earldom of the Middle Angles; for his first signature as earl belongs to that year (Codex Dipl. iv. 99), and his appointment was doubtless connected with the marriage of his cousin. His earldom took in all the country between the Humber and the Nen, while south of Northamptonshire — which was attached to the earldom of Siward — he was also earl over Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Huntingdonshire. He may therefore be described as 'earl of the Middle Angles, of eastern or Danish Mercia' (Freeman, Norman Conquest, i. 656–60). On the banishment of Godwine's eldest son, Swegen, in 1046, his lordships were divided between his cousin Beorn and his brother Harold. In 1049 Swegen came back to England, left his ships, some seven or eight in number, in harbour at Bosham, went to the king, who was then at Sandwich with the fleet, and craved his pardon. Harold and Beorn withstood him, though he seems to have made a special appeal to his cousin; for they were not willing to restore him the lands which the king had given them, and Swegen went back to Bosham disappointed. It happened that a report was raised at Sandwich that the Danes were harrying the west coast. Earl Godwine accordingly set sail with the ships of the country people and with two of the king s ships, one of them being under the command of Harold, who, however, gave up the command to Beorn. This fleet was weather-bound at Pevensey; and while Godwine and Beorn were there Swegen came and prayed his cousin to go with him to the king and help him to make his peace. Beorn agreed, and, trusting to his kinship with Swegen, rode off with him, taking only three companions. So secure did he feel that heassented to his cousin's request that he would turn out their way and go with him to his ships; for Swegen declared that he feared that his crews would desert him unless they saw that he had gained his cousin over to his cause. When they came to Bosham, Swegen invited Beorn to go on board. He vehemently refused, but the sailors seized him, bound him, and rowed him to one of the ships. They then set sail for Dartmouth, and there slew him by Swegen's orders. He was buried in the church. When Harold and Beorn's friends and seamen, who were in London, heard of his murder, they went to Dartmouth, took up his body, carried it to Winchester, and buried it in the old minster by the side of King Cnut, his uncle.
[Anglo-Sax. Chron.; Freeman's Norman Conquest, ii. 10–104 passim.]
BEORNWULF, king of the Mercians (d. 826), deposed Ceolwulf and succeeded to his kingdom in 828. At the date of his accession the long quarrel between the see of Canterbury and the Mercian crown was still in progress. The immediate occasion of this quarrel was the seizure of the Kentish monasteries, South Minster and Reculver, by Coenwulf, though the true source of the disagreement is to be found in the jealousy of the Mercian king. Beornwulf had no desire to prolong the discord. In a synod and witenagemot held at Clevesho in 824 he vainly endeavoured to make some arrangement between the archbishop and the abbess Cwenthryth, daughter of Coenwulf, who had inherited the lands her father had seized from the archbishop. At the same meeting, as it seems, was decided a famous suit concerning the monastery at Westbury, the inheritance of Æthelric. In another council held by Beornwulf at Clevesho in the next year the archbishop and the abbess were reconciled, and their reconciliation put an end to the quarrel which, according to the record of the suit still preserved to us, had deprived the whole people of the Angles 'of primordial authority and the administration of holy baptism for the space of six years.' In this council also, as it seems, a suit was determined between the king and the Bishop of Selsey touching certain lands at Denton, in Sussex. The desire of Beornwulf to gain the support of the church may be connected with his jealousy of the rising power of Wessex. In 826 he marched against Ecgberht with a large army, and advanced as far
as Ellandune, which is generally supposed to have been in the neighbourhood of Salisbury, There he was met by the West-Saxon army, after heavy losses on both sides was defeated and fled. The terrible slaughter made at Ellandune is commemorated by Henry of Huntingdon in a scrap of an old ballad preserved in his chronicle. This battle caused the general break-up of the Mercian power. During the next year the king and people of East Anglia put themselves under the protection of Ecgberht, and sought his help against Mercia. Beornwulf, however, seems to have made light of the alliance between Wessex and East Anglia. He invaded East Anglia, and began to slay the chief men of the kingdom. Encouraged by the promise of help from Ecgberht, the East Anglians fought with Beornwulf. They defeated and slew him, together with a large part of his army.
[Anglo-Sax. Chron.; Florence of Worcester; Henry of Huntingdon; Haddan and Stubbs's Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents, iii. 656-604; Kemble's Codex Dipl. i. 276-85].
