659. pos BOOK the conjecture on this dignity which would come nearest the truth, would be, that it was the walda or ruler of the Saxon kingdoms against the Britons, while the latter maintained the struggle for the session of the country: a species of Agamemnon against the general enemy, not a title of dignity or power against each other. If so, it would be but the war-king of the Saxons in Britain, against its native chiefs. 670. Oswy's death. 6.2. Sxbu_a. 34 Oswy is ranked by Bede, the seventh, as Oswald had been the sixth, of the kings who preponderated in the Anglo-Saxon octarchy. He died in this year. His greatest action was the deliverance of the Anglo-Saxons from the oppressions of Penda; he also subdued the Picts and Scots; but the fate of the amiable Oswin, whom he destroyed, shades his memory with a cloud. Alfred, his eldest son, who had assisted to gain the laurels of his fame in the field of Winwid, was rejected from the succession, for his illegitimacy, and the younger Ecgfrid was placed over the united kingdoms of Northumbria.36 35 On the death of Cenwalch, his widow, Saxburga, assumed the sceptre of Wessex. She wielded it with courage and intelligence; she augmented her army with new levies, and encouraged her veterans. 33 Bede, lib. ii. c. 5. Sax. Chron. p. 7. 24 Sax. Chron. 40. Chron. Abb. Petri de Burgo, p. 2. 35 If Oswin's character has not been too favourably drawn, his death was a great loss to his contemporaries. His tall and handsome person was adorned by a disposition unfrequent in his age; affatu jucundus, moribus civilis, omnibus manu largus, regum humilimus, amabilis omnibus. Flor. Wig. 237. To the same purport Bede, lib. iii. c. 14., and Matt. West. 224. 36 Reprobato notho factione optimatum quamquam senior. Malms. 20, 21.- Ecgfrid had resided as a hostage with the Mercian queen at the time of Penda's fall. Bede, lib. iii. c. 24. CHAP. 672. 674. Escuin The submissive were rewarded by her clemency; to the enemy a firm countenance was displayed 7; but the proud barbarians of Wessex disdained even a government of wisdom in the form of a woman 39 and for ten years the nobles shared the government. In the first part of this interval, Æscuin, son of Cenfusus, a prevailing noble, descended from Cerdic, is mentioned to have ruled. He led a powerful force against Wulfhere, the king of Mercia; a battle, in which the mutual destruction was more conspicuous than the decision, ensued at Bedwin in Wilts. It is worth our while, says the moralizing historian, to observe how contemptible are the glorious wars and noble achievements of the great. Both these contending kings, whose vanity and pomp hurled thousands of their fellow-creatures to their graves, scarcely survived the battle a year. Within a few months Wulfhere died of a natural disease; and in 676 Æscuin followed. Kentwin is denominated his 41 successor; and Ethel- Kentwin. 40 Sax. Chron. 41. 37 Malms. 14. She reigned for one year. 38 Indignantibus regni magnatibus expulsa est a regno, nolentibus sub sexu fœmineo militare." Matt. West, 236. 39 There is a seeming contradiction on this point between Bede and the Saxon Chronicle. Bede, lib. iii. c. 12., says, that after Cenwalch's death, acceperunt subreguli regnum gentis, et divisum inter se tenuerunt annis circiter decem. - Flor. Wig., 246., notices this passage, but mentions also the opposite account of the Anglica Chronica. The Saxon Chronicle, after Saxburga's year, places Escuin in 674, and Kentwin in 676, both within the ten years of Bede, p. 41. 44. I cannot reject the evidence of Bede, who was born at this time. Perhaps Æscuin and Kentwin were the most powerful of the nobles, and being of the race of Cerdic, enjoyed the supremacy. Ina's charter authenticates Kentwin's reign. See it in Malmsb. de Aut. Glast. 3 Gale, 311. Alfred, in his Chronological Fragment, inserted in his Bede, mentions both Æscuin and Kentwin. Walker's Elfred. Mag. App. p. 199. Sax. Chron. 45. 40 H. Hunting. p. 318. BOOK red, the surviving son of Penda, acceded to the crown of Mercia, and ravaged Kent." III. 674. Ecgfrid of Northum bria. 664. A pestilence. ECGFRID, who was governing in Northumbria, had repulsed with great slaughter an invasion of the Picts. Their general, Bernhaeth, fell, and the corses of his followers stopped the current of the river which flowed near the scene of ruin. 43 In 679 Ecgfrid invaded Mercia, though Ethelred had married his sister. The Mercians met him on the Trent, and, in the first battle, his brother Ælfuin fell. More calamitous warfare impended from the exasperation of the combatants, when the aged Theodore interposed. His function of archbishop derived new weight from his character, and he established a pacification between the related combatants. A pecuniary mulct compensated for the fate of Ælfuin, and the retaliation in human blood was prevented." A DESTRUCTIVE pestilence began to spread through Britain, from its southern provinces to the northern regions, and equally afflicted Ireland, in 664.45 The calamity extended to Wales, and many of the natives emigrated to Bretagne. Cadwaladyr, the son of Cadwallan, accompanied them. He was kindly received by one of the Breton kings, and partook of his hospitality, till devotion or an aversion to the military vicissitudes of the day, in 42 Sax. Chron. 