whether by force of arms or the consent of the people, became king of Mercia in his stead'.

After another interval of two years, the dissensions, which always existed between the various Saxon kingdoms, burst out into a general war, which covered the whole country. The kingdom of East-Anglia, inferior to Mercia, Wessex, and Northumberland, still maintained independence, and occasionally resisted in arms the aggressions of Mercia its natural enemy. At the beginning of the year 823, they apprehended an invasion of their country by Bernwolf, and so urgent was the case, that their king paid a hasty visit into Wessex, and solicited assistance from Egbert'. Lest negociation alone should be ineffectual, a large bribe of money was added, and the king of Wessex was prevailed on to promise his powerful aid against the Mercians. This treaty was no sooner made, than acted upon: the armies of Egbert and Bernwolf met at Ellandune, and after a severe battle, the Mercians were defeated and fled. Among those who fell on this occasion was the Duke of Somerset, probably one of the most influential of the nobles of Wessex". His body was afterwards buried at Winchester.

About the same time that this engagement was fought on the borders of Mercia, the Britons of

"Admitted to the throne," FLOR. " Voccupied the throne." HUNT. Ingulf however states plainly, that Kenwolf was expelled by Bernwolf, who possessed great riches, but was not connected with the royal family.

Cornwall rebelled, and assailed the West-Saxons in the rear but the men of Devonshire mustered in large numbers and met the enemy at Camelford: a furious conflict ensued, apparently with little advantage to either party, for, whilst most of the Chroniclers omit to state on which side the victory fell, Florence alone tells us that the Britons were defeated, and Henry of Huntingdon says that many thousands were slain on both sides.

The king of Mercia, exasperated by his defeat at Ellandune, and burning with rage against the East Anglians, by whom the West Saxons had been brought into the field against him, now invaded East Anglia, and commenced a war of extermination against its inhabitants. But the battle of Ellandune had given more than usual confidence to his enemies: the king of East Anglia. mustered his forces, and boldly met the invaders. In the battle which followed, Bernwolf was slain, and the greater part of his army cut in pieces. In the course of the following year, A.D. 824, Ludecan, a relation of Bernwolf, took possession of the vacant Mercian throne.

The ambition of Egbert, now aroused to action, was in no want of a field on which to display itself. Of the three southern kingdoms, Kent, Sussex, and Essex, Kent alone seems to have maintained a show of independence, but the appearance of an army, headed by Prince Ethelwolf, Bishop Alstan, and Alderman Wolfherd, whom Egbert had dispatched to invade Kent,

It is proper to mention, that all the Chroniclers except Ingulf place the alliance between the kings of Wessex and East Anglia after the battle of Ellandune: but I have the authority of Dr. Lingard, besides the greater probability of the case, to support me in preferring Ingulf's statement to that of all the others.

terrified the people of that kingdom: their king Baldred fled beyond the Thames, and the whole of Kent submitted, without a battle, to the arms of the invaders. At the same instant, the kingdoms of Sussex and Essex resigned their separate independence, and thus the whole of England south of the Thames fell an easy acquisition to the abilities and good fortune of the conqueror.

But whilst the arms of Egbert in the south met with nothing that could resist their progress, the war in Mercia still continued. Ludecan, to avenge the death of Bernwolf, again invaded East Anglia, in the early part of 825, but the evil fortune of Mercia was still predominant: their army was again defeated, and Ludecan with five of his nobles were left dead upon the field. By the event of this battle, the throne of Mercia was again vacant; but it was also thereby freed from the usurpers, who, by the violence with which they acquired and maintained their illegal sovereignty, had brought calamity upon all their people. By the universal consent of the Mercians, Wiglaf, a descendant of the ancient royal line, was called to the throne, but it was to a throne beset with difficulties and dangers. His dominions were exposed to be continually ravaged by the troops of Egbert, who now seemed bent on reducing the whole of Mercia to subjection. In 827, Wiglaf was driven from the throne, and pursued, like a beast of the chase, by the officers of the West-Saxon king. In this peril he was saved by the diligence of the faithful abbat Seward, and placed in the cell of Etheldrida, daughter of king Offa, and now a nun in a convent attached to Croyland abbey. This noble lady, whose name after death was inserted in the long

SAX. CH. Ethel. Flor. Hunt.

catalogue of Saints of the Church, supported for four months the fugitive monarch, and foiled all the endeavours of his enemies to obtain possession of his person. In the following year 828, Egbert's fury relented towards an enemy who could no longer be an impediment to his career. A circumstance also had happened at the end of the preceding year, which was of much influence in mollifying the mind of the conqueror. The Northumbrians, who seemed not yet to have recovered from the dissentions which ended in the expulsion of their king Ardwolf, met the victorious armies of Egbert at Dore, and with their king Enfrid took the oath of allegiance. Thus, peace being reestablished, by the mediation of the good abbat, Wiglaf was invited from his hiding-place, to resume possession of his kingdom, which from that time he governed for ten years longer, as a tributary of the king of Wessex".

Thus, in five years, the seven kingdoms of the Saxons were reduced to submission, and Egbert might now be styled Bretwalda of the Heptarchy, with more propriety perhaps than any of the seven who had before obtained that title. His authority was more clear and determined than that of his predecessors, for the course of events had made it impossible that so many petty sovereignties should any longer exist together within. the limits of so small an island as Britain. The Saxons were also more enlightened and less barbarous than they had been during the first hundred and fifty years of their residence in this country. With the introduction of learning and the arts, petty states will be conscious of their own weakness, which they will seek to remedy by a confederacy, or by amalgamation into one nation. To these causes may be added another, no

Ingulf gives the fullest narrative of these events.

less powerful in producing an union of the seven states, whenever a king should arise possessing sufficient talents or good fortune to unite them. The Britons had of late lost much of their territory, and were no longer able, as of old, to promote and nourish strife between the different Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. That portion of them, who dwelt in Wales, had gradually receded before the arms of Mercia, and the small remnant who occupied Cornwall, had ceased to be an enemy worthy to encounter the armies of Wessex.

The views of Egbert naturally expanded themselves, as fortune smiled upon his arms. His course, bounded in all other directions by the circumambient ocean, burst, like a pent-up stream, over the Welsh frontier, where alone it could now find a vent. Proceeding towards the West, after the submission of Northumberland, Egbert invaded Wales, and speedily reduced the inhabitants of that country to acknowledge his sovereignty. After this campaign was ended, the victorious king returned to his hereditary dominions, and four years passed away, apparently of peace and tranquillity to the whole of the island. From this repose, Egbert was summoned again to arms by the ravages of a foreign enemy, which had already, in the reign of Bertric, visited the English coast, but had

b This is the statement of all the Chroniclers. I should think, however, that it is to be interpreted with considerable latitude; the difficulties which so mountainous a country would present, would hardly allow it to be reduced to more than nominal submission within the space of one year. Dr. Lingard says, that Egbert planted his victorious standard in the island of Anglesey, [England, vol. i. p. 144. of the small London edition,] but I find no authority for this in the ancient Chroniclers.

See p. 14.