A.D. 900. Wales ravaged by the Northmen, and Mervin, prince of Powys, killed; his state is seized by Cadel of Dynevor.

A.D. 901. Alfred dies, Oct. 26", and is buried at Winchester. He is succeeded by Edward.

EDWARD I., CALLED THE ELDER.

EDWARD, the eldest surviving son of Alfred, was born about 870, and as early as 894 distinguished himself against the Northmen at Farnham.

His accession to the throne was unsuccessfully opposed by Ethelwald, his cousin, who obtained aid from the Anglo-Danes, and the greater part of his reign was passed in repelling the attacks of the insurgents and their allies from the North and from Ireland. Edward, however, several times defeated them, and by taking the precaution to erect forts as he proceeded, in which he was powerfully aided by his sister Ethelfleda, the "lady of the Mercians," he at length succeeded in putting down all opponents, and shortly before his death, in 925, he was acknowledged as 'father and lord," not only by all the Danish chiefs in England, but also by the kings of the Scots and of the Strathclyde Britons.

Edward left a numerous family, of whom three (Athelstan, Edmund, and Edred) became kings of England; his other children were, -Edwin, who perished at sea; Ogina, married to Charles the Simple of France; Edith, to

"Six days before All-Hallow-mass;" Florence of Worcester says October 28, and wrongly ascribes the event to the year 899.

Otho the Great of Germany; Thyra, to Gormo III. of Denmark, and thus the ancestress of Canute; Edgiva, to Louis, king of Provence; and several daughters who embraced a religious life, or whose alliances have not been satisfactorily determined.

A.D. 901. Ethelwald the atheling, attempts to make himself king in Wessex, but failing, joins the Northmen in Northumbria.

A.D. 902. Edward is crowned, May 16.

A great battle at the Holm, in Kent, between the Kentish men and the Northmen; the latter defeated 9.

Elswitha, the widow of Alfred, dies".

A.D. 904. Ethelwald obtains possession of Essex. A.D. 905. Ethelwald and the Northmen ravage Mercia.

King Edward in return invades "all their land between the dikes and the Ouse, as far north as the fens."

• The sepulchre of this princess, who died in 935, still exists, at

Thyra's Cup.

Jellinge, in Jutland; it is a chamber formed of beams of oak, covered with woollen cloth, and inclosed in a vast tumulus. It has more than once been opened, and in it were found a round coffer, and the figure of a bird formed of thin plates of gold, as well as the cup here engraved; it is of silver, plated with gold, is of very small size, and is remarkable as an example of the state of the decorative arts in the tenth century.

P The son of Ethelbert, Alfred's predecessor. See p. 87.

This battle is ascribed to the year 904 by Florence of Worcester.

Her death is ascribed to the year 905 in some MSS of the Saxon Chronicle.

The Kentish men, against his orders, remain behind, and are defeated by the Northmen. "There was great slaughter made on either hand; and of the Danish men there were more slain, though they had possession of the place of carnage.” . . . . “And on the Danish side were slain Eohric their king, and Ethelwald the atheling, who had inticed him to break the peace . . . . and likewise very many with them, whom we are now unable to name."

....

The Northmen ravage Ireland.

A.D. 906. "This year King Edward, from necessity, concluded a peace both with the army of East Anglia and Northumbria."

A.D. 907. Chester rebuilt by Ethelfleda.

A.D. 909. Bishops' sees founded at Wells, and at Wilton, and others in Cornwall and Devon.

A.D. 910. "King Edward sent out a force both of West Saxons and of Mercians, and they greatly spoiled. the army of the north, as well of men as of every kind of cattle, and slew many of the Danish men; and they were therein five weeks."

The Northmen defeated at Teotenheal, (probably Tettenhall, in Staffordshire,) Aug. 6.

WALES.

Howel Dda, having about this time become ruler of the whole of Wales, summoned a numerous assembly to the White House on the Tav (near Whitland, in Car

• See p. 85.

marthenshire,) two-thirds being laymen, and one-third clergy, to examine the ancient laws (those ascribed to Dyvnwal Moelmud'); “some they suffered to continue unaltered, some they amended, others they entirely abrogated, and some new laws they enacted." These laws being submitted to the Pope, (Anastasius III.) and approved by him, were ordered to be observed throughout Wales; but numerous modifications were soon made in them, and, as now known to us, they are in the form of separate codes for each of the three states of Gwynneth, Dynevor, and Gwent, into which Wales was in the tenth century divided.

Each code presents the laws of the court, and the laws of the country. The first contain most minute regulations for every member of the royal household, from the king to the door-keeper; state their various duties, privileges, and emoluments, some of which are of a singular nature; and the second gives the rules applicable to all offences against person or property, which are carried to the extreme of defining the legal worth of most animals, whether wild or tame, the price of a blind kitten even being duly laid down, as well as the sums to be paid for wounds or murder; the principle of money payment, rather than of blood for blood, prevailing in the Welsh as fully as in the Anglo-Saxon community.

After the death of Howel Dda usurpation and civil war ensued; at length Gwynneth was recovered by the descendants of Anarawd, and under Llewelyn ap Sitsylht it became the ruling state, Dynevor having lost much

* See p. 64.

of the eastern part of its territory. Llewelyn was killed in 1031, when Iago, his brother-in-law, obtained Gwynneth, and Rytherch, Dynevor; they were, however, subdued by Griffin, the son of Llewelyn, who held the supremacy till 1056, when he being defeated by Earl Harold, and killed by his own people, the whole of Wales was reduced to a nominal dependence on England; Meredith, a descendant of Howel Dda, being appointed prince of Dynevor, and Blethin and Rywallon (the half-brother of Griffin) princes of Gwynneth and Powys.

A.D. 911. The Northmen overrun Mercia, but are overtaken and defeated on their retreat.

The Northmen from Dublin ravage South Wales.

A.D. 912. King Edward obtains possession of London, and of all the lands which owed obedience thereto."

A.D. 913. Edward advances into Hertford and Essex, and builds several forts there.

Ethelfleda builds forts at Tamworth and at Stafford, and at Warwick and other places in the next year.

A.D. 916. Ethelfleda's forces defeat the Welsh at Brecenan-mere (Brecknock).

The Northmen sustain a signal defeat from the Irish.

A.D. 917. Derby captured from the Northmen. A.D. 918. Leicester surrendered by treaty to Ethelfleda. "And the people of York had also covenanted with her, some having given a pledge, and some having