Note 16 — AN ESSAY, &c.
Reading edition
A. D. 791. Eadburga married Brithric king of Wessex.—M. West. 282. Chr. Mailros, 139; but 787 is the date assigned to this event in Ingr. Sax. Chron.
792. “This year Offa, king of Mercia, commanded that king Ethelbert should be beheaded; and Osred who had been king of the Northumbrians (Deira), returning home after his exile, was apprehended, and slain on the eighteenth day before the calends of October. His body is deposited at Tinemouth. Ethelred this year, on the third day before the calends of October, took unto himself a new wife, whose name was Elfleda.”—Ingr. Sax. Chron. p. 79. Chron. Mailr.
The following couplet describes the person and character of the unfortunate Ethelbert.
“Albertus juvenis fuerat rex, fortis in armis, Pace pius, pulcher corpore, mente sagax.” Vita Offæ Secundi.
For fuller particulars see an interesting chapter in Holinshed’s History, b. 6. ch. 5.