I.

920.

made their kings weak in actual power, and pre- CHAP. vented their permanent union under one sove- Edward reign. Before they retrieved their former disasters, the Elder. the king collected a large army from the burghs nearest his object, and attacked them at Temesford. A king, and some earls, perished against him; the survivors were taken, with the city. Pressing on his advantages, he raised another powerful force from Kent, Surrey, Essex, and their burghs, and stormed and mastered Colchester. The East Anglian Danes marched against Malden, in alliance with some vikingr, whom they had invited from the seas 19; but they failed. Edward secured his conquests by new fortifications; and the submission of many districts augmented his realms, and enfeebled his competitors. 20 The East Anglian Danes not only swore to him, "that they would will what he should will "," and promised immunity to all who were living under his protection; but the Danish army at Cambridge separately chose him for their lord and patron.

22

THESE examples of submission spread. When the king was at Stamford, constructing a burgh, all the people, about the north of the river, received his dominion. The Welsh kings yielded

19 Lezadpode micel hepe hine of East Englum, ægthen ze thær land heɲes, ze thapa Wicinza the hie him to fultume aƑpanen hærson. Sax. Chron. 108.

20 Sax. Chron. 109. Thus the king went to Pasham in Northamptonshire, and staid there while a burgh was made at Towcester; then Thurferth Eorl and his followers, and all the army from Northampton to the river Weland in that county, sought him to Hlaforde, and to Mundboran. Ibid. 21 Tha hie eall tha poldon tha he polbe. Ibid. 109.

22 Pine zeceas sýnderlice him to plafonde and to Mundbopan. Sax. Chron. 109.

922.

VI. Edward

924.

BOOK to his power. Howel, Cledauc, and Jeothwell, with their subjects, submitted to him as their chief the Elder. lord 23, and the king of the Scots chose him for his father and lord. If princes almost beyond the reach of his ambition acquiesced in his superiority, it is not surprising that the kings of Northumbria and the Strathcluyd population should follow the same impulse. 24 After these successes, Edward died at Farrington in Berkshire. 25

EDWARD the elder must be ranked among the founders of the English monarchy. He executed with judicious vigour the military plans of his father; and not only secured the Anglo-Saxons from a Danish sovereignty, but even prepared the way for that destruction of the Anglo-Danish power which his descendants achieved.

IT has been said of Edward, that he was

23 Sax. Chron. 110. The Welsh had previously suffered from the warlike Ethelfleda. She took Brecon and a Welsh queen, and signalised herself afterwards in another invasion. Howel was the celebrated Howel Dha, the legislator of Wales. He held both Powys and South Wales. Clydauc was his brother. Wynne's Hist. 44, 45. Powys and Dinefawr were tributary to the king of Aberfraw. The laws of Howel Dha mention the tribute to the king of London thus: "Sixty-three pounds is the tribute from the king of Aberfraw to the king of London, when he took his kingdom from him; and besides this, except dogs, hawks, and horses, nothing else shall be exacted." Lib. iii. c. 2. p. 199. Wotton's edition.

Matt.

24 Mailros, 147. Saxon Chron. 110. Flor. 347. West. 359. Hoveden, 422. Hoveden, 422. Malmsbury, 46. Ingulf, 28.

Bromton, 835.

25 The year of his death is differently stated: 924 is given by Matt. West. 359.; Bromton, 837.; Flor. 347.; Malm. 48.; Mail. 147.; Chron. Petrib. 25. ; and by the MS. Chron. Tib. b. i. and also b. iv. The printed Saxon Chronicle has 925, p. 110. Hoveden puts 919, and Ethelwerd 926. The authorities for 924 preponderate.

Edward

924.

inferior to his father in letters, but superior to him CHA P. in war, glory, and power. 26 This assertion is ra- I. ther an oratorical point than an historical fact. the Elder. Edward had never to struggle with such warfare as that during which Alfred ascended his throne, in which he lost it, and by whose suppression he regained it. Edward encountered but the fragments of that tremendous mass which Alfred first broke.

EDWARD had many children besides Athelstan. He was twice married. His first marriage produced two sons, Ethelward and Edwin, and six daughters. Four of the latter were united to continental potentates.27 His second union 26 was followed by the birth of two more sons, Edmund and Edred, who in the course of time succeeded to his sceptre; and of three daughters. One of these, a lady of exquisite beauty", was wedded to the prince of Acquitain.

