48 ANNALS OF ROGER DE HOVEDEN. A.D. Ç/4. •with, a handful of men against the pagans ; but, alas ! the enemy was victorious ; nor indeed is it to be wondered at, that the Christians had but a small number of men in the engagement ; for in a single year they had been worn out by eight battles against the pagans, in which one of their kings and nine dukes, with innumerable troops, had been slain. In the year 872, Alchun, bishop of the Wiccii,14 having departed this life, Werefrith, the foster-father of the holy church of Worcester, and a man most learned in the holy scriptures, was ordained bishop by Ethered archbishop of Canterbury, on the seventh day before the ides of June, being the day of Pentecost ; he, at the request of king Alfred, translated the books of the dialogues of the pope Saint Gregory, from the Latin into the Saxon tongue. At the same period, the Northumbrians expelled their king, Egbert, and their archbishop Wulpher. An army of the pagans came to London, and wintered there, on which the Mercians made a treaty with them. In the year 873, the said army left London, and first proceeded to the country of the Northumbrians, and wintered there in the district which is called Lindesig,75 at a place called Torkeseie,'s on which the Mercians again made a treaty of peace with them. Egbert the king of Northumbria dying, his successor was lleisig, who reigned three years. Wulpher, also, was this year recalled to his see. In the year 874, the above-mentioned army left Lindcsey, and, entering Mercia, wintered at a place which is called Beo-padun.77 They also expelled Burrhed king of Mercia, from his kingdom, in the twenty-second year of his reign. Going to Borne, he died there, and was honorably buried in the church of Saint Mary, in the school of the Saxons. After his expulsion, the Danes reduced the kingdom of the Mercians to subjection, and committed it to the charge of a certain military officer of that nation, Ceolwulph by name, on condition that whenever they chose, without any subterfuge, they might take and keep it. 74 The inhabitants of Gloucestershire and Worcestershire. 74 Lindesey in Lincolnshire. 76 Of this place Lambarde says ; " it is a town in Lincolnshire, which, because it stood near the water, and was much washed therewith, obtained the name of an island, for so the latter part of the word, ' eie ' doth signify, the former being the name of some person." 77 Repton in Derbyshire.