BOOK 755. Offa made king. 731. The revolutions of Northum bria. 737. 755. headed the rebellion, attempted to invest himself with the robes of royalty; but the nomination of Ethelbald was supported by the nobles of Mercia, and the young prince, Offa, who has acquired such celebrity, and who was descended from Eoppa, the brother of Penda, was placed upon the throne.1 Bernred did not survive the year." We may pause a moment to cast a rapid glance on Northumbria. Ceolwulf, the friend of Bede, had acceded to the united kingdoms; but so perilous was the regal dignity in this perturbed kingdom, that he voluntarily abandoned the disquieting crown, and sought the tranquillity of the cloister.18 Eadbert succeeded. His kingdom, left unprotected by his march against the Picts, suffered from an invasion of the Mercian Ethelbald; but he afterwards enlarged his dominions 19, and had the ability to maintain himself in his crown for twenty-one years; but religious impressions then came upon him, and he assumed the religious life.20 He was the eighth Anglo-Saxon king who had exchanged the crown for 16 Ingulf, p. 5. Mailros, 137. Matt. West. p. 274. apparently misconceiving a passage of Huntingdon, p. 341., erroneously makes Ethelbald to have fallen against Cuthred, whom he represents to have survived him. The monk of Croyland enables us to rectify the mistake, and is supported by Malmsb. 28. and by the Sax. Chron. p. 56. and Flor. Wig. p. 273., who place the decease of Cuthred a year before Ethelbald's. Bede implies, that Ethelbald perished by assassination, lib. v. c. ult. 17 That Bernred died this year has been disputed. Malmsb. p. 28.; Alur. Beverl. 87.; Ingulf, 5. The biographer of Offa, p. 11.; Flor. Wig. 274.; Ethelward, 839., affirm or imply it. On the other hand, Matt. West. p. 274.; Sax. Chron. 59.; Bromton, 776.; and some others, state Bernred's expulsion only; and Matt. West. 277. makes him to perish by fire in the year 769, after having burnt the town of Catterick. But the Chronicle of Mailros, which, p. 137., mentions the attempt on the Mercian crown, by Beornred, calls the person, who caused and perished in the fire of Catterick, Earnredus, p. 138. Hence it is not certain that they were the same persons, and if not, the aufugavit of the one side is not sufficiently explicit to disprove the death stated on the other. 18 Huntingdon, p. 340., paints strongly the apprehensions of Ceolwulf: "Ipse horribilibus curis necis, et proditionis, et multimoda calamitatis, intus cruciebatur, et animo et corpore decoquebatur." Bede remarks that an excessive drought destroyed the fertility of this year, lib. v. c. ult. 19 Hunt. p. 340. Sax. Chron. p. 54. Bede, lib. v. c. ult. Sim. Dun. 11. 20 Hunt. 342. Sax. Chron. 59. Chron. Petrib. 8. Huntingdon ascribes Eadbert's retreat to the impression made upon his mind by the violent deaths of Ethelbald and Sigebert, contrasted with the peaceful exit of Ceolwulf. the cowl. But on his abdication all the fruits of the wise example and useful reign of Alfred seemed to vanish in the turbulent activity of the excited mind of the country taking now a mischievous direction: the turbulence of civil murder again broke loose. His son Osulf, in the first year of his accession, perished from domestic treachery, and Moll Edelwold ventured to accept the crown.21 In his third year his life and honours were fiercely assaulted by one of his leaders, Oswin, whom he slew at Edwinescliffe. At no long interval afterwards the tomb received him, and Alred, of the race of Ida 22, was elevated to the crown. After a few years he was driven out, and Ethelred, the son of Moll, was chosen in his stead.23 In his third year, this king fraudulently procured the death of two of his generals by the instrumentality of two others. In the very next year, these men rebelled against himself, destroyed in two successive attacks others of his commanders, and expelled him from his kingdom.24 Alfwold ob tained it; but such was the spirit of the country, that in the following year two chieftains raised an army, seized the king's earldorman, Beorn, and his justiciary, and burnt them to ashes, because, in the estimation of the rebels, their administration of justice had been too severe.25 Alfwold, to whom a chronicle applies the epithet, "King of the innocent," was treacherously killed by his patrician, Sigan; and Osred, his kinsman, son of Alred, acceded. In the 21 Bede says he was a sua plebe electus; and adds, that in his second year a great mortality took place, and lasted for two years. The dysentery was the principal malady, lib. v. c. ult. 22 By his son Edric, Sim. Dun. 11. Two letters of Alred to Lullus, a French bishop, are extant, Mag. Bibl. Pat. 16. 