Egfride died without issue, & left no children behind him.  He had to wife one Ethelreda or Etheldrida, daughter vnto Anna king of the Eastangles, which liued with hir husband the forsaid Egfride twelue yeeres in perfect virginitie (as is supposed) contrarie to the purpose of hir husband, if he might haue persuaded hir to the contrarie, but [Sidenote:  Ethelreda.] finallie he was contented that she should keepe hir first vow of chastitie which she had made.  She was both widow and virgine when he maried hir, being first coupled in wedlocke with one Eunbert a noble [Sidenote:  Giruij.] man, and a ruler in the south parts of the countrie, where the people called Giruij inhabited, which is the same where the fennes lie in the confines of Lincolnshire, Norffolke, Huntingtonshire, & Cambridgeshire, howbeit he liued with hir but a small while.  After she had obteined licence to depart from the court, she got hir first into Coldingham abbeie, and there was professed a nun.  Then she went to Elie, and there restored the monasterie, and was made abbesse of the place, in the which after she had gouerned seuen yeeres, she departed this life, and was there buried.  This same was she which commonlie is called saint Audrie of Elie, had in great reuerence for the opinion conceiued of hir great vertue and puritie of life.

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Alfride (the bastard) king of Northumberland, his life and death, Iohn archbishop of Canturburie resigneth his see, Lother king of Kent dieth of a wound, Edrike getteth the regiment thereof but not without bloudshed, Ceadwalla wasteth Kent being at strife in it selfe, his brother Mollo burned to death; Withred made king of Kent, he vanquisheth his enimies, Inas king of Westsaxons is made his friend, Suebhard and Nidred vsurpers of the Kentish kingdome, the age and death of Theodore archbishop of Canturburie, Brightwald the first archbishop of the English nation; the end of the British regiment, and how long the greatest part of this Iland was vnder their gouernement.

THE XXXVIJ.  CHAPTER.

After that king Egfride was slaine (as before is mentioned) his [Sidenote:  ALFRIDE. 685.] brother Alfride was made king of Northumberland.  This Alfride was the bastard sonne of king Oswie, and in his brothers daies (either willinglie, or by violent means constreined) he liued as a banished man in Ireland, where applieng himselfe to studie, he became an excellent philosopher.  And therfore being iudged to be better able to haue the rule of a kingdome, he was receiued by the Northumbers, and made king, gouerning his subiects the space of 20 yeares and more, with great wisedome and policie, but not with such large bounds as his ancestors had doone:  for the Picts (as before is mentioned) had cut off one peece of the north part of the ancient limits of that kingdome.  About the 13 yeare of his reigne, that is to say, in the [Sidenote:  698.] yeare of our Lord 698, one of his capteins named