Bamburgh

The site now occupied by Bamburgh Castle was previously home to a fort of the Celtic Britons known as Din Guarie[1] and may have been the capital of the kingdom of Bernicia, the realm of the Gododdin people,[2] from the realm's foundation in c. 420 until 547, the year of the first written reference to the castle. In that year, the citadel was captured by the Anglo-Saxon ruler Ida of Bernicia (Beornice) and became Ida's seat.[3] The Anglo-Saxons called the place Bebbanburg, meaning "Queen Bebba's stronghold";[4] this was later corrupted into the modern "Bamburgh". Aidan of Lindisfarne came to this area from the monastery of Iona in 635 on behalf of King Oswald of Northumbria.

Following the defeat of Northumbrian forces by the Viking Great Heathen Army, at York in 867, the united Kingdom of Northumbria disintegrated. The limited evidence available suggests that north-east Northumbria – centred on the future County Durham, Northumberland and Lothian – remained an independent Anglo-Saxon kingdom, with Bamburgh its de facto capital. (During the late 9th and early 10th centuries, southern Northumbria was controlled by Vikings in the form of the Danelaw, while north-west Northumbria became part of the late British kingdom of Strathclyde.)

The late medieval village began to develop near the castle.[5] During the Dissolution of the Monasteries the property of the friars, including the castle, were seized on behalf of Henry VIII.[6]

Late medieval British author Thomas Malory identified Bamburgh Castle with Joyous Gard, the mythical castle home of Sir Lancelot in Arthurian legend.[7]

^ "Bernaccia (Bryneich / Berneich)". The History Files. Retrieved 18 June 2018. ^ 'An English empire: Bede and the early Anglo-Saxon kings' by N. J. Higham, Manchester University Press ND, 1995, ISBN 0-7190-4423-5, ISBN 978-0-7190-4423-6 ^ The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, entry for 547. ^ Mills, David (2011). A Dictionary of British Place Names. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-960908-6. ^ BAMBURGH HISTORY ^ Skulldugerous Knight Sir John Forster ^ Black, Joseph (2016). The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: Concise Volume A - Third Edition. Broadview. p. 536. ISBN 978-1554813124.