88. and apud Du Chesne, Hist. Franc. vol. ii. p. 854. In the one he desires the bishop's assistance in establishing an amity with Charlemagne; the other is a letter of civility from Alred and his queen Osegeotha, to Lullus, congratulating him on his arrival from a long journey. 23 Chr. Mailros, 137, 138. Hunt. 342. Sax. Chron. 60, 61. Matt. West, 276. 278. 24 Mailros, 138. 25 Mailros, 139. Hunt. 343. Sax. Chron. 62. CHAP. X. 757. 765. 774. 779. 788. BOOK 788. 792. next year he was betrayed and driven out, and Ethelred, the son of Moll, was recalled.26 But as adversity, though it corrects many dispositions into virtue, yet sometimes only exasperates the stubborn, so it appears to have rather increased than diminished the obduracy of Ethelred. In the year of his restoration, he left Eardulf weltering in his blood at the gate of a monastery; and in the following year he dragged Elf and Elwin, the children of Alfwold, from York, and slew them. Osred, who had been deposed, attempted to recover the crown; his army deserted him, he fell into the hands of Ethelred, and perished. This prince now endeavoured, by a marriage with the daughter of Offa, to secure his authority, and for this purpose he repudiated his previous wife. But his policy and his murders were equally vain. Whoever, by an example of cruelty, lessens the public horror at deeds of blood, diminishes his own safety, and gives popularity to his own assassination. In the fourth year of Ethelred's restoration, his subjects, whom he had assisted to brutalise, destroyed him, and set up Osbald. After a reign of twenty-seven days, they deposed Osbald, and he obtained security in the cloister.27 Eardulf, who had been recovered from his assassination by the charity of the monks, who found him apparently lifeless near their cloister, had fled to Charlemagne, and visited Rome. The emperor of the West, in conjunction with the papal legate, assisted him in his efforts to regain his kingdom: and he was crowned in 794. Before four years elapsed, they who had 26 Mailros, 139, Hunt. 343. Chron. Pet. 10. Rich. Hag. 298. Saxon Chron. 64. Osred took refuge in the Isle of Man, Sim. Dun. 12. Alcuin addressed to Ethelred, or, as he spells the name, Edelred, a letter of strong moral exhortation, which is still in existence. He reminds him how many of his predecessors had perished, propter injustitias et rapinas et immunditias vitæ. He entreats his people to be at peace between themselves, and to be faithful to their lord, that, by their concord, the kingdom might be extended, quod sæpe per discordiam minuj solebat. Alcuini opera, p. 1537. ed. Paris, 1617. 27 Mailros, 139. X. 792. murdered Ethelred, revolted from Eardulf; and, СНАР. under their leader, Wada, endeavoured to destroy him. The sword of the king prevailed, and the rebels fled.28 Here for a while we will quit this region of civil discord. Happy is the country in which the regal office is not elective, nor the right of succession permitted to be questionable! An hereditary monarchy, though, like all human institutions, it has its inconveniences, has not been the contrivance of childish thinkers or half-taught politicians; it was the benevolent invention of human wisdom, profiting from the most disastrous experience. No contests have been more baneful to human life and happiness, than those which have sprung from the uncertain right of accession, and from the practicability of attaining power by violence. It was a noble effort of advancing civilisation, which strove to annihilate the evil, by accustoming mankind to revere as sacred the laws of hereditary succession. concerning Offa, who had obtained with violence the throne Traditions of Mercia 29, displayed