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conqueror, were murdered by him. The abbot of Redford opposed the order for this execution; but could only prevail on Ceadwalla to suspend it, till they should be baptized. Bercthun and Audhun, two noblemen of character, resisted some time the violence of the West Saxons; but their opposition served only to prolong the miseries of their country; and the subduing of this kingdom was the first step which the West Saxons made towards acquiring the sole monarchy of England.

THE KINGDOM OF WESSEX.

THE kingdom of Wessex, which finally swallowed up all the other Saxon states, met with great resistance on its first establishment: and the Britons, who were now inured to arms, yielded not tamely their possessions to those invaders. Cerdic, the founder of the monarchy, and his son Kenric, fought many successful, and some unsuccessful battles, against the natives; and the martial spirit, common to all the Saxons, was, by means of these hostilities, carried to the greatest height among this tribe. Ceaulin, who was the son and successor of Kenric, and who began his reign in 560, was still more ambitious and enterprising than his predecessors; and by waging continual war against the Britons, he added a great part of the counties of Devon and Somerset to his other dominions. Carried along by the tide of success, he invaded the other Saxon states in his neighbourhood, and becoming terrible to all, he provoked a general confederacy against him. This alliance proved successful under the conduct of Ethelbert, king of Kent; and Ceaulin, who had lost the affections of his own subjects by his violent disposition, and had now fallen into contempt from his misfortunes, was expelled the throne, and died in exile and misery. Cuichelme, and Cuthwin, his sons, governed jointly the kingdom, till the expulsion of the latter in 591, and the death of the former in 593, made way for Cealric, to whom succeeded Ceobald in 593, by whose death, which hap• Chron. Sax. p. 22.

d Brompton, p. 800.

This prince

pened in 611, Kynegils inherited the crown.
embraced christianity, through the persuasion of Oswald,
king of Northumberland, who had married his daughter,
and who had attained a great ascendant in the Heptarchy.
Kenwalch next succeeded to the monarchy, and dying in
672, left the succession so much disputed, that Sexburga,
his widow, a woman of spirit, kept possession of the
government till her death, which happened two years
after. Escwin then peaceably acquired the crown: and,
after a short reign of two years, made way for Kent-
win, who governed nine years. Ceodwalla, his successor,
mounted not the throne without opposition; but proved a
great prince, according to the ideas of those times; that
is, he was enterprising, warlike, and successful. He en-
tirely subdued the kingdom of Sussex, and annexed it to
his own dominions. He made inroads into Kent; but met
with resistance from Widred, the king, who proved suc-
cessful against Mollo, brother to Ceodwalla, and slew him
in a skirmish. Ceodwalla at last, tired with wars and
bloodshed, was seized with a fit of devotion; bestowed
several endowments on the church; and made a pilgrimage
to Rome, where he received baptism, and died in 689.
Ina, his successor, inherited the military virtues of Ceod-
walla, and added to them the more valuable ones of justice,
policy, and prudence. He made war upon the Britons in
Somerset: and having finally subdued that province, he
treated the vanquished with a humanity hitherto unknown
to the Saxon conquerors. He allowed the proprietors to
retain possession of their lands, encouraged marriages and
alliances between them and his ancient subjects, and gave
them the privilege of being governed by the same laws.
These laws he augmented and ascertained; and though
he was disturbed by some insurrections at home, his long
reign of thirty-seven years may be regarded as one of the
most glorious and most prosperous of the Heptarchy. In
the decline of his age he made a pilgrimage to Rome;

f Higden, lib. v. Chron. Sax. p. 15. Alured. Beverl. p. 94.
Bede, lib. iv.
сар. 12.
Chron. Sax. p. 41.

and after his return, shut himself up in a cloister, where he died.

Though the kings of Wessex had always been princes of the blood, descended from Cerdic, the founder of the monarchy, the order of succession had been far from exact; and a more remote prince had often found means to mount the throne, in preference to one descended from a nearer branch of the royal family. Ina, therefore, having no children of his own, and lying much under the influence of Ethelburga, his queen, left by will the succession to Adelard, her brother, who was his remote kinsman: but this destination did not take place without some difficulty. Oswald, a prince more nearly allied to the crown took arms against Adelard; but he being suppressed, and dying soon after, the title of Adelard was not any farther disputed; and in the year 741, he was succeeded by his cousin Cudred. The reign of this prince was distinguished by a great victory, which he obtained, by means of Edelhun, his general, over Ethelbald, king of Mercia. His death made way for Sigebert, his kinsman, who governed so ill, that his people rose in an insurrection, and dethroned him, crowning Cenulph in his stead. The exiled prince found a refuge with duke Cumbran, governor of Hampshire; who, that he might add new obligations to Sigebert, gave him many salutary counsels for his future conduct, accompanied with some reprehensions for the past. But these were so much resented by the ungrateful prince, that he conspired against the life of his protector, and treacherously murdered him. After this. infamous action, he was forsaken by all the world; and skulking about in the wilds and forests, was at last discovered by a servant of Cumbran's, who instantly took revenge upon him for the murder of his masterh.

