СНАР. XI. 813. It was on the inferior Britons of the West, that Egbert first tried the efficacy of his military strength. He penetrated successfully into Devonshire and Cornwall; resistance was in vain; and he ravaged, un- feats the checked, from the East to the West.6 The path to his greatness was laid open to Egbert by the death of Kenwulf. The wisdom of this king had completed the efforts of Offa for the power of Mercia; and if his successors had been of equal energy, Wessex might not at this period have become its superior. Egbert de Western 819. Kenwulf's death. Wessex and But to such a degree of strength had these rival Rivalry of states respectively attained, that it was obvious a serious competition must soon arise for one to be sovereign of the whole. The humiliation of the other powers increased the rivalry of these. Two neighbouring co-equals in power cannot long exist in amity together, because man is too much a being of hope and envy, and too little appreciates tranquillity and content. By its political power, Mercia promised to win in the approaching race of supremacy; but Wessex was rising so fast into importance, that nothing less than a continuation of able government in Mercia could suppress its competition. Both had reached that point of power, at which the state that was first disquieted by the evils of a weak administration would inevitably fall under the pressure of the other. Egbert and Kenwulf governed their several kingdoms with such steady capacity, that, during their co-existence, the balance was not determined. If Kenwulf had been the survivor, and minors or incapable men, harassed by factious chiefs, had succeeded to the throne of Egbert, then Mercia would 6 Sax. Chron. 69. Flor. Wig. 285. Malmsb. 36. Ethelw. 840. 816, the English school at Rome was burnt. Flor. Wig. 285. In the year 7 Ingulf. 7. BOOK III. 819. The son of Kenwulf murdered. Ceolwulf. Beornwulf, a weak prince. 823. makes war have acquired the monarchy of England; but the coveted distinction was allotted to Wessex, and the causes powerful enough to reduce a nation were suffered to operate in Mercia. Kenwulf left his son, Kinelm, a child of seven years of age, the heir to his crown, under the tutelage of his marriageable daughters. The eldest of these, Windreda, hopeful of acquiring a permanent authority, resolved on her brother's death. He was carried by his foster-father under pretence of hunting, into a wood, and there murdered. Her crime failed to profit her. Her uncle, Ceolwulf, took the crown; in his second year he was driven out by Beornwulf. 8 These distractions checked Mercia in her career of dignity. Beornwulf became by his usurpation rather the king of his party than sovereign of the united population of his territory. He had acquired his throne by violence; yet if his skill had been equal to the crisis, he might have consolidated his power; but he is characterised as a fool, rich and powerful, though of no regal ancestry. With giddy precipitancy he plunged into a personal competition with Egbert, and linked the fate of Mercia in his own.10 It was in 823 that Beornwulf rushed to that colBeornwulf lision which the wary Egbert seems to have been on Egbert. reluctant to hazard. The twenty-three years' forbearance of the West-Saxon prince indicates no inordinate ambition; but the hostilities of Beornwulf roused him into activity. At Wilton the competition 8 Ingulf. 7. Flor. Wig. 286. 9 Ingulf. 7. A Bernulpho quodam fatuoso et divitiis ac potentia pollenti, in nulloque lineam regalem contigente expulsus est. 10 In 823, a battle occurred at Gafelford, or Camelford, in Cornwall. Sax. Chron. 70. Flor. Wig. 287. The men of Devonshire are particularised as the combatants who conflicted with the Cornish Britons. The pieces of armour, rings, and brassfurniture for horses, dug up here, and the local tradition of a bloody battle, may be collateral evidences of this struggle; but they are also claimed by Leland as the attestations of the celebrated fight of Camlan, which he places on this spot. Whether Egbert or his generals commanded against the Britons, is not decisively ascertained. CHAP. XI. 823. between the two states was decided." The superior strength of the forces of Mercia was balanced by the skill of Egbert. A furious battle ensued, which the rival armies maintained with great obstinacy; but at Egbert's length Egbert conquered with great slaughter, and victory. Beornwulf's forces fled in irremediable confusion. Kent and Egbert derived from his victory all the conse- Subdues quences of which it was so fruitful: he beheld the Essex. favourable moment for breaking the power of Mercia for ever, and he seized it with avidity. He despatched his son, Ethelwulf, and the warlike bishop and able statesman, Ealstan, with a competent army, into Kent, who drove the petty sovereign that had ruled there, the dependent of Mercia, over the Thames 12; and then Kent, and its neighbour, Essex, became for ever united to the crown of Wessex. East An Mercia. Egbert pursued his scheme of aggrandisement with Incites the careful policy. He forbore to invade Mercia; for glians though it had been defeated, it abounded yet with against courageous soldiery; and Egbert seems to have been cautious of putting too much into hazard. Instead of attacking Beornwulf in Mercia, Egbert fomented the discontent with which the East Anglians endured the Mercian yoke; by promise of support he excited East Anglia to revolt, and thus engaged his rival in a new warfare. 