nd lance, mounted a war-horse, rode at a
furious gallop in sight of all the people to the temple, and flung his
lance against it as an insult. From that time, the Christian religion
spread itself among the Saxons, and became their faith.
The next very famous prince was EGBERT. He lived about a hundred and
fifty years afterwards, and claimed to have a better right to the throne
of Wessex than BEORTRIC, another Saxon prince who was at the head of that
kingdom, and who married EDBURGA, the daughter of OFFA, king of another
of the seven kingdoms. This QUEEN EDBURGA was a handsome murderess, who
poisoned people when they offended her. One day, she mixed a cup of
poison for a certain noble belonging to the court; but her husband drank
of it too, by mistake, and died. Upon this, the people revolted, in
great crowds; and running to the palace, and thundering at the gates,
cried, 'Down with the wicked queen, who poisons men!' They drove her out
of the country, and abolished the title she had disgraced. When years
had passed away, some travellers came home from Italy, and said that in
the town of Pavia they had seen a ragged beggar-woman, who had once been
handsome, but was then shrivelled, bent, and yellow, wandering about the
streets, crying for bread; and that this beggar-woman was the poisoning
English queen. It was, indeed, EDBURGA; and so she died, without a
shelter for her wretched head.
EGBERT, not considering himself safe in England, in consequence of his
having claimed the crown of Wessex (for he thought his rival might take
him prisoner and put him to death), sought refuge at the court of
CHARLEMAGNE, King of France. On the death of BEORTRIC, so unhappily
poisoned by mistake, EGBERT came back to Britain; succeeded to the throne
of Wessex; conquered some of the other monarchs of the seven kingdoms;
added their territories to his own; and, for the first time, called the
country over which he ruled, ENGLAND.
And now, new enemies arose, who, for a long time, troubled England
sorely. These were the Northmen, the people of Denmark and Norway, whom
the English called the Danes. They were a warlike people, quite at home
upon the sea; not Christians; very daring and cruel. They came over in
ships, and plundered and burned wheresoever they landed. Once, they beat
EGBERT in battle. Once, EGBERT beat them. But, they cared no more for
being beaten than the English themselves. In the four following short
reigns,
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