OFFA

OFFA

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kingdoms, a brisk rivalry with Wessex, and aposition of triumphant security on the side ofthe Welsh. It is probable, however, that inmost of these respects he had heavy work tomaintain his authority : we find him in thecourse of his reign dealing severally but sum-marily with each of his neighbours, and theannals of the time breathe no suspicion of anybreak in his continuous successes.

After he had been for fourteen years on thethrone, we learn from the Northumbrian annalspreserved by Simeon of Durham {M. H. B. 661)that in 771 he subdued the Hestingi: a mys-terious notice, which cannot be satisfactorilyexplained. Possibly the Hestingi are the EastAngles, of whose history at the time nothing isknown but that they were under the rule ofEthelred, the father of Ethelbert, who subse-quently married a daughter of Offa. His nextrecorded victory was over Kent : in a battlefought at Otford in 775 (corr. for 773, Chr. 8.M. H. B. 334) he defeated the national army.Unfortunately we do not know the name of theking of Kent, who must have led the host; forAlric, the son of Wihtred, whom William ofMalmesbury represents as defeated on the occa-sion ( G . R. i. § 15), must have been long dead[Alric ; Kent, Kings of]. The blow seemsto have been successful; although there wererisings in Kent more than once before the end ofOffa’s reign, the kingdom was practically de-pendent on Mercia until it was won by Egbert,about 824.

In the year 779 {Chr. 8. Ill) Offa fought withCynewulf of Wessex a decisive battle at Ken-sington, in Oxfordshire. The victory which hethere obtained added Oxfordshire permanentlyto Mercia, and gave the opportunity, taken somehalf-century later, of bringing the episcopal seeof Middle Anglia from Leicester to Dorchester.It is unnecessary to inquire minutely into thepossible cause of the struggle between twostates which by position and history could notfail to be rivals. Following up the string ofOffa’s successes, we next come to his relationswith the British tribes on the vrestern border.The Welsh annals (M. H. B. p. 834) mention twodevastations by Offa, one in 778, a second in784. Possibly we may refer to these dates theconstruction of Offa’s dyke, the great boundaryfortification between Mercia and Wales, whichextended from the Wye to the Dee. The interest,however, of the years 780 to 790 is mainlyecclesiastical and diplomatic, and will be noticedfurther on. The years were a period, if we mayargue from the silence of historians, pf internalpeace, and marked by a policy intended tosecure the consolidation of the Mercian power.

In 786 the death of Cynewulf made way forBrihtric to ascend the West Saxon throne[Beorhtric]. It is possible that, although theinfluence of Offa may not have placed himthere, he was sustained by Mercian supportagainst the claims of Egbert, who had familypretensions in both Wessex and Kent [Egbert].The marriage of Brihtric with Eadburga, adaughter of Offa, intended to secure peacebetween the two kingdoms, took place in 789{Chr. 8. 787). The marriage of another daugh-ter, Ealhfleda, with Ethelred, king of N orthum-bria, which took place at Catterick on Sept. 29,792, was probably a political measure also,

although it is more probable that Ethelredneeded the support of Offa than that Offa feareddanger to his northern frontier in the disturbedcondition of Northumbria. It was possibly inthe same year, or more probably in 794, thatOffa ordered the East Anglian king Ethelbert tobe beheaded [Ethelbert], an act which notonly suggested a topic for the embellishments oflegend, but has left on Offa’s memory its onegreat stain. The circumstances are very ob-scure, but the tradition of the fact is uniform, andit cannot be disproved. In 795, according tothe Annales Cambriae , Offa was engaged inhostilities with the Welsh, and ravaged Eienuch,The movement in Kent in favour of EadbertPraen, which was doubtless in preparation aboutthis time, did not break into war until Offa’sdeath, which occurred in the following year.

This short review of his wars shows that middleand eastern England were entirely under hishand during a great part of his reign, whilstduring the latter years, by the marriages of hisdaughters, he secured a hold on Northumbriaand Wessex. This no doubt justified foreignnations in regarding him as the chief ruler ofthe whole nation, in which character he appearsin the correspondence of Alcuin and also ofCharles the Great. Our knowledge of his re-lations with Charles dates from the point of timeat which Alcuin took up his abode in the Frankkingdom, about 780 or 781.

Probably the earliest trace of Offa’s foreigndiplomacy occurs in a letter of Adrian I. toCharles. The pope had heard from the kingthat Offa, “the king of the nation of theEnglish,” had signified to him, Charles, thatcertain persons, enemies of both kings, hadinformed the pope that Offa had proposed toCharles to depose him and appoint a Germanpope in his place. Charles, at Offa’s request,contradicted the story, and Adrian accepted thecontradiction, adding that until informed byCharles he had heard no such report, and thathe would receive with welcome the envoys ofthe English king {Mon. Carol, ed. Jaffe, pp. 279-282). As Adrian and Offa were clearly on goodterms in 786, this letter must belong to anearlier year. In 786 the pope sent the legatesGeorge and Theophylact to England ; they wereaccompanied by Wighod, a Frank abbat, sentwith them by Charles. Their first visit aftertheir reception in Kent was to Offa, who re*ceived them with great honour, and, afterholding a conference with the West Saxon Cyne-wulf, took Theophylact with him into Merciaand the British border, whilst George andWighod went into Northumbria. One resultof their mission was the holding of the legatinesynods of 787 ; another, the institution of thesee of Lichfield; a third, probably, the consecra-tion of Egfrith, the son of Offa, as his coadjutorand presumptive successor. The last two mea-sures were intended to consolidate the accumu-lated power of Mercia. [See Georgius (33);Jaenbert.] The canons of the legatine coun-cils, although very interesting generally,, affordlittle that belongs peculiarly to England. Theywere, however, read in synod,. “ tam Latinequam Teutonice,” and afford important data asto tithes, royal succession, vestiges of paganism,episcopal jurisdiction and visitation, and thedifferences between monks and canons, the lattei