[Footnote 2: “Dominabatur Rex Offa Magnus _in viginti tribus_ provinciis quas Angli Shiras appellant.” Norfolk and Suffolk, Essex and Middlesex are given in addition to the above by the anonymous biographer of Offa, whose sketch is appended to Watts’s edition of Matt. Paris. (Cambridge appears to be omitted.) Asser, “de Ælfredi rebus gestis,” bears this testimony to Offa’s power, “Fuit in Mercia moderno tempore quidam strenuus atque universis circa se regibus et regionibus finitimis formidolosus rex, nomine Offa, qui vallum magnum inter Britaniam atque Merciam de mari usque ad mare facere imperavit.”--_Camden’s edition, p. 3._] [Footnote 3: “This state of Britain has been denominated, with great impropriety, the Saxon _Heptarchy_. When all the kingdoms were settled they formed an _Octarchy_.”--_Hist. of the Anglo-Saxons, Turner, b. 2, ch. 4._ The eight kingdoms were the following, viz.:-- 1. West Saxons, or Wessex. 2. South Saxons, or Sussex. 3. Kent. 4. East Saxons, or Essex. 5. East-Anglia. 6. Mercia. 7. Deira. And 8. Bernicia.] [Footnote 4: It is not rendered clear from the confused statements of the early historians, whether the latter, who attempted to seize the crown, succeeded in holding it for any length of time; but it is certain, from the language of the venerable Bede (Eccl. Hist. l. 5. c. ult.) as well as from other authorities, that Offa had to contend for the diadem before he wore it, and not without effusion of blood possessed the regal dignity. The author of the “Vita Offæ Secundi,” appended to Watts’s edition of Matthew Paris, states, that Tuinfredus and his wife (the parents of the subject of the Essay) were persecuted by Beormredus (Bernred), but that he despised their youthful offspring who is described as “usque ad annos adolescentiæ inutilis poplitibus contractis, et qui nec oculorum vel aurium plenè officio naturali fungeretur.” When, however, the designs of Bernred had so far succeeded as to induce Tuinfredus and his wife to take refuge in some distant place of security, a miraculous change took place in Pinefredus, their son, similar to that which had, in former ages, occurred to Offa the son of Warmund; and from a dull and feeble youth he suddenly sprang into full possession of all his faculties, and appeared a highly-gifted man. “Quid plura? de contracto, muto, et cæco, fit elegans corporis, eloquens sermone, acie perspicax oculorum.” From this change the enraptured Mercians looked upon him as some divine person sent to deliver them from the tyranny of Bernred, and called him no longer Pinefredus, but “a second Offa!” Of this anonymous historian, however, the authority is not perhaps of peculiar weight, neither is the miraculous change stated to have taken place in the youthful Pinefredus especially calculated to court our unhesitating reliance; and most of his readers will be inclined, with his editor, to quote from Horace, “Credat Judæus Apella, non ego!”