, at her desire, Paulinus, a Christian missionary, was allowed to enter Northumbria. Not long after Paulinus’s arrival, Eumer, an envoy of the king of Wessex, made an attempt to''assassinate Edwin, who was only saved by Lilla, one of his thanes, throwing himself between him and the assassin’s weapon. The thane was killed, and the sword passing through his body inflicted also a dangerous wound on the king. The queen about the same time was seized by the pangs of childbirth, and was so alarmed on account of what had happened that she and her infant were for a time in imminent danger. Paulinus offered up prayers for their recovery, and Edwin was so much impressed by the seeming answer to the petition, that, though he did not at once adopt the Christian faith, he permitted the infant and twelve of his household to be baptized. He also declared to Paulinus that if he should succeed in overthrowing the West Saxons, against whom he had determined to make war, he would himself become a Christian, and receive the rite of baptism. After his victorious return he renounced his heathen gods, but it required all Paulinus’s powers of persuasion to get him finally to adopt Christianity, and to give it his ...