a female ambition aspiring to the crown, hired one who had the charge of his nurture to murder him, led into a woody place upon pretence of hunting. The murder, as it is reported, was miraculously revealed; but to tell how, by a dove dropping a written note on the altar at Rome, is a long story, told, though out of order, by Malmsbury, and under the year eight hundred and twenty-one by Mat. West., where I leave it to be sought by such as are more credulous than I wish my readers. Only the note was to this purpose:

2

Low in a mead of kine under a thorn,

Of head bereft, lieth poor Kenelm kingborn.

Keolwulf, the brother of Kenulf, after one year's reign, was driven out by one Bernulf an usurper; who in his third year, uncertain whether invading or invaded, was by Ecbert, though with great loss on both sides, overthrown and put to flight at Ellandune or Wilton: yet Malmsbury accounts this battle fought in eight hundred and six; a wide difference, but frequently found in their computations. Bernulf thence retiring to the East-Angles, as part of his dominion by the late seizure of Offa, was by them met in the field and slain : but they, doubting what the Mercians might do in revenge hereof, forthwith yielded themselves both king and people to the sovereignty of Ecbert. As for the kings of East-Angles, our annals mention them not since Ethelwald; him succeeded his brother's sons, as we find in Malmsbury, Aldulf (a good king, well acquainted with Bede) and Elwold who left the kingdom to Beorn, he to Ethelred the father of Ethelbrite, whom Offa perfidiously put to death. Simeon and Hoveden, in the year seven hundred and forty-nine, write that Elfwald king of East-Angles dying, Humbeanna and Albert shared the kingdom between them; but where to insert this among the former succession is not easy, nor much material: after Ethelbrite, none is named of that kingdom till their submitting now to Ecbert: he from this victory against Bernulf sent part of his army under Ethelwulf his son, with Alstan bishop of Shirburn, and Wulferd a chief commander, into Kent. Who, finding Baldred there reigning in his eighteenth year, overcame and drove him over the Thames; whereupon all Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and lastly Essex, with her king 1 Post Christ. 820. Ingulf. 2 Post Christ. 823. 3 Florent. Genealog. Bed. 1. 2. c. 15.

9 Malms. Sax. an.

Swithred, became subject to the dominion of Ecbert. Neither were these all his exploits of this year; the first in order set down in Saxon annals being his fight against the Devonshire Welsh, at a place called Gafulford, now Camelford in Cornwall. Ludiken the Mercian, after two years preparing to avenge Bernulf his kinsman on the EastAngles, was by them with his five consuls, as the annals call them, surprised and put to the sword: and Withlaf his successor first vanquished, then upon submission, with all Mercia, made tributary to Ecbert. Meanwhile the Northumbrian kingdom of itself was fallen to shivers; their kings one after another so often slain by the people, no man daring, though never so ambitious, to take up the sceptre, which many had found so hot, (the only effectual cure of ambition that I have read,) for the space of thirty-three years after the death of Ethelred son of Mollo, as Malmsbury writes, there was no king many noblemen and prelates were fled the country. Which misrule among them the Danes having understood, ofttimes from their ships entering far into the land, infested those parts with wide depopulation, wasting towns, churches, and monasteries, for they were yet heathen: the Lent before whose coming, on the north side of St. Peter's church in York was seen from the roof to rain blood. The causes of these calamities, and the ruin of that kingdom, Alcuin, a learned monk living in those days, attributes in several epistles, and well may, to the general ignorance and decay of learning, which crept in among them after the death of Beda, and of Ecbert the archbishop; their neglect of breeding up youth in the Scriptures, the spruce and gay apparel of their priests and nuns, discovering their vain and wanton minds. Examples are also read, even in Beda's days, of their wanton deeds: thence altars defiled with perjuries, cloisters violated with adulteries, the land polluted with the blood of their princes, civil dissensions among the people; and finally, all the same vices which Gildas alleged of old to have ruined the Britons. In this estate Ecbert, who had now conquered all the south, finding them in the year eight hundred and twenty-seven,5 (for he was marched thither with an army to complete his conquest of the whole island), no wonder if they submitted themselves to the yoke without resistance, 4 Camd. Post Christ. 825. Ingulf.

5 Post Christ. 827.

Eandred their king becoming tributary.

Thence turning his forces, the year following he subdued more thoroughly what remained of North-Wales.

7

THE FIFTH BOOK.