talents, and enjoyed talents, and enjoyed a pros- offa and perity, which have made his name illustrious. His his queen. youth has been fabulously represented as distinguished by a wonderful transformation from a miserable child, afflicted with imperfections in his speech and the most important senses of the intellect, the sight and hearing, into an elegant frame, adorned with every human accomplishment.30 His monastic pane 28 Ann. Franc. ap. Du Chesne, vol. ii. p. 45. Mailros, 140. Huntingdon might well say, "Gens Anglorum naturaliter dura est et superba, et ideo bellis intestinis incessanter attrita." Alcuin displays the angry feelings of Charlemagne at this repetition of ferocity at Northumbria; he styled them a nation perfidam et perversam, pejorem paganis. Malmsb. 26. 29 Bede's expression, concerning the accession of Offa, is, that having driven out Bernred, he sought the kingdom with a blood-stained sword, lib. v. c. ult. An epithet so marking, as sanguinolento, from a contemporary, implies that Offa's reign commenced with human slaughter. 30 Vita Offæ secundi, added to Watts's edition of Matthew Paris, p. 10. The author of it was some monk of St. Alban's; he makes Offa's real name Pineredus. The name Offa was derived from a king whom he calls Offa primus, the son of Warmund, who had similar defects, and a cure as miraculous. His editor believes A A VOL. I. BOOK III. 792. gyrist has also bequeathed to his queen, Drida, or Cynedrida, a series of adventures scarcely probable, and which have the aspect of having been invented, in order to impute to her, more plausibly, the crime which has stained the memory of Offa for ever.3 When he had enjoyed his throne many years, he Offa's wars. began to covet an augmentation of dominion. Some 774. 31 of his attacks were against the Northumbrians32, and the Hestingi.33 He invaded Kent, and a great slaughter ensued at Otford, in which Offa triumphed, and Kent submitted to the power of Mercia.34 Afterwards he measured his strength with the king of Wessex, at Bensington, and established his great power by defeating Cynewulf, and subjecting part of his dominions.35 The conquests of Offa have not been transmitted to us in accurate detail; but the celebrity which he attained, and the blood which his contemporary, Alcuin, attests him to have shed, imply many warlike and not rightful exertions.36 The prerogatives that this Offa primus never existed but in his page. I have however discovered him in Saxo-Grammaticus. Saxo says, Warmund, the 17th king of Denmark, had in his age a son named Uffo, who excelled his coevals in his person, but who was thought weak in mind, and never spoke till the king of Saxony endangered his father, &c. 59-65. 31 The account is, that the lady was allied to the French king, but for some crime was adjudged to die. Respect for majesty saved her from the ordeals of iron and fire. She was committed to the chances of the sea in an open boat, with little food; the stormy ocean threw her on the coast of Wales, and she was conducted to Offa. A plaintive story interested his compassion, and he recommended her to the protection of his mother. Her charms or her wiles animated his pity into love, and she became his wife. Vita Offæ, p. 12. 32 Bromton, x Script. p. 776., puts the Northumbri first; but Huntingdon, 343., places this after his other conquests. So Matt. West. 275., and Hoveden, 409. 33 Mailros, p. 138. Hoveden, 403. Sim. Dun. 107.. The situation of these people is contested. Mr. Watts thinks them of Hastings, one of the Cinque Ports. Langhorn, p. 29., believes the word to have meant east men, and to have alluded to the east part of Northumbria. - Alford, in his annals, settles the question. A charter in Dublet fixes them in Sussex. Offa by this confirms a grant of land, in the neighbourhood of Hastings, to the abbey of St. Denis; and styles Bertwald the proprietor of Hastings and Pevensey, his fidelis. 34 Mailros, 138. Sax. Chron. 61. Vit. Offæ, p. 15. 35 Sax. Chron. 61. Matt. West. 279. 36 Alcuin, the preceptor of Charlemagne, speaking of the immature fate of Offa's son, mentions, that pater suus pro confirmatione regni ejus multum sanguinem effudit. Ap. Malmsb. de Gest. p. 33. |