and annexed Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire to his already large domin ions. But though brave, he was both cruel and treacherous. Ethelbert, king of the East Angles, had paid his addresses to the daughter of Offa, and was accepted as her affianced husband, and at length invited to Here ford to celebrate the marriage. But in the very midst of the feasting and amusements incident to so important and joyful an event, the young prince was seized upon by order of Offa, and barbarously beheaded. The whole of his retinue would have shared the same fate, but that Elfrida, the daughter whom Offa thus narbarously deprived of her affianced husband, found out what cruelty had been exercised upon their master, and took an opportunity to warn them of their danger. Their timely escape, however, did not in the least affect the treacherous ambition of Offa, who seized upon East Anglia.

As he grew old, Offa became tortured with remorse for his crimes, and with the superstition common to his age, sought to atone for them by ostentatious and prodigal liberality to the church. He gave the tithe of all nis property to the church, lavished donations upon the cathedral of Hereford, and made a pilgrimage to Rome, where his wealth and consequence readily procured him the absolution of the pope, whose especial favour he gained by undertaking to support an English college at Rome. In order to fulfil this promise, he, on his return to England, imposed a yearly tax of thirty pence upon each house in his kingdom; the like tax for the same purpose being subsequently levied upon the whole of England, was eventually claimed by Rome as a tribute, under the name of Peter's pence, in despite of the notoriety of the fact that it was originally a free gift, and levied only upon one kingdom. Under the impression or the pretence that he had been favoured with an especial command revealed to him in a vision, this man, once so cruel and now so superstitious, founded and endowed a magnificent abbey at St. Albans, in Hertfordshire, to the honour of the relics of St. Alban the Martyr, which he asserted he had found at that place.

Ill as Offa had acquired his great weight in the Heptarchy, his reputation for courage and wisdom was so great that he attracted the notice and was honoured both with the political alliance and the personal friendship of Charlemagne. After a long reign of very nearly forty years, he died in the year 794.

Offa was succeeded by his son Egfrith, who, however, survived only the short space of five months. He was succeeded by Kenulph, who invaded the kingdom of Kent, barbarously mutilated the king, whom he took prisoner and dethroned, and crowned his own brother Cuthred in his stead. Kenulph, as if by a retributive justice, was killed in a revolt of the East Anglians, of whose kingdom he held possession through the treachery and tyrannous cruelty of Offa. After the death of Kenulph the throne was usually earned and vacated by murder; and in this anarchial condition the kingdom remained until the time of Egbert. And here we may remark, en passant, that neither in its political nor civil organization did the AngloSaxon state of society exhibit higher examples of social order than are usually to be found in communities entering on the early stages of civilization.

Essex and Sussex were the smallest and the most insignificant of all the kingdoms of the Heptarchy, and deserve no particular mention, even in the most voluminous and detailed history until the union of the whole Heptarchy, to which event we shall now hasten.

We have already spoken of the stout resistance which the Britons made to Cerdic and his son Kenric, the founders of the kingdom of Wessex. A succession of ambitious and warlike kings greatly extended the territory and increased the importance of this kingdom, which was extremely pow erful, though in much internal disorder, when its throne was ascended by

Egbert, in the year 800. This monarch came into possession of it unde some peculiar advantages. A great portion of his life had been spent at the court of Charlemagne, and he had thus acquired greater polish and knowedge than usually fell to the lot of Saxon kings. Moreover, war and the merit attached to unmarried life had so completely extinguished the origi nal royal families, that Egbert was at this time the sole male royal des cendant of the original conquerors of Britain, who claimed to be the de scendants of Woden, the chief deity of their idolatrous ancestors.

Immediately on ascending the throne, Egbert invaded the Britons in Cornwall, and inflicted some severe defeats upon them. But before he could completely subdue their country, he was called away from that en terprise by the necessity of defending his own country, which had been invaded in his absence by Bernulf, king of Mercia.