13 825. Mercia's Beornwulf went in anger to chastise the East Anglians. His incapacity again disgraced him with a disasters. defeat: he fell in the contest 14; and was succeeded by Ludecan, who again led the forces of Mercia against East Anglia; but he was as unfortunate as his predecessor, and found a grave where he had 11 Sax. Chron. 70. Flor. Wig. 287. Hunt. 344. 12 Sax. Chron. 70. Wallingf. 534. Hunt. 345. Flor. Wig. 287. The year 824 is remarked by continental annalists to have had a winter so extremely severe, that not only animals, but many of the human race, perished in the excessive cold. See Annal. Fuldenses. Bouquet's Recueil, vi. p. 208. The annals add a description of a huge stone which fell from the air! 13 Ingulf. 7. 14 Ibid. Chron. Petr. 12. BOOK III. 825. vades Mer cia. hoped for empire. Wiglaf, the governor or prince of Worcestershire, succeeded.15 The views of Egbert were now accomplished. An important passage of Ingulfus pours light on the policy of Egbert. He says that the two usurpers, Beornwulf and Ludecan, by their imprudence, destroyed all the military strength of Mercia, which had Egbert in- been most numerous and victorious.16 For this event Egbert seems to have waited; and, as soon as he found that Mercia had exhausted herself against others, his caution was thrown aside, and his officers marched his army immediately into Mercia. Wiglaf, attacked before he could recruit his forces, fled from his new dominion, and concealed himself from the eager searches of Egbert in the monastery of Croyland. That interesting character, Ethelburga, widowed in the hour of the marriage-feast by her father Offa's crime, sheltered the fugitive prince in her respected cell.17 How painfully must she have moralised on the deed which had not only destroyed her happiness, but had contributed in its consequences to the ruin of Mercia! 827. mits to him. The negotiations of the venerable abbot of CroyWiglaf sub- land preserved Wiglaf, but completed the inevitable degradation of Mercia. Egbert agreed to the king's continuing on the throne as the tributary vassal of Wessex. The expressions of Wiglaf, in the charter of Croyland, six years after this pacification, are, have procured it to be confirmed by my lord, Egbert, king of Wessex, and his son." "In the presence of my lords Egbert and Athelwulf." 18- The payment 16 Regno vehementer oppresso, totam militiam ejus, quæ quondam plurima extiterat, et victoriosissima, sua imprudentia perdiderat. Ing. 7. 17 Ing. 7. - 18 Per dominum meum Egbertum regem West Saxoniæ et Athelwlphum filium ejus illud obtinui confirmari. Ing. 9. In presentia dominorum meorum Egberti regis West Saxoniæ et Athelwlphi filii ejus. Ing. 10. of the tribute is attested by Ingulf.19 The submission of East Anglia was consequent on the humiliation of Mercia. CHAP. XI. 827. thumbria. Northumbria had not yet felt his power. Eardulf, Egbert inwhom we left reigning at the beginning of this the vades Norninth century, had assumed a hostile posture against Kenwulf of Mercia; but the clergy interposed, and procured a reconciliation.20 In 806, Eardulf was driven out, and the province continued without a king for a long time.21 Alfwold is mentioned afterwards, as a fleeting monarch of two years; and Eanred, the son of Eardulf, then succeeded for thirty-three years, and transmitted it to his son.22 It was against Eanred that Egbert marched, after the conquest of Mercia. The Northumbrian prince was too prudent to engage his turbulent and exhausted kingdom in a war with Egbert: he felt the imperious necessity, and obeyed it. At Dore, beyond the Humber, he met the West-Saxon prince, and amicably acknowledged his Its subsuperiority.23 mission. 828. Wales The Anglo-Saxon octarchy thus subdued, he turned the tide of conquest towards Wales. With a numerous overrun. army he penetrated to Snowdon, the Parnassus of the Cambrian bards. The same successes attended his arms in North Wales, and he penetrated to Denbighshire, and from thence to Anglesey. 2 He appointed his son Ethelwulf king of Kent. 25 832. The Danes The only enemy that baffled the genius of Egbert was the Danes, who continued their depredations; invade and probably under the command of that celebrated Egbert. sea-king Ragnar Lodbrog, whose actions will be more 25 So he says in a charter at Rochester, dated "Ethelwulph, quem regem constituemus in Cantia." Thorpe, Reg. Reff. p. 22. |