which he exercised confirm the traditions of his СНАР. X. 777. Offa is distinguished above the other Anglo-Saxon Correkings who had preceded him in the octarchy, by ponds with commencing an intercourse with the continent. He magne. had a correspondence with Charlemagne, which does credit to the Frankish sovereign and to himself. In one letter, Charlemagne communicates to him with perceptible exultation his success in procuring the continental Saxons to adopt Christianity. In another the Frankish emperor promises security to all pilgrims, and his especial protection and legal interference to all commercial adventurers, on their paying the requisite duties. He greets Offa with expressions of friendship, and sends him a belt, an Hungarian sword, and two silken cloaks.38 Matt. 37 Matt. West. 284. Dugdale Monasticon, i. p. 19. 62. 177. 184. West., p. 288. enumerates, twenty-three counties which Offa governed. Amongst these, the districts of East Anglia, Essex, and part of Wessex and Northumbria, are recited. 38 Du Chesne Scrip. Fr. vol. ii. p. 620. Malmsb. 32. In the second volume of Du Chesne's Hist. Franc. Scriptores, p. 686., is another letter from Charlemagne to Offa. The king states the guilty conduct of a Presbyter et Scottus, who had eaten meat in Lent. The king mentions that the clergy in France, for want of full evidence, had declined to pass sentence upon him: and adds, that, as he could not remain where he was, from the infamy of the thing; and lest the sacerdotal honour should be thought by the ignorant vulgar to be tarnished, and lest others should be induced to violate the sacred fast, Charlemagne thought it fittest to send him to abide the judgment of his bishop. Another monument of their intercourse exists in a letter from Charlemagne to the Archbishop Athilhard, whom Alcuin styles the primate of Canterbury. In this letter the humanity of Charlemagne is nobly distinguished. It is in behalf of some exiles, for whom he entreats the prelate to intercede with Offa, that they may have leave to return to their country in peace, and secured from the oppression of injustice. He says, their lord, Vinhringstan, was dead, who he thinks would have proved faithful to his lord, if he might have remained in his country. "To escape the peril of death, he fled to us, but was always ready to purge himself from all infidelity. We kept him with us not from enmity, but with the hope of producing a reconciliation. As to these his followers, if you can obtain their peace, let them remain in the country. But," adds this humane king, "if my brother answers harshly about them, send them to us uninjured. It is better to travel than to perish; it is better to serve in another country than to die at home. But I trust to the goodness of my brother, if you strongly intercede for them, that he may receive them kindly for love of us, or rather for the love of Christ." He does not write to Offa, because The delicacy of this application is peculiar. BOOK III. 777. Offa's wars with the Britons. A discord of some moment interrupted this amity. All intercourse between the two countries was reciprocally interdicted 39; but the quarrel is not stated to have lasted long. Offa had also a quarrel with the pope. The wars of Offa with the Britons were at first to his disadvantage. Some branches of the Cymry penetrated in an incursion into Mercia. Their united attack drove the English from the Severn; they frequently repeated their devastations. Offa collected in great number the forces of the Anglo-Saxons, and marched into Wales. The Britons, unable to withstand him, quitted the open country between the Severn and the Wye, and withdrew to their mountains. Impregnable among these natural fortresses, they awaited the return of the invaders, and then sallied out in new aggressions. To terminate these wasteful incursions, Offa annexed the eastern regions of Wales, as far as the Wye, to Mercia, planted them with Anglo-Saxons, and separated them from the His Dyke. Britons by a large trench and rampart, extending from the estuary of the Dee to the mouth of the Wye.40 It was carried through marshes, and over mountains and rivers for a hundred miles, and was long celebrated under the name of Claudh Offa, or Offa's Dyke. 41 Its remains and direction are yet visible.42 It was used for ages afterwards, as the he will not compromise his own dignity by subjecting it to a refusal, nor appear to dictate to another prince; he employs an honoured minister of peace; he applies to Offa the tender epithet of my brother; and he makes a denial almost impossible, by the disinterested humanity which he intends to show them, if Offa should be inexorable. Du Chesne, ii. p. 678. 10. 30 Alcuin ap. Malmsb. 32. 40 Brut y Tywys. p. 473. Brut y Saeson, p. 474. Asser, de Gestis Elfredi, After these events the princes of Powys moved their royal seat from Pengwern, or Shrewsbury, to Mathraval in Montgomeryshire. Where the royal castle of Mathraval stood, a small farm-house is the only building visible now. 41 Lhwyd Comment. Brit. Descript. 