VIII. 674. WHEN Cadwaladyr died at Rome, Alan, the king CHAP. of Bretagne, sent his son Ivor, and his nephew, Inyr, with a powerful fleet, to regain the crown which Cadwaladyr had abandoned or lost. Ivor was at first so successful, that he defeated the Saxons, and took Cornwall, Devonshire, and Somersetshire. But Kentwin met him with the West Saxon power, and, chasing him to the sea, again disappointed the hopes of the Cymry." Rodri Maelwynawc assumed the pennaduriaeth, or sovereignty of the Cymry, on Ivor's departure for Rome, 48 681. 698. 684. THE restless Ecgfrid soon turned his arms upon Ecgfrid Merlin. The same voice ordered him to Rome, and promised that his countrymen should, from the merit of their faith, again recover the island, when the time foretold was arrived!! Jeffry, lib. xii. c. 17. Brut. Tys. and Brut. Arth. p. 386. 47 Brut. y Saeson and the Brut. y Tywysoglon, p. 468–470. Sax. Chron. 45. Wynne's History of Wales is not a translation of Caradoc. It is composed from his work, with many additions badly put together. 48 Brut. y Tywys, p. 471. Dr. Owen's biographical notice of Cadwaladyr may be read as a good summary of the chief incidents that concern this celebrated Welsh prince. Cadwaladyr, son of Cadwallon ab Cadwan, succeeded to the nominal sovereignty of Britain, in the year 660. Disheartened at the progress of the Saxons, he went to Rome in 686, and died in 703. With him the title of king of the Britains ceased, and such parts as were not conquered by the Saxons were governed by different chiefs, as Stratclyde, Cornwall, and Wales. In the Triads he is styled one of the three princes who wore the golden bands, being emblems of supreme authority, which were worn round the neck, arms, and knees. He was also called one of the three blessed kings, on account of the protection and support afforded by him to the fugitive Christians, who were dispossessed by the Saxons. There is a church dedicated to him in Mona, and another in Denbighshire. Camb. Biog. p. 34. 684. invades Ireland. BOOK Ireland. This nation, although by some of its tribes occasionally at variance with the Welch, had always continued in strict amity with the English 49; but this peaceful forbearance was no protection from the avarice of power. Their country was miserably ravaged by Beorht, the Northumbrian general; the lands of Bregh were plundered, and many churches and monasteries were destroyed. The islanders defended their domestic lares with valour, and the Angles retreated. It is at this period that Ireland appears to have been conspicuous for the literature of some of her monastic seminaries. Bede states, that many of the noble and middle classes of the English left their country, and went to Ireland, either to study the Scriptures or to pass a more virtuous life. Some connected themselves with the monasteries, and preferred passing from the abode of one master to that of another, applying themselves to reading. The Irish received them all most hospitably, supplied them with food without any recompense, and gave them books to read, and gratuitous tuition.50 In the next year, Ecgfrid invaded the Picts with the same purpose of depredation; but a feigned 49 Bede characterizes the Irish as a people innoxiam et nationi Anglorum semper amicissimam, lib. iv. c. 26. — Malmsbury describes them as a genus hominum innocens, genuina simplicitate, nil unquam mali moliens," p. 20. 50 Bede, lib. iii. c. 27. He mentions two of these monasteries by name, Paegnalaech and Rathmelsigi. The studies pursued in Ireland about this time are implied rather than expressed, in the tumid and not easily comprehensible epistle of Aldhelm, to be the geometrical and grammatical arts, logic, rhetoric, and the Scriptures. I can hardly guess what he means by his "bis ternasque omissas physicæ artis machinas." Ush. Syll. p. 39. VIII. flight of the natives seduced him into a defile. At CHAP. Drumnechtan the fierce assault of patriotism was made, and Ecgfrid perished with most of his 684. troops. 51 The body of Ecgfrid was taken to against the Icolmkill, or the celebrated isle of St. Columba, Piets and buried there. 52 THIS disastrous expedition humbled the power of Northumbria.63 The Irish and Scotch immediately disclaimed its predominance, and some of the Welsh princes obtained their independence. This kingdom, which in the hands of Ethelfrid, Edwin, and Oswy, had menaced the others with subjection, was formidable to its contemporaries no The kings of Wessex and Mercia obscured it by their superior power, and it precipitated its own fall by incessant usurpations and civil wars. 54 more. 51 Bede, lib. iv. c. 26. The annals of Ulster thus mention his death: "Battle of Drumnechtan, on the 20th May, where Ecgfred M'Offa was killed with a vast number of his men. He burnt Tula-aman Duinolla." Ant. Celt. Nor. p. 59. 52 Sun. Dun., p. 5., calls the place of battle Nechtonesmere, which corresponds with the Drumnechtan of the Irish Chronicle. 53 Thirteen years afterwards, Beorht, endeavouring to revenge the calamity by another invasion, also perished, Bede, lib. v. p. 24. — Ann. Ulst. 59. Sax. Chron. 49. Hunting. 337. 54 Bede remarks the fines angustiores of Northumbria after Ecgfrid, lib. iv. c. 26. It is about this time that the authentic chronicles of the Welsh begin. Four of them are printed in the Welsh Archaiology, vol. ii. The Brut. y Tywysogion begins with the year 680, and ends about 1280, p. 390-467. This is printed from the Red Book of Hergest. The Brut y Saeson, which is in the Cotton Library, begins, after a short introduction, in 683, and in 1197. Another copy of the Brut y Tywysogion, printed from MSS. in Wales, begins 660, and ends 1196. Some extracts are also printed from another Chronicle, called from the name of a former transcriber, Brut Jeuan Brechfa, beginning 686. These last three Chronicles Slain BOOK occupy from p. 468. to p. 582. These Chronicles refer to CaIII. radoc of Llancarvan, who lived in the twelfth century, as their author. As they contain facts and dates not always the same in all, it is not probable that Caradoc wrote them all. Their variations seem to have arisen from the imitations or additions of the ancient transcribers, who have brought them down below the times of Caradoc. Their general character is that of plain simple chronicles, in an humble, artless style, but seldom correct in their chronology. They scarcely ever agree with the Saxon dates. CHAP. IX. Reign of ALFRED of NORTHUMBRIA and his Successors.- History of IX. Alfred of THE important improvements, which always oc- CHA P. cur to a nation, when its sovereign is attached to literature, give peculiar consequence to the 684-728. reign of Alfred, who succeeded his brother Ecgfrid Northum in Northumbria. He was the eldest, but not the bria. legitimate, son of Oswy, and was therefore prevented by the nobles of his country from ascending the throne, to which they elected his younger brother. This exclusion kept him several years from the royal dignity, but was beneficial both to his understanding and his heart. His name alone would interest us, as the precursor of the greater sovereign, his namesake; but the similarity of his intellectual taste and temper, with the pursuits and sentiments of the celebrated Alfred of Wessex, makes his character still more interesting. We cannot avoid remembering the lives and pursuits of those eminent men whose names we may happen to hear; and as Alfred of Northumbria appears in Bede as the first literary king among the Anglo-Saxons, we may reasonably suppose, that his example and reputation had no small influence, in suggesting the love of study, and exerting the emulation of the distinguished son of Ethelwulf. ALFRED, of Northumbria, whom Eddius distinguishes by the epithet of the most wise, had been |