IV. BOOK of both armies made long and very deadly. It was not until the greatest part of the invaders had perished, that they lost their ground. The English at last triumphed: the battle was so destructive, that Asser, who lived in the period when the Northmen maintained the most furious contests, yet attests that so great a slaughter of the invaders had never been known before that day, or during his experience since. 13 THE Earl of Devonshire had already defeated them at Wenbury in that county, and Æthelstan, the subordinate king of Kent, with the earl Ealhere, had enjoyed a similar success at Sandwich, where nine of their ships were taken. 14 13 Asser, p. 6. Voltaire has strangely confounded this in vasion with that against Ethelred, above a century later. He "Les 14 Asser, p. 6. Sax. Chron. 74. There is some confusion about Ethelstan; by three authors (Huntingd. 345., Mailros, 142., and Hoveden, 412.,) he is styled the brother of Ethelwulph. But Flor. Wig. 291., Ethelwerd, 841., Malmsbury, 37., and the printed Saxon Chronicle, make him the son. The MSS. Saxon Chronicle, in the Cotton Library, Tib. B. 4., differs from the printed one, for it calls him the son of Egbert. It says, "Feng Ethelpulf his runu to West Seaxna pice; and Ethelstan his other sunu, feng to Cantpapa pice, and to Suchɲizean, and to Suthreaxna pice," p. 30. Matt. West. 301., and Rudborne, 201., make him Ethelwulph's illegitimate son. Asser's testimony, p. 6., would decide that he was the son of Ethelwulph; but that these descriptive words are wanting in the Cotton MSS. of his book. Bromton says, Ethelwulph had IV. THE Mercian succession of sovereigns was now CHA P. drawing to its close. Beortulf was succeeded in 852, by Burrhed the last king of Mercia, who in the next year requested the assistance of Ethelwulph against the Britons of Wales. 15 Burrhed had already fought a battle, in which Merfyn Frych the British king, fell, and was succeeded by Roderic, who has obtained in Welsh history the epithet of Mawr, or the Great. 16 But an epithet like this rather expresses the feelings of his countrymen, than the merit of his character. It may be just in provincial history as long as that exists in its local seclusion; but the force of the expression vanishes when the person it accompanies is brought forward into more general history in an enlightened age. He who was great in his little circle or ruder times, becomes then diminutive and obscure; and it is almost ludicrous to apply one of the most splendid symbols of recorded merit, to actions so inconsiderable, and to characters so ambiguous as a petty Welsh prince. The grand epithets of history should be reserved for those who can abide a comparison with the illustrious of every age, like the , lofty mountains of nature, which, whether existing in Italy, in Tartary, or Chili, are admired for their sublimity by every spectator, and in every period. a son, Athelstan; but that he died in annis adolescentiæ suæ, 802. Malmsbury states, that Ethelwulph gave to him the provinces which Egbert had conquered, 37. Ethelstan is mentioned by Fordun to have perished in a battle against the Picts, lib. iv. c. 14. p. 666. In 850 he signed a charter as king of Kent. Thorpe, Reg. Roff. p. 23. Dr. Whitaker supposes him to have been St. Neot. 15 Asser, 6. 16 Wynne's Hist. p. 27. BOOK 853. Alfred sent RODERIC endured the invasion of Ethelwulph and Burrhed, who penetrated with victorious ravages to Anglesey. "7 Ethelwulph gave his daughter Ethelswitha in marriage to the Mercian, and the nuptial solemnities were celebrated royally at Chippenham. 18 THE vikingr appeared again in Thanet. Ealhere, with the armed men of Kent, and Huda, with those of Surry, overwhelmed the invaders with the first fury of their battle; but the conflict was obstinately renewed, the English chiefs fell, and after many of both armies had been slain or drowned, the pirates obtained the victory. 19 IN the fifth year of Alfred's age, his father, to Rome. although he had three elder sons, seems to have formed an idea of making him his successor. At Rome again in 855. This intention is inferred from the facts that Ethelwulph sent him at this time to Rome, with a great train of nobility and others; and that the pope anointed him king, at the request of his father. 20 It is expressly affirmed, that the king loved Alfred better than his other sons. 21 When the Sax. Chron. 75. 17 Wynne, 27. Asser, 7. Burrhed therefore became Alfred's brother-in-law. Voltaire calls him inaccurately his uncle. Comme Burred son oncle, p. 473. 