Mercia and Wessex were at this time the only two kingdoms of the Heptarchy which had any considerable power; and a struggle between Egbert and Bernulf was, as each felt and confessed it to be, a struggle for the sole dominion of the whole island. Apparently, at the outset, Mercia was the most advantageously circumstanced for carrying on this struggle, for that kingdom had placed its tributary princes in the kingdoms of Kent and Essex, and had reduced East Anglia to an almost equal state of subjection.

Egbert, on learning the attempt that Bernulf was making upon his kingdom, hastened by forced marches to arrest his progress, and speedily came to close quarters with him at Elandum in Wilts. A sanguinary and obstinate battle ensued. Both armies fought with spirit, and both were very numerous; but the fortune of the day was with Egbert, who completely routed the Mercians. Nor was he, after the battle, remiss in following up the great blow he had thus struck at the only English power that could for an instant pretend to rivalry with him. He detached a force into Kent under his son Ethelwolf, who easily and speedily expelled Baldred, the tributary king, who was supported there by Mercia, Egbert himself at the same time entering Mercia on the Oxfordshire side. Essex was conquered almost without an effort, and the East Anglians, without waiting for the approach of Egbert, rose against the power of Bernulf, who lost his life in the attempt to reduce them again to the servitude which his tyranny had rendered intolerable. Ludican, the successor of Bernulf, met with the same fate after two years of constant struggle and frequent defeat, and Egbert now found no difficulty in penetrating to the very heart of the Mercian territory, and subduing to his will a people whose spirit was thoroughly broken by a long and constant succession of calamities. In order to reconcile them to their subjection to him, he skilfuly flattered them with an empty show of independence, by allowing their native king, Wiglaf, to hold that title of his tributary, though with the firmest determination that the title should not carry with it an iota of real and independent power.

He was now, by the disturbed and turbulent condition of Northumber land, invited to turn his arms against that kingdom. But the Northum brians, deeply impressed with his high reputation for valour and success. and probably sincerely desirous of being under the strong stern government of one who had both the power and the will to put an end to the anarchy and confusion to which they were a prey, no sooner heard of his near approach than they rendered all attack on his part wholly unneces sary, by sending deputies to meet him with an offer of their submission, and with power to take, vicariously, oaths of allegiance to him. Sincerely well pleased at being thus met even more than half way in his wishes, Egbert not only gave their envoys a very gracious reception, but also voluntarily allowed them the power to elect a tributary king of their own choice. To East Anglia he also granted this flattering but hollow and

valueless privilege, and thus secured to himself the good will of the people whom he had subjected, and the interested fidelity of titular kings, whose royalty, such as it was, depended upon his breath for its existence, and who, being on the spot, and having only a comparatively limited charge, could detect and for their own sakes would apprise him of the slightest symptoms of rebellion. The whole of the Heptarchy was now in reality subjected to Egbert, whom, dating from the year 827, we consider as the first king of England.

CHAPTER V.

THE ANGLO-SAXONS AFTER THE DISSOLUTION OF THE HEPTARCHY.-REIGNĄ OF EGBERT, ETHELWOLF, AND ELTHElbald.

THE vigorous character of Egbert was well calculated to make the Saxons proud of having him for a monarch, and the fact of the royal families of the Heptarchy being, from various causes, extinct, still farther aided in making his rule welcome, and the union of the various states into one agreeable. As the Saxons of the various kingdoms had originally come not from different countries so much as from different provinces, and as, during their long residence in so circumscribed a territory as England, necessary and frequent intercourse had, in despite of their being under dif ferent kings, made them to a very great extent one people, their habits and pursuits were similar, and in their language, that most important bond of union to mankind, they scarcely differed more considerably than the inhabitants of Cornwall and those of Cumberland do at the present day.

