Whilst the arrival of the Angles upon the coasts of Valentia is dimly traceable in the scanty records of the period, and the settlement of the Dalriads in a portion of Argyle is historically noticed by the earliest annalist of Ireland, a barren and corrupt, but singularly accurate list of uncouth names is the sole record of the Pictish people before the opening of the seventh century, when the confusion resulting upon the death of the Northumbrian Ethelfrith compelled his children to seek a refuge amongst the friendly people of the north. The bitter spirit of animosity engendered in the Angles by their incessant hostilities with the Britons is hardly traceable in their early relations with the Picts, and accordingly a ready welcome was extended to the youthful exiles, who were instructed in the knowledge of the Christian faith by the Gaelic clergy, and sheltered for fifteen years beyond the protecting barrier of the Forth. The residence of the Northumbrian _Athelings_ amongst the Picts was productive of important consequences; Eanfred, the eldest of the brothers, became the husband of a Pictish princess--and their son Talorcan was numbered amongst the Pictish kings--whilst Oswald, after recovering his father’s throne, sought from amongst the instructors of his early youth those holy men through whose assistance he hoped to spread abroad amongst his people the blessings of the novel faith which he had learnt to prize so dearly.[9] After the death of this amiable prince upon the fatal field of Winwed, the ties of affection and good will which had hitherto united the sons of Ethelfrith with the people who had sheltered them in adversity were severed during the reign of his harsher brother Oswy, and exchanged for the galling bonds of conquest. Province after province bowed to the Anglian yoke, until the majority of the neighbouring Pictish princes were ranged with the Dalriads, who shared the same lot, amongst the tributaries of the Northumbrian sovereign, and though they endeavoured to regain their liberty when [Sidenote: A. D. 670.] Egfrid ascended the throne, their premature attempt only served to rivet their fetters more securely. About eleven years later a yet more decisive step was taken towards the permanent annexation of the tributary Pictish provinces, and Egfrid, when he divided the overgrown diocese of Wilfrid into the Sees of York, Hexham, and Lindisfarne, appointed Trumwine to the bishopric of the Picts, choosing Abercorn, upon the southern bank of [Sidenote: A. D. 681.] the Forth, as the seat of the new Episcopate.[10]