conquered as long as he lived, and at his death left it to his son Athelstan. The royal race of the kings of Kent then failed, and their right to the kingdom passed into other hands.

A summary of the kings of WESSEX, of whom this Book treats:

CEADWAL, in the second year of his reign, obtained possession of the Isle of Wight; twice he ravaged Kent, and, going to Rome, died there in his garments of baptism, having exchanged for them the ensigns of royalty.

INA reigned xxxvii. years. He conquered in battle Gerent, king of the Welsh, and subdued in his wars the East-Saxons. Piously resigning his crown, he went to Rome.

ETHELHARD, a kinsman of King Ina, governed the kingdom he resigned to him, peaceably, for xiv. years.

CUTHRED reigned xvi. years, and twice conquered the Britons by the laws of war, as also King Ethelbald.

SIGEBERT, a cruel king, reigned one year and a little more, when he was justly deposed, and afterwards slain.

CYNEWULF reigned xxiii. years, who was put to death by the king's [Sigebert's] brother.

BERTRIC reigned xvi. years. In his time the barbarities of the Danes were first inflicted on Britain.

EGBERT's reign lasted xxxvii. years. He overran Britain [Wales?] from east to west, and was victorious in his wars against Bernwulf, king of Mercia, and Baldred, king of Kent, together with King Whitlaf and the Danes.

A summary of the kings of NORTHUMBRIA mentioned in this Book:

ALFRID, brother of King Egfrid, learned in the Scriptures and warlike, reigned xx. years.

OSRED, his son, reigned xi. years, and was killed in battle. KENRED reigned ii. years, and falling sick shortly died. OSRIC [II.] reigned xii. years till his death.

CEOLWULF, brother of King Kenred, just named, after a reign of viii. years, became a monk. In whose time Bede, the venerable priest and Christian philosopher, made a blessed end.

EGBERT, a kinsman of Ceolwulf, after a reign of xxi. made a feeble life illustrious by a glorious end.

years,

OSWULF, his son, reigned one year, and was traitorously murdered by his household.

MOL-ETHELWOLD reigned vi. years, and was compelled to

abdicate.

ALRID reigned viii. years, and was driven out and deposed by his people.

ETHELRED, the son of Mol, reigned iii. years, and fled from the face of his rebellious nobles.

ALFWOLD reigned x. years, and was traitorously slain by Sigga, one of his officers.

OSRED [II], the nephew of the last-named king, after reigning one year, was driven from his kingdom by his people, and three years afterwards was killed.

ETHELRED, the son of Mol, was restored to the throne; but, after reigning iv. years, was slain by his ever turbulent people.

ARDULF, after a reign of xii. years, was expelled by his subjects. Afterwards, the Northumbrian people, actuated, as it appears, by an insane spirit of insubordination, were for some time without any king, and submitted by treaty to King Egbert.

A summary of the kings of MERCIA mentioned in this Book:

ETHELRED, Son of Penda, after a reign of xii. years, nobly submitted to the monastic rule.

KENRED, his kinsman, reigned v. years, and then, going to Rome, triumphantly joined a society of monks.

CEOLDRED, Son of King Ethelred, reigned viii. years, and fought stoutly against King Ina.

ETHELBALD the Proud reigned xli. years. He ravaged Northumbria, and subdued the people of Wales, and became paramount over all the kings of England; but at last he was conquered by King Cuthred, and was afterwards slain.

BERNRED held the kingdom one year, but Offa the powerful expelled him.

OFFA reigned xxxix. years. In his wars he worsted Cynewulf, king of Wessex, and the Kentish men, and the Northumbrians.

EGFERT, the son of Offa, scarcely survived him one year.

KENULF reigned xxvi. years in peace, and died the common death of mortals.

CEOLWULF held the kingdom iii. years, but it was then wrested from him by Bernulf the ferocious.

BERNULF reigned one year, and, being overcome by King Egbert, disappeared.

LUDICEN was slain in the first year of his reign, with his five principal officers.

WITHLAF, having been conquered in the war with King Egbert, was restored to his kingdom as a tributary.

As to the kingdom of EAST-ANGLIA, it had already been, by various means, annexed to the other kingdoms 1.

