Egfrith succeeded to his father Offa, but survived him only five months;[******] when he made way for Kenulph, a descendant of the royal family. This prince waged war against Kent, and taking Egbert, the king, prisoner, he cut off his hands, and put out his eyes; leaving Cuthred, his own brother, in possession of the crown of that kingdom. Kenulph was killed in an insurrection of the East Anglians, whose crown his predecessor, Offa, had usurped. He left his son Kenelm, a minor; who was murdered the same year by his sister Quendrade, who had entertained the ambitious views of assuming the government.[*******]
[* Ingulph. p. 5. W. Malms, lib. i. cap. 4.]
[** Lib. i. cap. 4.]
[*** Chron. Sax. p. 65.]
[**** Dupin, cent. viii. chap. 4].
Wales, drew a rampart or ditch of a hundred miles in length,
from Basinwerke in Flintshire to the south sea near Bristol.
See Speed’s Description of Wales.]
[****** Ingulph. p. 6]
[******* Ingulph, p. 7. Brompton, p. 776.]
But she was supplanted by her uncle Ceolulf; who, two years after, was dethroned by Beornulf The reign of this usurper, who was not of the royal family, was short and unfortunate; he was defeated by the West Saxons, and killed by his own subjects, the East Angles.[*] Ludican, his successor, underwent the same fate;[**] and Wiglaff, who mounted this unstable throne, and found everything in the utmost confusion, could not withstand the fortune of Egbert, who united all the Saxon kingdoms into one great monarchy.
[* Ingulph. p. 7.]
[** Alured. Beverl. p. 87.]
THE KINGDOM OF ESSEX.
This kingdom made no great figure in the Heptarchy; and the history of it is very imperfect. Sleda succeeded to his father, Erkinwin, the founder of the monarchy; and made way for his son Sebert, who, being nephew to Ethelbert, king of Kent, was persuaded by that prince to embrace the Christian faith.[***] His sons and conjunct successors, Sexted and Seward, relapsed into idolatry, and were soon after slain in a battle against the West Saxons. To show the rude manner of living in that age, Bede tells us,[****] that these two kings expressed great desire to eat the white bread, distributed by Mellitus, the bishop, at the communion.[*****] But on his refusing them, unless they would submit to be baptized, they expelled him their dominions. The names of the other princes, who reigned successively in Essex, are Sigebert the little, Sigebert the good, who restored Christianity, Swithelm, Sigheri, Offa. This last prince, having made a vow of chastity, notwithstanding his marriage with Keneswitha, a Mercian princess, daughter to Penda, went in pilgrimage to Rome, and shut himself up during the rest of his life in a cloister. Selred, his successor, reigned thirty-eight years; and was the last of the royal line; the failure of which threw the kingdom into great confusion, and reduced it to dependence under Mercia.[******] Switherd first acquired the crown, by the concession of the Mercian princes; and his death made way for Sigeric, who ended his life in a pilgrimage to Rome. His successor. Sigered, unable to defend his kingdom, submitted to the victorious arms of Egbert.
[*** Chron. Sax. p. 24].
[**** Lib. ii. cap. 5.]
743. Bede.]
[****** W Malms, lib. i. cap. 6.]