Egbert

Egbert, king of the West Saxons, was the son of Ealhmund, who bore rule in Kent, and was a descendant of the House of Cerdic. After the death of Cynewigils (786), he was obliged by his more powerful rival, Beorhtric, to flee to the court of Charlemagne, whence he returned in 802 to fill the throne of Wessex. England was at this time divided into three great sovereignties: Northumbria, extending over what were occasionally the separate kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia; Mercia, which had now subjugated the petty powers of Kent, Essex, and East Anglia; and Wessex, which had absorbed Sussex. For his first twelve years Egbert reigned in peace; then followed a war with the West Welsh (Cornish), and a struggle with the Mercians, of which the turning-point was the great victory of Ellandune (probably near Winchester), and which ended in his being recognised as over-lord of that kingdom. In 829 the Northumbrians also, overawed by his army, accepted him as their suzerain, and thus Egbert became the first real king of England, although he did not formally assume that style, and continued to govern Mercia through its own king. Kent he bestowed upon his son Ethelwulf in 828, and did much to strengthen his own power by increasing the influence of the see of Canterbury. In his last years he had to struggle with a new and terrible enemy in the Scandinavian pirates, who began to harass the coasts. In 835 Egbert was defeated in a great battle in Dorsetshire, but in 837 he defeated, in a great battle at Hengestdune near the Tamar, a huge northern host allied with West Welsh insurgents. Egbert died in 839, having reigned thirty-seven years.