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ETHKLWULF. 



hi I11LU8. 



the nation. The king was an object of general hatred or contempt ; 

 the nobility wen divided into hostile factions ; and famines and oun- 

 tsjsjiaua diseases, vied with the swords of the invaoVn in destroying the 

 Bwmbk people. In 1009 a new Danish force arrived, under a leader 

 named Thurkil, who for the three following years spread devastation 

 throughout the only part of the country that had hitherto afforded an 

 aaylum from the foreigners the fens of East Anglia. At last, after 

 he had sacked and burned the city of Canterbury, Tburkil was bought 

 off in 1012 by a payment of 48,000 pounds of silver, and he and his 

 followers agreed, on being allowed to settle in the country, to becomu 

 the subjects of the English king. But the next year Sweyn himself 

 again made his appearance, now avowing his determination not to 

 depart till be hid effected the conquest of the country. Entering the 

 Uumber, he received the submission both of the Northumbrians and 

 of the part* of Lincoln that were in like manner chiefly inhabited by 

 a population of Danish descent He then marched across the country 

 to London, putting all the males to the sword as be advanced ; but 

 the capital, which was defended by Ethelred and Thurkil, resisting 

 his assault, he turned to the west, and, compelling the nobles to make 

 their submission to him wherever he passed, he proceeded to Bath, 

 and there caused himself to be proclaimed king of England. Soon 

 after thii London submitted to his authority ; and in the middle of 

 January 1014 Ethelred fled to the court of Richard, duke of Nor- 

 mandy, whose sister Emma he had married some yean before. He 

 had previously sent thither Emma and her two children. 



On the 2nd of February however Sweyn died. His son Canute was 

 immediately proclaimed king by the army; but the English deter- 

 mined to recall Ethelred. He was brought bock accordingly, after 

 entering into a solemn agreement with the Witan, that he would be 

 a good lord to them, and amend all they wished to have amended, and 

 that all things should be forgiven which had been done or said against 

 him, they on their parts promising that they would all turn to him 

 without fraud, and would never again permit the Danes to have 

 dominion in England. Canute deemed it prudent to take flight before 

 the national enthusiasm of the moment ; and it is said that another 

 general museum of the Danes that were left behind in the country 

 signalised the restoration of a national government But Canute 

 returned the following year with a powerful fleet ; he was immediately 

 joined by Tburkil, who till now had remained faithful to his English 

 allegiance ; other chiefs followed Thurkil's example, and a great part 

 of toe country appean to have again speedily submitted to the Danes. 

 Ethelred was confined to his bed by illness when Canute arrived, and 

 he died in London on the 23rd of April 1016, at the moment when 

 the enemy was preparing to attack that city. He was succeeded by 

 Edmund, sumamed Ironside, bis eldest son by a lady named Elgiva 

 or ElBeda, who is said to have borne him six sons and four daughters, 

 bat to whom it has been doubted whether he was ever married. 

 Edward, one of his two sons by Emma of Normandy, whom he 

 married in 1002, also afterwards ascended the throne. [EDMUND 

 IiomiDi ; EDWARD TUB CONFMEOR.] 



STHELWULF was the son of Egbert, whom he succeeded in the 

 throne of Weesex and the supremacy over the other states of the 

 Heptarchy, in 836. The provinces of Kent, Essex, and Sussex, which 

 Egbert had conquered and annexed to his dominions, and also that 

 of Surrey, which had hitherto been included in Wessex, were at the 

 same time formed into a separate but subordinate kingdom, and put 

 under the government of Athelstane, his eldest son. There is no older 

 authority than that of Malmesbury (whose account is indisputably 

 incorrect in several particulm and improbable in others) for the 

 story that Ethelwulf was a monk at the time of his father's death. 

 His early education is recorded to have been conducted first by Helm- 

 Stan, bi-hop of Winchester, and afterwards by Swithin, whom, on 

 coming to the throne, he advanced to the same see ; and he had also 

 served with distinction in the field in the lifetime of his father. When 

 he succe-ded to the crown be retained as his chief counsellor the able 

 Alstan, bishop of Sherborne, who had been in great favour with Egtiert 

 What has been preserved of the history of the first fourteen or fifteen 

 yean of the reign of Ethelwulf consists almost exclusively of the 

 detail of a series of contests with the Danes, who now continued with 

 incessant perseverance those descent) upon the English coasts which 

 they bad commenced in the preceding reign. In 837 three squadrons 

 of them made attacks on different points nearly at the same time. The 

 next year they landed again in great strength in Lincolnshire, and, after 

 defeating the troops sent to oppose them, marched across and ravaged 

 the country down to the Thames. In 889 three hard battles are recorded 

 to have been fought at Rochester, Canterbury, and London, besides an 

 action at sea, near Charmonth, in which the English fleet, commanded 

 by Ethelwulf in person, sustained a defeat For some yean after this 

 however the Northmen, abandoning Britain, directed all their efforts 

 agaiost the ooasta of France. But in the latter part of the year 860 a 

 body of them landed in the Isle of Tbanet, when, so ill-prepared was 

 Ethelwulf for the attack, that the foreignen were enabled for the first 

 time to pass the winter in the country. In the spring of 851 they 

 were joii.ed by great numbers of their countrymen, and the whole 

 multitude ascending the Thames in a fleet of 360 vessels, plundered 

 Can'erbury and London. They then penetrated into Surrey ; but here 

 they were met by Ethelwulf at Okeley, and after a long and obstinate 

 battle, were defeated with immense loss. They were soon after wonted 



in another battle at Wenbury, in Devonshire, and alo in a sea-fiuht 

 near Sandwich by Athelstane, the king of Kent The consequence 

 was, that the Panes did not again make any attempt on England during 

 the reign of Ethelwulf. 



