A.D 597. ETHELBERT-INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY. 31

the Pope, and crave his permission to desist from the undertaking. But Gregory exhorted them to persevere in their purpose; and Augustine, on his arrival in Kent in the year 597, found the danger much less than he had apprehended. Ethelbert, already well disposed toward the Christian faith, assigned him a habitation in the Isle of Thanet, and soon after admitted him to a conference. Augustine, encouraged by his favorable reception, and seeing now a prospect of success, proceeded with redoubled zeal to preach the gospel to the Kentish Saxons. Numbers were converted and baptized, and the king himself was persuaded to submit to the same rite. Augustine was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury, was endowed by Gregory with authority over all the British churches, and received the pall, a badge of ecclesiastical honor, from Rome. Christianity was soon afterward introduced into the kingdom of Essex, whose sovereign, Sæberht, or Sebert, was Ethelbert's nephew; and, through the influence of Ethelbert, Mellitus, who had been the apostle of Christianity in Essex, was appointed to the bishopric of London, where a church dedicated to St. Paul was erected, on the site of a former temple of Diana. Sebert also erected on Thorney Island, which was formed by the branches of a small river falling into the Thames, a church dedicated to St. Peter, which is now Westminster Abbey. In Kent the see of Rochester was founded by Augustine, and bestowed upon Justus.

Silver Penny of Ethelbert II., King of Kent, and Bretwalda.

Obverse: EDILBERHT...; bust right. Reverse: REX; wolf and twins. (This coin, if genuine, is an evident imitation of those of Rome: compare the coin of Carausius, p. 12.) § 15. The marriage of Ethelbert with Bertha, and, much more, his embracing Christianity, begat a connection of his subjects with the French, Italians, and other nations on the Continent, and tended to reclaim them from that gross ignorance and barbarity in which all the Saxon tribes had been hitherto involved. Ethelbert also enacted, with the consent of the states of his kingdom, a body of laws, the first written laws promulgated by any of the northern conquerors; and his reign was in every respect glorious to himself and beneficial to his people. He governed the kingdom of Kent 50 years, and, dying in 616, left the succession to his son Eadbald. But he possessed neither the abilities nor the authority of his father; and the Saxon princes refused to acknowledge him as Bretwalda. That dignity passed to Redwald,

King of the East Angles, who holds the fourth place in the series of these princes. The protection afforded by Redwald to young Edwin, the rightful heir of the kingdom of Deira, brought him into collision with Ædelfrid, King of Northumbria. It has been already mentioned that Ædelfrid had united Deira with Bernicia by seizing upon it at the death of Ella, whose daughter he had married, and expelling her infant brother Edwin. Redwald invaded the kingdom of Northumbria, and fought a battle with Ædelfrid on the banks of the Idle in Nottinghamshire, in which that monarch was defeated and killed; his sons, Eanfrid, Oswald, and Oswy, yet infants, were carried into Scotland, and Edwin obtained possession of the crown.

§ 16. Edwin subsequently became the fifth Bretwalda, and all the Anglo-Saxon states, with the exception of Kent, acknowledged his supremacy. He distinguished himself by his influence over the other kingdoms, and by the strict execution of justice in his own dominions. He reclaimed his subjects from the licentious life to which they had been accustomed; and it was a common saying that during his reign a woman or child might openly carry every where a purse of gold without any danger of violence or robbery. There is a remarkable instance transmitted to us of the affection borne him by his servants. Cuichelme, King of Wessex, was his enemy; but, finding himself unable to maintain open war against so gallant and powerful a prince, he determined to use treachery against him, and he employed one Eumer for that criminal purpose. The assassin, having obtained admittance by pretending to deliver a message from Cuichelme, drew his dagger and rushed upon the king. Lilla, an officer of his army, seeing his master's danger, and having no other means of defense, interposed with his own body between the king and Eumer's dagger, which was pushed with such violence, that, after piercing Lilla, it even wounded Edwin; but before the assassin could renew his blow he was dispatched by the king's attendants.

This event, as well as the birth of a daughter about the same time, is said to have hastened Edwin's conversion to Christianity. After the death of his first consort, a Mercian princess, Edwin had married Ethelburga, the daughter of Ethelbert, King of Kent. This princess, emulating the glory of her mother Bertha, who had been the instrument for converting her husband and his people to Christianity, carried Paulinus, a learned bishop, along with her; and besides stipulating a toleration for the exercise of her own religion, which was readily granted her, she used every effort to persuade the king to embrace it. Her exertions, seconded by those of Paulinus, were successful. Edwin was baptized on Easter-day, A.D. 627, at York, in a wooden church hastily erected

A.D. 597-795.

OSWALD-OSWY-INA OF WESSEX.

33

for the occasion, and dedicated to St. Peter. Subsequently York was erected into an archbishopric; Paulinus was appointed the first northern metropolitan, and a handsome church of stone was built for his cathedral. From hence, as a centre, Christianity was propagated, though not without some vicissitudes, in the neighboring Anglo-Saxon countries.

§ 17. Evil days were now approaching for Northumbria. Edwin was slain in battle by Penda, the powerful king of Mercia. Northumbria was divided into two separate kingdoms, and the people, with their monarchs, relapsed into paganism. At length, in 634, Oswald, the son of Ædelfrid, again united the kingdoms of Northumbria, and restored the Christian religion in his dominions. Oswald was also acknowledged as the sixth Bretwalda, and reigned, according to the expression of Beda, over the four nations of Britain-the Angles, the Britons, the Picts, and the Scots. His reign, however, was short. He became involved in a war with Penda, A.D. 642, and, like his brother, was defeated and slain. His corpse was treated with great brutality by Penda; but he was canonized by the Church as a saint and martyr; his scattered members were collected as relics, and were held to be endowed with miraculous powers. Penda penetrated as far as Bamborough, the residence of the Northumbrian princes on the coast of Yorkshire, but after a fruitless siege was obliged to retire and evacuate the kingdom.

§ 18. On the death of Oswald his brother Oswy succeeded to his kingdom and the dignity of Bretwalda. He defeated and slew the formidable Penda in a great battle fought near Leeds in 656.

The reign of Oswy was rendered memorable by a most destructive pestilence called the yellow plague, which, commencing in 664, ravaged the whole island twenty years, with the exception of the Highlands of Scotland. Oswy died in 670, and with him expired for a time the dignity of Bretwalda.

It is unnecessary to pursue the obscure and uninteresting reigns of Oswy's successors in the kingdom of Northumbria, which, for the most part, present little more than a series of seditions, usurpations, and murders. Agriculture was neglected, the land was desolated by famine and pestilence, and, to fill up the measure of its calamities, the Northmen landed in 793 on Lindisfarne, and in the following year at Egferths-Minster (probably Wearmouth), and plundered and destroyed the churches and monasteries at those places. After the death of Ethelred (A.D. 795) universal anarchy prevailed in Northumbria; and the people, having by so many fatal revolutions lost all attachment to their government and princes, were well prepared for subjection to a foreign yoke.

This was finally imposed upon them by Egbert, King of Wessex; to the history of which kingdom, as finally swallowing up all the rest, we must now hasten.

§ 19. The history of the kings of Wessex presents nothing remarkable till we arrive at the reign of Ina, who ascended the throne in 688, and who was remarkable for his justice, policy, and prudence. He treated the Britons of Somersetshire and the adjoining districts (the Wealas, or Welsh kind), whom he had subdued, with a humanity hitherto unknown to the Saxon conquerors. He allowed the proprietors to retain possession of their lands, encouraged marriages and alliances between them and his ancient subjects, and gave them the privilege of being governed by the same laws. These laws he augmented and ascertained; and though he was disturbed by some insurrections at home, his long reign of thirty-seven years may be regarded as one of the most glorious and most prosperous reigns of the Anglo-Saxon princes. In the decline of his age he made a pilgrimage to Rome, where he shut himself up in a cloister. The year of his death is unknown.

Egbert was the fourth in descent from Ingild, Ina's brother; and, being a young man of the most promising hopes, gave great jealousy to Brithric, the reigning prince, both because he seemed by his birth better entitled to the crown, and because he had acquired to an eminent degree the affections of the people. Egbert, sensible of his danger from the suspicions of Brithric, secretly withdrew into France, where he was well received by Charlemague. By living in the court and serving in the armies of that prince, the most able and most generous that had appeared in Europe during several ages, he acquired those accomplishments which afterward enabled him to make such a shining figure on the throne.

It was not long ere Egbert had opportunities of displaying his natural and acquired talents. Brithric was accidentally killed by partaking of a cup of poison which his wife Eadburga, daughter of Offa, King of Mercia, had mixed for a young nobleman who had acquired her husband's friendship, and had on that account become the object of her jealousy. Egbert was now recalled from France by the nobility of Wessex, and ascended the throne of his ancestors in the last year of the 8th century. The royal families had at this period become extinct in all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms except that of Wessex, and Egbert was the sole descendant of those first conquerors who subdued Britain, and who enhanced their authority by claiming a pedigree from Woden, the supreme divinity of their ancestors. But, though his lineage might have afforded a pretense to make attempts on the neighboring Saxons, he

A.D. 688-796

HISTORY OF MERCIA-OFFA.

35

gave them for some time no disturbance, and rather chose to turn his arms against the Britons in Cornwall and Wales, whom he defeated in several battles. He was recalled from these conquests by an invasion of his dominions by Beornwulf, King of Mercia. But in order to explain that event, and to close the history of the other Anglo-Saxon states, we must here take a retrospective glance at that of Mercia.

§ 20. After the death of Penda the history of Mercia presents little of importance till we arrive at the long reign of Ethelbald (716-755). That sovereign appears to have possessed as much power as any of the Bretwaldas, though he did not enjoy that title. He distinguished himself by many successful conflicts with the Britons, against whom he united under his standard East Anglia, Kent, Essex, and for a while also Wessex. At one period he asserted his supremacy over all England south of the Humber, and in a charter of the year 736 signs himself "King of Britain." But he was subsequently defeated in two battles against the West Saxons; in the latter of which he fell (a.d. 755). Ethelbald, after a short period of usurpation by Beornred, was succeeded by Offa, the most celebrated of all the Mercian princes. After gaining several victories over the other AngloSaxon princes, this monarch turned his arms against the Britons of Cambria, whom he repeatedly defeated. He settled all the level country to the east of the mountains, between the Wye and the Severn, with Anglo-Saxons; for whose protection he constructed the mound or rampart between the mouth of the Dee and that of the Wye, known as Offa's Dike, traces of which may be still discerned. The King of Mercia was now become so considerable, that the Emperor Charlemagne entered into an alliance. and friendship with him. That emperor being a great lover of learning and learned men, Offa, at his desire, sent Alcuin to him, a clergyman much celebrated for his knowledge, who received great honors from Charlemagne, and even became his preceptor in the sciences. Charlemagne, on his side, made Offa many costly presents, which seem to have chiefly consisted of the spoils which that emperor had taken from the Huns. But the glory and successes of Offa were stained by the treacherous murder of Ethelbert, King of the East Angles, while sojourning at his court, and by his violent seizing of that kingdom in the year 792. Overcome by remorse, Offa endeavored to atone for his crime by liberality to the Church. He gave the tenth of his goods to the clergy, and engaged to pay the sovereign pontiff a yearly donation for the support of an English college at Rome: for which purpose he imposed the tax of a penny on each house possessed of thirty pence a year. Offa's liberality, however, was perhaps only a