44. The Chronicon of Peterborough dates the invasion of Kent in 677, p. 3. 43 Malms. Gest. Pontiff. lib. iii. p. 261. with the bodies, over which the victors Vit. Wilf. c. 19. p. 61. ed. Gale. Eddius fills two rivers passed "siccis pedibus." 44 Bede, lib. iv. c. 21. Malmsb. 20. 28. Sax. Chron. 44. Ecgfrid had conquered Lincolnshire from Wulfhere before Ethelred's accession. Bede, lib. ii. c. 12. 45 Bede, lib. iii. c. 27 VIII. duced him to abandon his royal dignity in Wales, CHAP. and to visit Rome. He was the last of the Cymry who pretended to the sovereignty of the island.46 WHEN Cadwaladyr died at Rome, Alan, the king of Bretagne, sent his son Ivor, and his nephew, Inyr, with a powerful fleet, to regain the crown which Cadwaladyr had abandoned or lost. Ivor was at first so successful, that he defeated the Saxons, and took Cornwall, Devonshire, and Somersetshire. But Kentwin met him with the West Saxon power, and chasing him to the sea, again disappointed the hopes of the Cymry. Rodri Maelwynawc assumed the pennaduriaeth, or sovereignty of the Cymry, on Ivor's departure for Rome. 48 47 46 Jeffry, Brit. Hist. lib. xii. c. 17, 18. This work and the Brut. Tysilio and Brut. G. ab Arthur end here. The death of Cadwaladyr is the termination of those British Chronicles which contain the fabled history of Arthur and his predecessors; and they close analogously to their general character; for the voice of an angel is made use of to deter Cadwaladyr, from returning to Britain. The reason added for the celestial interference is, because the Deity did not choose that the Britons should reign in the island before the time predicted by Merlin. The same voice ordered him to Rome, and promised that his countrymen should, from the merit of their faith, again recover the island, when the time foretold was arrived!! Jeffry, lib. xii. c. 17. Brut. Tys. and Brut. Arth. p. 386. 47 Brut. y Saeson and the Brut. y Tywysoglon, p. 468–470. Sax. Chron. 45. Wynne's History of Wales is not a translation of Caradoc. It is composed from his work, with many additions badly put together. 48 Brut. y Tywys, p.471. Dr. Pughe's biographical notice of Cadwaladyr may be read as a good summary of the chief incidents that concern this celebrated Welsh prince. Cadwaladyr, son of Cadwallon ab Cadwan, succeeded to the nominal sovereignty of Britain, in the year 660. Disheartened at the progress of the Saxons, he went to Rome in 686, and died in 703. With him the title of king of the Britons ceased, and such parts as were not conquered by the Saxons were governed by different chiefs, as Stratclyde, Cornwall, and Wales. In the Triads he is styled one of the three princes who wore the golden bands, being emblems of supreme authority, which were worn 674. 631. 698. BOOK III. 684. Ecgfrid invades Ireland. THE restless Ecgfrid soon turned his arms upon Ireland. This nation, although by some of its tribes occasionally at variance with the Welsh, had always continued in strict amity with the English"; but this peaceful forbearance was no protection from the avarice of power. Their country was miserably ravaged by Beorht, the Northumbrian general; the lands of Bregh were plundered, and many churches and monasteries were destroyed. The islanders defended their domestic lares with valour, and the Angles retreated. It is at this period that Ireland appears to have been conspicuous for the literature of some of her monastic seminaries. Bede states, that many of the noble and middle classes of the English left their country and went to Ireland, either to study the Scriptures or to pass a more virtuous life. Some connected themselves with the monasteries, and preferred passing from the abode of one master to that of another, applying themselves to reading. The Irish received them all most hospitably, supplied them with food without any recompense, and gave them books to read, and gratuitous tuition. 50 round the neck, arms, and knees. He was also called one of the three blessed kings, on account of the protection and support afforded by him to the fugitive Christians, who were dispossessed by the Saxons. There is a church dedicated to him in Mona, and another in Denbighshire. Camb. Biog. p. 34. 49 Bede characterizes the Irish as a people innoxiam et nationi Anglorum semper amicissimam, lib. iv. c. 26. — Malmsbury describes them as a "genus hominum innocens, genuina simplicitate, nil unquam mali moliens," p. 20. 50 Bede, lib. iii. c. 27. He mentions two of these monasteries by name, Paegnalaech and Rathmelsigi. The studies pursued in Ireland about this time are implied rather than expressed, in the tumid and not easily comprehensible epistle of Aldhelm, to be the geometrical and gramatical arts, logic, rhetoric, and the Scriptures. I can hardly |