litical supremacy between bria, Mer cia, and Wessex. Eadwine the first brian bretwalda. The strug- over all the rest as to bring the whole English nation under the sway of its own royal house. The history of this struggle for supremacy occupies a period of more than two hunNorthum- dred years. dred years. The first effort in the struggle was made by Northumbria, a realm which arose at the end of the sixth century out of the union of Bernicia and Deira.1 Upon the fall of Æthelfrith at the battle of the Idle in 617, the Bernician house of Ida gave way for a time to the Deiran house of Ælla, whose representative, Eadwine, at that time ascended the Northumbrian throne.2 In the nine years which followed his accession, Eadwine, the first Northumbrian bretNorthum Walda, extended his supremacy over all the English kingdoms except Kent, to whose royal house he became allied in 625 by a marriage with the Christian princess Ethelburh.3 During the overlordship of Eadwine the power of Northumbria reached its height; and through the efforts of Paulinus and Æthelburh, Deira became Christian. But the fabric which Eadwine had built up broke down in 633 at the battle of Hatfield, where Eadwine was defeated and slain by Penda, the heathen king of the Mercians.5 Upon Eadwine's fall Northumbria was broken up, and so remained until Oswald, the second son of Æthelfrith, returned from Hii to reëstablish the kingdom under the line of Ida. During the short Oswald re- reign of Oswald the Northumbian supremacy was reëstabNorthum lished, and the whole realm became permanently Christian brian su- under the teaching of missionaries from the Celtic church. The power of the Christian Oswald went down at the Maserfeld in 642 before the heathen Penda, as the power of Eadwine had gone down at Hatfield nine years before.7 After this overthrow Northumbria was again broken up, and for a time Penda's power in Britain was supreme. Upon the fall of Oswald his brother Oswiu succeeded him as king of the Bernicians, over whom he ruled for the first nine years of his reign. But in due time, by an alliance between Over thrown at Hatfield in 633. establishes premacy. 8 finally Bernicia Oswiu and the daughter of Eadwine, Deira and Bernicia were Oswiu joined in a union never henceforth to be dissolved.1 At the unites head of the united people of Northumbria, Oswiu at last grew and Deira. strong enough to break the power of Penda, who was defeated and slain at the battle of the Winwæd in 655.2 With the fall of Penda, English heathenism came to an end, and Oswiu became one of the greatest of the bretwaldas. Under Oswiu and his son Ecgfrith, Northumbria continued to be a great state, but its claim to predominance really ends in 659 Northum with the revival of the Mercian power under the leadership bria gives place to of Wulfhere. After that event Northumbria abandoned the Mercia. struggle for supremacy to Mercia and Wessex.8 6. Just a century after the beginning of the overlordship Supremacy of Northumbria, the Christian Mercians appear as a great of Mercia. power in Mid-Britain under the leadership of their aggressive king Æthelbald, who ascended the Mercian throne in Ethelbald. 718.4 As long as the victorious Ine remained king of the West Saxons, his realm remained free from Mercian aggression; but, in the confusion which followed Ine's voluntary abandonment of the crown, Æthelbald overran the whole of Wessex during a war which seems to have terminated in 733.5 For twenty years after that event, the overlordship of Mercia was recognized by all the English south of the Humber. But the Mercian supremacy was broken at last by Mercian the West Saxons in 754,6 upon the field of Burford, where Supremacy Æthelbald and his subject hosts were put to flight. In 758 Wessex in Æthelbald was succeeded by his great kinsman Offa, who entered with zeal upon the task of rebuilding the Mercian Offa repower. He more than once invaded Wessex; and Kent, Mercian East Anglia, Essex, and Sussex were brought more or less power, under his sway. Although the power of Offa, as king of 6 E. Chron., a. 752. From 752 to 849 (from the death of Bæda to the reign of Ethelwulf), the entries of the English Chronicle are wrong by two years. See Stubbs, Roger of Hoveden, preface to vol. i. p. lxxxix.; Freeman, Norm. Cong., vol. i. p. 76, note 3; Green, Making of England, p. 384, note 4; Huntington, Hist. Angl. (Arnold), p. 121. 26. 7 Freeman, Norm. Conq., vol. i p. broken by 754. builds the Cenwulf. Final of Wessex. Cerdic and Cynric first the Mercians, rose high enough to tempt him to aspire to a correspondence upon equal terms with Charles the Great, he was never able to establish an overlordship over either of the rival kingdoms of Northumbria and Wessex. Upon Offa's death in 796,1 he was succeeded by Cenwulf, who during a reign of twenty-five years managed to hold the Mercian realm together, without being able to extend its supremacy.2 7. The kingdom of the Gewissas, who became more widely supremacy known as the West Saxons, grew by degrees out of a small settlement established on the coast of Hampshire by an invading host led by the ealdormen, Cerdic and Cynric. We learn from the Chronicle, which records every step in the conquest of Wessex, that the first attack upon the coast was made in 495, and that this was followed by what seem to have been mere plundering raids in 501 and 508. Not until 514 was a landing made for the purpose of permanent conquest.3 After five years of successful warfare, political organization took place, whereupon the ealdormen, Cerdic and Cynric, were advanced to the dignity of kings of the West Saxons. A long pause then followed in the advance of the invaders; for thirty years (520-552) they remained within the limits of Hampshire. At the end of that period the work of invasion was vigorously renewed, and within the next twenty years the Gewissas overran an area which roughly corresponds with that now embraced within the shires of Wilts, Berks, Surrey, Oxford, Bedford, and Bucks.5 Wheeling then to the west, the invaders advanced from the Wiltshire Downs to the conquest of the lower Severn valley, which was won by the battle of Deorham in 577.6 The conquerors, who then settled down on either side of the Severn in what is now Gloucestershire and Worcestershire, took to themselves the local name of Hwiccas. But the West Saxon advance soon received a terrible check kings of the West Saxons. Battle of Deorham (577) secures the Severn valley. 