ETHELBALD reigned five years. ETHELBERT reigned six years. ETHELRED, his brother, reigned five years. ALFRED the Learned reigned twenty-nine years. ATHELSTAN, his brother, reigned sixteen years. ETHELRED, his brother, reigned thirty-eight years. CANUTE, the Dane, reigned nineteen years. HAROLD, his son, reigned five years. HARDICANUTE reigned two years. EDWARD the Just reigned twenty-four years. HAROLD reigned nine months. WILLIAM the Bastard reigned twenty-one years. WILLIAM RUFUS reigned thirteen years. HENRY, the Lion of Justice, reigned thirty-five years and three months. In the year from the incarnation of our Lord 849, Alfred, king of the Anglo-Saxons, was born in the district called Berkshire; the following is the order of his genealogical line. King Alfred was the son of king Ethelwulph, who was the son of Egbert, who was the son of Ealmund, who was the son of Eafeo, who was the son of Eoppa, who was the son of Ingild. Ingild, and Ina, the famous king of the West Saxons, were two brothers; this Ina went to Rome, and there ending this life, entered a heavenly country, there to reign with Christ. They were the sons of Coenred, who was the son of Ceolwald, who was the son of Cutha, who was the son of Cuthwin, who was the son of Ceaulin, who was the son of Cynric, who was the son of Creda, who was the son of Cerdic, who was the son of Elesa, who was the son of Elta, who was the son of Gewis, from whom the Britons call all people of that nation by the name of Gewis ;54 he was the son of Wig, who was the 53 At Wantage. 54 He probably alludes to the West Saxons, or people of Wessex, who were called Gewissæ. son of Freawin, who was the son of Freoderegeat, who was the son of Brand, who was the son of Bealdeag, who was the son of Woden, who was the son of Friderwald, who was the son of Frealaf, who was the son of Friderwulph, who was the son of Fingoldulph, who was the son of Geta, (which Geta the pagans long worshipped as a god,) who was the son of Cetua, who was the son of Bean, who was the son of Sceldua, who was the son of Heremod, who was the son of Itermod, who was the son of Hathra, who was the son of Wala, who was the son of Beadwig, who was the son of Shem, who was the son of Noah, who was the son of Lamech, who was the son of Methusaleh, who was the son of Enoch, who was the son of Malaleel, who was the son of Canaan, who was the son of Enos, who was the son of Seth, who was the son of Adam. The mother of Alfred was named Osburg, an extremely pious woman, noble by nature, noble too by birth; she was the daughter of Oslac, the famous butler of king Ethelwulph; who was a Goth by nation, inasmuch as he was descended from the Goths and Jutes, of the seed of Stuf and Withgar, two brothers and earls; who, having received possession of the isle of Wight from their uncle, king Cerdic, and his son Cinric, their cousin, slew the few British inhabitants they could find in that island, at a place called Withgaraburgh;55 for the rest of the inhabitants of the island had been either slain or had escaped into exile. In In the year 851, Cheorl, earl of Devonshire, with the men of Devon, fought against the Danes and defeated them. the same year a great army of the pagans came with three hundred and fifty ships to the mouth of the river Thames, and sacked Dorobernia, that is, the city of Canterbury, and put to flight Bretwulph, king of the Mercians, who had come to oppose them. After this, the Danes growing more bold, all their army was collected in Surrey. On hearing this, Ethelwulph, the mighty warrior, with his son, Ethelbald, collected an army at the place which is called Akelea,56 and, engaging with the pagans, he defeated them with unheard-of slaughter. In the year 852, Berthwulph, king of the Mercians, departed this life, and was succeeded by Burrhed. In the same year, 55 It is supposed that this may have been Carisbrook, in the isle of Wight. 56 Ockley, in Surrey. king Ethelstan and earl Elchere, conquered a great army of the pagans at Sandwich, and after slaying nearly all of them, took nine of their ships. In the year 853, Burrhed, king of the Mercians, supported by the assistance of king Ethelwulph, attacked the Mid-Britons,57 and having conquered them, reduced them to subjection. In the same year, king Ethelwulph sent his son Alfred, who was then five years old, to Rome with a great escort of nobles; on which, Saint Leo, the pope, at the request of his father, ordained and anointed him for king, and, receiving him as his own adopted son, confirmed him, and sent him back with his blessing to his father. In the year 854, Wulfred, having received the pall, was confirmed in the see of York, Osbert being king of Northumbria; Eardulph also received the bishopric of Lindisfarne. At this period, earl Alchere with the men of Kent, and duke Wada, with the men of Surrey, fought a severe battle in the isle of Tened 58 against the pagans, and after routing them at the first onset, at length, after very many had fallen on either side, both the noblemen were slain. This year, Ethelwulph, king of the West Saxons, gave his daughter in marriage to Burrhed, king of the Mercians, at the royal town which is called Cyppanhame, with a great profusion of all kinds of riches. 