XXVI. Of the death of the Kings Egfrid and Hiothere. [684-685 A.D.]
CHAP. XXVI.
Of the death of the Kings Egfrid and Hiothere. [684-685 A.D.]
IN the year of our Lord 684, Egfrid, king of the Northumbrians, sending his
general, Berct,with an army into Ireland, miserably laid waste that unoffending
nation, which had always been most friendly to the English; insomuch that the
invading force spared not even the churches or monasteries. But the islanders,
while to the utmost of their power they repelled force with force, implored the
assistance of the Divine mercy, and with constant imprecations invoked the
vengeance of Heaven; and though such as curse cannot inherit the kingdom of God,
yet it was believed, that those who were justly cursed on account of their
impiety, soon suffered the penalty of their guilt at the avenging hand of God.
For the very next year, when that same king had rashly led his army to ravage
the province of the Picts,greatly against the advice of his friends, and
particularly of Cuthbert,of blessed memory, who had been lately ordained bishop,
the enemy made a feigned retreat, and the king was drawn into a narrow pass
among remote mountains, and slain, with the greater part of the forces he had
led thither, on the 20th of May, in the fortieth year of his age, and the
fifteenth of his reign.His friends, as has been said, advised him not to engage
in this war; but since he had the year before refused to listen to the most
reverend father, Egbert, advising him not to attack the Scots, who were doing
him no harm, it was laid upon him as a punishment for his sin, that he should
now not listen to those who would have prevented his death.
From that time the hopes and strength of the Anglian kingdom began to ebb and
fall away for the Picts recovered their own lands, which had been held by the
English, and so did also the Scots that were in Britain; and some of the
Britonsregained their liberty, which they have now enjoyed for about forty-six
years. Among the many English that then either fell by the sword, or were made
slaves, or escaped by flight out of the country of the Picts, the most reverend
man of God, Trumwine, who had been made bishop over them, withdrew with his
people that were in the monastery of Aebbercurnig,in the country of the English,
but close by the arm of the sea which is the boundary between the lands of the
English and the Picts. Having commended his followers, wheresoever he could, to
his friends in the monasteries, he chose his own place of abode in the
monastery, which we have so often mentioned, of servants and handmaids of God,
at Streanaeshalch; and there for many years, with a few of his own brethren, he
led a life in all monastic austerity, not only to his own benefit, but to the
benefit of many others, and dying there, he was buried in the church of the
blessed Peter the Apostle, with the honour due to his life and rank. The royal
virgin, Elfled, with her mother, Eanfled, whom we have mentioned before, then
presided over that monastery; but when the bishop came thither, that devout
teacher found in him the greatest help in governing, and comfort in her private
life. Aldfrid succeeded Egfrid in the throne, being a man most learned in the
Scriptures, said to be brother to Egfrid, and son to King Oswy; he nobly
retrieved the ruined state of the kingdom, though within narrower bounds.
The same year, being the 685th from the Incarnation of our Lord, Hlothere,king
of Kent, died on the 6th of February, when he had reigned twelve years after his
brother Egbert,who had reigned nine years: he was wounded in battle with the
South Saxons, whom Edric, the son of Egbert, had raised against him, and died
whilst his wound was being dressed. After him, this same Edric reigned a year
and a half. On his death, kings of doubtful title, or of foreign origin, for
some time wasted the kingdom, till the lawful king, Wictred, the son of Egbert,
being settled in the throne, by his piety and zeal delivered his nation from
foreign invasion.
