BOOK III. 625. 66 THE other witena and the royal counsellors exhibited similar dispositions. Coifi desired to hear from Paulinus an exposition of the Deity. The bishop obeyed, and the Angle priest exclaimed, Formerly I understood nothing that I worshipped. The more I contemplated our idolatry, the less truth I found in it. But this new system I adopt without hesitation; for truth shines around it, and presents to us the gifts of eternal life and blessedness. Let us then, O king! immediately anathematise and burn the temples and altars which we have so uselessly venerated." On this bold exhortation he was asked who would be the first to profane the idols and their altars, and the inclosures with which they were surrounded. The zealous convert answered, "I will: as I have led the way in adoring them through my folly, I will give the example of destroying them in obedience to that wisdom which I have now received from the true God." He requested of the king weapons and a war-horse. It was a maxim of their ancient religion, that no priest should carry arms, or ride on any horse but a mare;- an interesting rule, to separate the ministers of their religion from the ferocity of war. The priest girded on a sword, and, brandishing a spear, mounted the king's horse, and rode to the idol temple. The people, without, thought him mad. He hurled his spear against the temple to profane it, and then commanded his companions to destroy all the building and its sur lærte fæt. ac he ɲona of pintra in pinter eft cỳmep. Spa donne ðir monna lif to medmýclum fæce ætýpeth. hpæt dær foɲezanze. oppe hpæ ðær æfteffylize pe ne cunnon. Foppon gif peor nipe lær opiht cuplicne zepirenliche bpinze. heo ðær pynthe ir pe dæpe fylizean..." P. 516. VII. rounding inclosures. The scene of this event was CHAP. a little to the east of York, beyond the river Derwent, at a place, in Bede's time, called Godmunddingaham.21 EDWIN and his nobility were soon afterwards baptised, in the eleventh year of his reign. In 632, he persuaded Eorpwald of East Anglia, the son of Redwald, to imitate his example. Sigebert, the brother and successor of Eorpwald, not only increased the diffusion of Christianity in East Anglia, but applied so closely to the study of it as to be called by the Chronicler, "Most Learned." 22 625. 628. EDWIN reached the summit of human prosperity: a considerable part of Wales submitted to his power, and the Menavian islands; and he was the first of the Angles that subdued or defeated all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms but Kent.23 The in- Edwin's police. ternal police which prevailed through his dominions was so vigilant, that it became an aphorism to say, that a woman, with her new-born infant, might walk from sea to sea without fear of insult. As in those days travelling was difficult and tedious, and no places existed for the entertainment of guests, it was an important and kind convenience 21 Bede, c. 13. It is still called Godmundham, or the home of the mund, or protection of the gods. 22 Doctissimus. Flor. Wig. 233, 234. 23 Flor. Wig. 233. Sax. Chron. 27. Bede, ii. c. 9. and 16. The Menavian islands were Eubonia and Mona, or Man and Anglesey. Bede, c. 9., states that Anglesey contained 960 hydes or families, and Man 300. The fertility of Anglesey occasioned the proverb, Mon mam Cymry; Mona the mother of Wales. Pryse's Pref. to Wynne's Caradoc.— The king of Gwynedd had his royal seat in it at Aberfraw, which is now a small village. Camp. Reg. 1796, p. 402. III. 628. BOOK to his people, that he caused stakes to be fixed in the highways where he had seen a clear spring, with brazen dishes chained to them, to refresh the weary sojourner, whose fatigues Edwin had himself experienced. In another reign these would have been placed only to have been taken away; but such was the dread of his enquiring justice, or such the general affection for his virtues, that no man misused them. It is remarked by Bede, as an instance of his dignity and power, that his banner was borne before him whenever he rode out, either in peace or war. When he walked abroad, the tufa preceded him. 24 His prosFOR seventeen years he reigned victorious over perity and its change. his enemies, and making his subjects happy. But Edwin, with all his merit, was an imperfect character. He had admitted Christianity to his belief, but he was forty-three years old before he had adopted it. His mind and temper had therefore been formed into other habits before he allowed the new faith to affect him. He was still the Saxon warrior, and partook