hen his ships appeared on their coast, they must at
least remain at home, and provide for their defence. But the
Northumbrians were less anxious to secure their own property, than
greedy to commit spoil on their enemy; and concluding, that the chief
strength of the English was embarked on board the fleet, they thought
the opportunity favourable, and entered Edward's territories with all
their forces. The king, who was prepared against this event, attacked
them on their return at Tetenhall, in the county of Stafford, put them
to rout, recovered all the booty, and pursued them with great
slaughter into their own country.

All the rest of Edward's reign was a scene of continued and successful
action against the Northumbrians, the East Angles, the Five-burgers,
and the foreign Danes who invaded him from Normandy and Britany. Nor
was he less provident in putting his kingdom in a posture of defence,
than vigorous in assaulting the enemy. He fortified the towns of
Chester, Eddesbury, Warwick, Cherbury, Buckingham, Towcester, Maldon,
Huntingdon, and Colchester. He fought two signal battles at Temsford
and Maldon [o]. He vanquished Thurketill, a great Danish chief, and
obliged him to retire with his followers into France, in quest of
spoil and adventures. He subdued the East Angles, and forced them to
swear allegiance to him; he expelled the two rival princes of
Northumberland, Reginald and Sidroc, and acquired, for the present,
the dominion of that province: several tribes of the Britons were
subjected by him; and even the Scots, who, during the reign of Egbert,
had, under the conduct of Kenneth their king, increased their power by
the final subjection of the Picts, were nevertheless obliged to give
him marks of submission [p]. In all these fortunate achievements he
was assisted by the activity and prudence of his sister, Ethelfleda,
who was widow of Ethelbert, Earl of Mercia, and who, after her
husband's death, retained the government of that province. This
princess, who had been reduced to extremity in childbed, refused
afterwards all commerce with her husband; not from any weak
superstition, as was common in that age, but because she deemed all
domestic occupations unworthy of her masculine and ambitious spirit
[q]. She died before her brother; and Edward, during the remainder of
his reign, took upon himself the immediate government of Mercia, which
before had been entrusted to the authority of a governor [r]. The