o subdued Britain, and who
enhanced their authority by claiming a pedigree from Woden, the
supreme divinity of their ancestors. But that prince, though invited
by this favourable circumstance to make attempts on the neighbouring
Saxons, gave them for some time no disturbance, and rather chose to
turn his arms against the Britons in Cornwall, whom he defeated in
several [i] battles. He was recalled from the conquest of that
country by an invasion made upon his dominions by Bernulf, King of
Mercia.
[FN [i] Chron. Sax. p. 69.]

The Mercians, before the accession of Egbert, had very nearly attained
the absolute sovereignty in the Heptarchy; they had reduced the East
Angles under subjection, and established tributary princes in the
kingdoms of Kent and Essex. Northumberland was involved in anarchy;
and no state of any consequence remained but that of Wessex, which,
much inferior in extent to Mercia, was supported solely by the great
qualities of its sovereign. Egbert led his army against the invaders,
and encountering them at Ellandun, in Wiltshire, obtained a complete
victory, and by the great slaughter which he made of them in their
flight, gave a mortal blow to the power of the Mercians. Whilst he
himself, in prosecution of his victory, entered their country on the
side of Oxfordshire, and threatened the heart of their dominions, he
sent an army into Kent, commanded by Ethelwolf, his eldest son [k],
and expelling Baldred, the tributary king, soon made himself master of
that country. The kingdom of Essex was conquered with equal facility,
and the East Angles, from their hatred to the Mercian government,
which had been established over them by treachery and violence, and
probably exercised with tyranny, immediately rose in arms, and craved
the protection of Egbert [l]. Bernulf, the Mercian king, who marched
against them, was defeated and slain; and two years after, Ludican,
his successor, met with the same fate. These insurrections and
calamities facilitated the enterprises of Egbert, who advanced into
the centre of the Mercian territories, and made easy conquests over a
dispirited and divided people. In order to engage them more easily to
submission, he allowed Wiglef, their countryman, to retain the title
of king, while he himself exercised the real powers of sovereignty
[m]. The anarchy which prevailed in Northumberland, tempted him to
carry still farther his victorious arms; and the inhabitants, unable
to re