A.D. 679. Battle near the Trent between the Mercians and Northumbrians; Elfwine, brother of Egfrid, is killed. Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury, mediates a peace. A.D. 680. A synod at Heathfield (Hatfield, in Hertfordshire), Sept. 17, against the Monothelites; at which also the division of the Mercian diocese was probably completed. A.D. 680 (circa). A code regulating legal proceedings, issued by Lothaire and Edric in Kent ". A.D. 681. The Picts subject to the Northumbrians, and Trumwine appointed their bishop. Wilfrid converts the South Saxons. A.D. 682. Ceadwalla goes to Rome, is baptized by the name of Peter, and dies seven Centwine of Wessex has much suc- days after, April 20. Ina, a distant cess against the Britons. kinsman, succeeds in Wessex. A.D. 684. The Northumbrians ravage the east A.D. 690. Benedict Biscop dies2, Feb. and he was established at Hexham, but was again driven out in 691, and spent several years in Mercia. In 702 or 703 he again repaired to Rome, obtained another decree in his favour in 705, and passed the few remaining years of his life as bishop of Hexham; dying at Oundle, in 709, he was buried in the monastery of Ripon. Being afterwards canonized, he became a popular saint in the north of England, where about thirty churches are still found dedicated to his memory. See section on Anglo-Saxon Laws. The meaning is doubtful, but Mr. Kemble, the eminent Saxon scholar, takes it to imply that he was of mixed blood, a mule"-i.e. having a British mother. y Cuthbert, originally a shepherd boy, became a monk of Melrose, then prior of Lindisfarne, and afterwards long led the life of a hermit on an islet on the Northumbrian coast. In 685 he was consecrated bishop of Lindisfarne, but he resigned the see soon after, and again retired to his hermitage, where he died March 20th, 687. His remains were buried at Lindisfarne, whence, in consequence of the ravages of the Northmen, they were removed in 875, and after various wanderings they found a resting place on the hill where now stands the cathedral of Durham. In 1104 they were solemnly translated to the present edifice, being, it is affirmed, found uncorrupt, and the splendid shrine that was raised over them continued to attract its crowds of pilgrims until its destruction in the year 1537. The body, still unchanged it is said, was after the lapse of five years re-interred on the site of the shrine, and now reposes under a plain blue marble slab in the chapel of the Nine Altars, as was ascertained by an antiquarian examination made in the year 1827. Dry bones only, swathed in a number of richly embroidered garments, were found on the latter occasion, instead of the perfect body said to have been seen by former explorers; the coffin also contained a golden cross and some other articles whose connexion with the saint is uncertain. St. Cuthbert was an exceedingly popular saint in the north of England, and miracles without number were ascribed to him, so that he was commonly known by the name of the Wonder-worker; his festival was celebrated on the 20th of March. More than sixty churches exist dedicated to him; he was indeed regarded as the patron of the North, and the banner of St. Cuthbert (of red velvet embroidered with green silk and gold, and inclosing relics,) was borne not only at solemn ceremonials (as before Richard III. at York) but also to war, at least as late as the battle of Flodden field. Benedict, the founder of the celebrated monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow, was a Northum DEDICATIO BASILICAE Q ECCLES DOAVCTORE Dedication Stone, Jarrow Church, A.D. 685. brian noble, who at an early age devoted himself and all his possessions to the service of the Church. Ina of Wessex kills Cynewulf the atheling. Three victories of the Britons over Wihtred of Kent forbids idolatry, the Saxons, in Cornwall and in Glaand Sunday labour. A.D. 697. Ostrith, queen of Ethelred of Mercia, and sister of Egfrid of Northumbria, is slain by the Mercians. A.D. 699. The Picts revolt, and kill Beorht, their ealdorman. A.D. 704. Ethelred of Mercia becomes a monk. Coenred succeeds, before June 13. A.D. 705. Aldfrith of Northumbria dies, Dec. 14 Osred his son succeeds. The West Saxon diocese divided into the two sees of Winchester and Sherborne. A.D. 709. Coenred of Mercia retires to Rome, and dies there. Ceolred succeeds. Offa of East Anglia goes to Rome. Death of Wilfrid, at Oundle". morganshire, recorded in the Chronicle of the Prince of Wales. He made several journeys abroad, and brought back with him not only books and pictures and relics, but workmen in stone and in glass, so that the edifices that he raised, and over which he presided, surpassed any thing that had before been accomplished in church architecture in Britain. He also brought with him John the Precentor, to instruct his community in the Roman mode of celebrating divine service, and he himself became the tutor of Bede. He was formerly commemorated in the English Church on the 12th of January, and many churches exist dedicated to St. Benedict, but whether Benedict Biscop or Benedict of Nursia is meant, in any particular case, it seems impossible to decide, though we may well believe that the eminent Northumbrian was not neglected in his own country. So says the Saxon Chronicle; but this is an Offa of Mercia makes war on Kent. Alchred of Northumbria expelled by his subjects. Ethelred, son of Ethel Cuthred of Wessex defeats Ethelbald wald, succeeds. of Mercia at Burford. The Kentish men defeated by Offa at Otford. A.D. 794. THE church at Lindisfarne destroyed by the Northmen, Jan. 8. "The heathens ravaged among the Northumbrians, and plundered Egfrid's monastery at