Part 1

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ESSAY ON THE LIFE AND INSTITUTIONS OF OFFA, KING OF MERCIA, A. D. 755-794.

by the

REV. HENRY MACKENZIE, M. A.

Of Pembroke College, Oxford; Master of Bancroft’s Hospital.

“Offa restauratus regali stirpe creatus Erigitur; spernit quæ degenerantia cernit-- Armis donatur: Cato, Mars, Paris, hic reputatur. Quo floret tuta duce Marcia lege statuta Ense superborum vires reprimens, dominatur. Hunc Rex Francorum Carolus timet et veneratur. Communi voto cum clero Marcia toto Offæ concedit sese, cui mitis obedit, Ergo coronatur: ex tunc Rex jure vocatur!”

_V. Matth. Westm., A. D. 779._

London: Hamilton, Adams, & Co., Paternoster Row; Smith, Elder, & Co., Cornhill; and H. Wix, New Bridge Street. 1840.

Printed by E. Couchman, 10, Throgmorton Street, London.

TO

JOSEPH BOSWORTH, D. D.

OF

TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE,

F. R. S., F. S. A.,

BRITISH CHAPLAIN AT ROTTERDAM,

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY OF LEYDEN,

MEMBER OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF THE NETHERLANDS,

&c. &c. &c.

IN TOKEN OF

RESPECT FOR HIS LABORIOUS ACQUIREMENTS,

(MORE ESPECIALLY WITH REFERENCE TO THE ANGLO-SAXON

LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE,)

ESTEEM FOR THE

CHRISTIAN SINGLE-MINDEDNESS OF HIS CHARACTER,

AND

AFFECTIONATE REGARD FOR HIMSELF,

THIS ESSAY

IS INSCRIBED.

ADVERTISEMENT.

The following Essay, hastily prepared, and--though some time has elapsed since its composition--now hastily corrected for the press, was successful during the year 1836 in gaining an honorary premium, established by WILLIAM TAYLOR COPELAND, Esq., M. P., during the year of his Mayoralty.

The writer regrets that pressing avocations prevent his devoting to his subject that application and research which alone could make his composition more worthy of the name of the amiable and highly esteemed founder of the Honorary Premium, or of the approbation of the public.

The writer desires further to express his obligations to George William Johnson, Esq., of Gray’s Inn, Barrister at Law, without whose kind assistance he would have been unable to consult several of the Historical works which have added materially to the information which he has collected upon this subject.

BANCROFT’S,

7th December, 1839.

AN ESSAY, &c.

“Nobilissimus juvenis; rex strenuissimus; vir religiosus.”

HOVEDEN.

The attention of the student is so universally directed in modern days to the attainment of Classic Literature, and to the knowledge of that period of History which has been stamped at once as the age of the purest taste and of the highest philosophy, that the youth of our country are too generally in entire ignorance of the early history of their own race; and with few, with very few, exceptions know no more than the names of those who in the “dark ages,” as they are erroneously termed, exercised an important influence over the well-being of England.

All error is prolific in its offspring--the stigma of darkness which has been passed upon the period that elapsed between the fourth and the tenth centuries has caused them if not actually to be shunned, at least to be lightly esteemed in the course of study; and the useful lessons to be acquired from the conduct of men in all but a state of nature, have been neglected for the sake of those to be deduced from society as it has conventionally existed in a highly civilized state. It is not here intended to be denied but that much may be learned by this method of procedure; yet is it unhesitatingly advanced as a necessary axiom in polity, that the state of nature should be _first_ regarded, and the different improvements upon, or at least alterations from, that state afterwards compared, for the purpose of introducing a still higher degree of amelioration. In no condition can the natural propensities of man be learned so readily as in a natural condition; and the more civilization has increased in any country, so much the more difficult will it be to lay down a Code of Laws which shall have the effect of correcting the natural evils and vicious propensities of the natives of the clime.

It might, perhaps, at first sight, appear that these remarks are not peculiarly applicable to the subject of the present Essay; but this is by no means the case. The object of History is to make the experience of past ages subservient to the use of the present; and the object of Education to enable the existing generation to take advantage of the experience so afforded. But if that portion of History most rich in traits of nature, most prolific in change, most useful in developing the workings of unsophisticated mind, be neglected, it were absurd to imagine that the present age could derive the benefit such period affords from other sources, which are undeniably less adequate to bestow it.

