The Life and Times of Alfred the Great (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAP. III. REIGN OP EGBERT, KINO) OF WESSEX, FROM A.D. 802 TO 839.?EIGHTH BRETWALDA, OB LORD PARAMOUNT OF ENGLAND, AFTER A.D. 823. HIS EXILE IN FRANCE, AND RETURN TO ENGLAND?HIS CORONATION ?THE SKIRMISH AT KEMPSFORD?HIS INVASION OF CORNWALL REVOLUTIONS IN MERCIA?TREATY BETWEEN WESSEX AND EAST ANGLIA?BATTLE AT ELLANDUNE?KINGDOMS OF KENT, ESSEX, AND SUSSEX, SUBMIT TO EGBERT?BERNWOLF AND LUDECAN, KINGS OF MERCIA, DEFEATED AND SLAIN BY THE EAST ANGLIANS?WIGLAF, KING OF MERCIA, TRIBUTARY TO EGBERT?NORTHUMBERLAND SUBMITS EGBERT INVADES WALES?FIBST INVASIONS OF THE DANES?ORIGIN OF THE DANES, SAXONS, AND NORMANS?EGBERT'S DEATH. The talents of Egbert, and?what is of still more importance to success?the necessity of strenuously exerting them, were roused to vigour by the adversity which attended his early life. As son of Almund, who at this time reigned in Kent," Egbert might appear more properly to be connected with Kent than Wessex, but as descended from Inigils, brother of Ina, Egbert could not forget that he might some day or other possess the sovereignty of the West, which was far more extensive and powerful than the narrow territory which his father ruled, possibly as a mere tributary to the king of Wessex. During the whole of Bertric's reign, Egbert was an object of well-grounded suspicion to the reigning prince, and was driven, by the persecution of his rival, to take refuge in France at the court of the emperor Charlemagne. This circum- Sax. Ch. 784. V. D. 800.] EGBEKT IN KIUNCJi. 19 stance, however, was of inestimable advantage to the jxile. The court and camp of a monarch, who had, by his own ability and exertions, restored the majesty of the Western Empire to something like its ancient elevation, were an admirable school to one, who had...