Part 2

The friendship of monarchs, however, from its intimate connexion with political expediency, is necessarily unstable: nor was that of Offa and Charlemagne without interruption. The Frank desired the hand of a daughter of Offa for his natural son Charles; but this the Mercian sovereign refused unless Bertha, the daughter of the emperor of the west, were bestowed upon Egfrid his own son and heir. The demand excited the anger of Charlemagne; and, in consequence, disregarding the wise remonstrances of his council, he closed the ports of Gaul against the merchants of Anglo-Saxon Britain.[9] In consequence of this hasty and decisive step, Offa was apprehensive of invasion from his indignant foe, and this anticipation of evil was increased, by the knowledge that he afforded his powerful protection to some Anglo-Saxon malcontents. Lambert, the Saxon Primate, was suspected of being privy to the emperor’s designs, and this afforded a pretext (if indeed it were not really the reason) for removing the Archiepiscopate from Canterbury to Lichfield. After some lapse of time, however, concord was restored between the regal friends, through the mediation of Alcuin and the abbot Gervald[10]. The former of these (one of the most interesting and learned characters of that age) had not escaped the imputation of treasonable designs--an imputation which he repels with great simplicity and apparent honesty in the words addressed to a friend, “Vere Offæ regi nec genti Anglorum _unquam infidelis fui_!” His embassy from the court of his adopted to that of his natural sovereign was accompanied by gifts which were thus symbolically interpreted;

“A Carlo dona data sunt Offæ, _mucro_, _zona_; Cingat ut imbelles clemens, feriatque rebelles. _Pallia_ donantur velut his secreta tegantur. Tiro mucrone sed et utens munere zonæ, Indomitos punit, pronos sibi nectit et unit, Palliat arcana,--ne signent pallia vana.”

[Footnote 9: Woollen gowns were at this time the chief articles of exportation from Britain. Four centuries earlier than the date under review a Gyneceum, or manufactory, existed at Winchester. V. _Gibbon, ch. 17._

V. Mabillon’s Acta S. Ben. pars 1. p. 169, quoting the Chron. Fontanellensis, c. 15.]

[Footnote 10: “Aliquid enim dissentionis diabolico fomento inflammante nuper inter Carolum regem et regem Offam exortum est: ita ut utrinque navigatio interdicta negotiantibus cesset.” Leland’s Collectanea, v. 1. p. 401. V. Opera Alcuini, 1. 6. Mabillon’s Annal: L. xxv. n. 76; L. xxvi. n. 10. V. also Matth. West. 278.]

A brief review of the Anglo-Saxon system of government may, perhaps, be here not inapplicably inserted, in order to convey some definite idea of Offa’s position as the sovereign of Mercia, and enable the reader to trace more satisfactorily the improvements which he was the means of introducing into Britain.

The prescriptive constitution of the Anglo-Saxons was decidedly of a liberal form, and to it may be traced the majority of our own liberal institutions; but one most important difference exists between the ancient and modern constitution of Britain, in the fact of the sovereignty of the Saxon kingdoms not being positively hereditary. “A son who inherited his father’s virtues and talents,” observes the author of a popular History of Modern Europe, “was sure to succeed his sway; but if he happened to be weak or profligate, or was a minor, the next in blood, or the person of the greatest eminence in the state, generally procured an elevation to the throne.”[11]

[Footnote 11: This practice, indeed, recognized in the laws of Offa alluded to in a subsequent portion of the Essay, continued so late as the Norman king, John, and the unsettled state of the doctrine of succession has been urged in extenuation of his usurpation.]

The Anglo-Saxon annals afford an excellent commentary upon this system of a partially elective monarchy. Scenes of strife and bloodshed, family dissensions, party feuds, assassination, and even fratricide were not unfrequent occurrences amid this optional “setting up and pulling down of kings;” and the liberality and seeming justice of the system, that appear so seductive on a first view of the THEORY, fade before the exercise of tyranny, the right of might, and the injustice of usurpation, that evidence themselves as its prolific offspring when reduced to _practice_.

To aid the king and sanction measures of public administration, as well as give consent to the enactment of laws, there existed among the Saxons an Assembly or Parliament, termed a Wittena-Gemot, consisting of the nobles or thanes, the dignified clergy, and freemen possessing a given portion of land.[12] There was also a county court, termed Shire-Gemot, where all the freeholders assembled twice in each year to receive appeals from the inferior courts (probably the petty courts held by each landholder for conducting the affairs of his own estate); and over this assembly the eaorlderman (earl) and the bishop presided, although they do not appear to have had farther authority allotted to them than was sufficient to keep order among the freeholders, and to offer their advice in causes of difficulty.