19 Asser, 7. Ragnar's Quida mentions one of his exploits at an English promontory, where the English noble Walthiofr fell. See before, note 45. 20 So Florence, 296.; Sim. Dun. 139.; Rad. diceto. 450.; Chron. Mailros, 142.; Matt. West. 307.; and Cron. Joan. Taxton, MSS. Cotton. Lib. Julius, A. 1., affirm. As St. Neot the son or brother of Ethelwulph went, about this period, seven times to Rome, his journies or his advice may have had some connection with this project. 21 Cum communi et ingenti patris sui et matris amore supra IV. 855. king went to Rome himself, two years afterwards, CHAP. he took Alfred with him, because he loved him with superior affection. 22 The presumption that he intended to make Alfred his successor, therefore, agrees with the fact of his paternal partiality. It is warranted by the declaration of Matthew of Westminster, that one of the causes of the rebellion which followed against Ethelwulph was, that he had caused Alfred to be crowned, thereby, as it were, excluding his other children from the chance of succession. 23 IN Alfred's journey through France, he was very hospitably treated by Bertinus and Grimbald. 24 When Alfred arrived in the course of nature at the royal dignity, he remembered Grimbald's services and talents, requited them by a steady friendship, and obtained from them an important intellectual benefit. IN 855, Ethelwulph, with the sanction of his witena gemot, made that donation to the church which is usually construed to be the grant of its tithes. But on reading carefully the obscure words of the three copies of this charter, which three succeeding chroniclers have left us, it will appear that it cannot have been the original grant of the tithes of all England. These words imply either that it was a liberation of the land which the clergy had be omnes fratres suos. Asser, 15., Matt. West. 307., Sim. Dun. 141., Flor. Wig. 297., express the same fact. 22 Filium suum Ælfredum iterum in eandem viam secum ducens eo quod, illum plus ceteris filiis suis diligebat. Asser, p. 8. 23 Causa autem bifaria erat, una quod filium juniorem Ælfredum quasi aliis a sorte regni exclusis, in regem Romæ fecerat coronari. Matt. West. p. 308. 24 Vita Grimbaldi. Lel. Collect. i. p. 18. IV. BOOK fore been in possession of, from all the services and payments to which the Anglo-Saxon lands were generally liable, or that it was an additional gift of land, not of tithes, either of the king's private patrimony, or of some other which is not explained. The reason for the gift which is added in the charter strengthens the first supposition 26; but the 25 Ingulf, Malmsbury, and Matt. West., profess to give copies of the charter. The king, (in Ingulf's copy,) after reciting the depredations of the Northmen, adds, with some confusion of grammar and style, "Wherefore I Ethelwulph, king of the West Saxons, with the advice of my bishops and princes, affirming a salutary counsel, and uniform remedy, we have consented that I should adjudge some hereditary portion of land to all degrees before possessing it, whether male or female servants of God, serving him, or poor laymen; always the tenth mansion: where that may be the least, then the tenth part of all goods should be given in perpetual freedom to the church, so that it may be safe and protected from all secular services and royal contributions greater or smaller, or taxations which we call wynterden; and that it may be free from all things; and without the military expedition, building of bridges, and constructions of fortresses." Ing. Hist. p. 17. Malmsbury's copy corresponds with this; but for "then the tenth part of all goods," it has " yet the tenth part," omitting the words, "of all goods," and changing "tum" into "tamen." p. 41. Matt. West. p. 306. gives it a different aspect: he makes it like an absolute hereditary gift, but converts the general term "land," used by the others, into " my land." Thus “I grant some portion of my land to be possessed in perpetual right, to wit, the tenth part of my land, that it may be free from all offices, and secular services, and royal tributes," &c., adding the same reason as above. The natural force of Matthew's words limits the lands given, to the king's own lands, which were only a small part of the kingdom, but gives a proprietary right more expressly than the others. I think there is no reason to believe that tithes were then first granted, but that this charter was meant to have the operation mentioned in the text. 26"That they may more diligently pour forth their prayers |