He went to the court of Charlemagne, and was with the great
king of the Franks in Rome on Christmas Day, 800, when the Pope
placed the crown on Charles' head and proclaimed him emperor.
Soon after this a welcome message came to Egbert. The mind of the
people in Wessex had changed and they had elected him king. So
bidding farewell to Charlemagne, he hurried to England.
Egbert had seen how Charlemagne had compelled the different quarreling
tribes of Germany to yield allegiance to him and how after uniting
his empire he had ruled it well.
Egbert did in England what Charlemagne had done in Germany.
He either persuaded the various petty kingdoms of the Angles, the
Saxons and the Jutes to recognize him as their ruler, or forced them
to do so; and thus under him all England became one united kingdom.
But Egbert did even better than this. He did much to harmonize
the different tribes by his wise conciliation. The name "England"
is a memorial of this; for though Egbert himself was a Saxon,
he advised that to please the Angles the country should be called
Anglia (An'-gli-a), that is, Angleland or England, the land of the
Angles, instead of Saxonia (Sax-on-i'-a), or Saxonland.
Pages:
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118