The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol. I., Part A.: From the Britons of Early Times to King John — David Hume — John Shaqi
The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol. I., Part A.: From the Britons of Early Times to King John
David Hume · en
The history of this kingdom contains nothing memorable except the
conversion of Earpwold, the fourth king, and great-grandson of Una, the
founder of the monarchy. The authority of Edwin, king of Northumberland,
on whom that prince entirety depended, engaged him to take this step;
but soon after, his wife, who was an idolatress, brought him back to her
religion; and he was found unable to resist those allurements which have
seduced the wisest of mankind. After his death, which was violent,
like that of most of the Saxon princes that did not early retire into
monasteries, Sigebert, his successor and half-brother, who had been
educated in France, restored Christianity, and introduced learning
among the East Angles. Some pretend that he founded the university
of Cambridge, or rather some schools in that place. It is almost
impossible, and quite needless, to be more particular in relating the
transactions of the East Angles. What instruction or entertainment can
it give the reader, to hear a long bead-roll of barbarous names,
Egric, Annas, Ethelbert, Ethelwald, Aldulf, Elfwald, Beorne, Ethelred,
Ethelbert, who successively murdered, expelled, or inherited from each
other, and obscurely filled the throne of that kingdom? Ethelbert,
the last of these princes, was treacherously murdered by Offa, king of
Mercia, in the year 792, and his state was thenceforth [*mited] with
that of Offa, as we shall relate presently.
THE KINGDOM OF MERCIA
Mercia, the largest, if not the most powerful, kingdom of the Heptarchy,
comprehended all the middle counties of England; and as its frontiers
extended to those of all the other kingdoms, as well as to Wales,
it received its name from that circumstance. Wibba, the son of Crida,
founder of the monarchy, being placed on the throne by Ethelbert, king
of Kent, governed his paternal dominions by a precarious authority;
and after his death, Ceorl, his kinsman, was, by the influence of the
Kentish monarch, preferred to his son Penda, whose turbulent character
appeared dangerous to that prince. Penda was thus fifty years of age
before he mounted the throne; and his temerity and restless disposition
were found nowise abated by time, experience, or reflection. He engaged
in continual hostilities against all the neighboring states; and, by
his injustice and violence, rendered himself equally odious to his own
subjects and to strangers. Sigebert, Egric, and Annas, three kings of
East Anglia, perished successively in battle against him; as did
also Edwin and Oswald, the two greatest princes that had reigned over
Northumberland. At last Oswy, brother to Oswald, having defeated and
slain him in a decisive battle, freed the world from this sanguinary
tyrant. Peada, his son, mounted the throne of Mercia in 655, and lived
under the protection of Oswy, whose daughter he had espoused. This
princess was educated in the Christian faith, and she employed her
influence, with success, in converting her husband and his subjects to