A.D. 670.] DEATH OF CADWALLO. 103 and placed it with wonderful art in a brazen statue cast after the measure of his stature. This they set on a brazen horse over the west gate of London, in token of the sway he had exercised over the English nation.* They also built under the same gate a church in honour of the blessed Martin, wherein divine ceremonies might be for ever performed for him, and all who had departed in the faith. He was succeeded in the kingdom by his son Cadwallader, whom Bede calls the young Cedwalla, whose mother was sister to Penda king of the Mercians, whom Cadwallo took to wife, after making peace with her brother, and of her begat Cadwallader. At the same time died Wulpher, king of the Mercians, whose queen Ermenhilda was daughter of Erconbert king of Kent; and of the holy Sexburga his queen, who was the daughter of Anna king of the East-Angles and sister of St. Etheldrida,she bore him St Wereburga, a virgin of excellent virtues, who, on the death of her father, renounced the world, and entered the monastery of Etheldrida, her mother's aunt. Her uncle Athelred, who succeeded her father in the kingdom, on hearing of her sanctity, set her, in the capacity of abbess, over several monasteries of virgins devoted unto God, with whom she lived in regular discipline, serving Christ her king unto the end of her life, and at last departed out of this world in one of her own monasteries called Trikingeham [Trentham], Her body was carried, in accordance with the directions she had given in her lifetime, to the monastery of Heanbirig [Hanbury], where it was honourably entombed. Now, this province remained entire until the time when the impious Danes ravaged with cruel slaughter the English provinces. King Wulfhere had, besides, three brothers, Athelred, Peada, of whom we have spoken before, and Merwald, who reigned in the western quarter of the Mercians. His queen, St. Ermenburga, daughter of Ermenred, brother of Erconbert, king of Kent, bore him three daughters, St. Milburga, St. Mildrida, and St. Milgytha ; she also bore him a son, named Merefin, a youth of exceeding sanctity. Wulfhere was succeeded by his brother Athelred, who, taking to wife Astritha, sister of Egfrid king of the Northumbrians, had by her a son named Ccolred. The same year died Eascwin, king of the West • The account of Cadwallo's death is found nowhere but in Geoffrey of Monmouth.