THE sum of things in this island, or the best part thereof, reduced now under the power of one man, and him one of the worthiest, which, as far as can be found in good authors, was by none attained at any time here before. unless in fables; men might with some reason have expected from such union, peace and plenty, greatness, and the flourishing of all estates and degrees; but far the contrary fell out soon after, invasion, spoil, desolation, slaughter of many, slavery of the rest, by the forcible landing of a fierce nation; Danes commonly called, and sometimes Dacians by others, the same with Normans; as barbarous as the Saxons themselves were at first reputed, and much more: for the Saxons first invited came hither to dwell; these unsent for, unprovoked, came only to destroy. But if the Saxons, as is above related, came most of them from Jutland and Anglen, a part of Denmark, as Danish writers affirm, and that Danes and Normans are the same; then in this invasion, Danes drove out Danes, their own posterity. And Normans afterwards none but ancienter Normans. Which invasion perhaps, had the heptarchy stood divided as it was, had either not been attempted, or not uneasily resisted; while each prince and people, excited by their nearest concernments, had more industriously defended their own bounds, than depending on the neglect of a deputed governor, sent ofttimes from the remote residence of a secure monarch. Though as it fell out in those troubles, the lesser kingdoms revolting from the West-Saxon yoke, and not aiding each other, too much concerned for their own safety, it came to no better pass; while severally they sought to repel the danger nigh at hand, rather than jointly to prevent it far off. But when God hath decreed servitude on a sinful nation, fitted by their own vices for no condition but servile, all estates of government are alike unable to avoid it. God hath purposed to punish our instrumental punishers, though now Christians, 6 Post Christ. 828. Mat. West. 7 Calvisius. 8 Pontan. Hist. Dan.

by other heathen, according to his divine retaliation; invasion for invasion, spoil for spoil, destruction for destruction. The Saxons were now full as wicked as the Britons were at their rival, broken with luxury and sloth, either secular or superstitious; for laying aside the exercise of arms, and the study of all virtuous knowledge, some betook them to overworldly or vicious practice, others to religious idleness and solitude, which brought forth nothing but vain and delusive visions; easily perceived such by their commanding of things, either not belonging to the gospel, or utterly forbidden, ceremonies, relics, monasteries, masses, idols; add to these ostentation of alms, got ofttimes by rapine and oppression, or intermixed with violent and lustful deeds, sometimes prodigally bestowed as the expiation of cruelty and bloodshed. What longer suffering could there be, when religion itself grew so void of sincerity, and the greatest shows of purity were impured?

ECBERT.

ECBERT in full height of glory, having now enjoyed his conquest seven peaceful years, his victorious army long since disbanded, and the exercise of arms perhaps laid aside: the more was found unprovided against a sudden storm of Danes from the sea, who landing in the thirty-second of his reign, wasted Shepey in Kent. Ecbert the next year,' gathering an army, for he had heard of their arrival in thirty-five ships, gave them battle by the river Carr in Dorsetshire; the event whereof was, that the Danes kept their ground, and encamped where the field was fought; two Saxon leaders, Dudda and Osmund, and two bishops, as some say, were there slain. This was the only check of fortune we read of, that Ecbert in all his time received. For the Danes returning two years after with a great navy, and joining forces with the Cornish, who had entered league with them, were overthrown and put to flight. Of these invasions against Ecbert the Danish history is not silent; whether out of their own records or ours may be justly doubted: for of these times at home I find them in much uncertainty, and beholden rather to outlandish chronicles, than any records of their own. The victor Ecbert, as one 1 Post Christ. 833. Sax. an.

9 Post Christ. 832. Sax. annal.

2 Post Christ. 835. Sax. an. Pontan. Hist. Dan. 1. 4.

who had done enough, seasonably now, after prosperous success, the next year with glory ended his days, and was buried at Winchester.

ETHELWOLF.

ETHELWOLF the son of Ecbert succeeded, by Malmsbury described a man of mild nature, not inclined to war, or delighted with much dominion; that therefore contented with the ancient West-Saxon bounds, he gave to Ethelstan his brother, or son, as some write, the kingdom of Kent and Essex. But the Saxon annalist, whose authority is elder, saith plainly, that both these countries and Sussex were bequeathed to Ethelstan by Ecbert his father. The unwarlike disposition of Ethelwolf gave encouragement no doubt, and easier entrance to the Danes, who came again the next year with thirty-three ships; but Wulfherd, one of the king's chief captains, drove them back at Southampton with great slaughter; himself dying the same year, of age, as I suppose, for he seems to have been one of Ecbert's old commanders, who was sent with Ethelwolf to subdue Kent. Ethelhelm, another of the king's captains, with the Dorsetshire men, had at first like success against the Danes at Portsmouth; but they reinforcing stood their ground, and put the English to rout. Worse was the success of earl Herebert at a place called Mereswar, slain with the most part of his army. The year following in Lindsey also, East-Angles, and Kent, much mischief was done by their landing; where the next year, emboldened by success, they came on as far as Canterbury, Rochester, and London itself, with no less cruel hostility and giving no respite to the peaceable mind of Ethelwolf, they yet returned with the next years in thirty-five ships, fought with him, as before with his father at the river Carr, and made good their ground. In Northumberland, Eandred the tributary king deceasing left the same tenure to his son, Ethelred, driven out in his fourth year, and succeeded by Readwulf, who soon after his coronation hasting forth to battle against the Danes at Alvetheli,

9

3 Post Christ. 826. Sax. an. 837. Sax. an.

839. Sax. an.

9 Post Christ. 844.

:

4 Mat. West.

6 Post Christ. 838. Sax. an.

5 Post Christ.

7 Post Christ.

8 Post Christ. 840. Sax. an. Sim. Dun. Mat. West.