Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 01.djvu/183

Ælfwine the convent severely for the part which it had taken in resisting his invasion.

[Liber de Hyda, ed. Edwards, R.S.; Destructio Monast. de Hida, Dugdale, Monasticon, ii. 437; Freeman, Norman Conquest, vols. ii. and iii.]  ÆLFWINE (d. 1047), bishop of Winchester, one of the priests or chaplains of Cnut, was made bishop of Winchester in 1032, and died in 1047. He is said to have been a monk and sacristan of the monastery of St. Swithin's, the cathedral church of Winchester. He is made the lover of Emma, the widow of Æthelred and Cnut, in the famous legend of her ordeal. Emma fell under the displeasure of her son Eadward in 1043, and passed the rest of her life in retirement at Winchester, which was the natural place for her abode. In order to make the relations between the bishop and the lady perfectly intelligible, the legend-mongers represent Ælfwine as her kinsman, and allege that he came over from Normandy with her; that he was then a layman, and that before he became a monk he was earl of Hampshire. The whole story is unhistorical. It is one of the most famous legends of our early history, and was the subject of a ballad said to have been sung at Winchester, in 1333, at the enthronement of Adam of Orlton.

[Anglo-Saxon Chron.; Ann. Winton. ap. Annales Monast. ii. 21, ed. Luard, R.S.; Rudborne, Hist. Maj. ap. Wharton's Anglia Sacra, i. 233; Higden, Polychronicon; Warton, History of English Poetry, i. 87.]  ÆLLA (d. 514?), a Saxon ealdorman, landed in Britain with his three sons in 477. The place of his landing, Keynor, or Cymen's ora, preserves the name of his eldest son. Ælla defeated the Britons, and made them flee for shelter to the great forest of the Andredsweald. The invaders established themselves along the coast, and were called South Saxons. They made slow progress in the work of conquest. Many native princes combined together against them, and, in 485, fought with Ælla and his sons ‘near the bank of Mearcrædsburn.’ The battle was bloody and indecisive. Ælla found his forces so much weakened that he sent for help to his countrymen across the sea. His invitation was answered by a large Saxon immigration. With this reinforcement Ælla and his son Cissa, in 491, laid siege to the strong city of Anderida. The city was girt by Roman walls, of which large portions still remain. The defence was obstinate. Henry of Huntingdon records the traditional details of the siege. The population was thick, for Anderida stood in the midst of a mining district. When the city fell, Ælla ‘slew all that dwelt therein, so that not one Briton was left there.’ The overthrow of Anderida raised Ælla to the kingship of the South Saxons. He is said to have helped the West Saxons in 508 in their struggle with Natanleod. Ælla was looked on as the head of all the Teutonic settlers in Britain, and is reckoned as the first Bretwalda. He died about 514, and was succeeded by his third son, Cissa.

[Anglo-Saxon Chron.; Henry of Huntingdon, lib. ii.; Bede, Hist. Eccles. lib. ii. cap. 5.]  ÆLLA (d. 588), king of the Deirans, was the son of Iffa, ealdorman of the Deirans, an Anglian tribe settled in the country called in later times the East Riding of Yorkshire. On the death of Ida, the Deirans cast off the Bernician supremacy, and, in 559, Ælla was made the first Deiran king, while the descendants of Ida continued to reign in the northern kingdom. It may be that the rivalry of these two Anglian kingdoms was the determining cause of the introduction of Latin Christianity into England, by sending into slavery those Anglian youths who excited the interest of Gregory in the market at Rome. Gregory, after playing on the name of their people, asked of what tribe they were, and being told that they were of Deira, he declared that they must be delivered from wrath. Next he asked the name of their king. ‘Ælla,’ was the answer. ‘Then,’ said he, ‘Alleluia should be sung in that land.’ Ælla did not live to see this come to pass. On his death, in 588, the Bernician king Æthelric subdued Deira. The two sons of Ælla fled into exile. The younger of them, Eadwine, was destined to return and reign gloriously. A daughter of Ælla named Acha married Æthelfrith, the son and successor of Æthelric, and had several sons by him. One of these was Oswald, under whose rule both the Northumbrian kingdoms were united.

[Anglo-Saxon Chron.; Florence of Worcester; Bede, Hist. Ecc. ii. 1, iii. 6; Green, Making of England, c. 5 and 6.]  ÆLLA (d. 867), though not of royal blood, was chosen king by the Northumbrians, when they deposed Osberht. While Northumbria was divided between the parties of the two kings, the Danish host, which had wintered in East Anglia, crossed the mouth of the Humber and took York. By the intervention of the chief men of the land peace was made between the rival kings. They joined their forces, and drove the Danes into York. Part of their army succeeded in