Freed from the unavoidable differences and strife which had occurred while so many jarring royalties were crowded into such a narrow and undivided space, they now seemed, by the mere force of their union into one body, to be destined to be at once prosperous among themselves, and for midable to any one who should dare to attack them from without. All things had concurred to give Egbert the supreme power in England; and all things seemed now to concur to make that power permanent and respectable. The correctness of these appearances, and the real degree of force possessed by the united people, were soon to be tested.

Britain, which both by condition and situation seemed so nearly allied to Gaul, and so fitted by nature to be subject to it, was now, in a great measure, to owe to that situation the attacks of an enemy that scarcely knew fear, and did not know either moderation or mercy. We allude to the Danes. To these bold and sanguinary marauders, who were as skilful on the ocean as they were unsparing on the land, the very name of Christianity was absolutely hateful. We have seen how easily in England the wild and unlettered Saxons were led into that faith; but, in Germany, the Emperor Charlemagne, instead of trying to lead the pagans out of error into truth, departed so far from both the dictates of sound policy and the true spirit of Christianity, as to endeavour to make converts to the religion of peace and good-will at the point of the sword; and, when resisted, as it was quite natural that he should be by a people unacquainted with the faith he wished to teach them, and strongly prejudiced against it by the style in which his teachings were conducted, his persecution--generous and humane though he naturally was-assumed a character which would not be accurately characterized by any epithet less severe than the word brutal. Decimated when goaded into revolt, deprived of their property by fire, and of their dearest relatives by the sword, many thousands of the pagan Saxons of Germany sought refuge in Jutland and Denmark, and naturally, though incorrectly, judging of the Christian faith by the conduct o the Christian champion Charlemagne, thev made the former hateful by

by their mere relations of the cruelties of the latter. When the feeble and divided posterity of Charlemagne made the French provinces a fair mark for bold invaders, the mingled races of Jutes, Danes, and Saxons, known in France under the general name of Northmen or Normans, made descents upon the maritime countries of France, and then pushed their devastating enterprises far inland. England, as we have said, from its mere proximity to France, was viewed by these northern marauders as being in some sort the same country; and its inhabitants, as being equally Christian with the French, were equally hated, and equally considered fit objects of spoliation and violence. As early as the reign of Brithric in the kingdom of Wessex, in 787, a body of these bold and unscrupulous pirates landed in that kingdom. That their intention was hostile there can be little doubt, for, when merely questioned about it, they slew the magistrate and hastily made off. In the year 794 they landed in Northumberland and completely sacked a monastery, but a storm preventing them from making their escape, they were surrounded by the Northumbrian people, and completely cut to pieces.

During the first five years of Egbert's supreme reign in England, neither domestic disturbances nor the invasion of foreign foes occurred to obstruct his measures for promoting the prosperity of his people. But about the end of that time, and while he was still profoundly engaged in promoting the peaceable pursuits which were so necessary to the wealth and comfort of the kingdom, a horde of Danes made a sudden descent upon the isle of Sheppy, plundered the inhabitants to a great amount, and made their debarkation in safety, and almost without any opposition. Warned by this event of his liability to future visits of the same unwelcome nature, Egbert held himself and a competent force in readiness to receive them; and, when in the following year (A.D. 832) they landed from thirty-five ships upon the coast of Dorset, they were suddenly encountered by Egbert, near Charmouth, in that county. An obstinate and severe contest ensued, in which the Danes lost a great number of their force, and were, at length, totally defeated; but as they were skilfully posted, and had taken care to preserve a line of communication with the sea, the survivors contrived to es cape to their ships.

Two years elapsed from the battle of Charmouth before the pirates again made their appearance; and, as in that battle they had suffered very severely, the English began to hope that they would not again return to molest them. But the Danes, knowing the ancient enmity that existed between the Saxons and the British remnant in Cornwall, entered into an alliance with the latter, and, landing in their country, had an easy open road to Devonshire and the other fertile provinces of the West. But here again the activity and unslumbering watchfulness of Egbert_enabled him to limit their ravages merely to their first furious onset. He came up with them at Hengesdown, and again they were defeated with a great diminution of their numbers

This was the last service of brilliant importance that Egbert performed for England, and just as there was every appearence that his valour and sagacity would be more than ever necessary to the safety of the country. he died, in the year 838, and was succeeded by his son Ethelwolf.

