THE battle of Hatfield took place in the year AD 633. Many changes had taken place in Britain in the previous two hundred or so years and we must look at those changes for the cause of the battle. The final departure of the Romans from Britain had taken place about AD 410 and their occupation of the country is well recorded. However, there are very few detailed records of the next 200 years, which were known as the Dark Ages.

It is known that several different tribes from the east had over-run the Continent and probably the most important of these were the Angles and the Saxons. Some of these had crossed the North Sea, even before the Romans had left, and had begun to settle in Britain. It was not a military invasion as such, but they came over in small groups with their women and children, taking over land from the Britons and building villages where they settled. As more Anglo-Saxons arrived, most of the Britons in the south of the country were driven into the mountains in the west, where they became known as the Welsh. The Picts and Scots, had taken advantage of the Romans leaving to cross the border, ravaging North Britain, and they were driven back into Scotland by the Anglo-Saxons. But this was a gradual invasion and took over 200 years. The few Britons who remained eventually merged with the Anglo-Saxons. Britain then became known as the land of the Angles, or Angle-land, later known as England.

Groups of Anglo-Saxons in Britain fought among themselves for supremacy and as a result, the larger groups formed themselves into Kingdoms, each with its own King. Some of the smaller Kingdoms were taken over by their stronger neighbours and soon there were only a few very powerful Kingdoms, the most important being Northumbria, Mercia and Essex. The Kingdoms occasionally went to war against each other in a power struggle.

Another reason for going to war was Religion. The Anglo-Saxons were heathens and worshipped heathen Gods, but towards the end of the sixth century, some of the Kingdoms turned to Christianity.

St. Augustine landed in Kent where King Ethelbert ruled. Although Ethelbert was a. heathen he had married Bertha, daughter of a Christian King who ruled over part of Gaul on the Continent. King Ethelbert allowed Augustine to preach the Christian gospel and he was converted to the Christian faith. Augustine settled in Canterbury where he became the first Archbishop.

The next Kingdom to be converted to Christianity was Northumbria where King Edwin ruled. Northumbria had been formed in the year 617 from the two Kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira. Edwin was a heathen but he had married Ethelburger, the Christian daughter of King Elthelbert and Queen Bertha of Kent. Edwin allowed a Christian priest named Paulinus to reside at hiss roan to teach the Christian faith. Eventually Edwin too became a Christian and he was baptised in a little wooden church at York, on Easter Day, in the year 627.

Penda, who was King of the nearby Kingdom of Mercia, was an enemy of Edwin and was envious of the success of Edwin in uniting Northumbria. Penda was a heathen and was opposed to the spread of Christianity. He decided to challenge Edwin's rule and sought the help of Cadwallader, King of. North Wales. The battle took place at Hatfield.

ENVIOUS

The King then addressed his troops, warning them they must stand and fight as they would be unable to retreat because of the waters to the northeast and south, whilst the enemy approached from the west. The King then placed his archers in the woods and clumps of trees which stretched almost into Doncaster. By the 3rd October the enemy had reached Doncaster where they stayed overnight. Many of the Doncastrians had fled towards the King's camp at Hatfield and those who remained were killed. Reinforcements were on the way to Edwin from the north and they marched part of the night, crossing the ford at Stainforth, to reach Hatfield in the morning. Edwin's army was commanded by himself, his young son Prince Osfrid and several experienced lords and nobles. The enemy's army was commanded by the two Kings Penda and Cadwallader with their Captains.

The enemy forces began their attack on the morning of the 4th, their soldiers stretching from one side of the Heath to the other. They drove back Edwin's archers as they advanced. The two armies were in sight of each other by midday and the trumpeters sounded the charge. The archers on both sides fired their arrows but it was soon fierce hand to hand combat with axes and other weapons. One of the first casualties was King Edwin's son, Prince Osfrid, who was fatally wounded. Several of Edwin's nobles and courtiers were also killed. The fierce fighting continued until almost sunset when King Edwin's army was overpowered and he was surrounded by the enemy. Despite putting up a fierce struggle he too was slain.

