; ( 1 1 i ENGL?^ND FROM EARLlfiS^ TIMES TO THE GREAT CHARTER GILBERT STONE IDA /'3 S81 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY DATE DUE _._^^ — 1 GAYLORD PRINTEDINU.S.A. DA 130.887™" """"''•>' ^'"'"'^ ^"^INIlftllilimiTiliia'SI,,'''^" '0 *e Grea 3 1924 027 942 345 The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027942345 GREAT NATIONS ENGLAND .S&W y&ii^i?. ENGLAND FROM EARLIEST TIMES TO THE GREAT CHARTER BY GILBERT STONE Author of "Wales ** Sometime Scholar of Gonville aod Caius College Cambridge B.A. LL.B. NEW YORK FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY PUBLISHERS 3 J i 3 ^ 3 B Siotliswoode, Ballantyne &• Co. Ltd., Printers, Ltndon,Colchesitr and Eton, Englatid \-0 PREFACE THE present volume, which is the first of a series, treats of the history of England from earliest times to Magna Carta. In this period the EngUsh race was being evolved, and the English Constitution, as we to-day .know it, was slowly struggUng into being. The volume, indeed, is concerned with the birth of the English State. That splendid creation wa.3 not produced without much labour. CiviUzations arose and fell away ; conquest succeeded conquest ; Briton and Roman, Saxon, Dane, and Norman followed one another in. possession of the reins of power : but at length, after battles without number, after countless struggles in Church and State, the English found themselves firmly planted in this island, and standing at the threshold of the Empire which in later years was to open its doors to them. Though we have not, on the whole, to deal with such great events as those which make notable our cotmtry's subsequent growth into maturity, that is not to say that our period possesses little movement. The youth of England was a sturdy and striving one. Progress and retrogression alter- nate, and the social history of the period is both complex and varied. We shall see pass across our stage the early people struggUng from savagery into a quasi-civilization ; we shall watch the coming of the Romans and their final departure ; we shall be concerned with the arrival of the pagan Saxons and their conversion ; we shall note the rise of the kingdoms of Kent and Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex, and their commingling under the blows rained upon them by the Danes ; we shall finally consider the coming of v HISTORY OF ENGLAND the Normans, the conflicts between King and Church and barons, the gain of great dominions abroad and their loss ; and we shall close with the struggle between King and people which placed the keystone in the English arch of liberty. Besides these political events it is the purpose of this book, as of the series, to consider the social life of the people. The plan adopted in the present volume has been to insert certain chapters solely concerned with the state of literature, art, and society in the period under review. I must express my great indebtedness to the many briUiant scholars whose researches have made certain many things which formerly were imcertain or tmknown. I have drawn largely on the labours of others — in all cases, I hope, making due acknowledgment — in order to be able to give to the general reader an account of the period which is substan- tially accurate. The pubUcation of this volume has been delayed owing to the fact that work at the Admiralty has occupied me for many months. The delay must have been yet greater had it not been for the kindness of the publishers in reHevingI me of much of the labour connected with passing the work through the press. In particular I must acknowledge the care with which Mr C. C. Wood, who has also compiled the index, has read the proofs. GII.BERT STONE CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. Pre-Roman Albion i Neolithic Man : The Bronze-users : The Goidels : The Britons : I o W IS w M W O < a THE ROMAN CONQUEST child and kinsfolk captive. He sought refuge with the Queen of the Brigantes, whose territories were in Yorkshire ; but she, fearing the Romans, in turn treacherously surrendered him to his conqueror, loaded with chains. He and his people were sent as captives to Rome, where a public holiday was declared, that the citizens might see this most stubborn of British chiefs. He appears while captive to have borne him- self with dignity ; he was pardoned, but apparently remained in Rome, whose wealth at once exacted his admiration and wonder.^ Although Caratacus was now disarmed and a captive, the resistance of the Silures was by no means broken. They seem to have continued a guerrilla campaign, and when Ostorius died a few years later, worn out with the fatigues of constant warfare, the people he had sworn to exterminate were still fighting bravely. Gaius Suetonius Paulinus Ostorius was followed by Suetonius, who in a.d. 6i took steps to complete the conquest of North Wales. It was suggested by Theodor Mommsen that Britain was originally invaded by Caesar in order to break the strength of the secret alliance between Britain and Gaul, which had resulted in this island being at once a refuge-ground for the defeated and a recruiting-ground for fresh enemies. What Caesar had thought in Gaul Suetonius imagined in Wales. M6n, later called Ongulsey by the Norsemen and Anglesey by their descendants, had been for years the last retreat of British fugitives, even as it was believed by the Romans to be the chief seat and centre of the Druidic religion. To this island, therefore, Suetonius directed his forces. Though at first checked by the absence of boats, his soldiers, nothing daunted, eventually succeeded in ' Dion Cassius tells the following story : " Caratacus, one of the British leaders, being captured, was sent to Rome, and Claudius, wearing his imperial robes, brought him to the tribunal. He obtained his pardon and, with his wife and children, remained in Italy. Once, when perambulating the city, and observing its extent and the splendour of the houses, ' Why,' said he, ' do ye, who possess so many and such splendid buildings, covet oiir humble habitations ? ' " 31 HISTORY OF ENGLAND swimming across the channel and in ravaging a part of the island and bringing its inhabitants to a partial submission. BOADICEA, OR BpUDICCA It was while Suetonius was so engaged that the terrible news arrived of the massacre of the Roman colony at Camulodunum. The causes of the revolt are somewhat difficult to determine. Xiphilene ^ tells us that the cause was the sale of certain property which Claudius had given to the British chiefs ; he also confirms the story that that usurious philosopher Seneca, having lent " a thousand myriads of money in expectation of interest, suddenly and violently called in his loan." 2 Other authorities inform us that the daughters of King Prasutagus had been violated and his wife, Boadicea, ill-used. The British chieftainess determined to lead her people against the Romans. Dion has preserved for us an account both of her appearance and of the speech which she is sup- posed to have delivered to her people before going into battle. We are told that she was mighty in stature, terrible of aspect ; her voice was harsh and her countenance savage ; around her neck was a large golden collar or torque, across her bosom a parti-coloured vest was tightly drawn, while over this she wore a thick mantle, fastened with a brooch or clasp. Her hair, which was yellow, fell over all, even down to her girdle. We will spare the reader the speech with which Boadicea, according to Dion, roused her countrymen to take up arms once more against Rome ; it is entirely imaginary. Suffice it that for one reason or another the Britons rebelled. Camulodunum, a thriving and populous city, protected only by some two hxmdred soldiers hastily gathered together by 1 Xiphilene, or Joannes Xiphilinus, may simply be regarded as an editor of Dion Cassius, but since he took the liberty of altering his original, the learned editor of the Monumenta Historica Bntannica was doubtless correct when he placed many of his excerpts from Dion under the heading Xiphilene. He wrote toward the end of the eleventh century. ^ He lent 10,000,000 sesterces at ruinous rates. It was a disgrace for a Roman to lend to a Roman for interest. They were permitted, however, to lend to a foreigner. 32 THE ROMAN CONQUEST the procurator Decianus Cato, was sacked and its iniiabi- tants put to the sword. I/ondinium and Verulamium were likewise laid waste, and in all some 70,000 people were massacred. Decianus Cato, overwhelmed by the disaster, turned coward and fled for his life to Gaul ; Quintus Petilius Cerialis, at the head of the Ninth I^egion, was utterly defeated and lost most of his men. Suetonius hurried by forced marches with but some 10,000 men, mainly belonging to the Fourteenth I^egion, to Londinium. Meanwhile the commander of the Second I^egion was ordered to join forces with him. Fear, however, conquered, and the Second I/Cgion remained at Isca. Suetonius had thus to meet a numerous anci vic- torious foe. The Second I^egion having failed him, Suetonius abandoned I^ondinium to its fate, and Verulamium was now beyond hope of succour. Turning, therefore, to the east, he sought to join forces with the remnant of the Ninth I^egion, which had succeeded in retiring upon I^incoln. Boadicea, meanwhile, was advancing northward, harassing him and endeavouring to prevent the junction of the Roman forces. At last the Romans decided upon battle. The result was an overwhelming victory for them. Boadicea herself died either by poison self-administered or by disease. At about the same time the leader of the Second Itnf i■^^i^1Kh^ u-i.Tlu-lf ;,oi,tVnS .4,...,, |i (VliUf -jl.,^^ -ffcr«„^ rf,^.A f ■M-av.l/U.Ii 1 Jfitt^i^ ^^«t.' idif^btua tfjJ«lVnirn 'I'l'ni.t^v'i.vb y, f- .■ ,!-t Plate XIV. A Page from the Manuscript of the " Anglo-Saxox Chronicle " 78 THE ANGLO-SAXON CONQUEST epistles are invaluable. For the story of the actual invasion he is comparatively useless. What we have said of Bede applies, as regards the period of which we are now speaking, with even more force to the Chronicle. As Mr Plummer ^ has pointed out, the earlier part of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is based on Bede. It is later in time and it is cast in the mechanical form commonly adopted by the annalist. However, the compilers have preserved to us some new facts, and for such we must be thankful. PicTS AND Scots Though handicapped by lack of authority, we will yet endeavour to give some sort of coherent account of the steps leading up to the invasion ; of the deeds which followed and which changed Brythonic Britain into Teutonic Angle-land. As with all great historical events, the causes which led up to the change were not the product of a year or even decades of years. For more than two centuries the Romans had found it necessary to protect the shores of Britain with their navy. The revolt of Carausius had shown how dependent Britain was on sea- power. Not only had the barbarians been beaten off from the coasts ; they had been kept at bay by the wall and vallum built, as we have seen, by Hadrian and Severus. All these expensive forms of defence had certainly not been undertaken save under a pressiag necessity. Appoiutments of fleet com- manders were made at least as early as a.d. 130.^ Two hundred and seventy years later there appears in the Notitia (a.d. 400) the significant title of ' the Count of the Saxon Shore.' ^ Already the district from the Wash to the south coast had been fortified. Some time before the Second I^egion had been removed from Isca Silurum to Rutupiae, or Rich- borough, on the Kentish coast. 1 In his preface to vol. i of Ws edition of the Saxon chronicles. It has recently been suggested that the early part of the Chronicle is based on Celtic sources and is generally untrustworthy. This, however, is not established. ' See ante, p. 39. ' It does not follow that this office was first established then ; probably it was created much earlier. 79 HIS^TORY OF ENGLAND It is not, however, to the Saxon or Angle sea-rovers that our own early historians would have us look for the disasters which befell the Britons. It is the Picts and Scots who are regarded as responsible for the downfall, together with the folly of the British king Vortigern.^ Gildas, it is true, regards Maximus as largely responsible for Britain's undefended state, for, as he says, " Britain was left deprived of all her soldiers and armed men . . . and of the flower of her youtli, who went with Maximus . . . and never again returned." Nevertheless, it is the Picts and Scots whom he speaks of as having taken advantage of her vmprotected state. These people having constantly oppressed and attacked the Britons, letters were sent to Rome asking aid. Rome replied ^ by sending her legions, who beat back the enemy ; but the danger having passed, the Romans returned. Again the barbarians swept down upon Britain, " like hungry and ravening wolves, rushing with greedy jaws upon the fold now left without a shepherd." Again embassies were sent to Rome imploring aid. Once more help was given, but this time the Romans warned the provincials that aid could not always be rendered. The islanders were advised to arm themselves, to practise the art of war, and to prepare to protect themselves from their enemies. Yet again, the Romans haviug returned, the Picts and Scots, " like worms which in the heat of midday come forth from their holes, hastily land again from their canoes . . . diSering from one another in manners, but in- spired with the same thirst for blood, and all more eager to cover their vile faces in shaggy hair than to hide with decent clothing those parts of their body which required it." * It is worth remaiking that Theodosius the Elder fought against these Picts and Scots (see ante, p. 47) in Kent and relieved London, which they were threatening. We can hardly telieve that his opponents had inarched right through Britain from Caledonia or that they had come from Ireland. It is probable that they were sea-rovers. ' Gildas now introduces the walls. His account of the giving of aid reads as though the Romans came from Italy and then returned. His treatment of these years is confused, but Zosimus states that Honorius wrote to the cities of Britain bidding them defend themselves, which looks as though appeals had been made. 80 THE ANGLO-SAXON CONQUEST By this time, however, the second and stronger wall (according to Gildas) had been built, and the Britons were keeping watch. But it was all useless. The barbarians dragged the defenders from the walls and slew them ; a way was made by the attackers across the defences ; cities were ravaged and laid waste ; the Britons were butchered like sheep, and the wail of women and children was heard through- out the land. Once more the Britons appealed to Rome, sending to Aetius the letter which commences " To Aetius, thrice consul : the groans of the Britons," and recounting how " the barbarians drive us to the sea ; the sea casts us back to the barbarians : two forms of death alone await us — we are slaughtered or drowned." Now, however, they appealed to deaf ears. Alaric was knocking at the gates of Rome itself. The brave Vandal Stilicho, after keeping hosts of enemies at bay by his doubtful and dangerous policy, had been put to death. lyess than three decades later Aetius was facing the Htms imder Attila. Rome, herself now in great danger, had little aid to give to that Britain which, in a few years, had produced four pretenders to the Imperial power. ^ VORTIGERN Britain, thus left to her own resources, seems to have availed herself of an expedient not dissimilar to that adopted in earlier years by Stihcho ; the barbarians were called in as a protection against the barbarians — the Angles from the Baltic were appealed to for help against the Picts of Caledonia and the Scots of Ireland. As we have said, the authorities for this period are slender and none too correct ; but if we follow Gildas, who is certainly our primary authority, we must believe that after Aetius had refused aid the people of Britain began to suffer famine as a result of the depredations of their enemies, the Picts and Scots. Eventually, however, the Britons gained a victory * J. B. Bury would seem to suggest {Roman Empire, vol. i, p. iii) that Stilicho had intentionally set the barbarians to the attack upon Britain to prevent British usurpers from doing more harm. F 8l HISTORY OF ENGLAND wHch drove back the invaders. Peace reigned for a time, and with peace plenty. With wealth grew up every kind of luxury and licentiousness. The Britons became once more easy victims for their enemies to plunder. Soon it became evident that a new and more terrible danger threatened. Messengers arrived bringing the news that their enemies were rapidly approaching with intent to devastate the whole country. , Rapidly a cotmcil was called by Vortigem,'- the leader of the British, and it was decided to call in the aid of the Saxons to repel the invasion from the north. Then indeed does Gildas pour out the full torrent of his anger. " What dense darkness must have enshrouded their minds — darkness desperate and cruel ! " we hear him cry. " The very people whom, when absent, they dreaded more than death itself were invited to live . . . under the selfsame roof. A multitude of whelps came from the lair of this savage Uoness, in three cyuls, as they call them — that is, in three ships of war — ^with their sails wafted by the wind and with omens and prophecies favourable." The leaders, Hengist and Horsa,* having been invited by Vortigern, now landed in Britain, leading their Saxon and Angle followers. According to Roger of Wendover, "When at last they [Hengist and Horsa] stood before the King, he asked them respecting the faith and religion of their ancestors, on which Hengist repUed : ' We worship the gods of our fathers — Saturn, Jupiter, and the other deities who govern the world, and especially Mercury, whom in our tongue we call Woden, and to whom our fathers dedicated the fourth day of the week, which to this day is called Wodensday ; next to him we worship the most powerful goddess Frea, to whom they dedicated the sixth day, which, after her, we call Friday.' ' I grieve much,' said Vort^em, ' for your belief, or, rather, for your unbehef ; but I am exceedingly rejoiced at your coming, which, whether brought about by God or ^ Gildas calls him Gurthrigem ; the Brut y Tywysogion, Gwrtheym ; the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Wyrtgeorn. ' Bade first introduces these naraes. THE ANGLO-SAXON CONQUEST otherwise, is most opportune for my urgent necessities.' " Whatever we may think of Vortigern's cross- questioning of Hengist concerning his religious beUefs, we may probably accept as an historic fact the statement that about the middle of the fifth century the Angles and Saxons began to settle in the eastern part of the island. The first-comers, finding the land to their liking, are found sending to their countrymen accounts of the fertility of the land and the nothingness of the Britons. The glowing accounts thus received caused more and yet more of the barbarians to cross the seas and estabUsh themselves with their unhappy hosts. For a time it would seem that the new-comers kept the pact which the Britons had made with them. The men of the North had been met in battle and defeated. But soon the victors began to make new demands upon the Britons. Food and clothing were given in abundance, and for a time the allowance of provisions, being plentifully bestowed, " stopped their doggish mouths," as Gildas puts it. lyittle by little, however, larger claims were made, new quarrels created. Finally, they followed up by deeds their threats to break their treaty and plunder the whole island. By this time the messages of the first-comers had brought into the island more of their kinsmen, Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. According to Bede, the Jutes, in time, occupied the Isle of Wight, Kent, and a part of the province of Wessex. The Saxons were the ancestors of the men of Essex, Sussex, and the West Saxons of Wessex ; the Angles, of the people of East Anglia and Mercia and Northumbria. As we have seen, the invaders came originally under the leadership of Hengist and Horsa, who landed, according to the Chronicle, at Ypwines-fleot (Ebbsfleet, in Thanet) in a.d. 449. At last, when their numbers began to terrify the native Britons, an alliance was entered into between the new-comers and the very people whom they had been invited to subdue. According to Nennius, the cause of this change of attitude was to be found in the Saxons' increased demands, which had moved the Britons to request their return 83 HISTORY OF ENGLAND to their old homes. The same writer informs us that Hengist persuaded the British king, Vortigern, to allow him to send for more men so that the common enemy could be completely destroyed, that Vortigern assented, and that sixteen vessels of warriors came over the seas, with them being Hengist's beautiful daughter, whom Vortigern, we are told, " at the instigation of the devil, and enamoured with the beauty of the damsel," demanded, promising Hengist " to give for her whatever he should ask." Hengist demanded the province of Kent, and this being granted, " the maid was delivered up to the King." Again Hengist advised Vortigern to assent to more men being summoned, and again new ships, now to the number of forty, came oversea to Britain. Hengist, indeed, continued, according to Nennius, sending for men from his native country, so that some of the islands from which they came were completely denuded of inhabitants. Systematic Conquest Commenced At last the Angles and Saxons seem to have felt strong enough to commence a systematic conquest of the island.* The treaty with the Britons was broken, and the Pict of the north, who had probably long before joined with the Angle for the devastation of North Britain, was looked upon rather as an ally than as an enemy. Now indeed, according to Bede, who echoes for us the words of Gildas, the whole island was subjected to a pitiless ravaging : buildings were overthrown, temples desecrated, towns levelled * We dismiss without comment the story introduced by Nennius of the murder of the Britons by the Saxons. According to Nennius, Hengist gave a feast to celebrate the ratification of the treaty of alliance between Saxon and Briton. He invited thereto the King and many nobles and leaders to the number of about three hundred. The Saxons too were invited, each man being warned to bring with him a dagger and to be ready to use it to stab his neighbour when at the appropriate moment the cry should be raised : ' ' Saxons, seize your daggers ! " The King was to be spared. The feast proceeded for some time, until the Britons began to get merry and, at last, drunk. Then the bold Hengist called out : " Saxons, seize your daggers ! " and instantly his followers drew their daggers and, falling each upon his neighbour, slew him. The King, we are told, was made captive, and oidy purchased his freedom by surrendering the provinces of Essex, Sussex, and Middlesex, " besides other districts to be chosen by his betrayers." 84 THE ANGLO-SAXON CONQUEST to the ground, women and children murdered, and the people who had once dwelt in the fertile plains of central and southern Britain were driven to the mountains and forests of the west and the north. As Gildas writes, " All the columns were levelled with the ground ... all the husbandmen driven away, together with their bishops and priests and people, whilst the sword shone, and the flames burst out aroimd them on all sides. Grievous to behold in the streets lay the tops of stately towers, tumbled to the ground, stones of high walls, holy altars, parts of corpses smeared with livid clots of coagulated blood, appearing as though they had been squeezed together in a press. No burial was possible tmless in the ruins of the houses, or in the ravening bellies of beasts and birds of prey. . , . Some ... of the miserable remnant of the people, being seized in the mountains, were slaughtered in great numbers ; others, compelled by famine, surrendered to their foes and yielded themselves to perpetual slavery, exposing themselves to the risk of instant death, which, in truth, was the greatest boon that could be granted them ; others crossed the seas with loud lamentations." Though Gildas speaks of these disasters as if they had befallen within a short space of time, it would seem that the Saxons did not extensively conquer Britain for many years. Gildas, indeed, speaks with authority, for he was bom but a few years after the events he was recounting had occurred. When we turn to the chronicles left by the invaders we find, however, that the progress made was slow. Many a battle was fought and lost or won before the Angles and Saxons and Jutes succeeded in driving the Britons from England to Wales, to Cornwall, and to Strathclyde. Germanus Before we can relate the various battles which were fought against the Britons by the invaders we must mention the name and deeds of the famous bishop Germanus, for he it was who was deemed in later years responsible for a great and decisive victory won by the Britons — ^probably the victory 85 HISTORY OF ENGLAND which, according to Gildas, held the barbarian at bay for a time and heralded a period of plenty and luxury. Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre/ was a well-known saint of the fifth century whose deeds have been preserved to us in large part through the writings of Constantius of Lyons. Gildas appears to have known nothing of the holy Bishop, but both Bede and Nennius have much to say of the marvels worked by him. According to Bede, some years after the Pelagian heresy ^ had corrupted the Britons, Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, and IvUpus of Troyes were sent into Britain to confirm the people's faith. The subsequent journeys of the missionaries, if we believe Constantius, were marked from the very outset by many miraculous manifestations. Even while crossing the sea we find Germanus, by his prayers and the sprinkling of holy water, quelling a tempest. On landing he expelled many evil spirits, gave sight to the blind, quenched fires, and cured diseases. In spite of these triumphs of faith the Britons obstinately continued in their imorthodox behefs, even after the return of the Saint. But although blind to his manifold perfections as a priest, and while spurning his spiritual aid, the Britons yet sought his leadership in battle and his guidance in the affairs ,of war. At this time the Picts and Scots were threatening. The opposing forces met at Rhual, near Mold, in Flintshire, some time about the year 429. The Britons, led by Germanus, took up their position in a valley surrounded by hiUs, and the Saint, choosing the most active of his followers, sent them out as scouts. By this means news of the advance of the enemy and knowledge of his dispositions were ascertained. The good Bishop, who had prepared for battle by prayers and whose host was still wet with the water of baptism, awaited the approach of the foe, the Britons lying in ambush. At the appro- priate moment Germanus, bearing the standard, ordered his men to repeat his words after him in a loud voice. As ^ An account of this saint was published in 1908 by the monk R. P. Germaui-Marie des Noyers, entitled Saint Germain I'Auxerrois. 2 See ante, p. 62 n. Germanus made two visits to Britain, the first in c. 429-430, the second in c. 446-447, 86 THE ANGLO-SAXON CONQUEST the enemy advanced, unaware of the existence of the hidden foe, the Bishop's men three times cried out, " Hallelujah ! " The shout, taken up by their followers and re-echoed by the surrounding hills, swelled out into a roar of triumph, so that their enemies, deeming themselves surrounded and over- whelmed by numbers, fled panic-stricken, abandoning their arms, desiring only to save themselves by flight. The dis- ordered foe were drowned in great numbers while attempting to cross a river. The victory was, indeed, decisive, and, as Bede tells us, "the scattered spoUs were gathered up, the devout soldiers rejoiced in the victory which Heaven had granted them." First Battles between Saxon and Briton It was after this victory that the Britons enjoyed, as we have seen, the period of plenty which, according to Gildas, only served to create civil discord, new vices and wickedness. Within sixteen years the victors were constrained to appeal to Aetius, and, on his refusing aid, to call in the Saxons. Within twenty years of the departure of Germanus the people who, cleansed with the water of baptism, had, under the leadership of the Saint, driven back the Picts, were compelled to ally themselves with the pagans. This was, as we have seen, in 449. For six years the Saxons fought in support of the Britons, but in 455, the Chronicle tells us, " Hengist and Horsa fought against King Vortigem at the place called Aegaelesthrep ;i his brother Horsa was there slain, and after that Hengist and Aesc his son obtained the kingdom." In the year following " another sanguinary battle was fought, this time at Crayford. Some 4000 of the Britons were slain, and the inhabitants of Kent fled in terror and took refuge in I^ondon [Lunden byrig). After this victory there seems to have been a lull for some nine years. In 465 (466) we find Hengist and Aesc once more ' Aylesford and Elstree have been suggested ; Plummer seems to favour the former. ' One text gives 456 and another 457 as the date. The dates throughout cannot be given correctly within more than one year. 87 HISTORY OF ENGLAND returning to the attack, when twelve Welsh (that is, enemy) chiefs were slain near Wippedes-fleote.i The Saxons on their side did not escape without loss, losing a thegn whose name, we are told, was Wipped. As yet nothing very decisive had taken place, notwithstanding the flight to I^ondon in 456, In 473, however, the Saxons inflicted a decisive defeat upon their enemy. In that year Hengist and Aesc defeated the Britons and took countless booty, " and the Welsh fled from the Angles as from fire." It is probably from this battle that we should date the conquest of Kent. Four years later another leader landed in Britain. The new-comer, AeUe, accompanied by his three sons, Cymen, Wlencing, and Cissa, came in three sldps with his followers and disembarked at Cymenes-ora.^ For some years we hear nothing of Aelle, but in 485 he fought against the Welsh near Mearcraedes Bum, a battle of which Henry of Huntingdon says so much, but of which we really know nothing, not even the result, which was probably adverse to the invaders. Three years later (488) Aesc apparently succeeded his father Hengist and reigned as King of Kent for twenty-four years. Meanwhile Aelle and his son Cissa continued to harass the Britons. Of the next two years we know nothing. In 491 the Saxons are found besieging the Roman town of Anderida. This city, which had enjoyed centuries of peace, was stubbornly defended ; but at last the besiegers obtained an entry, and, having the inhabitants at their mercy, they put them to the sword, " so that not a single Briton was there left."* Roman Anderida, which had flourished for centuries, was left desolate, so that to-day its very site is doubtful. * Unidentified. Ebbsfleet has been suggested, but Plummer doubts. The whole entry appears to us to be doubtful. ' Earle suggests Shoreham as the modem equivalent. Plummer points out that Wlencing's name is preserved in Lancing and Cissa's in Chichester. ' It has been argued from this that the war was a war of extermination. As Plummer points out, however, the total destruction is mentioned as some- thing exceptional. The Teutonic invasion of Britain in the fifth century was about as brutal as, and no more so than, the Teutonic invasion of Belgium in the twentieth. THE ANGLO-SAXON CONQUEST Arrival of the West Saxons Four years after this massacre, in 495, the West Saxons first came over the seas in five ships, which were beached at a place called Cerdics-ora. Their leader was Cerdic ; it is he who is generally regarded as the founder in England of our Royal House, and it is this people, in conjunction with the Angles, which is supposed to have contributed so largely to the forma- tion of the people of England.^ We find them being imme- diately opposed by the Britons and read of a battle being fought " on the same day." Presumably the Saxons were victorious and the landing was accomplished. Battle of Mount Badon It was about this time that the famous battle of Mount Badon was fought.* According to Gildas and Bede, the leader of the Britons was Ambrosius Aurelianus, a Roman who, alone of that nation, had survived the misfortunes of the precediag century, in which his parents, who were of the royal race, had perished. Nennius, however, discards the Roman leader and boldly tells us that it was the British hero Arthur, who now enters the pages of history for the first time, who led his people to victory. Whether he was the descendant of one of the Roman tyrants or usurpers, or of the Comes Britanniae, or whether he was some British chief who had gathered his countrymen around him, the victory seems to have been an important one and probably stopped a further advance by the invaders for some years. The struggle still continued, however, and although it is clear that the Britons were fighting valiantly, fresh hordes ' It is extremely easy to give too much prominence to the Teutonic part of the English race. The English people are very composite in nationality. The Saxons and Angles were conquered by the Dane.s, and the Danes by the Normans. The Angles were, indeed, serfs rather than rulers in England by the thirteenth century. There is quite as much Celtic as Teutonic blood in the average Englishman of to-day. ' Bede's date works out at 493 ; Annales Cambriae gives 516. The site is doubtful; some say Bath, some Badbury, some place it in South Wales, some in Scotland. The last-named locality, we believe, is certainly wrong, since there was a second battle of Badon fought in or near Wales. 89 HISTORY OF ENGLAND continually came from over the sea and slowly but surely pressed back their foes ever to the west and north. Wessex and the Battle of Cerdicsford For thirteen years after the landing of Cerdic we have no reference to any battles which the Saxons won.^ In 508, however, Cerdic and Cynric slew a British king and five thousand men with him. Six years later still more ships sailed to Britain, and new leaders, Stuf and Wihtgar,^ fought against the Britons and put them to flight. By 519, according to the Chronicle, Cerdic and CjTiric had obtained the kingdom of the West Saxons, and in that year fought against the Britons at Cerdicsford. Henry of Huntingdon's imagination ' tells us that sunset stopped the slaughter, but the cold pages of the earlier chronicler give us but httle knowledge of the nature of the fight. We read, however, that from this year on- ward the royal offspring of the West Saxons reigned, and it is possible that the battle was decisive and established Cerdic and his line firmly in the land which later grew into the kingdom of Wessex. Two more battles was Cerdic destined to fight against the Britons before he died in 534, one being decided at Cerdic's-lea, with what result we are not told, the other at Carisbrooke, in the Isle of Wight, where the Britons were defeated with much loss. On the death of Cerdic, Cynric and his son succeeded to the leadership of the West Saxons, and granted to Stuf and Wiht- gar the conquered lands in the Isle of Wight. The years which followed were completely uneventful, and the chronicler devotes much of his space to recovmting eclipses of the sun. In 544 Wihtgar died and was buried at Carisbrooke. * Under date 501 the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle talks of a certain Port who effected a landing at Portsmouth, but we cannot accept the statement. ' Nephews of Cerdic or Cynric. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, under date 534, says ' and,' but this is impossible. Probably the correct translation is ' relatives, ' not ' nephews. ' ' It may be, of course, that Henry of Huntingdon had resort to fuller chronicles, now lost, than those we possess. 90 THE ANGLO-SAXON CONQUEST NORTHUMBRIA Three years after the death of this Wessex chieftain another movement on the part of the invaders began. So far, as we have seen, they had limited their efforts to the conquest of the south. It can hardly be, however, that during these years the Picts and Scots^ aided by the Angles and Saxons, had left the Britons of the north in peace. The first mention of an attempt to conquer the province which in later years was called Northumbria is made in the Chronicle under date 547, where we read that "this year Ida^ began to reign, from whom arose the royal race of Northumbria ; and he reigned twelve years, and built Bamburgh, which was at first enclosed by a hedge and afterward by a wall." During his reign he established the Angles in a firm position in the north, and on his death in 559 he was succeeded by Aelle the Yffing, who reigned over his people for twenty-nine years. The year following saw the death of Cynric, who throughout his reign had fought but two battles, one in 552 and the other in 556. He in turn was succeeded by Ceawlin, who, like Aelle, reigned for many years. Some years later Ethelbert succeeded to the kingdom of Kent, over which he ruled for more than fifty years. We have thus, rather more than a century after the first coming of the Saxons to aid the Britons whom they slew and whose land they devastated, three Saxon or Angle kings reigning over established kingdoms in Kent, in Wessex, and in Northumbria. What the misery of those years had been for the earlier inhabitants of Britain we can only imagine. Of the constant fights for liberty and for life we have only partial records. That the Britons fought bravely is manifest. Many a battle was to be waged before they finally surrendered the fairest shires of England, but at last, as we shall see, the conquest was complete. The Saxon had taught the meaning of terror to the Briton, even as the Dane was to teach it to the Saxon. ' Ida, like most of the other Saxon and Angle kings, e.g. Cerdic, Edwin, Penda, Hengist, claimed descent from Woden. 91 . CHAPTER V ST COLUMBA AND ST AUGUSTINE ^ "T TTTE have now reached a stage in our history at which \\/ ^^ ^^ three pagan kings established on the V V thrones of Kent, Wessex, and Northumbria respec- tively. The moment is therefore opportune at which to break in upon our narrative with some short accotmt of the two missions, one from Rome and one from Ireland, which planted the seed destined to grow into that vigorous tree the English Church, and started a movement that ended the worship of Woden. For centuries, of course, the Britons had been Christianized. It is possible — certainly the early Fathers state it — ^that missionaries had come to preach the faith even as early as the first century. Of this we have already spoken. With the coming of the Teutons, however, the religious life of Britain was profoundly changed. The old British Church was subdued by pagan rites ; the ancient churches were destroyed, the Christian altars broken, the Christian inhabitants, the Britons, reduced to slavery or driven to the mountains of Eryri, of Cumberland, of South Wales, forced to retire into Cornwall or .beyond the seas. By the date we have now reached (560) it is true that the whole of what is now Et^land was by no means conquered by the pagan invaders, but already large tracts of land had been lost to the Christians, and, as we have seen, three pagan kings now ruled in Britain. ^ Throughout the rest of this history we shall use the popular spelling of Anglo-Saxon names where there is one. 92 COLUMBA AND AUGUSTINE COLUMBA The first step toward the conversion of the pagans was taken from Ireland. The leaders of the British Church doubtless felt themselves impotent to minister to their country's enemies ; with the Irish, however, no such obstacle existed. Yet, even so, there seems to have been some degree of chance in the events which led to the mission of St Columba and the eventual conversion of the Picts and pagans of the North.^ Though admitting the partiality of our authorities, we may still weave a coherent story of these ancient Christian mis- sionaries. The first movement, as we have said, came from Ireland. The Celtic Christians were, of course, great mis- sionaries. St Columban, a contemporary of St Columba, had led an expedition to the Continent, and Celtic centres of piety and learning had been established at I^uxeuil in the Vosges, St Gallen and Reichenau in Switzerland, Bobbio in North Italy, and elsewhere. St Columba himself was less ambitious. * We would add a note of warning relative to the writing of the lives of these ancient saints. In olden days men, even admirably educated, learned, and acute men such as Bede, were intensely superstitious ; they were also possessed of unbounded faith, and regarded the Deity and His servants as being not only able but willing to perform the most marvellous miracles for the slightest purpose. They also possessed an unbounded belief in the divinity of man ; the saint was regarded as having earned a perpetual rest in Heaven, his likeness to the angels was acknowledged, his presence in Paradise was pre- sumed, doubt as to existence after death was never even entertained. We, to-day, living in a civilization so complex that it tends to subjugate men's minds, have receded to the opposite extreme. We no longer worship or believe anything save facts capable of demon.stration. In such an age the pathetic beliefs of the ancients may seem grotesque : we may be tempted to regard Bede or Adamnan or Eddius as wilfully inventing when they tell us of the miracles their saints performed. The truth is, they sincerely believed that they had occurred. Whatever we may think of the other early writers, the monk of Jarrow cannot be accused of carelessness. Bede was, indeed, the most painstaking of historians. Before he published his life of Cuthbert to the world he had sifted the evidence most carefully, as he tells us. He relied on the statements of men who had known the Saint personally. Having written down the details, he showed his book to, among others, Herefrid the priest, an intimate friend of Cuthbert's. He deleted, or corrected, all inaccu- racies thus discovered ; finally, he read it to the elders of the church, by whom it was carefully examined, and they found no inaccuracies. Despite this care, the work is crammed with miracles, so that we modems, who worship the sense of touch, are compelled to say that it is full of glaring inventions and inaccuracies. 93 HISTORY OF ENGLAND Born about 521, and having received a good education, mainly in monasteries, lie had just reached manhood when the yellow plague swept through Europe, thinning the monasteries and vacating the schools. Columba, who seems aheady to nave been filled with religious zeal, founded several monasteries, and it appeared as though he were destined to live a life of placid usefuhiess in his native country, when the murder of a youth who had taken sanctuary with him suddenly changed the whole course of his life.^ The saintly monk now turned soldier, went to his own people, the Hy Neill, in the north of Ireland, and roused his tribe to take revenge upon the mur- derer. King Diarmaid. The forces met and Columba's party was not completely successful. Columba himself we next find in exile, whether self-imposed or not we do not know. The place of his retreat, the isle lona, was one whence he could not see his country's coasts. There he settled in 563. Columba as Missionary It was in this small island, three miles long by one and a hah broad, that the Saint founded his mission, destined in time to bring the Picts and the men of North Britain to the faith. He seems to have chosen three methods of persuading the heathen : (i) example, by leading a holy life ; (2) precept, by preaching the religion he would have them adopt ; (3^ influence, by seeking the aid of their king. As Dr Plummer ^ says : " Just as St Patrick attacked the heathenism of the Irish at the Court of King lyaoghaire, and St Augustine attacked the heathenism of the EngUsh at the Court of King Ethelbert, so St Columba attacked that of the Picts at the Court of King Brude. At first the King of the Picts closed his gates against him ; but Columba made the sign of the Cross, and the gates opened of their own accord. The Druids, Uke Elymas the sorcerer, with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, tried to turn away King Brude from the faith ; but Columba in the end prevailed." * The story about the copying of another saint's gospel and the consequent disgrace is not accepted by the best modem authority. ' Churches in Britain, vol. i, p. 90. 9+ i o 02 s O a H O COLUMBA AND AUGUSTINE By 565 the King had embraced Christianity, peace was estab- lished between him and Columba's countrymen where before there had been war, and the way was open for a more extensive conversion of the Picts. In 574 the throne of Dalriada was occupied by Aidan, Prince of Strathclyde, who owed his eleva- tion largely to the influence wielded by Columba, and the way was now clear for the conversion of North Britain. In the meantime Columba had established monasteries in the Hebrides ; his reputation had become widespread ; his eloquence and his piety had caused his name to be venerated even by the pagans ; and in Ireland, to which he returned on short visits,- he was no longer regarded as an excommunicated provoker of war, but rather as a holy man. The Church established by Columba was, as the late Dr Hodgkin pointed out,^ tribal rather than urban, monastic rather than episcopal. The later Augustine introduced into Britain the more centralized Italian system, but Columba relied rather on planting monasteries in rural places, whence irradiated on all sides some knowledge and much piety. Augustine, who had, unlike Columba, a country to work upon which possessed cities and some sort of governmental system, sought rather to formd bishoprics and dioceses, a hierarchy of priests and an ordered system of Church government. Con- sidering the people whom they were endeavouring to convert, it is probable that both Columba and Augustine took the best means to attain the desired result. The monastic order established by Columba certainly wrought many good works among the people of his adoption. Guests were received with the fullest hospitality ; the sick were tended ; the monks were devout and spent much time in prayer and fasting ; all property was in common and celibacy was observed ; the needy were given their necessities : in a word, the Order sought to live a life of simple piety, devotion, and usefulness. In such an age and among such a people such example cannot but have had a mighty effect. It was in the year 597, the very year in which Augustine ^ Political History of England, vol. i, p. 149. 