The greatest Saxon king, Athelstan, was the conqueror of Northumbria, but the Northumbrians, notably Archbishop Wulfstan of York, a resolute northerner, chafed under the domination of the hated Suthangli. Though they had submitted to Athelstan's son, Eadred in AD 947, they took the opportunity of asserting their independence by inviting the charismatic Eric Bloodaxe to be king in York. The most celebrated Viking of his era, Eric had briefly been king of Norway. His own saga is, unfortunately, lost, but others survive to testify entertainingly, if unreliably, to his prowess.
Like Athelstan, Eric had visited the shrine of St Cuthbert at Chester-le-Street. His name can still be seen in the Liber Vitae of the community. Roger of Wendover, the chronicler, quotes a York writer in his Flores Historiarum: 'Eric Bloodaxe was treacherously slain... in a certain lonely place which is called Stainmore... betrayed by Earl Oswulf [of Bamburgh].'
Eric (d. AD 954) was the last king of an independent Northumbria. John of Wallingford's Chronicle states: 'From that time to the present, Northumbria has been grieving for want of a king of its own, and for the liberty they once enjoyed'