Such were the questions which were agitated in that age, and which employed the attention not only of cloistered scholars, but of the wisest and greatest princes [n].
[FN [l] Chron.Sax.p.65 [m] Dupin, cent.8.chap.4.

[n] Offa, in order to protect his country from Wales; drew a rampart or ditch of a hundred miles in length, from Basinwerke in Flintshire, to the south- sea near Bristol.

See SPEED'S DESCRIPTION OF WALES.] Egfrith succeeded to his father Offa, but survived him only five months [o], when he made way for Kenulph, a descendant of the royal family.

This prince waged war against Kent, and taking Egbert the king prisoner, he cut off his hands, and put out his eyes, leaving Cuthred, his own brother, in possession of the crown of that kingdom.
Kenulph was killed in an insurrection of the East Anglians, whose crown his predecessor, Offa, had usurped.

He left his son, Kenelm, a minor, who was murdered the same year by his sister, Quendrade, who had entertained the ambitious views of assuming the government [p].
But she was supplanted by her uncle Ceolulf; who, two years after, was dethroned by Beornulf.