95 HISTORY OF ENGLAND landed in England, that Columba died. As Dr Hodgkin says, "He is one of the most vividly seen personalities of the early Middle Ages ; a man of somewhat hot temper in youth, softened and controlled in later life, with a stately beauty of feature which seemed to correspond with his princely descent, and with a kind of magnetic power of attracting to himself the devotion of his followers, a lover of animals and beloved by them,. . . he might, perhaps, not unfittingly, be called the John Wesley of the sixth century." Augustine As we have said, it was in 597 that Augustine first reached these shores, having started for Britain at the instance of Pope Gregory early in June 596.^ Since it was this Pope who was responsible for the mission, we, like the Venerable Bede of old, will give some account of him. Gregory, the first of the Popes bearing that name, called ' the Great,' was born in Rome in 540. His father was a wealthy senator, his mother, Silvia, was a saintly lady ; the child was able and his abilities were directed by the best teachers available. By the age of thirty-three Gregory had attained the high position of prefect of the city, but in the year following he resigned that post and became a monk. His rise in the Church was rapid. Successively appointed archdeacon and apocrisiarius, or ambassador, at Con- stantinople, he was, on the death of Pelagius II, unanimously elected Pope on September 3, 590. Once elevated to the papal chair he devoted all his manifold talents and his great energy to the service of his children in the Church and became truly " the slave of the slaves of God." As Bede says, " Other bishops applied themselves to building churches and adorning them with gold and silver, but Gregory's whole time was devoted to the winning of souls." It was some years before the death of Pelagius II that the event happened, the tradition of which has been preserved to ^ For what follows we have largely relied upon the authorities collected by Canon Mason in The Mission of St Augustine to England, and Plummer's Baedae Opera Hisforica- 96 COLUMBA AND AUGUSTINE us by Bede, wldch resulted eventually in St Augustine'? mission. In the words of the monk of Jarrow : " It is said that one day, when some merchants were newly arrived, and many articles for sale were collected in the market-place, and many purchasers assembled, Gregory came among the rest, and saw, among other objects, some boys exposed for sale, with fair complexions, beautiful faces, golden hair, and comely forms. When he saw them he inquired ^ from what region or territory they were brought. He was told that they came from the island of Britain, the inhabitants of which all presented the same appearance. Again he inquired whether the islanders were Christians or whether they were lost in the errors of pagan- ism. He was told that they were pagans. On receiving that answer he heaved a heavy sigh from his inmost heart, saying : ' Alas, the pity that men with such glorious faces should be possessed by the Prince of Darkness and that the grace of outward form should hide a want of grace within ! ' Once more he inquired by what name this people were called. He was told that they were called Angles (Angli). Whereupon, ' Good,' said he ; ' for they have angels' faces, and such ought to be co-heirs with the angels in heaven. What is the province called from whence these boys were brought ? ' They replied that the people of that province were called Deiri. Whereupon, ' Good,' said he, ' Deiri ; de ira eruti — ^rescued from wrath and called to the mercy of Christ. What is the king of that proviace called ? ' They replied that he was named Aelle {AelK). Whereupon, playing on the name, he said : ' Alleluia ; it is necessary that the praise of God our Creator be sung in those parts.' " The mention of Aelle as king enables us to fix the date of this meeting between Gregory and the slave-boys from Britain iu Rome's market-place. Gregory had returned from Constanti- nople in 585 or 586, and Aelle died in 588, so that it was a year or two before he became Pope that Gregory determined to send a missionary to Britain. Gregory's first step toward converting the pagans of Britain ^ " As they say," cautiously adds Bede. G 97 HISTORY OF ENGLAND seems not to have been taken until 595, when he wrote to the presbyter Candidus requiring him, among other things, to buy British boys of the age of seventeen or eighteen years— " that they may be given to God in the monasteries, to their profit." Moreover, a presbyter was to be sent over to Britain lest any heathen should die unbaptized on the journey. It was not, however, until the year following that a decided effort was made by Gregory to convert the BngUsh. In that year (596) the monk Augustine, " a servant of God," and with him a number of other monks, was sent to preach the Gospel to the Enghsh nation. At first the mission- aries were terrified at the thought of having to venture amor^ the barbarians, of whose nameless cruelties they had been doubtless well informed. As Bede tells us : " Smitten powerless with fear, they desired to return home rather than to go on to a barbarous, fierce, and un- believing people of whose very language they were ignorant." Having considered the matter fully, they did eventually come to the inglorious conclusion that safety rather than honour should be served. Augustine was sent back to obtain leave from Gregory to abandon an expedition so perilous, laborious, and uncertain. Gregory, however, was made of sterner stuff ; 98 St Augustine Royal MS. COLUMBA AND AUGUSTINE the weaklings were exhorted to proceed, their Pope saying most truly that " it would have been better never to have begun good works than to turn from them in thought when once begxm." Augustine, now an abbot, was sent back armed with letters commendatory, and his followers were strictly enjoined to obey him. Vergilius, Bishop of Aries, Arigius, Patrician of Gaul, Theoderic and Theodebert, Kings of the Franks, Brunichilda, Queen of the Franks and armt by marriage to Bertha, Queen of Kent, were requested to give all aid in their power to Augustine, and every step was taken to smooth the path of the missionaries. Augustine's Arrival Augustme, thus exhorted to effort and strengthened by help and guidance, appears to have persuaded his followers to accompany him into the unknown. After a lengthy journey he reached Britain, with some forty companions, in the spring of 597. It was upon the island of Thanet that Augustine and his followers first landed. At that time, according to Bede, " there was a very powerful king named Aedilbert [Ethelbert] in Kent, who had extended the confines of his empire to the banks of the mighty river Humber, which divides the southern from the northern Angles." At this time Thanet was indeed an island, being divided from the mainland by the river Wantgum. The missionaries, as we have seen, were ignorant of the language of the people they had come to teach. They had taken with them, however, interpreters of Frankish nationality, and these Augustine sent to Ethelbert to inform him that one who had come from Rome brought to him the best of messages and the promise of eternal joys hereafter. Ethelbert received the message cautiously. The new-comers were ordered to remain in the island of Thanet, necessaries were supplied them, and the King treated them with the consideration due to strangers who had travelled far, until it was decided what should be done with them. It appears that ^Ethelbert had already some knowledge of the new reUgion ; indeed, it could 99 HISTORY OF ENGLAND hardly be otherwise, for his wife Bertha was of the royal house of the Franks, being daughter to Charibert, King of Paris, and was a Christian. Moreover, she had in her suite a private chaplain, lyiudhard. Bishop of Senhs, who had been sent with her to her pagan husband as a preserver of her faith. We must also remember that Bertha's relative, the notorious Brunhild or Brunichilda, had been specially requested by Gregory to aid Augustine. With such friends at Court it is not surprising that Augustine's reception was by no means unfriendly. At last after much deliberation the King came to Thanet, and, taking his seat in the open air, he ordered Augustine and his companions to come and talk with him there. Bede tells us that the King " was careful not to allow them to come to him indoors in consequence of an ancient prophecy, and fearing that if they were possessed of black arts they might overcome him within doors." Augustine, thus summoned, made haste to attend the King in the chosen place. The missionary was, however, as we shall see, fully aware of his own dignity and sought to impress the pagan with a brave display. He and his followers approached singing Htanies and carrying as a standard a cross of silver and a picture of our, Ivord and Saviour painted on a panel. Having arrived, at the bidding of the King they took seats and proceeded to expound their teaching to Ethelbert and his Court. The Eong, having hstened with attention, at last said : " You speak fair words and brmg bright promises ; but since they are new and uncertain I cannot render my assent to them, nor rehnquish those behefs which, for long time, I and the whole of the English people have held. But since you are strangers who have travelled far and who, as I plainly perceive, desire to tell to us those things which you yourselves beheve to be truest and best, we do not wish to injure you ; rather we desire to welcome you with friendly hospitality, and we shall make it our care that you are supplied with food according to your wants ; nor do we prohibit your gaining all the adherents to your faith whom you can by means of your preaching." loo COLUMBA AND AUGUSTINE This fair speech was followed by deeds. The missionaries were allowed to leave the island of Thanet and were given lodging in the city of Canterbury, Ethelbert's capital, "in the parish of St Alphege, on the other side of Palace Street, toward the north." Conversion of Ethelbert Augustine and his followers, having been thus favourably received, left notlaing undone which might advance the object for which they had come. Bede tells us that they served God with continual prayers, vigils, and fastings, preaching the living Word to those who would hear them and abandon- ing worldly things. Their preaching and example were not without effect, and many believed and were baptized. An ancient church, dedicated to St Martin, which had been built in olden times and which had survived the pagan devastations, was used as a sanctuary, and here the little band of Christians met together, Masses were celebrated and sermons dehvered. As time went on the devoted lives of the missionaries attracted the notice of the King. Pagan though he was, he knew that one good deed is worth a thousand silky sentences. Unmoved by Augustine's arguments or rhetoric, unpersuaded by his promises, the King saw in him an upright man who contrasted, favourably no doubt, with the priests of his own faith. Urged to become a convert by his Christian wife, precept and example at last persuaded him, and he was ' baptized on June 2, 597,^ only a few months after the landing of the mission. Augustine's Consecration His purpose having prospered so wonderfully, Augustine, who was a typical monk of the ItaUan school, seems to have decided to organize the Church he had estabUshed. The presbyter I^aurentius was sent to Gregory to announce the conversion of the English nation ^ and Augustine's appointment ' The date is uncertain. * A complete overstatement of the facts ; there were many pagans in Britain of the Angle race centuries after Augustine was dead. lOI HISTORY OF ENGLAND as bishop. At the same time the Pope's advice was desired upon certain important points. According to Gregory's letter to Eulogius, Bishop of Alexandria, we learn that Augustine had, by the Pope's leave, been made a bishop by the bishops of Germany, and it was with their aid that he had reached Britain, " that nation at the end of the world." We read that by Christmas (presumably of 597) more than ten thousand English people had been baptized by Augustine, and that this nation, which had hitherto been pagan, worshippers of trees {lignorum) and stones, was now converted to Christ. To Augustine himself the Pope wrote a long epistle full of gladness for the past and hope for the future.^ Had Augustine Hstened to his superior's advice to " crush the risings of boastfukiess in your heart," the later breach with the British Church might not have occurred. It is evident, indeed, that Gregory had studied his missioner and saw in him two faults — ^weakness and pride. Gregory realized that Augustine's mission had gained much support from the Christian Bertha ; we therefore find him sending a letter to that Queen replete with sentences that must have brought the blush of pride to the cheeks of this almost barbarian lady. We find him linkiug her name with that of the saintly Helena, mother of Constantine the Great ; we find him attributing the conversion of the English to the Queen rather than to the monk and expressing the hope that through her exertions the English race may be won over from paganism. Her learning is praised, and she is urged to " confirm the mind of [her] illustrious consort in his attach- ment to the Christian faith." Her deeds, she is told, had already made her name famous in Rome and in many countries, even in far Constantinople, where the Emperor had heard the news. Such fulsome flattery had its effect, and Bertha, we doubt not, laboured hard for the cause in the years which followed.^ ^ He does not, however, fail to remind Augustine of his earlier weakness : in Anglorum gente fortia dignatus est per infirmos operari." • Another letter was also sent to Ethelbert, who is urged to " redouble his upright zeal in the conversion of his people." 102 COLUMBA AND AUGUSTINE Organization of the Church Augustine's messengers had now returned, bearing the Pope's answers to the questions addressed to him. As Hodgkin has said, " The questions asked are of an extra- ordinary kind, and startle us by their strange juxtaposition of things momentous and things indifferent. . . However, if the archbishop's questions seem to us rather surprising, the Pope's answers are noble and statesmanlike." ^ Of Augustine's nine ^ questions and their answers we cannot speak at length : they refer to such diverse things as the manner in which bishops should treat their clergy ; how it was that different customs existed in different Churches ; whether two brothers might marry two sisters ; whether a bishop might be ordained without the presence of other bishops and how the bishops of Gaul and Britain should be treated ; whether a pregnant woman might be baptized, and so on. It has been doubted whether the document which preserves for us these questions and answers is not a forgery. ^ If they are genuine, they cast rather a strong light upon the character of the questioner, who seems to have been overwhelmed with the importance of his position as bishop, and at the same time somewhat unacquainted with the teachings of the Scriptures. Despite, however, the feebleness of the missionary, his labours were certainly amply rewarded. So numerous had his fol- lowers become that we find him sending to Gregory for more fellow-workers. Gregory, instantly acceding to his request, sent a new mission headed by Mellitus, Justus, PauUnus, and Rufinianus. With them he also sent ceremonial vestments and vessels, church ornaments, relics, and books, and, greatest gift of all, a pall with the intimation that Augustine might make twelve bishops in Britain. To York was to be sent another bishop with power to ordain a further twelve bishops and with the right to enjoy the metropolitan dignity. The two heads of the English Church were now the Bishops of ' Political History of England, vol. i, p. 120. " Some texts delete the ninth and give only eight. ' See Canon Plummer, The Mission of Saint Augustine, preface, p. ix. 103 HISTORY OF ENGLAND I^ondon ^ and York, each holding equal powers,^ the senior by- ordination of the two being granted the precedence. Apart from details of place and organization which were developed later, we may say that this letter of Gregory established in England the foundations of the present system of Church government. The new mission, like its forerunner, was armed with letters commendatory, gnd to Abbot MelUtus excellent advice was given as to the treatment to be meted out to the heathen temples, which evidently existed in England in some numbers.^ This letter of advice, which commences, " To my beloved son MelUtus, an abbot, Gregory, the slave of the slaves of God," enjoins him not to allow the pagan temples {/ana idolorum) to be destroyed, but rather to destroy the idols which were in them, to sprinkle the buildings with holy water, and to place altars and rehcs there. Gregory's purpose seems to have been grounded in utiUty and to have striven at preventing any sharp break between the old and the new, a break which, as he well understood, would stand in the way of many converts. Even the pagan sacrifice of animals was permitted. No longer in this case, however, was the offering to be made to pagan gods (or, in Gregory's word, diabolo), but to the Christian God. " So by retaining for them external joys they may the more easily be won to rejoicings of a spiritual nature." Church-building So far the first mission had been devoting their energies mainly to the capital of Ethelbert (Canterbury) and the surrounding country. The church which they had originally used as their meeting-place, and which had been consecrated to St Martin of Tours, had doubtless been the centre of their labours. Now, however, it became necessary to occupy a more imposing structure. Consequently, with the consent of Ethel- * Augustine was Bishop of London, not Archbishop of Canterbury. It was in after years that Canterbury gained the Primacy. ' Augustine himself had a personal precedence granted him. ' Doubtless the pagans had utilized the temples built by the Romans for Christian and other worship. 104 COLUMBA AND AUGUSTINE bert, a churcli which had been built in Canterbury in Roman times was repaired and used ; a monastery was also founded near the city. The church itself was consecrated in the name of Christ. Afterward the King was persuaded to raise the Church of Peter and Paul. Over the new monastery Abbot Peter, who was later drowned off the coast of France, was placed. Besides these adaptations of old churches and the building of new ones, Augustine, profiting by the Pope's advice to Mellitus, commenced to cleanse the pagan temples of their images. Such a temple, situated between St Martin's Church and the walls of Canterbury, was early purified, its idol was broken, and the building thus prepared was dedicated in the name of St Pancras the Martyr. Augustine and the British Church We have now reached the opening years of the seventh century.^ Augustine and his followers had by this time firmly established themselves under Ethelbert's protection. The pallium had been granted ; metropolitan sees at I^ondon and York had been established ; churches had been built and monasteries founded. As yet, however, but a comparatively small part of the people of this island had been brought within the Church. North of the Humber the invaders were still pagan ; to the west, where the Britons still existed, the rites of the Church of Rome were not used, but the ancient British Christians persisted in their own practices and were wicked enough to date Easter Sunday from the moon's fourteenth day to the twentieth instead of according to the ' proper time.' ^ In consequence of this and certain minor differences the two ' The dates are very doubtful ; no reliance can be placed on the order of Bede's chapters. See Plummer, Baedae Opera, vol. ii, p. 73. • In view of the stand taken by Augustine and the leaders of the British Church over the date of Easter, it is amusing, if the dispute were not so re- grettable, to observe that the name of this day of days, this yearly memorial of the resurrection of Christ, upon which the hopes of all Christians are founded, is as follows in the various languages : Greek, Trao-p^ja ; Ivatin, Pasclia ; French, Pdques ; Italian, Pasqua ; Spanish, Pascua ; Danish, Paashe ; Dutch, Paaske — all from the Hebrew or allied languages. The Engush Easter, like the German Ostern, comes from the name of the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, Eastre, or Ostara. The British (now Welsh) name for the day is Pasg. 105 HISTORY OF ENGLAND Churclies, Roman and British, had been at war and had found it impossible to work together for the salvation of the pagans.^ Augustine now, however, with the assistance of Ethelbert, who would thus seem to have had some power over the Britons, persuaded the bishops and leaders of the nearest British province, probably the men of South Wales, to attend a conference, which was held at the spot called, in later years, Augustine's Oak, ♦which was probably situated at Aust, on the Severn, opposite Chepstow.^ The meeting was a failure. Neither entreaties, exhortations, nor reproofs would make the Britons leave their traditions. Not even a miracle worked by Augustine convinced their stubborn minds ; but it shook their certainty, and they asked that a sjTiod should agaiu be held that more of their number might attend. The new meeting was arranged, and to it came seven British bishops and many men of great learning from the famous monastery of Bangor-on-Dee (Bangor-is-coed, in Flintshire). Before coming, however, the new delegates fortified themselves with the counsel of a holy man, an anchorite, of whom they inquired whether they ought to surrender their practices and follow the teachiugs of Augustine. He wisely answered : " If he be a man of God, follow him." " But how," said they, " can we prove that ? " He rephed : " TolUte iugum meum super vos, el discite a me, quia mitis sum et humilis corde? If this Augustine be meek and lowly of heart, we may well suppose that he bears Christ's yoke himself, and is offering it to you to bear ; but if he be harsh and haughty, it is plain that he is not of God and we may be careless of his teaching." Again they said : " But how shall we discern even that ? " " Make sure," he rephed, " that he and his companions come first to the meeting-place, and if upon your approach he shall rise to receive you, then you shall know that he is a child of 1 Another reason, already suggested, is that the Britons so hated their conquerors, the Saxons, as to render missionary effort irapossible. ' Mabnesbury and ' The Oak,' in Down Ampney, near Cricklade, have also been suggested. See Plummer, Baedae Opera, vol. ii, p. 74. ' " Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly in heart." 106 COLUMBA AND AUGUSTINE Christ and you shall hear him with reverence ; but if he slights you and will not rise to meet you, though you are the more numerous, then you may treat him with disdain." The Britons, thus advised, did as the anchorite suggested. Augustine, overwhelmed it may be with the importance of the pallium, received them seated ; the Britons, incensed, contra- dicted everything he said, and finally, after a heated wrangle, Augustine gave vent to his anger and disappointment in a savage prophecy that i£ the Britons would not preach the Way of I/ife to the English people they should find death at their hands — a prophecy which, if ever made in fact, was amply fulfilled at the battle of Chester, when more than a thousand of the 'monks of Bangor were slaughtered by the Angles. The conference was a complete failure. A golden opportunity had been lost of welding together in a strong bond of unity the Anglo-Saxon and the British Church. It was shortly after this attempt at unity had so completely broken down, in the year 604, that Augustine, after having ordained two bishops, Mellitus and Justus, died, and was buried in the open near the Church of Peter and Paul, which was then being built, but was neither completed nor consecrated. When it was at last completed and blessed the poor relics of Augustine were exhumed and suitably interred in the north aisle. His place as Archbishop of Canterbury was taken by I^aurentius, whom the Saint in his lifetime had ordained for that purpose. Criticism of Augustine's Mission It is perhaps impossible at this period of time and on the evidence at our disposal to determine the true worth of Augustine and his work. On the one hand we find him laying the foundations of the Christian Church among a pagan people with considerable success ; we find him living a life of piety ; we find him forsaking worldly things, energetic in church-building, capable in Church organization. On the other hand he appears to have been somewhat cowardly, decidedly haughty, and even pompous ; he tactlessly destroyed 107 HISTORY OF ENGLAND any hope he might have had of winning over the Britons to his side. At the same time he was apparently eager for unity, and was certainly no more wanting in discretion than his successor I/aurentius, who also made certain futile attempts to bring about a reconciliation. Though a good monk, he was, as we have said, if the questions and answers are genuine, by no means learned in the Scriptures. He was always too careful over dignities and details, and too careless over the broader questions that might make for success or failure. Finally, we see the Church he founded almost overwhelmed by the tide of paganism which surged over the country on the death of his protector Ethelbert in 6i6. Whatever we may think of Augustine, one thing at least is clear : his claim early in his mission to have driven away the darkness of error from the Enghsh nation was tmfounded. The work had but commenced when he died, and it was not for many a year, not, indeed, until the battle of Winwaed, won by Christian Oswy over pagan Penda on November 15, 655, that the Christian religion could be said to be in any degree paramount in Saxon England ; even then many pagans lived on here and much work remained to be done before England could be regarded as completely Christian. 108 CHAPTER VI THE SEVENTH CENTURY FIRST PHASE : TO THE BATTLE OF WINWAED BEl^ORE attempting to describe the two great move- ments which took place in the England of the seventh century— the overthrow of paganism and the final conquest of the Britons — we must travel backward for half a century and shortly sketch out the events which had occurred during the years when Columba was converting the Picts and Augustine was establishing Church government in Kent. We left the political history of England at the date 560-565. Ceawlin had succeeded to the kingdom of the West Saxons ; Aelle, or Ella, was ruler of the Northumbrians, or rather of the men of Deira ; Ethelbert had become King of Kent.^ Notwithstanding the fact that the ancestry of Aelle the Yffing extended to Woden the Highest, we find his reign slumbering on in apparent uneventfulness until the King died in 588, leaving to Ethelric his kingdom and to his country a little son, then but three years old, but destined in the future to bring to the throne qualities which have made the name of Edwin of Deira stand as high as any in early English history. Passing from the North to southern Kent, we find Ethelbert then reigning. As yet but a young man, his long reign was to see him advance from the position of a weak king, whose territories were invaded and whose ealdormen, Oslaf and Cnebba, were slain by Ceawlin and Cutha (568), to that of a Bretwalda, holding sway over the larger part of Britain, especially south of the Humber. It was also to see him ^ The Chronicle gives 565 as his date ; Bede, 560. 109 HISTORY OF ENGLAND turn from paganism to the new religion, rather more than twenty years before the Hegira of Mohammed had taken place. Notwithstanding the importance of Ethelbert's rise to power, we know but Uttle of the means by which it was accomplished. Of the conversion to Christianity we have spoken ; of the battles which doubtless were fought before Ethelbert finally estabhshed his sway in the southern half of England ignorance commands us to be silent. Wessex When we pass to the infant kingdom of Wessex we are more fortunate. The new-comers who had so lately completed the conquest of the Isle of Wight were engaged for many years in consohdating their power, mainly at the expense of the Britons. CeawUn's reign was, indeed, one long fight against the earHer people, who were stiU struggling manfully to preserve their Uves and their hberty. The struggle did not cease with the flight of Ceawhn from the field of battle in 593 and his subsequent death. After him arose others : Ceolwulf , Ethelfrith, Wulfhere, and many more. Their task, however, was but to complete what he had commenced, for by the great battle of Deorham, fought in 577, the Britons of Cornwall and Somersetshire (the West Welsh) had been separated from their kinsmen of the north. Thus divided, the British oppo- sition weakened and the way was paved for the destruction of British independence in the peninsula and the advance of Wessex to predominant power in England. In 571 Cutha,^ who three years before had aided Ceawlin in his attack upon Ethelbert, fought against the Britons at Bedford. As a result of this battle " four royal cities " ^ were taken by him. Six years later the victory at Deorham gave to the victorious Saxons " three [of the Britons'] most distin- guished cities ": Gloucester, Cirencester, and Bath. Having thus cut ofE the South Britons, Ceawhn seems to have felt ^ Chronicle, Cuthwulf. See Pliiminer, Two Saxon Chronicles, vol. ii, p. 16, as to tlie identity of Cuthwulf. 2 Tygeanbyrig (Tenbury), Aeglesbyrig (Aylesbury), Benesingtun (Ben- sington), Egouesham (Bynsham) . IIO THE SEVENTH CENTURY strong enougli to push on up the Severn valley, slaughtering, destroying, and plundering as he went. We read that he reduced a multitude of cities and took immense spoils. He was only checked at last by the indecisive fight at Fethan-lea, fought probably near the borders of Cheshire. It is to his great campaign of devastation that we may perhaps assign the reduction and destruction of Viroconium, the Roman city which for centuries had been the centre of civic life on the Welsh border ; in the disaster perished the family of the British prince and poet I^lywarch Hfin (' the Aged '), who him- self escaped from the ruins to pen one of the most inspired and mournful of early poems, recounting his sorrows and those of his country. With the battle of Fethan-lea Ceawlin's victorious progress came to an end. Cutha there fell, and seven years hence, after a great battle fought at Wanborough, near Swindon, ia Wiltshire, Ceawliu himseh was put to flight, while two years afterward we read that " this year [593] Ceawlin and Cwichelm and Crida perished." The tide of advance had thus been beaten back from the borders of Cheshire to Wiltshire. But for the Britons the evil work had been done ; the fertile valley of the Severn had been laid waste, their populous and thriving cities had been seized or destroyed. The first steps had been taken which finally led to the overthrow of the Britons by kings other than those who ruled over Wessex by the victory of Winwaed, a victory which caused the British chroniclers to end their Chronicles of the Kings and commence their Chronicles of the Princes. On the death of Ceawlin in 593 the crown of Wessex seems to have lapsed for a few years. It was not, indeed, untU 597, the year that saw the landing of Augustine, that we find CeolwuU reigning over the West Saxons. Of this king the Chronicle informs us that " he fought and contended inces- santly against either the Angles, or the Welsh, or the Picts, or the Scots." So contending we will leave him and journey eastward to the kingdom of Kent, now the dominant power in southem^Britain. III HISTORY OF ENGLAND Kent During all these years when Ceawlin, Cutha, and Ceolwulf had been carrying fire and sword through the provinces of the Britons the King of the West Saxons was probably the most powerful leader in Britain. In the Ecclesiastical History we read that Ceawlin was second of the Bretwaldas, the first being Aelle, King of the South Saxons. This means, probably, that he was recogtized by his contemporaries as the strongest chief among the Angles and Saxons, a chief whose power was absolute over his own territory and who possessed some vague overlordship over the rest of the land. On the death of Ceawlin this somewhat indefinite paramount chieftaincy passed to the King of Kent. Why Ethelbert should have been chosen for this position we know not. That he had ruled long is certain ; that he was an admirable king in many ways we can hardly doubt when we recall his treatment of Augustine ; that he had entered into an alliance with the King of the Franks, through his wife Bertha, is probable ; but of actual battles fought or victories won by him we have no record. While Ceolwulf was fighting his numerous enemies and BtheUrith was building up a formidable power in the North Ethelbert was permitting the conversion of his people and was ruling his considerable territories in apparent peace.^ On his death in 6i6 the frail Christian Church which Augustine had succeeded in establishing in Kent was over- thrown almost instantly. The new king, Eadbald, was a pagan at heart and soon forsook his baptismal vow. The Queen, Bertha, was now dead, and so was Sigebert, or Sabert, Ethelbert's nephew and King of the East Saxons, who had been converted to the new faith in 604. Eadbald celebrated his return to paganism by wedding his widowed stepmother. Sabert's son, now reigning in Essex, was little better. Conse- crated bread he coveted, but solely because it was nice to eat, and when poor Mellitus, now Bishop of I^ondon, refused to allow him to partake of it unless he would consent to ^ During his lifetime we find Ethelbert losing his position of Bretwalda to Redwald, King of the East Angles. 112 THE SEVENTH CENTURY baptism, he seems to have looked upon him as a mean old man who was abusing his hospitality. Mellitus was driven from his kingdom. We can sympathize with Aidan's pre- decessor, who complained that it was impossible to teach such rough barbarians the true nature of the new rehgion. I^aurentius and Justus meanwhile were having a hard struggle to hold their own in Kent. So disheartened did the timid three become that they debated once again whether to continue their labours or seek safety in flight. Once more they determined to choose the easier part. Mellitus and Justus fled to Gaul, and I/aurentius would have joined them had he not seen a vision and received a nocturnal spirit visitor (who, we need hardly add, was the Apostle Peter), who up- braided him for his weakness and terminated the address by thoroughly thrashing the Archbishop. Thus invigorated, or trebly terrified, I^aurentius determined to continue his labours in Britain, and seems at last to have touched the flinty heart of Ethelbert's son, though we do not hear that he succeeded in persuading him to put away his unlawful wife. Worn out by his manifold troubles, the worthy Archbishop of Canterbury shortly afterward (619) died. The Rise of Northumbria We must now leave the uxorious Eadbald and the ferocious Ceolwulf and travel northward to the rising state of Deira. In 588, as we have seen, Aelle had died, and had been succeeded by Ethelric, who reigned but five years. Following Ethelric came Ethelfrith, an energetic and able man, who, after reigning twenty-four years, was finally slain by Redwald the Bretwalda, King of the East Angles. He was succeeded by Edwin. Such, in brief outline, were the men who linked up Aelle and Edwin, but the intervening years were important ones for the North, and we must consider them more in detail. Ethelfrith The Venerable Bede informs us that it was the " valorous and energetic King Ethelfrith " who " despoiled the Britons H 113 HISTORY OF ENGLAND more than any other English chief. He could truly be com- pared with Saul of old. ... He gained more British territory than any other warrior or king. He either vanquished the ancient inhabitants and compelled them to pay tribute, or he expelled them from their lands and established the English in their stead." Nor was it only the Britons who felt the edge of EtheUrith's sword. The Scots of Dalriada also had cause to fear the growth of his power. Thus alarmed, we find Aidan, their king, gathering a mighty army together with which to oppose the Northumbrian. The two forces met at Degsastan, which has been identified with Dawstane R^, in Liddesdale. The battle which followed was fierce and furious. Bede teUs us that Aidan " was defeated and fled with a few followers ; for almost all his army was destroyed. . . . From that time no king of the Scots durst come into Britain to make war on the EngUsh." The victory was decisive. The losses, however, were not all on the Scottish side, for we learn that Theobald, EtheUrith's brother, was slain, together with almost all his men. For some time after the battle of Dawstane (a.d. 603) EtheUrith was allowed quietly to strengthen his position. His marriage with the daughter of Aelle of Deira had doubt- less secured his sovereignty over both branches of the North Anglian settlement.^ Even before his accession to the throne his father Ethekic of Bemicia had, as we have seen, succeeded Aelle on the throne of Deira, a position he had probably won by conquest. As a result of this joining of the two kingdoms by conquest and by marriage EtheUrith probably occupied a stronger position than any of his predecessors. ^ The reader may find it convenient to have the limits of these kingdoms marked out with more precision. Bernicia probably included all the three I^thians, the counties of Berwick, Peebles, Roxburgh, Durham, and the eastern half of Northtmiberland. Deira included the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire. Ehnet, or Loidis, was a British kingdom embracing the valleys of the Wharfe, Aire, and Calder. ' Leeds ' is connected with ' LoidU.' The boundary between Bemicia and Deira was the Tees. Between Bernicia and Deira on the one hand and Ehnet on the other the Pennines stood guard for the_^most part. 114 THE SEVENTH CENTURY Battle of Chester Powerful, then, Ethelfrith pursued his way, destroying the Scots and conquering the Britons. " Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf : in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil " — ^these are the words which Bede felt were most applicable to him. He had been on the throne ten years, however, before he broke the power of the Christian Aidan, King of the Scots. Some ten years later (c. 613) he was the instrument whereby Augustine's frightful prophecy was fulfilled. " If ye will not give life to the heathen, ye shall receive death at their hands," the priest had said to the stubborn monks of Bangor. I,ittle more than a decade had passed when Ethelfrith led his hosts of heathen Angles to the gates of Chester. Opposed to him was Brochmail, chieftain of the Britons, and supporting Brochmail were a great number of monks from the monastery on the Dee, holy men who had fasted long that their prayers might find favour. Thus led by a priestly vanguard, the British army took the field. The pagan Ethelfrith, according to Bede, " being about to give battle . . . observed these priests who had congregated together to offer up prayers. . . . He inquired who they were and what they came together to do. . . . Being informed of the occasion of their coming, ' If then they cry to their God against us,' said he, ' in truth, though they do not bear arms, yet they fight against us with their imprecations.' " Having thus decided to regard them as combatants, the pagan ordered them to be attacked first. This decision once made, the result was not in doubt. The unarmed and unprotected monks were butchered; their horror-struck leader fled; the "impious army " (to use Bede's expression) of the Britons was dispersed, though not without loss to the Angles ; Roman Chester was laid waste, to remain a forlorn and deserted ruin for centuries. Beyond and above these results the Britons of Strathclyde were separated from their kinsmen of Gwynedd, or North Wales. Ethelfrith had accompUshed in the north what Ceawlin in the battle of Deorham had achieved in the south. 115 HISTORY OF ENGLAND Ethelfrith now ruled wide territories from powerful Bam- burgh, a true Teutonic fortress perched on high near Beadnel Point and built, according to Nennius, by Eadfered Flesaurs as a present for his wife Bebba, whence it got its name, Bebbanburg."^ Two of his enemies he had conquered ; he was destined to faU before the third. Edwin of Deira : Early Days We have already seen that when Aelle died he left a child of the name of Edwin as sole heir to his throne. In those warlike times no infant would have been capable of hold- ing the sceptre, and consequently Edwin was passed over for Ethelric, and later for his brother-in-law Ethelfrith. Between these two men, each noteworthy in Northumbrian history, there seems to have existed a bitter enmity. Edwin at first, youthful, unimportant, and powerless, is found wandering from Court to Court. It is even suggested that he received his early upbringing at the Court of that Welsh chief, Cadvan of Gwynedd, whose deeds are now forgotten, but whose tomb- stone is still preserved to us, having later been built into the church of lylangadwaladr, in Anglesey. I^ater he journeyed to the Court of Mercia, now slowly rising to power. Having attained to manhood, he contracted matrimony with a princess of Mercia. His wife appears to have died before very long, and Edwin once more, like a youthful I^ear, set out a royal wanderer in search of a friend. At last he found refuge at the Court of Redwald of East Anglia, now Bretwalda in succession to Ethelbert. According to Bede, the royal fugitive, after years of wandering, came to Redwald and besought him to give him protection. Redwald gladly received him and promised to fulfil the fugitive's request. Ethelfrith, however, soon made attempts to destroy this last refuge of his enemy. Great bribes were offered to Redwald to allow the murder of his guest, but, though oft repeated, they were offered in vain. 1 We need hardly warn the reader against this story. The Chronicle attributes the building of it to Ida, but according to Mr Bates this particular passage is an interpolation. ii6 THE SEVENTH CENTURY At last Ethelfritii passed from promises to threats. The fugitive must be surrendered or war would be declared ; at the same time even greater gifts were offered for the surrender of Edwin. Redwald, torn between fideUty, fear, and greed, at last surrendered his honour and promised to give up his guest. Edwin, however, was warned by a friend, who offered him safe-conduct to a place " where neither Redwald nor Ethelfrith shall ever find you." Edwin despairing of a life which promised nothing but continuous flight, refused the proffered aid and prepared himself for death. The unhappy Prince, we are told, after his friend had gone, " remained alone without, and, sitting with a heavy heart before the palace, began to be afErighted with many thoughts, for where to go, or which way to turn, he knew not." " Suddenly," the good Bede informs us, " in the stillness of the dead of night he saw approaching him a man whose face and figure were unknown to him." The new-comer, though unknown to Edwin, knew all of Edwin's sorrows. After recounting to the future king the misfortunes he had suffered he prophesied a happy issue and promised to deliver him from his enemies, estabHsh him on his father's throne, make him the most powerful king in Britain, and show him a better and more profitable counsel for his life and salvation than any of his ancestors ever knew if he would, when king, foUow the advice and guidance of his new-found friend. Edwin having readily promised all that was asked, the stranger placed his right hand on the Prince's head, saying : " When this sign shall be given to you, remember this time and these our words, and those things which you now promise do not fail to perform." Thus speaking he vanished. Meanwhile Redwald had spoken to his Queen of his pro- posed betrayal of their guest, and she had succeeded in dissuading him from degrading his fame. The King, heartily ashamed that he had ever listened to the temptation, lost little time in preparing for war. Sending back the messengers with a curt refusal, he raised a mighty host and prepared to subdue 117 HISTORY OF ENGLAND the Berniciaxi, upon whom he fell unprepared. Then on the banks of the river Idle the two chief leaders in Teutonic England fought out their fight. At the end, when the battle was over and Ethelfrith lay dead, legend would have us beheve that the waters of the river ran foul with Enghsh blood.^ Redwald had conquered, Ethelfrith was dead, and Edwin, now in his thirty-third year, became King of the Northumbrians. Edwin King The reign of this great and attractive king must detain us for some time. I^acking the capacity for cryptic and terse inaccuracy possessed by Nennius, we cannot dismiss him with the notice that " Edwin, son of Alia, reigned seventeen years, seized on Elmete, and expelled Cerdic, its King. Eanfled, his daughter, received baptism, on the twelfth day after Pentecost, with all her followers, both men and women. The following Easter Edwin himself received baptism, and 12,000 of his subjects with him. If any one desires to know who baptized them, it was Rum Map Urbgen.