Period of Danish invasion. 790-1013.
Already, however, a new enemy, before which the rising kingdom was finally to succumb, had made its appearance; a year before his death, Ecgberht was called upon to defend his country from the Danes. This people, issuing from the Scandinavian kingdoms in the North of Europe, had begun to land in England, to harry the country, and to carry off their spoil. At first as robbers, then as settlers, and finally as conquerors, for two centuries they occupy English history. Their first appearance in this reign was at Charmouth in Dorsetshire. Subsequently, in junction with the British, they advanced westward from Cornwall. This led to the great battle of Hengestesdun, or Hengston, where the invaders were defeated (835). It seems not unnatural to trace the appearance of the Northern rovers in England to the state of the Continent. Driven from their own country by want of room, obliged to seek new settlements, they found themselves checked by the organized power of Charlemagne’s empire. They were thus compelled to find their new home in countries they had not yet visited. The reign closed with the capture of Chester, the capital of Gwynedd, the British kingdom of North Wales.
Æthelwulf. 836-857.
The reign of Æthelwulf, the successor of Ecgberht, was chiefly occupied in constant war with the Danes. Various success attended his efforts. The great battle at Ockley (851), where they were heavily defeated, for a time kept them in check; but, on the whole, the invaders constantly gained ground, and at last, in 855, for the first time so far changed their predatory habits as to winter in the Isle of Thanet. Another characteristic of Æthelwulf’s reign is the connection with Rome which he established. When his youngest son Alfred was still a child, he sent him to Rome, where the young prince was anointed; and two years afterwards he himself took the same journey, was received on the road by Charles the Bald, King of France, and spent a whole year in Italy. He there re-established the Saxon College, and by his engagement to supply funds for its support seems to have originated the well-known Peter’s Pence. His connection with Charles the Bald was further cemented by his marriage with Judith, daughter of that king. After Æthelwulf’s death she married her stepson Æthelbald, was divorced by him, returned to France, married Baldwin of Flanders, and was the ancestress of Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror. These connections show the rising importance of England, and the entrance of the country into the general politics of Europe. Something in Æthelwulf’s government, perhaps his lengthened absence abroad, or the step he had taken in getting Alfred anointed, excited discontent. His eldest surviving son, Æthelbald, conspired with other nobles to exclude him from the country, and he was forced to consent to a compromise, accepting as his own kingdom, Kent and the Eastern dependencies of Wessex, while his son ruled over the rest of the kingdom.
Æthelbald. 858-860.
Æthelberht. 860-866.
On his death he bequeathed his own dominions to Æthelberht, his second son, while Wessex was, upon the death of Æthelbald, to pass in succession to his two sons, Æthelred and Alfred. In spite of this will, on the death of Æthelbald five years later, Æthelberht of Kent succeeded in making good his claims to Wessex also, and upon Æthelberht’s death, after a reign of five years, marked only by renewed attacks of the Danes, both kingdoms passed without question to Æthelred.
Æthelred. 866-871.
Danish conquest of East Anglia. 870.