Page images
PDF
EPUB

A.D. 704. Ethelred of Mereia becomes a monk; Coenred succeeds, before June 13.

A.D. 705. Aldfrith of Northumbria dies, Dec. 14; Osred his son succeeds.

Bishops' sees established at Sherborne and at Winchester.

A.D. 709. Coenred of Mercia retires to Rome, and dies there; Ceolred succeeds.

Offa of East Anglia goes to Rome.

Death of Wilfred, at Oundle, Oct. 12.

A.D. 710. Ina of Wessex defeats the Britons.

A.D. 715. War between Wessex and Mercia.

A.D. 716. Osred of Northumbria slain; Cenred succeeds.

Ceolred of Mercia dies; Ethelbald succeeds.

Egbert, a priest, "converted the monks in the island of Hii (Iona) to right, so that they observed Easter duly, and the ecclesiastical tonsure."

A.D. 721. Ina of Wessex kills Cynewulf the atheling". Three victories of the Britons over the Saxons, in Cornwall and in Glamorganshire, recorded in the Chronicle of the Princes of Wales.

A.D. 722. Ina drives out Aldbright the atheling, who finds refuge in Sussex. Ina makes war on the South Saxons.

A.D. 725. Death of Wihtred of Kent, April 23. Eadbert succeeds.

Ina defeats the South Saxons, and kills Aldbright the atheling.

t See pp. 59, 68.

A general title for the members of the royal race, like "prince of the blood" in modern times. See p. 165.

A.D. 728. Ina dies at Rome. Ethelheard succeeds in Wessex.

A.D. 729. Egbert the priest dies in Iona, April 25. A.D. 729 or 731. Osric of Northumbria dies, May 9. Ceolwulf succeeds.

A.D. 735. Death of the Venerable Bede, May 26. A.D. 737. Queen Frythogith of Wessex goes to Rome.

Ceolwulf of Northumbria receives the tonsure. Eadbert, his cousin, succeeds.

Ethelbald of Mercia ravages Northumbria.

A.D. 739 or 741. Ethelheard of Wessex dies. Cuthred succeeds.

A.D. 741. The minster at York burned, April 23. A.D. 742. The synod of Cloveshoo* held, early in September.

A.D. 743. The Mercians and West Saxons make a joint attack on the Welsh.

A.D. 746. Selred of Mercia is slain.

A.D. 748. Eadbert of Kent dies. Ethelbert II. succeeds.

Cynric, the atheling of Wessex, is slain.

A.D. 749. Aelfwald of East Anglia dies.

A.D. 752. Cuthred of Wessex defeats Ethelbald of Mercia at Burford.

A.D. 753. Cuthred also defeats the Welsh.

A.D. 754. Cuthred of Mercia dies. Sigebert succeeds.

Canterbury is burned.

A.D. 755. Sigebert is deprived of the whole of his

Probably Cliff, in Kent, but perhaps Abingdor.

kingdom except Hampshire, by his kinsman Cynewulf and the witan.

Ethelbald of Mercia is killed. Offa II. succeeds, driving out Beornred who had "obtained the kingdom, and held it a little while and unhappily."

A.D. 757. Eadbert of Northumbria becomes a monk. Oswulf succeeds.

A.D. 758. Oswulf of Northumbria is slain by his household, July 25.

A.D. 759. Ethelwald (also styled Moll) after a time succeeds in Northumbria.

A.D. 760. Ethelbert II. of Kent dies.

Ceolwulf of Northumbria, who had received the tonsure, dies.

A.D. 761. Ethelwald kills Oswine, one of his great men, at Edwin's cliff, Aug. 6.

A.D. 765. Ethelwald resigns the crown of Northumbria. Alchred succeeds.

A.D. 768. Eadbert of Northumbria, who had become a monk, dies Aug. 20.

66

The Easter of the Britons was altered by the command of Elbot, a man of God "."

A.D. 771. Offa of Mercia makes war on Kent. A.D. 774. Alchred of Northumbria expelled by his subjects. Ethelred, son of Ethelwald, succeeds. The Kentish men defeated by Offa at Otford.

A.D. 776. South Wales ravaged by Offa of Mercia. A.D. 777. Offa of Mercia makes war on Wessex, and defeats Cynewulf at Bensington, in Oxfordshire.

A.D. 778. Alfwold expels Ethelred from Northumbria, and reigns in his stead

Chronicle of the Princes of Wales.

A.D. 779. "In the summer the Welsh devastated the territory of Offa, and Offa caused a dike to be made as a boundary between him and Wales, to enable him the more easily to withstand the attack of his enemies; and that is called Offa's dike from that time to this day. And it extends from one sea to the other, from the south near Bristol towards the north above Flint, between the monastery of Basingwerk and Coleshillz."

A.D. 784. Cynewulf of Wessex is killed at Merton, by the brother of Sigebert, Cyneheard, who is himself killed shortly after. Brithric succeeds.

A.D. 785. A synod held at Calchythea, when Lichfield is raised to the dignity of an archbishopric.

A.D. 787. Brithric of Wessex marries Edburga, daughter of Offa of Mercia.

The Northmen commence their ravages in England b.

A.D. 788. A synod held at Pincanheale, in Northumbria, (probably Finchale, in Durham), September 2.

A.D. 789. Alfwold of Northumbria is slain, Sept. 24. Osred, son of Alchred, succeeds.

A.D. 790. Osred of Northumbria driven out; Ethelred resumes the government.

A.D. 791. Alfwold's sons put to death.

Chronicle of the Princes of Wales.

a The place is uncertain; Chalk, in Kent, and Culcheth, in Lancashire, have been named.

The expression in the Saxon Chronicle is merely, "in his days first came three ships of Northmen, out of Hæretha-land," but as the event is mentioned under the year 787, writers are generally agreed in assigning it to that date.

A.D. 792. Ethelbert of East Anglia slain, and his dominions seized by Offa of Mercia.

Osred attempts to regain the Northumbrian crown ; he is slain, Sept. 14.

THE NORTHMEN.

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 (Monks' Wearmouth), 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.”

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. Notwithstanding the invectives and almost abject complaints of the Saxon Chronicle, there seems no good reason for supposing that the Northmen committed greater devastation than the heathen Saxons themselves had done three centuries 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 See pp. 113--126.

« PreviousContinue »