^ " This account of Edwin, however, though short and not very correct, does bring into prominence the chief event of his reign — the conversion of Northumbria to Christianity. At first, however, Edwin had little leisure to give to matters religious. There were his persecutor's athelings to be driven out ; there was a kingdom to be won and a capital to estabhsh before Edwin, now wedded to Ethelberg the Darling, could give ear to Paulinus — ^before, indeed, the Bishop could venture as far north as York in search of souls. Ethelfrith had left behind him many sons, or athelings. Eanfrith, Oswald,^ Oswy," Oslac, Oswudu, Oslaf, and Offa were each ready and prepared to contest with Edwin for the ' Henry of Huntingdon preserves the story : " Amnis Idle Anglorum sanguine sorduit." " Rhun, the son of Urien. ' Of Oswald and Oswy we shall speak at length later. Oswy's second wife was Edwin's daughter Eanfled, so that the enmity between the houses was soon healed. 118 THE SEVENTH CENTURY fruits of victory. Of the details of the struggle we have little knowledge. The athelings appear to have been driven from Northumbria, to seek refuge with the Picts in far lona. Both Deira and Bemicia were brought within Edwin's sway. York was occupied and made his capital, and, as Nennius has told us, Elmet was seized and Cerdic, its king, defeated. We must not, however, imagine that this Cerdic was of the royal house of Wessex, despite the Saxon look of the name in Nennius' s I^atin pages. The King of Elmet was a good Briton, by name Ceredig, a name preserved in modern Cardigan, erst- while called Ceredigion. > Cerdic appears to have been driven from his kingdom, and Edwin, not content with this conquest, pushed on to the west and crossed to the Isle of Man. It is probable that he also harried North Wales and advanced as far as Anglesey, which he seems to have conquered, and which is wrongly supposed to have derived its name from this invasion by Angles. ^ Having thus ill repaid his British foster- parent, and earned his title, given him in the Triads, to be regarded as one of the " three oppressors of Mon [Anglesey]," Edwin turned his attention from the Britons and prepared to subdue the Saxons of the south. Of the nature of this later struggle also we know but little. Bede informs us that its result was the reduction by the Northumbrian of all parts of Britain except Kent. In 626 Edwin was at bitter feud with Cwichelm, King of the West Saxons, and in that year we find the southerner sending an assassin, Eomer, to stab his northern enemy with a poisoned dagger. Edwin's life was, indeed, only preserved by the devotion of his thegn I^illa and one Forthhere, who sprang between the dagger and their King. Even so, however, the King was wounded. In those fierce days such deeds were not allowed to pass unavenged. Edwin at once collected an army and, advancing against the West Saxons, killed their five kings and slew a multitude of people. ^ Supposed to be derived from Ceredig, son of Cimedda. ' Anglesey is a corruption of Ongulsey, and means 'the island on a. fiord.' 119 HISTORYSOF ENGiLAND Conversion of Edwin Meanwhile other deeds of equal importance had taken place in Edwin's kingdom. l,aurentius, Melhtus, and Justus had been chosen the successors of Augustine. Laurentius had died in 6ig, and Mellitus followed him to the shades five years later. In the year 624, therefore, Justus became Arch- bishop of Cantert^jiry. Almost at the same time Edwin, who, it will be remembered, had early lost his first wife, a child of Mercia and a pagan, sent ambassadors to Kent to request an alliance and the hand of Ethelbert's daughter Ethelberg. Eadbald, her brother, who then reigned over Kent, and who, as we have seen, had turned pagan and had married his step- mother, had since been converted, and, like all converts, was very stubborn with unbelievers. He returned to Edwin the answer that " it was not lawful to give a Christian maiden in marriage with a pagan husband, lest the faith and mysteries of the Heavenly King should be profaned by her union with a king who was a stranger to the worship of the true God." Edwin, however, soon succeeded in persuading Eadbald to entrust his Christian sister to a pagan king, and it was agreed that the maiden should be permitted to profess the Christian faith and that her followers, or court, should be allowed a like liberty of conscience. A promise was even given that the King would embrace the new rehgion himself if on examination he found it superior to his own form of worship. Her beliefs thus safeguarded, Ethelberg the Darling journeyed north to her royal wooer, taking with her, besides many attendants, the priest Paulinus, whom for the purpose Justus had newly consecrated Bishop of York, twelve days before the calends of August (July 21, 625). Of Paulinus's struggles for the salvation of Northumbria we do not propose to treat at length. We have reasons for this reticence. In the first place, the mission, though for a time successful, was in the end a failure, and the converts who were obtained recanted their faith on Edwin's death. In the second place, Northumbrian Christianity was obtained in the 120 THE SEVENTH CENTURY main, not from the rigid Augustine missionaries, but from the holy men of the Celtic Church; Aidan, not Paulinus, has chief claim to the honour of having Christianized northern England. In the third place, much as we venerate the Venerable Bede, we cannot believe his account of the mission of Paulinus, for his story refutes itself. We therefore pass by the promise of Edwin to renounce his idols and serve Christ if the God of Paulinus would grant him life and victory over his enemy of Wessex ; the baptism of the infant Eanfled, born on the fatal night when the assassin's dagger struck down I^illa, " the King's most faithful follower," in earnest of that promise ; the King's subsequent refusal to embrace the new faith, though victorious, without full consideration. Nor can we stay to consider Pope Boniface's letter to the wavering Edwin urging him to follow in the footsteps of Eadbald and his own consort and thus win the reward of eternity, adding to much pious exhortation a gift in kind, to wit, " a shirt of proof with one gold ornament, and one cloak of Ancyra " — gifts, we may observe, which ill consorted with the majestic promises of eternal glory ; gifts which, as Montalembert said, testify either to the Pope's poverty or to the simpUcity of the times. Nor can we stay to consider the same Pope's letter to Queen Ethelberg urging her to persuade her consort to abandon his " abominable idols" and fulfil the Scriptures where it reads, " The unbelieving husband shall be saved by the believing wife " — exhortations which were aided by the gift of the blessing of St Peter, a silver looking-glass, and a gilded ivory comb ! We must say something, however, of the final cause of Edwin's conversion. We have already seen that Edwin, when threatened with death at Redwald's Court, had been visited by a stranger who, after promising him victory, gave him a sign whereby he should know him. Time passed and the blessings promised had all been fulfilled, but as yet no one had made the sign. In the intervening years, at least since Christian Ethelberg had journeyed north, Paulinus had in vain sought to turn the King from the worship of Woden, god of valour, to the 121 HISTORY OF ENGLAND teachings of Christ, Arch-Priest of pity and of love. The Teuton mind stood firm, mitil Paulinus, despairing of the King's conversion, at last made the long-expected sign, asking his lord whether he remembered his promise. The story is preserved to us by Bede, who tells us that " The King, trembling, was ready to fall down at his feet, but he [Paulinus] raised him up and, speaking to him with the voice of a friend, said : ' Behold, by the gift of God you have escaped the hands of the enemies whom you feared. Behold, you have obtained of His bounty the kingdom which you desired. Take heed not to delay to perform your promise ; accept the faith, and keep the precepts of Him Who, delivering you from temporal danger, has raised you to the honour of a temporal kingdom.' " For his own part Edwin now recognized that he was in honour bound to accept the new reUgion ; he sought, however, to make the conversion, not personal, but national. Calling together his Witan, he demanded of them, each one sepa- rately, what they thought of the new faith. The answers given are to tis of great interest, for they show the mind of man in its simplest state. First spoke Coifi, Edwin's chief priest, and right worthy of his craft was his answer. He, on his own confession, had served his gods for what earthly gain he could get ; alas ! he had got less than he deserved, therefore away with the gods and on to others. FoUowit^ this candid knave came, however, a counsellor of a different stamp, who in words of liviag symbolism painted his picture of man's life on earth : " The present life of man upon earth, O King, appears to me, in comparison with that time which is vmknown to us, like to the swift flight of a sparrow through your hall, where you, with your ealdormen and thegns, sit by the fire, at supper, iu winter. The hall is warmed ; without are storms of wind and rain and winter's snow. The sparrow passes swiftly in at one door and out at another, gaining awhile a short safety from the wintry blast ; but soon after a little calm he flies once more into the unknown, passing from winter to winter again. So this life of ours appears for a moment, 122 THE SEVENTH CENTURY but whence or wHther we are wending we know not. If, therefore, this new faith can teach us aught more sure, it seems truly to deserve to be followed." Ah ! brave Northumbrian who anticipated by more than four centuries Omar's complaint, now preserved to us in FitzGerald's inspired verse : There was the Door to which I found no Key ; There was the Veil through which I might not see ; Some Uttle talk awhile of ME and ThEE There was — and then no more of Thee and ME — worthily did you speak in England's first Parliament, and wonderful had it been if the problem you propounded had then been solved ! At least one thing was gained : idolatry was renounced ; Christianity, best of religions, was adopted ; and, after Coifi had flung his spear at the gods he once had worshipped, the way was open for PauUnus to preach the new faith, even in what had once been pagan temples. King and Witan embraced the new reUgion, and Edwin, together, doubt- less, with his wise men, was baptized in the Uttle wooden church he had built to St Peter at York. Soon the good Paulinus was busily engaged baptizing converts as far north as the Cheviots, and to-day, as Mr Travis MiUs ^ has pointed out, " the memory of this great reUgious revolution is pre- served by the place-names and traditions of northern England. Pallinsbum, near Flodden Field, Jordan, near Malton, the Cross at Easingwold, [and] the Cross which once existed at Dewsbury, with the inscription. Hie Paulinus praedicavit ei celebravif, ... all bear witness to the first ardour of Christian enthusiasm." This was in 627. For years the good work went on. Royal princes, Edwin's sons by Quenberga, his first wife, and children by Ethelberg, were baptized ; churches were founded, one at Doncaster, which was afterward destroyed by the pagans, and one at York, of stone, in place of the little wooden church previously erected. This later stone erection was still incom- plete when Edwin was killed ; its site is now covered by York ' Great Days of Northumbria, p. 29. 123 HISTORY OF ENGLAND Minster, and of the Saxon building only a small part of the crypt remains. Paulinus and the East and Middle Angles The zeal of Edwin and Paulinus was not limited to North- umbria. The King early persuaded Earpwald, King of the East Angles, the son of his protector Redwald, to abandon paganism. The attempt was, however, but partially successful, for Earpwald's wife, a good pagan, persuaded her consort to renovmce his new-found faith. At last he seems to have compromised the matter by serving both the old gods and the new, having, in the words of Bede, " in the same temple an altar for the Christian sacrifice, and another small one at which to offer victims to devils." Earpwald was shortly afterward slain by Ricbert, a pagan, and it was not until 636, when Sigebert, " a most Christian and learned man," ascended the throne of the East Angles, that the province began generally to abandon idolatry. Sigebert, indeed, was in many ways an exceptional man, for, according to Roger of Wen- dover, he " instituted schools in various places, that the rustic people might taste the sweetness of literature." ^ He ended his life, like so many of the higher -minded nobles of those ages, by abandoning the vestments of a king for the garments of a monk, leaving his kingdom to his kinsman Ecgric. Paulinus, meanwhile, had not been content to rely upon the exertions and influence of Edwin, but, pushing southward beyond the Humber, sought to convert the Middle Angles and Mercians. He preached in the province of I^indsey, converted Blaecca, reeve of the city of I^incoln, and built in that town a " stone church of beautiful workmanship," the walls of which were still standing in the time of Bede, though it had been attacked and partly destroyed by enemies. Bede has much to say of this mission, for he had met an old man who ^ He had in early life been exiled and went to live in Gaul, where doubtless he had seen the benefits flowing from the combination of religion and educa- tion. ItwasinGaulthathewas, in Bede's words, " initiated into the mysteries of the faith." 124 THE SEVENTH CENTURY had related how he himself had been baptized at noonday by the Bishop in the presence of the Bretwalda ; at the same time great multitudes of people had likewise turned from paganism. The man, who must have been very aged,^ had carried in his memory a pleasant picture of Paulinus ; tall of stature, with bowed shoulders, black hair, a thin, ascetic face marked with a slender and aquiline nose, his aspect seemed to him both venerable and awe-inspiring. With him had gone as his constant companion in good works James the Deacon, " a man of zeal and great fame in Christ and in the Church." State of Northumbria under Edwin With the new religion of mercy winning its way, with peace all around, won by Edwin's earlier triumph, the lot of Northumbria was now a happy one. Men in future years were wont to look back on Edwin's reign as to a Golden Age. Then, we are told, there was such peace that a woman might walk from end to end of England with her new-bom babe without receiving injury ; then copper drinking-vessels were fixed to wayside fountains and no thief durst touch them, " either through the great dread they had of the King, or for the love they bore him " ; then, indeed, an English king who possessed some of Rome's ancient administrative ability rode about his cities, townships, and provinces with something of Roman magnificence, with standard-bearers before him carrying as banner the tufa. Edwin's Downfall Thus Edwin, fifth in the line of Bretwaldas, had won for himself a predominant place in seventh-century England. His power, however, like everything terrene, was soon to end. It was the Briton Cadwallawn who was primarily responsible for the downfall. As we have seen, the Northumbrian at the commencement of his reign had gained the British province of ^ The event took place in 628. Bede, who finished his history in 731, was born about 673. 125 HISTORY OF ENGLAND Elmet and had won his way to Anglesey. Cadwallawn, follow- ing Cadvan, was then his opponent, and, on being defeated, fled for safety to Ireland. Thence he later returned, deter- mined to work the ruin of his enemy. In 633, after having formed an alliance with Penda of Mercia, whose brother-in-law the Briton possibly was, he and the Mercian advanced into Northumbria and met, defeated, and slew Edwin at the battle of Hatfield Chase (ileathfield). The years that followed were bitter ones for Deira. The British leader, with two centuries of wrong to redress, with the massacre of his people, the slaughter of Chester, the defeats he himself had suffered, and his own exile well remembered, flung himself upon the Angles of Deira, now unprotected, and slew and tortured man, woman, and child. The new churches were laid low, the country-side was devastated, Elfric's son Osric, who had succeeded to Deira, was slain, and the once prosper otis kingdom was brought to the dust. The turn in the tide came with the battle of Oswald's Cross (Heavenfield), but in the meantime Christianity was dead in Northumbria. Paulinus had fled by ship to Kent, taking Ethelberg with him, and it seemed that Edwin's reign, which once had been so full of bright promise for the future, had passed leaving nothing stable behind it. Oswald The year 633 had been a sorry one for Northumbria. Edwin being dead, his kingdom had been spht into the old divisions of Deira and Bemicia. To the throne of Deira Osric, son of Ehric, had succeeded, only to be slain while besieging Cadwallawn in the walled town of York, which the Briton had now seized. According to Bede, the attack on York had been a complete disaster, for not only was Osric slain in a sudden sally made by the British, but, with him, his whole army was put to the sword, so that for a whole year the victor raged through the conquered province "like a furious tyrant." Meanwhile Eanfrith, Ethelfrith's eldest son, had succeeded to the throne of Bemicia. He too, however, soon fell before Cadwallawn's conquering host, for, coming to the Briton with 126 THE SEVENTH CENTURY but twelve chosen warriors in order to sue for peace, lie and his bodyguard were attacked and destroyed. It did, indeed, appear as though the Briton's oath to drive the Angles from Britain would be fulfilled. After the death of Eanfrith Bernicia had as ruler Oswald, a king whose life we must stay to consider for a space, for, although he reigned but nine years and fell at last before the sword of Penda the king-slayer, his own qualities and the religious movements which took place under his rule mark him out from the generality of chiefs who fought and conquered, or died, in the England of the seventh century. His first act was to engage Cadwallawn in battle. Collect- ing the largest army he could, which was but a small force compared with Cadwallawn's mightier host, he came up with his enemy near the Roman Wall. Oswald, good Christian that he was, had prepared for battle with prayers to Heaven before a symbol of the Cross. His piety and the valour of his men were rewarded, for with the first dawn of day he fell upon his enemy, possibly as he advanced along the Roman road which ran between the Wall and the vallum over the northern moors, and having caught his opponent almost in an ambush, he inflicted a complete and decisive defeat upon him. The Britons were driven northward, and at last brought to bay at Denisburn, beside the small brook Denis, not far from Rowley Water. There the fierce but brave Cadwallawn fell, having waged almost the last fight fought by the Britons for the sovereignty of this island. Tranquillity and freedom from foreign foes having thus been gained, Oswald now set himself the task of repairing the material and spiritual ravages which the war waged by the Briton had wrought in his kingdom. Of the steps he took to secure the material welfare of his people we know little ; but of his efforts to turn them again from paganism we must speak. As we have seen, some seventy years before Columba had set out from Ireland and had founded the centre of a 127 HISTORY OF ENGLAND widespread mission in tlie small island of lona, on the west coast of Scotland. From the monastery there estabUshed, and from many others, Celtic missionaries, whose lives are famous for their perfect sanctity, had journeyed among the Picts, and by their shining example had converted these barbarians, whom the Romans had found so intractable, to the faith of Christ. It may seem strange that it was to these missionaries of the Celtic Church that Oswald, who had been brought up in Gaul, should have looked for teachers of the new faith. We must remember, however, that it was probably at some Celtic centre of religion and learning that Oswald had been reared. Certainly Bede informs us that Oswald and his followers had received baptism, when in banishment, from the elders of the Celtic Church, perhaps in some monastery founded by Columban on the Continent. On the other hand, we must presume that the Roman bishops had almost despaired of Northumbria.1 Paulinus had been forced to fly for his life, and was now occupied with his labours at more congenial Rochester. However this may be, we find the King desiring the elders of the Celtic Church to send him a bishop to teach and convert his people. This appeal made by a Bernician king to a bishop of the Picts for help to turn from idolatry a people who had returned to paganism because of the devastations inflicted by a British and a Christian king is a curious example of the changes which occur in this world's affairs. Over two centuries before Bishop Ninias, a Briton, had come, full of zeal, from Rome, and from that circle of which St Martin of Tours was the centre, to preach the Gospel to the southern Picts. His mission was successful, and before his death he had consecrated a church to St Martin and had converted the southern Picts from ^ Paulintis when he fled left behind him at York the faithful James the Deacon. This holy man still laboured on, not without effect, living for the main part in the little village of Cataract, once one of the four chief Roman cities, now identified with Akeburgh, a corruption of Jacobsburgh — ' the town of James.' He still taught and baptized the rustics, gaining fame by his single- ness of purpose, his beautiful voice, and his knowledge of Church music — a subject upon which he was one of the first to give instruction in England. 128 THE SEVENTH CENTURY paganism. The Briton was now dead these two hundred years, his people had been driven from the fairest provinces of Britain by the Angles and the Saxons, pagans ; the northern Picts had been Christianized by Columba, a Celt ; the Angles had been Christianized by the Celt Paulinus, a Romanist, and paganized by the Christian Briton Cadwallawn, and now they looked to a bishop of the northern Picts for salvation ! The answer to the appeal was immediate. Corman, " a man of harsh disposition " (to be distinguished from the later Colman), was at first sent, but he, after preaching for some time without success, returned, complaining that he could do nothing with this intractable, stubborn, and barbarous people. A council of elders was consequently held, and after having heard Corman's description of his mission and its failure, Aidan, who was of the coimcil, spoke thus : " Perhaps, my brother, you were somewhat too harsh with these untutored folk, unmindful of the Apostolic rule about milk for babes." The justice of the remark was observed, the wisdom of the speaker perceived, and Aidan was chosen as the successor of the despairing Corman. Aidan The life of the new missionary is one of the most noble in English history. It has been remarked as matter for surprise that, of all the saints of the Church, Aidan is least borne in memory and has fewest churches dedicated to him. The fact should not surprise us ; he lived the life of a saint, but his creed was unorthodox, he, alas ! belonging to those barbarians who could not, or would not, calculate Baster according to the Roman manner. If we may apply the strictures contained in the letters of Pope Honorius and that other priest who later became Pope John IV to this member of the Church against which they were directed, we must also regard him as tainted with the Pelagian belief. Such a man, however good, has not been thought by the Church a convenient person to consecrate buildings to. His life, however, was successful in winning over Northumbria from paganism, and when he died I 129 HISTORY OF ENGLAND lie died blessed by King and peasant, ricli and poor alike, and the place where he fixed the centre of his mission, wild, wind- swept I/indisfame, is to-day known as Holy Island in peculiar remembrance of the holy man who once walked in humiUty along its strand, thinking of new ways to touch the heart of his flock, endeavouring to set an example of simple piety which all might follow. Of Oswald anjl Aidan Bede has left us many pictures. Thus when the good Bishop had first come to I/indisfarne we read that he was not perfectly acquainted with the English tongue, and to aid him in his work the King acted as inter- preter. " It was a fair sight," says Bede, " to see the King himself interpreting the Word of God to his ealdormen and thegns." On another occasion we find Aidan, whose charity and benevolence to the poor were quite Franciscan, blessing the hand of the King which had given his own food to the needy multitude without. Throughout Oswald's short reign we find, indeed, the King looking up to his Bishop as to a saint, accepting his strictures if given, welcoming his rare visits to Court and treating them as an honour, ever ready to bow before and follow this man of whom Bede could say, " He taught nothing that he did not practise " ; who gave nothing but hospitaHty to rich and powerful men, but who gave all his wealth to the poor ; who ransomed slaves, yet made a slave of himself by his arduous mode of life in the high cause he had embraced ; who fasted himself, yet could be cheerful when others feasted ; who walked the bare shores of Holy Island rather than the courts of kings, and who looked for no reward for himself save the salvation of his fellows. The tree he planted was of more stubborn growth than that tended by Paulinus ; the sword of Penda might lop ofE a few of its branches, but it did not uproot it, even though it slew the saintly Oswald and ravaged his kingdom. Oswald Bretwalda As for Oswald, we must not regard hitn as another Edward the Confessor, nor solely as a pious king intent on his 130 THE SEVENTH CENTURY devotions. He was distinctly a man of action. By his victory at Oswald's Cross he had gained predominant power in Britain, and had become the sixth Bretwalda. We cannot beheve that he allowed Cadwallawn's ally, Penda, to escape without reprisals. Doubtless he waged successful war in many parts of Britain, for both. Bede and Adamnan suggest that he obtained a very definite lordship over the other kings, and we are distinctly told that through his exertions the inhabitants of Deira and Bernicia, who had before been at variance, were peacefully united into one people. We also know that during his reign all England was quiet and free from other wars. The Chronicle, indeed, for these years has but few entries, and what few there are are mainly concerned with the mission of Birinus, who had been sent by Pope Honorius to teach the West Saxons, and who succeeded in baptizing King C3megils at Dorchester (Oxon.), Oswald being godfather to the new convert. In the next year another West Saxon leader, Cwichelm, followed in Cynegils's footsteps, and in 639 King Cuthred also abandoned paganism. Maserfield Three years after Cuthred's conversion Oswald met his death at the hand of Penda. What the cause of the dispute was we do not know, but on August 5, 642, the Bemician and the Mercian led their opposing hosts to battle at a place called Maserfield, near Oswald's house at Winwick, north of the present Warrington, in I/aucashire.^ The day went against the Bemician, and " by diabolical aid," to use Nennius's phrase, the Mercian gained the victory. Eawa, Penda's nephew, was among the slain. Oswald died worthily, praying for the souls of his men, and in the place in which he fell many miracles were beUeved to have been worked in later years. From the references made by Bede it was probably a spot ^ Oswestry is perhaps more commonly referred to as the place of the battle. Nennius gives Cocboy. For evidence one way or the other reference may be made to Mr Travis Mills's Great Days of Northumbria, p. 48 n. (Win- wick), and Professor Lloyd's History of Wales, vol. i, p. 189 (Oswestry). Other places have also been suggested. HISTORY OF ENGLAND only frequented by travellers, some of whom at least were Britons ; but, it is said, so great was the boliness of the dead King that the grass there growing, and even the very dust, were powerful to cvue men and cattle of all sickness. The King's bones, which, we are told, were preserved by his niece Osthryth — ^now Queen of the Mercians, and destined to be murdered by her own people — ^became holy relics and worked many a tniracle in the province of I/indsey, whither they were carried. Penda of Mercia With the victory at Maserfield the chief interest shifts for a moment from Northumbria to Mercia, and we must consider some of the deeds of this pagan Penda who had already slain five kings of Northumbria. Of his career, however, but Httle is known ; he had no interest for the ecclesiastical historians, and none of the chroniclers had especial interest in Mercia. Nennius tells us that he was the son of Pybba, or Wibba, and traced his descent to Woden, and that he slew by treachery Anna, King of the East Angles. We also know from the Chronicle that in 628 the Wessex chiefs Cynegils and Cwichelm fought against him at Cirencester, and from the later chroniclers we learn that after a great slaughter on each side the opposing forces made a truce and retired. It is certain that the thirty years of Penda's reign (626-655) saw the rise of Mercia to a position of great power. Allied with Cadwatlawn, greatest of early Cymric kings, both by marriage and for war, the pagan king time after time pitted himself with no small success against the Bretwaldas of North- umbria. All his fighting was done in his later years, for he was fifty years old when he ascended the throne, and almost an octogenarian when he was finally defeated and slain at the battle of Winwaed. With the defeat of Oswald it is probable that Penda's power was considerably augmented. In the preceding years he had without doubt been kept in some sort of subjection by the powerful Bretwaldas, and appears to have consented to a 132 THE SEVENTH CENTURY marriage between a member of his family and a daughter of Oswy of Bemicia. He also seems to have entered into a close alliance with the Bast Anglians and with the Middle -English, but details relating to these alliances have not been recorded. OswiN AND Oswy Against this energetic and diplomatic old pagan warrior Oswin ^ and Oswy, who succeeded Oswald on the thrones of Deira and Bemicia respectively, soon found themselves ranged. Few characters could be more diverse than those of Oswin and Penda. The Northumbrian, possessing every grace of face and figure, pleasant of speech, courteous in manner. Christian in spirit, open-handed, had little likeness to the Mercian, save that both were brave. Their fortunes were even more dissimilar. Penda ruled his people for thirty years, and at last died at the age of nearly eighty. In his day no one had expressed any great love, though much respect, for the warrior. He fell at last on the field of battle to the sword of an enemy. Oswin reigned over Deira but seven years, in which time he won the hearts of all his subjects, and gained for his people great prosperity, being engaged in benefiting his own cotmtry rather than in devastating others. He died a young man, murdered by assassins hired by his partner in the kingdom of the Northumbrians, Oswy of Bemicia. Penda was a leader of the pagans ; Oswin was the faithful disciple and friend of saintly Aidan, and many tales are told of their friendship : how, for example, the King gave to his bishop from his stables a fine horse gay with royal trappings ; how the Saint, meeting a poor man asking alms, gave him the horse, " fof-he was full of compassion, a true friend to the poor and, in some sort, the father of the wretched." The story proceeds to inform us that the King was annoyed at this action, protest- ing that if the Bishop wished to give horses to beggars, he, the King, would have supplied him with a cheaper one ; to which Aidan replied : " What say you, O King ? Is, then, a mare's son ^ Oswin did not succeed until 644. HISTORY OF ENGLAND dearer to you than a son of God ? " Later the King, having thought about the matter, saw the true meaning of the Bishop's words, and, kneehng at his feet, begged for forgiveness, promising that in future he would not complain of his bene- volence, whatever form it might take. It was but a short while after this event, and as Aidan had prophesied, that this life of much promise was ended. Oswy, we are told, " cofild not live at peace with Oswin." Their quarrels became more and more frequent, and at last open warfare broke out between them. Oswin, however, finding himself outnumbered, decided to avoid a present conflict, disbanded his forces, and, with but one trusty thegn, Tondhere by name, withdrew from Wilfar's Hill, near the village where James the Deacon had laboured so long, and took refuge in the house of Hunwald, a noble (comes ^) , whom he believed to be a true friend. " But, alas ! " says Bede, " it was far other- wise." Hunwald proved a traitor to his Eling, and Oswy had his enemy foully slain by one Ethelwin, a reeve. The murder was committed on August 20, 651, at a spot called Ingetlingum,* where afterward, in atonement for his crime and at Queen Eanfled's request, Oswy built a monastery wherein prayers were offered for the souls of the two Kings, the murdered and the murderer. The death of Oswin must have been a mortal blow to the good Aidan, who had now seen the violent deaths of two saintly kings, his friends and- followers. He did not long survive the unhappy event, for eleven days later, on August 31, 651, he died. Oswy We must now retrace our steps a Uttle and see what had been happening in Bemicia. At the time of Oswy's succes- 1 The position of a comes or of the comitatus was ahnost that of a bodyguard. As Plvunmer points out, ancient feeling would have regarded it as disgraceful for a comes who was present at the time to survive the murder of his lord. This makes Hunwald's treason all the worse. ' Identified with GiUing, in the North Riding. ColUngham has also been suggested, but Flummer regards this as unlikely. THE SEVENTH CENTURY sipn to the throne of that kingdom he was but thirty years of age ; he ruled for twenty-eight years, and before his death he had become one of the most powerful of the Bretwaldas and had curbed the power of Mercia and slain the pagan Penda. We must not, therefore, measure him by the one foul blot on his reign — ^the murder of Oswin. That, it may be, was an unwonted and impetuous act of folly for which the guilty Oswy did full penance ; throughout his later years he certainly endeavoured to govern firmly and wisely, not without success. At the beginning of his reign his land was constantly being harried by the victorious Penda, who at one time was even in a position to attack Northumbria's capital, Bamburgh. This stronghold was, however, too strong by nature for either Penda's siege or attack to prove successful. Nothing daunted, the Mercian pulled down all the surroimding villages, collected great masses of combustible things — ^wooden beams, wattles, thatch — and, gathering them together, fired them so that the wind would blow the flames against the town. It was now that Aidan came to the help of his King. Seeing from the Isle of Fame, some few miles distant from the attacked city, the preparations made by Penda, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and with tears cried : " Behold, O I/ord, what mighty evil is done by Penda ! " The result, according to Bede, was a change in the direction of the wind, so that the flames, instead of consuming Bamburgh, drove back the besieging army. Oswy had already experienced something of Aidan's power, for when, some time between 642 and 645, an embassy was sent to Kent to bring back by sea Eanfled, daughter of King Edwin, as wife for Oswy, the priest foretold storms and tem- pests, and, giving the sailors a bottle of holy oil, commanded them, when the tempest was most furious, to cast the oil overboard, when, he predicted, the sea would become calm. The tempest happened as he had said. Anchors were dragged, waves swept over the ship, and all hope had been abandoned, when one of the number remembered the holy oil, and, seizing the bottle, cast some of it into the sea. At once the sea HISTORY OF ENGLAND grew calmer and at last port was reached. Many miracles were performed in those days at which we are now pleased to smile, but this one we can the more readily believe, since the same mode of mastering the waters is practised still. OSWY AND PeNDA : WiNWAED The position of Oswy in these years was not improbably one of great danger. We have seen how he had made war on Deira and murdered its King ; we have seen how Penda, now master of Mercia, the Middle Angles, and East Anglia, had attacked him from time to time and reached even the walls of Bamburgh. Efforts were clearly necessary for the consolidation of his power. Oswy seems to have seen a way out of his difl&culties by marriage alliances. Alchfrith, Oswy's son, was therefore married to Penda's daughter Cyneburga ; Penda's son Peada, now King of the Middle Angles, also sought Oswy's daughter Alchfleda for his consort. Difficulties were, however, raised, for Peada was a pagan. At last the stumbling- block was removed by his baptism, and the first important step was taken in the conversion of Mercia and the Middle Angles — a step to which Penda raised no objection. By these marriages Oswy seems to have kept peace with Penda, but it was otherwise with Deira. Exactly what was transpiring in that country or what claims were being made to that throne we do not know. Again, toward Penda's later years the desire to devastate became too strong. Perhaps the old Mercian, who is known to have had hatred and con- tempt, not for Christians, but for hypocrites, could Httle tolerate the murder of Oswin ; perhaps he was supporting Ethelwald's claims in Deira ; perhaps he was once more in league with the men of Gwynedd ; we hardly know. Certain it is that Oswy, after imsuccessfuUy attempting to bribe his enemy to make peace, determined to conclude the matter one way or the other by battle. On Penda's side there fought Ethelwald of Deira ; Ethelhere of East Anglia ; Cadafael, or Cadwaladr,! of North Wales — all Christians ; and Peada of the * See the author's Wales, in this series, p. 98. THE SEVENTH CENTURY Middle Bnglish, a late convert. Penda himself was still an unrepentant pagan. The rival forces met at Winwaedfield, at the place where " the Ermine Street crossed, and still crosses, the [river] Went, near the modem Standing Flats Bridge, some two miles to the south of Pontefract." ^ There, on November 15, 655, the most important battle in pre-Norman England was fought. Against Oswy's small force a mighty army was arrayed, but it seems as though Penda's subject- Idngs fought as vassals rather than as allies. Throughout the battle Ethelwald held aloof, and before the fight began the British king deserted with his whole force, thus earning the title of ' the king who ran away.' The direct result was an overwhelming victory for the Northumbrian. Penda and Ethelhere and many a Mercian chief were slain ; thousands of the beaten host were drowned in the river Winwaed, then swollen into a torrent by the November rains. Penda had fallen, and Oswy had risen to be chief of the English kings. The indirect results were even greater. The struggle between Teuton and Briton was finally decided in favour of the former ; the pohcy which, in Cadwallawn's time, had nearly resulted in the overthrow of the Angles was now definitely at an end ; yet further, the struggle between Christian and pagan was, for early England at least, now definitely concluded. Northumbria was all-powerful, and, with Northumbria, Christianity. ' Mr Travis Mills's Great Days of Northumbria, pp. 53, 54. 137 CHAPTER VII THE SEVENTH CENTURY SECOND PHASE THE latter part of the seventli century, though it contains no such great events as the battles of Heavenfield, Maserfield, and Winwaedfield, or the conversion of Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex to Christianity, is yet im- portant from certain points of view. Thus it saw the poUtical centre of gravity shift southward ; it saw the Celtic Church conquered by the Roman system ; it saw a healthy recrudes- cence of lawgivers and donors of charters, who followed in the footsteps of Ethelbert, now dead for some two generations. So far as the pohtical history of this period is concerned we may soon dismiss it. After the battle of Winwaed Oswy, the most powerful king in Britain, bore sway over Northumbria and Mercia. For some time the war dragged on in the district of I^idis, around modem l>eds, but the power of the Mercians was already broken ; Peada, Penda's son, was permitted by Oswy, as by an overlord, to rule the South Mercians, and Oswy himself for three years reined over Penda's subjects, converting them to Christianity, apparently by force rather than by persuasion. Peada did not Uve long to benefit by his foeman's generosity, for in the year following (656) he was murdered by his wife Alchfleda, Oswy's daughter, at Easter-time. A Httle later, some three years after Wiuwaed, a rebellion was started in Mercia against Oswy, who appears to have been seeking out the Mercian princes for slat^hter, for we read that the leaders of the revolt, Immin, Eafa, and Eadbert, produced, as claimant to the throne, Wulfhere, one 138 THE SEVENTH CENTURY of Penda's sons, " a youth whom they had concealed." The result of the rising was the end of Oswy's power in the south, and though he won some further successes at the expense of the Britons and Picts, Northumbria slowly abandoned its supremacy and became a centre of interest from the eccle- siastical rather than from the military side. WULFHERE OF MeRCIA In 658 the youthful Wulfhere made good his claim to the throne of Mercia. The subsequent years showed him to be an energetic prince. In combination with his brother Mere- wald, he drove deep into Wales, and extended the borders of Mercia almost to the line marked out in later years by Offa's Dike.^ He also enlarged his power in the east by reconquering Lindsey, rendered subject to himself Kings Sighere and Sebbi, of the East Saxons, and reduced the power of Wessex. When we reach the eighth century we shall find Mercia the strongest kingdom in England, and Wulfhere, together with the later Offa, appear to be mainly responsible for that position. Wulfhere, having established his temporal power, seems to have eagerly seconded the efforts of the Christian missionaries and became a good son of the Church. Four bishops in succession he appointed — ^Trumhere, Jaruman, Ceadda, and Wynfrith. Wynfrith was, however, eventually deposed by Archbishop Theodore of Tarsus. Wessex Turning for the moment from Mercia, we will journey southward to Wessex, now ruled over by Kenwalk (Cenwalh) , son of CjTiegils. The successor of that Cuthred who had been baptized by Birinus at Dorchester in 639,^ Kenwalk mounted the West Saxon throne in 643, and there reigned for twenty-nine years. Though professing Christianity ^ like his predecessor, and though the founder of St Peter's at Winchester, he deserted his consort, a sister of Penda. The ■ See for evidence Professor Lloyd's History of Wales, vol. i, p. 195. * See ante, p. 131. ' According to the Chronicle, Kenwalk himself was baptized in 646. 139 HISTORY OF ENGLAND result was a war between the middle kingdom and Wessex, in wMcli Kenwalk was beaten and driven for a time to seek refuge in East Anglia. By 648, however, he was back again in Wessex, and in that year gave three thousand hides of land to his kinsman Cuthred, and was probably present at the hallowing of the now completed St Peter's Minster. During these years Birinus had been bishop of the West Saxons ; he die&, however, in 650 and was succeeded by Agilbert, who was a native of Gaul and was unacquainted with the English language. Shortly afterward we have a hint of civil war in Wessex in the notice under the year 652 that " this year Kenwalk fought at Bradford-on-the-Avon." Ethelweard in his Chronicle tells us definitely that the battle was fought against his own people. Kenwalk's next campaign was against the Britons, ancient enemies of Wessex, and a battle was fought at Pen-Selwood. Near by there exists to-day a large earthen fortress known as ' Keniwilkin's Castle/ a name which, as Earle pointed out, is very similar to Kenwalk. At Pen-Selwood Wessex triumphed over Wales, driving the Britons as far as the river Parret.^ Three years later Kenwalk crossed swords with Wulfhere at Pontesbury. What happened we hardly know. According to the Anglo- Saxon Chronicle, Wulfhere ravaged Wessex as far as Ashdown, and later laid waste the Isle of Wight, which he gave to Ethelwald, King of the South Saxons ; we also read that King Wulfhere " was the first man who brot^ht baptism to the people of Wight." The entry does not, however, quite convince us, and although Bede confirms the W^ht story, we cannot but beUeve that the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is unfair to Kenwalk, as Ethelweard's Chronicle is to Wulfhere, for there we read that " Kenwalk . . . took Wulfhere prisoner at Ashdown when he had defeated his army." Whatever may have been the exact result of Pontesbury and Ashdown, we find Kenwalk reining in apparent peace * Petherton has also been suggested. The Chronicle uses the word • Pedridau.' Ethelweard has ' Pederydan.' For the Parret identification see Plummer, Saxon Chronicle, voL ii, p. 28. 