A.D. 797. DEATH OP SIGGA. 29 the Danes, and after him many thousands of thousands were slaughtered by them at different periods ; these too were the first ships of the Danes that arrived here. In the following year, a synod was held in If orthumbria, at Wincanhele.'0 Ln the sixth year of king Brithric, a synod was held at Aclea.51 By infamous treachery, Sigga slew Alwulph, the good king of NOrthumbria. In the same spot where this king, the beloved of God, was slain, a heavenly light was often beheld ; his body was buried in the church of Hagustald. After him, Osred began to reign, but in the following year was betrayed, and expelled from the kingdom. Ethelred, the son of Mollethelwald, was then restored to the kingdom ; and in the fourth year of bis reign, having collected forces for the purpose, Osred was on his return, in order that he might expel Ethelred from the kingdom, by whom he himself had been expelled. On his route he was captured and put to death, and buried at Tynemouth. How just then his remark, who said, " Oh, how blind to the future is the mind of man !" Eor when the above-mentioned youth Osred, dancing and elated with joy, was made king, how little did he think that in the second year from that time, he should be deprived of his throne, and in the fourth, of his life ! For which reason, let us ever be thoughtful in prosperity, being ignorant how near at hand adversity may be. At this time, Offa, king of the Mercians, ordered the head of Saint Ethelbert"* to be cut off, and in these days, Lambert, archbishop of Canterbury, departed this life, and abbat Ethelred was elected in his room archbishop of Canterbury. Eanbald, archbishop of York, consecrated Badulph,55 bishop of "Whitheme. »In the tenth year of king Brithric, there were seen fiery dragons flying through the air, which tokens were followed by two plagues ; first, a dreadful famine, and then the pagan nations coming from Norway and Denmark. These first ravaged the kingdom of Northumbria in a frightful manner, and then, in the district of Lindisfarne, on the ides of January, dreadfully destroyed the churches of Christ, together with the inhabitants ; at which period also, died Sigga, the perfidious duke who had acted the traitor towards the righteous king Elfwald. 10 Finchale. 21 Ockley, in Surrey. 2I* King of East Anglia. 22 A mistake for Eadulph. He was the last bishop of Whitherne.