1 E. Chron., a 794 (6). 2 Green, Making of Eng., pp. 413 418. 3 E. Chron., a. 495, a. 501, a. 508, a. 514; Green, Making of Eng., p. 84; Guest, E. E. Settlements in Britain (Salisbury volume of Archæological Institute). 4 E. Chron., a. 519. 5 Freeman, Norm. Conq., vol. i. p. 17; Green, Making of Eng., p. 120. 6 E. Chron., a. 577; Guest, "Conquest of Severn Valley," Archæological Journal, xix. 194; Green, Making of Eng., p. 124. by the dissensions for two their rear upon the upper Severn at a spot called Faddiley, where Defeated Ceawlin must have suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Welsh in the Welsh. This defeat, which was most disastrous to the 584. power of Wessex, was followed in a few years by a still greater misfortune in the form of a violent dissension in the royal house. Not long after the defeat at Faddiley the Hwiccas rose in revolt and took as their king Ceol or Ceolric, the son of Ceawlin's dead brother Cutha. The struggle Internal for the throne which now arose between these rival lines weaken continued to divide and weaken the power of Wessex for Wessex more than two hundred years. And during this whole period centuries. of internal dissension, the advance of Wessex to a position of supremacy was further embarrassed by a constant dread of attack in the rear from the Welsh, who still remained uncon- Welsh in quered in the southwestern peninsula. Not until early in remain unthe ninth century did the last of the Britons in Cornwall conquered until 815. bend to the West Saxon supremacy. During this long interval of internal distraction, and war against the Welsh, the real power of Wessex only asserted itself at intervals, when some great king like Ine arose strong enough to gather for a time all the Gewissas under his sway. Near the close of the eighth century Ecgberht, a descendant of Ceawlin, Ecgberht, the eighth made an unsuccessful attempt to wrest the West Saxon and last crown from the rival branch of the house of Cerdic, and, bretwalda; when driven into exile, found shelter for a time at Offa's court.5 Expelled at last through West Saxon intrigue from the Mercian realm, Ecgberht sought a refuge (787) at the court of Charles the Great, where he witnessed the momen- visits the tous events which transpired during the thirteen years that court of preceded the elevation of the mighty Frank to the throne of Great; the Cæsars. Two years after Charles had been crowned Emperor of the Romans, Ecgberht returned to Wessex (802) ascends the to mount the throne made vacant by the death of his rival, throne of Beorhtric. The first serious enterprise to which Ecgberht 802. 1 E. Chron., a. 584; Guest, "Conquest of Severn Valley," pp. 196-199; Green, Making of Eng., p. 200. 2 Making of Eng., p. 201. 8 "Wessex was still engaged in its long struggle with the Welsh, and was in no position to aspire to the dominion of Britain.”. Freeman, Norm. Cong., 4 Ibid., vol. i. p. 28. 5 E. Chron., à. 784 (6), a. 787 (9); Green, Making of Eng., p. 409. 6 Freeman, Norm. Cong., vol. i. pp. 26, 27; Green, Making of Eng., p. 415. E. Chron., 800 (802). Charles the Wessex in of Mercia umbria. devoted himself after his accession was the final subjugation Final con- of the West Welsh. In 815 he marched into the heart of quest of Cornwall, Cornwall, and after a struggle of eight years the power of the 815. Cornish Britons was finally broken and the supremacy of Wessex extended to the Land's End.1 With all internal dissensions crushed beneath the power of Ecgberht, and with all fear of attack from the Welsh finally dispelled, the West Saxons, whose unity as a people had never been broken, were now ready to assume the leadership of the English nation. The first great conflict naturally arose with Mercia, whose Overthrow king, Beornwulf, invaded Wessex in 825. After the battle at and North- Ellandun, in which Beornwulf was overthrown, the Mercian realm was deprived of all external dominion, and all of the English south of the Thames submitted to Ecgberht.2 Four years later (829) Mercia herself was forced to yield to the victor of Ellandun, and in the same year the once great kingdom of Northumbria, now weakened by civil divisions, voluntarily accepted the West Saxon supremacy. Thus, after two centuries of struggle, in which the greatest kings of Northumbria and Mercia had failed, Ecgberht, the eighth doms under and last in the list of bretwaldas, brought about a forced union. the sway of the house of all the English kingdoms under the sway of the house. of Cerdic. In the hour of victory the king of the West Saxons ventured, for once at least, to style himself king of the English.* Ecgberht unites all the king of Cerdic. From 8. Through the conquests of Ecgberht all the Teutonic to Eadgar states in Britain became mere dependencies of Wessex, as (829-958). under-kingdoms, ruled either by their own royal lines or by some prince of the house of Cerdic. Each conquered state as it was annexed entered into dependent relations with Wessex, without a sacrifice of its autonomy. But a century and a half had yet to pass by before these loosely united states became incorporated as integral parts of one consolidated king 1 E. Chron., a. 813 (815), 823 (825); 4 "Ecgberhtus gratiâ Dei Rex Anglo- 5 "In his reign of thirty-six years (802-837) he reduced all the English |