1 These tables, which embrace a period of little more than a century and a half, extending from A.D. 681 to 836, contain a melancholy record of the unsettled state of the times. Wars, revolutions, treason, and murder so did their work, that, of the 45 kings of the Hexarchy enumerated in these lists, fifteen only, and three of these after very short reigns, died peaceably, and in possession of their kingdoms. Of the remainder, eleven were driven from the throne; eleven died violent deaths, some in battle, but most of them murdered by their rebellious subjects; and eight became monks, as much, Henry of Huntingdon admits, to escape a violent death as from motives of piety. The kingdom of Northumbria presents the worst spectacle. There, of thirteen kings during the period above mentioned, three only died possessed of the throne, one of them falling sick and dying in the second year of his reign. It is remarkable also that all the three died in less than half a century of the period referred to. Afterwards, for a century and a quarter, not one of the kings who successively filled the throne of Northumbria died in it. Four were expelled by their subjects; and of four who were killed, one only fell in battle; the rest were traitorously murdered, and two became monks.

BOOK V.

THE PREFACE.

In the beginning of this History I remarked that Britain had been afflicted with five scourges; the fourth of which-that inflicted by the Danes-I propose to treat of in the present Book: indeed this infliction was more extensive as well as vastly more severe than the others. For the Romans subjugated Britain in a short time, and governed it magnificently by right of conquest. The Picts and Scots made frequent irruptions from the northern districts of Britain, but their attacks were confined to that quarter, and they were never very destructive; and, being repelled, their invasions quickly ceased. The Saxons, as their strength increased, gradually took possession of the country by force of arms; they then settled on the lands they conquered, established themselves in their possessions, and were governed by fixed laws. The Normans, again, suddenly and rapidly subjugating the island, granted to the conquered people life and liberty, with their just rights, according to the ancient laws of the kingdom. Of them I shall have to speak hereafter.

The Danes, however, overran the country by desultory inroads ; their object being not to settle but to plunder it, to destroy rather than to conquer. If they were sometimes defeated, victory was of no avail, inasmuch as a descent was made in some other quarter by a larger fleet and a more numerous force. It was wonderful how, when the English kings were hastening to encounter them in the eastern districts, before they could fall in with the enemy's bands, a hurried messenger would arrive and say, “Sir king, whither are you marching? The heathens have disembarked from a countless fleet on the southern coast, and are ravaging the towns and villages, carrying fire and slaughter into every quarter." The same day another messenger would come running, and say, "Sir king, whither are you retreating? A formidable army has landed in the west of England, and if you do not quickly turn your face toward them, they will think you are fleeing, and follow in your rear with fire and sword." Again, the same day, or on the morrow, another messenger would arrive, saying, "What place, O noble chiefs, are you making for? The Danes have made a descent in the north; already they have burnt your mansions,

even now they are sweeping away your goods, they are tossing your young children raised on the points of their spears, your wives, some they have forcibly dishonoured, others they have carried off with them." Bewildered by such various tidings of bitter woe, both kings and people lost their vigour both of mind and body, and were utterly prostrated; so that even when they defeated the enemy, victory was not attended with its wonted triumphs, and supplied no confidence of safety for the future.

The reason why the anger of God was inflamed against them with such fury is this. In the early days of the English church religion flourished with so much lustre, that kings and queens, nobles and bishops, as I have before related, resigned their dignities, and entered into the monastic life'. But in process of time all piety became extinct, so that no other nation equalled them for impiety and licentiousness; as especially appears in the history of the Northumbrian kings. This impiety was not only manifest in the royal annals, but extended to every rank and order of men. Nothing was held disgraceful except devotion, and innocence was the surest road to destruction. The Almighty, therefore, let loose upon them the most barbarous of nations, like swarms of wasps, and they spared neither age nor sex2; viz. the Danes and Goths, Norwegians and Swedes, Vandals and Frisians. These desolated

this country for 230 years, from the beginning of the reign of King Ethelwulf, until the time of the arrival of the Normans under the command of King William. France also, from its contiguity to England, was often invaded by these instruments of the divine vengeance, as it richly deserved. With these explanations I will now resume the course of my history.

[A.D. 837.] While Ethelwulf himself, in the first year of his reign, opposed the enemy just spoken of in one part of

It did not occur to Henry of Huntingdon that the practice he extols, of abandoning the duties of their station for the cloister, common among all ranks at this time, was at least one of the causes of that national enervation which laid the kingdom open to the successful irruptions of the Northmen.

2 Henry of Huntingdon, in common with most of the early annalists, overstates both the atrocities of the Northmen, as compared with other invaders, and the duration of their ravages. His account in this Preface of the progress of the Saxons in subduing and settling the country, would as fitly apply to that of the Danes and Norwegians. Long before the Norman conquest the first immigrants had settled down into peaceable and industrious habits; and though we must receive cum grano salis some recent attempts to place the civilization of the Northmen, in the ninth and tenth centuries, on a high footing, there is sufficient evidence that the unmitigated barbarism attributed to them by such writers as Huntingdon, must be a very exaggerated representation.