140 THE SEVENTH CENTURY until 672, when he died, leaving a tranquil kingdom to his Queen, Sexburga, who ruled for one year. She was succeeded, in 675, by Escwin, who shortly afterward renewed the conflict with Wulfhere. Again of the result of the battle of Beadan- head we know nothing, but in the same year Wulfhere died and Kthelred of Mercia succeeded him. The next year Escwin also passed to the shades, leaving his kingdom to Kentwine, son of CjTiegils. In this same year Ethelred of Mercia is found waging a devastating war on Kent, a kingdom which during these troublous years had politically been peculiarly quiet. This refuge-place of Ethelberg and her children had indeed been fortunate to escape from the many bitter quarrels which had been fought out between Northumbria and Mercia, Mercia and Wessex. Egfrith Some few years before, in 671, Oswy, last of the Bretwaldas mentioned by Bede and a king who had made tributary the Picts and Scots, had died. He was succeeded by his son Egfrith, who had in his youth been a hostage at the Court of Queen CjTiwise, wife of Penda. Almost at once Egfrith seems to have turned his attention to the Picts, whose " bestial hordes," to use Eddius's expression, were preparing to regain their liberty. The two forces met under the leadership of Egfrith and Bemhaeth respectively. So great was the slaughter of the Picts that two rivers were filled with the fallen corpses, and the soldiers of the victorious Angle passed over them as by a bridge. A few years later the Northumbrian met Wuhhere of Mercia and inflicted a defeat upon him, as the price of which the province of I^indsey fell to Egfrith for a time. Four years later (679) the two kingdoms were again at war, the Mercian hosts now being led by Ethelred. Of the result of the battle then fought near the banks of the Trent we have little knowledge, but Elfwine, Egfrith's younger brother, a popular prince, was slain. The quarrel lingered on some time longer, to be eventually healed by the good 141 HISTORY OF ENGLAND counsel of Archbishop Theodore. Compensation was made for Elf wine's death, and I^indsey, not improbably, was handed back to Mercia. Egf-rith's next step was against the Scots. He had already succeeded in imposing the yoke of Northumbria upon some part of the Britons of Strathclyde and had subdued the Picts as far as the Firth of Forth. He now' looked farther afield, and, disregarding^the advice of St Cuthbert and his counsellors, determined to wage a devastating war against the Scots. We read that he spared neither churches nor monasteries, but miserably wasted a harmless nation who had been most friendly with the English. This was in 684. In the year following, once again disregarding advice, he fell upon the northern Picts dwelling beyond the Firth of Forth. This time, however, the issue was different. I>d by a stratagem of the enemy to believe they were fleeing, the hot-headed Egfrith hastily followed his foes in order to complete their destruc- tion. They drew him, however, into a narrow fastness among their mountains not many miles distant from Forfar. There, trapped and unable to manoeuvre, he and a large part of his army perished. We are told how the saintly Cuthbert, while standing amid the ruins of Roman Carlisle, declared that even then the great battle was being decided, a battle fought between two races each equally dear to him. It was as he had said. Soon messengers came bringing the woeful news that Egfrith and the flower of his army lay slain on the battle-ground of Nechtansmere. The defeat was decisive. Northumbria lost her former greatness, and Egfrith's successor, Aldfrith, his illegitimate half-brother, occupies no prominent place in seventh-century history. Caedwalla of Wessex With the decline of Northumbria the chief interest shifts to Wessex. For some years after the death of Kenwalk few important events had befallen the West Saxon kingdom. In 682, it is true, Kentwine had led an attack against the Britons, which, we are informed, resulted in their " being 142 THE SEVENTH CENTURY driven to the sea." With the appearance of Caedwalla, however, events move more quickly. We first find him estabhshing his right to the throne by force of arms, and shortly afterward carrying on an energetic war against the South Saxons, whose king, Ethelwalch, he slew. Under the leadership of Berthun and Andhun, however, the Sussex men got the upper hand for a time and Caedwalla was driven back. It was but for a time. Soon the West Saxon returned to the attack and " reduced the province to grievous slavery," a woeful condition which continued to some extent under Ine. About this time Sussex was again attacked by Caedwalla and his brother Mul. I^ater Mul, who had carried the expedi- tion against Sussex beyond its border into Kent, was caught by his enemies, the men of Kent, who burnt him and twelve of his followers alive. Such a deed could not pass unavenged. Kent and the Isle of Wight were laid waste (687). Notwithstanding the constant and devastating wars he waged, Caedwalla seems to have been a good son of the Church. Inspired by Wilfrid, he followed up his devastation of Wight by an attempt to conclude what Wulfhere had commenced — ^the conversion of the pagans. He even delayed the execution of the death penalty passed upon two youthful pagan enemies until, but only imtil, they should be baptized. Finally he abdicated his throne, turned to religion, and made a pilgrimage to Rome, where he was baptized " on the Holy Saturday before Easter in the year of our I^ord 689." ^ He died a few days later, at Rome, on April 20. On the abdication of Caedwalla, Ine succeeded to the throne of Wessex. This king, who reigned for thirty-seven years, is famed as a lawgiver rather than as a military com- mander. We find him, however, continuing the campaign against Kent, but in 692 " the Kentish-men came to terms with Ine and gave him 30,000 poimds " (? sceatia) to purchase peace and by way of blood-money. It was in this same year that Wihtred became King of Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under date 688. H3 HISTORY OF ENGLAND Kent. As to the other kingdoms, Ethelred still reigned over Mercia and Aldfrith over Northumbria. Over other smaller states other princeHngs ruled. For the moment, however, we wiU leave them all in peace and pass to a consideration of the religious controversy which had been raging around the date of Easter. The Synod of Whitby For our present purpose it is desirable once more to retrace our steps and pass rapidly in review the religious condition of this island. Kent had long been Christian and followed the Italian system. The Britons had for centuries been of the faith, but held their own opinions on important details of doctrine. The Picts of the south had many years before been converted by a follower of St Martin, the Picts of the north by Columba, of the Celtic Church. The Northumbrians had abandoned paganism, firstly in consequence of the teaching of Paulinus, a Romanist ; secondly, and finally, because of the missionary zeal of Celtic Aidan and his fellow-workers. The men of Mercia had lately turned Christian under the rule of Penda's Christian sons, Peada and Wulfhere, who had inter- married into the royal house of Northumbria, and whose Christianity was probably partly of the Celtic, the British, and the Italian type. As to Wessex, the Romanist Biritius had, as we have seen, baptized two of its kings, and the faith was now almost established, although but lately, if we are to believe Bede, Wight had been forcibly converted by Wulfhere. As to Essex, we have seen how MeUitus had been driven from the kingdom by the son of King Sabert because he refused to pagans blessed bread.^ In later times, however, Essex and Northumbria were on friendly terms ; an East Saxon king, Sigebert, was baptized by Aidan's successor, Finan of I/indisfame, and ii^ 653 a missionary, Cedd, who had been working in Mercia was sent to the East Saxons. But after the accession of Sighere and Sebbi, Sigebert's suc- cessors, and after England had been ravaged by plague, the * Ante, pp. 112-113. 144 THE SEVENTH CENTURY weak plant of Christianity shrivelled in Essex ; Sighere and his people turned back to paganism, and had it not been for Wulfhere's influence idolatry might once more have claimed Essex for many years. So far as it was Christian, Essex had followed the Celtic Church. The same may be said of the Middle Angles and the inhabitants of I^indsey, where, however, long ago a Roman church had been built. Sussex was still to a large extent pagan, and it was reserved to Wilfrid in later years to turn it from its errors. As to the breach between the Roman and the British Church, no serious attempt seems to have been made to unite the two sects after the failure of the conference with Augustine. A similar dispute had arisen between the Roman and the Celtic Church under Augustine's successor, Laurentius,^ from whose letter we gather that the Italian missionaries complained rather of the fact that Bishop Dagan of the Celtic Church refused to eat in the same house with them than of difEerences of faith. There did exist, however, the differ- ence in the dating of Easter, and in later years, as we learn from the letters of Pope Honorius and Pope-elect John (afterward the Fourth), there had been a recrudescence of the peculiar Celtic, or British, belief known and condemned as the Pelagian heresy. Tonsures also varied. As to the Easter controversy, the matter had been settled for a large part of the Christian world by the Council of Nicaea,^ but neither Celts nor Britons had accepted the finding of that Council. To us the point in dispute seems minute in essence, turning as it did upon different lunar calculations, the one of which fixed the vernal equinox at March 25, the other at March 21. Prom the point of view of Church ceremonial, feast-days, and the like, it did, however, result in some little confusion. As Mr Mills neatly puts it : " King Oswy, with all his lords and thegns, found himself keeping the Paschal Feast while Queen Eanfled and her servants were fasting for I^ent." ' ^ For his extraordinarily tactless letter to tlie Scots see Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Book II, chap. iv. " Which, however, aimed rather against the Quartodecimans. ' Cf. Bede, Ecclesiastical History, vol. iii, p. 23. K 145 HISTORY OF ENGLAND More important still (from the purely political point of view), it struck across the Roman idea of centralization and imity. Whether it appears important or unimportant to us, to the early Christian workers in England the Easter controversy gradually assumed a position of the greatest moment, and as time went on it was realized that a final settlement could not be indefinitely delayed. At this time, of course, the later Hildebrandine claims had not been made by the See of Rome. No Pope presumed to dictate to kings, and aheady an English king had ignored a papal Bull. The matter could not, there- fore, be decided in Rome, and it became necessary to hold a local Ecclesiastical Coimcil or Synod. The place of meeting was fixed at Whitby. Looking back on early English Christianity, it is remarkable what a prominent place is occupied by women. Bertha of Kent, Ethelberg and Eanfled of Northumbria, had each taken a prominent part in the conversion of their subjects. Other less royal ladies were doing equally good work, ruling monas- teries ^ and ntmneries rather than kingdoms. The saintly Ebba (Aebba), whose name is preserved in St Abbs, had early foimded a religious house, and at the time of the Synod Whitby's mixed monastery was under the control of the dominant abbess Hild, a woman of singular piety and wisdom. In the final controversy the two women Hild and Eanfled occupy almost as prominent a position as the disputing kings and bishops. During the lifetime of Aidan all parties seem to have agreed that no open dispute was possible. His great piety, his lovable life, his enormous personal influence, had closed the mouths of his opponents. Even after his death the question was allowed to slumber during the rule of Finan at Lindisfame, but already the matter was being canvassed within the Celtic Church itself. Ronan, a Scot, was even now disputing with Finan and the monks of Lindisfame about the rival systems, and at ' Women are occasionally found at the head of mixed monasteries. Men, however, never presumed to rule nwmeries, 146 THE SEVENTH CENTURY least persuading them to give the Roman dating of the Easter feast consideration. Such was the condition of affairs when Oswy of Northumbria and Aldfrith sub-king of Deira, his son, called the council together at Streanaeshalch, or Whitby, in 664. To this ' Bay of the I^ighthouse,' there came Oswy and Aldfrith, Bishop Agilbert the Frank, Wilfrid of Ripon, James the Deacon, Romanus of Rochester, and the priest Agatho. Of these all were supporters of the Roman Church except Oswy, who, having been baptized by the Scots and being well acquainted with their language, inclined toward the Celtic Church. Even he, however, there is reason to believe, desired union with the Roman Church, if only for political reasons. On the other side were Colman of I^indisfame and his Celtic clerks, Cedd the missionary bishop, and Abbess Hild and her followers. The discussion which followed, including Colman's speech and Wilfrid's discourteous and pompous answer, we pass by. In the result the King, Oswy, having by questions ascertained that it was agreed that St Peter held the keys of Heaven, decided to make friends with the doorkeeper and follow the practice of Peter's Church ! The more important con- sequences were a present distmion and an ultimate centraliza- tion. Rome had conquered. Colman retired to Scotland, " his doctrine rejected and his party despised," taking many a holy man with him. Bishop Cedd and Abbess Hild both adopted the Roman view, the latter, however, always cherish- ing a grudge against Wilfrid, whose tactless and blatant speech had prevented perfect unity. The good monks of I/indisfame, whose piety, humility, and love for the poor had raised many a seventh-century St Francis in their midst, were sadly reduced in number and in influence, and the way was open for Wilfrid to play for bishoprics, to make visits to Gaul, to struggle and fret and fume for temporal gain, to barter with the dying Oswy for guidance to Rome — a journey never undertaken, since, before Oswy could set out, on February 15, 671, he died, and Egfrith his son ascended the throne. The last years of Oswy's reign had been noted H7 HISTORY OF ENGLAND for no great events, except for a plague wHch devastated England, attacking with especial violence, like the Black Death in later centuries, the monasteries and reUgious foundations. So great had the loss been at Jarrow that only two of the choir were left to sing the services. These two, Abbot Ceolfrith and a small boy, struggled on, however, and contrived to perform the duties of a choir until others were trained to help them. The name of the small boy was Bede. 148 PS g H P o p. c op 6 a o Z < w < P4 CHAPTER VIII THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF SAXON ENGLAND WHEN the Angles and Saxons first invaded Britain at the end of the fourth and the beginning of the fifth century they were rude barbarians. As the cen- turies rolled by, as wars decreased in ferocity and frequency, as the more fertile counties of England were reduced to a more perfect state of tranquillity, as the Christian Church spread its doctrines, tamed savagery, spread education, and brought this island once more into communion with the politer world of south-western and southern Europe, as monastic libraries were founded and stocked with books by such men as Benedict Biscop and Aldhelm, as schools were established and a system of local jurisdictions, courts, and judges elabo- rated, the barbarians were softened in their barbarity and became in time civilized in a certain strong and virile way. War was still the main business of life, but commerce became more and more developed, music had its place, literature commenced to grow, 1/atin verse, satiric and enigmatical, became popular, riddles, puns, and jests were passed from guest to guest at the noble's banqueting-table and thence out to the lower order, bringing to men that gift of the gods — humour. As early as the beginning of the seventh century Ethelbert of Kent had promulgated some rudimentary laws, and the end of the seventh and the beginning of the eighth century saw three important sets of dooms passed by Church-influenced Witans — ^those of Lothaire (Hlothhaere) and Edric, Wihtred, 149 HISTORY OF ENGLAND and Ine, the last-named king being responsible for laws comparable with those of Alfred in the ninth century. From very early times we have also grants of land and rights by charter being made, manumissions by deed and at the altar, and wills of property. We find slavery in existence throughout the period and lasting until long after ; but though in AeUric's Homilies we hear the complaint of the bondman, it is hardly the cry of the too greatly oppressed. Through all these years there seems to have been a general and, in the main, a steady increase in material possessions. In matters of religion and morals the eighth century was worse, perhaps we may say far worse, than the seventh, but in the ninth, imder the hammer-blows of the ' white ' and ' black ' pagans, the Danes and the Norse, the national character was strengthened. The ninth century, indeed, witnessed a temporary decline in learning and in the arts, but it saw an improvement in the national character, and under the leadership of that most marvellous of early mediaeval kings, Alfred the Great, Saxon England reached its highest state from the point of view ahke of morals, of learning, and of mihtary power. It is rather of ninth-century England, particularly of the England under Alfred, that we at present speak ; at the same time much of what we say is derived from sources written at earlier or at later periods. In the following short generaliza- tions we must be content to regard Saxon society as more or less stationary, attempting merely to take a bird's-eye^ view of the period as a whole. General State of Society Status in early days was much more prominent than in our time. As Sir Henry Maine said many years ago, the trend of society is from status to contract. In all early societies men were gracefully graduated from the king to the lowest slave ; each man was put in his niche, given his price, and told how to dress. Sumptuary laws were in existence throt^out our period, and long after the thirteenth century had been reached 150 Plate XVIII. Angi,o-Saxon Musicians and a Juggler 150 SAXON ENGLAND women in I^ondon were told whether they might or might not wear fur on their dresses. In earUer times status not merely affected one's social position, but very vitally affected one's life. The she-slave could be killed for the price of two cows ; the thegn, qn the other hand, was almost inviolate, save at dreadful cost ; and the morals of his kitchen-maid were pro- tected more rigorously than the life of an unattached cotter. We do not propose to enumerate the many social grades which existed in Saxon times, but men fell imder four great heads : the Royal, the Noble, the Free, the Unfree. The noble included thegns and the higher clergy. The free included the lower clergy, the larger farmer holding his land by charter, the smaller landowner holding by custom, the merchant whose ships sailed the seas,^ many tradesmen, fishers, smiths. Some of these latter, on the other hand, were unfree. The xmfree included all the agricultural labourers, the menials, and the lower workpeople. Some of the imfree had a certain liberty, being bound to do definite duties and no more ; others were absolute slaves, at the beck and call of their masters for all purposes ; all were attached to the land and under a lord. There is a considerable amount of evidence to show that the wealthier Saxon houses contained very many slaves. If a reference be made to W3mfiaed's will (p. 155 n.), it will be seen that this lady on her death freed a very large number of slaves indeed. The same sort of wholesale manumission may be seen in other documents, and of isolated cases of slave- freeing we have a considerable number preserved. Sometimes the slaves were freed by their masters, or more frequently by their mistresses, " for their souls' sake." Often the slaves purchased their own freedom, as where Aegehioth's son bought himself and his children from Abbot Aelfsige for five oras and twelve head of sheep. Occasionally the redemption price was almost nominal, as where Aluric, Canon of Exeter, redeemed Renold for two scilling. In many cases the full price was paid. Thus Brihtmaer at Holcombe had to pay two pounds for his • After a certain number of voyages he might become a thegn. 151 HISTORY OF ENGLAND liberty and that of his wife and their children. Sometimes the freedom was purchased by an outsider. In such cases the slave was generally a woman and the redeemer a man ; we imagine that they married as a rule. Thus we find Godwig the Buck buying I^eofgifu, the dough-woman of Northstoke, and her children for half a pound, in perpetual freedom ; the document adds : " May Christ blind him who shall ever set this aside." In another case the following curse was attached : " Whoso shall alter this and bereave her [the manumittor's] soul thereof, may God Almighty bereave him of this life and of the kingdom of Heaven ; and be he accursed, dead and quick, even to eternity." In nearly aU these cases of purchases of freedom the port-reeve was present to take toll, which generally amounted to a few pence. This, of course, was a tax which went either to the king, as was the case in the sale in Tovi's chamber, or to the lord or priest who had the right to the market toll. Some of these records of purchase are in- structive as showing us the grades of people who would be found in company one with another. Thus when I^ivega the barber was redeeming Edith, probably to marry her, we find that Edric the chapman witnesses the document. We expect Edric had his hair cut by I/ivega, and doubtless the two were excellent good friends, and it would be remarkable if Edith did not, in the years to come, pour out many a stoup of ale for Edric's benefit. There is another institution which we must touch upon before we pass on to consider the position of women. This is the guild, or gUd. This type of brotherhood did magnificent service in the early and later mediaeval period. When the guilds commenced we do not know. Trade and social guilds had existed long before in Rome, but the Teutonic brotherhoods ia certain features differed from the I^atin ones. We know, however, that from comparatively early times, certainly not later than Athelstan, guilds were flourishing ia England. From the records we have of the Ivondon Guild, Orky's Guild at Abbotsbury, the Woodbury and Exeter Guilds, and the Thanes' Guild at Cambridge, we find that 152 Plate XIX. Anglo-Saxon Art 152 SAXON ENGLAND the purpose of these organizations was to form fellowships whose members could feast together, help fellow-menibers in trouble, aid each other to trace stolen property, and help in the matter of burial, prayers for the souls of the dead, etc. In a word, they were instituted partly for social, partly for business, partly for religious purposes, and their influence seems to have been almost entirely for good. The Position of Women Women among the Saxons held the position generally assigned to them by Teutonic peoples — ^they were subservient to man. The Christian Church, however, which throughout the ages has glorified woman, greatly improved her position as time went on. As we have seen, women took no small part in the conversion of Angi,o-Saxon Women ^ , J J ,, -Li I- Etheldrytha, a princess of East England, and were thought AngUa. From the Benedictional of fit to rule monasteries as well St Ethelwold. „„ „,,„„p^:p„ . ^x.^ examnles ^- ^°™ ''^^^°* ^Ifnoth's Book of as nunneries , tne examples py^yers (Harl. MS. 2908). are rare, however, and none too well authenticated in some cases cited, of women ruling states. Descending lower in the scale, we find them largely under the control of their husbands and possessing no capacity to contract, except by virtue of rare customs such as existed in the city of I^ondon. In early times in Saxon England, as elsewhere, the purchase of wives with cattle or money was very common,^ and in one of our earliest dooms we find it laid down that if a man buy a maiden with diseased cattle he is to return her if there be guile present. The marriage ceremony was, indeed, in this period purely ' See Emile Stocquart, Aperfu de I'Evolution jur. du Manage, pp. 17-50 ; Huvelin, Essai sur le Droit des Marchis, p. 139, n. i. HISTORY OF ENGLAND contractual, the putting on of the wedding-ring, which early appeared, being an overt act not unlike the more common hand-clasp and having as purpose the evidencing of the bargain. It is true that Sharon Turner said many years ago : "It is well known that the female sex were much more highly valued and more respectfully treated by the barbarous Gothic nations than by the more polished States of the East. . . . They were allowed to possess, to inherit, and to transmit landed property ; they shared in all the social fes- tivities ; they were present at the witanagemot and the shire gemot ; they were permitted to sue and be sued in the courts of justice ; their persons, their safety, their Hberty, and their property were protected by express laws ; and they possessed all that sweet influence which . . . they will ever retain in those countries which have the wisdom and the urbanity to treat them as equal, intelligent, and independent beings." We confess, however, that in our opinion that is putting the woman's position in Saxon times too high. Though we accept the statement of the learned authors of the History of English Law ^ that " the ' bride-sale ' of which Tacitus tells us was no sale of a chattel. It was a sale of the muni, the protectorship, over the woman. An honourable position as her husband's consort and yoke-fellow was assured to her by solemn contract " ; and again : " When light begins to fall upon the Anglo-Saxon betrothal, it is not a cash transaction by which the bride's kinsmen receive a price in return for right over their kinswoman ; rather we must say the bride- groom covenants with them that he will make a settlement upon his future wife " — we must still remember that early Saxon marriages were extraordinarily rudimentary, the so- called ' rape-marriage,' i.e. marriage by capture, was not un- known, and wife-purchase was one of the staples of the early markets. We do not suggest that the wife was her husband's slave, but it does appear that the circximstances of their conjunction were crude, and in the earlier times we believe 1 Sir Frederick Pollock and the late Professor Maitland, History of English Law, vol. ii, pp. 364, 365. SAXON ENGLAND the wife was actually bought from her kinsmen, the morgen, or morning-price, being also paid to the woman in exchange for her consent, just as it was in Wales. As to the legal position between husband and wife when once married, we cannot even touch on this singularly complex subject. Stobbe in his Privatrechts has pointed out that in Wiirtemberg there were sixteen different modes of succession, and there is equal diversity on other points. It was largely a matter of custom varying in different places. When Turner says that the Saxon woman had the right to possess, to inherit, and to transmit landed property, we find less difficulty in agreeing with him. We have many wills of Saxon ladies and many manumissions made by women of their slaves in those times. Women do occasionally, but, apart from Mercian queens, only very occasionally up to the ninth century, sign charters, though, on the other hand, quite frequently the lady's signature is dispensed with. Thus in a charter given by King Cenwulf and Queen Cenegitha, in which both King and Queen are joined as donors, we find no signature or mark or seal belonging to the Queen attached, although the signatures of the King's son and of many bishops, abbots, and nobles appear.^ On the other hand, it is well known that women — that is to say, highly placed royal or noble ladies — did attend meetings of the Witan and the lower councils and did participate in arbitrations. At the same time it is almost certain that the average woman's property, if she had any, was largely controlled by her male kinsmen or husband. We must not deduce too much from the woman's admitted power to make a will and to free slaves.^ Both these powers probably came to her in the first place through the Church, * The grant was to Christ Church, Canterbiiry, under date July 17, 799. It is to be found in Birch's Cart. Sax. * We give some portions of the will of Wynflaed, c. 995 (see Dipl. Ang. Aevi Sax., p. 553). After gifts of gold to the Church, she wills : " And let Wulfwam be freed, and follow whom it is most agreeable to her ; and ^thryth also. And let Wulfflaed be freed, on the condition that she follow Aethelflaed and Eadgyfu. And she bequeaths to Eadgyfu one weaveress HISTORY OF ENGLAND which early "interested itself in the final gifts of the dying and in manumissions. When we touch on the Church we have, indeed, an entirely different picture of woman's position presented to us. The great abbesses Hild and Ebba and their lesser-known com- peers, Bertrana, Abbess of Bath, Bemguidis, who received estates near the river Cherwell from Aethelmod in October 68i, Cutswida, HedilbvBrga, Mildryth, Abbess of Minster, Sigebuiga, Selethryth, sister of the thegn Ealdbeorht, and many others, constantly appear as the donees of charter rights. We find recorded no fewer than seven separate grants of land in and aroimd Thanet made to the Abbess Ebba. Nor do the good ladies appear to have been bad business-women. Not content with grants of land, we find them obtaining remissions of a tax on ships in the port of lyondon. They also shared and one sempstress ; the one is named Badguf u, the other is named Aethelgyf u. And let Gerburg be freed, and Miskin . . . and Burhulf's daughter at Chinnock, and Aelfsige, and his wife, and his elder daughter, and Ceolst^'s wife. And at Charlton let Pifus be freed and Eadwine. . . . And at Faccan- cumb let Aethelm be freed, and Man, and Johanna, and Sprow and his wife, and Enefaet, and Gersand, and Suel. And at Coleshill let Aethelgyth be freed, and Bicca's wife, and Aef6, and Beda, and Giurhan's wife ; and let Wulfwam's sister, Byrhsige's wife, be freed. . . . And to Aelfwold [she gives] her two buffalo horns, and one horse, and her red tent. And she bequeaths to Eadmaer one covered cup. . . . And let be given up to Eadwold his own two sUver cups ; and she bequeaths to him her gold-decorated wooden cup, that he may enlarge his torque with the gold. . . . And she bequeaths to him two boxes and therein one bed-furniture, all that belongs to a bed . . . and the serfs she gives to her son's daughter Eadgjrfu. . . . And she be- queaths to Eadgyfu, on the other hand, Aelfsige the cook, and Aelfwam, Burga's daughter, . . . and her double lamb's-wool kirtle, and another of Uneu or linen web. And to Eadgyfu two boxes, and therein her best bed wall-hanging, and a linen rug, and all the bedclothes which thereto belong . . . and her best dun tunic, and her better mantle, and her two wooden spotted cups, and her old wire brooch of yj mancuses. And let four mancuses be given her for her soul-shot . . . and one long hall wall-hanging, and another short one, and three seat-coverings. And she gives to Ceoldry whichever she prefers of her black tunics, and her best holy veil, and her best binder, and to Aethelfiaed her white striped kirtle, and cuffs and binders. And let Aethelflaed afterward find one of her nun-habits, the best she can, for Wulfflaed and Eethelgifn, and eke with gold. . . . Then she gives to Aethel- flaed all the things that are there unbequeathed, as books and such little things . . . and there are also wall-hangings. . . . And she bequeaths to Cynelufu her share of the wild horses that are with Eadmaer. . . . And let Eadwold and his sister have the tame horses in common." 156 SAXON ENGLAND with the monks the right to work some of the salt mines of Cheshire, and probably, even in early times, got control over the tolls of neighbouring markets. All this power, however, was gained by the abbess, not because she was a woman, but because of her position in the Church. As we have said, the Church has throughout the ages glorified women, and it was the Church which in time exerted its power to break off the rough edges of the old pagan marriage. The ceremony was made religious, and plight of faith before the altar was substituted for the older, more barbaric practices. Apart from marriage, many laws were promulgated tending to repress immorality. ^ The early dooms are full of rules providing fines and penalties for insults to women. In the earlier dooms, however, the wrong was regarded as done to her master, as reducing her value, rather than to herself ; but as time went on the woman herself was protected. Throughout the period, as we have indicated, the position of women was Teutonic ; it was not so high, for example, as the place occupied by the fair sex in the laws of Howel Dha — that is, among the Britons. Standard of Living The standard of living varied then, of course, as it does to-day, with the position occupied by the person under con- sideration, l/ooking at the matter broadly, however, we find no great luxury, and, among the low, little absolute desti- tution, but plenty of hard work, frugal fare, and absence of liberty. The domestic architecture was simple ; the houses were built of wood and thatched with rushes or with straw. Even in the early days, when many handsome Roman houses and buildings existed intact and untenanted, the Saxons rarely occupied them, apparently not knowing how to utilize them, or how to live in them. In I^incoln evidence exists which 1 ' Immorality ' hardly expresses the position, since it suggests a breach of conventional morality, and in the early years of Saxon England there was no conventional morality. HISTORY OF ENGLAND proves that buildings were allowed to rot away and fall from disuse scores of years, perhaps centuries, after the Romano- Britons had been driven from them. The houses, being built of wood, were in many cases far from wind-proof, especially as the Saxons seem to have been indifferent carpenters. Even King Alfred had to resort to lanterns in order to prevent his candles being blown out REsroENCE OF A Saxon Nobi,eman From a manuscript by the wind. To remedy the faulty construction of the walls and keep the wind out hangings were largely used. In Wynflaed's will wall-hangings and bed-hangings are referred to several times, and we know from other sources that con- siderable attention was paid to the weaving and designing of tapestries, wall-hangings, and curtains. In another direction the Saxons were distinctly luxurious. In all things appertaining to the table they appear to have spared no expense. As Sharon Turner has told us, their tables were sometimes very elaborate, being occasionally 158 f«»hamK-^ -*> Pi,A.iE XX. (i) A Dinner Party. (2) Beds with Curtains. (3) Wore-PRESs 158 SAXON ENGLAND made of silver and gold. Aethelwold, in Edgar's reign, had a silver table worth three hundred pounds. In food and drink, also, the Saxons were not backward. In The Anglo-Saxon Leechdoms we have references to a large number of fruits and vegetables and articles of food and drink. Of fruits we find mention made of sweet apples, pears, peaches, medlars, plums, and cherries ; many of these had been introduced by the Romans, and had lived on and been utilized. Thus the peach had come from Persia, and the cherry, which was introduced by I^ucuUus into Italy, had come, via Rome, from Cerasus, in Cappadocia. For flesh foods they used beef, mutton, calf, pig, goat, deer, and wild boar, as well as peacock, swan, duck, goose, culver, pigeon, water-fowl, and wild fowl generally, the latter being caught by hawking. Many kinds of fish were caught ; indeed, fishing was a separate art. We are told of salmon, trout, eels, sturgeon, hake, plaice, sprats, pilchards, lampreys, herrings, lobsters, crabs, oysters, periwinkles, etc. Aelfric mentions others, including whales, but he was a landsman, and he makes his ' Fisher ' express a preference for river or pond fishing over sea fishing, which he says was less easy. To these meats the Saxons added many vegetables, pre- pared dishes, and drinks to complete their menus. To recount all the food-stuffs available would be tedious. We may add, however, that cooking was something of an art. They knew how to make oyster patties, and stuffed their fowls with bread and parsley. Invalids had special dietaries, including eggs, chicken, and broth. Honey was largely used, and bees were extensively cultivated both for the honey (which was used as sugar is to-day to sweeten food and ferment liquor, as well as for salves and face-dressings for women) and the wax, which was used for seals and for lighting. Salt was considered a necessity, and was mainly produced by brine evaporation in Cheshire. Drinks, of course, hold a very prominent place in the Saxon menage. Beer, ale, and double-brewed ale (made from malt, sometimes from malt and hops) ; mead, a sweet intoxicating HISTORY OF ENGLAND drink fermented with honey ; wines, clear, austere, sweet, etc., sometimes made from vines- grown in England, but generally imported from the Franks and always rather expensive; drinks of a special kind, e.g. hydromel and ' the southern acid drink,' oxymel, which was made of vinegar, honey, and water, and was regarded as having medicinal qualities, being used as a cure for the ' half-dead disease ' and epilepsy ; mulled wine and daret-cup, were all available. Dance From the Cotton MS., in the British Museum Banquets were not infrequent among the richer classes, on whose tables dishes of silver and vessels of glass were to be found. At such gatherings musicians, gleemen, or actors, jugglers and buffoons would sometimes appear to amuse the guests. In some cases dancers also attended, but their art would appear to have been, as a rule, crude and to have savoured less of the artistry of the Greek than of the rough horseplay of the knockabout comedian — ^they preferred, in other words, tum- bling to dancing. The more elegant forms of dancing were, how- ever, known. In the less formal ftmctions the guests them- selves would sing, and it was customary for the harp to be sent round so that the singer could accompany himself. The priests were ever good trencher-men and table companions, the first Goliards, and by no means unhandy with the bumper. We 1 60 SAXON ENGLAND find in Edgar's reign the priest forbidden to be an ealuscop, or ale-poet, but we expect they managed to fire off a few after- dinner stories of the lesser sort notwithstanding. Of the sports hawking and hunting were the chief. Boar- hunting on foot was common, the hunter taking with him a boar-spear, a sword, an unarmed attendant with two dogs in leash, and a htmting-hom. Hawking was done on horse- back, with an attendant on foot carrying a hawk. In later years the best hawks came from the mountains of Eryri (Snowdonia). Medicine The practice of medicine was a special art to which much attention was paid from early times. We find King Alfred sending to the Patriarch of Jerusalem for some good recipes. The emissary returned with scammony (juice of the Syrian convolvulus), gutta ammonica (Uke sal volatile), spice, gum- dragon, aloes, galbanum, balsam, petroleum, alabaster, and OrjpuiKrj. The Saxon physicians also had some knowledge of the Greek and I,atin works on medicine, but much of their heaUng was based on superstition, and their surgery was elementary. The love-philtre was common, as was its converse, the knot. None of their charms or herbal remedies were able to stay the ravages of the plague. As to sanitation, not even the rudiments of the science existed ; especially was this true of the monastery, where, owing to the connexion between dirt and religion which existed among the early Christians, the plague had full scope and always claimed hundreds of victims.^ The Saxons seem to have studied nightmares and dreams, elves, demons, and dwarfs, and were learned in charms. We have recipes preserved to us for concocting " a lithe drink against a devil and dementedness," and for a cure where ^ Small-pox is treated of at some length in The Anglo-Saxon LeecMoms. It first appeared in France A.D. 565, in Arabia a.d. 572. Rhazes wrote a mono- graph upon it in Arabic in 923. It is interesting to see the attempts at herbal treatment of serious diseases such as cancer and leprosy. The recipes included almost every herb the mediciner could think of, mixed together and pounded. L 161 HISTORY OF ENGLAND a man lias been ' overlooked ' by the evil eye ; we liave full details given for curing tbe elf disease and for " doing away a dwarf " ; we know bow they exorcised elves and goblins and women with whom the devil had had commerce ; there is also a recipe for curing an elf-shot horse. We are informed that wolves' flesh was a specific against devil sickness and for an ill sight, and that salt, rue, ivy-leaves, and honey made a good cure for " a very old headache " (as distinguished from a ' headache ' and an ache of half the head, or megrim). Not only were charms and superstitious remedies good as cures, but, if desired, they could harm. Aelfric teUs us what happened to the man who drank in I^nt without Bishop Aehheah's blessing. This man had a mind to drink in I^ent, we are informed, so one day he requested the Bishop to bless his cup. The Bishop refused, and " the silly fellow " drank without a blessing and went out. " Well," Aelfric continues, " somebody set a dog upon a bull out there, and the bull ran at the man and gored him so that he lost his Ufe, and bought the untimely drink at that price." We also have charms for preventing or disclosing crime. Thus we are told : " If a man stealeth anything write this in silence : er hx h h h h a n n a xh hx and put it into thy left shoe, under thy heel. Then thou Shalt soon hear of it." Other remedies existed for curing 162 SAXON ENGLAND " savageness in hounds and contrariness." The cure was to carry a hound's heart about with you. If, unfortunately, you had left it at home and the contrary hound went mad, it was desirable to catch him, kill him, cut off his head, and keep it. Pounded, it made an excellent remedy for the " kingly disease," the jaundice. The mediciner not only desired to cure disease ; he aspired to paint the lily and devised face-salves for the ladies. " For blemishes," we read, " to remove them from the face, if a woman take a dust made of ground elephant bone or ivory, pounded with honey, and smear the face daily, it will purge away the spots." The Saxon women were, indeed, most careful of their appearance. We find that they had their hair curled with curling-irons and generally were attentive to the dressing of their locks. They also painted their faces, using the red colour of stibium.^ Literature The Saxon period, when we remember that it extended over many centuries, cannot be regarded as fruitful in litera- ture, either prose or verse even though we allow for the loss inseparable from a written literature in a warlike age. Of poetry the greatest epic in Old English literature is un- doubtedly Beowulf. Beowulf was a Jutish hero whose fights and struggles are portrayed with much vigour and virility. According to Dr Heath, " the poem is of pure English origin, and fiirst sprang into poetic form in Northumbria. One lay from Bernicia, and another ■ from Deira, each dealt with distinct incidents in the hero's career." In subsequent years the foundation verses were elaborated and augmented in the manner so common with early stories, as we see in those strange medleys, culled from different ages by the British, now so well known to the world through I^ady Charlotte Guest's translation of the Mabinogion. ' Antimony salts were largely used by the ancients as beautifiers, but gene- rally for darkening the eyebrows and eyelashes. There are few red antimony salts like the mercuric salts, but the hydrated sulphide is orange-red and could have been prepared in olden times, being easy to make. 163 HISTORY OF ENGLAND Caedmon The author of the original part of Beowulf and the authors of the subsequent additions are unknown, and our first poet whose name has Uved was the unlearned cowherd Caedmon, who, blessed with the gift of song, woke the hills and dales of Northumbria with his impromptu verses. Flourishing about the year 670, the details of his life are but little known to us. He was a man of great piety and humility, and in later life lived in the monastery of Whitby under the Abbess Hild. Though early, his poems are in many cases truly magnificent ; and though a ready composer — ^we are told that his gift for sacred poetry was so great that he was able after a little thought to turn into verse whatever passages in the Bible were translated for him — ^he was by no means a shallow one. His verses on the Creation, so admirably and faithfully trans- lated by Dr Stopford Brooke, are Miltonic in their breadth and intensity : Nor was here as yet, save a hollow shadow, Anything created ; but the wide abyss Deep and dim, outspread, all divided frota the Lord, Idle and unuseful. With His eyes upon it Gazed the mighty-minded King and He marked the place I/ie delightless — [looked and] saw the cloud Brooding black in Bver-night, swart beneath the heaven. Wan, and wasteful all.^ Caedmon, indeed, was a true poet, and, being the first of English poets, is entitled to a high place in our literature. His poetry, however, being entirely sacred, is less useful to the historian of those times than the political and satiric verse and riddles of later writers, who give us in their lays some peeps into the life of the age. ^ We quote from Stopford A. Brooke's Early English Literature, vol. ji, p. 84. He admirably compares Paradise Lost, Book VII : " They viewed the vast immeasurable Abyss, Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild. Up from, the bottom turned by furious winds And surging waves." We are also indebted tojDr Stopford Brooke's work for the quotations from Cynewulf on the next page. 164 1 p' 'Jl>.' f&ioh weafi'S^ lion^ locen hpng !ft€n fctft i5n^ mf&iv jte- ^ear niim ^aw^aw epctnarj ferr-^'si pl one WU^ o|t& mec^af '*^s:;e!i fe^^ re Ccyl^af 5F«5^ (rpcit" i^pm l»e!»'