Karl the Great, at the court of Aachen, and there had learnt to
understand the rising statesmanship of the Frankish race and of the
restored Roman empire. The death of his enemy Beorhtric, in 802, left
the kingdom open to him: but the very day of his accession showed him
the character of the people whom he had come to rule. The men of
Worcester celebrated his arrival by a raid on the men of Wilts. "On that
ilk day," says the Chronicle, "rode Æthelhund, ealdorman of the Huiccias
[who were Mercians], over at Cynemæres ford; and there Weohstan the
ealdorman met him with the Wilts men [who were West Saxons:] and there
was a muckle fight, and both ealdormen were slain, and the Wilts men won
the day." For twenty years, Ecgberht was engaged in consolidating his
ancestral dominions: but at the end of that time, he found himself able
to attack the Mercians, who had lost Offa six years before Ecgberht's
return. In 825, the West Saxons met the Mercian host at Ellandun, "and
Ecgberht gained the day, and there was muckle slaughter." Therefore all
the Saxon name, held tributary by the Mercians, gathered about the Saxon
champion. "The Kentish folk, and they of Surrey, and the South Saxons,
and the East Saxons turned to him." In the same year, the East Anglians,
anxious to avoid the power of Mercia, "sought Ecgberht for peace and for
aid." Beornwulf, the Mercian king, marched against his revolted
tributaries: but the East Anglians fought him stoutly, and slew him and
his successor in two battles. Ecgberht followed up this step by annexing
Mercia in 829: after which he marched northward against the
Northumbrians, who at once "offered him obedience and peace; and they
thereupon parted." One year later, Ecgberht led an army against the
northern Welsh, and "reduced them to humble obedience." Thus the West
Saxon kingdom absorbed all the others, at least so far as a loose
over-lordship was concerned. Ecgberht had rivalled his master Karl by
founding, after a fashion, the empire of the English. But all the local
jealousies smouldered on as fiercely as ever, the under-kings retained