42. — Almost all the cities and towns on its eastern side "in ton vel ham finientia habent." Ibid. 42 See Gibson's Camden, p. 587. boundary which determined the confines of England and Wales; a boundary jealously guarded with the most rigorous penalties.43 Offa's desire of reading is mentioned by Alcuin.44 The basest action of Offa was the murder of Ethel bert, king of East Anglia. CHAP. X. 777. At the close of Offa's reign, Ethelbert possessed Offa's the crown of East Anglia, a peaceful and intelligent Ethelbert. prince, in the bloom of youth and beauty, interesting in his manners, and virtuous in his disposition. Invited or welcomed by Offa 45, he went to Mercia, for the purpose of receiving the hand of Etheldritha, the daughter of the Mercian king. He travelled with a splendid retinue. Offa received him with that distinction which was due to the allotted husband of his daughter. But before the marriage was completed, Ethelbert was assassinated, and the father of his beloved commanded the murder. Though Offa had pledged his protection, had received the king of East Anglia as his guest, had introduced him to his daughter as her approved husband, and the nuptial feast had begun, Offa is represented as having procured his assassination.46 The favourable moment of annexing East Anglia to Mercia was a temptation which overpowered the feelings of the father and the man. The friends of Ethelbert fled in consternation. 43 Jo. Sarisb. Polycrat., in his De nugis curialium, lib. vi. p. 184. 44 Alcuin in a letter to him says, "It greatly pleases me that you have such an intention to read; that the light of wisdom may shine in your kingdom which is now extinguished in many places." He adds some good moral advice. Alc. Op. p. 1554. 45 The welcome is affirmed by all. The invitation by Malmsbury, 29., and the author of the life of Offa, p. 23., and Hen. Silgrave, MSS. Cott. Cleop. A. 12. 46 That Offa commanded the murder is expressly asserted by Ethelwerd, 840. ; Hoveden, 410.; Huntingdon, 344.; Sax. Chron. 65.; Flor. Wig. 281.; Malmsb. de Pont. 287.; Bromton, 749,; Higden, 251.; Rad. Dicet. 446.; and Asseri Annal. 154. Their uniting evidence does away the attempt of Matt. West. p. 283., and the fabulous monk of St. Alban's, in Vita Offæ, p. 23., who want to fix it solely on the queen.-Both these apologists admit that Offa immediately seized East Anglia; and such an action, after such a catastrophe, is among the most forcible evidences of his guilt and its motive.. BOOK 777. Calamities of Offa's family. 784. Cynewulf of Wessex assassinated. Offa invaded his dominions, and East Anglia was added to his conquests. Did such a complication of crimes benefit the perpetrator? Before two years elapsed, he sank from his empire to his grave. Remorse embittered all the interval. His widowed daughter abandoned his court, fled into the marshes of Croyland, and pined away her life in mourning solitude 47; his queen, the evil counsellor of his ambition, perished miserably 48; the husband of another of his daughters was cut off in the same year with himself 49; the other, who married Brihtric, died a martyr to vice and penury the most extreme, scorned and abhorred 50; his son Ecgfrid, who succeeded him, was permitted to exist only 141 days 51; and thus the race of Offa disappeared for ever. During the reign of Offa, the sceptre of Wessex had been swayed, since 755, by Cynewulf. He warred with the Britons successfully 52, and met Offa in the disastrous conflict at Bensington. After a reign of many years, he fell a victim to revenge and desperation. He endeavoured to expel Cyneheard, the brother of the deposed Sigebyrht; a suspicion that he 47 Ingulf. 7. Bromton, 752. Vit. Offæ, p. 24. 48 Vit. Offæ, p. 25. 52 Flor. Wig. 274. Sax. Chron. 57. Of Cornwall, I presume; for in his charter to the monastery at Wells, dated 766, he adduces among his motives to the donation pro aliqua vexatione inimicorum nostrorum Cornubiorum gentis. See it ap. Dugd. i. 186. CHAP. X. 784. was mediating retaliation, occasioned the attempt.53 Cyneheard determined to prevent the blow; he watched the unguarded moment when the king with a few attendants visited a lady at Merton in Surrey; he collected about eighty desperadoes, hastened to the place, and surrounded the chamber to which the king had retired, before his friends were aware of his danger. The king quitted the apartment, and vigorously defended himself; he beheld Cyneheard, and, rushing forward, severely wounded him; but no courage could prevail against such numbers. Cynewulf was slain. Roused by the clamour of the struggle, his thanes hurried to the conflict. Safety and wealth were offered to them by the assassins; but no bribes could repress their loyal indignation; and they fell nobly by their master's side; one British hostage only escaped, desperately wounded. In the morning, the dismal tidings had circulated; and the great officers of the royal household, Osric, the friend, and Weverth, the faithful minister of Cynewulf, with their attendants, rode to the town. Cyneheard lavished both promises and presents, if they would assist him to obtain the crown. The disinterested The murthanes disdained the favours of a murderer, forced deres puan entrance with their battle-axes, and a deadly contest ensued, in which the guilty perished.54 nished. succeeds. 787. land in This melancholy catastrophe led to the elevation Brihtric of Brihtric. He was of the race of Cerdic 55 and " married Eadburga, the daughter of Offa. The year Danes first of his accession was distinguished as that in which England. the Danes are recorded by the Anglo-Saxon writers to have first landed on the English shore. The gerefa of the place went out to see the strangers, who had arrived with three vessels, and was instantly 53 Matt. West. 280. 54 Sax. Chron. 59. 63. 55 Sax. Chron. 63. This author states, that Cyneheard had been banished. |