[Footnote 12: Five hides were at first deemed a sufficient qualification, but the required amount rose gradually to forty.]

To obtain nobility among the Saxons required one of three qualifications, birth, valour, or wisdom. The parents who had distinguished themselves by either of the latter means transmitted their honors to their children. They who were born of obscure or moderate parentage (provided they were free) had, however, the path of distinction open to them to pursue at will. They who gained their nobility by valour were termed _adelingi_; they who gained it by wisdom in peace (because generally the fruit of experience) were termed _aldermanni_ (senators or elder men); and they who gained it by a mixed valour and wisdom in war, being illustrious for success rather than simple courage, were termed _heretochii_.

Beneath the nobles there were two distinct classes, each capable of a subdivision; viz., the freemen, and the slaves or villains. The freeborn (_frilingi_) were either _custodes pagani_, country gentlemen, or simply _pagani_, ceorles or yeomen; while the villains were distinguished as _lazzi_, bondmen, or _free lazzi_, freedmen or manumitted slaves.

Of these all except the two last had a share in the representation of their respective states, and free access to, if not the right of voting at, the Micklemote or Wittena-Gemot when assembled.

Whether the priests formed originally a part of the Witan is difficult to determine, but unquestionably they did so after Christianity was received among the Saxons; for within six years after Augustin’s arrival (A. D. 597) Ethelbert, king of Kent, having summoned a council “tam _Cleri_, quam Populi,” distinguished himself as the promulgator of the earliest written laws of the Anglo-Saxons which are now extant. Of the lawgivers next following him, Hlothære and Eadric, as well as Whitræd, little beyond their names is known; but about a century after Ethelbert’s time, Ina promulgated a fresh and more extensive Code of Laws, “suasu et instituto _Episcoporum_, omnium Senatorum et natu majorum sapientium populi; in magnâ servorum Dei frequentiâ.” After him Offa promulgated laws throughout his dominions, but these are not now separately extant: and about a century later Alfred the Great, “consultu sapientium,” retained and confirmed all the righteous laws of Ethelbert, Ina, and Offa, while he reformed or rescinded those enactments which circumstances had rendered less efficient or less advisable to be retained.

“The laws of Offa,” remarks Sir Francis Palgrave,[13] “have not been retained in their original form, and we cannot distinguish them in the capitulary of the king of Wessex. But the laws of Ina are annexed to the statute of Alfred, and perhaps we only possess them in his edition. There was no incorporate union of the Saxon kingdoms, and it is, therefore, probable that there were two promulgations of Alfred’s laws, one statute for the West-Saxons, and to which the laws of Ina were appended, and another for Mercia, since lost, to which the laws of Offa were, in like manner, annexed.”

[Footnote 13: Rise and progress of the English constitution.--_Chap. 2._]

It is of course with diffidence that any opinion is set forth which seems to run counter to so eminent an authority as Palgrave; but there does appear a plausible reason (if not a sufficient one) for the laws of Offa not being found under a separate title; viz., that the laws termed those of Alfred, independent of Ina and Ethelbert, _were_ those of Offa! This idea is corroborated by the circumstance, that Alfred did not assume to himself so much credit as a _Lawmaker_ as a collector and improver of laws; for in the preamble to his Code, he says that he had selected some of its laws, with the approbation and advice of his council, from those of _Offa_ and others!

The entire improvements which Offa introduced into the legislation of his kingdom and subjected territories are, at the present day, too difficult of discovery to be clearly elucidated, unless the foregoing hypothesis be adopted: but there may be excepted from this difficulty the laws passed at the legatine council in his reign, held at Calchythe, A. D. 785, when Egfrid his son was associated with him in the government.[14]

[Footnote 14: A. D. 785. Offa appointed Hibbert bishop, archbishop Lambert having resigned some part of his bishopric. Everth, or Egfert, was consecrated king. Adrian the pope sent legates to England to renew the blessings of faith and peace, which St. Gregory sent us by the mission of bishop Augustine.--_Ingram’s Sax. Chron._

The following is from the letter of the legates themselves:

Concilium Calchuthense. Ex Magdeburg. Cent. VIII. c. 9. p. 575.

Proœmium ad Adrianum papam 1.

