the men of that country, and carefully educated, in his riper age he reigned in a town which was called Slaswic, but at present Haitheby; which country, called old Anglia, whence the Angles came into Britain, is situated between the Saxons and the Gioths. Sceaf was the son of Heremod, Heremod of Itermon, Itermon of Hathra, Hathra of Guala, Guala of Bedwig, Bedwig of Streaf, and he, as they say, was the son of Noah, born in the Ark.[1]
CHAPTER III.
Of Ethelbald, Ethelbert, and Ethelred, sons of Ethelwulf. [a.d. 858—872.]
In the year of our Lord 857,[2] the two sons of Ethelwulf divided their paternal kingdom; Ethelbald reigned in West Saxony, and Ethelbert in Kent. Ethelbald, base and perfidious, defiled the bed of his father by marrying, after his decease, Judith his step-mother. Dying, however, at the end of five years, and being interred at Sherborne, the whole government devolved upon his brother. In his time a band of pirates landing at Southampton, proceeded to plunder the populous city of Winchester, but soon after being spiritedly repulsed by the king's generals, and suffering considerable loss, they put to sea, and coasting round, chose the Isle of Thanet, in Kent, for their winter quarters. The people of Kent, giving hostages, and promising a sum of money, would have remained quiet, had not these pirates, breaking the treaty, laid waste the whole district by nightly predatory excursions, but roused by this conduct they mustered a force and drove out the truce-breakers. Moreover Ethelbert, having ruled the kingdom with vigour and with mildness,
- ↑ A similar list of the genealogy of the West Saxon kings, will be found in the Saxon Chronicle, a.d. 855.
- ↑ Malmesbury's Chronology to the accession of Edward the Elder, is a year later than the Saxon Chronicle, Asser, and Florence of Worcester. His computation rests on fixing the death of Ethelwulf in 857, who went to Rome in 855, stayed there a year, and died in the second year after his return. Allowing ten years for Ethelbald and Ethelbert, it brings the accession of Ethelred to 867, and five years added to this give 872 for Alfred's accession. After the death of Ethelbald Judith returned to France. She left no children; but marrying afterwards Baldwin, count of Flanders, she bore him Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror.
