Editing Oswald of Northumbria (section)

==Downfall==
[[File:Stoswaldaskingnyplspencer1f89r.jpg|thumb|150px|left|Oswald crowned as a king from a 13th-century manuscript]]
It was a conflict with the pagan Mercians under Penda that proved to be Oswald's undoing. He was killed in 642,<ref name="Poole"/> by the Mercians at the [[Battle of Maserfield]], in [[Oswestry]] (although other candidates for the location of the battle have been suggested)<ref name="Where">Stancliffe, "Where Was Oswald Killed?"</ref> and his body was dismembered. Bede mentions the story that Oswald "ended his life in prayer": he prayed for the souls of his soldiers when he saw that he was about to die. Oswald's head and limbs were placed on stakes.<ref name="Death">For Bede's mention of Oswald's dying prayer (which he cautiously reports as hearsay) and Oswald's dismemberment, the placing of his body-parts on stakes, and Oswiu's later recovery of those boody-parts and burial of them at [[Bardney Abbey|Bardney]], [[Lindisfarne]] and [[Bamburgh]], see ''H. E.'', Book III, chapter 12.</ref>

The traditional identification of the battle site with Oswestry, probably in the territory of [[Kingdom of Powys|Powys]] at the time, suggests that Penda may have had British allies in this battle, and this is also suggested by surviving Welsh poetry which has been thought to indicate the participation of the men of Powys in the battle. It has also been considered that, if the traditional identification of the site as Oswestry is correct, Oswald was on the offensive, in the territory of his enemies. This could conflict with Bede's saintly portrayal of Oswald, since an aggressive war could hardly qualify as a [[just war]], perhaps explaining why Bede is silent on the cause of the war, he says only that Oswald died "fighting for his fatherland", as well as his failure to mention other offensive warfare Oswald is presumed to have engaged in between Heavenfield and Maserfield.<ref>Stancliffe, "Where Was Oswald Killed?", argues in favour of the traditional identification of the site with Oswestry. For Stancliffe's argument regarding Bede's portrayal of Oswald as fighting only just wars, Bede's attempt to portray Maserfield as being part of a just war (being fought ''pro patria''), and his omission of previous aggressive warfare Oswald is thought to have engaged in, see p. 93.</ref> Oswald may have had an ally in Penda's brother [[Eowa of Mercia|Eowa]], who was also killed in the battle, according to the ''Historia Britonnum'' and ''[[Annales Cambriae]]''; while the source only mentions that Eowa was killed, not the side on which he fought, it has been speculated that Eowa was subject to Oswald and fighting alongside him in the battle, in opposition to Penda.<ref>Brooks.</ref>