..r,* Plate XXI. A Fragment of the MS. op " Beowulf" 164 SAXON ENGLAND Cynewulf Such a one was Caedmon's successor, Cynewulf. In his later years he seems to have restricted himself to sacred verse, but from his early period, when he was journeying round England as a travelling bard, experiencing life in all its forms, he has left us several verses, of which his Riddles and Crafts of Men are the most important for our purpose. Thus in the Crafts of Men we seem to see the armourer busy at his forge turning out his weapons : One, a clever smith, may for use in war. For the weapons' onset, many [arms] make ready When he forges fast for the fighting of the warriors Either hehn or hip-seax, or the harness of the battle. Or the sword sheer-shining, or the circle of the shield, For to fix it firmly 'gainst the flying of the spear. Again, in his Riddles, darkly describing the Sword and the Shield, he does something more than depict an object ; he shows how men of his age valued and treasured their weapons ; he pictures the love of battle and the main duty of life — fighting. Thus of the Sword : I'm a wondrous wight for the warstrife shapen ; By my lord beloved, lovelily adorned : Many-coloured is my corslet, and a clasping wire Glitters round the gem of Death which my Wielder gave to me. And the Shield thus sadly speaks : I am all alone, with the iron wounded. With the sword slashed into, sick of work of battle. Besides these earlier works, we have from this poet several important poems, viz. Juliana, Christ, Fates of the Apostles, and Elene. It is curious that of a poet who has left us so much from such a barren period our knowledge should have been so small until within comparatively recent times. Kemble discovered his name, and since then accumulating evidence has told us many facts about his life, but even now we are not sure whether certain other poems are by him or by men of his school. Such poems as Guthlac, Descent into Hell, i6s HISTORY OF ENGLAND Phoenix, Dream of the Rood, and Andreas cannot definitely be ascribed to him. Of these perhaps Andreas is the most doubtful. Aldhelm and Cynewulf have each been suggested as the author, but there are good reasons for believing that the poem was the work of some anonymous writer. It is certainly powerful for those times, its scenes painted by one who could hear the voice of Nature. • Snow bound the earth With whirling flakes of winter, and the storms With hard hail-showers grew chill, and Frost and Rime — Grey gangers of the heath — locked closely up The homes of heroes. The Epics Of the later epic poems, undoubtedly the finest is The Battle of Maldon, produced toward the end of the tenth century, and possessing that same vigorous tone so noticeable in the Norse sagas. Owing to the form and the use of aUiteration a translation loses much of the force of the original, but we adventure the following English version of a part of The Battle of Maldon : The flowing flood-tide came, following the ebb, I,inking lordly streams which leaped between. Holding awhile apart each eager warrior. For see by Panta's stream the armies proudly stand ; Now meet the Essex men the host of the ashen boats. Of earlier epics of the intermediate period we have such pieces as The Battle of Finnsburg and King Waldere's Lay, both by imknown writers. Saxon Prose Of prose literature the Saxon period is even more barren.^ Bede, who wrote elegantly, wrote, of course, in I^atin, yet has been deemed by some to be, in a sense, the Father of English Prose. Aldhelm also wrote in I^atin, and that in a turgid * As Wyatt points out, however, the earliest English poetry and prose belong to a period when no other nation of modem Europe had either a vernacular poetry or a vernacular prose, and although this may require slight modification, it does bring out the important point that we are dealing with a barbaric people and uncultivated times. i66 « w o ■< CO ?5 SAXON ENGLAND style. The chief prose-writers who worked in Anglo-Saxon were King Alfred and the chroniclers. Aelfric and Wulfstan were, however, producing Saxon prose toward the end of the tenth century, and Alfred had probably around him men who could compose ; but lyatin was so entirely the language of the learned — and Latin frequently so base that it is an imper- fect foundation for literature — that Saxon writers in the ver- nacular are rare. We must also remember the ignorance of the •times ; even kings and nobles often f oimd it convenient when subscribing their charters to dis- pense with the writing of their names and substitute the sign of the Cross. Arts and Crafts Of the lesser arts and crafts the period was almost equally barren. Architecture was rudi- mentary, and Benedict Biscop found it necessary to import Frankish workmen to teach the Saxons the art of glass-making — an art which had flourished in Britain for centuries before Ai,pred's ' jewei, ' the Saxon invasion. Even in Bede's time glass had to be imported. The goldsmith's art was almost as neglected, though as time progressed the Saxon craftsman developed a certain aptitude for gold-work ; thus the settings of jewels are sometimes found to be of a type of filigree work, fine yet strong. Many of the ornaments, how- ever, especially brooches, are extraordinarily massive, and toward the end of the period rather beautiful in design. The silversmiths also were turning out dishes and chalices, but again the designs are strong and plain rather than 167 HISTORY OF ENGLAND highly developed. We have preserved to us, however, a fine bronze bowl which shows much taste in its ciurves. Of the smiths the most important was doubtless the armourer, or ironsmith. His skill was expended, of course, upon the strength rather than the elegance of his swords and spears and hehnets. The general design of the swords is, in a manner, grand, breathing out the spirit of slaughter and ruddy strength. We can see that the wielders of those weapons were men of action. But though smithcraft aimed at strength rather than at decorative effect or elegance, the weaver combined with utility something of an artistic spirit. The English were, indeed, so admirable at weaving that men from Germany and even from Italy came here to learn the trade. Silk and wool alike were woven into noble garments, sometimes of purple hue intermixed with gold, sometimes patterned with various colours, golden threads, and precious stones. The same taste for gorgeous groupings of colours is shown in the Saxon enamels or minor mosaic work, and in their iUuminating — an art much practised in the monasteries. There the monks learnt to apply gold to parchment and knew how to burnish. They were also masters of the art of embossed gold-work, in which the gilded parts are made to stand up from the paper. Here again their art was hardly refined ; ^ it was the art of an unpolished people who liked plenty of sparkle and violent contrasts. On the other hand, it was at least worthy of the age in which it was produced. Music, of course, was also rudimentary. The harp existed in Saxon as in British and pre-Celtic Albion. One of the Cottonian MSS. shows us David playing on the harp, and Alfred is known to have performed on that instrument. We have also seen how the youthful Bede helped CeoUrith to sing the antiphons in Jarrow Monastery, and we know that there did exist a simple form of organ in England both in Romano- ^ There were doubtless exceptions. The drawing of the Christ now in the Manuscript Department of the British Museum is both fine in line and restrained in treatment. i68 Pr.ATE XXIII. Angi,o-Saxon Crafts : Bronze Bowi,, Gi,ass-ware, AND SHVER ChAI,ICE 172 SAXON ENGLAND British and in early Saxon times. For the rest, the Saxons possessed a form of lyre and flute and a simple vioUn, also trumpets of various sorts. Of the quality of the music produced we know nothing. Laws If the Anglo-Saxon period produced comparatively little vernacular literature and little art, it has at least given us a long series of lawgivers and a bulky compilation of dooms. At first the doom-givers are widely separated in point of date, Ethelbert of Kent, the first Christian king of a part of England and the first English lawgiver, promulgated his findings at the beginning of the seventh century; lyothaire and Edric come next, nearly a hundred years later. But when once the end of the ninth century is reached the stream is a continuous one. Alfred, Edward the Elder, Athelstan, Edmtmd, Edgar, Etheked follow one another closely ; each published important dooms ; and although we must exclude Cnut's admirable laws as the work of a Dane and Edward the Confessor's dooms as spurious, we still have left a large number of rules which teach us much, if we will probe into them, of the life of the age and the condition of Saxon England. We do not propose in these pages to enter into the details of Anglo-Saxon law, save to such extent as may be necessary to bring home to the reader the state of society in those times.^ As for the dooms themselves, they were mainly criminal codes, based on the money fine as to penalty, and aiming at replac- ing self-help (with the resulting blood-feud) by an organized State system, so little developed,, however, as to deserve the name ' organized self-help ' which has been given to it. But though the dooms are largely concerned with the suppres- sion of crime — immorality, heresy, murder, and especially thievitig — ^they give us, at the same time, a glimpse of the state of trade in Saxon England and lift for us a little the curtain which hides the everyday life of the people. 1 For what follows the author's articles in the Law Quarterly Review, 1913, 1915, in which the authorities are collected, have been used as the basis. 169 HISTORY OF ENGLAND Trade in those days was at once far more simple and far more complex than now. The articles sold were, compara- tively speaking, few in number ; the places where the sale could take place were also few ; but, on the other hand, the rules to be observed, the parties to be present, the penalties imposed where a secret sale had been efEected, made it in some cases a singularly difl&cult matter to transfer an object of value from hand to hand. Throughout the Saxon period sales did not take place in shops, but in markets. In doom after doom we read that sale must take place in ' port,' and there is every reason to believe that by 'port' the Anglo-Saxons meant ' market.' The reason for this varied with the centuries. In early times, owing to the disordered state of the country, the antagonism of various towns to one another, and the simplicity of the social state, it is probable that the few sales which were transacted took place of necessity in bturhs or in other secure places. As time went on, however, the tendency was for trade to enlarge its boundaries. But what had formerly been impossible now became undesirable. Sales in isolated places were to a large extent secret, and secret sales were not permitted, for they enabled the thief to alienate his iU-gotten goods. We must also remember that the nobles and the clergy had been given from early times franchise market rights enabling them to take toll, etc. — ^valuable privileges which they were by no means Ukely to be willing to see reduced by the springing up of non-franchise barter-places. At least as early as the time of Burhred of Mercia we have the grant of a steelyard in a market recorded,^ and such grants were possibly made long before. Apart from the travelling chapman who carried his wares from house to house, and who was required to take with him men approved by the king's reeve at the f olkmoot to witness the transactions, we may say, then, that the whole commerce of this country was carried on in the markets or fairs.^ Nor were the markets very many. It was only in ^ Codex Diplomaticus, No. 280. 2 Occasional large markets held on a saint's day, from feria. 170 SAXON ENGLAND the larger places that these barter-places existed. The villagers, before the increase of franchise markets, had to rely upon their own productions, or on the chapman, or on the market of the nearest market-town, or on an occasional fair. It is probable, however, that it was always possible to buy from a man himself produce which he had grown or reared. Thus a farmer could sell a pig on his farm or at the nearest market, but nowhere else. As long as toll was paid and the sale took place before the port-reeve, it is probable thatthe purchase was good wherever performed. It was to these markets, therefore, that the merchants flocked with the silks, wools, dyes, and spices from the East and the South. The merchant who thrived so that he fared thrice over the wide sea by his own means became a thegn and a mighty man. Thus encouraged. Englishmen even in those days seem to have been good at searching out what to them were the uttermost parts of the earth, from which to bring rarities dear to the heart of the buyer. Into these markets or fairs not only were luxuries brought, but also such everyday goods as cattle, pigs, and sheep, sent by the neigh- bouring farmer. There came also slaves — men, women, and children captured in some fight— and maidens to be purchased by their future husbands.^ When we read the dooms re- lating to wife-purchase — dooms promulgated by a king such as Ine a century after Augustine had landed — ^we realize that we are dealing with a primitive people who could exchange two cows and a sheep, and perhaps a few coins obtained from the moneyer in the market smithy, for their wives. But though the Saxons were tmpolished their laws had a strong common sense underlying them. The market was well organized, and gave a publicity to sales which had an effect in checking fraud and theft. Over all was the portgerefa, master of the market, a kind of curule aedile, the ancestor of the modem mayor. All disputes relating to the dealings between buyers and sellers came before him, and were heard in the market ' This only applies to the early times in the case of nobles. The common people, however, frequently bought their wives even as late as the tenth century. 171 HISTORY OF ENGLAND court, called in later times a court oi pie-poi4dre {' dusty-foot '), from the fact that the- suitors were generally travellers who had walked a long way. There the procedure was short and inexpensive, and calculated to mete out rough justice and prevent knavery. Elaborate rules relating to warranties existed ; these aimed at the prevention of theft. The man into whose hand stolen property came was required, if he . sold it again and the theft were afterward discovered, to ask the person from whom he obtained it how it came to him, and so on backward until the thief was reached. Equally stringent rules ap- plied in the case of found property. The finder was re- quired to hand it over to the priest of the church in his parish ; he in turn called in the headman and best men of the viU to inspect it, and the priests and headmen of three or four neighbouring vills, who had to bring with them their best men. The thing, after inspec- tion, was given to the head- man of the domain to which the finder belonged, and he in turn placed it (if it were an animal) ip borh, called in later times in naam, or in pound. These laws, besides the peep they give us into the mode of buying and selling, also tell us of the superstition of the people, their fear of false oaths, their behef in the binding effect of the hand-clasp, their reverence for relics or ' haligdoms.' Men would seem to have feared the triple ordeal less than the making of a false oath, which subjected the perjurer to the severest ecclesiastical, as well as temporal, punishments. Perhaps, however, the most interesting of all are the rules 172 Coiner at Work From the capital of a pillar at St Georges de Bocherville, Normandy SAXON ENGLAND relating to local government. Here we have evidence of a people thoroughly used to and apparently capable of self- government. Right from the Witan to the lowest moot there is a gradation of council chambers, at which the most prominent men of the district meet to discuss public affairs. The Witan, ancestor of our modem Parliament, performed for the State what the scirgemot performed for the shire and the burhgemot for the town. This system of local government, linked up as it was with a collateral system of local courts, played a mighty part in the subsequent political history of our people. 173 CHAPTER IX THE EIGHTH CENTURY THE history of England in the eighth centuiy is some- what dull and lifeless. Unlike the fifth, which saw the invasion of the Teutons ; the sixth, when occurred the first conversions by Italian and Celt of the pagans from the Baltic ; the seventh, when Rome again conquered Britain, this time through the Church ; the ninth, that century of war in which the vSaxon felt the sharp edge of an invader's sword, even as four centuries before he had made the Britons feel it, the eighth century is devoid of any great national event.^ Our early chronicles are full of references to supernatural or abnormal events in nature : we read of dragons hurtling through the air, of eclipses of sun and moon, of fiery crosses in the heavens ,and moons of blood-red colour ; we are told of lightnings and whirlwinds and pestilences, how a " black and gloomy shield was held before the face of the sun," and how many adders were found in Sussex. These notices of evil portents do not, however, make up history. They had a purpose in their own day, being mentioned, as Roger of Wendover informs us, " that they might lead men to see how Providence punishes evil-doers." There is reason to believe that the men of the eighth century had need of a frequent reminder of Divine anger, for, according to Bede, the com- mencing years of the century saw a grave decline in morals. The good Celtic monks had to a large extent reUnquished their endeavovus after their defeat at Whitby, and the Roman Church in England was as yet in its infancy. The monasteries * The Danes began to come toward the end of the eighth century, but the Danish invasion belongs rather to the ninth. ]Uclptcr1j|t$- oil 1 oirrfn Uinodtii (j-gr Umc ^oUamioc-cjiiccm ./yirvMifvfiJnliy ol2)ltutidli--^tiiniiiki|- ■^■mdi 'rtltofttnonfr'rtiiy n«f*fe|-(!f-l)| igcc&pW i^oiTTii-noliv-lvuvigji^l tvia.yM-1Ttttfi>uipnv\- vinAirmv-au mU)«mv,v-, CJirm:SmTOutTHn3 Cimmiivc4wq)|j4 yiyems-tlysvtui) deaMO. ^MT* * I 'W*'iHy iMyttlajvi-cWi^tio coi)ttrm;i@4 \i6p^i^^e- fOYY^nm-' ]ri\iif\\rfwr ■*:'} waMjiof -'tJMllaw: rpi^nctnv- 'i uv myntrj IsHAHiwuy • tuifmwrlfl >, ;j {rHhyyiny' <«ridrrq|-]i»TitT2ioyxTOU^ ' 'j, ol^tUwbtinj-it^rwAiiflrimci^t^.':,' Plate XXIV. Page prom Mantjscmpt Copy of Bede's i" EccLEsiASMCAi, History " 174 THE EIGHTH CENTURY were frequently illicit foundations whicli pandered to every vice while giving slothful ease. The generality of the people were pagan at heart, and the story recounted by Roger of Wendover of Rabbod, Duke of the Frisians, could have been applied to many a man in England. According to Roger, the Duke, when about to be baptized by Bishop Wolfram, after having put one foot in the water, drew back and asked whether there were more of his ancestors in Paradise or in Hell. The good Bishop, simple man, rephed : " Assuredly, in Hell." " Then," said the Duke, giving up all thought of conversion, " it is better to follow the majority." There is another reason for the aridity of our authorities for this period. The great Bede, Father of F,nglish History, having lived a long life in the twin monastery of Jarrow and Wear- mouth, a life of devotion to learning, literature, and his God, under the good abbots Benedict Biscop, a seventh-century patron of the arts, and Ceolfrith, died before the century was half spent. The most learned man in Europe in his time, the master of a pure I^atin style, a painstaking and accurate historian, Bede has given to posterity a priceless heritage and some knowledge of the years which elapsed during the first two centuries of the Saxon invasion. His history, however, stops at the year 731, and four years later he died, engaged to the last in dictating a work which might soften the labours of those who should come after him. With the death of this great and good man, whose character possesses many of the qualities found among the learned Christians, sympathy, charity, and breadth of view, the sources of our history dry up until we reach the time of Alfred. Other writers, monkish chroniclers and suchlike, there were, but men like Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne, the rival of Bede in learning but not in style, who had predeceased the historian by some twenty-six years, had apparently ceased to live. Some of the old works now lost to us in the main are preserved by the later chroniclers in part. That they were not considerable or important, how- ever, is made manifest when we glance through the pages of Henry of Huntingdon, Florence of Worcester, or Roger of ^7S HISTORY OF ENGLAND Wendover, and see with what poor stuff they pad their narrative in these years of little deeds. This being the state of the case, we shall without apology hurry through the years of the century. We shall find Northumbria, now greatly weakened, contesting for uncertain victory with the Picts, her shaky throne occupied by a suc- cession of minor kings who rapidly follow one another as each in turn is murdered, becomes monk, or is slain ; we shall find Mercia marching on from the position won for her by Wuhhere to yet greater things, and stretching out a hand for the hegemony of England ; we shall see that four kings, of all those that grasped the sceptre in England in this era, Ine and Cuthred of Wessex, Ethelbald and Offa of Mercia, merit some close attention ; we shall pause at the end of the period to view the first coming of the Danes, that second fatal invasion which heralded fresh bloodshed, fresh ruin, fresh desolation. For the rest, the bishops who flit before us, the miracles that fill up the pages of the chroniclers, the petty doings of princes whose names are but names, we shall consign them to a present obUvion. When we were last considering the political history of England in the closing years of the seventh century ^ we found Etheked King of Mercia ; Aldfrith, successor to E^rith, King of Northumbria ; Ine ruUng over Wessex ; and Wihtred King of Kent. Of Etheked, though he lived long and was a worthy son of the Church, granting many a hide of EngUsh ground for the building of monasteries, we need say but little. After his campaign against Kent in the early years of his reign, and after his battle with Egfrith in 679, his kingdom knew peace, and the major part of the thirty years he bore the sceptre slumbers on eventless, save for the s^ning of many charters for the benefit of many monks and some abbesses. The same may be said of Wihtred, who appears to have been more remarkable for his wealth than his prowess in the field. Coming to the throne about 692, he signalized his accession by compounding with Ine and gave him a large 1 See Chapter VII. 176 THE EIGHTH CENTURY sum of money for Ms friendship. In the succeeding years he was equally free with his possessions, and no king's name is more frequent than his in the various collections of charters of the period as a donor of lands to the Chturch. The Abbess Ebba was particularly fortunate, • receiving large grants of land in or near Thanet, and at the Council of Bapchild, held in 716, many important privileges were given to the churches of Kent. This synod gave the Archbishop and his council power to inquire into and punish looseness of living among the clergy, besides acknowledging more definite material rights, and thus in a sense recognized the distinction between temporal and ecclesiastical jurisdiction which, in later years, William I recognized and Becket attempted to extend, and which has ever since, in one degree or another, been acknowledged by English law. Apart, however, from such grants and gifts, Wihtred did nothing sufficiently important to be recorded, and after a long and peaceful reign he died in 725. Twenty-one years before, in 704, Ethelred of Mercia had become a monk, a curious end for the son of Penda, though, indeed, most of Penda's children were zealous converts to Christianity. This religious cast of his mind may account for the uneventfulness of Ethelred's reign. He was succeeded by Cenred, who, five years later, went to Rome with OfEa,^ where he remained for the rest of his life. He was succeeded by Ceolred. Meanwhile, in 705, the year following Ethehed's death, Aldfrith of Northumbria had died at Driffield, and was suc- ceeded by Osred, his son. For some eleven years Osred held sway, and on his death in 716 Northumbria, which was even now drifting toward anarchy, sank almost to its lowest ebb. It was in this same year (716) that Ceolred passed away, leaving the crown of Mercia to Ethelbald. Coenred, meanwhile, ruled for two years in Northumbria, and was succeeded in 718 by Osric, who held that tottering throne imtil 729. ^ Not Oflfa of Mercia, but Offa of East Anglia. There was another Ofia of Northumbria. M 177 HISTORY OF ENGLAND Ine Having thus passed in review the dull and uninteresting first years of the eighth century, and having seen how king followed king on the thrones of Northumbria, Kent, and Mercia, we will now turn back a few years and devote rather more attention to Ine, one of the greatest of the early kings of Wessex. Ine came to th^ West Saxon throne in 688, ruled for thirty- seven years, retired to Rome in 726, and died in 728. Follow- ing the energetic Caedwalla,^ the contemporary of the peaceful Ethelred of Mercia and the puppet-kings of Northumbria, he was enabled to raise Wessex from the state of weakness into which it had been thrown by the wars, largely unsuc- cessful, with the Britons and neighbouring Saxon states to a position of temporary pre-eminence. The first duty which Ine performed was the pacification of his own country, torn as it was by civil strife. It was probably the wars which had been waged by various usurpers that had driven Caedwalla to take refuge in the Church. Ine chose differently, and established his throne by the slaughter of the pretenders. His next step was against Kent, which, as we have seen,^ had for long been at feud with Wessex. The good Wihtred of Kent offered but little resistance, made submission, and purchased peace. The next few years were tmeventful in wars, and possibly saw the compiling of the famous dooms which have given to Ine a place in our history which no successes in inter-tribal battles would have gained him. Before the first decade of the eighth century had passed, however, we find him pushing outward to the west against the ancient enemies of Wessex, the Britons. In 710 we read of him fighting against Geraiut,' King of the Britons. The result was a victory for the West Saxons, though not without loss. The Britons, probably the men of Cornwall and Somersetshire, were pushed farther 1 See ante, p. 143. 2 See ante, p. 143. ' Geraint was the King of the West Welsh to whom Aldhelm addressed his letter on the Paschal question. 178 THE EIGHTH CENTURY back and a fortification was erected on the banks of the Tone, the foundation of the later Taunton. Again for some years there was peace, and when the baying of Bellona's hounds is again heard the enemy is neither Kentishman nor Briton, but Mercian. Ceolred, who now ruled over the middle kingdom, abandoned Etheked's policy of peace and prepared to contest with Wessex»for supremacy. The two forces met in 715 at a place not inappropriately named Wodensburh,^ and, after a bloody encounter, the victory remained doubtful ; ^ but in one sense it was decisive — it terminated for the time the quarrel between the two kingdoms, so that for six years there was peace. In 721, however, war again broke out. A rebellion appears to have been raised against the King, and Taunton Castle was seized by the rebels. In the year following the Queen recovered Taunton, and in 725 the rising seems to have been overcome, for we read that in that year " Ine, King of the West Saxons, marched a large army into Sussex, and slew in battle Eadbert, whom he had before driven from the castle of Tantona." With this war Ine's successes in the field were concluded, and in the following year he, like his predecessor, resigned his crown and journeyed for the good of his soul to Rome, where he built a place in the city called ' the Saxon School,' to the end that, as Roger of Wen- dover tells us, " when the kings of England and the royal family, with the bishops, presbyters, and clergy, came hither to be instructed in the Catholic faith and doctrine, nothing heterodox or contrary to Catholic unity might be taught in the English Church." He also built a church near by where Englishmen dying in Rome might be buried, and endowed it with a tax called ' Romescot,' to be collected in England, " one penny from each family, ... for the blessed Peter." It was also Ine who, supported by his saintly sisters, 1 Green identified this place with Wanborough, but Stevenson {English Historical Review, vol. xvii, p. 638) has shown that there is no connexion between the two places. a William of Mahnesbury suggests that Ceolred was victorious. 179 HISTORY OF ENGLAND St Cuthburga, St Quenburga,^ and Jetta, founded the famous Abbey of Glastonbury, on the site previously occupied by a more ancient, probably a British, church. Throughout his reign he was a most generous donor of lands and privileges to the Church. He was, indeed, one of the first of a long line of fine kings which Wessex gave to England. A brave fighter, a wise lawgiver, a munificent patron of the Church, he was in many ways an outstanding figure in eighth-century England. Ethelbald of Mercia During the. years which had intervened between the battle of Wodensburh and Ine's retirement to Rome a new force had appeared in Mercia. When, in 716, Ceolred of Mercia had died at table of over-eating or over-drinking, and had been carried by his thegns to burial at I^ichfield, he was succeeded by Ethelbald, " a brave and powerful man, who reigned most triumphantly forty-one years." Tales sprang up in later years of how Ethelbald, when fleeing from the fury of Ceolred, had taken up his abode near the skin-clad, nobly born, vision-seeing anchorite of Croyland, Guthlac the Hermit. There these two, amid the wastes of the eastern fens, the one condemned to exile, the other an exile self-condemned, had spoken of Ethelbald's hopes for the future. The anchorite had advised waiting until God's good time had come. When it came the quondam fugitive was not slow to seize his opportunity, and, once having ascended the throne, he wielded a power greater than any Mercian before him. The eighth century is, indeed, Mercia's century, and she occupied her position of fluctuating pre-eminence during the succeeding years largely because she was ruled by two noteworthy men, Ethelbald and Offa, whose combined reigns stretch from 716 to 796. It was in 733, five years after Ine had died at Rome, that Ethelbald renewed the interminable struggle with Wessex. The cause was probably no more than the existence of the 1 She married Aldfrith of Northtunbria, but they shortly afterward separated and she devoted her life to reUgioa, 180 THE EIGHTH CENTURY ancient feud ; the result was the capture of the royal town of Somerton. Then truly the West Saxon chronicler saw dire omens and eclipses of the sun, whose face was hidden in dark- ness. Wessex was pulled down from the high place to which Ine had raised her, and for the next two decades Ethelbald could style himself ' King of the South Enghsh,' though he never aspired to Offa's high title of Rex Anglorum. Wessex having thus been crushed for the moment, the Mercian laid waste Northumbria (737), a coimtry which for years had been in the throes of anarchy. Osric of Northum- bria had been slain in 729, and was succeeded by Ceolwulf (to whom Bede dedicated his Ecclesiastical History), who had turned monk in the year of Ethelbald's raid. Eadbert, a cousin to Ceolwulf, had succeeded him, and, unlike most of the unfortunate sovereigns who ruled over eighth- century Northumbria, he occupied the throne for more than two decades, ruUng well and prosperously. Northumbria, however, was raided, and the Mercian's purpose, punitive, destruc- tive, or whatever it may have been, being accomplished, he turned south once more, and in 741 again attacked Wessex. Wessex was at this time ruled over by Cuthred, who had succeeded that Ethelhard to whom Ine had surrendered the kingdom before setting out on his pilgrimage. Cuthred, we are informed, " contended strenuously against Ethelbald, King of the Mercians." The Mercian attacked his enemy not only in the field, but also by stirring up sedi- tion. Cuthred, however, was by no means overwhelmed, and peace was frequently made between them ; indeed, in 744 West Saxon and Mercian combined to repel a raid made by the Britons, " who had assembled from every quarter." At this time Rhodri Molwynog was thfe most powerful king in Wales, and it is probably he who was leading the Britons. We know from the Welsh sources that about 722 he had been fighting against his hereditary foes in Cornwall and South Wales, and he was still reigning in 754, in which year he died. Whoever may have been the British leader, his forces were put to flight after " these very brave kings " had " rushed 181 HISTORY OF ENGLAND headlong against the enemy." Much booty was taken and the allies retiomed home in triumph. The friendship between Mercia and Wessex seems to have lasted for a few years, but war again broke out in 752, when Cuthred, " unable to endure the overbearing exactions and insolence of Ethelbald," once more determined on battle. The forces met at Beoreford (Burford), where, after a furious Gght, the golden 4ragon of Mercia, carried'aloft by the standard- bearer Ethelhtm, was dragged in the dust. " Terrible were the thunder of the battle, and the sound of blows, and the cries of the fallen ; each side was confident of victory ; no one thought of flight ; but at last God, who resisteth the proud and giveth grace unto the lowly, turned Ethelbald to fl^ht and rejoiced Cuthred with victory." In these words the old chronicler recounts the battle of Burford, a battle which snatched from Mercia's near grasp the overlordship of England and reserved for Wessex that power which, after the changes of centuries, placed the capital of our country first at Winchester and later at I/ondon, instead of at I/ichfield. The battle of Burford, decisive though it was in that it preserved Wessex, was not decisive in that it destroyed Mercia. But a short time after his victory the warlike Cuthred died, and his opponent followed him to the grave probably within the year.^ The successors of these kings were both harsh and haughty ' There is some doubt as to the dates of these kings' deaths, the Anglo- Saxon Chronicle from 754-851 being two to three years behind. In one text we are told that Bthelb^Ld was slain at Seckington in 755 (757) and that his body was buried at Repton ; another text says that he was slain at Repton. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle places the death of Cuthred in 754 (756). Some of the later chroniclers state that Ethelbald was slain by his own people, probably led by Beornred, his successor ; others that he was killed in the battle of Seckington, fought against Cuthred of Wessex, in which the Mercian army was again defeated. This, however, is impossible, because we have a charter preserved to us of date somewhere between 755 and 757 which is sealed by Ethelbald, King of Mercia, and Cynewulf, King of the Saxons, i.e. West Saxons — ^that is to say, Cynewulf, who succeeded Sigebert, who succeeded Cuthred, was king while Ethelbald was yet aUve. Plummer puts Cynewulf's accession in 757, the year when Ethelbald was murdered by his guards. Sigebert, of course, only reigned a very short time. On the other hand, we have a charter in which Cynewulf appears as Rex Meldunensis in 758. 182 THE EIGHTH CENTURY tyrants who ruled but for a few months. Beomred, who followed Ethelbald, was expelled in the year of his accession by OfEa, destined to be one of Mercia's greatest kings. Sigebert, who had ascended the throne of Wessex, rendered vacant by the death of Cuthred, was a very John in his imprudence, being at once overbearing with his nobles and " intolerable even to his domestics." At last the murder of one of his chiefs caused his deposition by the Witan. The dethroned King, driven from his kingdom by the wrath of his subjects, fled to a wood, was there found by a swineherd, and slain. His place was now taken by Cynewulf, who had been largely responsible for driving Sigebert into exile and who was a kinsman of Cuthred. He reigned without distinc tion until 786, when he was slain by the atheling Cyneheard while engaged in an amour with a lady at Merton. Offa It is not, however, to Wessex that we must look for the chief events of the next four decades. Those years (757-796) when OfEa ruled saw Mercia rise to the zenith of her power and it is with the doings of her King that we shall be mainly concerned. " King OfEa," says Roger of Wendover, " was a terror and a fear to all the kings of England ; for he overcame in battle the King of Kent, the King of the West Saxons, the King of the East Angles." To this respectable list of conquered kings or rulers we may add the names of two Welsh princes, Conan and Howel, sons of that Rhodri Molwynog of whom we have already spoken. For the first fourteen years of his reign, however, the Mercian King indulged in no campaigns. In spite of the defeat at Burford, Mercia was still a powerful State. Some years after Burf ord had been fought and lost Ethelbald is f oimd describing himself in a charter [181 ^] as " King not only of Mercia, but also of the surrounding people," and it is clear that Mercia's • The numbers in brackets given in connexion with charters or grants in the following pages are the numbers in Birch's Cariularium Saxonicum. 183 HISTORY OF ENGLAND overlordship of Kent was not destroyed, for we jSnd Offa in 764 {i.e. eleven years before the defeat of tlie men of Kent at Otford) granting land on the Medway, " Heaberius rex " (Egbert, King of Kent) joining in [195]. It is also, of course, manifest that the Huiccii, or men of Worcestershire, though possessing kings of their own, were subject to Mercia, and in 759 Eanberht, Uhctred, and Aldred, Kings of the Huiccii, make a grant [i^^] of land in Worcester " with the Ucence and consent of the very pious \j>iissimi] Offa, King of the Mercians." Examples could be added. We also find the Mercian's name subscribed, by way of consent, to a grant [197] made c. 765 by Aldwulf, King of the South Saxons, to Earl Hunlabe, and in 767 we read of Offa giving away land situated in Middlesex [201]. In 770 Offa definitely describes Uhctred, senior King of the Huiccii, as " my sub-king." After his first successful campaign, undertaken in 771 against the Hestingi (? East Angles or men of Hastings), which resulted in their being subdued, Offa's indefinite supremacy was made more definite. Though in 772 he merely describes himself, while making a grant [206] of land in Kent, as " King of the Mercians," by the August of that year his style has changed. He now bears the title Rex Anglorum in the body of the deed, though he still signs as King of the Mercians. To this interesting grant [208, cf. 210] we find Egbert, King of Kent, and Cynewulf, King of the West Saxons, subscribing. The title of ' King of the Enghsh ' seems to have been regu- larly used by Offa imtil the year 775, one grant [213] going so far as to style him ' King of all the English.' In these years we find him granting or confirming grants of land in Kent, Worcester, and Sussex. Oxford and Bensington Notwithstanding the fact that after 775 he returned to the lesser title of ' King of Mercia,' or ' King of the Mercians,' Offa would seem in that year to have decisively defeated the Kentishmen at Otford, and it is possible that about this time he built a palace in London in which to dwell when in the 184 THE EIGHTH CENTURY east. Four years later a victory over Cynewulf at Bensington, resulting in the capture of that town, still further added to the power of Mercia, and probably made Off a supreme between Thames and Humber, with considerable powers over Middlesex and Kent and the land south of the Thames as far west as Ashbury. Hence onward, indeed, we may certainly regard him as the most powerful king in England. In 781 the old title Rex Anglorum recurs [240], and we find Pope Hadrian I, in writing to Charlemagne, describing him as ' King of the Enghsh.' 1 Marriage Alliances Although his power was, as we have said, certainly very considerable at this time, Offa did not disdain to strengthen it by alliances. When in 786 Cynewulf of Wessex lay slain by Cyneheard, he was succeeded by Beorhtric. The disappear- ance from the stage of Offa's enemy opened the way to friend- ship between the two states, a friendship which was consoli- dated by the surrender by the Mercians of Egbert of Wessex, the enemy of Beorhtric. It was in 789, that year of evil omen, the year when the Northmen first came, that Mercia and Wessex were drawn into alliance by the marriage of Beorhtric and Eadburga, King OfEa's daughter. Somewhere about the same time, or perhaps earlier, the Mercian had himself sought the hand of a powerful princess, a daughter of the Emperor Charlemagne. He, however, like other suitors, was refused, with the result that Offa and Charlemagne, who had once been friends, became enemies. Another cause for this change of feeling was probably the extensive smuggling indulged in by English merchants disguised as pilgrims — a form of illicit trading which caused considerable loss to the Imperial exchequer. At last, however, owing largely to the efforts of Gerwold, Abbot of St WandriUe, a friend of Offa's, and Alcuin, the famous Northumbrian adviser to Charlemagne, ^ We may observe, however, that Charlemagne when writing to Offa styles him • King of the Mercians." It must be vmderstood, of course, that, strictly. Rex Anglorum meant ' King of the Angles ' rather than ' King of the English ' (in the modern sense), and Mercia was an Anglian state. i8s HISTORY OF ENGLAND the old friendly relations between the two Kings were re- stored, together with the old trade between the two countries — a trade which in the years of the quarrel had been forbidden. At the close of the episode we find Charlemagne writing a most friendly letter [270] to the Mercian, accompanied by a present of a belt, a Hurmish sword, and two cloaks of silk. Northumbrian Kings In 792 another alliance was made, this time between the house of Mercia and that of Northumbria. For many years past Northumbria had played a singularly unimportant rdle on the stage of EngUsh history. On the death of Aldfrith early in the century he was followed on the throne by Osred, who was slain on the southern border ; Coenred, who reigned but two years ; Osric, who was killed after the some- what lengthy reign, for a Northumbrian, of thirteen years ; Ceolwulf ; Eadbert ; Oswulph, who was slain ; Ethelwald, who abdicated ; Alcred, who was expelled from his realm by his subjects ; Etheked, son of Ethelwald, who was driven out by Aelfwald, his successor. Aetfwald, who seems to have been something of a saint,^ was murdered by Siga, and Alcred's son Osred ruled in his stead, to be ' betrayed ' in the year following, driven from the kingdom, and later murdered. Following him came Etheked, who was killed by his own people in the year when OfEa died (796). It was this Etheked to whom OfEa gave his daughter Elflaeda in marriage in 792, and although it is not probable that the alliance strengthened Mercia to any extent, it certainly took all pres- sure—if, indeed, any existed — ofE her northern border. Offa's Dike We are now approaching the year (794) which saw the commission of the crime which has been responsible to some extent for the blackening of Offa's character. Before, however, ^ The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells us that a heavenly light was seen at the place where he was slain, and he occupies a prominent place in the report made by the Pope's legates in 787 (Birch, Cart. Sax., No. 250). He signs as " Aelf- waidus Transhumbranae gentis rex." 186 Pr,AXE XXV. Offa's Dike THE EIGHTH CENTURY we consider the murder of Ethelbert of East Anglia we must turn back for a moment and consider his campaigns against the Welsh. It is necessary to state at the outset that both dates and facts are here very uncertain. It is but natural that English and Welsh sources should not perfectly ,agree, but one is placed in a difficulty when the discrepancies are as great as they are in the descriptions of Offa's attacks on the Britons. If we follow the Gwentian Brut we must accept the statement that in 765 the Cymry devastated Mercia, with the result that Offa built a dike to divide Wales from Mercia. This barrier appears to have been largely destroyed, as the result of a successful raid, by the men of Gwent and Glamorgan in 776. Eight years later, we are told, Offa built another dike, this time " nearer to himself." This is to some extent con- firmed by the fact that there are two sets of earthworks between Kennel Wood and Shoals Bank. But although the Chronicles of the Princes also speaks of the Welsh devastating Offa's territories, wd must, perhaps, follow the authorities which regard Offa as the aggressor, for it is probable that the years 778 and 784 found an extension of Mercia being made westward. The matter is not, however, by any means clear. There is some reason to believe that Mercia under Wulfhere extended almost as far to the west as under Offa,^ and it is certainly remarkable that the Welsh chroniclers have much more to say of the fights with Offa than have the English writers. That the Dike was a defensive barrier may probably be denied; it is generally regarded nowadays as a jurisdic- tional boundary-mark. The Council of Chelsea Whatever may have been the exact result of Offa's Welsh wars (which were probably renewed in 795), we may safely say that Mercia was not threatened in the serious way that it was in later years when Burhred was king. Offa was, indeed, by * See ante, p. 139. 