EDWY. 



EECKHUTO, OERBKANT VANDER. 



Ml 



offer up their prayers for the suooeM of Cadvan, were put to death 

 by the pagan victor. After this Edwiu wandered about for sonic 

 yean till he was, at lost, received aud protected by Redwald, king of 

 the East Angle*. It appear* to bare been while resident here that he 

 married Cwenburgha, the daughter of Ceorl, king of Mercia. Edilfrid 

 however, who had made himself by his military success very formidable 

 to all the neighbouring princes, (till pursued him, and partly by 

 threat*, partly by promises, had nearly induced Redwald to give him 

 up, when (by a miraculous interposition, as Bede would have us 

 believe) more generous counsels prevailed, and the East Anglian kin; 

 determined to brave the hostility of Edilfrid. Redwald is the fifth in 

 the list of the Bretwaldas, or supreme kings of Britain, as given by 

 Bede; and as he succeeded Ethelbert of Kent, who died in 616, he 

 probably now held that dignity. The consequence of his refusal to 

 deliver up Edwin was a war with Edilfrid ; they met on the right 

 bank of the Idel in Nottinghamshire in 617, and in a great battle 

 which was there fought, Edilfrid was defeated aud slain. His children, 

 of whom the names of six are recorded, fled, and Edwin ascended 

 the throne of Northumbria. His valour and abilities eventually 

 acquired for him great power. Un the death of his friend Redwald 

 in 624, he was acknowledged as his successor in the dignity of Bret- 

 walda ; and two years after he made war upon the powerful state of 

 Wesaez, whose king Cuiohelm is accused of having attempted to take 

 him off by assassination, and reduced it for the moment to subjection, 

 though it does not appear that he retained his conquest. Bede affirms 

 that his sovereignty extended over all the English, excepting only 

 the people of Kent, aud that he also subjected to his dominions all 

 the Britons, and the islands of Man and Anglesey. It is probable that 

 he was accounted the leading power among the sovereigns of Britain 

 in his time. Bede says that he was addressed by Pope Boniface as 

 ' Rex Anglorum.' 



The event for which the reign of Edwin in Xorthumbria is chiefly 

 memorable is the introduction of Christianity into that kingdom. 

 The Irgmd is related at great length by Bede in the second book of 

 his 'History.' Of the dreams or visions, the prophecies, and the 

 supernatural violations, which constitute the greater part of it, it is 

 impossible to make anything in the absence of all other testimony 

 except that of the credulous historian ; but the result appears to have 

 been brought about by the exertions of Edwin's second wife, Edil- 

 berga, the daughter of Augustine's patron, Ethelbert, king of Kent, 

 and of Paulinus, a Roman missionary whom she had been allowed to 

 bring with her from her father's court. Edwin had long stood out 

 against the persuasions of his queen and Pauliuua ; but his escape 

 from the attempt against his life by the King of Wessex, or of the 

 West Saxons, and the birth of a daughter, happening simultaneously, 

 powerfully affected him, and Edilberga aud her chaplain, taking 

 advantage of the moment of emotion, prevailed with him to call a 

 meeting of his witan to discuss the question of the two religious. 

 When the nobility of Northumbria assembled, Coifti, the high priest, 

 was himself the first to profess bis disbelief in the deities be had been 

 accustomed to serve. This ended the dispute ; the chief temple of 

 the idoU, which stood at a place still called Qodmundham (that is, 

 the hamlet of the inclosure of the God), was profaned and set fire to 

 by th hand of Coiffi ; the king and all the chief men of the country 

 offered themselves to be baptised, and the commonalty soon followed 

 their example. Paulinus was made bishop of Northumbria, his 

 residence being established at York, in conformity with the design 

 of (Iregory the Great, when the original mission to England was 

 arranged. The archiepiscopal dignity wu soon after conferred upon 

 Pauliuua by Pope Honorius. Edwin however did nut long survive 

 them event*. The Mercians, under their king Penda, revolted against 

 the supremacy claimed by Northumbria; and a war which arose in 

 oooaequenoa was ended on the 12th of October 633 by a battle fought 

 at lieathGeld, or Uatfield, in Yorkshire, in which Edwiu was defeated 

 by Penda and his ally Cead walla, king of North Wales, and lost at 

 once his kingdom and his life. His eldest son was slain at the same 

 time ; another, whom he also had by his first wife, was afterwards put 

 to death by Penda ; aud Edilberga, with her children and Pnuliuus, 

 wai compelled to fly to the court of her brother in Kent One of 

 Ktwin's .laughters, Eanfled, afterwards married Oswio, a son of 

 Edilfrid, who mounted the throne of Northumbria iu 642 and reigned 

 till i.T'i. He defeated Penda, and regained the title of Bretwalda, 

 which Edwin had fiint brought into his house. 



EDWY, or KADWIO, called the Fair, King of the Anglo-Saxons, 

 w* tbo elde-t of the two sous of Edmund I., but, being only iu his 

 seventh or righth year at hi-, father's death in 846, be aud his brother 

 Edgar war* set aaide for the present in favour of their uncle Edred. 

 red's death in Mi, Edwy became king, and his brother appears 

 to have been at the same time appointed subregulus of Mercia. About 

 two years after, the Mercians and Northumbrians rose in revolt, with 

 Edgar as their leader, and a war ensued, which terminated in an 

 agreement between the two brothers that Edwy should retain the 

 country to the south of the Thames, and that Edgar should be 

 acknowledged king of all England to the north of that river. In this 

 revolt Edgar, a mere boy, swims to have been an instrument iu tho 

 hands of the clerical party, whom Edwy had made hi* enemies almost 

 from the moment of his accession. In whatever it was that the 

 quarrel organ, it soon led to the dismissal of Dunatan and hi* friend*, 



who had acquired so great an ascendancy in tho government in the 

 reign of the preceding king. The writers upon whom we are 

 dependent for the history of this period were all monks, and, as he 

 was the only obstacle to the triumph of their order, their testimony 

 is to be cautiously received. They concur iu representing Edwy aa a 

 prince of the moat dissolute manners, and the kingdom as given up 

 to oppression and annrchy under his rule. Henry of Huntingdon 

 however says, " This king wore the diadem not unworthily ; but after 

 a prosperous and becoming commencement of his reign, it* happy 

 promise was cut short by a premature death." The tragical story of 

 Eleiva (or .-Klgyfu), as commonly told, is familiar to most reader*. 