Donemouth (Jarrow), and there one of their leaders was slain, and also some of their ships were wrecked by a tempest, and many of them were there drowned, and some came on shore alive, and they were soon slain at the river's mouth." turies before; but as Anglo-Saxon literature survived the tempest, whilst the British generally speaking did not, a more detailed account of the Northmen's excesses has come down to us. Indeed, an inference directly contrary to the received opinion has been drawn by a distinguished Danish writer, from the fact that very many of the rovers not only embraced Christianity in England, but laboured to diffuse its light on their return to their own countries". The contemporary accounts of the appearance, the arms, and equipments of the men who now began so signally to influence the fortunes of England are but few, and antiquaries are by no means agreed in their interpretation of them. Anglo-Saxon MSS. abound with illuminations in which figures of These acts of mutual atrocity were the commencement of the deadly struggle which convulsed England for the remainder of the Saxon rule; a struggle, however, which is often misunderstood. There seems no good reason for supposing that the Northmen committed greater devastation than the heathen Saxons had done three cen-armed men appear, but it is often not "Chronicle of the Princes of Wales. * See A. D. 755 ▸ Where this was is somewhat uncertain; Chalk, in Kent, and Culcheth, in Lancashire, have been named, but it is considered most probable that Chelsea was the place. The expression in the Saxon Chronicle is merely, "in his (Brihtric's) days first came three ships of Northmen, out of Hæretha-land" (Western Norway), but as the event is mentioned under the year 787, writers are generally agreed in assigning it to that date. Among them may be mentioned Hacon, who had dwelt in the court of Athelstan, and who returning to Norway laboured unsuccessfully to introduce Christianity, but was killed in 960; and Anlaf Tryggveson, who applied himself to the same end with more zeal than discretion, and also lost his life in the attempt. Anlaf's great counsellor was Thangbrand, who, calling himself a Christian priest, went about with a shield on which was embossed a representation of the crucifixion, and repaid the taunts of the idolaters by killing several of their number. He sold his shield to Anlaf, by whom it was regarded as a kind of talisman, and also imparted some knowledge of Christianity to that king before his expedition to England in the year 994. They also established themselves in Ireland, and in the Orkneys, Shetlands, Hebrides, and Man, but their frequent attempts on the mainland of Scotland were less successful, though they gained a footing in Caithness and Sutherland. clear whether Saxons or Northmen are meant, and the reference sometimes made to the Bayeux tapestry is beside the question, the work being centuries too late. The Irish Chronicles (much nearer in point of time than the Icelandic Sagas) contain many notices of the invaders, and speak of those who came to Ireland as consisting of two distinct classes, Finngalls (Fair strangers, Swedes and Norwegians), and Dubhgalls (Dark strangers, Danes), the latter being the latest to arrive, and then establishing a superiority over their precursors. The reference is probably to the different complexions of the peoples, but this is not certain. There are to be found in most of our early writers passages which shew that the Northmen were supposed to owe much of their success to the superiority of their weapons, and such would appear really to have been the case. It was, in heathen times especially, a very common custom to bury his arms with the warrior; and as numberless graves have been opened of which the nation and era can from various circumstances be accurately ascertained, we thus get unimpeachable evidence as to the arms of the vikings. In England the vikings' tombs are with difficulty to be distinguished from those of their opponents, but they are readily recognised in Ireland. Confining our attention to recent discoveries in the latter country, we learn that the vikings carried heavy axes, spears and swords of large size, as well as daggers, bows and arrows; the swords are furnished with a guard, often inlaid with gold, and sometimes have runic inscriptions; shields too are found of wood strengthened with an iron boss, often ornamented with lines curved and curiously interlaced, but of defensive armour there appears little trace". It is stated in the Sagas that the chiefs had coats of chain-mail sewn on leather, and helmets with nose-pieces; the common men seem to have been protected only by pieces of hide sewn on their ordinary coarse clothing. The ships of the vikings were probably at first not at all superior to those of the early Saxons, but before the time that the Northmen established their sway in England they were possessed of vessels in which certainly Iceland and Greenland, and probably the American continent, could be reached in safety. Their kings, too, if we could trust the glowing descriptions of the Sagas, had their Long Snakes and Dragons adorned with carving, and magnificently ornamented with gilded masts, embroidered sails, and purple cordage; but it is probable that this rather represents the royal vessels of more southern nations some three centuries later, than any thing that was seen in the North before the abandon| ment of the vikings' expeditions. Lambay, an island near Dublin, and not Ragh- | of Adamnan" clears up many doubtful points of lin, on the north-east coast, as usually supposed. early Irish history and topography. This correction is due to Dr. Reeves, whose "Life |