Battle of Loidis (Fidem Pacis)

The Battle of Loidis was fought in April 696 between an alliance of Powys and Gwynedd, and the English kingdom of Northumbria. It resulted in a British victory, and led to the reconquest of the city of Caerbrauc, or Eoforwic, later that year.

Background
Northumbria was the only Anglo-Saxon kingdom to remain strong after the disastrous Battle of Penn Hill thirty years earlier, which resulted in the British reconquest of much of southern Albion. Its warbands were strengthened by the addition of Saxon refugees from the south, which it used to subjugate the northern British kingdoms of Rheged and Strathclyde. By 696 therefore it was feeling quite secure.

Powys meanwhile had been expanding into former Mercian territory, until it stretched almost all the way to the North Sea. By the 690s it had begun assimilating the remaining Angles and Saxons into British culture, and was eager to challenge the last possible threat to its dominion over the heart of the isle.

Aftermath
King Aldfrith fled the battlefield, but was captured and brought before King Gwylog ap Beli. The latter pardoned him, but decided to keep him as a hostage for the remainder of his life.

Eadwulf of Bernicia and Osred Aldfrithson took command of the Northumbrian forces. The former however retreated north to Bernicia and took no further part in the campaigning, and the latter, after suffering another defeat, fled overseas to France.

In August Powysian forces entered Caerbrauc and installed Gruffydd ap Cadwaladr as a client King of Ebrauc. Ebrauc later achieved full independence from Powys and became one of the most powerful British kingdoms in all Albion, thus beginning the period known as the Ennarchy.

The rump of Northumbria, or Bernicia as it will now be known, survived intact, centered on the powerful fortresses of Bebbanburh and Eidynburh. It would not again see much success in the south, but over the following centuries it continued to expand north into Gaelic and Pictish territory, thus becoming the forerunner of the modern-day country of England.