of the fate which so many experienced from their martial character. Five years had not elapsed after his conversion before his reign was ended violently; and the disaster resulted from his ambition. The tender years of his life duct to had been cherished by the father of Cadwallon, the and Wales. Sovereign of North Wales; but when Edwin had obtained the sceptre of Ethelfrith, he waged fu His con Cadwallon 24 We know, from a passage of Vegetius, corrected by Lipsius, that the tufa was one of the Roman ensigns; and we are informed by Isidorus, that Augustus introduced a globe upon a spear among his signa, to denote a subjected world. Lipsius is of opinion that this was the tufa alluded to by Bede. De Militia Romana, lib. iv. c. 5, p. 169. ed. Antwerp, 1598. 628. rious war with the son of his host. We know nei- CHAP. VII. ther what had caused him, when young, to leave his asylum in Wales, nor what occasioned now the hostility between him and Cadwallon. But as the Welsh king invaded Edwin, we may presume him to have been the aggressor. Edwin defeated Cadwallon, who had penetrated to Widdrington, about eight miles north of Morpeth. 25 It is with regret we read that he was not satisfied with defensive war, and did not forbear to use the rights of victory against his early friend and protector. He obeyed his resentment or his ambition in preference to his gratitude. He pursued Cadwallon into Wales, and chased him into Ireland. So severely did he exercise his advantages, that the British Triads characterize him as one of the three plagues which befel the Isle of Anglesey. " 27 633. Cadwallon For a few years his authority continued over Gwynedd. But this apparent triumph only flat- and Penda 25 Jeffry's account of the quarrel is, that Edwin wished to wear his crown independently of the Welsh prince, who was advised to insist on his subjection, and threatened to cut off his head if he dared to crown it. Lib. xii. c. 2, 3. 26 The 34th Triad states, that Cadwallon and his family lived seven years in Ireland, p. 7. — Jeffry annexes a pretty nurse tale to Cadwallon's exile. Sailing to Armorica, he was driven by a tempest on the island of Garnereia: the loss of his companions affected him to sickness; for three days he refused food, on the fourth he asked for venison; a day's search discovered none. To save his king, Brian cut an ample piece out of his own thigh, roasted it on a spit, and presented it to the king as genuine venison. It was greedily devoured. The wind changed, they got safe to Armorica, and Brian afterwards killed the second-sighted magician of Edwin. Lib. xii. c. 4. and 7. 27 Matt. West. 224., in his Combustis Urbibus et Colonis destructis, explains the direful scourge. unite. III. 633. BOOK tered him into ruin. Cadwallon besought the aid of Penda, the Mercian king, who armed in his cause with all the activity of youth. The confederated kings met Edwin in Hatfield Chace in Yorkshire, on the 12th of October. As Mercia until that time had been obscure and tranquil, and an appendage to his kingdom of Deira, Edwin had no reason to apprehend any danger from this union. But the end of all battles is uncertain: the death of a commander; the mistake of a movement; a sudden unforeseen attack on some part; a skilful, even at times an accidental, evolution, has frequently made both talent and numbers unavailing. The detail of this conflict has not been transmitted, but its issue was calamitous to Edwin. He fell in his forty-eighth year, with one of his children; and most of his army perished. 28 Edwin's fate. THE victors ravaged Northumbria; the hoary Penda exercised peculiar cruelty on the Christian inhabitants. Consternation overspread the country. The royal widow fled in terror, under the protection of Paulinus, and a valiant soldier, with some of her children, to her kinsman in Kent. 29 28 Osfrid fell before his father. Bede, lib. ii. c. 20. Sax. Chron. 29. Gibson and Carte place the battle in Hatfield Chace. Langhorn prefers Hethfield in Derbyshire, near Cheshire, 176.; others, more absurdly, have glanced on Hatfield in Herts. Near the Yorkshire town many intrenchments are to be seen. I will not aver that rats shun the town, or that the sparrows are displeased with Lindham in the moors below it. Gibson's Add. to Camden, 725.-The men of Powys so distinguished themselves in this battle, that they obtained from Cadwallon a boon of fourteen privileges. The Welsh call the scene of conflict Meigen. Cynddelw, cited in Owen's Llywarch, p. 117. 29 Eadbald received them honourably, and made Paulinus. |