Circumscribed, however, as a brief composition of such a nature as the present must necessarily be, it is not perhaps advisable to enlarge upon a point of opinion that might admit of controversy. It may possibly be deemed sufficient to bear out, at least partially, the position laid down, to direct attention to the state of England at the period of its History preceding the accession of Offa to the crown of Mercia, and then trace briefly his mingled career of glory and of crime.

The question is not perhaps at the present day of easy solution, whether the Jutes[1] under Hengist and Horsa came to Britain by invitation from the natives, or whether their settlement in this country arose from accidental circumstances: considering the numerical insignificance of the expedition the latter is most probable. Certain, however, it is, that their establishment in Kent and the Isle of Wight led to subsequent descents upon the coast both by Saxons and Angles, the former of whom established themselves between A. D. 449 and 527 in the south and south east of the country; while the latter, between A. D. 547 and 586, became located in the northern and midland districts. It was about the last-named date that Mercia was formed into an independent state by Crida, comprising in its full extent what are now the counties of Chester, Derby, Nottingham, and Lincoln (North Mercians), Leicester (Middle Angles), Rutland, Northampton, Huntingdon, Beds, Hertford, Bucks, Oxon, Gloucester, Warwick, Worcester, Hereford, Salop, and Stafford (South Mercians). To these extensive domains,[2]--extensive, that is, compared with the other kingdoms of the Saxon Octarchy,[3]--Offa, the subject of the present Essay, succeeded in A. D. 755, upon the nomination of the last king, Ethelbald, who perished at Seggeswold in support of his throne against the powerful rebel Bernred.[4]

[Footnote 1: The Jutes, Angles, and Saxons were Germanic tribes. The first of these were from Jutland, or the Cimbric Chersonesus, in Denmark. The Angles were a tribe of the Saxon Confederacy occupying _Anglen_ in the south-east part of the Duchy of Sleswick in the south of Denmark.

The Saxons were at first only a simple state, though the name was afterwards applied to a confederacy of nations. Like all the Teutoni, or Germans, they were of oriental origin. They were as far westward as the Elbe in the days of Ptolemy (A. D. 90), and were, therefore, in all probability among the first Germanic tribes that visited Europe. Their situation between the Elbe and the Eyder, in the south of Denmark, seems to indicate that they moved among the foremost columns of the vast Teutonic emigration. When first settled on the Elbe they were an inconsiderable people, but in succeeding ages increased in power and renown. About A. D. 240, they united with the Francs (the Free people) to oppose the progress of the Romans towards the north. By this league and other means the Saxon influence was increased till they possessed the vast extent of country embraced by the Elbe, the Sala, and the Rhine, in addition to their ancient territory from the Elbe to the Eyder. After many of the Saxons had migrated to Britain, the parent stock on the Continent had the name of Old Saxons.--_Preface to Bosworth’s Anglo-Saxon Dictionary._]

[Footnote 2: “Dominabatur Rex Offa Magnus _in viginti tribus_ provinciis quas Angli Shiras appellant.” Norfolk and Suffolk, Essex and Middlesex are given in addition to the above by the anonymous biographer of Offa, whose sketch is appended to Watts’s edition of Matt. Paris. (Cambridge appears to be omitted.)

Asser, “de Ælfredi rebus gestis,” bears this testimony to Offa’s power, “Fuit in Mercia moderno tempore quidam strenuus atque universis circa se regibus et regionibus finitimis formidolosus rex, nomine Offa, qui vallum magnum inter Britaniam atque Merciam de mari usque ad mare facere imperavit.”--_Camden’s edition, p. 3._]

[Footnote 3: “This state of Britain has been denominated, with great impropriety, the Saxon _Heptarchy_. When all the kingdoms were settled they formed an _Octarchy_.”--_Hist. of the Anglo-Saxons, Turner, b. 2, ch. 4._

The eight kingdoms were the following, viz.:--

1. West Saxons, or Wessex. 2. South Saxons, or Sussex. 3. Kent. 4. East Saxons, or Essex. 5. East-Anglia. 6. Mercia. 7. Deira. And 8. Bernicia.]

