I'm Bruce Fummey. You're probably used to the idea of Scotland owning England; whether it's
because our King James the Sixth went there and took it over on our behalf in 1603, or the fact that we
ran their empire, did their inventing, won their wars, and funded them through the Thatcher years,
but then again, that's the kind of generosity you'd expect from the Scots isn't it?
We're renowned for our generosity, but what if I told you that the Scots' influence over England
goes back even further than that. The Scota is not only our mother but she was the midwife when
England came into the world. If you're interested in the people, places and events in Scottish history,
then click the subscribe button at the bottom right anytime. In the meantime,
let me tell you a story. Oh that might actually be a good time to tell you that you can now get
mugs, t-shirts and hoodies, with one of my magical thumbnails and the let me tell you a story legend
on it. You'll find them underneath this video or at www.scotlandhistorytours.co.uk/shop
Anyway today I've brought you to Lindisfarne Abbey on the Holy Isle in
Northumbria. Now you might be thinking, hold on Lindisfarne, isn't that English?
Well not really, they're kind of Geordies aren't they? We like the Geordies. Even a rabid
Anyone But England type, would see an England team full of Geordies and they would go,
och all right. I'll never sing God Save the Queen, but I don't mind the Blaydon Races.
A lot of Scousers don't see themselves ... they kind of see themselves a bit separate from
England as well don't they? A posh English bloke once told me a joke: What do you
get if you cross a Geordie with a Scouser? A housebreaker that's too lazy to steal!
I'll be honest, I wasn't sure which was the thief, and which was the laggard in that particular joke,
and I didn't want to appear stupid, so I told him a joke about Fife.
He told me a joke about Norfolk, I told him about the sexual proclivities of Highlanders,
he talked about the Welsh, I went home, and he went back to his house in Downing Street.
The point is, that identities in these islands aren't entirely straightforward.
The monastery that this island is famous for, was established by a Scot. Now when I say Scot, I
mean that in the original sense of Scot. I've been making a series of videos about the kingdoms
and the peoples who made Scotland, and when I say Scots, I'm talking about those Scots from
Dalriada. I'll leave a link to some of those videos at the end. This was part of the Bernician Kingdom
of the Angles. One of its most powerful kings, was a guy called Oswald. He's seen as the archetypal
English, Christian, warrior king, and I mentioned him in my video about the Angles in Scotland,
but where, and how did Oswald become this Christian, warrior king? When Oswald was 12,
his dad, Aethelfrith, was killed fighting against his brother-in-law and some Britons. Young Oswald,
along with his mother, his siblings, and some other English nobility, fled to Dalriada and sought refuge
with the Scots. So from the age of 12, he grew up speaking Gaelic, being educated by the monks
at Iona, living with and adopting the customs and culture of the Scots. Anglian Northumbria,
English Northumbria, Anglian English? Either way it would have included what we call Yorkshire.
That makes me think of a young lad that I taught years ago when I was a physics teacher.
He came to Scotland from Yorkshire as a kid.
He grew up among us, he was educated here and he did very well for himself. When Scotland (rugby team)
play at Murrayfield, there's no doubt that he sees himself as Scottish. I mean he still talks a bit
funny and supports Leeds United (football team), but the point I'm making is that by the time young Oswald reached 29,
he was no longer the pagan English/Angle boy that had fled Northumberland. He was now
a Christian, baptised in the Columban church. He was a Scot who wanted his English crown back.
So he returned to his Northumbrian home to do battle with Cadwallon the Briton, the King
of Gwynedd, and the Overlord of the Northumbria Kingdom Oswald saw as his. Oswald's army would have
probably included some English Northumbrians, who had fled and grown with him and Dalriada.
A lot of Scots who'd accompanied them on their return, maybe even some adventuring Picts and
Britons, who saw opportunity in a man that seems to have been quite an heroic figure, but that army
could never have set out without the say so of the Dalriadan King of Scots, and the blessing
of the Columban church. Heading south by sea from Argyll, they probably rounded Galloway and came up
the River Eden to Carlisle, and then took the Stanegate, the old Roman Road that traced Hadrian's Wall
east, until they were just north of Hexham. The sources tell us, that on the morning of battle,
Oswald addressed his War Council and told them, how during the night he saw a vision of St Columba.
Columba had appeared to him, and said 'Behold, I will be with you. This coming night
go out from your camp into battle, for the Lord has granted me, that at this time, your foes shall be
put to flight, and Cadwallon, your enemy, shall be delivered into your hands, and you shall return
victorious after battle, and reign happily'. The whole people said on the return from battle they'd
accept the Christian faith and be baptised, and of course they did win the battle and the pagan
English with them were baptised. Then in roughly 640 AD, Oswald asked the monastery at Iona, where he
himself had been baptised and educated, to send monks to establish a monastery here on the Holy
Isle, to convert the pagan English to Christianity. St Aiden came and converted the Northumbrians.
Two different monks wrote the tale of the battle; Bede, the Anglo-Saxon historian monk, and Adomnan
the Scots successor to Columba Iona. Two different sides. Now it's probably not surprising that the
Saxon clergyman under the Roman Church, emphasised the crosses that the men put in their shields,
just as the men of Constantine before the Battle of Milvian Bridge on the River Tiber.
That's the one that led to Constantine Christianising Rome, and ultimately the
Roman Church. The Celtic clergyman emphasised the part played by the saintly visitation of Columba.
Of course they both emphasised the impact of the Christian church and their branch of it. Is there
ever an historian that doesn't have an agenda? But they both roughly agree on the basic story of why
this abbey was established on Lindisfarne. The truth is that Oswald would never have had the
vision the night before the battle without earthly support. The only reason that he
reached Havenfield for the battle, was with the backing and support of the Scots King of Dalriada.
The only reason that he survived his uncle's wrath at the age of 12, was because of the Scots King of
Dalriada. When he achieved success, he brought with him the cultural influence of the Scots of Dalriada,
and a Columban monk to proselytise the English, and that is why there's a Scottish monastery
on Lindisfarne, and that's why we get on with the Geordies. I have no idea why we always lose
at football. Anyway, you can see another video about those peoples who made Scotland, in a video coming
up on screen now. In the meantime, tha mi an dochas gum bith lath math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda.