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X.

little girl, she begged her daily bread at Pavia; CHA P. and closed an abandoned life by a deplorable death.58

58 Asser says he had this fact from many who had seen her, p. 12.-In 798, London was burnt, with many of its inhabitants. Chron. Pet. 10.

787.

B O O K
III.

Egbert's

ancestors.

787.

Egbert's

retreat

CHAP. XI.

The Reigns of EGBERT and ETHELWULF.

GBERT, the most distinguished and successful king of all the Anglo-Saxon race before Alfred, was the son of Alcmund, or Ethelmund, the great grandson of Inigils, the brother of Ina. Alcmund was left early in his mother's care, and his sisters were sent into Saxony for their education, where they became religious.' Egbert received the instruction of the times, and his talents gave splendor to his youth. When Brihtric became king of Wessex, the popularity of Egbert excited his mistrust, and he projected his destruction. To avert the danger, Egbert fled to Offa. The messengers of Brihtric followed him; and, to debar the young exile from the friendship of Mercia, they solicited for their master the daughter of Offa. Eadburga was betrothed to Brihtric, and Egbert sailed to the coast of France, where he greatly improved his mind. 2

IT was after 787, that he left Offa for the court of Charlemagne. This indefatigable monarch, with Char- whom Europe every year beheld in a new part of lemagne. its varied climate, pouring his disciplined warriors

1 Wallingford, 3 Gale, 531. See Thorn. 2.; x Scrip. 2211.; and 3 Lel. 55. The Saxon Chronicle makes the father of Egbert king of Kent, p. 63.; and Higden entitles him sub reguli, p. 252. So Rudborne. The eldest sons of the kings of Wessex seem, at this period, to have been always appointed kings of Kent, until the reign of Alfred.

2 Malms. lib. ii. c. 1. p. 36.

Hen. Silgrave, Cott. MSS.

XI.

787.

on the powerful savage tribes, which swarmed be- CHA P. tween the German Ocean and the mouth of the Danube, in the year 788 marched against the Sclavonians on the Baltic. Scarce had they submitted, but the Huns were invading him, and he was also summoned towards Naples by the hostilities of the eastern empire. He subdued the Avarians and the Huns, the modern Austrians and Hungarians. When Saxony revolted, he determined to extirpate the most hostile of its confederation. The fate of 30,000 men evinced the dreadful execution of his determination.

On his return from this expedition, he passed his winter at Aix-la-Chapelle, a place with which he was much delighted. In the subsequent years we find him at Paderborn, afterwards traversing the French coasts, visiting the diet at Mentz, and, in the year 800, marching into Italy through Suabia and Friuli. We We may reasonably suppose that Egbert attended him in some of these expeditions, and that great activity, enlargement, and information of mind, was acquired by the Anglo-Saxon prince during his asylum with the Frankish sovereign. Thus Egbert's exile and adversity became beneficial both to himself and to the country which he was soon called to govern.

795.

It was in the year 800 that Egbert was sum- 800. moned out of the French empire to the throne of turns to Egbert reEngland. As he was the only descendant of Cer- England. dic that was in existence3, his accession was highly popular in Wessex.

Ar the period of his accession, the island, though State of nominally under an hexarchy, was fast verging

3 Malmsbury, lib. i. c. 2. p. 16.

England.

800.

BOOK into a triarchy. The petty powers of Kent, Essex, III. and East Anglia, had already become the satellites of Mercia; Northumbria, occupied in producing and destroying a succession of usurpers and turbulent nobles, had ceased to molest her neighbours; Wessex had enlarged herself by the incorporation of Sussex; its population and wealth multiplied under the peaceable administration of Brihtric, and a series of able sovereigns had reduced the nobles of the land to an useful subordination. The force of Wessex was therefore a well organized concentration of various powers, ready to operate with all their energies for any great purpose to which they should be summoned.

4

AT this crisis Egbert acceded. The friendship of Charlemagne had educated him to the arts of empire; and the studies cultivated at the Frankish court had excited his mind, and polished his manners. From the example of the French emperor he learnt the difficult policy of governing, with vigour and prudence, the discordant members of a great body politic. The character of Charlemagne was a mixture of cultivated intellect and barbarism, which was likely to have interested and improved the mind of Egbert; and in the wars of the Francs he must have imbibed a military knowledge superior to that of every Anglo-Saxon competitor.

His mild government completed the attachment

4 Malmsbury says of the Francs, "This nation, from the activity of its powers and the urbanity of its manners, was decidedly the prince of all the western states;" he mentions that Egbert regnandi disciplinam a Francis acciperit, and that with them aciem mentis expediret et mores longè a gentilicia barbarie alienos indueret. Lib. ii. c. 1. p. 36.

of his subjects, and the tranquillity of the first CHA P. years of his reign fostered his growing strength.

XI.

800.

Kenwulf

For the first nineteen years of Egbert's reign, Kenwulf continued to sit on the throne of Mercia. in Mercia. He had subdued Kent, and ruled Mercia and its appendages, with an ability which suspended the ambition of the West-Saxon king. Kenwulf is mentioned with applause for his peacefulness, piety, and justice. His ability was known to his contemporaries, and secured his repose.

813.

Egbert de

Britons.

It was on the inferior Britons of the West, that Egbert first tried the efficacy of his military feats the strength. He penetrated successfully into De- Western vonshire and Cornwall; resistance was in vain; and he ravaged, unchecked, from the East, to the West.6

819.

Kenwulf's

THE path to his greatness was laid to Egbert open by the death of Kenwulf. The wisdom of this death. 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.

Wessex

BUT to such a degree of strength had these rival Rivalry of states respectively attained, that it was obvious a and Merserious competition must soon arise for one to be cia. 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,

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- Ingulf. Hist. p. 6. rex justissimus. Chron. Pet. 10.

6 Sax. Chron. 69. Flor. Wig. 285. Malmsb. 36. Ethelw.

840. In the year 816, the English school at Rome was burnt. Flor. Wig. 285.

7 Ingulf. 7.

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