Nos faventibus sanctis orationibus vestris, hilari vultu vestris jussionibus obtemperantes pereximus; sed impedivit nos is, qui tentat, vento contrario; ille vero qui mitificat fluctus, exaudita vestrâ deprecatione, mitificavit cærulea freta, et transvexit nos ad portum salutis; ac licet multis periculis afflictos, tamen illæsos Anglorum appulit oris. Igitur suscepti primum ab archiepiscopo Iaenbarcho sanctæ Dorovernensis ecclesiæ, quæ alio vocabulo Cantia vocitatur, ubi sanctus Augustinus in corpore requiescit; inibi residentes admonuimus ea, quæ necessaria erant. Inde peragrantes pervenimus ad aulam Offæ regis Merciorum. At ille cum ingenti gaudio ob reverentiam beati Petri, et vestri apostolatus honorem suscepit tam nos, quam sacros apices a summa sede delatos.

Tunc convenerunt in unum concilium Offa, rex Merciorum, et Chuniulphus, rex West Saxonum; cui etiam tradidimus vestra syngrammata sancta; ac illi continuo promiserunt se de his vitiis corrigendos. Tunc inito concilio cum prædictis regibus, pontificibus, et senioribus terræ, perpendentes quod angulus ille longè latèq. protenditur; permisimus Theophylactum venerabilem episcopum, regem Merciorum et Britanniæ partes adire. Ego autem assumpto mecum adjutore, quem filius vester excellentissimus rex Carolus, ob reverentiam vestri apostolatus nobiscum misit, virum probatæ fidei, Wignodum, abbatem presbyterum, perrexi in regionem Northanhymbrorum ad Ælfwodum regem et archiepiscopum sanctæ ecclesiæ Eboracæ civitatis Eanbaldum. Sed quia præfatus rex longé in borealibus commorabatur, misit jam dictus archiepiscopus missos suos ad regem, qui continuo omni gaudio statuit diem concilii, ad quem convenerunt omnes principes regionis tam ecclesiastici, quam seculares. Sed audientibus nobis relatum est, quod reliqua vitia non minima ibi necessaria erant ad corrigendum. Quia, ut scitis, a tempore sancti Augustini pontificis, sacerdos Romanus nullus illuc missus est, nisi nos.

Scripsimus namq. capitulare de singulis rebus, et per ordinem cuncta disserentes, auribus illorum pertulimus; qui cum omni humilitatis subjectione, et clara voluntate tam admonitionem vestram, quam parvitatem nostram amplexantes, sposponderunt se in omnibus obedire. Tunc nos epistolas vestras eis tradidimus perlegendas, contestantes eos tam in se, quam in subditis sacrata decreta custodire. Hæc namq. sunt capitula, quæ illis pertulimus conservanda esse.

Then follow twenty articles having reference to the clergy, to the kings, and to the people generally.

Then come the signatures of several of the heads of the church, bishops, abbots, &c.

His peractis et datâ benedictione perreximus, assumptis nobiscum viris illustribus legatis regis et archiepiscopi, Maluinum videlicet et Pyttal lectores; qui una nobiscum pergentes, et ipsa decreta secum deferentes in concilium Merciorum, ubi gloriosus rex Offa, cum senatoribus terræ una cum archiepiscopo Iaenberchto sanctæ ecclesiæ Dorovernensis, et cæteris episcopis regionum convenerat, et in conspectu concilii clara voce singula capitula perlecta sunt; et tam Latinè quam Teutonicè, quo omnes intelligere possent, dilucidê reserata sunt. Qui omnes consona voce, alacri animo gratias referentes, apostolatus vestri admonitionibus promiserunt, se divino adminiculante favore, juxta qualitatem virium promptissimâ, voluntate in omnibus statuta hæc custodire. Quinetiam, ut supra taxavimus, tam rex, quam principes sui, archiepiscopus cum sociis suis in manu nostra, in vice Domini vestri, signum sanctæ crucis firmaverunt, et rursum præsentem chartulam, sacrato signo roboraverunt.

Ego Iaenberchtus, archiepiscopus sanctæ Dorovernensis ecclesiæ supplex, signo sanctæ crucis subscripsi.

Ego Offa, rex Merciorum, consentiens his statutis, prompta voluntate signo crucis subscripsi.

Then follow the names of twelve bishops, four abbots, three gentlemen, who call themselves _duces_, and of one who styles himself _comes_.--_Wilkins Concilia Mag. Britan. 145-51._

In page 152.

Papæ Rom. Archiep. Cantuar. Anno Christi. Adrian I. 14. Ieambert 22. 785.

Reg. Saxon. Imperat. Egfert VIII. Constant. VII. 6.