In 852, on the death of AtheUtane, the kingdom of Kent was assigned 

 by Ethelwulf to his second son, Ethelbert, he himself returning the 

 chief sovereignty as before. The following year, nt the rqueit of 

 Beohred, or Burbred, king of Morcia, he led an army against the Weigh, 

 and marched through their country as far as the Isle of Anglesey, com- 

 pelling them to acknowledge themselves the subjects of himself and 

 Ueohred. On the termination of this expedition ho gave his daughter 

 Kthelswitba in marriage to the king of Mercia. In 855 he undertook 

 a journey to Rome, accompanied by his youngest son Alfred, who had 

 been also carried to that city in the preceding year by bixhop Swithin. 

 On his return through France, Ethelwulf married Judith, daughter of 

 Charles the Bald, king of that country, although she had not yet reached 

 her twelfth year. Meanwhile however his eldest son Ethelbald, taking 

 advantage of his father's absence (whom perhaps he represented as 

 being in bia dotage), had entered into a scheme for seizing the throne. 

 It is said that among his accomplices was the prime minister Alstan, 

 and that he was also supported by the chief nobility, from which we 

 may conjecture that the attempted revolution was not without some 

 strong reasons in its favour. And although the return of Ethelwulf is 

 said to have prevented the full success of the design, it was substan- 

 tially carried into effect. It was agreed at a solemn meeting of the 

 Witan that Ethelbald should become king of Wessex, and that Ethel- 

 wulf should reign as sovereign, with Ethelbert under him, in Kent 

 and the other eastern provinces. It may be supposed that iu his new 

 position Ethelwulf enjoyed little more than a nominal authority. He 

 spent the remainder of his days mostly in exercises of devotion, and 

 died in 857 or 858. By his will, which was confirmej by the Witan, 

 he left the kingdom of Kent to his second son Ethelbert, and that 

 of Wessex in succession to his other sons, Ethelbald, Ethelred, and 

 Alfred. 



One of the legislative acts of the reign of Ethelwulf has given riue 

 to much discussion, namely, the grant which he made in 854 or 855, 

 with the consent of the Witan, in favour of the church, nnd which 

 was wont to be considered as the original foundation of the right of 

 the clergy to the tithes; but this position is abandoned by recent 

 authorities : it appears rather to be intended, as Turner thinks, as " a 

 liberation of the laud which the clergy had before been in possession 

 of from all the services and payments to which the Anglo-Saxon lands 

 were generally liable, or that it was an additional gift of land, not of 

 tithes, either of the king's private patrimony, or of some other which 

 U not explained." Palgrave contends that it was a grant of the tenth 

 part of the land by metes and bounds, to be held free from all secular 

 services ; yet he admits that thei nterpretation which construes the 

 grant into an enfranchisement of all the lands which the church then 

 possewed, is " not altogether void of probability." (' Eng. Com.,' 

 p. 159.) 



ETHEREGE, sometimes written ETHERID3E, SIR GEOROE, 

 born about 1636, was a distinguished wit and dramatic writer of the 

 reign of Charles II. According to the usual routine of a gentleman's 

 education at that time, he studied law at an inn of court and travelled. 

 In 1664 he made his first public appearance as author of the comedy 

 called Love in a Tub. 1 'She Would if She Could' followed in 1668, 

 and 'The Man of Mode, or Sir Fopling Flutter,' in 1676. All these 

 were received with much favour by the public. They placed him, with 

 Buckingham, Rochester, Sedley, Ac., in the first rank of the wits of 

 the day. Ease and liveliness of dialect are their chnracteristic excel- 

 lence; but they have an ingrained taint of licentiousness running 

 through the whole conception as well at the language, which has long 

 excluded them from the stage. If the characters are supposed (which 

 is the author's best excuse) to bo but highly-coloured copies of the 

 fine gentlemen and ladies of the day, we Khali marvel that the name 

 and estimation of gentlemen should ever have been sullied by such a 

 total wont of truth and honour. Sir George Ethel-ego's verses are not 

 numerous, and consist of occasional pieces, lampoons, songs, and short 

 amatory poems, some of which are of a grossly licentious character. 

 Etherege's private life may be guessed from his writings : play injured 

 bis fortune, debauchery his constitution. He repaired the former by 

 marrying a rich widow, whose price was a title ; and to win her he 

 purchased his knighthood. He was in James II.'s household, and was 

 afterwards employed by that king as minister to Ratubon, where, by 

 one account, he died from a fall down stain after a convivial enter- 

 tainment ; but, according to another account, he followed James II. 

 to France. His death seems to have occurred about or soon after the 

 Revolution of 168S. There is an edition of bis Plays and Poems in 

 8vo, London, 1704, and one In 12mo, London, 1715. 



i: TIIICUS, or -iKTHICUS, is conjectured to have lived about the 

 4th century of our era, and is the reputed author of a 'Cosmography,' 

 or short description of the world, being an enumeration of the seas, 

 islands, mountains, provinces, cities, and towns of the then known 

 world, with a short account of th sources and course of the principal 

 rivers. In speaking of the Tiber's course through Rome, he mentions 

 the gate of St. Peter, that of St. Paul, and the Via Portuengi<, or of 

 ' the martyr St. Felix.' He also speaks of Rome as the mistress of 

 j the world, of the games held by the Romans, of the pnofectus urbis, 



