The History of England Author:Thomas Keightley Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. KINGS OF WESSEX SOVEREIGNS OF ENGLAND . The Danes.—Ethelwulf.—Ethelbald.—Ethelbert.—Ethered.— Alfred The Great.—Edward I. (the Elder). EGBE... more »RT. 800—836. At the time when Egbert mounted the throne of Wessex the Anglo-Saxons had been for three centuries and a half the occupants of Britain. During all this time they had been divided into separate independent states; and, as we have seen, warfare against each other or the original natives prevailed almost without intermission. A new and most formidable foe, of their own race and kindred, was now about to appear, and a closer union among their states was required. It would almost seem that Egbert had foreseen this necessity, for we are told that on his accession he gave the name of England (Angle-land) to his realm; and as only the West-Saxons were his subjects, we may infer that he even then aspired to the monarchy of the whole island. It was probably at the court of Charlemagne, and in imitation of that great monarch, that he formed this plan of extensive dominion. The foes with whom the English were now to contend were the Northmen (the people of Denmark and Norway), named by them the Danes. Like all nations in a low state of culture, the Danes had probably lived for centuries with little knowledge of any country but their own; and though they may have possessed the art of ship-building from time immemorial, and had navigated their own stormy seas without fear, we have no accounts of their pillagingthe coasts of the more southern countries till about the period at which we are now arrived. Some internal changes, of which we are uninformed, may have taken place at this time in Scandinavia; excess of population may have caused want: a spirit of adventure may have sprung up from some unknown cause; at all eve...« less