Lichefeldensis episcopatus in archiepiscopatum designatur ab Offa rege. _Ex codice S. Alban. de vita Offæ regis. MS. p. 153. citante clar. Spelm._

* * * * * * * * * * * *

In illo quoq. concilio Offa, rex Merciorum potentissimus, in regem fecit solemniter coronari filium suum primogenitum Egfredum, juvenem strenuum et elegantem, moribusq. decenter redimitum; qui deinceps cum patre idem militans, et in omnibus obsecundans, usq. ad finem vitæ ejus conregnavit.--_Wilkins, p. 152._

_See also Rapin’s England, vol. 1. b. 3. A. D. 785 or 787: but Matth. West. assigns 789 for the date of this council._

Calchythe, the _Chelsea_ of the present day, was the residence of Offa in the latter part of his reign. It appears to have been chosen from its proximity to London (_caput regni Merciorum. V. Will. Malmsb. de Gest. Regum, l. 2. c. 4._), many of the municipal laws and privileges of which may fairly be traced to this era. The Lord Mayor, the representative of the Mercian king, is the only individual named in the acknowledgment of a new sovereign; and his official permission must be obtained before the proclamation can take place in the city. These, with many other civic privileges, appear to be the shadows of ancient royalty, standing forth amid the record of past days, the ghostlike remnant of a once more substantial glory!]

Among these were the important enactments that no persons of illegitimate birth should ascend the throne, or inherit private property, and that kings should be “a sacerdotibus et senioribus populi eligantur;” that the Nicene Creed should be adopted; that bishops should visit their dioceses once a year; that tithes were to be paid, but that no tributes to the church were to be larger than was provided by the Roman law; that the rich and powerful should judge righteous judgment; with other provisions of minor importance.

Brief as is this notice of the Anglo-Saxon government, it is sufficient to show, that it was indebted to Offa for alterations and improvements, which, from the security and length of his reign, and their subsequent adoption by the great Alfred, may be fairly conceived to have been dictated by judgment, and enforced by a prudent exercise of power.

The first irruption of the Danes into Britain is said to have taken place during Offa’s reign, and to have been by him, for a time at least, successfully repressed.[15] But there is one event to which no allusion has yet been made, which has had greater effect in inducing posterity to form a judgment on his character than even the repulse of the early attacks of the _Vikingr_. An event that, if unrecorded, would have left him an almost stainless glory, but which, when fairly stated, leaves the painful impression that the blot of homicide darkens his otherwise fair escutcheon.

[Footnote 15: It was in this reign that the Danes first made their appearance on the British coast. “The reve (sheriff of the county) then rode thereto, and would drive them to the king’s town; for he knew not what they were; and there was he slain. These were the first ships of the Danish men, that sought the nation of the English.”--_Ingr. Sax. Chron._]

After Brithric, king of Wessex, and Æthelred of Deira had, with the hands of his daughters Eadburga and Ælfleda, received their kingdoms once again in subjection to themselves, Albert, or Ethelbert, king of the East-Angles, came with a lordly train to sue for the hand of Alfreda, the remaining daughter.[16] Brave, yet pious; elegant, yet modest; exalted in station, yet humble in soul; the amiable and interesting Ethelbert was publicly welcomed to the court of Offa. The festal hall was decked for his reception, the spousal banquet spread, the goblet graced the board. The hospitable meal in seeming friendly confidence passed over; the prince retired to his sumptuous couch to rest; and the morrow brought the accession of a kingdom’s wealth to Mercia clogged by the weight of treacherous and inhospitable murder![17]

[Footnote 16: A. D. 791. Eadburga married Brithric king of Wessex.--_M. West. 282. Chr. Mailros, 139; but 787 is the date assigned to this event in Ingr. Sax. Chron._

792. “This year Offa, king of Mercia, commanded that king Ethelbert should be beheaded; and Osred who had been king of the Northumbrians (Deira), returning home after his exile, was apprehended, and slain on the eighteenth day before the calends of October. His body is deposited at Tinemouth. Ethelred this year, on the third day before the calends of October, took unto himself a new wife, whose name was Elfleda.”--_Ingr. Sax. Chron. p. 79. Chron. Mailr._

The following couplet describes the person and character of the unfortunate Ethelbert.

“Albertus juvenis fuerat rex, fortis in armis, Pace pius, pulcher corpore, mente sagax.”