VILLAGE DESTROYED

Having won victory on the field of battle, the enemy then turned their attention to the village, murdering everyone they could find. The Church, the Palace and all the houses were looted, after which they were set on fire and burnt down. The only thing remaining was the stone altar of the Church.

Penda and Cadwallader marched away the following day to consolidate their victory elsewhere. The survivors who had fled to neighbouring villages returned. They found more than 10,000 dead bodies, including that of King Edwin and Prince Osfrid. The King's head was cut off and sent to York for burial in Saint Peter's Church.

Abraham de la Pryme has this to say at the end of his account. "As for his body, and that of his son Osfrid, and the rest of his nobles, they were cast in a great hole altogether and a Huge Hill of Earth thrown over them, which hill remains to this day in Hadham field, near ye Lings - called now Slay-Burr-Hill, that is ye Hill where the slayn were bury'd. The field having now been plow'd for many hundreds of years, he caused that the aforesaid hill is not now so conspicuous as it has been; yet it is higher now than any other part of ye field, and everyone knows it." The widowed Queen, with her young son and daughter, were taken to safety by St. Paulinus and one of Edwin's commanders. They travelled by boat to Kent, where the Queen had lived before her marriage. A new royal palace was built at Leeds, which took the place of the former palace at Hatfield. It took many years for Hatfield to recover.

QUESTIONED

That is the story of the battle of Hatfield, roughly as told by Abraham de la Pryme. However many historians cast doubt on much of de la Pryme's writings and have often been able to prove him wrong. In recent years mass burials have been discovered at Cuckney Church near Edwinstowe in Nottinghamshire. The reason for these burials is not known but it has been suggested by David Hey in his book `The Making of South Yorkshire' (1979) that the battle of Hatfield may have taken place there. Edwinstowe suggests a link with King Edwin and it is thought that when the Venerable, Bede wrote of the battle' which took place in Hatfield, he may have been referring not to the village, but to the greater administrative area of Hatfield which extended into Nottinghamshire.

One of the things I find hard to accept in Pryme's account is the part about the burial mound and the ten thousand bodies. To collect and bury 10,000 bodies spread around a battlefield which must have stretched from Edenthorpe to Tudworth would have been a formidable task. And the burial mound would have to be not just twice the size but perhaps twenty or more times the size.

David Lunn, Bishop of Sheffield, in his book `Kings, Canals and Coal' (1993), included Pryme's account of the battle in an appendix to his book. Referring to this the Bishop says "The numbers engaged in the battle have steadily increased and there are believed to be `thousands of bodies in a burial mound close to where the Lings now is'. The battle gives De la Pryme an excuse for one of his most splendid extravaganzas..." I wondered if perhaps only the bodies of the King, Prince Osfrid and the nobles were buried there. It is significant that some 70 years after the battle, Edwin's headless body was recovered from the burial mound, apparently without difficulty, so that his remains could be taken to Whitby and buried in the Church of St. Peter. There is another suggestion that the burial mound may not be a burial mound at all, but the foundations of a windmill, built on a mound to give it height. Again, very difficult to prove.

SLAY PITS

Another thing which surprises me is that Slay Pits, which, because of its name, is traditionally the scene of a battle, is not mentioned by Pryme. If his account is accepted, the battle would not have been confined to the Lings and the remnants of Edwin's army may well have been driven back to Slay Pits, which after all is quite near across the fields. It is unlikely they could have been driven further eastwards because of the tracts of water to the south and north-east that time.

There are many questions which remain unanswered about the battle which took place over 1,300 years ago, questions which are likely to remain unanswered. I know that many people in Hatfield will be happy to accept Abraham de la Pryme's account, even though there may be some doubts about it. They can walk along the Lings and see the burial mound in the field near the confluence of Lings Lane with the A18. They can even look westwards from Lings Lane and see clumps of trees (although obviously not the same trees), and imagine King Edwin's archers waiting for the enemy. Or they can look across the fields at Slay Pits where King Edwin, knowing his young son was killed and his army routed, still fought on until he too was slain. There is perhaps something to be said for clinging to old traditions and for living in a village which purports to be the site of an ancient battle.