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III.

753.

Sigebyrht succeeds.

IN 754, Cuthred died, leaving Wessex in a state of progress towards that superiority which, under the reign of Egbert, it finally attained. Sigebyrht succeeded; his reign was short, arrogant, and tyrannical; he perverted the laws to his convenience, or presumptuously violated them. When Cumbra, the noblest of his earls, obeyed the solicitations 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 depos- Sigebyrht was deposed from his authority by an unanimous decision, and Cynewulf, a youth of the royal blood, was elected in his place. Deserted by all, the deposed king fled into the wood of Anderida; a swine-herd of the murdered Cumbra discovered him in his hiding place, and immediately slew him. 15

ed, and

Cynewulf

chosen.

755.

THE long reign of Ethelbald, at one period so Ethelbald 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

state a battle at Henford about this time, in South Wales,
where the Cymry triumphed. Brut y Tywys. 473.
14 Flor. Wig. 273. Sax. Chron. 56.
terbury, was burnt this

15 Hunt. 341, 342.

year.

Cant-wara-burh, Can

Malmsb. 15. Mailros, 137. Ethelwerd

names the place of his death Pryfetesfleodan, p. 838.

X.

nobles of Mercia, and the young prince, Offa, who CHA P. has acquired such celebrity, and who was descended from Eoppa, the brother of Penda, was placed upon the throne. 16 Bernred did not survive the Offa made year. 17

755.

king.

Northum

731.

We may pause a moment to cast a rapid glance The revoon Northumbria. Ceolwulf, the friend of Bede, lutions of had acceded to the united kingdoms; but so bria. perilous was the regal dignity in this perturbed kingdom, that he voluntarily abandoned the disquieting crown, and sought the tranquillity of the cloister. 18

EADBERT succeeded. His kingdom, left unpro

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.

737.

III.

755.

757.

BOOK tected 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 impressions then came upon him, and he assumed the religious life.20 He was the eighth Anglo-Saxon king who had exchanged the crown for the cowl. But on his abdication all the fruits of the wise example and useful reign of Alfred seemed to vanish in the turbulent activity of the excited mind of the country taking now a mischievous direction: the turbulence of civil murder again broke loose. In the first year of his accession, his son Osulf perished from domestic treachery, and Moll Edelwold ventured to accept the crown.21 In his third year his life and honours were fiercely assaulted by one of his leaders, Oswin, whom he slew at Edwinescliffe. At no long interval afterwards the tomb received him, and Alred, of the race of 22 Ida, was elevated to the crown. After a few years he was driven out,

765

19 Hunt. p. 340. Sax. Chron. p. 54. Bede, lib. v. c. ult. Sim. Dun. 11.

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.

X.

774.

779.

and Ethelred, the son of Moll, was chosen in his CHAP. stead. 23 In his third year, this king fraudulently procured the death of two of his generals by the instrumentality of two others. In the very next year, these men rebelled against himself, destroyed in two successive attacks others of his commanders, and expelled him from his kingdom. 24 Alfwold obtained it; but such was the spirit of the country, that in the following year two chieftains raised an army, seized the king's ealdorman, Beorn, and his justiciary, and burnt them to ashes, because, in the estimation of the rebels, their administration of justice had been too severe. 25 Alfwold, to whom a chronicle applies the epithet, cent," was treacherously killed Sigan; and Osred, his kinsman, son of Alred, acceded. In the next year he was betrayed and driven out, and Ethelred, the son of Moll, was recalled. But as adversity, though it corrects many dispositions into virtue, yet sometimes only exasperates the stubborn, so it appears to have rather increased than diminished the obduracy of Ethelred.

23 Chr. Mailros, 137, 138. Matt. West, 276. 278.

24 Mailros, 138.

66

King of the inno-
by his patrician,

Hunt. 342. Sax. Chron. 60, 61.

Sax. Chron. 62.

25 Mailros, 139. Hunt. 343. 26 Mailros, 139. Hunt. 343. Chron. Pet. 10. Rich. Hag. 298. Saxon Chron. 64. Osred took refuge in the Isle of Man, Sim. Dun. 12. Alcuin addressed to Ethelred, or, as he spells the name, Edelred, a letter of strong moral exhortation, which is still in existence. He reminds him how many of his predecessors had perished, propter injustitias et rapinas et immunditias vitæ. He intreats his people to be at peace between themselves, and to be faithful to their lord, that, by their concord, the kingdom might be extended, quod sæpe per discordiam minui solebat. Alcuini opera, p. 1537. ed. Paris, 1617.

788.

III.

792.

BOOK In the year of his restoration, he left Eardulf weltering in his blood at the gate of a monastery; and in the following year he dragged Elf and Elwin, the children of Alfwold, from York, and slew them. Osred, who had been deposed, attempted to recover the crown; his army deserted him, he fell into the hands of Ethelred, and perished. This prince now endeavoured, by a marriage with the daughter of Offa, to secure his authority, and for this purpose he repudiated his previous wife. But his policy and his murders were equally vain. Whoever, by an example of cruelty, lessens the public horror at deeds of blood, diminishes his own safety, and gives popularity to his own assassination. In the fourth year of Ethelred's restoration, his subjects, whom he had assisted to brutalize, destroyed him, and set up Osbald. After a reign of twentyseven days, they deposed Osbald, and he obtained security in the cloister." Eardulf, who had been recovered from his assassination by the charity of the monks, who found him apparently lifeless near their cloister, had fled to Charlemagne, and visited Rome. The emperor of the West, in conjunction with the papal legate, assisted him in his efforts to regain his kingdom: and he was crowned in 794. Before four years elapsed, they who had murdered Ethelred, revolted from Eardulf; and under their leader, Wada, endeavoured to destroy him. The sword of the king prevailed, and the rebels fled.28

27 Mailros, 139.

28 Ann. Franc. ap. Du Chesne, vol. ii. p. 45. Mailros, 140. Huntingdon might well say, "Gens Anglorum naturaliter dura est et superba, et ideo bellis intestinis incessanter attrita." Alcuin displays the angry feelings of Charlemagne at this repetition of ferocity at Northumbria; he styled them a nation perfidam et perversam, pejorem paganis. Malmsb. 26.

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