This year Alfred the son of Athulf died six nights before the feast of All Saints: He was King over all England, excepting that part of it which was under the dominion of the Danes.—He reigned 28 years and a half, and his son Edward succeeded to the kingdom. Then Edward’s uncle’s son Prince Æthelwald rode to the towns of Winborn and Tweonea (Christ Church) without leave of the King and his Witan, upon which the King went forth with his troops and encamped at Badbury, near Winborn, and Æthelwald with his party was within the town. He had blocked up the gates on the inside, and said that there he would live or die, but yet he stole away by night, and hastened towards the army in Northumberland; the King ordered his troops to pursue him, but they could not outride him, and the others received him as their king, and submitted to him: his wife was seized; he had married her without the King’s leave, and against the Bishop’s command, for she had been professed a nun. Æthered Alderman of Devonshire died the same year, four weeks before King Alfred.
902.
In this year the battle of Holme (near Pevensey) was fought between the men of Kent and the Danes.
903.
This year died the Alderman Athulf the brother of Ealhswitha the mother of King Edward. Virgilius Abbot of the Scots died also; and on the 8th of the ides of July the Priest Grimbald. The same year the new monastery of Winchester was consecrated on the Advent of St. Judoc.
904.
This year Æthelwald came hither from beyond the sea with all the ships he could muster, and the East Saxons submitted to him. This year the moon was eclipsed.
905.
This year Æthelwald induced the army in East Anglia to break the peace, and they ravaged Mercia as far as Crecca-gelade (Cricklade), and they crossed the Thames there, and took all they could meet with in Brædune (Breden forest, Wiltshire), and in the neighbourhood, and then they returned homeward. Then King Edward pursued after them as soon as he could assemble his army, and he laid waste their land between the Dyke (the Devil’s Ditch) and the Ouse, as far northward as the fens. And when he was about to depart thence, he caused it to be proclaimed throughout his army, that all the troops should keep together, but the Kentish men remained behind against his command, though he had sent them seven messages. Then the Danes surrounded them, and they fought, and the Aldermen Siwulf and Sigelm, and the King’s Thane Eadwold, and the Abbot Cenwulf, and Sigebryht the son of Siwulf, and Eadwald the son of Acca, were slain there, and many others; though I have named the most noted. And there fell on the side of the Danes, their King Eohric, and Prince Æthelwald who had persuaded them to the war, and Byrhtsige the son of Prince Beornoth, and the Holds[AG] Ysopa and Oscytel, and a great many others whom we cannot now name. There was much slaughter on either side, but most on that of the Danes, though they kept possession of the field of battle. Ealhswyth died the same year, and a comet appeared.
907.