to death Oswin, the son of Osric,
the last king of the race of Deiri. His son Egfrid succeeded him; who
perishing in battle against the Picts, without leaving any children,
because Adelthrid, his wife, refused to violate her vow of chastity,
Alfred, his natural brother, acquired possession of the kingdom, which
he governed for nineteen years; and he left it to Osred, his son, a boy
of eight years of age. This prince, after a reign of eleven years, was
murdered by Kenred, his kinsman, who, after enjoying the crown only a
year, perished by a like fate. Osric, and after him Celwulph, the son
of Kenred, next mounted the throne, which the latter relinquished in
the year 738, in favor of Eadbert, his cousin-german, who, imitating
his predecessor, abdicated the crown, and retired into a monastery.
Oswolf, son of Eadbert, was slain in a sedition, a year after his
accession to the crown; and Mollo, who was not of the royal family,
seized the crown. He perished by the treachery of Ailred, a prince of
the blood; and Ailred, having succeeded in his design upon the throne,
was soon after expelled by his subjects. Ethelred, his successor, the
son of Mollo, underwent a like fate. Celwold, the next king, the brother
of Ailred, was deposed and slain by the people; and his place was filled
by Osred, his nephew, who, after a short reign of a year, made way for
Ethelbert, another son of Mollo whose death was equally tragical
with that of almost all his predecessors. After Ethelbert's death, a
universal anarchy prevailed in Northumberland; and the people having, by
so many fatal revolutions, lost all attachment to their government and
princes, were well prepared for subjection to a foreign yoke; which
Egbert, king of Wessex, finally imposed upon them.

THE KINGDOM OF EAST ANGLIA

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 Chris