The very first act of Ethelwolf's reign was the division of the country which the wisdom and ability of his father, aided by singular good fortune, had so happily united. Threatened as the kingdom so frequently was from without, its best and chiefest hope obviously rested upon its union, and the consequent facility of concentrating its whole fighting force upon any threatened point. But, unable to see this, or too indolent to bear the whole government of the country, Ethelwolf made over the whole of Kent, Sussex, and Essex, to his son Athelstan It was for tinate that, under such a prince, who at the very outset of his reign could

commit an error so capital, England had, in most of her principal places, magistrates or governors of bravery and ability.

Thus Wolfhere, governor of Hampshire, put to the rout a strong party of the marauders who had landed at Southampton, from no fewer than three and-thirty sail; and, in the same year, Athelhelm, governor of Dorsetshire, encountered and defeated another powerful body of them who had landed at Portsmouth; though, in this case, unfortunately, the gallant governAware of the certain disadvantages to which they or died of his wounds. would be exposed in fighting pitched battles in an enemy's country, the Danes, in their subsequent landing, took all possible care to avoid the neTheir plan was to swoop suddenly down upon a recessity of doing so. tired part of the coast, plunder the country as far inland as they could prudently advance, and re-embark with their booty before any considerable force could be got together to oppose them. In this manner they plundered East Anglia and Kent, and their depredations were the more distressing, because they by no means limited themselves to booty in the usual sense of that term, but carried off men, women, and even children into slavery.

The frequency and the desultoriness of these attacks, at length, kept the whole coastward in a perpetual state of anxiety and alarm; the inhabitants of each place fearing to hasten to assist the inhabitants of another place, lest some other party. of the pirates, in the meantime, should ravage and burn their own homes. There was another peculiarity in this kind of warfare, which to one order of men, at least, made it more terrible than even civil war itself; making their descents not merely in the love of gain, but also in a burning and intense hatred of Christianity, the Danes made no distinction between laymen and clerks, unless, indeed, that they often showed themselves, if possible, more inexorably cruel to the latter.

Having their cupidity excited by large and frequent booty, and being, moreover, flushed with their success on the coast of France, the Danes or Northmen at length made their appearance almost annually in England. In each succeeding year they appeared in greater numbers, and conducted themselves with greater audacity: and they now visited the English shores in such swarms that it was apparent they contemplated nothing less than the actual conquest and settlement of the whole country. Dividing themselves into distinct bodies, they directed their attacks upon different points; but the Saxons were naturally warlike, the governors of most of the important places seaward were, as we have already remarked, well fitted for their important trust, and the very frequency of the attacks of the Danes had induced a vigilance and organization among the people themselves which rendered it far less easy than it had formerly At Wiganburgh the Danes were defeated with been to surprise them. very great loss by Ceorle, governor of Devonshire, while another body of the marauders was attacked and defeated by Athelstan, in person, off Sandwich. In this case, in addition to a considerable loss in men, the Danes had nine of their vessels sunk, and only saved the rest by a precipitate flight. But in this year the Danes showed a sign of audacious confidence in their strength and resources which promised but ill for the future repose of England; for though they had been severely chastised in more than one quarter, and had sustained the loss of some of their bravest men, the main body of them, instead of retreating wholly from the island, as they had usually done towards the close of the autumn, fortified themselves in the Isle of Sheppy, and made it their winter quarters. The promise of early recommencement of hostilities that was thus tacitly held out was fully and promptly fulfilled.

Early in the spring of 852, the Danes who had wintered in the Isle of Ttanet, were reinforced by he arrival of a fresh horde, in 350 vessels