The History of England, Volume I The Britons and Romans The kingdom of East Anglia
by David Hume
The history of this kingdom contains nothing memorable except the
conversion of Earpwold, the fourth king, and great-grandson of Uffa,
the founder of the monarchy. The authority of Edwin, King of
Northumberland, on whom that prince entirely depended, engaged him to
take this step; but soon after, his wife, who was an idolatress,
brought him back to her religion, and he was found unable to resist
those allurements which had seduced the wisest of mankind. After his
death, which was violent, like that of most of the Saxon princes that
did not early retire into monasteries, Sigebert, his successor and
half brother, who had been educated in France, restored Christianity,
and introduced learning among the East Angles. Some pretend that he
founded the university of Cambridge, or rather some schools in that
place. It is almost impossible, and quite needless, to be more
particular in relating the transactions of the East Angles. What
instruction or entertainment can it give the reader, to hear a long
bead-roll of barbarous names, Egric, Annas, Ethelbert, Ethelwald,
Aldulf; Elfwald, Beorne, Ethelred, Ethelbert, who successively
murdered, expelled, or inherited from each other, and obscurely filled
the throne of that kingdom? Ethelbert, the last of these princes, was
treacherously murdered by Offa, King of Mercia, in the year 792, and
his state was thenceforth united with that of Offa, as we shall relate
presently.
