Page:The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Giles).djvu/67

A.D.881–868. at Sherborne; and Ethelbert succeeded to all the realm of his brother, and he held it in goodly concord and in great tranquillity. And in his days a large fleet came to land, and the crews stormed Winchester. And Osric the ealdorman, with the men of Hampshire, Ethelwulf the ealdorman, with the men of Berkshire, fought against the army, and put them to flight, and had possession of the place of carnage. And Ethelbert reigned five years, and his body lies at Sherborne.

A. 861. This year died St. Swithun the bishop.

A. 862.–864.

A. 865. This year the heathen army sat down in Thanet, and made peace with the men of Kent, and the men of Kent promised them money for the peace; and during the peace and the promise of money the army stole away by night, and ravaged all Kent to the eastward.

A. 866. This year Ethelred, Ethelbert's brother, succeeded to the kingdom of the West-Saxons: and the same year a great heathen army came to the land of the English nation, and took up their winter quarters among the East-Angles, and there they were horsed; and the East-Angles made peace with them.

A. 867. This year the army went from East-Anglia over the mouth of the Humber to York in North-humbria. And there was much dissension among that people, and they had cast out their king Osbert, and had taken to themselves a king, Ælla, not of royal blood; but late in the year they resolved that they would fight against the army; and therefore they gathered a large force, and sought the army at the town of York, and stormed the town, and some of them got within, and there was an excessive slaughter made of the North-humbrians, some within, some without, and the kings were both slain: and the remainder made peace with the army. And the same year bishop Ealstan died; and he had the bishopric of Sherborne fifty years, and his body lies in the town.

A. 868. This year the same army went into Mercia to Nottingham, and there took up their winter quarters. And Burhred king of the Mercians, and his 'witan,' begged of Ethelred king of the West-Saxons, and of Alfred his brother,