abilities which Egbert afterwards developed, began already to shew themselves; nor would the "piety "," which the historian ascribes to Bertric, be deemed a sufficient protection against aggression, or deter him from ensuring his repose by the death or exile of a competitor. More than twelve years, however, had passed, and when Bertric, in 802, resigned his life and his crown together, the injured Egbert succeeded to the throne, which he speedily elevated, not only above that of Mercia, by the strength of whose alliance he had formerly been exiled', but also above that of every other king in Britain. The affairs of Mercia, meantime, may be despatched in a short summary. Offa, deservedly styled the Great, had died eight years before Egbert came to the throne of Wessex; and his son Egfrid, who was crowned during his father's lifetime, made way by death, after a few months, for the accession of their kinsman Kenwulf, grandson of Penda in the fifth degree by his brother Kenwalck. The new king was a brave and able man, and might have proved a formidable antagonist to Egbert; but his attention was called off to the kingdom of Kent, against which he imbibed the feelings of hostility, which had formerly been entertained by Offa, and already, in 796, four years before the accession of Egbert, he had dethroned Edbert Pren, and substituted Cuthred in his place as sovereign of that kingdom. If we are to believe, that Kenwulf reigned thirteen years without being

Ethelwerdi Chron. lib. iii.

Cujus [i. e. Offæ] affinitate fultus, Egbertum solum regalis prosapiæ superstitem, quem validissimum suis utilitatibus metuebat obicem, Franciam fugandum curavit. Will. Malmes. i. 43.

• Will. Malmes. i. 95.

* From 802 to 815. Altogether Kenwolf reigned 21 years, viz. from 794 to 815.

engaged in war with Wessex, of which Egbert was, during all that time, the king, we may suppose that the decline of Mercia, which after Kenwolf's death is said to have manifested itself", had already commenced, whilst that king still lived. Neither is it difficult to account for this fact: a state which is entirely cut off from communication with the sea, and is open on all sides to the attacks of enemies, seldom attains to greatness, but is, on the contrary, exposed to continual spoliation of its territories, because it has no basis from which to direct its operations on any one point, but must ever turn its attention to any quarter on which its enemies may chance to make an attack *. Keolwolf, the brother of Kenwolf, reigned one year over the Mercian kingdom, and was then expelled by Bernwolf, whose reign was terminated in its third year, by the course of events which placed Egbert at the head of all the Saxon kingdoms in England.

"Post illum regnum Merciorum nutabundum, et, ut ita dicam, exangue, nihil quod litera dignetur comminisci `habuit. Will. Malmes. i. 96.

• Many striking examples of this are furnished by the history of modern Europe: Germany, Poland, and Hungary, have no frontier defended by nature, and consequently are less stable than France, Spain, England, &c.

C

CHAP. III.

REIGN OF EGBERT, KING OF WESSEX, FROM A.D. 802 TO 839.-EIGHTH BRETWALDA, OR LORD PARAMOUNT OF ENGLAND, AFTER A.D. 823.HIS EXILE IN FRANCE, AND RETURN TO ENGLAND-HIS CORONATION -THE SKIRMISH AT KEMPSFORD-HIS INVASION OF CORNWALLREVOLUTIONS IN MERCIA-TREATY BETWEEN WESSEX AND EAST ANGLIA-BATTLE AT ELLANDUNE-KINGDOMS OF KENT, ESSEX, AND SUSSEX, SUBMIT TO EGBERT-BERNWOLF AND LUDECAN, KINGS OF MERCIA, DEFEATED AND SLAIN BY THE EAST ANGLIANS-WIGLAF, KING OF MERCIA, TRIBUTARY TO EGBERT-NORTHUMBERLAND SUBMITS EGBERT INVADES WALES-FIRST INVASIONS OF THE DANES-ORIGIN OF THE DANES, SAXONS, AND NORMANS-EGBERT'S

DEATH.

THE talents of Egbert, and-what is of still more importance to success-the necessity of strenuously exerting them, were roused to vigour by the adversity which attended his early life. As son of Almund, who at this time reigned in Kent, Egbert might appear more properly to be connected with Kent than Wessex, but as descended from Inigils, brother of Ina, Egbert could not forget that he might some day or other possess the sovereignty of the West, which was far more extensive and powerful than the narrow territory which his father ruled, possibly as a mere tributary to the king of Wessex. During the whole of Bertric's reign, Egbert was an object of well-grounded suspicion to the reigning prince, and was driven, by the persecution of his rival, to take refuge in France at the court of the emperor Charlemagne. This circum

Sax. Ch. 784.

stance, however, was of inestimable advantage to the exile. The court and camp of a monarch, who had, by his own ability and exertions, restored the majesty of the Western Empire to something like its ancient elevation, were an admirable school to one, who had already at home given proof that he possessed talents hereafter to be actively developed. The ambition of Egbert was probably fired by what he saw in France; and he there laid the foundation of the success which followed him in after life, both in war and government. It is likely, too, that to Egbert was also due the re-introduction of learning, which for seventy years had slumbered in England since the days of Venerable Bede'; for Charlemagne, like all other great princes, had planted seminaries for learning, at the same time that he trained his subjects in the science of war; and so distinguished an exile as Prince Egbert could hardly have passed several years in France without conversing with the celebrated Alcuin, who, himself an Anglo-Saxon by birth, but naturalised in France, was ever desirous of maintaining a connection, by letter or otherwise, with the land of his nativity. In conversation with this sage, whose life had been spent in more varied scenes than are generally witnessed by the inmates of the cloister, Egbert might have derived practical wisdom, which could not fail to be of use to him in his future life ".

b Venerable Bede died A.D. 735.

Alcuin was the most eminent writer in France, and indeed in all Europe, during the 8th and the 9th centuries; his works treat of almost every branch of human learning. He died Jan. 16, A.D. 804.

There is an observation, made apparently without any intention by the writer of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which seems to prove that learning revived in England after the reign of Egbert. Under

When therefore, in 802, the crimes of Queen Edburga deprived her husband Bertric of life", Egbert hastened from France, and was unanimously received by the men of Wessex as the sole-surviving descendant of the line of Cerdic, and the rightful heir to the throne. The very day', also, on which Egbert was admitted to his royal dignity, was signalised by an engagement between some of his troops and a body of soldiers from the rival kingdom of Mercia. Ethelmund, the Alderman, or, as he would have been termed two hundred years after, the Earl, of Gloucester, attempted with a body of Mercians to pass the river Isis at Kempsford but he was there encountered by Alderman Wextan at the head of the men of Wiltshire, who, after a fierce battle, repulsed the invaders: both the Aldermen fell in this battle.

This achievement was, however, rather an omen of the success which would attend Egbert's reign, than of any warlike dispositions in the breast of the new king. His reign was, indeed, at first singularly peaceful, and seems to have had for its object not so much the extension of his dominions by the sword, as their improvement and consolidation by the bless

the year 784 we find the following passage: "At this time king Almund reigned in Kent: this king Almund was the father of Egbert; and Egbert was the father of Athulf [i. e. Ethelwolf]." It may be inferred, that the writer was living in the reign of Ethelwolf, when he wrote this passage; or he would probably have carried the genealogy lower. If this be correct, the first part of that valuable work, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, is probably due to the revival of literature introduced by king Egbert.

This event is recorded by the SAXON CH., ETHELWErd, FLORENCE, SIMEON, and HUNTINGDON; but Ethelwerd alone tells us that it happened on the day of Egbert's coronation.