EDWARD imitated his father as well in his plan of education as in his government. The first part of his daughters' lives was devoted to letters: they were afterwards taught to use the needle, and the distaff. His sons received the best literary education of the day, that they might be well qualified for the offices of government to which they were born. 30

27 Malmsb. 47.

26 Malmsb. 46. Flor. 336. Ingulf. 28. 28 His second wife was Eadgifu, whose will is printed in Saxon, with a Latin translation, in the appendix to Lye's Saxon Dictionary.

29 Edgivam speciositatis eximiæ mulierem. Malmsb. 47.

30 Malmsb. 47. Edward was for some time under an excommunication from Rome, for keeping his bishoprics vacant. The king appeased the pope by filling seven sees in one day. Malmsb. 48. Edward was buried in the same monastery where his father and brother Ethelwerd lay.

Ibid.

VI. Athelstan.

924.

CHAP. II.

The Reign of Athelstan.

BOOK IMMEDIATELY after Edward's interment, Ethelward, the eldest son of his first marriage, the pattern of the illustrious Alfred, in manners, countenance, and acquisitions, was taken away from the hopes of his countrymen.' On his death, the Anglo-Saxon sceptre was given by the witenagemot to Athelstan, and he was crowned at Kingston. He was thirty years of age at his accession. His father's will directed the choice of the approving nobles. 2

ATHELSTAN, the eldest but illegitimate son of Edward, was born in Alfred's life-time. He could be only six years of age when his grand-father died, and yet, interested by his beauty and manners, Alfred had invested him prematurely with the dignity of knighthood, and given him a purple vestment, a jewelled belt, and a Saxon sword, with a golden sheath. His aunt, Ethelfleda, joined with her husband in superintending his education; and the attainments of Athelstan reflected honour on their attentions. 4

Malmsbury

Malmsb. 46. Flor. 347. Sax. Ch. 111. says, the prince died in a few days after his father. The MS. Saxon Chronicle, Tib. b. iv. particularises sixteen days, "rythe hɲade then дefon ymbe 16 dazar æt Oxanfoɲda." 2 Malmsb. 48, 49.

3 His mother was a shepherd's daughter, of extraordinary beauty. Malmsb. 52. Bromton, 831. Matt. West. 351. She is called Egwina, illustri femina, by H. Silgrave, MS. Cleop. A. 12., and in J. Bever's Chron. MSS. Harl. 641. It was her daughter who married Sigtryg. Ibid. 4 Malmsb. 49.

II.

THE Anglo-Saxon sovereign became a character CHA P. of dignity and consequence in Europe, in the per- Athelstan. son of Athelstan. His connections with the most respectable personages on the Continent, give to his reign a political importance.

SIGTRYG, the son of Ingwar, and grandson of Ragnar Lodbrog, was a reigning king in Northumbria at the accession of Athelstan. He is chiefly known in the Saxon annals, for having murdered his brother; and in Irish history, for his piratical depredations. He, therefore, deserves the character of barbarian, both in mind and in nation. 8 Athelstan, however, to conciliate his friendship during the first years of his government, gave him his own sister in marriage. Their nuptials were celebrated with magnificence. Perhaps the circumstance of the king's birth, and the existence of legitimate brethren, disposed him to court the alliance, rather than to encounter the enmity, of the Anglo-Danes, while his power was young. Sigtryg embraced Christianity on the occasion;

5 He is named the son of Ivar in the Annals of Ulster. See them, p. 65, 66, 67.

6 914. Niel rex occisus est a fratre Sihtrico. Sim. Dun. 133. So Huntingdon, 354. The Annals of Ulster contain a similar incident, which they date in 887, p. 65. They call the brother Godfred. Whether this is a misnomer, or whether Sigtryg perpetrated two fratricides, I cannot decide.

7 See the Annals of Ulster.

8 So Malmsbury entitles him, gente et animo barbarus,

p. 50.

9 Hoveden, 422. Flor. 328. The MS. Chronicle, Tib. b. iv. mentions the place and the day of this marriage. It says, that the two kings met and concluded the nuptials at Tamworth, on 30th of January, "925, hæp Æthelran cýning Sihtpic Nopchhymbpa cyning heo geramnodon æt Tamepeopththize, 3 kal. Februaɲn 1 Æthelstan hir гpeortop him fopgear." MSS. Tib. b. iv.

924.