X. the Wye with great loss. But he afterwards CHAP. marched another army against the Britons, in conjunction with Cuthred, who had succeeded Æthelheard in Wessex. The great superiority of the Saxon forces obtained a decisive victory at Ddefaw- Defeats dan. After much plunder, the victors retired.8 9 749. them. 748. a rebellion. THE friendship between Ethelbald and Cuthred was not lasting. Cuthred wished to emancipate himself from the power of the Mercian, who, to keep Wessex in subjection, fomented its civil distractions. The son of Cuthred gave him this advantage. This impetuous youth attempted to depose his father, but perished in the guilty struggle. Two years after, Cuthred suppressed a dangerous rebellion of Edelhun, one of his chief Suppresses tains, whose extraordinary valour would have conquered the superior numbers of the king, if in the hour of victory a wound had not disabled him.10 CUTHRED now presuming his power to be equal War beto the effort, disclaimed the intolerable exactions of Ethelbald, and resolved to procure the inde- Ethelbald. pendence of Wessex, or to perish in the contest. At Burford in Oxfordshire, the rival princes met. Cuthred was assisted by the brave Edelhun, who had now become a loyal subject; Ethelbald displayed the forces of Kent, East Anglia, and Essex, in joint array with his Mercians. Edelhun, advancing beyond his line, pierced the golden 7 Brut y Tywysogion, p. 472. 8 Brut y Tywysogion, p. 472. Flor. Wig. 272. Sax. Chron. 55. Mailros, p. 136., and Matt. West. 271. date the event in 744. 9 Sax. Chron. 55. Mailros, 137. Huntingdon, 341. His expression, that Ethelbald afflixit eum nunc seditionibus nunc bellis, implies that the insurrection was fostered by Mercia. 10 Hunt. 341. Sax Chron. 56. Flor. Wig. 273. tween Cu thred and 752. III. 752. BOOK dragon", the splendid banner of Mercia, and, animated by his intrepidity, the West Saxons poured the shout of battle, and rushed to the charge. The chronicler describes with unusual warmth a conflict terrible to both armies. Ambition inflamed the friends of Mercia. The horrors of subjection made Wessex desperate. Slaughter followed the sword of Edelhun, and Ethelbald raged like a resistless fire. Their mutual fury brought the general and the king into personal collision; each collected his full vigour, and struck at the other with a power and determination that menaced destruction in every blow: but the king of Mercia at last discerned the superiority of his antagonist, and preferring safety to glory, he gave to his yet struggling army the first example of an hasty flight.12 The event of this conflict rescued Wessex from the yoke of Mercia, and established the foundation of that predominance which was afterwards improved into the conquest of the island. Cuthred attacks the again successfully invaded the country of the Welsh.13 753. Cuthred Welsh. IN 754, Cuthred died, leaving Wessex in a state of progress towards that superiority which, under the reign of Egbert, it finally attained. Sigebyrht 11 The ancient Wittichind describes the Saxon standard on the continent, as a representation of a lion and a dragon with an eagle flying above; intended to be symbols of their bravery, prudence, and rapidity, Hist. Sax. p. 6. 12 Huntingdon has preserved the circumstances of the battle, p.341. It is also mentioned in Sax. Chron. 56. Flor. Wig. p. 273. Mailros dates it, as it does the events of this period, a year later, p. 137. A stone coffin was found near Burford, in December, 1814. 13 Sax. Chron. 56. Mailros, 137. The British Chronicles state a battle at Henford about this time, in South Wales, where the Cymry triumphed. Brut y Tywys. 473. X. succeeds. succeeded 14; his reign was short, arrogant, and CHAP. tyrannical; he perverted the laws to his convenience, or presumptuously violated them. When 753. Cumbra, the noblest of his earls, obeyed the solicit- Sigebyrht ations of the people, and intimated their complaints to the king, he was arbitrarily put to death, and the grievances were multiplied. The nobles and the people assembled: after a careful deliberation, Is deposed, Sigebyhrt was deposed from his authority by an wulf unanimous decision, and Cynewulf, a youth of the chosen. royal blood, was elected in his place. Deserted by all, the deposed king fled into the wood of