A King's Comrade A Story of Old Hereford   By: Charles W. Whistler (1856-1913)

A Story of Old Hereford,

by Charles W. Whistler

PREFACE.

INTRODUCTORY.

CHAPTER I. HOW THE FIRST DANES CAME TO ENGLAND.

CHAPTER II. HOW WILFRID KEPT A PROMISE, AND SWAM IN PORTLAND

CHAPTER III. HOW WILFRID MET ECGBERT THE ATHELING.

CHAPTER IV. HOW WILFRID MET AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE IN NORWICH

CHAPTER V. HOW WILFRID MET THE FLINT FOLK, AND OTHERS.

CHAPTER VI. HOW WILFRID SPOKE WITH ETHELBERT THE KING.

CHAPTER VII. HOW ETHELBERT'S JOURNEY BEGAN WITH PORTENTS.

CHAPTER VIII. HOW ETHELBERT CAME TO THE PALACE OF SUTTON.

CHAPTER IX. HOW QUENDRITHA THE QUEEN WOVE HER PLOTS.

CHAPTER X. HOW GYMBERT THE MARSHAL LOST HIS NAME AS A GOOD

CHAPTER XI. HOW ETHELBERT THE KING WENT TO HIS REST.

CHAPTER XII. HOW QUENDRITHA THE QUEEN HAD HER WILL.

CHAPTER XIII. HOW WILFRID AND ERLING BEGAN THEIR SEARCH.

CHAPTER XIV. HOW WILFRID HAD A FRESH CARE THRUST ON HIM.

CHAPTER XV. HOW WILFRID'S SEARCH WAS REWARDED.

CHAPTER XVI. HOW WILFRID SPOKE ONCE MORE WITH OFFA.

CHAPTER XVII. HOW WILFRID AND HIS CHARGE MET JEFAN THE

CHAPTER XVIII. HOW JEFAN THE PRINCE GUARDED HIS GUESTS.

CHAPTER XIX. HOW WILFRID CAME HOME TO WESSEX.

PREFACE.

Hereford Cathedral bears the name of Ethelbert of East Anglia, king and martyr, round whose death, at the hands of the men of Offa of Mercia, this story of his comrade centres, and dates its foundation from Offa's remorse for the deed which at least he had not prevented. In the sanctuary itself stands an ancient battered statue somewhat hard to find of the saint, and in the pavement hard by a modern stone bears a representation of his murder. The date of the martyrdom is usually given as May 20, 792 A.D.

A brief mention of the occurrence is given under that date in the "Anglo Saxon Chronicle," and full details are recorded by later historians, Matthew of Westminster and Roger of Wendover being the most precise and full. The ancient Hereford Breviary preserves further details also, for which I am indebted to my friend the Rev. H. Housman, B.D., of Bradley.

These authorities I have followed as closely as possible, only slightly varying the persons to whom the portents, so characteristic of the times, occurred, and referring some as is quite possible, without detracting from their significance to men of that day to natural causes. Those who searched for the body of the king are unnamed by the chroniclers, and I have, therefore, had no hesitation in putting the task into the hands of the hero of the tale. The whole sequence of events is unaltered.

Offa's own part in the removal of the hapless young king is given entirely from the accounts of the chroniclers, and the characters of Quendritha the queen and her accomplice Gymbert are by no means drawn here more darkly than in their pages. The story of her voyage and finding by Offa is from Brompton's Annals.

The first recorded landing of the Danes in Wessex, with which the story opens, is from the "Anglo Saxon Chronicle;" the name of the sheriff, and the account of the headstrong conduct which led to his end, being added from Ethelwerd. The exact place of the landing is not stated; but as it was undoubtedly near Dorchester, it may be located at Weymouth with sufficient probability. For the reasons which led to the exile of Ecgbert, and to his long stay at the court of Carl the Great, the authority is William of Malmesbury. The close correspondence between the Mercian and Frankish courts is, of course, historic Offa seeming most anxious to ally himself with the great Continental monarch, if only in name. The position of the hero as an honoured and independent guest at the hall of Offa would certainly be that assigned to an emissary from Carl.