59 In the year 855, a great army of the pagans passed the whole of the winter in the isle of Sceapeye,60 that is to say, "the island of sheep." In the same year, king Ethelwulph released the tenth part of the whole of his kingdom from all royal service and tribute, and with an everlasting pen at the cross of Christ, offered it up to the One and Triune God, for the redemption of his soul and those of his predecessors. He also proceeded with great pomp to Rome, and taking with him his son Alfred, whom he loved more than his other sons, and whom he had before sent to Rome, now for the second time, remained there a whole year, on the completion of which, he returned to his own country, bringing with him Juthina,62 the daughter of Charles, king of the Franks. After his return from Rome he lived two years. Among the other good works that he did, he ordered every 00 Sheppey. 58 Thanet. 61 Graphio. "Graphium," was properly the "stylus," or iron pen of the 62 Her name was really Judith. ancient Romans. T year to be taken to Rome three hundred mancuses of money; a hundred in honor of Saint Peter, for the purchase of oil, with which all the lamps of that church might be filled at the vigils of Easter, and likewise at cock-crow; a hundred also, in honor of Saint Paul, for the same purpose; and a hundred mancuses for the Catholic Pontiff, the successor of the Apostles. He being dead, and buried at Winchester, his son Ethelbald, during two years and a half after the reign of his father, governed the West Saxons, and with disgraceful wickedness took to wife, Judith, the daughter of king Charles, whom his father had married. At the same period, the most holy Edmund, who sprang from the race of the ancient Saxons, ascended the throne of East Anglia. 63 As In the year 860, king Ethelbald departed this life, and was buried at Sherburne, and his brother Ethelbert succeeding him, held Kent, Surrey, and Sussex as his kingdom; in his days a great army of the pagans came up from the sea, and having hostilely attacked the city of Winchester, destroyed it. they were returning towards the sea, laden with great booty, Osric, earl of Hampshire, with his men, and earl Ethelwulph, with the men of Berkshire, stoutly confronted them, and, an engagement taking place, the pagans fell on every side, the rest being dispersed in flight. Ethelbert, also, having governed his kingdom peacefully, and with the love of all, for five years, died amid the great regrets of his people, and was buried at Sherburne, near his brother, in the year 863. In this year also, Saint Swithin, bishop of Winchester, departed unto the Lord. In the year 864, the pagans wintered in the isle of Tened, and made a firm treaty with the men of Kent, who agreed to give them money for observing their compact. In the meantime, however, just like foxes, the pagans secretly sallied forth from their camp by night, and, breaking their covenant, in hopes of greater gain, ravaged all the eastern coast of Kent. In the year 866, Ethelred, brother of king Ethelbert, undertook the government of the kingdom of the West Saxons. In the same year, a great fleet of the pagans came from Danubia to Britain, and wintered in East Anglia, where that force in a great measure provided itself with horses. 63 The reading clearly ought to be “Suthrigiam,” but the text has it " supremam." In the year 867, the above-mentioned army of the pagans removed from East Anglia to the city of York, and laid waste the whole country as far as Tynemouth. At this period a sedition arising among the people of Northumbria, they expelled Osbert their lawful king from the kingdom, and raised a certain tyrant, Ella by name, who was not of royal birth, to the supreme power; but, on the approach of the pagans, this discord was for the common good in some measure allayed, on which Osbert and Ella united their forces, and having collected an army, marched to York. On their approach, the pagans at once took refuge in the city, and endeavoured to defend themselves within the walls. The Christians, perceiving their flight and dismay, began to pursue them even within the walls of the city, and to destroy the ramparts; but when the ramparts were now levelled, and many of the Christians had entered the city together with the pagans, the latter, urged by despair and necessity, making a fierce onset upon them, slaughtered and cut them down, and routed them both within and without the city; here the greater part of the Northumbrians fell, the two kings being among the slain; on which, the remainder who escaped made peace with the Danes. Over them the pagans appointed Egbert king, in subjection to themselves; and he reigned over the Northumbrians beyond the Tyne six years. This took place at York on the eleventh day before the calends of April, being the sixth day of the week, just before Palm Sunday. In the same year Elfistan, bishop of Sherburne departed this life, and was buried at that place. In the year 868, a comet was distinctly seen. Alfred, the venerated brother of king Ethelred, asked and obtained in marriage a noble Mercian lady, daughter of Ethelred, earl of the Gaini,64 who was surnamed "Mucil," which means "the great.' Her mother's name, who was of the royal family of Mercia, was Eadburga; she was a venerable woman, and for very many years after the death of her husband, lived a life of extreme chastity, as a widow, even to the day of her death. In the same year, the above-mentioned army of the pagans, leaving Northumbria, advanced to Nottingham, and wintered 64 This is "Gamorum," in the text, but it ought to be "Gainorum, of the Gaini ;" who were the inhabitants of Gainsborough, in Yorkshire. |