kings pursued, made a very fierce attack on the enemy, and cast down the city walls. At length they entered the city, and engaged in battle with the pagans to their own exceeding loss ; for in that fight, which was fought on Palm Sunday, there fell the kings Osbert and Ella, and with them eight nobles, with an immense multitude of inferior rank. The most cruel victors after this ravaged the entire country of the Northumbrians as far as the mouth of the river Tyne, and subdued it to themselves. The kings of the Northumbrians being slain, a certain man of the English nation named Egbert next governed that kingdom, for six years, in subjection to the Danes. In the same year Alfstan, bishop of Sherburne, ended his days. In the times of Egbert and his son Athelwulf, kings of the West-Saxons, his power and influence were great in that kingdom ; for by his services in war he reduced the people of Kent and the East-Angles under the dominion of the aforesaid king Egbert. He also roused the spirit of king Athelwulf against the Danes, who then first began to infest the island; himself too levied money, and having formed an army, fought many spirited and successful battles with the enemy. His power may be understood from the fact of his having kept king Athelwulf out of the kingdom as he was returning from Rome, and made his son Athelbald king in his stead; until at length he permitted the father to return and share the kingdom with his son. After governing his church fifty years, he left it enriched with lands acquired from every quarter ; and as his zeal had been excessive in acquiring, so was his liberality unbounded. He was buried in the cathedral church at Sherburne. Marriage of king Alfred. In the year of our Lord 868, Alfred, brother of king Ethelred, a youth of wonderful goodness, married a wife of the royal race of the Mercians, to wit, a daughter of Ethelred earl of the Gannì [Gainsborough, in Lincolnshire], who was surnained "Muchel," which means "great." Her mother's name was Eadburga, of the noble race of the aforesaid kings ; the damsel's own name was Alswitha. In the same year the army of the Danes, so often mentioned, left the Northumbrians and came to Snotingeham and wintered there. Now Snotingeham is called in the tongue of the Britons " Tinguobauc," and means