Edwin's renown comes largely from his treatment at some length by Bede, writing from an uncompromisingly English and Christian perspective, and rests on his belated conversion to Christianity. His united kingdom in the north did not outlast him, and his conversion to Christianity was renounced by his successors. When his kingship is compared with his pagan brother-in-law Æthelfrith, or to Æthelfrith's sons Oswald and Oswiu, or to the resolutely pagan Penda of Mercia, Edwin appears to be something less than a key figure in Britain during the first half of the 7th century. Perhaps the most significant legacies of Edwin's reign lay in his failures: the rise of Penda and of Mercia, and the return from Irish exile of the sons of Æthelfrith, which tied the kingdom of Northumbria into the Irish sea world for generations.Edwin's legacy: Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 81–82; Higham, Kingdom of Northumbria, p. 125ff.; Campbell, "St Cuthbert", pp. 86–87.
Edwin's renown comes largely from his treatment at some length by Bede, writing from an uncompromisingly English and Christian perspective, and rests on his belated conversion to Christianity. His united kingdom in the north did not outlast him, and his conversion to Christianity was renounced by his successors. When his kingship is compared with his pagan brother-in-law Æthelfrith, or to Æthelfrith's sons Oswald and Oswiu, or to the resolutely pagan Penda of Mercia, Edwin appears to be something less than a key figure in Britain during the first half of the 7th century. Perhaps the most significant legacies of Edwin's reign lay in his failures: the rise of Penda and of Mercia, and the return from Irish exile of the sons of Æthelfrith, which tied the kingdom of Northumbria into the Irish sea world for generations.Edwin's legacy: Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 81–82; Higham, Kingdom of Northumbria, p. 125ff.; Campbell, "St Cuthbert", pp. 86–87.