187 HISTORY OF ENGLAND the time of the Council of Chelsea (Celchyth), the ' Contentious Ssaiod ' of 787, the most powerful man in England, and we can quite understand that the Mercian, who three years afterward was granting land in I/ondon ^ to the Abbey of St Denis in France [259], and six years after that could describe himself as " King of the Angles and of the Mercian lands as far as I,ondon city," had comparatively Uttle difficulty in persuading the Pope's legat^, George and Theophylact, to sanction the surrender, by Archbishop Jaenbert of Canterbury, of the sees of Worcester, I^icester, lyindsey, Elmham, and Dunwich in order to form an Archbishopric of I^ichfield. This arrange- ment, however, although it received the Pope's approval, was very short-lived, for a few years after OfEa's death the new archbishopric was abandoned^ The Murder of Ethelbert The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells us very laconically of the death of the East Anglian King, for under date 792 (794) we simply read that " this year OfEa, Kiag of the Mercians, com- manded the head of King Ethelbert to be struck off." I/ater writers are, however, more communicative. Thus the Vita Offae Secundi (which, we may add, is quite untrustworthy) informs us that Ethelbert, desiring the hand of OfEa's daughter in mar- riage, journeyed at the King's invitation to the Mercian Court. Arrived there, it seems that the Queen, Cjmethryth, took a violent dislike to the yotmg King. That she was a strong- minded and scheming woman is evident from OfEa's charters, nearly all of which bear her signature as well as his own,* and from the fact that she persuaded her royal consort to consent, at least as early as 788, to Egfrith, their son, sharing the royal honours and styling himself King of the Mercians.^ If there is any truth at all in the story of her plot to kill the East Anglian, we must assume that she was jealous of his 1 Some think Lundenvnc = Sandwich. ' As we have said before {see p. 155), it is unusual to find a woman's signature on an early Saxon grant. Queen Cynethryth was an exception. ' See Birch, Cart. Sax., No. 253. I,ater grants are signed by him as " Egfrith rex " ; " Egfrith rex Merciorum " ; " Egfrith filius regis " ; " Egfrith." 188 THE EIGHTH CENTURY popularity and fearful lest her careful plans to assure the succession of her son should be, through him, defeated. However this may be, according to the Viia Offae Secundi the Queen was the deadly enemy of her daughter's lover. Her request made to 0£Ea to have his guest slain having been scomfuUy rejected, Cynethrji;h devised means whereby the obstacle in her son's path might be finally removed. Dis- simulating her hatred, she invited Ethelbert to come and talk with her daughter in a certain chamber. This room had been carefully prepared ; under it a deep pit had been dug ; upon a false part of the floor immediately above the pit a seat had been placed. To this seat the Queen escorted her victim. Once seated he was doomed, for the floor gave way and he was precipitated into the trap, there to be slain by hired assassins. The whole story is so elaborate that, though it does much credit to the imagination of the narrator, we can hardly regard it as history. It does seem, however, that there was something wrong and treacherous in the manner of Ethelbert's death. He was in later years regarded as a martyr, and Queen Cynethryth seems to have been held by many as primarily responsible for the crime. Offa's Character and Power There is no doubt that, in the main, Offa was a man of outstanding character and of vigorous intellect. In his lifetime he doubtless had the reputation of being a liberal benefactor of the Church. From the various collections of charters it would appear that he made at least five times as many grants of land to the Church as any other king of the period, and most of the other grants are made by his sub-kings and contain his consent or confirmation. As a ruler he was far in advance of his contemporaries. By no means content to centre his thoughts in his own state, he corresponded with the Em- peror Charlemagne and granted lands to Frankish abbeys. We find him well known and respected by the Pope. In his own Mercia he left no stone unturned to increase its power. Wars, marriage alliances, the creation of the Archbishopric of 189 HISTORY OF ENGLAND I/ichfield, the continual insistence of his lordship over the sub-kings surrounding him — all were undertaken, effected, or asserted in order to advance the welfare of his country. With the clergy, apart from the time when he was insist- ing upon Ivichfield's rights and the dispute with Heathored, Bishop of Worcester, which resulted in a compromise and the surrender to the King of the monastery of Bath, he seems always to have been on good terms ; by his sub-kings he appears to have been looked up to as admitted overlord.^ Although in the last years of his reign the men of Kent began to- grow restive, the major part of his territories, once conquered, knew peace, and Mercia, in his day, was not torn by the everlasting civil wars that had dragged Northumbria to the dust. It is probable — ^we are, indeed, expressly so told — ^that Offa was also a lawgiver ; his dooms, however, have not come down to us. Thus we 'Seem to see in Offa the most powerful Mercian since Penda, and perhaps the strongest English king of the eighth century. With his death we regard the century, for our present purpose, as closing. The last years of his reign had, in the words of the chronicler, been years of '' dire fore- warnings." " There were excessive whirlwinds and lightnings, and fiery dragons hurtled through the air. A great famine soon followed these tokens, and a little after that . . . the ravaging of heathen men lamentably destroyed God's church at I^indisfame." Six years before, in 789-790, the Northmen had come and had been attacked by the reeve, whom they turned upon and slew. Now the visits become more frequent, and for the next two centuries we shall be mainly concerned with the wars between Saxon and Dane. "^ Charter No. 267, a grant by Offa of lands in Hertfordshire to St Alban's Abbey, is subscribed by a number of kings, viz. : " ^ Bgo Offa hanc donacionem meam signo crucis Christi confirmo. ►J< Ego EcGFRiDus similiter consendo et subscribo. ►J* Ego CEOi,uni,Fus rex ad ipsum consendo. ►J^ Ego CENutrtPus rex consendo. >J< Ego Beorntji,pus rex. ►{< Ego Ludecha rex. ►{< Ego UtrrtAF rex. ^ Ego Ecgbirhtus rex. <^ Ego BuRHREDtrs rex. *^ Ego Aei,fredus rex." 190 CHAPTER X THE COMING OF THE DANES ^ THE last years of tlie eighth century and the first years of the ninth saw a general weakening of the two strong states of England, Mercia and Wessex. .Northumbria, of course, was still in the unhappy condition to which she had been reduced by a century of civil war. With the death of Offa the crown of Mercia had passed to his son Egfrith, who, as we have ■seen, had already ruled jointly with his father for eight years. This son of Cynethryth, for whom that Queen had planned and plotted so well, was not, however, destined to rule long, for in the same year he died and Cenwulf became lord of the Mercians. This year also saw Ethelred of Northumbria, who had married Offa's daughter, slain by his own men and supplanted by Earduh. Six years later Beorhtric of Wessex, another of Offa's sons-in-law, was mur- dered by his wife Eadburga, a crime, though committed in error — the poison which he drank being intended for another — which was looked upon with so much loathing by the Queen's subjects that for years the consorts of the West Saxon kings were not permitted to be crowned. With Beorhtric dead, Egbert, who had been driven oversea by Offa and Beorhtric, and had taken refuge at the Court of Charlemagne, came back to Wessex. This King, popularly regarded as the first King of all England, though he never succeeded in uniting the whole of the country south of the Tweed into one kingdom, became in subsequent years by far the most powerful of England's many rulers, and earned the title of Bretwalda — a ^ In our account of the Danish invasion and conquest we shall use the word ' Danes ' generically and shall not distinguish between Danes and Norsemen. 191 HISTORY OF ENGLAND title which had been dormant since the death of Oswy, King of Northumbria. It is with the doings of Egbert, his son and grandsons, and the coming of the Danes that the following pages are mainly concerned. The Danes As we have said, the first mention of the Danes in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle occurs somewhere about 789-790,^ when three ships of Northmen, " the first ships of Danishmen which sought the land of the EngUsh nation," landed somewhere in Beorhtric's territory and slew the reeve, who had challenged them. Northumbria was also soon to feel the new peril. In 795, we read, " heathen men lamentably destroyed God's church at I/indisfame through rapine and slaughter." To this mis- fortune were added famine and, in the year following, civil war, Etheked, as we have said, being slain by his own people. The Danes, instantly taking advantage of Northumbria's weak- ness, once more descended upon her and plundered the monas- tery at Wearmouth. This time, however, the invaders did not escape without loss. Their leader was Idlled ; many of their ships were wrecked ; and the Danes, on swimming ashore, were caught and slain at the river's mouth. After this disaster there appears to have been a luU in the new-comers' attacks, and it was in these years that Egbert advanced to pre-eminence. When the onslaught was again renewed the West Saxon King had need of all his forces, and after his death in 839 the Chronicle for years is fiUed with un- willing accounts of Danish victories, plunderings, and burnings. Cenwulf and Egbert « It was not until the death of Cenwulf of Mercia in 821 that the way was clear for the upward rise of !%bert of Wessex. Cenwulf was clearly a wealthy and important prince. During 1 The date is not certain. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (which, as stated on p. 182 n., is two to three years behind) puts it under date 787 ; Ethel- weard gives 786 ; the later chroniclers favour 790. We believe it took place either in 789 or 790, but certainly not in winter-time. 192 THE COMING OF THE DANES the years 801-824 Egbert subscribed but two grants. For practically the same period Cenwulf's charters fill scores of pages of the Cartularium Saxonicum. As we have seen, toward the end of Offa's reign the men of Kent were threatening rebellion. On the great King's death this unrest broke out into open warfare under the leader- ship of Eadbert Pren. During Egfrith's short reign nothing appears to have been done to repress the rising, but in 798 Cenwulf , now king, led the forces of Mercia against the men of Kent and laid waste their country " as far as the marshes." Eadbert Pren, who had been made king by the rebels, was seized, bound, and led captive to Mercia, where, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Cenwulf " let his eyes be picked out and his hands be cut off." Ivater chroniclers, however, are kinder to Cenwulf's memory and inform us that " at the dedication of the church which he had f otmded at Winchel- combe he gave the captive King his liberty before the altar." This account certainly agrees with what we know of Cenwulf's character, which was generous almost to excess. At that same gathering at which Eadbert Pren was liberated we read that " no one met with a denial of any petition, and each one departed replenished in purse ; for besides the numberless gifts which the nobles had received of inestimable value, in utensils, raiment, and choice steeds, he gave to all who had no lands a pound of gold, a marc of gold to every presbyter, a noble to every monk, and many gifts to all the people." Such generosity reminds one of the later Berht- wulf's Christmas Day grants ^ in the year 841, when, with his bishop, abbots, dukes, and Court officials around him, after doubtless an excellent Christmas dinner, he made three separate and substantial gifts of land to the Church. The keynote of Cenwulf's reign is, indeed, generosity. In OfEa's time Mercia had become wealthy ; his successors did their best to make her poor. Abbeys were founded, churches were established, thegns were rewarded. In all his numerous charters, however, Cenwulf is simply described as ' King of the ^ Birch, Cart. Sax., Nos. 433-434. N 193 HISTORY OF ENGLAND Mercians,' and no sub-king's name appears except that of Cuthred, his brother, whom on the capture of Eadbert Pren he had made King of Kent, and, on three occasions [338, 340, 373], that of Siredus, or Sigred, King of the East Saxons. Throughout the whole of Cenwulf's reign the clerics were very powerful. The scheming Cynethryth on the death of her son Egfrith had turned abbess and doubtless strengthened the clerical party. Quoenthryth, the King's daughter, in later years also devoted her life to religion.^ Both Cen- wulf's queens, Cenegitha and Aelfthryth, successively sup- ported the King in his gifts to abbeys and churches. At the same time the Archbishop of Canterbury, Coenulf , was an able and ambitious man. Fortified by the support of the Pope, I/eo III, he was able iu 803 at the Ecclesiastical Council of Clofesho, held on October 12 in that year, to pass a measure recognizing the paramount rights of Canterbury and aboUshing the Archiepiscopate of I/ichfield. With such forces around him it is not surprising to find Cenwulf spending much of his time and most of his wealth in establishing religious foundations. The result was twofold : the warlike thegns, being forgotten and unrecompensed, were content to do nothing whUe their country declined in power ; the monasteries, full of unwarUke, wealthy, and probably licentious priests, were 1 Abbess of Southminster and Reculver (?) ia 824 (Birch, Cart. Sax., No. 384 : " Quoenthryth abbatissam heredem Coenwulfi "). Matthew Paris has a story about Quoenthryth (Quenedrida) and St Kenehn. According to him, in 821 when Cenwulf died he entrusted his young son Kenehn, then seven years of age, to the child's sister, Quoenthryth, to bring up. " Led astray by base am- bition," she had the child put to death. The place of his burial was disclosed at Rome by a white pigeon which dropped a letter written in gold in the English tongue on St Peter's altar. The body was found and removed by an immense multitude to Winchelcombe. Then, we are told, " the murderous woman put forth her head from the window of the chamber where she was standing, and began to repeat in a loud tone the psalm, ' Be not silent, O God, at my praise,' which with a sort of jugglery she uttered backwards. . . . When she had gone backwards as far as the verse, ' This is the work of those who malign me with the Lord,' straightway both her eyes burst from their sockets and fell on the page she was reading. To this day, that psalter, wrought with silver and stained with the gore of her eyes which fell upon it, bears testimony to this judgment." Such a story is, of course, beyond comment. There is a letter [284] from Leo III to a King Kenelm dated 798, but the Kenehn addressed is another person. 194 THE COMING OF THE DANES poor recruiting-grounds for a national army. As a result, when the Danish bKght fell on England •' the army ' (that terrible Danish army which needed no further defining to the men of that age) ravaged Mercia as easily as anarchy-rent Northumbria. The time of Mercia's weakness was always the time of ithe West Saxon's strength, and Egbert was able slowly to consolidate his kingdom during the earlier peaceful years, and, after Cenwuh' s death and the subsequent years of civil war, to contend successfully for mastery with the middle kingdom. Though he came to the throne in 802 ^ no event of much importance happened until 815, a year after the death of his benefactor Charlemagne. In that year we read that " King Egbert laid waste West Wales from eastward to westward." According to Roger of Wendover (who places it under 809 and gives us later some incorrect facts about an expedition into Wales proper), the result of this campaign was the incorporation of Cornwall (West Wales) into the West Saxon kingdom. Egbert Bretwalda After Cenwulf's death in 821 the crown of Mercia passed to Ceolwulf, who, however, was deposed within two years and succeeded by Beomwulf. Egbert was not slow to take advantage of these changes, and in 826,* although his western borders were being threatened by the Welsh, the West Saxon and Mercian forces fought a great battle at Wilton, in which, after much slaughter had been made, Egbert proved vic- torious. Returning home " a sorrowful victor," Egbert next dispatched his son Ethelwulf and Bishop Ealhstan of Sher- borne — a fighting prelate who in later years was ever urging Ethelwulf to deeds of war — to Kent, whence they drove King ' The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gives 800. It is still behind. Plummer gives 802 as the date. We have a grant [300] made by " Edbirtus rex" in 801, but, as Mr. Birch suggests, this should probably read " E&dburh regina." ' Date again doubtful. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gives 823. It places the second synod of Clofesho in 822. This council was held in 825 and settled the quarrel which had sprung up between Abbess Quoenthryth and King Beomwulf. See Birch, Cart. Sax., No. 384. HISTORY OF ENGLAND Baldred and received the submission of the men of Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and Essex. The East Saxons had, indeed, already made overtures to Wessex for a protective alliance against Mercia. Egbert agreed, and toward the end of the year the men of Essex captured Beomwulf and slew him. Shortly after this (in 828) we find Egbert described as Rex Anglorum and two years later as King of the West Saxons and men of Kent. From that year at latest Ethelwuh appears to have been established over the men of Kent as king on behalf of his father Egbert. Meanwhile on the death of Beomwulf the crown of Mercia had passed to Ludechan, who, after reigning but a short time, was slain with his most important nobles, and Withlaf suc- ceeded to the kingdom. In 828,^ however, Egbert completely conquered Mercia and all the land south of the Humber. It is significant that now for the first time he assumed the title of Rex Anglorum. I^ater in the same year, or perhaps early in the next, the West Saxon " led a mighty army into North- umbria, committing terrible ravages in that province and putting King Eanred tinder tribute." Most of the chroniclers seem to agree that Northumbria was now a subject state and that Egbert had gained his right to the title of Bretwalda. In the year following, however, Withlaf of Mercia regained his former position as an independent king, and in 831 we read of his grantiag land in Middlesex [408] ; but two years later, when he gives a charter [409] to Croyland Abbey, ;%bert, Ethelwulf, and Swithvm, then a presbyter, all join in. Some- where about this time, or possibly in 830 or even earlier, Egbert seems to have led an army against the men of North Wales, then ruled by Merfyn Frych. Deganwy Castle was destroyed, and, in the words of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, " he forced them [the Welsh] to obedient subjection." It is just at this time, when all England was beginning to settle down to a state of peace under the overlordship of 1 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gives 827, but mentions an eclipse of the moon as occurring " on the mass-night of midwinter," which we know took place on December 25, 828. 196 THE COMING OF THE DANES Egbert, that we read both in the Enghsh and in the British annals the same ominous announcement : " This year the black pagans came " ; " This year heathen men ravaged Sheppey." It is a great mistake to think, as some his- torians have not merely thought but said, that the Welsh and the Danes joined forces against the English. An occa- sional alliance there may have been, but for the next four decades the Britons fought against the ' black pagans ' as vigorously and as successfully as the English. The constant and furious battles brought one English king of surpassing merit far to the front of his contemporaries, and earned him the leadership of England and the epithet ' Great.' As with Alfred in England so with Roderick in Wales. Eor years both Alfred the Great and Rhodri Mawr (Roderick the Great) fought the common enemy with similar results, national and personal. The Danes return to the Attack It was probably in the year 835 that the " army of infidel and piratical Danes, after being vanquished at Dunemouth and put to flight, ravaged Sheppey." I^anding from twenty- five vessels, they plundered that island and thence journeyed to Charmouth, which was also pillaged, neither sex being spared. From this time onward mention of this new scourge is rarely absent from the year's summary in the Chronicle. In the year following Egbert fought against the invaders at Char- mouth, but, after great slaughter, " the Danish-men held the field," and in that battle two bishops and two ealdormen fell. Two years later Dane and Comishman combined against Egbert. This time the Saxons were victorious, and at the battle of Hengeston, or Kingston Down, a wild moorland over- looking the Tamar, the Danes and their allies were put to flight. So far Egbert had shared the honours with the Danes, but Egbert was growing old and in the next year he foimd repose in the grave. He left his kingdom, imminently threatened by his new enemies, to Ethelwulf, his eldest son by his Queen, 197 HISTORY OF ENGLAND and to Athelstan, a bastard prince. Ethelwulf took Wessex ; Athelstan took Kent and possibly the rest of his father's conquests, ruling all, probably, as sub-king to Ethelwulf, whose grants he frequently subscribed. Ethelwulf During the eighteen and a half years of Ethelwulf's reign there is hardly a year in which the Danes do not plunder or murder or fight. Ethelwulf himself, a virtuous though weak king, is found vacillating between the warlike policy of Ealhstan Bishop of Sherborne and the more reposeful and pacific advice tendered by Swithim ^ Bishop of Winchester. In the majority of cases the Danish axe decided the point and Ethelwulf, whether willing or unwilling, was forced to take the field. In 840 2 his ealdorman Wulfheard successfully engaged the Danes, who had landed at Southampton from thirty-five ships. Probably, however, "Wulfheard was wovmded, for he died the same year. Again, still in 840, the Danes attacked Wessex. This time Ethelhehn and the men of Dorset attempted, for a time successfully, to beat them back, but again we read the ominous admission, " the Danish-men held the field." In this fight at Portland the ealdorman was slain. The year following another ealdorman, Herebert, died fighting these same foes, and the heathen overran I/indsey, East Anglia, and Kent. In 842 the blow fell on I^ondon, Canterbury, and Rochester, at which cathedral cities the pagans made great slaughter. Matters were, thus serious, and the King himself was compelled * widely known in connexion with St Swithun's Day. Of noble birth but of a devout turn of mind, he probably inclined to the Church from an early age. We find his name mentioned and himself styled presbjrter on a grant to the Abbot of Croyland in 825. Two years later his signature is added to a grant and he is now styled Bishop of Winton (Win- chester). In 838 on the findings of the Council of Kingston he is described as ' diaconus,' but in the confirmation in 839 he is ' episcopus.' In 851 he subscribes a charter as Bishop of Winton, and in the year following makes his profession [461] as Bishop of Winton. The last grant he subscribed [500] is dated 860, when Bthelbald was king. He died probably some two years later. * Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 837. 198 THE COMING OF THE DANES to take command of the national militia. In 843 another battle was fought at Charmouth against the crews of thirty- five ships, but once again " the Danish-men held the field." For a few years there seems to have been peace, but in 848 the struggle was renewed. This time the mouth of the Parret was the scene of conflict. The leaders of the men of Dorset (who opposed the invaders) were Bishop Ealhstan and the ealdormen Kanwulf and Osric, and the result of the fight was such a decisive Saxon victory that England knew peace for three years. Battle of Ockley In 851, however, the struggle began again. Early in the year Ceorl the ealdorman, ■ leading the men of Devon, fought a big battle at Wembury, near Plymouth, and, after much slaughter, gained a victory. Next we find Athelstan, King of Kent, and Elchere the ealdorman engaged in a naval encounter with the Danes off Sandwich, with the result that nine of the enemy's ships were taken and the rest put to flight. Notwithstanding these successes, however, it was in this year that " the heathen men remained over winter in Thanet." The attack was renewed with increased violence in the year following. Now no fewer than three hundred and fifty ships came to the mouth of the Thames. Canterbury and I,ondon were taken by storm ; Berhtwulf , King of Mercia, was put to flight with his army ; the Thames was crossed and Surrey penetrated. Once more Ethelwulf realized that his duty lay in the field. Gathering the West Saxon militia together, he and his son Ethelbald led them against the invader. The forces met at Ockley, and there Ethelwulf, in the words of the chronicler, " made the greatest slaughter among the heathen army that we have heard reported to the present day, and there got the victory." Welsh Attacks For a time there was peace, but in 853 a new enemy appeared, for Rhodri Mawr, now the premier Welsh chieftain, took 199 HISTORY OF ENGLAND advantage of Mercia's weakness and attacked Burkred, who had ascended the Mercian throne on the death of Berhtwulf in 852.1 So low had Mercia now fallen that Burhred was forced to appeal to EthelwuH for aid. The West Saxons responded and the combined expedition was apparently successful, and on the return the friendship between the two peoples was consolidated by the marriage of EthelwuK's daughter EthelsWitha to the Mercian king, the nuptials being celebrated in the royal vill of Chippenham. The Danes in Sheppey Hardly had the joyous ceremonies associated with royal marriages been concluded than peace was rudely broken yet again by the pagans. This time the men of Kent and Surrey were attacked, and after a bloody struggle were beaten ; many were slain, many were drowned. In the year following the ominous entry appears : " This year heathen men, for the first time, remained over winter in Sheppey." The phase of mere pltmder was passing away ; the era of occupation was beginning. Notwithstanding the grave peril which threatened his realm — a peril the mere anticipation of which had made Charlemagne burst into tears at the thought of the woes which awaited his descendants — Ethelwuh chose this year of years to weaken his state, first by the granting of a tenth part of his land to the Church and secondly by a prolonged absence in Rome— actions which prove him and his chief adviser Swithun to have been more pious than discerning. Two years before he had sent his youngest son Alfred, then in his fifth year, to the Eternal City with an escort of nobles. The Pope, I^eo IV, had received the child with honour, had anointed him king or consul and had adopted him as his spiritual son. The child appears to have returned in a short time, so that he was in England ready to accompany his father ^ We conjecture tMs as the date of his death, since we have two charters both dated 852, one subscribed by King Berhtwulf, the other by King Burhred. Many of the chroniclers give this date, but dates in the chronicles are not very reliable for this period. 200 THE COMING OF THE DANES when he decided to undertake the pilgrimage. Ethelwulf seems to have travelled with much pomp. Charles the Bald in I^rance received him with every mark of honour and escorted him to the confines of his kingdom. In Rome itself ceremonial receptions were of necessity dispensed with, for I,eo IV died in July of that year and there followed a state of civil war until the Anti-pope Anastasius was dethroned and Benedict III raised to the pontificate. During these turbulent months, however, Ethelwulf found opportunity to enrich the papal horde with a crown, images and vessels of gold, a paten of silver-gilt of Saxon make, and many beautiful vestments and curtains, probably from the famous English looms. I^argesse was distributed to the people, and the Saxon School, founded as we have seen by Ine,^ and destroyed by fire in the previous year, was rebuilt. Ethelwulf and Judith After a lengthy sojourn in the Imperial City, during which time his son Ethelbald and the warrior-prelate Ealhstan, righteously indignant at the King's absence in such troublous times, had initiated a movement to dethrone him, Ethelwulf returned. He again visited the Court of Charles the Bald, whence the infatuated old man brought as a further surprise for his astonished subjects a girl-bride in the person of the French princess Judith. Meanwhile, however, the rebellion had made headway and Ethelbald was well established on the West Saxon throne. Ethelwulf, who had never been a dis- tinguished warrior, was far from desiring to end either his own or his son's life on the field of battle, and, guided by wisdom most unusual in those days, determined on a settlement of the quarrel. Thus it was decided without any fighting that Ethelbald should take the eastern and Ethelwulf the western part of the kingdom. Having thus agreed, the old King hastened to crown the little Judith, although, as we have seen,^ since the murder of Beorhtric by Eadburga no consort of the King of Wessex had been permitted to wear a crown or bear ' See ante, p. 179. Offa also added to it. ^ See ante, p. 191. 201 HISTORY OF ENGLAND the title Queen. Some two years later Ethelwulf died,^ and the young widow, who doubtless had much of the charm of her coimtrywomen, passed to the arms of his successor Ethelbald,^ who after reigning a Httle while, and renouncing his wife, died in 860 and was buried with much pomp at Sherborne. Judith now returned to her native France, eloped with the French King's forester, Baldwin, and with him founded the ruling house of Flanders and a long line of distinguished folk, one of whom became Emperor of Rome and another, Matilda, the wife of WiUiam the Conqueror. Following Ethelbald's short reign came that of Ethelbert, who had already received the title Rex in his brother's lifetime,* and had ruled over Kent and the eastern portion of the West Saxon realm. This part of Wessex was now assigned by him to his brother Ethelred, or Ethered, he himself retaining Wessex proper. He is found subscribing charters until 866, when he died and was succeeded by his brother Ethelred, who reigned alone until 871, to be succeeded in his turn by the youngest and most famous of Ethelwulf's sons, Alfred the Great. The Danes attack Winchester Having thus sketched out the dates of the kings who link up the two long reigns of Ethelwulf and Alfred, let us turn back and see with what deeds the intervening years were filled. In the very first year of Ethelbert's reign the Danes came ^ain with a large fleet and stormed Winchester. The invaders were met, however, by Osric, senior Duke of Wessex,* and the ealdorman Ethelwulf, leading the men of Hampshire and Berkshire respectively. The heathens were checked, defeated, and put to flight, and for the » Charter No. 497, dated 859, is subscribed by " Ethelwulf rex." Perhaps this is wrongly dated. See next note. • She is found subscribing a grant [495] as "Judith regina." Ethelbald signs the same charter as King of the West Saxons in 858. In 860 she is "Judith Regis filius " (sic). ' Charter No. 500. * His name comes immediately after that of Bishop EaUistan in Charter No. 500. He had already defeated the Danes on the banks of the Pairet. See ante, p. 199. 202 THE COMING OF THE DANES remaining years of his reign the King held his land " in goodly concord and in great tranquillity." Though he early lost the guidance of the good St Swithim (86i) he seems to have remained a benefactor of the Church, to which he gave much land. He was buried near his brother at Sherborne. Kentish Men try to buy off the Danes Though Ethelbert had known peace for the last five years of his reign signs were not wanting that the Danes proposed to renew the attack. We read that in the year before his death "the heathen army sat down in Thanet and made peace with the men of Kent, and the men of Kent promised them money for the peace " — thus repeating the Britons' weak policy in former years and anticipating the folly of Ethelred the Redeless in the next century. The " cunning foxes," however, to use Asser's words, " spurning at the promised money, which they knew was less than they could get by plimder," suddenly broke the truce, the east coast of Kent was ravaged, and the Danes retired with much booty to their ships. Change in the Nature of the Danish Attack In the next year, after Ethelbert's death, fresh hordes of plunderers arrived, this time from the Danube, and wintered in East Anglia, where from their camping-groimd they made forays for horses, which having seized they trained for use in war. This creation of a force, and a large force, of cavalry had .an important effect on the Danish campaigns of the next few years and led directly to their conquest of a large part of England. Heretofore we have had to consider sudden attacks from ships, occasional encampments over winter, the quick assault and capture of cities, the plundering of rehgious houses. Now the movements of the Danes become more general, and, leaving the coast counties, they penetrate to the very centre of the island. In 867 they passed from East Anglia across the Humber to York. York having been seized and the Northumbrian miUtia, led by the usurper 203 HISTORY OF ENGLAND Aelle and his erstwhile enemy the deposed King Osbert (who with rare magnanimity had sunk his private grievance in the face of his country's peril), having been decisively defeated, the Danes are, in the year following, next found in Mercia and at Nottingham. Burhred of Mercia pressed by the foe sent hastily to his brothers-in-law Etheked and Alfred of Wessex for aid, and after Nottingham had been ineffectively invested peace was made. By 869, however, ' the army ' was once more back at York, where it remained for a year preparing for a renewed attack upon Mercia and East Anglia. In the autumn of 870 the Danes occupied winter quarters at Thetford in the latter kingdom, now ruled by King Edmund, whose martyrdom was near at hand. St Edmund of East Anglia We must pause in this the last year of Ethelred's reign to touch upon the life of the East Anglian King, Edmund, whose death at the hands of the pagans earned for him a martyr's crown, and whose name is preserved to us by many a church up and down England, and particularly by the great Abbey of Bury St Edmunds, some few miles from Thetford, which covered the last resting-place of the King. Though we know but few genuine historical facts concerning this martyr, it would appear from the legends which in later years gathered round his name that he was a pious and gentle king, more noteworthy for his great statme, courtly manners, and Christian meekness than for his capacity as a leader of men. If we are to believe Florence of Worcester, he was probably not a native of England at all, but was of the race of the Old Saxons and had merely been adopted by his pre- decessor on the East Anglian throne. Roger of Wendover has a very lengthy story which recounts the murder of Lodbrog ^ (I/Othbroc) by Berne, the King's huntsman ; the discovery of the murder and its perpetrator by the fidelity of a hound ; the condemnation of Berne and the sentence passed ^ The Danish sagas state that Ragnar I^dbrog was stung to death by serpents in a pit into which Aelle of Northvunbria had cast him. 204 THE COMING OF THE DANES upon him whereby he was set adrift in a boat ; his arrival in Denmark ; his seizure by I^odbrog's sons Hinguar and Hubba ; his admission that lyodbrog had been slain, falsely alleging by the Eang his master ; the expedition which the two Danish chieftains raised to punish the supposed murderer ; how contrary winds carried them to Berwick-on-Tweed ; how they ravaged Northumbria and at last reached East Anglia. Upon such details we cannot rely, but to East Anglia a great force of Danes certainly came, and to oppose their farther advance King Edmund led against them the whole of his available forces. The ensuing battle was fought at Thetford, Hinguar leading but half the Danish forces in the absence of Hubba, who was ravaging Mercia. The fight was long and furious and the slaughter terrible, so that " the whole field ran red with the blood of the slain." At last the pagans drew off and Edmimd held the field sorrowing, " not only for the slaughter of his companions . . . [but also for] the fate of the infidel barbarians who were precipitated into the gulf of Hell." His grief was soon, however, to become more personal, for Hubba having arrived with heavy reinforcements the battle was renewed, and Edmund was surrouoded and dragged from a church in which he had sought sanctuary. The accoimt of his death is given us with much detail by Roger, whose story we are content to reproduce. After telling us how the King was led before " the wicked chief " he proceeds to inform us that " at his command he was tied to a neighbouring tree ; after which he was scourged for a long time, and insulted with every species of mockery. But the undaunted champion of Christ, by continuing to call on Him between every lash, provoked to fury his tormentors, who then in their mockery using his body as a mark, shot at him with their bows till he was entirely covered with arrows, so that there was not a place in the martyr's body in which a fresh woimd could be inflicted, but it was as completely covered with darts and arrows as is the hedgehog's skin with spines." Finally, since nothing would persuade the King to renounce his faith, the savage Hinguar commanded his attendants " to 205 HISTORY OF ENGLAND cut off the martyr's head with his bloody sword." The result of the defeat and death of the King for East Anglia was a period of misery, the heathen giving themselves up to murder and rapine.^ Nature of the Danish Invasion We have now reached a point at which it is convenient to summarize the results of the Danish invasion. Already Northumbria had been overrun and its capital seized ; Mercia had been laid prostrate and had been forced to a?k aid and sue for peace ; East Anglia had been ravaged and her King put to an ignominious death. Wessex alone was unsubdued. In the year following (871), the terrible 'Year of Battles,' Wessex too was to feel the hammer of Thor ; King Etheked was to die in the midst of furious fights ; King Alfred was to seize the helm at his country's most critical moment. In the pages which follow we shall see how Alfred guided the ship of State once more into smooth waters. Taking our eyes from this gloomy horizon we will now turn and survey the days that had passed. The Northmen, Danes and Norse, coming from a bleak climate and a barren soU, were a race hardened for war and eager for wealth. The country of their birth, pierced by a hxmdred fjords, raised in these as in succeeding centuries a race of men trained from childhood to battle with the sea. Such a combination of circumstances created a nation of sea-rovers who, setting sail in their small wooden ships, carried the terror of the Danish name up every estuary and river of Western Europe from the Arctic Circle to the coast of Spain. We are not concerned with the miseries which France suffered ; with the expeditions up the Meuse, the Seine, the Scheldt, and many another Continental river — ^miseries recounted for us by our own Asser, who had probably heard of them from Grimbald 1 It was at this time that the great monastery of Medeshamstede (Peter- borough) was sacked and its abbot and monks slain. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle adds : " and that place, which before was full rich, they reduced to nothing." 206 THE COMING OF THE DANES of St Omer and from John of the monastery of Corbie; rather we will limit ourselves to the doings of the Danes in England, prefacing our remarks with the statement that nowhere was the invader more stubbornly opposed, nowhere was more slaughter made. At first the attacks were directed, as we have seen, solely for the purpose of plunder. A quick descent from shipboard ; a sudden raid, murder, fire, and sword ; an abbey btirnt ; men slain ; women and children outraged, bound and taken as slaves ; a hoisting of sails and away — this was the form the early pirate raids assumed. Such rapid descents, ever increasing in frequency and in magnitude, continue until about the middle of the ninth century. Then a change occurs. No longer do the pirates suddenly disappear with their plunder. The entry " this year the heathen men remained over winter " begins to make its appearance ; the pagans who first came for booty remained for settlement. The next stage, the one we have now reached, occurred in 866, when the development of a cavalry arm enabled the invaders to sweep from county to county, leaving behind them always the same hideous trail of burnt-out houses, plundered churches, ruined monasteries, wronged women, murdered children, and dying men. In only one particular was the Danish invasion of England different from the Saxon invasion of Britain. Then barbarians broke in upon a race of different nationality and language, a race which, tmder Roman guidance, had reached a high level of civilization. Now pagan barbarian fought Christian barbarian ; both were of the same race, the tongue they spoke was similar. Such kinship had as effect the greater embitterment of the struggle. The fact that the Saxons were stiU barbarians makes us lament their woes less than those of the Britons, for they lost less than the Britons, having less to lose. Once the conflict was at an end the Danes settled on terms of amity with the Saxons and readily absorbed from their one-time enemy the one great gift that enemy had to give — Christianity. For the rest the loss was personal rather than national. For the dying soldier it 207 HISTORY OF ENGLAND hardly matters whether he has received his death-wovind from an Epictetus or from a Nero, from a debased savage or a man of highest culture ; for a country it makes a large difference by what kind of man it is conquered. Thus with the Danish inroad, though it caused much private misery, it made no great change in England's fortunes. We have to bewail the loss of a few manuscripts, the levelling of a few, or perhaps many, fine buildings ;, for the rest some of our soil was tilled by a new people, but not by a new race ; the old institutions were modified, but not greatly ; the EngHsh language was amplified, but not essentially changed. Even these changes belong, perhaps, rather to the years which he ahead, for although the north had already passed for the time almost completely under the Danish sway, the most glorious years of Saxon Wessex were yet to come, and many a battle was to be fought before, in the eleventh century, the new-comers were to unite England under the sceptre of a Danish king. 208 CHAPTER XI ALFRED THE GREAT BORN 849; REIGNBD 871-899 1 AI^THOUGH we have not yet slain King Ethelred we have reached the last year of his life, and hence . onward, even while he was yet King, the stage is occupied and the attention of the audience commanded by the greatest personality of Saxon England — ^his youngest brother, Alfred. Already, as we have seen, this, the last child of Ethelwulf and Osburga, had been marked out in some special way from his brothers, for on his visit to Rome, while yet an infant, he had been clothed in consular, or it may be kingly, robes and anointed by Pope I^eo IV for the high office he was destined so worthily to fill. After his return from Rome, until the accession of his brother Etheked to the West Saxon throne, the youthful Alfred seems to have been kept in the background, and it may be that his elder brothers Ethelbald and Ethelbert, feeling some jealousy for the Benjamin of their house, intentionally suppressed his youthful ardour. Certain it is that, notwithstanding the doubtful story of the illuminated book of poetry which his retentive memory won for him in childhood, his early youth saw him neglected by those responsible for his training, with the result that despite his eagerness for learning he grew up as ignorant as any Saxon noble. From his subsequent hfe, so marked with every sign of ^ The date generally given for his death is 901. We follow Mr W. H. Stevenson's The Date of King Alfred's Death. He concludes that Simeon of Durham and Roger of Howden were right and prints a conclusive and little- known document. Q 209 HISTORY OF ENGLAND purity of character and nobility of mind, we may hazard the opinion that his mother Osburga, daughter of Oslac the famous cup-bearer 1 of King Ethelwulf add descendant of the warriors Stuf and Wihtgar," was a dame of gentle nature and pious mind, though, as we shall see, there is reason to believe that she may have been discarded in the evening of her days by her royal consort for the child Judith. I^egend has preserved for us the story of how Alfred's mother, when showing him and his brother a book of Saxon poetry, offered it to whichever should sooner leam the contents ; how Alfred, eager to possess the pretty volume, took it to his tutor, who read it to him ; * how, having listened attentively, Alfred got it by heart and returning to his mother repeated it cor- rectly and so gained the prize. We should not relate this story, which every child has heard, were it not for the fact that, if authentic, it possesses many curious difficulties, besides creating a pleasant interlude in our accoimt of these years of warlike and savage happenings. The difficulties we have suggested turn on the dates at which the event could have happened. Alfred we know was bom in 849 ; Judith was enthroned as Queen in 856 ; in the intervening years from 852 Alfred had been in or travelling to or from Rome, save, perhaps,* for a short time between the return from the first visit and the departure for the second one in 855. Thus unless the event happened while he was yet an infant it occurred after Judith had supplanted his mother. That Judith, his stepmother, is referred to is, of course, absurd, since she in 856 was but thirteen, and whatever we may think of Alfred, Ethelred would certainly not have tolerated parental condescension from a girl of his own age ; moreover, the book in question was a Saxon book and she was a Frankish princess. We must therefore put the tale aside as ^ Personal service on the king was a mark of distinction in Saxon times and a ground for nobility. ' See ante, p. go. » The text is difacult here. ■• We tncUne to the view taken by Freeman that Alfred stayed at Rome until he returned in 856 with his father. Mr Stevenson, however, regards Freeman's view as contrary to authority and unsupported by the facts, 210 ALFRED THE GREAT unhistorical, or accept as proven either that it happened when Alfred was not yet seven years old or that Osburga was alive when Judith was Queen — that, in fact, she had been discarded, a theory which, though possible when we remember the manners of those times, is not probable when we bear in mind her consort's character for piety and benevolence, her long married life, her numerous family, and the position of her eldest son, already, as we have seen, master of the major part of Wessex. When we further remember that the tale does not come from Asser's genuine life of Alfred, but rather from the doubtful Annals of St Neots, we must, perhaps, mark it as a legend which preserves for us, it may be, the germ of truth that Alfred even in his childhood was a clever, attentive boy, fond of books if only for their beauty. The ambiguous word which occurs in the Latin and which, if strictly construed, makes the boy already capable of reading is certainly misleading, for we have his admirer's definite assurance that owing to the neglect of his parents and nurses he remained illiterate until he was twelve or more, and in after years the King was wont to complain that know- ledge came to him with difficulty, since he had become acquainted with books late in life. It was perhaps this regret for opportunities lost which prompted him when arrived at years of discretion and of power to plant throughout his kingdom centres at which his subjects could learn in childhood to do that which he himself found so difficult — read and write. But though he was debarred by ignorance from reading while yet a boy, he combined a boy's love for games and for hunting, in all kinds of which he was very proficient, with delight in the hearing of poems and other literature when read to him. By this means, being blessed with a retentive memory, he grew up with a mind less blank than those of most of his nobles ; for it was an age when ignorance was more deep, and abysmal than we can well imagine, when the priest could scarcely read or write, and when the sign of the Cross served the purpose of hiding the subscriber's ignorance as well 211 HISTORY OF ENGLAND as of calling God to witness. " John Jones his mark x " tells to-day a sorry story of John Jones's education. " + Osric due " was common and not disgraceful in those days. As time went on, however, the youthful Alfred found opportunity to increase his knowledge. He learnt the observ- ance of the hours, a few psalms, and several prayers from a book which he carried about with him, but whether from his own perusal or f Ajm getting his masters to read them to him we do not know. It is almost pitiable to think of this King — ^for this state probably lasted until he had ascended the throne — being tinable in the whole of his realm to find any one who would instruct him in the liberal arts. As he himself com- plained, when he was young and had the capacity for learning he could find no teachers ; when in later life he had gathered teachers from other lands he was too ill and too weighed down by the burdens of sovereignty to find much opportunity for learning. Despite these heavy drawbacks, however, he perse- vered, and in the later and more peaceful years of his life was able to translate and edit for his subjects' use several worthy and tiseful works. It was in 868 that Alfred, now in his twentieth year and grown to manhood, sought for and obtained the hand of Ealhswith, daughter of Ethelred surnamed Mucil, a Mercian lord whose name is preserved to us to-day on many a Saxon charter and who was one of those present at Berhtwulf's Christmas party of which we have already spoken.