[Footnote 4: It is not rendered clear from the confused statements of the early historians, whether the latter, who attempted to seize the crown, succeeded in holding it for any length of time; but it is certain, from the language of the venerable Bede (Eccl. Hist. l. 5. c. ult.) as well as from other authorities, that Offa had to contend for the diadem before he wore it, and not without effusion of blood possessed the regal dignity.

The author of the “Vita Offæ Secundi,” appended to Watts’s edition of Matthew Paris, states, that Tuinfredus and his wife (the parents of the subject of the Essay) were persecuted by Beormredus (Bernred), but that he despised their youthful offspring who is described as “usque ad annos adolescentiæ inutilis poplitibus contractis, et qui nec oculorum vel aurium plenè officio naturali fungeretur.” When, however, the designs of Bernred had so far succeeded as to induce Tuinfredus and his wife to take refuge in some distant place of security, a miraculous change took place in Pinefredus, their son, similar to that which had, in former ages, occurred to Offa the son of Warmund; and from a dull and feeble youth he suddenly sprang into full possession of all his faculties, and appeared a highly-gifted man. “Quid plura? de contracto, muto, et cæco, fit elegans corporis, eloquens sermone, acie perspicax oculorum.” From this change the enraptured Mercians looked upon him as some divine person sent to deliver them from the tyranny of Bernred, and called him no longer Pinefredus, but “a second Offa!” Of this anonymous historian, however, the authority is not perhaps of peculiar weight, neither is the miraculous change stated to have taken place in the youthful Pinefredus especially calculated to court our unhesitating reliance; and most of his readers will be inclined, with his editor, to quote from Horace, “Credat Judæus Apella, non ego!”

Some of the annalists of the events of that period are more brief in their accounts of Offa’s accession. Thus,

“Cumque prædictus rex _Ethelbaldus_ XL et uno annis regnasset, juxta prophetiam sancti patris _Guthlaci_, bello minus provide inito super _Seggeswold_, a _Bernredo_ tyranno extitit interemtus. _Bernredus_ vero tyrannus non diu tanta tyrannide gloriatus, eodem anno periit. _Æthelbaldusque_ rex apud _Ripadium_, id est, RIPEDUNE, tunc temporis celeberrimum monasterium tumulatus, regnum Merciorum nepoti patruelis sui, videlicet _Offæ_ filio _Dignferti_, filii _Ænulphi_, filii _Osmodi_, filii _Æoppæ_, filii _Wibbæ_ patris regis _Pendæ_, consentientibus totius Merciæ proceribus, reliquit.”--_Ingulphus 5._

Also,

“Anno 757. _Adebaldo_ rege Merciorum occiso apud SECANDUNE successit _Beornred_, quem _Offa_ eodem anno expulit, et regnum pro eo super Merciam XXXIX annis obtinuit.”--_Chronica de Mailros, 137._

Also,

“_Beornred_ in regnum Mercæ tanquam hæres legitimus dicto regi _Ethelbaldo_ successit, brevi tamen tempore illud regens. Nam _Offa_ infra suum primum annum eum aufugavit, qui 39 annis regnum Mercæ et populum postea gubernavit.”--_Bromton, 776._

Also,

“Anno 757. Ethelbald rex Merciorum _a suis tutoribus fraudulenter interfectus est_. Eodem vero anno _Merci_ bellum inter se civile inierunt. _Bearnred_ in fugam verso, _Offa_ rex victor extitit.”--_Simeon Dunelm: 757._

Also,

See Matthew Westminster, who states that Ethelbald perished in battle with Cuthred king of the West-Saxons, “in loco qui Sachêda dicitur,” to whom _Beorred_ succeeded.

He further states,

“Anno gratiæ DCCLVIII gens de regno Merciorum contra regem suum Beornredum insurgens pro eo quod populum non æquis legibus sed per tyrannidem gubernaret, convenerunt in unum omnes tam nobiles quam ignobiles et, Offa duce, adolescente strenuissimo, ipsum a regno expulerunt. Quo facto unanimi omnium consensu predictum Offam in regem tam Clerus quam populus coronarunt.”

