. An English history with illustrations and maps/ by Symes ; adapted for use in Canadian elementary schools by George M. Wrong. t thisThe supremacy ® • - i of Mercia, position, OfFa, the last, was also the wisest and eighth century, j-j^g j^^^^ capable, the greatest king, indeed, that had yet appeared in England. He was a fighter; he defeated the men of Kent and the West Saxons, and he struck a sledge hammer blow against the old enemy the Britons. Up to this time the river Severn had formed a boundary between the English and the Britons, but Offa crossed it, captured 34 THE COMING OF THE
. An English history with illustrations and maps/ by Symes ; adapted for use in Canadian elementary schools by George M. Wrong. t thisThe supremacy ® • - i of Mercia, position, OfFa, the last, was also the wisest and eighth century, j-j^g j^^^^ capable, the greatest king, indeed, that had yet appeared in England. He was a fighter; he defeated the men of Kent and the West Saxons, and he struck a sledge hammer blow against the old enemy the Britons. Up to this time the river Severn had formed a boundary between the English and the Britons, but Offa crossed it, captured 34 THE COMING OF THE NORTHMEN 35 Shrewsbury, the Welsh kings capital, and carried the warfar into the heart of Wales. To pi(jtect his new boundaryhe then built the great earthwork still called OfFas Dyke,and forbade the Welsh to venture out beyond it. Offa was astatesman as well as a fighter. He had the greatness ofMercia very much at heart, and laboured in every way for itswelfare. Among his subjects, the most backward of all theEnglish in these respects, he sought to encourage art andlearning. That Mercia should no longer be under the control. of Canterbury, he persuaded the Pope to make his city, Lichfield, the seat of an archbishopric. He made a written code of the laws by which his dominions were governed. IJut he left none to continue his work, and when he died, Mercia fell into the background. Wessex in the south then came to the front under a great TiT,» o,„,^ov„o,,.n. Ifader, Egbert. Clear-sighted Offa had seenTne supremacy . of Wessex, that this young prince might become a ninth century, dangerous enemy, and had secured his fled to the court of Charles the Gieat, king of the 36 AN ENGLISH HISTORY Franks, who was building up his empire over France, andGermany and Italy, and e\en claimed to succeed the oldRoman Emperors. From Chai-les, Egbert learned manylessons in the arts of war and government, lessons whichhe put into practice when he was called to the throne of theW
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Keywords: ., 8thcentury, battle, england, map, mercia, northumbria, wales, wessex
