End of An Epoch
Oswiu would go on to re-unite Bernicia and Deira into Northumbria and establish a temporary dominance over Mercia, becoming the premier military and political power north of the Humber Estuary. Mercia would soon throw off the Northumbrian occupation and recover to become the premier military and political power in the English Midlands.
The future was much different for the Cymry of the Old North and North Wales. While Alt Clud would recover its independence and re-emerge as a state, the kingdoms of Manaw Gododdin, Gododdin, and Rheged were permanently destroyed and disappear from the historical record. Gwynedd would decline further until it would be unable to defend its own heartland from invasion and devastating raids, not to re-emerge as a regional power for 200 years. Powys was also weakened, and would not again become a military power until joined with Gwynedd under Rhodri the Great some 200 years later.
The death of Penda in 655 marks the end of the 'heroic age' of the Welsh bards.
Read more about this topic: Cadafael Cadomedd Ap Cynfeddw
Famous quotes containing the word epoch:
“According to U.S. strategy, if you never see the other, his destruction will be more acceptable ... so that when Iraqi soldiers surrendered, sooner than expected, it was as if they emerged from a dream, a flash-back, a lost epoch—an epoch when the enemy still had a body and was still “like us.””
—Serge Daney (1944–1992)