Offa is made out to be the eighteenth in descent from _Woden_, who was the sixteenth from Noah!--_Matt. West., p. 274-5._

V. also Holinshed’s Hist., b. 6. ch. 1., A. D. 755.--Hoveden’s Annal. in Savile’s Collection, 409.--Hen. Huntingdon, ib. 342. Ingr. Sax. Chron., A. D. 755.]

No sooner had Offa been established, not less by the hearts of his subjects than by the acts of his power or the will of his predecessor, upon the throne of Mercia, than he applied himself to the duties of a barbaric sovereign, confirming his dominions and extending the limits of his territory. Brave and ambitious, endowed with personal vigour and mental abilities unequalled by any of his age and country, he gradually directed his powers against the neighbouring sovereigns. Circumstanced as the Saxon kingdoms in Britain were, nothing could be more easy than to find a pretext for offence; and whether we suppose, with the Monk of St. Alban’s, that Offa was instigated in his ambitious views by his wife Cynedritha, or believe that he simply acted on the defensive against the confederate monarchs of Deira, East-Anglia, Kent, Sussex, and Wessex, certain it is that his wars with these opponents terminated to his glory and their disgrace. At Feldhard in East-Anglia, the superiority of Offa’s forces was first made manifest. Within two years after this engagement he won the _spolia opima_ in the decisive conflict at Otteford, near Sevenoaks, with the troops of Kent. And not long subsequently, he routed the combined forces of his enemies under the command of Cynewulf--himself a celebrated warrior--at Bensington, or Benson, (about twelve miles on the London side of Oxford,) the Villa Regia of the West Saxons, and dismantled the fortifications which their monarch had in vain striven to preserve.

After such specimens of prowess on the part of the Mercian king, it is no marvel that the kings of Deira and of Sussex should seek a distant and friendly land as the scene of their operations against the successful Offa. They sought refuge and assistance at the court of Marmodius, king of Wales; and against the Britons accordingly Offa next directed his arms. Aided by their native fastnesses these new opponents afforded protracted resistance on the western boundary of his kingdom, and with them and their Saxon allies he had many and severe engagements. Owing to the craft of Marmodius he met with some reverses in his first campaign, and on one occasion narrowly escaped with his life. Eventually, however, his good genius prevailed. He annexed to Mercia the east of Wales as far as the Wye, planted the subject territory with Anglo-Saxons, and built the wall known by the name of Offa’s Dyke,[5] about one hundred miles in extent, from the æstuary of the Dee to the mouth of the first-mentioned river.

[Footnote 5: The following is the substance of Offa’s war with the Britons, as collected from Speed’s Chronicle. Their king at this period was Marmodius. The West-Saxons, in their struggles with Offa, had found in Marmodius an ally. On the discomfiture of Kenwolfe, (k. of W. S.) Offa marched to the borders of Wales. Previous letters and explanations had passed between the two monarchs, and the negociations were still, by the artifice of Marmodius, prolonged. “A stratagem (in the words of our authority) to protract time, and work upon advantage.” In this interim of compliments the Mercian king built a fortified dyke or ditch, commencing at Basingwark in Flintshire, and ending near Bristow at the fall of the Wye, and forming, in its utmost length, a barrier of about one hundred miles between the two kingdoms. “Marmodius, who openly bare saile to this wind, and seemed to winke at Offa’s intent, secretly called a council of state, wherein he declared how the act there in working would soon prove the bane of liberty unto their country, and the marke of dishonour to themselves and posterity for ever, therefore his advice was that by some stratagem it might be staid by time.” Accordingly, having secretly collected their allies the Saxons “both of the South, West, and North, upon St. Stephen’s day, at night, they suddenly brake down the banke of this fortification, filling up again great part of the ditch, and in the morning most furiously rushed into Offa his court, putting a great number to the sword who were more intent and regardful to the feast than to any defence from their cruel and merciless swords.” The effect of this successful stratagem was a short superiority on the side of the Britons. Offa’s army was routed, and himself in imminent danger. But his return was speedy, and his revenge decisive. He made their hostages his vassals and slaves, and entering Wales with a large army, conquered Marmodius, “and all his associates in the field.”