 Edwy is said to have married this lady, though they were related 

 within the prohibited degrees, and to have incurred the enmity of the 

 ecclesiastics by that violation of canonical law more than by any 

 other part of his conduct. On the day of his coronation Dunstan 

 tore him rudely from the arms of Elgiva, to whose apartment he had 

 retired from the drunken revelry of the feast Dunst&n's friend, 

 Archbishop Odo, subsequently broke into one of the royal houses 

 with a party of soldiers, and, carrying off the lady, had her conveyed 

 to Ireland, after having disfigured her by searing her face with a rod- 

 hot iron ; and when some time after she ventured* to return to 

 England, some of the archbishop's retainers seized her agaiu, and put 

 her to death by the barbarous process of cutting the sinews of her 

 legs with then- swords. This story baa been the subject of souio 

 controversy, and tho defence of Duustan and Odo has been under- 

 taken by Dr. Liugard, who does not however deny the main facts of 

 the conduct imputed to them. " Ham-stringing," he says, " was a cruel 

 but not unusual mode of punishment in that age." He attempted to 

 show that the lady was not the wife but the mistress of E.lwy ; and, 

 that being the case, he contends that Odo was justified, lirst, in 

 sending her to Ireland, by a law of King Edward tho Elder, which 

 declared that " if a known whore-quean be found in any place, men 

 shall drive her out of the realm;" and then in having her put to 

 death on her return, inasmuch as " he believes that, according to the 

 stern maxims of Saxon jurisprudence, a person returning without 

 permission from banishment might be executed without the formality 

 of a trial." But Mr. Kemble has found a document in which 

 " JElfgyfu, the king's wife," was an attesting witness, along with her 

 mother, and several bishops, to an exchange of lands, " by leave of 

 King Eadwig, between Bishop Byrhthelm and Abbot Ethel wold;" 

 and, as he justly observes, " This was not a thing done in a corner, 

 and the testimony is conclusive that .'Elgyfu was Eadwig' s queen." 

 For the full discussion the reader is referred to Lingard, ' Antiquities 

 of the Anglo-Saxon Church,' ' History of England,' and ' Vindication 

 of his History,' Svo ; ' Letter to Francis Jeffrey, Esq.,' by John 

 Allen, Esq., Svo, 1827 ; and the articles on Dr. Lingard's two works 

 in the ' Edinburgh Review,' vol. xxv. pp. 346-354, aud vol. xlii. 

 pp. 1-31, both iu that letter acknowledged to be by Mr. Allen : sea 

 also Kemble, ' Saxons in England,' vol. ii. ; and Knight, ' Pop. Hist 

 of Eng.,' i. 134, &c. 



Edwy died in U38, within a year after the pacification with his 

 brother. It is difficult to say whether the expressions of tho 

 chroniclers imply that he was murdered, or only that he died of a 

 broken heart Edgar now became sole king. 



EECKHOUT, ANTHONY VANDEK, was torn at Brussels in 

 1656. It is not known under whom he studied; but he went to 

 Italy with his brother-in-law, Lewis Deyster, a very eminent artist, aud 

 painted in conjunction with him during his residence abroad Deystor 

 painting the figures, and Ecckhout the fruit and flowers : yet there 

 was such a harmony in their style of colouring aud touch, that their 

 works appear to be all by one hand. Though he was received with 

 great marks of distinction on his return to Brussels, and appointed to 

 an honourable office, he was resolved to leave his friends aud country, 

 and the brilliant prospects which he had before him, in order to return 

 to Italy, intending to spend there the remainder of his days. The 

 vessel however chanced to touch at Lisbon, and he was induced to 

 stop in that city. His pictures sold at executively high prices; and 

 he had made so many sketches of fine fruit and flowers in Italy, that ho 

 had suffiuient for all his future compositions, iu which he arranged them 

 with infinite variety and great taste. He hod not been above two 

 years in Lisbon when a young lady of quality and large fortune 

 mairifd him. Unhappily his success and his wealth excited the ruvy 

 of some miscreants, who, in 1G!)5, shot him as he was taking an airing 

 in hi* carriage. The assassins were never discovered. 



KKCKUOLTT, GERIIUAXT VAXDEK, born at Amsterdam in 

 1621, was a disciple of Rembrandt, whose manner of designing, colour- 

 ing, and pencilling, ha imitated with such felicity, that it is dillicult 

 to distinguish some of his paintings from those of his master; and 

 he rather excelled him in the extremities of his figures. Ilia principal 

 employment was for portraits, in which ho was admirable, aud ho 

 especially surpassed all his contemporaries in the power of portraying 

 the mind iu the countenance. HU masterpiece was the portrait of his 

 own father, which astonished even liembrandt 



But though his excellence in portraits brought him continual em- 

 ployment in that branch, he greatly preferred painting historical 

 subjects, iu which be was equally successful. His composition is rich 

 aud judicious ; aud hi* distribution of light and shade excellent I In 

 back-grounds are in general clearer and brighter than those of Rein- 



