Kingdom of Northumbria

The Kingdom of Northumbria (/nɔːrˈθʌmbriə/; Old English: Norþhymbra rīce, "kingdom of the Northumbrians") was a medieval Anglian kingdom in what is now northern England and south-east Scotland, which subsequently became an earldom in a unified English kingdom. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber estuary.

Northumbria was formed by Æthelfrith in central Great Britain in Anglo-Saxon times. At the beginning of the 7th century, the two kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira were unified. (In the 12th century writings of Henry of Huntingdon the kingdom was defined as one of the Heptarchy of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms). At its height, the kingdom extended at least from just south of the Humber to the River Mersey and to the Forth (roughly, Sheffield to Runcorn to Edinburgh)—and there is some evidence that it may have been much greater (see map).

The later (and smaller) earldom came about when the southern part of Northumbria (ex-Deira) was lost to the Danelaw. The northern part (ex-Bernicia) at first retained its status as a kingdom but when it became subordinate to the Danish kingdom, it had its powers curtailed to that of an earldom and retained that status when England was reunited by the Wessex-led reconquest of the Danelaw. The earldom was bounded by the River Tees in the south and the River Tweed in the north (broadly similar to the modern North East England).

Northumbria (European Parliament constituency)

Prior to its uniform adoption of proportional representation in 1999, the United Kingdom used first-past-the-post for the European elections in England, Scotland and Wales. The European Parliament constituencies used under that system were smaller than the later regional constituencies and only had one Member of the European Parliament each.

The constituency of Northumbria was one of them.

Boundaries

When it was created in England in 1979, it consisted of the Westminster Parliament constituencies of Berwick-upon-Tweed, Blyth, Hexham, Morpeth, Newcastle-upon-Tyne Central, Newcastle-upon-Tyne East, Newcastle-upon-Tyne North, Newcastle-upon-Tyne West, Wallsend, although this may not have been true for the whole of its existence.

Members of the European Parliament

Election results

References

External links