Cenulph, who had obtained the crown on the expulsion of Sigebert, was fortunate in many expeditions against the Britons of Cornwall; but afterwards lost some reputation by his ill success against Offa, king of Mercia1. Kyneh Higden, lib. W. Malms. lib. i. cap. 2. i W. Malms. lib. i. cap. 2.

V.

hard also, brother to the deposed Sigebert, gave him disturbance; and though expelled the kingdom, he hovered on the frontiers, and watched an opportunity for attacking his rival. The king had an intrigue with a young woman, who lived at Merton in Surrey, whither having secretly retired, he was on a sudden environed, in the night time, by Kynehard and his followers, and after making a vigorous resistance, was murdered, with all his attendants. The nobility and people of the neighbourhood, rising next day in arms, took revenge on Kynehard for the slaughter of their king, and put every one to the sword who had been engaged in that criminal enterprise. This event happened in 784.

Brithric next obtained possession of the government, though remotely descended from the royal family; but he enjoyed not that dignity without inquietude. Eoppa, nephew to king Ina, by his brother Ingild, who died before that prince, had begot Eata, father to Alchmond, from whom sprung Egbert, a young man of the most promising hopes, who gave great jealousy to Brithric, the reigning prince, both because he seemed by his birth better entitled to the crown, and because he had acquired, to an eminent degree, the affections of the people. Egbert, sensible of his danger from the suspicions of Brithric, secretly withdrew into France'; where he was well received by Charlemagne. By living in the court, and serving in the armies of that prince, the most able and most generous that had appeared in Europe during several ages, he acquired those accomplishments, which afterwards enabled him to make such a shining figure on the throne. And familiarizing himself to the manners of the French, who, as Malmsbury observes", were eminent both for valour and civility above all the western nations, he learned to polish the rudeness and barbarity of the Saxon character: his early misfortunes thus proved of singular advantage to him.

It was not long ere Egbert had opportunities of displaying his natural and acquired talents. Brithric, king

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of Wessex, had married Eadburga, natural daughter of Offa, king of Mercia, a profligate woman, equally infamous for cruelty and for incontinence. Having great influence over her husband, she often instigated him to destroy such of the nobility as were obnoxious to her; and where this expedient failed, she scrupled not being herself active in traitorous attempts against them. She had mixed a cup of poison for a young nobleman, who had acquired her husband's friendship, and had on that account become the object of her jealousy: but unfortunately the king drank of the fatal cup along with his favourite, and soon after expired". This tragical incident, joined to her other crimes, rendered Eadburga so odious, that she was obliged to fly into France; whence Egbert was at the same time recalled by the nobility, in order to ascend the throne of his ancestors. He attained that dignity in the last year

of the eighth century.

In the kingdoms of the Heptarchy, an exact rule of succession was either unknown or not strictly observed; and thence the reigning prince was continually agitated with jealousy against all the princes of the blood, whom he still considered as rivals, and whose death alone could give him entire security in his possession of the throne. From this fatal cause, together with the admiration of the monastic life, and the opinion of merit attending the preservation of chastity even in a married state, the royal families had been entirely extinguished in all the kingdoms except that of Wessex; and the emulations, suspicions, and conspiracies, which had formerly been confined to the princes of the blood alone, were now diffused among all the nobility in the several Saxon states. Egbert was the sole descendant of those first conquerors who subdued Britain, and who enhanced their authority by claiming a pedigree from Woden, the supreme divinity of their ancestors. But that prince, though invited by this favourable circumstance to make attempts on the neighbouring Saxons, gave them for some time no disturbance, and

n

Higden, lib. v. M. West. p. 152. Asser. in vita Alfredi, p. 3. ex edit. Camdeni. • Chron. Sax. a. d. 800... Brompton, p. 801.

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