Supremacy of Mercia under Offa; and of Wessex under Ecgbert

While the church was thus rising into prominence, the state was composed of scattered and disunited tribal kingdoms. Under Oswiu, who died in 671, and his son Ecgfrith, Northumbria remained the most powerful kingdom until 685, when Ecgfrith was defeated and slain in a battle with the king of the Picts at Dunnichen in Forfarshire. From that time Northumbria began to lose her ancient prestige, and other kingdoms rose to importance. Mercia, first under thelbald (716-755) and afterward under Offa (758-796), came to the front, and under the latter extended its power to the Thames and gained lordship over the East Anglians, East Saxons, and Kentishmen.' In the west Offa's authority was recognized by the Welsh, and a dike or rampart that was built from Chester to the mouth of the Wye determined the boundary between the Mercians and the Celts. But at this time the greatness of a kingdom depended on the personal prowess of the king. With the death of Offa in 796 the importance of Mercia passed away, and Wessex rose to power under Ecgbert, a West Saxon prince who had lived for some years at the court of Charles the Great and had there learned to conquer and to rule. Returning to England in 800, Ecgbert at once began his career of conquest. During the thirty-seven years of his reign he subjugated first the Kentishmen, then the South Saxons, East Saxons, and Surreymen; in 823 he overthrew his Mercian rival in a mighty battle at Ellendune near Wilton; and finally he received the submission of the East Anglians and south Humbrians, and of the Welsh of Cornwall, who were defeated in 835 at Hengestun. Thus Ecgbert would seem to have been the first king of all the English peoples and over-lord of many of the Celts; but this was not strictly true. His supremacy differed in no way from that of thelbirht, Eadwine, Oswiu, and Offa, except in its completeness. Kent, Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex, each in turn, had controlled the lesser kingdoms as long as each had possessed a man strong enough to maintain his lordship; and the supremacy of each kingdom was bound to disappear as soon as a weaker man should succeed to the kingdom or a stronger man should arise elsewhere.

The period from 450 through Ecgbert's reign was one in which tribal conditions were dominant. The great divisions into West Saxons, East Anglians, Mercians, and the like were essentially tribal in character, and even some of the lesser tribes were destined to retain their identity for more than a century longer.' Not until the days of the great West Saxon king Eadgar can we begin to speak of a common England, a single kingdom, a national king. Great events were to take place first. When a line of powerful kings had arisen in Wessex, when a more stable government with fixed institutions had been established, and when the kings of Wessex had acted in combination with the church, which had already set the example of a higher system of organization, then, and then only, was political unity possible. But before this could be accomplished the people of England had to suffer miseries due to an invasion. from without. The attacks of the Danes taught the Anglo-Saxons, as far as they ever learned the lesson, the need of united action.