[Illustration: EDWIN OF NORTHUMBRIA AND THE CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES. (_See p._ 29.)]
The abdication of Ina was not productive of good consequences to Wessex; and for nineteen years, from 733 to 752, the country was subject, as has already been mentioned, to the yoke of Mercia until, led by their king Cuthred, the second in succession to Ina, the people won freedom at the battle of Burford. This stage of the history of Wessex is not very important, and closes in 802, when the great king Egbert ascended the throne.
Egbert had laid claim to the throne on the death of Cynewulf, which took place in 784, but without success. Bertric was elected. Fear of the vengeance of his more successful rival caused him to take refuge at the court of Offa of Mercia, but still pursued by the jealousy of Bertric he eventually withdrew to the court of Charles the Great. A close friendship arose between the two, and Egbert modelled his after-career on that of his benefactor. On the death of Bertric he was elected in his absence by the Witena-gemot, or assembly of the wise men, in due form, and reigned until 836. At once he set himself to win a superiority over the island, as Charles had established a dominion on the continent. In the cases of the southern kingdoms his task was easy, and they submitted without a blow; East Anglia being allowed to retain her line of sovereigns as subordinate kings, Kent, Essex and Sussex being practically annexed to Wessex. But with Mercia the task was not so easy. However, in 823 he defeated the Mercians so completely at the great battle of Ellandune that their subject kingdoms, the names and extent of which are not exactly known, were at once annexed to Wessex; and four years later Mercia itself owned his supremacy, the king becoming his subordinate. In the following year Northumbria, torn to pieces by internal dissensions, submitted on similar terms. He thus became ruler over all England, and is deservedly honoured by the "Chronicle" with the title of Bretwalda, or "Wealder of Britain," which is bestowed on some of his predecessors with far more questionable propriety.
[Illustration: MEETING OF THE SHIRE-MOOT. (_See p._ 34.)]
Not only did Egbert set himself the task of mastering all the English; but he determined to conquer territory from the Welsh as well. During the greater part of the reign the struggle went on with varying fortunes, the general result being that Devonshire became English, that after the subjection of Mercia the whole of Wales proper submitted (828), but that he failed to make any impression upon the Celtic peoples north of the Dee. In 835, the year before he died, the West Welsh, or Cornish, rose in arms, and were reinforced by the Danes, who now began to scourge the English coasts. Egbert, however, won a victory over them at Hengestesdun. At the time of his death this great king ruled over the whole country south of the Forth, with the exception of Cornwall and the south-west of Scotland and north-west corner of England. Evidently he must have been a man of first-rate ability; but of his personal character and disposition singularly little is known.