CHAPTER XIV.
THE FOUNDATION OF THE KINGDOM OF ENGLAND.
When Offa died in 796, the consolidation of central and south-eastern England into an orderly state under a stable dynasty had continued long enough to make it seem improbable that the work would have to be done a second time. The Mercian kingdom was still far from comprising all England. Wessex and Northumbria were still independent. But in both states the rulers had accepted Mercian brides, and neither seemed sufficiently strong to thwart Mercia's further expansion. Nor was internal faction apparently to be feared. Offa's death brought the crown to Ecgfrith his only son; but though this prince died within a few months of his accession leaving no heir, no struggle arose over the vacant throne. The Mercian witan arranged the succession peaceably among themselves, their choice falling on the aetheling Coenwulf, a member of the royal kindred who seems to have been only distantly related to Offa. This orderly election, if compared with the faction fights which regularly disgraced Northumbria under similar circumstances, is in itself good evidence of the political progress made by Mercia in the eighth century, and Coenwulf's subjects may fairly have looked forward to a further expansion taking place under his leadership.
At Coenwulf's accession the ruler of Wessex was Beorhtric, a weak man who had married Eadburh, Offa's third daughter, and who was almost a Mercian vassal. Of his reign (786-802) little of note is recorded except that it was disturbed one summer by the landing of rovers coming from Hörthaland in Norway on the coast of Dorset. This is the first recorded appearance in England of the so-called Vikings, a most ominous event as the future was to prove. In the Norse sagas the word vikingr means a free buccaneer of any nationality, and the phrase "to go in viking" denotes freebooting as opposed to trading voyages, both being regarded as equally honourable activities. Not only England but all Western Europe was soon to rue their advent. One other event of Beorhtric's days had far-reaching consequences. In conjunction with Offa he drove into exile an aetheling called Ecgbert, whose father Ealhmund had for a time been under-king in Kent (784-786). This Ecgbert was destined to return and become the ancestor of England's future kings.
