What is Deira?
[[File:British 7th Century.png|thumb|300px|right|{{center|Deira, Bernicia and Northumbria}}]] '''Deira''' ([[Common Brittonic|Brittonic]]: ''Dubro'' or ''dyfr''{{efn|Meaning 'waters' referring to the abundance of water around the [[River Humber]] [[estuary]].<ref name=Marsden27>John Marsden, ''Northanhymbre Saga; the History of the Anglo-Saxon Kings of Northumbria'' (London: Kyle Cathie Limited, 1992), p. 27</ref>}}) was a kingdom in [[England|Northern England]]. The Anglian people living there were known as the ''Dere''. Deira occupied the area that was later called the [[East Riding of Yorkshire]]. Deira was one of two early Anglian kingdoms north of the [[River Humber]]; the other being [[Bernicia]], their northern neighbor. In the early [[7th century]] they combined to become the kingdom of [[Northumbria]]. == Roman and early Anglian Deira == In [[Roman Britain]] Deira{{efn|The name of the kingdom was Deira; the collective name for the Anglian people of Diera was the Dere.<ref>Frank Stenton, ''Anglo-Saxon England'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971), p. 74</ref>}} was separated from Bernicia. The two had a broad area between them where no one lived. The Romans had small defensive works in this area to protect the route to [[Hadrian's Wall]].<ref name=Foster565>Brian Foster, 'The Boundary between Deira and Bernicia', ''The Modern Language Review'', Vol. 51, No. 4 (Oct., 19560, p. 565</ref> It was a kind of [[no man's land]] after the [[Angles]] arrived.<ref name=Foster565/> Deira first came under the control of the Angles in 560 under their leader [[Ella]].<ref>Thomas Keightley, ''The history of England'', Volume 1, ed. Joshua Toulmin Smith (Boston: Hilliard, Gray, and Co., 1840), P. 10</ref> He conquered the Britons in Deira in 581. Deira was still blocked from northward [[:wikt:expansion|expansion]] by Bernicia. To the west they were blocked by the last remaining British kingdom of any size, [[Elmet]].<ref name=Snyder209>Christopher A. Snyder, ''The Britons'' (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 20