The inactivity of his predecessors, and the situation
of his country, secured from all hostility with the Britons, seem
to have much enfeebled the warlike genius of the Kentish Saxons;
and Ethelbert, in his first attempt to aggrandize his country, and
distinguish his own name, was unsuccessful.[*] He was twice discomfited
in battle by Ceaulin, king of Wessex, and obliged to yield the
superiority in the Heptarchy to that ambitious monarch, who preserved
no moderation in his victory, and by reducing the kingdom of Sussex to
subjection, excited jealousy in all the other princes. An association
was formed against him; and Ethelbeit, intrusted with the command of the
allies, gave him battle, and obtained a decisive victory.[**] Ceaulin
died soon after; and Ethelbert succeeded as well to his ascendant among
the Saxon states, as to his other ambitious projects. He reduced all the
princes, except the king of Northumberland, to a strict dependence upon
him; and even established himself by force on the throne of Mercia,
the most extensive of the Saxon kingdoms. Apprehensive, however, of a
dangerous league against him, like that by which he himself had been
enabled to overthrow Ceaulin, he had the prudence to resign the kingdom
of Mercia to Webba, the rightful heir, the son of Crida, who had first
founded that monarchy.
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