abled him
to make such a shining figure on the throne; and familiarizing himself
to the manners of the French, who, as Malmesbury observes [f], were
eminent both for valour and civility above all the western nations, he
learned to polish the rudeness and barbarity of the Saxon character:
his early misfortunes thus proved of singular advantage to him.
[FN [d] Chron. Sax. p. 16. [e] H. Hunting. lib. 4. [f] Lib. 2 cap.
11.]

It was not long ere Egbert had opportunities of displaying his natural
and acquired talents. Brithric, King of Wessex, had married Eadburga,
natural daughter of Offa, King of Mercia, a profligate woman, equally
infamous for cruelty and for incontinence. Having great influence
over her husband, she often instigated him to destroy such of the
nobility as were obnoxious to her; and where this expedient failed,
she scrupled not being herself active in traitorous attempts against
them. She had mixed a cup of poison for a young nobleman who had
acquired her husband's friendship, and had on that account become the
object of her jealousy; but, unfortunately, the king drank of the
fatal cup along with his favourite, and soon after expired [g]. This
tragical incident, joined to her other crimes, rendered Eadburga so
odious, that she was obliged to fly into France, whence Egbert was at
the same time recalled by the nobility, in order to ascent the throne
of his ancestors [h]. He attained that dignity in the last year of
the eighth century.
[FN [g] Higden, lib. 5. M. West. p. 152. Asser. in vita Alfredi, p.
3. ex edit. Camdeni. [h] Chron. Sax. A. D. 800. Brompton, p. 801.]

In the kingdoms of the Heptarchy, an exact rule of succession was
either unknown or not strictly observed, and thence the reigning
prince was continually agitated with jealousy against all the princes
of the blood, whom he still considered as rivals, and whose death
alone could give him entire security in his possession of the throne.
From this fatal cause, together with the admiration of the monastic
life, and the opinion of merit attending the preservation of chastity
even in a married state, the royal families had been entirely
extinguished in all the kingdoms except that of Wessex, and the
emulations, suspicions, and conspiracies, which had formerly been
confined to the princes of the blood alone, were now diffused among
all the nobility in the several Saxon states. Egbert was the sole
descendant of those first conquerors wh