Mr. Hutton, who examined the remains of Offa’s dyke in 1803, says “the traveller would pass it unheeded if not pointed out. All that remains is a small hollow which runs along the cultivated fields, perhaps not eighteen inches deep in the centre, nor of more than twenty yards width.”--_Travels in Wales, 221._

For fuller particulars of Offa’s conquests, see also Matth. Westm. 275-9. Chron. Mailros, 138. Sax. Chron., 61. Bromton, 770. Hen. Huntingdon, 343. Flor. Wig., 778. Hoveden, 409. Sim. Dunelm: 107. 118. Watts’s ed. Matth. Paris, 975. Holinshed, b. 6. ch. 4.]

In policy as in arms Offa proved himself equally successful. When he had been about ten years on the throne he made an attempt to deprive Iambertus, or Lambert, Archbishop of Canterbury, of his province, and, “contrary to the customs of antiquity,” to erect Lichfield into an Archiepiscopate. Although the clergy and natives of Kent were naturally opposed to an innovation which so materially affected their ecclesiastical importance, the king of Mercia succeeded in obtaining from Pope Adrian the First permission to prosecute his design; and the bishops of Worcester, Leicester, Chester, and Hereford, and of the East-Angles Helmham with Norfolk, and Domuck, or Donwich, with Suffolk, were, some years later, subjected to the Bishop of Lichfield: London, however, Rochester, Winchester, and Sherbourn remained in the diminished province of Canterbury.[6]

[Footnote 6: V. Matth. West. A. D. 765. Tanner’s Notitia Monastica XVII. Staffordshire I.

Holinshed thus writes: “Eadulphus, bishop of Lichfield, was adorned with the pall and taken for archbishop, having all those bishops within the limits of king Offa his dominion suffragans unto him; namelie, Denebertus, bishop of Worcester, Werebertus, bishop of Chester, Eadulphus, bishop of Dorchester, Wilnardus, bishop of Hereford, Halard, bishop of Eltham and Cedferth, Tedfrid, bishop of Donwich.” “But (as saith another writer, Will. of Malmsbury,) this iniquity did not long deform canonical institutions.” Kenulph, second in succession from Offa, restored Athelard, or Ethelard, to the privileges of the See of Canterbury; and the same king in a letter to Leo, the then reigning Pope, professes his sense of the impropriety of Offa’s conduct, and his willingness to submit in ecclesiastical matters to the example of antiquity and of the Pope.]

A correspondence, still extant, which took place between Offa and the emperor[7] Charlemagne, serves to throw some light on the complexion of the times; and the fact of its existence may be deemed a valuable compliment to the talents, the power, and the reputation of the Anglo-Saxon. How their acquaintance commenced is uncertain: but the fact of Alcuin, an English clergyman, having been preceptor to the emperor is sufficient to account for his being favorably inclined to the nation that gave his tutor birth.[8]

[Footnote 7: The following is the greeting of Charlemagne to Offa: “Karolus gratiâ Dei rex Francorum et Longobardorum et Patricius Romanorum, viro venerando, et fratri karissimo Offæ regi Merciorum, salutem.” _Cont. Hist. of Bede (incerto auctore), b. 1. ch. 14._ See also Leland’s Collectanea, vol. 1.]

[Footnote 8: The anonymous biographer of Offa, who records his miraculous metamorphosis, states that the five kings to whom Offa soon became formidable after his elevation to the crown of Mercia, sought aid from Charles the Great of France (probably Carloman, the brother and predecessor of Charlemagne is meant), who promised to protect them, and wrote to Offa accordingly. The sovereign of Mercia, however, spurned his threats, and proceeded to effect his conquests. Carloman in the meanwhile dying, left his kingdom to Charlemagne, to whom the five kings repeated their supplications for aid, which was again promised, and Charlemagne wrote enjoining Offa to desist from attacking them. “Quid nobis rex transmarinus?” was the lofty remark of the Mercian king, and he proceeded undaunted in the prosecution of his designs. Some time subsequent to these events, Offa is stated (and in this Speeds’s Chronicle follows the Monk of St. Albans) to have written to Charlemagne with the design of procuring his friendship and alliance; and to this epistle he received a favourable reply, which led to a friendship and correspondence between the two potentates. Vide also Will. Malmesbury in Savile’s Collection, 32.]