Anderida: a swineherd of the murdered Cumbra discovered him in his hiding-place, and immediately slew him. 15 and Cyne Ethelbald THE long reign of Ethelbald, at one period so 755. successful, terminated in calamity. His defeat by perishes. Wessex was never retrieved, and he perished at last by civil insurrection; by the same means of evil with which he had endeavoured to oppress Cuthred. At Seggeswold the fatal battle ensued, for which he was not prepared, and Ethelbald fell, either by assassination or in the general slaughter. Bernred, who headed the rebellion, attempted to invest himself with the robes of royalty; but the nomination of Ethelbald was supported by the nobles of Mercia, and the young prince, Offa, who offa made has acquired such celebrity, and who was de- king. scended from Eoppa, the brother of Penda, was 14 Flor. Wig. 273. Sax. Chron. 56. Cant-wara-burh, Canterbury, was burnt this year. 15 Hunt. 341, 342. Malmsb. 15. Mailros, 137. Ethelwerd names the place of his death Pryfetesfleodan, p. 838. Bernred did not sur BOOK placed upon the throne. 16 III. 731. The revo lutions of bria. vive the year. 17 We may pause a moment to cast a rapid glance on Northumbria. Ceolwulf, the friend of Bede, Northum had acceded to the united kingdoms; but so perilous was the regal dignity in this perturbed kingdom, that he voluntarily abandoned the disquieting crown, and sought the tranquillity of the cloister. 18 737. 755. EADBERT Succeeded. His kingdom, left unprotected by his march against the Picts, suffered from an invasion of the Mercian Ethelbald; but he afterwards enlarged his dominions 19, and had the ability to maintain himself in his crown for twentyone years; but religious but religious impressions then came 16 Ingulf, p. 5. Mailros, 137. Matt. West. p. 274. apparently misconceiving a passage of Huntingdon, p. 341., erroneously makes Ethelbald to have fallen against Cuthred, whom he represents to have survived him. The monk of Croyland enables us to rectify the mistake, and is supported by Malmsb. 28. and by the Sax. Chron. p. 56. and Flor. Wig. p. 273., who place the decease of Cuthred a year before Ethelbald's. Bede implies, that Ethelbald perished by assassination, lib. v. c. ult. 17 That Bernred died this year has been disputed. Malmsb. p. 28.; Alur. Beverl. 87.; Ingulf, 5. The biographer of Offa, p. 11.; Flor. Wig. 274.; Ethelward, 839. affirm or imply it. On the other hand, Matt. West. p. 274.; Sax. Chron. 59.; Bromton, 776.; and some others, state Bernred's expulsion only; and Matt. West. 277. makes him to perish by fire in the year 769, after having burnt the town of Catterick. But the Chronicle of Mailros, which, p. 137., mentions the attempt on the Mercian crown, by Beornred, calls the person, who caused and perished in the fire of Catterick, Earnredus, p. 138. Hence it is not certain that they were the same persons, and if not, the aufugavit of the one side is not sufficiently explicit to disprove the death stated on the other. 18 Huntingdon, p. 340., paints strongly the apprehensions of Ceolwulf: "Ipse horribilibus curis necis, et proditionis, et multimoda calamitatis, intus cruciebatur, et animo et corpore decoquebatur." Bede remarks, that an excessive drought destroyed the fertility of this year, lib. v. c. ult. 19 Hunt. p. 340. Dun. 11. Sax. Chron. p. 54. Bede, lib. v. c. ult. Sim. upon him, and he assumed the religious life." He 20 Hunt. 342. Sax. Chron. 59. Chron. Petrib. 8. Huntingdon ascribes Eadbert's retreat to the impression made upon his mind by the violent deaths of Ethelbald and Sigebert, contrasted with the peaceful exit of Ceolwulf. 21 Bede says he was a sua plebe electus; and adds, that in his second year a great mortality took place, and lasted for two years. The dysentery was the principal malady, lib. v. c. ult. 22 By his son Edric, Sim. Dun. 11. Two letters of Alred to Lullus, a French bishop, are extant, Mag. Bibl. 16. 88. and apud Du Chesne, Hist. Franc. vol. ii. p. 854. In the one he desires the bishop's assistance in establishing an amity with Charlemagne; the other is a letter of civility from Alred and his queen Osgeotha, to Lullus, congratulating him on his arrival from a long journey. 23 Chr. Mailros, 137, 138. Hunt. 342. Matt. West. 276. 278. 24 Mailros, 138. Sax. Chron. 60, 61. CHAP. X. 757. 765. 774. |