BOOK III. 787. To one youth the king was so attached, that her arts were fruitlessly exerted to procure his disgrace. She mingled for him a poisoned cup. It She poisons was the destiny of Brihtric, that, by accident, he should drink the contents. Thus punished for his unjust compliances with the malignancy of Eadburga, he expired as well as the youth", and was succeeded by Egbert. Brihtric. She escapes DRIVEN Out of Wessex, the wretched woman to France. sailed with great treasures to France, and presented herself to Charlemagne. With splendid presents she stood before the throne: "Choose, Eadburga," said the king, "which you prefer, me or my son.' "Your son," was her answer, "be cause he is youngest." The monarch tauntingly assured her, that if she had selected him, he should have transferred her to his son; but that as her election had been otherwise, she should have neither. He gave her what he thought better suited her immorality, the habit and discipline of a cloister; but even in this retreat she indulged her depravity, and was turned out of the society. In poverty and miserable vice she dragged on a loathed existence, and at last, accompanied by a Her miser little girl, she begged her daily bread at Pavia; and closed an abandoned life by a deplorable death. 58 able end. 57 Asser relates these incidents from the communications of his illustrious master : 66 Quod a domino meo Alfredo Angul-saxonum rege veredico, etiam sæpe mihi referente audivi :" p. 10. The Saxon chronicle mentions Worr as the ealdorman who died with Brihtric, p. 68. Brihtric was buried in Tewkesbury. Chron. de Tewksb. MSS. Cott. Cleop. c. 3. 58 Asser says he had this fact from many who had seen her, p. 12.In 798, London was burnt, with many of its inhabitants. Chron. Pet. 10. CHAP. XI. The Reigns of EGBERT and ETHELWULF. CHAP. EGBERT, the most distinguished and successful king of all the Anglo-Saxon race before Alfred, was the son of Alcmund, or Ethelmund, the great Egbert's grandson of Inigils, the brother of Ina. Alcmund ancestors. was left early in his mother's care, and his sisters were sent into Saxony for their education, where they became religious.' Egbert received the instruction of the times, and his talents gave splendour to his youth. When Brihtric became king of Wessex, the popularity of Egbert excited his mistrust, and he projected his destruction. To avert the danger, Egbert fled to Offa. The messengers of Brihtric followed him; and, to debar the young exile from the friendship of Mercia, they solicited for their master the daughter of Offa. Eadburga was betrothed to Brihtric, and Egbert sailed to the coast of France, where he greatly improved his mind. 2 IT was after 787, that he left Offa for the court of Charlemagne. This indefatigable monarch, whom Europe every year beheld in a new part of its varied climate, pouring his disciplined warriors 1 Wallingford, 3 Gale, 531. See Thorn. 2.; x Scrip. 2211.; and 3 Lel. 55. The Saxon Chronicle makes the father of Egbert king of Kent, p. 63.; and Higden entitles him sub reguli, p. 252. So Rudborne. The eldest sons of the kings of Wessex seem, at this period, to have been always appointed kings of Kent, until the reign of Alfred. 2 Malms. lib. ii. c. 1. p. 36. Hen. Silgrave, Cott. MSS. p. 12. 787. Egbert's retreat with magne. BOOK 787. 795. 800. Egbert re turns to England. State of on the powerful savage tribes, which swarmed between the German Ocean and the mouth of the Danube, in the year 788 marched against the Sclavonians on the Baltic. Scarce had they submitted, but the Huns were invading him, and he was also summoned towards Naples by the hostilities of the eastern empire. He subdued the Avarians and the Huns, the modern Austrians and Hungarians. When Saxony revolted, he determined to extirpate the most hostile of its confederation. The fate of 30,000 men evinced the dreadful execution of his determination. On his return from this expedition, he passed his winter at Aix-la-Chapelle, a place with which he was much delighted. In the subsequent years we find him at Paderborn, afterwards traversing the French coasts, visiting the diet at Mentz, and, in the year 800, marching into Italy through Suabia and Friuli. We We may reasonably suppose that Egbert attended him in some of these expeditions, and that great activity, enlargement, and information of mind were acquired by the Anglo-Saxon prince during his asylum with the Frankish sovereign. Thus Egbert's exile and adversity became beneficial both to himself and to the country which he was soon called to govern. It was in the year 800 that Egbert was summoned out of the French empire to the throne of England. As he was the only descendant of Cerdic that was in existence3, his accession was highly popular in Wessex. Ar the period of his accession, the island, though nominally under an hexarchy, was fast verging 3 Malmsbury, lib. i. c. 2. p. 16. into a triarchy. The petty powers of Kent, Essex, The Ar this crisis Egbert acceded. The friendship of Charlemagne had educated him to the arts of empire; and the studies cultivated at the Frankish court had excited his mind, and polished his manners. 4 From the example of the French emperor he learnt the difficult policy of governing with vigour and prudence, the discordant members of a great body politic. The character of Charlemagne was a mixture of cultivated intellect and barbarism, which was likely to have interested and improved the mind of Egbert; and in the wars of the Francs he must have imbibed a military knowledge superior to that of every Anglo-Saxon competitor. His mild government completed the attachment 4 Malmsbury says of the Francs, “This nation, from the activity of its powers and the urbanity of its manners, was decidedly the prince of all the western states;" he mentions that Egbert regnandi disciplinam a Francis acciperit, and that with them aciem mentis expediret et mores longè a gentilicia barbarie alienos indueret. Lib.ii. c. 1. p. 36. CHAP. XI. 800. BOOK III. 800. Kenwulf in Mercia. 813. Egbert de- 819. Kenwulf's death. Rivalry of Wessex and of his subjects, and the tranquillity of the first years of his reign fostered his growing strength. FOR the first nineteen years of Egbert's reign, Kenwulf continued to sit on the throne of Mercia. He had subdued Kent, and ruled Mercia and its appendages with an ability which suspended the ambition of the West-Saxon king. Kenwulf is mentioned with applause for his peacefulness, piety, and justice. His ability was known to his contemporaries, and secured his repose. It was on the inferior Britons of the West, that Egbert first tried the efficacy of his military strength. He penetrated successfully into Devonshire and Cornwall; resistance was in vain; and he ravaged, unchecked, from the East to the West.6 THE path to his greatness was laid open to Egbert by the death of Kenwulf.' The wisdom of this king had completed the efforts of Offa for the power of Mercia; and if his successors had been of equal energy, Wessex might not at this period have become its superior. BUT to such a degree of strength had these rival states respectively attained, that it was obvious a serious competition must soon arise for one to be sovereign of the whole. The humiliation of the other powers increased the rivalry of these. Two neighbouring co-equals in power cannot long exist in amity together, because man is too much a being of hope and envy, and too little appreciates tranquillity and content. By its political power, 5 Ingulf. Hist. p. 6. rex justissimus. Chron. Pet. 10. 6 Sax. Chron. 69. Flor. Wig. 285. Malmsb. 36. Ethelw. 840. In the year 816, the English school at Rome was burnt. Flor. Wig.285. 7 Ingulf. 7. |