64 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

cessful in his warlike enterprises against Lothaire,king of Kent, and Kenwulph , king of Wefsex.He defeated the former in a bloody battle atOtford upon th'e Darent, and reduced his king-dom to a state of dependence : He gained avictory over the latter at Bensington in Oxford-fliire ; and conquering that country , togetherwith that of Glocester , annexed both tohis dominions. But all these successes werestained by his treacherous murder of Ethelbert,king of the East-Angles , and his violent seizingof that kingdom. This young prince , who issaid to have possessed great merit, had paid hisaddresses to Elfrida, the daughter df Ossa, andwas invited with all his retinue to Hereford , inorder to solemnize the nuptials. Amidst the joyand festivity of these entertainments , he wasseized by Ossa, and secretly beheaded : Andthough Elfrida, who abhorred her father’s treacheryhad time to give warning to the East-Angliannobility, who escaped into their own country,Ossa, having extinguished the royal family, suc.ceeded in his design of subduing that kingdom Ior .The perfidious prince, desirous of re-establishinghis character in the world , and perhaps of appeas-ing the remorses of his own conscience , payedgreat court to the clergy, and practised all themonkish devotions , so much esteemed in thatignorant and superstitious age. He gave thetenth of his goods to the church ; bestowed

Brompton, p. 750, 751, 752.

" Spacl. Cone. p. 308. liroinpton, p. 776.

rich