{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.015763546798029555, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0049261083743842365, 'mean_word_length': 5.389937106918239, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
CHARTERS, NORTHUMBRIA AND THE UNIFICATION OF ENGLAND IN THE TENTH AND ELEVENTH CENTURIES*

AT VARIOUS POINTS in the seventh century, the Northumbrian kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia, divided by the River Tees,1 were notionally joined under the rulership of Kings of the standing of Edwin and Oswald.2 Bede describes the advantages brought by such united political rule. But despite this hypothetical unity within the kingdom of Northumbria itself, the indications are that divisions remained and modern scholarship has investigated the tendency of the Northumbrian kingdom to come apart at the seams, as it were, whenever significant internal or external pressure was applied. The very title of David Rollason’s recent historical account emphasises this phenomenon.3 From its emergence in the late seventh and early eighth centuries as a kingdom of Europe-wide significance,4 historians have described the effects of major political events like the manifold civil disturbances of the mid to late eighth century,5 the