^ It was shortly after this marriage, if not on the very day, that that curious disease began to manifest itself which so increased the King's burdens and against which he strove so manfully. This, his marriage year, was the last year of peace for him until he had at last beaten off his enemies the Danes and had saved Wessex from the ruin which had befallen the other Angle and Saxon kingdoms. Of the Nottingham campaign, of Burhred's request for aid, and of the subsequent move- ments we have already spoken. These events carried us to • See ante, p. 193. He was chief or ealdonuan of the Gaini (this has no reference to the men of Gainsborough). 212 ALFRED THE GREAT the year 870^ In the year following, ' the Year of Battles/ Ethelred, who was still King of Wessex, but who died before the year was half spent, and Alfred were fighting almost continually for the very existence of their country. ' The Year of Battles ' (871) and Ashdown In the years 869 and 870 the Danes had passed rapidly and triumphantly through Northumbria, Mercia, and East Anglia. In the last-named state the King, Edmund, had been put to death and the country-side ravaged. Northumbria likewise had been brought under the Danish yoke. Mercia had been compelled to sue for terms; Of all the English kingdoms Wessex alone remained unsubdued. In 871 the Danes, leaving East Anglia, invaded the kingdom of the West Saxons and entered the royal city of Reading, situated on the south side of the Thames in Berkshire. Having thus made good a footing some of the Danish leaders hastened to plunder the surroimding country, while others employed the remaining men in building a rampart between the Thames and the Kennet to protect the city they had seized. Such a bold advance was not allowed to be made without challenge. Some part of the invading force was attacked by Earl Ethelwulf, leading the men of Berkshire, and after a stubborn battle fought at Englefield, and after one of the Danish jarls had been slain, the pagans fled leaving the English in possession of the field. This success, however, was but of local importance ; the main army of the Danes was still threatening Wessex, and four days after Earl Ethelwulf's victory King Ethelred and Alfred found it necessary to unite their forces and attack the enemy at Reading. Throwing their militiamen on the pagans who had ventured outside the city gates they were successful in cutting them to pieces ; but from within the walls the Danes sallied forth in strength, and, falling upon the Saxons, after a long and fierce engage- ment won the victory, slaying, among others, the Earl Ethelwulf. After this defeat the men of Wessex rallied from all quarters 213 HISTORY OF ENGLAND to avenge the defeat of the King, the slaughter of their country- men, and the death of the Earl of Berkshire. The new national army, led once more by King Ethelred and Alfred, met the pagans in the hilly district of Ashdown. According to Asser both the Danes and the Saxons, when they came in sight of one another, commenced to prepare defences and divide their army into two parts. With the Danes one part was given to the two kings wEo commanded the pagan forces ; the other part was directed by the several Danish jarls who were supporters of those kings. With the Saxons one part was commanded by King Etheked and one part by Alfred. Such was the division of command when the forces were about to eng£^e. Etheked, however, seeking spiritual aid, was at prayer in his tent when his co-commander saw that his enemies were about to bear down upon him. The moment was one of grave danger for the whole kingdom. It is evident that for this battle both sides had arrayed the greater part of their available forces. For Wessex defeat would probably have been decisive. Still the senior King Etheked tarried hearing Mass instead of directing his people. Alfred for his part was in a subordinate command, yet he could not await the enemy's impetuous attack without risking aimihilation. In such a moment of danger a quick decision was imperative. Alfred made it. Without waiting for his brother to arrive he formed his forces into a phalanx and flung the whole army, including the King's command, against the foe. The shock of the encounter bore down the front ranks and soon the opposii^ forces were engaged in a fierce rmUe. The pagans, who had the advantage of the ground, and who flung themselves upon the Saxons, now struggling up the hillside from the lower ground, were met and checked by Alfred's men, who foi^t withfxuy in defence of " thek country, thek dearest ties, and their Uves." For long the battle raged around a stunted thorn-tree which grew on Ashdown's slopes, until at last the Danes, overborne by the fierceness of the Saxon onslat^ht, gave ground and fled, leaving upon the battlefield the corpses of one king, five jarls, and the major part of thek army, many 214 ALFRED THE GREAT thousands in number. So great was the slaughter that the whole plain of Ashdown was encumbered with the dead. The Saxons thus victorious hastened to press home their victory. The remnants of the beaten army were pursued all through the day until night ended the chase ; but the routed enemy continued their flight through the darkness until they had gained the protection of the stronghold whence they had sallied. Ashdown, unquestionably, was a great victory. It did not, however, prove decisive against the Danes. Fourteen days later the pagans, having collected their forces from all quarters, renewed the attack and defeated Etheked and Alfred at Basing. About the same time they were further strengthened by reinforcements from overseas. It was shortly after this defeat and some time after Easter that King Ethelred died and was buried at Wimbome Minster. Asser tells us that Alfred, who succeeded, " tmdertook the government of the whole kingdom, amid the acclamations of all the people." It is probable, however, that he and his followers were far too busy attempting to beat off the pagan attacks, which were increasing in frequency, to give much attention to his change in rank. No king, perhaps, ever came to his throne in more troubled circumstances ; no king occupied his throne more worthily. Asser preserves for us the account of but one more battle in this terrible year. But we are informed by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that in this year nine ^ general battles were fought south of the Thames, besides many minor engagements, and that in the course of these fights nine Danish jarls and one king were slain. It is in the number of these conflicts and the losses suffered that Asser finds the excuse for Alfred's defeat at Wilton Hill, a battle noteworthy since it saw suc- cessfully employed the ruse which in later years was to help win for William of Normandy the battle of Senlac and the crown of England. At Wilton it was that the pagans, feigning 1 Asser gives eight as the number. He does not mention the battle at Harden. 215 HISTORY OF ENGLAND fliglit, deceived the Saxons into a premature pursuit, and then rallying fell upon their pursuers and gained the victory. Exile and Death of Burhred Despite the victory at Wilton Hill the year 871 had seen the Danes make no progress with the conquest of Wessex, and toward the end of that year Alfred made peace with his enemies on the 4;erms that they should depart from his king- dom. For some years the truce was kept, but while Wessex thus was freed from the scourge the rest of England suffered all the more. In 872 I^ondon ^ was enterecj and occupied over winter. In the beginning of 873 the Mercians made peace with the Danes, who thereupon attacked Northumbria and wintered in the district of I^indsey. In the year following Mercia proper was invaded and Repton was occupied over winter. Burhred, who had been King of Mercia for twenty-two years and who had married Alfred's sister, was driven from his kingdom, which was entirely subdued by the Danes and placed by them under the rule of Ceolwulf, " an unwise king's- thegn," lately one of Burhred's ministers, on condition that he should restore the realm to the Danes whenever they should wish. To guarantee this arrangement hostages were given by the Mercian, who also swore not to oppose the conquerors and to obey them in every respect. Burhred, for his part, weary of the unceasing struggle against an enemy whose losses were always more than made good by reinforcements, fled to Rome, where he died a short time after. He was buried in the Saxon School, in the Church of St Mary. The Struggle Renewed In the following year (875) the Danes, after an extensive campaign which resulted in the complete subjugation of Northumbria and the ravaging of the Picts and the Strathclyde Britons, returned to Cambridge to winter. Meanwhile Alfred, who thus early in his reign had realized that if the Danes were to be defeated it was imperative to attack on sea as well as ' London was ruled by the King of Mercia. 216 ALFRED THE GREAT on land, had organized, or reorganized, an English, fleet and had fought a naval battle against the pagans, capturing one ship and scattering the others in flight. It is probable that the Danes regarded this act as a breach of the treaty of 871, and that the news of Alfred's renewed activity caused them to hurry south from Caledonia and establish themselves at Cambridge ready for an advance upon Wessex in the opening months of the new year. It is extremely difficult to understand exactly what happened in 876. We find the Danes leaving Cambridge (Grantabridge) by night and entering the Saxon stronghold of Wareham, between the rivers Frome and Trent. Next, and apparently without any battle being fought, we find Alfred concluding a solemn treaty, supported by oaths on Christian relics and the giving of hostages by the Danes, whereby it was provided that the invaders should speedily depart from the kingdom. As Asser informs us, however, the Danes " practised their usual treachery, and caring nothing for the hostages or their oaths,^ broke the treaty, and sallying forth by night slew all the horsemen that the King had around him." Having thus broken the truce, they pushed on as far as Bxeter and passed the winter on the shores of the Channel. Here they apparently stayed throughout 877, steadily augmenting their forces by troops received from overseas, until Asser could say : " The number of that disorderly crew increased every day, so that, if thirty thousand of them were slain in one battle, others took their places to double the number." We have seen that Alfred had already taken steps to pre- vent the arrival of these reinforcements, but in this present year (877) his efforts in this direction were redoubled. Boats and long-ships were built in all the West Saxon ports ; the ships when launched were manned by seamen commanded to watch the seas. Meanwhile the King, leading his army, laid siege to Exeter ; supplies by sea were cut off by the newly organized fleet. The pagans, however, were by no means • It is to be observed that the Danes were pagans and would not regard themselves as bound by the Christian's oaths. 217 HISTORY OF ENGLAND prepared to be caught like rats in a trap. Danish attacks seem to have been planned by sea and land. On the sea a hundred and twenty Danish ships of war attempted to scatter Alfred's blockading fleet. The result was disastrous for the attackers ; their storm-tossed vessels were all sunk and their entire crews were drowned iu the sea off Swanwich, in Dorset- shire. On land however, the Danes were more successful, and early in the following year (878) ' the army ' escaped from Exeter and seized the royal vill of Chippenham, in the west of Wiltshire. Here, we are informed, they wintered, and by force of arms drove many of the Saxons beyond the sea and reduced almost entirely to subjection the surrounding country- side. Alfred at Bay It would seem that at this time (878) Alfred and his nobles were reduced to the lowest fortune compatible with Uberty. We read of the King surrounded by a few of his thegns and soldiers leading an unquiet Ufe among the woodlands of Somerset, or, as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle puts it, in " the woods and the fastnesses of the moors." Guthrum, the famous Danish leader, who had been leading the invaders in the south, developed a comprehensive plan for the final subjugation of the West Saxon King. The brother of Halfdene, the leader of the Danes in the north, was dispatched with twenty-three ships to Devonshire, presumably to land and attack Alfred from the south, while Guthrum directed his forces against him on the north and east. The plan, though admir- able, was defeated by the disaster which befell Ubba, the Danish leader, and his followers before the castle of Cynuit.* This stronghold had been the refuge-place of many of Alfred's followers, and as it was too strong to be taken by assault, the Danes endeavoured to blockade it and compel the defenders to surrender through starvation. Early one morning, however, the besieged, rendered desperate by hunger, and desirii^ rather ^ Identification doubtful. Kynwith Castle on the river Taw has been suggested. 218 Pi,ATE XXVI. Statue of Ai,fred at Winchester Hamo Thornycroft, R.A. 2lS ALFRED THE GREAT to die fighting than to purchase Ufa with Hberty, suddenly attacked the encircHng force. In the fight which followed Ubba was slain with almost all his followers, the remnant of his army fleeing in disorder to their ships. Much booty was taken, and so great was the rout that the Danes left in the hands of the English the magic Raven standard woven by the daughters of I^odbrog, which was able to presage victory or defeat. Alfred was still hard pressed) however, and at about this time he was driven to make for himself a stronghold at Athelney,^ at the confluence of the Tone and the Parret, where, protected by the marshes which surrounded his place of defence, he slowly strengthened his forces. As Ethelweard puts it : " King Alfred was at this time straitened more than was becoming." He was not, however, a mere fugitive. Some of the most powerful men in the kingdom were still around him, and we have mention made of Ethelnoth, ealdorman of the men of Somerset, who was encamped near his King, surrounded by. a narrow retinue. lyittle by little others rallied to the royal cause. To Selwood Forest, the natural fortress to which Alfred now seems to have retired, the men of Somersetshire, Wiltshire, and Hampshire gathered. The meeting of the King and those of his subjects who had disdained to fly over- seas and had rallied for one last effort under the royal banner must have been an inspiring event for Alfred. We read how when the assembled host saw their King alive after such great tribulation they received him with joy and acclamations, and the chronicler soberly teUs us that " they were joyful at his presence." On the night of the meeting the King encamped his forces at Buxton, on the east side of Selwood. In the dawn of the following morning camp was struck, and at daybreak of the next day the Danes were encovmtered ^ According to the Annals of Si Nsots, a doubtful twelfth-century work, it was at about this time, or perhaps when he was seeking shelter in the woods of Somersetshire, that the episode of the cakes occurred. The mere fact that even a popular legend could describe a cowherd's wife shouting at her king, " Cas'n thee mind the ke-aks, man ! " shows that Alfred was not devoid of humour and was a man of simple manners. For the rest the story is too unreliable and too well known to be enlarged upon. .219 HISTORY OF ENGLAND in full force at a place called Ethandune. The result of the battle was a decisive victory for Alfred ; the Danes were slaughtered in great numbers and fled to their fortified camp, which Alfred proceeded to blockade. After fourteen days the pagans sued for peace, hostages were given, and with oaths they swore to leave Wessex. Further and more noteworthy, Guthrum, their leader, promised to forsake paganism and te baptized. Three weeks later the sacred ceremony was performed at AUer, near Athelney, King Alfred standing godfather to his one-time enemy. Adjourning to Wedmore the chrism-loosing was done and the famous Peace of Wedmore was made, the Danish King remaining as Alfred's guest for some twelve days. The Peace of Wedmore Although J. R. Green has stated the terms of this Peace of Wedmore in some detail, saying that " In form the Peace of Wedmore seemed indeed a surrender of the bulk of Britain to its invaders. All Northumbria, all East Anglia, the half of Central England was left subject to the Northmen. . . . The peace had in fact saved little more than Wessex itself," it is quite unknown what the terms of the peace were, save that as a result we find the Danish army leaving Wessex in comparative repose for many years. The peace between Guthrum and Alfred which Green probably had in mind belongs to the year 885, after the Danes had made a permanent settlement in East Anglia (879), even as in earUer years they had divided out the land of Northumbria. In other words, Alfred and Guthrum's Peace gives effect to an accompUshed fact. Already by 885 Northumbria and East Anglia were being tilled by Danes, were, in fact, completely under Danish domination. Mercia was in like case as regards the north and east. This is shown by the fact that immediately after the defeat at Ethandune and the Peace of Wedmore the Danes wintered at Fulham, near l^ondon. In 884, however, we find Alfred raising the siege of Rochester and capturing many of the Danish horses. In the year before he had gained a naval 22Q ALFRED THE GREAT victory, a success which was repeated shortly after the relief of Rochester. In the intervening years between the two peaces it is, indeed, clear that the Danes were mainly concerned with the consolidation of their conquests in England and the extension of their gains in France. Wessex was in the main left in peace, but this was apparently not because of any definite division of England between Danes and Saxons, but simply because of a truce concluded at Wedmore and supported by Alfred's leadership and West Saxon loyalty. The state of England about this time is admirably shown by one of the paragraphs in which Asser recounts the doings of the year 884. Having mentioned the abandonment of the siege of Rochester by the pagans and their flight to France, he proceeds to inform us that Alfred, gathering his fleet together, prepared to attack the coimtry of the East Angles " for the sake of plunder." Nothing could tell us more clearly of the degree of the Danish settlement than this statement that Alfred, most English of English kings, could lead a plundering expedition against a province of England. So completely had the Danes divided the spoils that it is evident that by 884 whatever plunder was gained in East Anglia would probably be Danish property. What we have said of this district applies with equal force to Northumbria, and as to Mercia we have seen how on the flight of Burhred an arrangement had been concluded whereby Mercia was to be ruled by a nominee of the Danes. With these facts before us we must express no surprise at the terms of Alfred and Guthrum's Peace, unless it be at the fact that the West Saxon should have been able to retain so much. Whatever may have been the bounds agreed upon at Wedmore, we now find Alfred ruler over aU the land south and west of the line drawn along the Thames from its mouth to its confluence with the lyca, and thence up the I^ea to its sources. From there the boundary ran to Bedford, and up the Ouse to its junction with Watling Street, which it followed in the main throughout the remainder of its course. Kent, Surrey, Middlesex, and the major part of Mercia were thus retained by Wessex, besides 221 HISTORY OF ENGLAND those counties which had for long been recognized as subject to the house of Cerdic. Alfred at Peace For the next few years Wessex was at peace, and it is probably to the years between 880 and 892 that we should assign the major part of Alfred's pacific labours as writer, lawgiver, patron of learning, and benefactor of the Church. It will now be convenient to take a general view of the state of Wessex and of Alfred's attempts to improve the condition of his people and to advance the position of his state. When viewing Alfred's reign we must not have in mind a wealthy, prosperous realm full of fine cities, great churches, rich monasteries, and good schools. We must rather remember that we are dealing with a people originally barbarous and reduced on occasion to real want and penury under the ravages of their enemies. We have to deal with a Church from which most of the sanctity of the Celtic and the learning of the Roman Church had departed and whose main endeavours were directed toward gaining more and more land and founding more and more monasteries in which an increasing number of monks could live in licentious ease. We have to deal with an ignorant, though brave and warlike, nobility and an unlettered and hardworking and but partially free peasantry. Trade was but small and industries did not flourish. Such was the state of West Saxon England when Alfred ascended the throne. Already, it is true, in Ethelwulf's time the West Saxon Court was in intimate communication with the Prankish Court, as had been the case when Egbert and Charlemagne were aUve. Ethelwulf had married a Frankish princess and had brought over to England a Frankish secretary. Notwithstanding these bonds between insular England and the more poHshed Continental state Alfred could still deplore the almost complete absence of learning in southern England at the time of his accession. With characteristic energy he soon took steps to cure the evil. Plegmund, the most learned man in England, was invited to 222 ALFRED THE GREAT leave Mercia and accept the Archbishopric of Canterbury ; Werferth also came from Mercia. From Wales, where learning was more advanced than in England, Asser, Bishop of St David's, was persuaded to attend on the King and give the benefit of his knowledge for six months in the year. From the mouth of the Elbe, John the Old Saxon, a learned man, came to help Alfred with his literary work and to rule over the monastery at Athelney as abbot. From St Omer that Grimbald came who in Camden's spurious interpolation into Asser's Life is represented as quarrelling with the learned men of Oxford. In truth, of course, there were no learned men at Oxford in Alfred's days. The colleges on the banks of the Isis had yet to be built. Grimbald held under Alfred the high position of abbot of the new minster at Winchester. Besides attempting to improve the minds of his countrymen by inviting distinguished foreigners to form the centres of learned movements, the ripples of which through the channels of Court schools, monasteries, nunnery and lesser schools the King doubtless hoped would reach eventually even to his humblest subjects, Alfred took other steps to become acquainted, and to acquaint his people, with the knowledge of the wider world. Embassies were sent, e.g. to the Patriarch of Jerusalem, in quest of medicinal recipes. Possibly one aim of the King was personal. It may be that he desired a cure for the complaint which through all these years had been tormenting him. But when we read the list of drugs the messengers brought back with them we realize that the purpose of the mission was not so restricted. According to a doubtful text the King's view extended even beyond Jerusalem, for there we read of the dispatch of West Saxon almsgivers to " St Thomas's Christians " in India. So far we have seen Alfred attempting to banish the mists of ignorance by the importation of learned men, the foimda- tion of schools, and the sending of emissaries to foreign parts in search of knowledge. There was another and an, im- portant step taken by this great Englishman which had the same aim. The King, wisely seeing, like Dorotheus of 223 HISTORY OF ENGLAND Constantinople, that the student should be led gently along the road of learning rather than taken immediately to its steepest inclines and roughest surfaces, determined to render books in the English tongue accessible to all, lest the difficulty of learning I^atin in an unlettered age should prevent men from reading an3^hing. We therefore find him stealing some time from the cares of State and with the aid of Asser and John, and perhaps Grimbald and the Archbishop, trans- lating into the EngUsh tongue certain notable works which he thought should be widely known. Alfred's Literary Works If we accept the order suggested by Dr Bosworth, Alfred's various translations were : (i) Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, (2) Bede's Ecclesiastical History, (3) the History against the Pagans of Paulus Orosius, (4) Gregory's Pastoral Care. It is also possible that he was responsible for the translation of the Soliloquies of St Augustine and for the composition of the Encheiridion which is now lost but is mentioned by Asser. The so-called Proverbs of Alfred is a thirteenth-century compilation. Finally, we must never forget that Alfred was responsible for the commencement of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. It may even be that the vivid entries which occur under the later years of his life came from his own pen, although it is true that their form hardly supports this view. The first of the above works, the Consolation of Philosophy, was translated probably shortly after Alfred and Guthrum's Peace had been made, that is to say, some time about 885. It is probable that Alfred was helped by Asser. In form it is a free translation of the somewhat pagan philosophy of Boethius, to which he gives a Christian flavouring. To us perhaps its greatest interest lies in this very fact that Alfred is no literal translator. His emendations, or rather alterations, give us a peep into the King's true mind and show us a man pious, faithful, able, energetic, and eager for knowledge — in short, a very king who more than most men possessed what Bagehot 224 ALFRED THE GREAT called " an experiencing nature " ; a king who could be interested in all forms of knowledge, who could glory in the beauties of nature, who could be at once religious and humorous. The same marks are present in his translation of Bede's great work, but in this he was rather more careful to follow the original with close fidelity. Even here, however, he shows excellent good sense in almost eliminating the details relating to the Easter controversy. In his next work, the History of Orosius, he allowed himself wide powers of selection. It was a somewhat curious work to choose for translation, for although doubtless one of the best productions of dying Rome, it takes a far from favourable view of Rome's enemies, among whom the Saxons were to be reckoned, and in other ways must have appeared to Alfred's people as a strangely gloomy work. As the late Thomas Hodgkin said : " Both Alfred . . . and his readers must have been somewhat unneces- sarily depressed by its perusal ; for as the book had a polemical bearing, adversus Paganos, and was intended to show that the calamities which were befalling the Roman Empire in the fifth century were not due to its adoption of the Christian faith, its author was naturally led to exaggerate the misery of the world in preceding ages. While enumerating, therefore, all the murders, pestilences, and earthquakes of which he could find mention in the 5167 years that had elapsed since the creation of the world, he omits to notice the long inter- spaces of quiet happiness." We may perhaps hazard the view that Orosius's purpose in writing the book and Alfred's aim in translating it were not dissimilar ; his subjects who had to look back on half a century of spoliation, his monks who had looked upon ruined minsters and plundered abbeys, were, it may be, beginning to debate the everlasting question of the worth of religion, of the value of Christianity. It may be that Orosius's catalogue of natural horrors was translated that his subjects might see that the sorrows of the present when men were Christian were no worse than the evils of the past when men were pagan. However this may be, we must thank the translator for p 225 HISTORY OF ENGLAND some valuable interpolations, particularly for the account of the Arctic explorations of Othere, the Northman, who sailed to the north along the coast of Norway imtil he passed beyond the seas where the whalers sot^ht their prey, and sailing ever northward for three days at last found the coast-line turning from north to east. Pursuing his way yet farther he found it turning south. Finally we read of his anchoring his ships at the mouth of a m^hty river. This story of Othere's visit to the spot where Archangel was to be built in later years had been told to the King by the brave Northman himself, and Alfred writes it down in Orosius's History as a matter of interest for his subjects, and caring not at all that the inter- polation had nothing or Uttle to do with the rest of the work. The fourth work, Gregory's Pastoral Care {Regula Pastor alls), was probably translated in the clositig years of Alfred's life. It is in the preface to this work that we have the many allu- sions to the ignorant state of Wessex. The King is, however, speaking of the past, of the early years of his life. As to the present he can rejoice in that he has an " abundance of learned bishops," but he foresees that the time has not yet come when the continuance of knowledge may be deemed certain, or when men can be expected to read readily I/atin or even Saxon. Alfred's Laws Alfred's labours in literature represented only a part of his work on behalf of the arts of peace. Possessing as he did an intensely practical mind, he not only reorganized learning, the navy, the mihtia, but interested himself in building and in the foundation of religious houses. Asser informs us that he rebuilt I/)ndon, and from the cartularies we know that he was always ready to aid in the erection of a new abbey or minster. Of all the things he helped to build, however, none was more fair than that monument to EngHsh greatness — EngHsh law. As he himself informs us, he was by no means an innovator ; his practical mind rather preserved and estabhshed what was old and known and certain than 226 BxAMPtE OF Anglo-Saxon Ii,i,uMrNATiNG 27.5 Prom a Gospel in I,atiii written at New Minster, Winchester, early in the Eleventh Century From Additional MS. 34890 in the British Museum ALFRED THE GREAT introduced new rules which from their newness might have failed in justice or in utility. In the popular mind, for many a year Alfred has had the primary and indeed the altogether supreme place among Saxon lawgivers. It may be that that vicious compilation known as The Mirror of Justices ^ was first responsible for this notion. In the first chapter of that work we read that " King Alfred caused the Earles to meet, and Ordained for a perpetual usage, that twice in the yeere, or oftner, if need were, in time of Peace they should assemble together at I/ondon, to speake their mindes for the guiding of the people of God, however they should keepe themselves from offences, shotdd live in quiet, and should have right done them by certaine usages, and sovmd judgements." The author then proceeds to enume- rate a vast number of rules, many of which belong to a period long posterior to Alfred's time. In truth, Alfred was less of a lawgiver than an administrator of laws already given. In the beginning of his dooms he himself tells us that he had but chosen dooms formed by his predecessors such as Ethelbert, Ine, and Offa. To these, it is true, he added copious extracts from the Mosaic code ; but in the main his laws add little to our knowledge of Anglo-Saxon legal procedure or custom. The chief difference is due to the circumstances of the time rather than to any intentional effort at improvement. Thus the fines to be paid by wrongdoers are less under Alfred's code than tmder Ine's. The reason is obvious. Money had become more valuable and the people were poorer as a result of the Danish ravages. Apart from this, few changes were made by Alfred in the dooms issued by earlier kings. In one respect, however, Alfred's laws mark a new stage in English legal history. As the learned authors of the History of English Law ^ say, " The age of the capitularies begins with Alfred, and in some sort it never ends, for William the Conqueror and Henry I 1 We quote from the 1646 edition. The best edition is that pubhshed by the Selden Society. The work is entirely unreliable, but had a great vogue in mediaeval times. It always gives great prominence to Alfred. * Sir Frederick Pollock and the late Professor Maitland. We quote from the second edition, vol. i, p. 20. 227 HISTORY OF ENGLAND take up the tale"; and again: "The mere fact that Alfred sets, and that his successors (and among them the conquering Dane) maintain, a fashion of legislating is of great importance. The Norman subdues, or, as he says, inherits a kingdom in which a king is expected to publish laws." In short, although there had been earher lawgivers in England the stream had not been a steady one vmtil Alfred's time ; hence onward the laws follow one another, whether the ruler be Saxon or Norman or Angevin, with hardly a break, until at last ParKament is estabhshed and the king surrenders his power to ordain in favour of the people's power to legislate by Bill. Alfred, indeed, as we have said, was a practical administrator of laws rather than a lawgiver. As Asser tells us, " He strove also, in his own judgments, for the benefit of both the noble and the ignoble, who often perversely quarrelled at the meetings of his earls and officers, so that hardly one of them admitted the justice of what had been decided by the earls and prefects, and in consequence of this pertinacious and obstinate dissen- sion, all desired to have the judgment of the King, and both sides sought at once to gratify their desire." ^ Again, his biographer tells us that " He inquired into almost all the judgments which were given in his own absence, throughout all his dominion, whether they were just or unjust. If he perceived there was iniquity in those judgments, he sum- moned the judges, either through his own agency, or through others of his faithful servants, and asked them mildly, why they had judged so unjustly ; whether through ignorance or malevolence ; whether for the love or fear of any one, or hatred of others ; or also for the desire of money. At length, if the judges acknowledged they had given judgment because they knew no better, he discreetly and moderately reproved their inexperience and f oUy in such terms as these : ' I wonder truly at your insolence, that, whereas by God's favour and mine, you have occupied the rank and office of the wise, you have neglected the studies and labours of the wise. Either, therefore, at once give up the discharge of the temporal duties 1 Oui extracts are from Dr Giles's translation, p. 85. 228 ALFRED THE GREAT which you hold, or endeavour more zealously to study the lessons of wisdom. Such are my commands.' " Thus by example, exhortation, and advice Alfred cleansed the judicial system of his country and set up a pattern to be imitated in succeeding ages. As a result of his efforts toward an improved administration of justice we find robbery being repressed and lawlessness subdued, so that in a later age the legend grew up. that the King brought the provinces into such tranquillity that he could command golden bracelets to be hung upon trees near the cross-roads without any traveller daring to touch them. Thus engaged in the betterment of his people we must leave the King and return once more to recounting the incidents in his struggle with the Danes. The Danish Wars Renewed After the peace between Alfred and Guthrum had been concluded the Northmen turned their attention to the Continent rather than to England. Up the Seine, the Mame, the Aisne their ships sailed. Against Paris they battered themselves in vain. At last, however, after an enormous amount of damage had been done they were met by the future Bmperor Amtdf and decisively defeated near l/ouvain. Despairing of final victory against the Franks, we find them renewing the attack upon England, and under date 892 the chronicler announces the arrival of a " swarm of pagans from Gaul." The first detachment landed from two himdred and fifty ships in the south-eastern part of Kent, possibly at the mouth of the Rother. There they built a fort at Appledore, near the great forest of Andredeswald. Meanwhile the dreaded Hastein, or Hasting, had landed his followers from eighty ships at the mouth of the Thames, building a fortress at " the royal vill called Middleton." We must now pause and consider the general military position of England in order to appreciate the steps Alfred took to combat the new danger. In the east and north, East Anglia and Northumbria, the Danes were in force, and although for 229 HISTORY OF ENGLAND the moment peace reigned between them and the Saxons, they were ever ready to fall on their ancient enemies if the circum- stances were favourable. It is not, therefore, surprising to find them harrying the Mercians and West Saxons whenever those states were particularly threatened by the new Danish armies from overseas. The Welsh also had to be watched. Ethelred, the Mercian leader, had been severely defeated by Anarawd, the moSt powerful Welsh chieftain, little more than ten years before, and for a few years Danes and Welshmen were allies against Mercia. Already, however, Anarawd had come over to Alfred's side, had visited his Court, and had been treated with much courtesy by the Saxon King. In the year when Saxon and Dane met at Buttington the Welsh fought on the side of the English King. As for the nature of the fighting, we have to note the absence of many pitched battles. Always the here ^ is found making itself a fort., whence armed bands of plunderers dash on occasion in search of booty. Always after a siege, if the fort falls, great quantities of pltmder are recovered by the attacking force. When we inquire into the mode of construction of these forts we find that they were probably not unlike the later motte,^ being formed of an immense raised mound of earth, protected at the top by a heavy wooden palisading. From these strong- holds the Danes, like the later Norman lords, could, in the words of the Acta Sanctorum, " protect themselves from their foes . . . subdue their equals, and oppress their inferiors." The presence in these forts of Danish women and children is suggestive of the nature of the new Danish invasion. It would appear that for years the Danes had been regularly settling in the north ; now they seem to have determined to extend the area of their settlement to the south. Against these fortresses the Saxon King could only oppose the national militia, a freeman force which owed to the king but six months' service at a time. At least one siege failed 1 Here = the army. In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle it usually refers to the Danish army. * See, however, Wales, in this series, pp. 226-227. 