XI. 819. Mercia promised to win in the approaching race of CHAP. 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 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. The son of murdered. Kenwulf 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, Ceol- Ceolwulf. wulf, took the crown; in his second year he was driven out by Beornwulf. " a weak THESE distractions checked Mercia in her career Beornwulf, of dignity. Beornwulf became by his usurpation prince. rather the king of his party than sovereign of the united population of his territory. He had ac 8 Ingulf. 7. Flor. Wig. 286. III. 819. 9 BOOK quired 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. 10 823. Beornwulf makes war on Egbert. It was in 823 that Beornwulf rushed to that collision, which the wary Egbert seems to have been 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 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 Egbert's great obstinacy; but at length Egbert conquered with great slaughter, and Beornwulf fled in irremediable confusion. victory. Subdues EGBERT derived from his victory all the consequences of which it was so fruitful: he beheld the favourable moment for breaking the power of Mercia for ever, and he seized it with avidity. He dispatched his son, Ethelwulf, and the warlike 9 Ingulf. 7. A Bernulpho quodam fatuoso et divitiis ac potentia pollenti, in nullo que 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 particularized as the combatants who conflicted with the Cornish Britons. The pieces of armour, rings, and brass furniture 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. 11 Sax. Chron. 70. Flor. Wig. 287. Hunt. 344. XI. 823. bishop and able statesman, Ealstan, with a compe- CHAP. tent 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 against EGBERT pursued his scheme of aggrandisement Incites the with careful policy. He forbore to invade Mercia; glians for though it had been defeated, it abounded yet Mercia. with 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 disasters. a defeat: he fell in the contest14; 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 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 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. 6 Bouquet's Recueil, p. 208. The annals add a description of a huge stone which fell from the air! 15 Ibid. 13 Ingulf, 7. 14 Ibid. Chron. Petr. 12. III. 825. vades Mer cia. BOOK Mercia, which had been most numerous and victorious.16 For this event Egbert seems to have waited; and as soon as he found that Mercia had Egbert in 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 interresting character, Ethelburga, widowed in the hour of the marriage-feast by her father Offa's crime, sheltered the fugitive prince in her respected cell." 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. Wiglaf him. THE negotiations of the venerable abbot of submits to Croyland 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, "I 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 of the tribute is attested by Ingulf.19 The submission of East Anglia was consequential to the humiliation of Mercia. 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. 19 Promissa tributi annualis pensione. Ing. 8. CHAP. XI. 827. Egbert in NORTHUMBRIA had not yet felt his power. power. Eardulf, whom we left reigning at the beginning of this the ninth century, had assumed a hostile posture against Kenwulf of Mercia; but the clergy vades Norinterposed, and procured a reconciliation.20 In 806, thumbria. 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 Its submishis superiority.23 THE Anglo-Saxon octarchy thus subdued, he turned the tide of conquest towards Wales. With a numerous 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. He appointed his son Ethelwulf king of Kent.25 24 sion. 828. Wales overrun. 832. The Danes THE only enemy that baffled the genius of Egbert was the Danes, who continued their depre- invade 20 Sim. Dunelm. de Gestis Reg. Angl. 117. 21 Chron. Mailros, 141. 22 Sim. Dunelm. de Dunel. Eccles. 13. 23 Sax. Chron. 71. Flor. Wig. 288. 24 Brut y Saeson, 475. Brut y Tywysog. 392. Sax. Chron. 72. Ethelwerd, 841. 25 So he says in a charter at Rochester, dated "Ethelwulph, quem regem constituemus in Cantia." Thorpe, Reg. Reff. p. 22. Egbert. |