VI. Gregory had chosen the men best adapted to accom- СНАР. plish his purpose, it is probable that those he selected were advanced in life.19 19 Gregory appears from his works and extensive correspondence, to have been a man of no common energies acting in the sincerest spirit of Christianity. He, like Alfred the Great, is an instance of how much an active minded man may do amid great bodily infirmities. For this indefatigable Pope was seldom in comfortable health. In one letter from Rome he writes-"I am so oppressed with gout that life is a heavy punishment. I faint daily through pain, and breathe after death as my remedy. Among the clergy and people of the city scarce a freeman or slave are exempt from fevers."-L. 7. Ep. 127. To Eulogius of Alexandria, he mentioned in the following year -"I have been near two years confined to my bed in constant pain; often have I been forced to return to my bed when I had scarcely left it. Thus I am dying daily, and yet I am alive." In another letter he speaks of a distressing headache, and in another of a grievous burning heat which spread over all his body, and deprived him of his spirits and comfort. In his preface to Job and elsewhere, he mentions other illnesses as severely and almost continually afflicting him. 604. BOOK III. CHAP. VII. Expedition of the EAST ANGLIANS to the RHINE. EDWIN'S THE kingdom of East Anglia becomes remarkable by an incident which Procopius has preserved, and which Expedition occurred in the sixth century. It exhibits the adAnglians to venturing spirit of our early Saxon princes. of the East the conti nent. Between the Rhine and the Northern Ocean, the 534-547. Varni had settled. Their king solicited a princess of East Anglia for his son, and the hand of the lady was promised. On his death-bed it occurred to him, that an alliance with the Francs, his neighbours, would be more profitable to his people than the friendship of the Angles, who were separated from the Varni by the sea. In obedience to the political expediency, Radiger, the prince, married his father's widow, his step-mother, because she was sister of Theodebert the Franc. The rejected East Anglian would not brook the indignity; she demanded revenge for the slight, because in the estimation of her countrymen the purity of female chastity was sullied if the maiden once wooed was not wedded. Her brother and the East Anglian warriors thought her quarrel just; a large fleet sailed from England under her auspices, and landed on the Rhine. A part of the army encamped round her; the rest, with one of 1 The editor of the great collection des Historiens des Gaules, Paris, 1741, remarks (referring to Valesius), that Procopius erred when he placed the Varni on the right bank of the Rhine, and that he is more credible when he places them nearer the Danes, vol. ii. p. 42. her brothers, defeated the Varni, and penetrated the country. Radiger fled. The Angles returned to the lady, glorying in their victory. She received them with disdain. They had done nothing, as they had not brought Radiger to her feet. Again her selected champions sallied forth, and Radiger at last was taken in a wood. The captive entered her tent, to receive his doom. But the heart of the East Anglian was still his own. He pleaded his father's commands, and the solicitations of his chiefs. The conquering beauty smiled forgiveness. To accept her hand, and to dismiss her rival, was the only punishment she awarded. Joyfully the prince obeyed, and the sister of Theodebert was repudiated.2 CHAP. VII. 547. 617. seizes This event is the only one in the history of East Anglia which can interest our notice until the reign of Redwald. Before this prince it had arrogated no dominating precedence in England. The intemperate ambition of Ethelfrith propelled it into consequence. This king of the Northumbrian Angles, dissatisfied Ethelfrith with his inherited Bernicia, and his trophies in Scot- Deira. land and Wales, invaded Deira, to which Edwin the son of Ella, at the age of three years, had succeeded; and by expelling the little infant, converted the Saxon states in England into an hexarchy. Edwin was carried into North Wales, and was generously educated by Cadvan.3 As Edwin grew up, he was compelled to leave Wales; and for many years wandered about in secret, through various provinces, to escape the unceasing pursuit of Ethelfrith. Reaching East Anglia, Edwin in he went to the court of Redwald, and, avowing him- East Anself, besought his hospitable protection. Redwald 2 Procopius, Goth. Hist. lib. iv. p. 468–471. Gibbon places this incident between 534 and 547, which were the extreme terms of the reign of Theodebert, vol. iii. c. 38. p. 627. 3 Alured Beverl. lib. vi. p. 90. Redwald was son of Titel, and grandson of Uffa, Fl. Wig. 233. glia. BOOK III. 617. Redwald protects him, and defeats Ethelfrith. received him kindly, and promised what he asked. Impatient that Edwin should be alive, Ethelfrith sent repeated messengers, with presents to the East Anglian sovereign, requiring him to surrender the youth, and adding menaces if he refused. Redwald remembered the unvarying successes of Ethelfrith, and fearful of encountering his hostility, promised either the death or the surrender of Edwin. A friend to the young exile discovered his intentions, and counselled him to fly. But Edwin, weary of living like a fugitive, replied, "I cannot do this. I have made a compact with Redwald, and I will not be the first to break it, while he has done me no evil, nor has yet discovered any enmity. If I am to perish, he that betrays or destroys me will be disgraced, not myself. And whither should I fly, who have been wandering already so long, through so many provinces of Britain, without a shelter? How can I escape elsewhere the toils of my persecutor?" His friend left him. Edwin remained sitting before the palace, reflecting on his misfortunes and darkening projects. In this anxious state night approached, and he believed he saw an unknown person advance to him, who promised him present deliverance and great future prosperity, if he should listen to what would be afterwards taught him. The vision laid his hand on his head, and, adjuring him to remember this interview, disappeared; or else Edwin waked. But he had a more substantial friend than the apparition of a dream. The queen of Redwald secretly pleaded for the youthful exile, and with noble sentiments: "A king should not sell a distressed friend, nor violate his faith for gold; no ornament is so ennobling as good faith." Interested by her intercession, and inspired Bede, lib. ii. c. 12. VII. with her fortitude, Redwald resolved to keep sacred CHAP. the duties of hospitality; and Edwin was informed by his watchful, though unknown, friend of the generous determination. 617. The preparations of Ethelfrith, disappointed of his prey, compelled him to arm; Redwald acted with judicious vigour; and he attacked Ethelfrith, before he had collected all his troops, on the east bank of the Idel in Nottinghamshire. The Northumbrian king, by his experienced valour and veteran soldiers, supplied the disparity of his troops, and balanced the contest. The East Anglians advanced in three divisions; one of these, Rainer, the son of Redwald, led. The ancient fortune of Ethelfrith befriended him; he attacked this wing, and the prince and his warriors were destroyed. This disaster only stimulated Redwald to more determined exertions; he still outnumbered his opponent, and his other divisions were firm. Ethelfrith, unused to such resistance, and impatient for the event, rushed on the East Anglians with a dangerous impetuosity. His friends Ethelfrith did not follow his injudicious courage; he was separated from them, and perished among the swords of the surrounding East Anglians. Edwin also signalised himself. Redwald not only re-instated him in Edwin Deira, but enabled him to subject Bernicia to his power. Thus the hexarchy continued. The sons of the slain usurper fled into Scotland, where they imbibed Christianity." Redwald ascended to the national pre-eminence which Ella, Cealwin, and Ethelbert had possessed under the title of the Bretwalda; and, on his death, it was assumed by Edwin. The three brothers who governed Essex perished in a conflict with the West Saxons.9 Redwald was 5 Bede, lib. ii. c. 12. 6 Hunting. lib. ii. p. 316. Sax. Chron. 27. 7 Sax. Chron. 27. Bede, lib. iii. c. 1. Polychron. Gale, iii. 229. s Bede, lib. ii. c. 5. Ibid. Flor. Wig. 231. falls. restored. 623. |