§ 1. In or about the year 819, Essyllt, the daughter of Cynan Tindaethwy, inherited the throne of Gwynedd, and shared it with her husband Merfyn, a chieftain royally descended in the paternal line, and heir in right of his mother to the kingdom of Powys.

In 819, Cenwulf, the potent king of Mercia, died, and left his sceptre to a child of seven years old, at whose untimely end soon afterwards it was seized upon by Ceolwulf, the brother of Cenwulf. In the second year of Ceolwulf's reign he was supplanted by Beornwulf, who, relying upon the predominance which Offa had acquired and Cenwulf had maintained, rashly provoked the enmity of King Egbert, brought the military strength of Mercia into the field of Ellendune against him, and, after a furious conflict, took to flight among his discomfited veterans, and left the ambitious King of Wessex to pursue his career of conquest, a. d. 823.

In the same year, Egbert subdued an insurrection of the men of Devon and Cornwall, by a battle gained at Camelford. In 827, having completed the subjugation of Mercia, and of all the Teutonic states southward of the Humber, he revived the long dormant title of Bretwalda, and invaded Northumbria, which submitted without a blow, offering tribute and allegiance.