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great and flourishing kingdom. The king of Mercia was the first who furnished him with a pretext for recovering the part of his dominions which had formerly been dismembered by that state. Beornulf, the monarch of that country, who had already almost obtained the sovereignty over the heptarchy, taking advantage of Egbert's absence, who was employed in quelling the Britons, invaded his dominions with a numerous army, composed of the flower of his country. Egbert was not remiss in marching to oppose him with a body of troops less numerous than those of Beornulf, but more brave and resolute. Both armies met at Wilton, and a battle ensuing, the Mercians were defeated with terrible slaughter.

In the mean time, while the victor pursued his conquest into the enemies' country, he dispatched his eldest son, Ethelwolf, with an army, into the kingdom of Kent, who soon made himself master of the whole nation, and expelled Baldred, their monarch, to whom his subjects had paid a very unwilling obedience. The East Saxons also, and part of Surrey, dissatisfied with their subjection to the Mercians, readily submitted to Egbert; nor were the East Angles backward in sending ambassadors to crave his protection and assistance against that nation, whose yoke they had for some time endured, and were resolved no longer to bear. The Mercian king, attempting to repress their defection, was defeated and slain and two years after, Ludecan, his successor, met x with the same fate. Withlaf, one of their eoldermen, soon after put himself at their head; but, being driven from province to province by the victorious arms of Egbert, he was, at last, obliged to take shelter in the abbey of Croyland, while Egbert made himself master of the whole kingdom of Mercia. However, in order to accustom that people to his dominion, he permitted

Withlaf to govern the kingdom as a vassal, and tributary under him; thus at once satisfying his ambition, and flattering the people with an appearance of the former government.

The king of Northumberland was the last that sub-Egbert Roning mitted to his authority. This state had been long ha-ow yong rassed by civil wars and usurpations: all order had. been destroyed among the people, and the kingdom was weakened to such a degree, that it was in no condition to withstand such an invader as Egbert. The inhabitants, therefore, unable to resist his power, and desirous of possessing some established form of government, very cheerfully sent deputies, who submitted to his authority, and expressed their allegiance to him as their sovereign. By this submission, all the kingdoms of the heptarchy were united under his command; but, to give Maung splendour to his authority, a general council of the clergy and laity was summoned at Winchester, where fugland, he was solemnly crowned king of England, by which name the united kingdom was thenceforward called.

Thus, about four hundred years after the first arrival tend of the Saxons in Britain, all their petty settlements were Aufklärun united into one great state; and nothing offered A.D. in England but prospects of peace, security, and increasing 827. refinement. About this period, the arts and sciences, which had been before only known to the Greeks and Romans, were disseminated over Europe, where they were sufficient to raise the people above mere barbarians, but yet lost all their native splendour in the transplantation. The English, at this time, might be considered as polite, if compared to the naked Britons at the invasion of Cæsar. The houses, furniture, clothes, and all the real luxuries of sense, were almost as great then as they have been since. But the people were incapable of sentimental pleasure. All the learning of the

M

time was confined among the clergy; and little improvement could be expected from their reasonings, since it was one of their tenets to discard the light of reason. An eclipse was even by their historians talked of as an omen of threatened calamities; and magic was not only believed, but some actually believed themselves magicians. Even the clergy were not averse to these opinions, as such, in some measure, served to increase their authority. Indeed, the reverence for the clergy was carried so high, that if a person appeared in a sacerdotal habit on the highway, the people flocked round him, and, with all the marks of profound respect, received every word he uttered as an oracle. From this blind attachment, the social and even the military virtues began to decline among them. The reverence towards saints and relics served to supplant the adoration of the Supreme Being. Monastic observances were esteemed more meritorious than active virtues; and bounty to the church atoned for all the violences done to society. The nobility, whose duty it was to preserve the military spirit from declining, began to prefer the sloth and security of a cloister to the tumult and glory of war; and those rewards which should have gone to encourage the soldier, were lavished in maintaining the credulous indolence of monastic superstition.

CHAPTER IV.

From the ACCESSION of EGBERT to the NORMAN

CONQUEST.

A. D. 827-1066.

fingstt It might have been reasonably expected, that a wise and fortunate prince, at the head of so great a kingdom,

and so united and numerous a people as the English then were, should not only have enjoyed the fruits of peace and quiet, but left felicity to succeeding generations. The inhabitants of the several provinces, tired out with mutual dissensions, seemed to have lost all desire of revolting: the race of their ancient kings was extinct, and none now remained but a prince who deserved their allegiance, both by the merit of his services and the splendour of his birth. Yet, such is the instability of human affairs, and the weakness of man's best conjecture, that Egbert was hardly settled on his united throne, when both he and his subjects began to be alarmed at the approach of new and unknown enemies, and the island exposed to fresh invasions.

About this time a mighty swarm of those nations who Ladung den had possessed the countries bordering on the Baltic, D began, under the names of Danes and Normans, to infest the western coasts of Europe, and to fill all places, wherever they came, with slaughter and devastation. These were, in fact, no other than the ancestors of the very people whom they came to despoi!, and might be considered as the original stock from which the numerous colonies that infested Britain had migrated some centuries before. The Normans fell upon the northern coasts of France; the Danes chiefly leveled their fury against England, their first appearance being in 787, when Brithric was king of Wessex. It was then that a small body of them landed on the coasts of that kingdom, with a view of learning the state of the country; and, having committed some small depredations, fled to their ships for safety. About seven years after the h first attempt they made a descent upon the kingdom of Northumberland, where they pillaged a monastery; but, their fleet being shattered by a storm, they were defeated by the inhabitants, and put to the sword. It was not

Die

down hill

till about five years after the elevation of Egbert to the sovereignty of England, that their invasions became truly formidable. From that time they continued with unceasing ferocity, until the whole kingdom was reduced to a state of the most distressful bondage.

Egbert flag As the Saxons had utterly neglected their naval power in since their first settlement in Britain, the Danes, who bri Hangs succeeded them in the empire of the sea, found no difficulty in landing upon the isle of Sheppey, in Kent, which they ravaged, returning to their ships loaden with the spoil. Their next attempt, the year ensuing, was at Charmouth, in Dorsetshire, where they landed a body of fifteen thousand men, that made good their ground against the efforts of Egbert; who, after a battle, was obliged to draw off his forces by night. Within two years after, they landed in Cornwall; and, being joined by the Britons there, they advanced towards the borders of Devonshire, where they were totally routed by Egbert, in a pitched battle, at Hengsdown-hill, near Kellington. By this victory he secured the kingdom from invasion for some time; but his death seemed to put a period to the success of his countrymen, and to invite the enemy to renew their devastations with impunity. Plunderung, He was succeeded by Ethelwolf, his son, who had neither the vigour nor the abilities of his father. This durch die Dumprince had been educated in a cloister, and had actually

taken orders during the life of his elder brother; but upon his death he received a dispensation to quit the monkish habit, and to marry. He was scarcely settled on his throne, when a fleet of Danish ravagers, consisting of thirty-three sail, landed at Southampton; but they were repulsed, though not without great slaughter on both sides. However, no defeat could repress the obstinacy, nor could any difficulties daunt the courage of these fierce invaders, who still persevered in their