_Vita Offæ Secundi._

_For fuller particulars see an interesting chapter in Holinshed’s History, b. 6. ch. 5._]

[Footnote 17: The Monk of St. Albans agrees with Matth. Westr. in recording that Cynedritha proposed to Offa the murder of their guest, but that he indignantly refused; and that subsequently she prepared a device of a sinking platform in Ethelbert’s chamber, so that when he threw himself on his couch it sank with his weight, and he was immediately suffocated by assassins who were on the watch in the chamber below. The difference however in the latter part of their narratives is as follows: M. Westr. states that Offa secluded himself from public and refused to taste food for three days,--but that, notwithstanding, as Ethelbert had died without heirs he despatched a powerful force to East Anglia to take possession of the kingdom. The Monk of St. Alban’s, in the most approved style of legendary lore, proceeds with the history of Ethelbert’s body after his murder. He states that his head was cut off, after suffocation, and the body and head being put into a sack were carried away: being dark, the head rolled out unseen and unobserved, and a blind man chancing to come that way kicked against it--he took it up, and anointed his eyes with the _sacred blood_, and immediately his sight was restored! Poetic justice is also dispensed to Cynedritha by this writer: he affirms that Offa had her shut up in punishment and seclusion for ever: that some years afterwards her place of retirement was broken in upon by robbers for the sake of her gold and silver, and that she was precipitated down her own well where her wretched existence was terminated. The archbishop of Lichfield is further stated to have begged the body of Ethelbert and buried it at Hereford, where miracles were performed by it! _Matth. West. A. D. 792.--Vita Offæ Secundi._

In _Leland’s Collectanea, vol. 1. p. 210, the following marvellous record is also to be found_: “Ethelbertus (after death) cuidam Brithfrid prædiviti viso apparuit, jubens, ut ejus corpus efferret ad locum nomine stratus waye, et juxta monaster: eodem loco situm sepeliret. Brithfrid adjuncto socio Egmundo quod jussit fecerunt, et corpus una cum capite in loco qui Fernlega, id est saltus filicis, dicebatur, nunc vero Hereford, sepeliverunt.”]

It has been the effort of several historians to cast the blame of this foul transaction upon Offa’s queen Cynedritha; but as all concur in stating the welcome given to the youthful monarch, and the subsequent and immediate assumption of dominion over his realms by his intended father-in-law, no inference can be drawn but that Offa was himself a _particeps criminis_: and when viewed even in the most lenient possible light an _accessory after the fact_.

Brief was the monarch’s career posterior to this inhuman deed. Ere two years had passed he sank overwhelmed with remorse and sorrow into the cold embraces of the tomb. Within five months his promising successor, Egfrid, followed him to the grave--his abandoned queen soon closed her vicious career--the betrothed bride of the murdered Ethelbert wasted her widowed beauty in the monasterial walls of Croyland--Eadburga, the profligate and homicidal widow of Brithric perished miserably--and the race of Offa no more existed in the land![18]

[Footnote 18: A. D. 794. “This year died pope Adrian; and also Offa, king of Mercia, on the fourth day before the ides of August, after he had reigned forty winters. Everth (Egfrid) took to the government and died the same year.”--_Ingr. Sax. Chr., p. 65. 80._ V. also Speed’s Chron., p. 345, A. D. 794. Chron. Mailros, A. D. 796. M. West., 797. Ethelward’s Chron., 840. Bromton, 748-52. Leland’s Collectanea, vol. 1. p. 210. Ingulphus by Gale, p. 7. Hoveden, 410. Huntingdon, 344. Flor. Wig., 281. Higden, 251. Radulf. de Dicet., 446. Asseri Annal., 154. Malmsbury by Savile, 88. Spelman’s Concilia, 308. Holinshed, book 6. ch. 4.

The following is the dreadful character of Eadburga as given by Asser “de Ælfredi rebus gestis.”--_p. 3._

“Cujus (viz. Offæ) filiam nomine Eadburgh Beorhtric occidentalium Saxonum rex sibi in conjugium accepit: quæ confestim accepta regis amicitia, et totius pene regni potestate, _more paterno_ tyrannice vivere incœpit, et omnem hominem execrari, quem Beorhtric diligeret, et omnia odibilia Deo et hominibus facere: et omnes quos posset, ad regem accusare, et ita aut vita aut potestate per insidias privare: et si a rege impetrare non posset, veneno eos necabat: sicut de adolescente quodam regi dilectissimo hoc factum compertum habetur: quem cum ad regem accusare non posset, veneno eum necavit. De quo veneno etiam præfatus ille Beorhtric rex inscienter gustasse aliquid refertur. Neque enim illa venenum dare regi proposuerat, sed puero, sed rex præoccupavit: inde ambo periere.”

According to the same authority (p. 4) this wretched woman died a beggar in Pavia.