230 ALFRED THE GREAT for the reason that at the critical moment when the garrison might have surrendered through himger the siege was raised because the investing force, having served its term, struck camp and marched home, although the relieving body had not arrived to take its place. Campaigns leading up to Buttington We left the Danes from the Continent in force at Apple- dore and Middleton, and we have seen that Northumbria and East Anglia were ready to rise, though at the cost of their plighted faith, in order to aid their Danish countrymen. Alfred, finding it necessary at all costs to prevent the junction of the various Danish forces, encamped between his enemies " as near as he could for wood fastnesses and water fastnesses." From his encampment he endeavoured to check the bands of Danish freebooters who wandered through the forests and the b3rways of the land in small companies intent on plunder. This was by no means an easy task, for although stragglers could be cut off, the robber bands could always fly for safety to some Danish stronghold, which in those days could only be taken after a prolonged fight or perhaps a siege. We read that throughout 893 " the army did not come out of their stations with their whole force oftener than twice." Once they took much booty, but afterward the King fought against them at Famham and regained the plunder taken. About the same time, or perhaps earlier, Hastein had been forced to sue for peace and had sent his two youthful sons to Alfred for baptism. Meanwhile, in order to relieve the pressure on the southern Danes the men of Northumbria and East Anglia had manned a hundred ships and attacked Devonshire both on the north and south. The main force launched itself against Exeter. To save this important city Alfred hurried west, leaving but a part of his army to hold the Danes in the east. Upon his arrival the besiegers of Exeter, seeing that they were outnumbered, made for their ships, and, setting sail, passed rotmd the point of Cornwall and directed their course for the Bristol Channel, i 231 HISTORY OF ENGLAND In the meantime the leaders of the Saxon army in the east had not been idle. Joining forces with the citizens of I>ndon and with men from the north, they attacked at Beamfleot (Benfleet) Hastein's force, which had already united with the larger Danish army from Appledore. The moment seized by the Saxon leader (Ethehred) was a happy one. Hastein and many of his men were away on a plundering expedition. The result was the capture of Benfleet, the slaughter of many Danes, and the seizure of Hastein's queen and his two sons, who, however, were later surrendered by the chivalrous Alfred, who liked not the thought of being jailer to his godsons. The Battle of Buttington After the failure at Exeter and the defeat at Benfleet the Danes made an attempt to join their eastern and western forces. We read of the " wicked " Hastein " stealing, there- fore, a hasty march through the province of the Mercians." Their route appears to have been from Shoebury along the Thames valley, thence to the Severn, up which they penetrated some distance. Opposed to them were the ealdormen Etheked, Ethelm, and Ethelnoth and many King's thegns, who gathered forces from all the towns east of the Parret, west of the Severn, north of the Thames, and from the country around Selwood. To these were added now, for the first time since Penda's days, Britons from North Wales, led, not improbably, by that Anarawd who in earlier years had been an honoured guest at Alfred's Court. Meanwhile Alfred blockaded the west coast of Devon, endeavouring to prevent the ships which had originally come from Northumbria and East Anglia from sailing up the Severn and joining forces with Hastein. The Anglo- Saxon Chronicle, though fuU, is not clear in its treatment of this campaign, but we know that the main Danish army was contained both by sea and land for weeks at Buttington, a village " washed on all sides by the waters of the Severn," and that at last, when they had eaten nearly all their horses, driven desperate by hunger, the Danes saUied forth and gave battle 232 ALFRED THE GREAT to the besiegers. After a fierce conflict in which many a King's thegn was slain, the Danes, having lost heavily, saved a remnant of their army by flight, and made for Essex, for their fortress and their ships. The victory of Buttington was certainly a great one, but the talons of the Northmen had not yet been clipped. Hastily gathering all their forces, and placing their wives, children, and portables in some safe retreats in East Anglia, ' the army ' swept once more west to Chester,^ that city of the dead which now once more re-echoed to the hoofs of cavalry and the tramp of warriors. There the surromiding country was ravaged. North Wales was invaded, and, having seized some booty, ' the army ' returned in part to East Anglia, the remaining portion pressing on through Northumbria. We also find other Danish bands attacking different parts of Wessex. Chichester was despoiled, and a fleet of ships sailed up the sluggish lyea to a place some twenty miles above I^ondon, where a fortress was built. This fortified camp was immediately invested by Alfred, for it was harvest-time and the King had no mind to see the wheat crops around I^ondon burnt, destroyed, or used as they had been round Chester. Further, the quick mind of the King perceived that the I^ea could be obstructed so that the Danish ships would be trapped. The plan worked admirably : the Danes left their vessels to be destroyed at leisure and struck off across cotmtry, this time to Quatbridge, near Bridgnorth, followed by Alfred's forces. This constant and successful harrying of the Danes bore fruit in the year following (897). We now read that " In the summer of this year the army broke up, some for East Anglia, some for Northumbria ; and they who were moneyless procured themselves ships there, and went southward over sea to the Seine." A few more plundering expeditions were made, chiefly against the south coast, but for the time being the Danish peril was at an end, and when England had recovered ^ The best modem opinion seems to favour Chester, but some of the chroniclers mention I^eicester. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gives Wirall or Wyrhale as its British name. The Welsh chronicles when they speak of Chester usually use the word Caerlegion. HISTORY OF ENGLAND from the plague which visited her that year she could look forward to a few years of prosperous peace. Last Days In the last few years of Alfred's life we find him returning once more to the arts of peace, devoting himself, as Roger of Wendover telle us, " wholly to the restoration of the churches, to almsgiving, and to the framing of laws for curbing the rapacious and confirming the faithful in their duty." It is probable that to this later period belongs at least one of his translations. As to his many inventions, they stretch from his famous candle-lantern to a new tjrpe of ship, of which many examples were built in these later years. This peaceful time did not, however, last long. On October 26, 899,^ he died, and was buried in New Minster (afterward Hyde Abbey), at Win- chester, leaving behind him his widow, Eathswith, and five children — ^Edward, named the Elder ; Ethelward ; Ethelfled, the I^ady of Mercia ; Elftluyth, who married Baldwin II of Flanders, son of Judith and the Forester ; and Ethelgifu, a maiden dedicated to the Church who became Abbess of Shaftesbury. Alfred died mourned by his subjects throughout the land, for he was ' England's Darling.' His dominions on his death embraced nearly all of Saxon England, thot^h not much be- sieges ; but if his territory did not extend as far as that of his son or grandson, his title to greatness is more firmly established than that of any man in pre-Norman England. He ascended the tottering throne of an ignorant state ; he passed to the shades the established King of the fairest half of England, having won fame as a warrior, a statesman, a lawgiver, a patron of the arts, a supporter of the Church, and a benefactor of the poor. In his day Wessex was territorially a small state, it was also a struggling one, and Alfred's claim to our respect is based, not on the greatness of his power or the pohtical 1 See note, p. 209. Roger of Wendover gives Wednesday, October 28, 900, as the day. Wednesday was the 28th of October in 901, the generally accepted date of Alfred's death. ALFRED THE GREAT importance of his kingdom, but rather on the beauty of his character, for every day was lived for the benefit of his people and every hour was treasured for the good work which could be done therein. Round his name in later centuries many a story gathered, such as that told us by "William of Malmes- bury of his journey to the Danish camp disguised as a harper, and that other legend of the loaf which he gave to the poor man who afterward proved to be St Cuthbert, a legend preserved to us in the pages of the Chronicle of Brompton. Though we cannot attach much importance to such stories, we may note one thing about them — ^they show us the King as a very human, kindly, brave, and resourceful man. Happy the ruler who leaves behind him such a memory. Of Alfred this is all we have, for his very bones were scattered to the winds by those eighteenth-century Hampshire vandals who purchased the site of Hyde Abbey for the purpose of building the county jail. Thus on his last resting-place, by a curious symbolism, we find erected the last sanction of English law. 235 CHAPTER XII THE TENTH CENTURY FIRST PHASE: WAR AND EXPANSION c. 899 1-959 ON the death of Alfred the main interest centres at once upon his son and successor Edward, called the Elder, and his warlike daughter Ethelfled, wife of Ethelred, lord of the Mercians, better known, perhaps, under her popular title of the I/ady of Mercia. Throughout the remainder of their lives we shall find this brother and sister battling fre- quently and successfully against the Danes, gaining at last their main objective, the Danish Five Boroughs ; and, Ethel- fled having died, we shall see how Edward still pressed on and extended his influence far beyond the Humber even to Scotland. Before, however, either Edward or his sister could devote their whole attention to the conquest of the Danelaw it was necessary for the new King to establish his right to the throne. It will be remembered that Alfred was Ethelwulf's youngest son, and it is known that at least one male descendant of the elder brothers still lived and was of mature age when Alfred died. This West Saxon atheling, Ethelwald by name, might in later years, when the principle of primogeniture had been fully established, have asserted rightly and successfully his claim to the throne. According, however, to Anglo-Saxon custom birth was but one of the qualifications for kingship. * About the time of Alfred's death a new chronicler appears as continuator of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Owing to a gross piece of carelessness on his part the dates for the next few years are even more doubtful than usual. The Chronicle is now probably two to three years in advance of the true date. 236 THE TENTH CENTURY Before an atheling was raised to be king he had to be chosen by the Witan, and probably by the people at the busting. Alfred's fame and glory clearly gave his son the people's favour, and it is no matter for surprise that we find him elected to the highest office in the State. On the other hand, bearing in mind Ethelwald's superior right by birth, we cannot be sur- prised at, though we may condemn, his efforts to snatch the sceptre from his rival's hand. Ethelwald's first step toward revolt was taken when he seized the castle at Wimborne, which he swore to hold or die — an oath that, however, he speedily broke, for on the approach of the King he stole away by night and joined forces with the men of Northumbria, leaving behind him his mistress, whom he seems to have taken by force, and who had been a mm. We do not propose to enlarge upon this sorry story of civil strife ; of Ethelwald's alliance with the Danes ; of his flight overseas ; of his subsequent return and death. Suffice it to say that for nearly five years the pretender was a source of danger to West Saxon unity, and at the time of his death, about 903, he was threatening Mercian prosperity as gravely as any Danish viking had ever done. His end came on the field of battle when fighting by the side of his East Anglian allies against the men of Kent. This cause of internal dissension having thus been removed, Edward, ably seconded by Ethelfled, steadily strengthened his kingdom and prepared for the subjugation of the Five Boroughs, that Danish district which in earlier years had been a part of Mercia and had on occasion rendered tribute to Northumbria. Reading the pages of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, one is immediately struck with the nature of the Saxon plan of cam- paign. As in Alfred's wars, we rarely hear of sudden raids, of battles fought by ' army ' and militia; almost always the entry speaks of forts and sieges. The old pitched battle was still, of course, fought on occasion, notably in (c.) 906, when the Angles gained a victory over the Danes at Tettenhall, and in the year following, when Edward beat back some pirate bands who had sailed up the Severn spreading death and destruction 237 HISTORY OF ENGLAND as they went. We also find the West Saxons and Mercians gaining a great victory over the Northumbrian Danes in go8, in a battle in which were slain four Danish leaders, the kings Ecwils and Hahdene, and the earls Ohter and Scurf. Ethelfled Notwithstanding these occasional fights, the keynote of the Saxon and Angle attack upon the Danelaw was sounded by Ethelfled when in (c.) 906 she built the fortress at Bromesberrow in Herefordshire. Three years later we find Edward seizing Iicester, was next attacked by the Mercians, still under the leadership of Ethelfled, and surren- 238 THE TENTH CENTURY dered, apparently in consequence of a condition in a treaty which was now concluded between Mercians and Danes, whereby, besides the surrender of I^eicester, " the greater part of the army which owed obedience thereto became subject to [Mercia]." York next followed lycicester's example, and it almost seemed that the energetic I^ady of Mercia was out- stripping her royal brother in the race for power. Danish Raids in the West It was at about the time when I,eicester and York submitted that a new danger appeared, on the horizon. We read that " In this year a great fleet came over hither from the south." The new-comers, under the leadership of Ohter and Rhoald, pushed rapidly up the Severn, " spoiling the North Welsh everywhere " and capturing a valuable prisoner in the person of Cyfeiliog, Bishop of I^landaff, who was eventually redeemed from captivity by Edward. The progress of these pirates was eventually stopped by the men of Hereford and Gloucester and the surrounding towns, who, sallying forth, put the robbers to flight, killing Rhoald and the brother of Ohter. The scattered forces of the Danes were eventually surrounded and hostages demanded guaranteeing their peaceful departure from the realm. Some escaped to die of hunger on the inhospitable island of Flatholme ; the rest made their way to Ireland by way of Dyfed, or South Wales. Thus, having rid his western borders of the enemy, Edward was free to turn his attention to more fortress-building, so that about Martinmas we find him erecting forts on both sides of the river near Buckingham, and before the year had ended receiving the submission of the earl Thurkytel and the chieftains to whom the Danes of Bed- ford and Northampton owed obedience. Within two years this same Earl Thurkytel, together with his followers, sailed for France, " with the peace and aid of King Edward." Edward's Defensive Policy In the meantime Bedford had been captured and occupied and the town of Maldon rebuilt and fortified. Soon after 239 HISTORY OF ENGLAND Thurk3^ers departure we read also of Edward's taking posses- sion of Towcester and strengthening its defences ; Wigmore burh was also built. The value of this well-developed defensive policy was clearly shown in the subsequent events of 918 {A.-S. C. 921). Some time between midsummer and I^ammas we find ' the army ' from Northampton and I^eicester and the north breaking the peace and marching against Towcester. In the old days it is probable that the town would have fallen at the first onslaught and have been given over to rapine, but now, thanks to Edward's defences, the townsmen were able to hold their enemies at bay until the attackers, fearing the arrival of the West Saxon army, abandoned the reduction of the town — ^to vent their wrath upon the countrj'-side between Burnham Wood and Aylesbury, whence they took many men as captives and much cattle. The next move on the part of the Danes was directed against the burh at Wigmore, but although the fight raged furiously for some time the Saxon defence works were too strong for the enemy; they abandoned their attempts against the town, after seizing all the cattle thereabout. Edward Attacks Meanwhile Edward had not been idle ; he had gathered a considerable army and directed it against Tempsford, now the military headquarters, in place of Huntingdon, of the Danes of East Anglia. The town was eventually taken by storm and all the inhabitants, including one Danish king and two jarls, slain or taken captive. Next Colchester was attacked by the men of Kent, Surrey, and Essex, and all the inhabitants put to the sword " except the men who fled away over the wall." The East AngUans shortly afterward attempted to avenge their losses, and, joining forces with some pirates, they beset the newly built town of Maldon. i^ain Edward's defensive work held the attackers at bay, imtil, on the approach of a reUeving force from the towns round about, the siege was raised. This time, however, the Danes were not suffered to retire in peace, for the townsmen, joining forces 240 THE TENTH CENTURY with the relieving army, followed their retreating foes, brought them to bay, fought and defeated them and their pirate allies, and slew many hundreds of them. Events now move quickly. We find Edward and his army at Passoham, while Towcester is being surrounded by a wall of stone. Next Earl Thiurferth and the army of Northampton accept the West Saxon King as their lord and protector. Almost immediately afterward Huntingdon is occupied, and rebuilt at the command of the King. The inhabitants of the surrounding country, both East Anglians and East Saxons, are found leaving the protection of the Danes and seeking the peace of the Saxons. lyater iu the year the men of Cambridge take oaths to hold Edward as their lord. Some time later, in the first hah of the year following, Stamford Town was built at Edward's command and the surrounding country reduced to submission. Soon afterward all the people who had been subject to Ethelfled accepted the King for their lord, for Ethelfled had died at Tamworth twelve days before the midsummer of this year. By the death of his sister Edward had lost a good friend and an able ally ; he had gained the lordship of Mercia, part of the Danish Five Boroughs, and an indefinite overlordship of Wales, now ruled by Howel, named Dha, or ' the Good,' Clydog, and Idwal the Bald. Nottingham was later occupied and repaired, and so far had the subjugation of the Five Boroughs proceeded that in the year following Edward pressed on into Northumbria and took possession of Manchester, which in his customary manner he proceeded to repair and garrison. Next we find him raising a burh or fortified town at Bakewell, in Derbyshire, and it would seem that he had determined to extend his power over all Northumbria, if not beyond. Submission of the King of Scots An entry now appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which in later years, in the reign of Edward I, was made the basis of the claim to English supremacy over Scotland — an entry which has been accepted by some modem historians, notably Q 241 HISTORY OF ENGLAND Freeman and Plummer, but which has been combated by others and discussed by not a few.^ This entry, which appears under date 924, is as follows : " And then chose him for father and for lord, the King of Scots and the whole nation of the Scots." It is certain that at this time Edward was as powerful, perhaps more powerful, than any Anglo-Saxon king who had previously ruled in England. On the other hand, there is no reason to believe that the Scottish submission, if made, was of a permanent nature. As we have seen, the Welsh also had submitted. They, however, had felt the edge of the Saxon sword in these late years not once but many times; and although under Athelstan and some later Saxon kings the Welsh seem to have recognized a certain overlordship in the King of England, such overlordship was extremely vague and uncertain, and passed like a pufE of smoke whenever England was particularly weak or Wales particularly strong. The supremacy cannot have been more definite in the case of Scotland, and, indeed, Edward's successors seem quickly to have abandoned the claim, until it was revived once more in the thirteenth century. It was in 925 .^ when Edward was at the zenith of his power, when he had at his feet the men of Scotland, of Northumbria (both English and Danish), of Strathclyde, of Wales, of Mercia, and of most of the Five Boroi^hs, East Anglia and Danish Essex, that he died at Famdon, in Mercia. A few days later he was followed to the grave by his son Alfward (Aelf- weard). Both were buried at Winchester. Edward, though lacking many of the graces of character possessed by his father Alfred, was, without doubt, one of the ablest of the West Saxon kings. Sound as a soldier, far- seeing as a statesman, and wise as a lawgiver, he is entitled to our respect. Supported by his sister, he continued the work commenced by Alfred. That work was tmdertaken directly to beat back the Danish invasion, indirectly to check * See Hodgkin, Political History of England, vol. i, pp. 324 et seq., for an analysis of the arguments and objections. ' Possibly he died late in'924. 242 THE TENTH CENTURY the anarchy which was threatening the EngUsh State. We have seen how, right from the commencement of the Anglo- Saxon period, England was divided into many kingdoms. Occasionally a king arose, more powerful than his neighbours, who earned the title of Bretwalda, but that title was an uncer- tain one. Too often its incidence depended on the issue of a single battle. In a word, the condition of the English kingship and of the English kingdoms was unstable. One year Northum- bria would be in the forefront, then East Anglia, then Mercia, then Wessex. Sometimes Kent would belong to Mercia, sometimes to Wessex. Matters were in this state when the Danes came. They, taking full advantage of Northumbrian anarchy and Mercian weakness, seized for themselves the north-eastern half of England, and would have held the whole had it not been for the genius of the house of Ethelwulf. Alfred, as we have seen, had driven them back, but something more was wanted before England could become anything but a group or congeries of petty kingdoms — could, in fact, advance to the position of a imited State. Unity was impera- tive, and it is Edward's highest honour that he took the steps which rendered unity and a centralized government possible. Edward's laws show a desire to advance the dignity of the king, improve, and to some degree centralize, the system of government and the administration of justice, check theft, and increase trade. His military plans were all directed toward strengthening his kingdom against attack, while at the same time leaving his army free to operate against enemy territory. This object he accomplished, as we have seen, by extensive fortress-building, by training the townsmen to protect their own town, and by so organizing the national militia that it could be raised readily against any point where danger threatened or where a success was likely to be gained. In all these military enterprises he was ably seconded (if, indeed, such term be apposite) by Ethelfled. Though trade was probably improved during this more settled time, the frequent fortress-building must have emptied the royal purse to some extent, so that it is not matter for 243 HISTORY OF ENGLAND surprise that we find this King more sparing of grants to religious foundations than either his father or his successor. Athelstan (925-940) Edward, on his death, was succeeded by his son Athelstan, Alfred's favourite grandson, who, while yet a fair-haired child, had been girded by that King with a belt studded with gems, carrying a sword set ia a golden scabbard. Athelstan's reign proved the gLEt to be a suitable one, for the King was destined to fight many a battle against the Scots,, the Irish, the Welsh, and the Danes, the story of one of which, the battle of Brunan- burh, has, thanks to a poet's genius, come down to us with all the details of the struggle. We may, perhaps, dismiss the later stories of his illegitimacy as absolutely without foundation, though Roger of Wendover tells a very circumstantial story of how a maiden had a dream which suggested that her child should reign over England ; how, on telling this " to a certain matron who had nursed the King's sons," she was adopted by her and daintily clad and well educated ; how King Edward, passing near the matron's house, called upon his old nurse, saw the maiden, fell in love with her, and had her as his mistress ; how Athelstan was bom, and later, on the death of AHward, succeeded Edward in the kingdom, despite the fact that a legitimate child, Edwin, was living. The old chroniclers who accept this version of the King's birth tell us that, jealous of the younger Edwin and fearful that he might lay claim to the throne, he caused the young prince to be put, with an attendant, into an old, worn-out boat, which was then taken far out to sea, with the result that the youth, weary of life, plunged into the waves and was drowned, his body being rescued and brought back to land by the attendant, who succeeded in reaching safety " by dint of rowing with his hands and feet." Athelstan, we are told, struck with horror at the crime, underwent a seven years' penance and put to death his butler, who had persuaded him to commit the deed. If there be any truth whatever in the story, it is probably to be found in the statement that Edwin was drowned at sea. 244 THE TENTH CENTURY Attack upon Northumbria As soon as he had been duly elected King and crowned at the royal town of Kingston, Athelstan took steps to preserve the overlordship of Northumbria. Sihtric, a Dane, was then King of the Northumbrians, and the two leaders met at Tamworth early in 925. There an alliance was made, a sister of Athelstan, Eathgitha, being given to the Dane in marriage. The union does not appear to have been a fortunate one. Sihtric abandoned Christianity, which he had embraced " for love of the damsel," and returned to paganism, renouncing his wife, who thereupon sought consolation in religion. This treatment of Eathgitha brought Athelstan out against the Dane, but before any battle was fought Sihtric died, and Athelstan laid claim to Northumbria, at the same time expelling Guthfred, Sihtric's son, from the kingdom, driving him over the seas to Dublin. Welsh Affairs In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle we read that, after Northum- bria had been obtained, the King, in 926, marched against the Welsh. He then subjugated all the kings who were in this island, including Howel of the West Welsh and Owain of Gwent. The West Welsh were, of course, the men of Corn- wall. The chronicler may, however, have been wrong in referring to them. It may be that the Howel mentioned was Howel Dha, one of the most famous of Welsh princes. It is clear that in 927 the leading Welsh chieftains were summoned to Hereford, and a tribute was imposed upon them of gold, silver, cattle, dogs, and hawks. Hence onward we fre- quently find Howel's signature appended to Saxon grants. Other Welsh names also appear, such as Idwal Voel, Morgan ap Owain, and Tewdwr ap Elisedd (Tudor of Brecon). It is possible, however, that the intercommimication between the English and Welsh Courts was the result of friendship rather than of pressure, for Howel is known to have been a warm admirer of Alfred and his descendants. 24s HISTORY OF ENGLAND Athelstan and Constantine But if relations with Wales were friendly, those with Scotland were marked with bitter enmity. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is about this time extremely scanty, so that we must rely upon the later chroniclers and the sagas for our knowledge of the quarrel between Constantine of Scotland and Athelstan of England and th^ entry of Olaf o' the Sandal, the Anlaf of the chronicles into the struggle, to be defeated and driven over to Ireland, mourning the loss of five Danish kings and five Danish earls, after Athelstan's decisive victory at Brunanburh. In 927 Hugo, son of Robert, first Duke of Normandy, had married a sister of Athelstan,^ and in the wars which followed it is probable that Robert rendered some aid to the EngHsh King. Constantine of Scotland, on his part, called in the Irish to aid him , and was also supported by the Danes of Northumbria. It was iu 933 that the truce between England and Scotland was finally broken, and Athelstan proceeded with a large force of cavalry against the enemy, at the same time sending a strong fieet to prevent reinforcements reaching the Scottish King from Ireland. These concerted meastures seem to have been successful, and Constantine was compelled to surrender his son as hostage to secure the peace which was now resumed. It was not, indeed, until fotur years later that war again broke out. Some time before, Olaf, or Anlaf, son of that Sihtric who had married and repudiated Athelstan's sister, had entered into a treaty with Constantine, with whose daughter he contracted an alliance. Their joint preparations for the defeat of the English were perfected by 937, and, according to Egil Skalligrimsson's Saga, we find the Scottish King and Olaf, leading his Irish Danes and the Strathclyde Britons,^ sailing up the Humber with a great fleet, prepared to contest with Athelstan for supremacy. ' Another sister, according to one of the manuscripts of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, had married in 924 Otto, destined to be Emperor. Roger of Wen- dover tells us that Otto married Elgiva in 938. * The saga speaks of the Welsh, but it is probable that the Britons of Strathclyde rather than the men of Wales are meant. 246 THE TENTH CENTURY The Battle of Brunanburh At first the English of Northumbria, caught unprepared, were badly worsted. One of Athelstan's earls was defeated and much booty seized. But during these early raids the English King was hastily gathering his forces, to which some Norse supports were added, and at last, after some abortive negotiations undertaken by Athelstan in order to gain time, the two opposing forces met at the hill called Bumswark and the battle known to history as Brimanburh was fought — a battle famous for the fact that it established Athelstan as the predominant king in England, and of even more renown as the theme of a great battle-song. If we are to believe William of Malmesbury, we must credit Olaf with adopting the ruse already attributed by legend to King Alfred, for we are informed that on the night before the battle Olaf, disguised as a harper, penetrated into the English camp, and, having sung to the King, his enemy, learned of the English plans and strength and then made good his escape. He had, however, been observed by a former follower, who, although he hesitated to hand over to death one to whom he had once sworn allegiance, hastened on his departure to inform the King, so that by a change of place and plan the knowledge gained should be useless to the spy. The battle,^ which was fought on the next day, raged with great fury. Both armies were about equal in size, and Athel- stan had with him two noted leaders of the Norse, Thorolf and his brother Egil, who had already done many redoubtable deeds against the Danes. Thorolf now led the army opposed to the Scots, while Athelstan and his earls, with Egil, led the vanguard of the English against the Danes. Thorolf, fighting bravely, early fell a victim to an ambuscade, where- upon Egil, seeing his brother fall, left the King's side and, fighting his way to the fallen hero's side, took his place as leader of his countrymen, cut through the Scottish ranks, and ^ There is an iuteresting account of the battle compiled from Egil's saga in Eleanor Hull's Northmen in Britain. 247 HISTORY OF ENGLAND fell upon the Danes in the rear. Olaf's men, akeady hard pressed by Athelstan, thus taken unawares, broke and fled, pursued by the victorious English, who wrought great slaughter among their broken ranks. After the battle was over, Egil, grieved at the death of his brother, sat gloomily in the King's tent, careless of the noise of feasting and ^eveky around him, whereupon Athelstan, mindful of his great services rendered that day, " drew his sword from the sheath, and took from his arm a ring of gold, noble and good." This golden bracelet ^ he passed to the sorrowing warrior in token of his esteem, adding to it later a gift of two chests of silver, to be taken to his father in Iceland in recompense for the slain Thorolf. Athelstan Supreme The victory at Brunanburh estabHshed Athelstan in the position of the most powerful king in England. His sisters had allied him to two rising houses on the Continent, and for the remaining three years of his reign the State was undisturbed ; monasteries were founded, and the laws were now probably promulgated which have so advanced the fame of Athelstan's name. He died at Gloucester, on the 27th of October, 940, in the sixteenth year of his reign, and was buried by his successor, Edmund, at Malmesbury. He has left behind him a reputation as a man, a soldier, and a lawgiver. Kind to the lowly, dignified among nobles, respectful to the learned, he had a gracious and free, manner, brightened by humour. By force of arms he had imposed his lordship over the King of the Scots and the kings of the * The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle breaks into verse in describing the battle of Brunanburh. Compare the lines : " Here Athelstan king. Of earls the lord. Of heroes the bracelet-giver," with Egil's song sung after the gift of the armlet : " Mailed Monarch, lord of battles. The shining circlet pa&seth. His own right arm forsaking. To hawk-hung wrist of mine." 248 THE TENTH CENTURY Welsh, most, if not all, of wliom are found subscribing bis charters. As an enemy he was dangerous in battle and merciful in victory, and his character is probably truth- fully represented by the words which his admirer, William of Malmesbury, puts into his mouth : "It were more glorious to make than to be a king." Athelstan had, indeed, not only created an outstanding position for himself in England, but his reputation in Western Europe was well established. If Mr Stevenson ^ be right in ascribing the extraordinarily corrupt I/atin verses which have been printed by Mr C. H. Turner from a Durham manuscript of the Vulgate Gospels to " some oversea poet, probably a resident in Frankland," it would seem that even abroad it was found desirable to find favour with the victor of Brtmanburh,^ the generous donor of gifts "to all the monasteries of Germany," ^ and the harboiurer and protector of the monks of St Bertin. Edmund, Edred, and Edwy The three kings who followed Athelstan are all somewhat vague figures in history. Edred and Edwy lacked the genius or personal qualities of either Alfred, Edward, or Athelstan, and their reigns fall into the background and are unmarked by any incidents of great note. Edmimd, on the other hand, though giving signs of marked abUity both as a soldier and a statesman, was, unfortunately, murdered so soon after his accession that he was imable to leave that reputation for greatness which otherwise his quahties might have won for him. On the death of the victor of Brimanburh all the forces which had been held down by the fear of Athelstan reasserted themselves. The Five Boroughs joined hands with the Danes of Northumbria, now led once again by ^ English Historical Review, 1911, p. 486. ' Mr Stevenson suggests that the poem was written before Bninanbiirh had been fought, but this is not absolutely established. ' Cenwald, Bishop of Worcester, was the bearer of these presents in 928. 249 HISTORY OF ENGLAND Olaf . As to Scotland, it is uncertain whether she was ranged against the English or not, but later we find Malcolm of Scotland concluding a peace with Edmund in return for the grant of all Cumbria, lately ravaged by the English. Of the struggle between Edmund and Olaf the accounts given in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle are scanty. It would seem that at first the Danes were victorious and inflicted a severe defeat upon the EngUsh at Tamworth, but later Edmund gained the upper hand, the Five Boroughs were once more reduced to submission, and an Olaf, leader of the Danes of Northumbria in succession to Olaf Sihtricsson, was persuaded to forsake paganism for Christianity. Some time later, when Northum- bria was regained, the converted Olaf and his brother were expelled from the kingdom. It was at this time, when the upheavals of the first few years of his reign were subsiding, that Edmimd met his death. The story is well told by Roger of Wendover, whose words we reproduce. Speaking of the year 946, he says : " In the same year, Edmund, the most pious King of the English, on the feast of St Augustine, invited all the nobles of his kingdom to a great banquet in the royal town of Michelebury [Pucklechurch, in Gloucestershire], as was the custom with the EngHsh every year, in veneration of the blessed Augustine, throv^h whom the English had received the light of faith. When all were assembled and seated at the King's table, they began to feast and make merry, the King himself setting them the example. At length the King stood up to see his guests, and, beholding a certain robber named I^eof |Xeofa], whom he had some years before banished for his crimes, standing among the rest in the hall, the King, greatly indignant thereat, ordered his butler to put out that robber straightway from the palace ; but, the wicked wretch refusing to go out for the butler, the King, enraged beyond measure, leaped suddenly from the table and, seizing him by the hair, threw him to the ground. Hurt by the fall, and feeling the King lying on him, the traitor quickly drew a knife which he wore concealed about him, and, lament- able to relate, cut the King's throat. Seeing their lord dead 250 THE TENTH CENTURY and weltering in blood, all the King's officers and servants rushed on the robber and cut him into a thousand pieces." Thus died Edmund, the brother of Athelstan, struck down by an outlaw's knife in a brawl at his own dinner-table. His successor, Edred, another of Edward's sons, reigned for some nine years, from 946 to 955. During the whole of that time he was the victim of disease, and although he led a successful campaign against Northumbria, and probably received once more the submission of the Scottish Zing, there are but few entries in the Chronicle of any importance through- out the period. Even Northumbria was by no means com- pletely subdued, for in 949 we read of yet another Olaf (Anlaf), ' Cuaran,' becoming leader of the Danes of that province ; three years later Olaf was expelled in favour of Eric Haroldsson, who had been in active opposition to Edred in 948. Once more, in 954, Eric and Edred seem to have been at feud, and again Edred was victorious, Eric being again driven into exile. In the year following the English King died on St Clement's Mass-day at Erome, and was buried at Winchester, and Edwy, King Edmund's son, reigned in his stead. The years of Edred's reign are noticeable in the Cartularium Saxonicum for a very considerable number of grants to the Church. His will, which is preserved to us in three languages, was distinguished by the same generosity, and in the English form [913] we find him granting " for relesjnig of the paynys of his sowle, and for his deth rewardynge, to the pwre peple, syxtene himdred punde, on that intente that they may suffyr none hungyr." When we read on and find gift after gift of hundreds of povmds, including one " to my chef servant . . . twenty hundred handfuUys of goold," we see that England, or at least her King, was at this time wealthy.- The succeeding King, Edwy (or Eadwig), was even more open-handed. In his short reign so many grants were made that those preserved to us (with a few grants made by other persons) fill pages 83-239 of the third volume of Mr Birch's splendid collection of charters. Yet, notwithstanding the generosity and piety of these two kings, on the death of Edred 251 HISTORY OF ENGLAND the Queen-mother, Edgifu, was deprived of her position and all her property, and toward the end of Edred's reign Arch- bishop Wulfstan was imprisoned. For this act, which seems to have shocked the cleric chroniclers, there was probably a good reason. Four years before (948) , the Archbishop, together with the Witan of Northumbria, had gone over to the Danish side, and William of Malmesbury tells us that Wulfstan had often been mentioned *to the King as one who meditated rebellion. In general, however, both Edred and Edwy were obedient to the Church, and had the latter King not become embroiled in a dispute with Dunstan, now rising to power, over his marriage with Elfgifu, it is probable that the numerous grants made by him would have shown a greater leaning toward the Church. As it is, it is permissible to say that these grants were the bribes made by a weak King to purchase support, rather than the gifts of a wealthy and powerful sovereign to reward his servants and to benefit and glorify the Church.i We have given a list of the royal grants for 955 and 956, since they throw considerable light upon a comparatively little- 1 The following is a list of Bdwy's grants for the first two years of his reign : [917] to Wilton Abbey ; [919] to Abingdon Abbey ; [920] (conf. of grant) to Glastonbury Abbey ; [921] to Malmesbury Abbey ; [924] to Abingdon Abbey ; [925] d. 956, to Utdfric the thegn ; [926] to Prince Wulfric ; [927] to Wulfgar, Abbot of Bath ; [930] to Brithelm, Bishop of Chichester; [932] to Aelfric the thegn ; [933] to Elswi, Abbot of Glastonbury ; [935] to Aelfwine ; [936] to Church of St Peter at Bath ; [937] to monastery at Worcester ; [938] to Aelfric the thegn ; [940] to Aelfwine the thegn ; [941] to Aelric the thegn ; [942] to AeUsige; [943] to the thegn Aelfsige ; [944] to Aethelgeard; [945] to Aelfhere ; [946] to the Earl Aelfhere ; [948] to the thegn Aelfheah, his relative ; [949] to his relative Aelric ; [951] to his man Maeglsothen ; [952 and 953] to the noble lady Aethelhild ; [954] to the thegn Aethelnoth ; [955] to Eadric ; [956] to his vassal Wiferth ; [957] to Aelfswyda ; [958] to the thegn Aelfred ; [959] to the thegn Aethelwold ; [960] to the thegn Aelfwold ; [961] to Eadmund dux ; [962] to the thegn Wulfric ; [963] to the thegn Eadric ; [964] to the thegn Byrhtnoth ; [965] to the thegn Brihtric ; [966] to Prince Beorhtnoth ; [967] to St Mary's Abbey ; [968] to his huntsman Wul- fric ; [969] to Athelwold ; [970] to a religious foundation at Shaftesbury ; [971] to the priest Byrhtelm ; [973] to Hehehn ; [974] to the thegn Bymric ; [975] to the thegn Bryhtric ; [976] to the Prince Aethelgeard ; [977] to the thegn Aethelnod ; [978] to the thegn Eadwig ; [979] to the thegn Aethelsige ; [981] to Abingdon Abbey ; [982] to the thegn Eadric ; [983] to the thegn Wynsicge ; [984] to his man Eadric ; [986] to his relative Byrhtehn. 252 THE TENTH CENTURY known paragraph in English history. The story is well known how the youthful Edwy, ' the Handsome,' left the coronation banquet for the charms of Elfgifu, whom he wished to marry, and how the thegns and priests, incensed at what they regarded as an insult, chose Abbot Dunstan and the Bishop of Lichfield to fetch him back to perform his duties as host ; how the good clerics found him seated between his lady, Elfgifu, and her mother, Ethelgifu, his crown no longer worn but tossed care- lessly on to the ground. The dispute which followed and Dunstan's attitude toward the King, marked with the dis- approbation of a schoolmaster for an errant boy rather than the respect of an abbot for his king, can hardly have made Edwy his admiring friend. Edwy was, however, too young, perhaps his election was too uncertain, to enable him to strike. The angry nobles had to be propitiated ; perhaps his grand- mother, Edgifu, had to be combated. However that may be, throughout the year 956 we find grant after grant of land being made to ' thegns,' to ' princes,' to ' dukes,' to the King's men, to the King's friends, to the King's relatives. Apparently by 957,^ possibly after Edgifu had been deprived of her position and her property, the King was strong enough to attack the man who had humbled him before his lady. In that year we read in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that " Abbot Dunstan was driven over sea." The struggle was not, however, as yet over. Dunstan had fought many a battle in his time, from the early days when he had been trampled in the mud by his schoolfellows to the years when he fought abuses in the monasteries, and it is evident that about this time a civil war broke out. The first signs are probably seen in the notice in the Anglo- Saxon Chronicle under date 957 that " This year Edgar the Atheliag succeeded to the kingdom of the Mercians," confirmed by a charter which has been preserved to us [1040]. About the same time we hear of Edwy being driven across the Thames, and OrdericusVitalis is able to speakwith certainty of rebellion. Next year, 958, Edwy, who had married Elfgifu some time 1 956 is favoured by Plunmier. HISTORY OF ENGLAND before/ was forcibly divorced from his consort by Odo of Canterbury on the ground that they were too near akin. That Edwy's infidelity was an added reason we gravely doubt, for he seems to have erred throughout rather in consequence of his excessive affection for his consort than the converse. However that may be, in the next year ^ the young King, having lost his wife, one-half of his kingdom, the support of the Church, and the real fidelity of his nobles, died on the calends of October, and was buried in the New Minster at Winchester. • The date is a little uncertain. Both 956 and 957 have been suggested. Charter No. 972, if correctly assigned to 956, is, of course, conclusive, since it is subscribed by Elfgifu, the King's wife, and Ethelgifu, the King's wife's mother, but it is an undated exchange of lands given by Edwy in that year and may possibly be of later date. • Date uncertain. Plummer favours 959, and we have a grant of his dated May 17, 959 [1046], but it is suspect. ^54 CHAPTER XIII THE TENTH CENTURY SECOND PHASE : PEACE AND DECLINE 959-1016 THE later chroniclers, gazing back over the terrible years when the Northmen were ravaging the whole of England and were preparing the way for Cnut's accession to the English throne, looked back upon the reign of Edgar the Peaceful, deliciae Anglorum, as to a Golden Age. It was, indeed, an age noticeable for new movements in the Church rather than for glorious deeds on the battle- field. Edgar, chosen King by the northern insurgents in 957, from that date probably ruled over the major part of England north of the Thames. In the year following he is found styling himself " King of the Angles and ruler of the rest of the peoples dweUing around." We have already seen that he was King of Mercia, and about the same time he is called " King of the Mercians, Northumbrians, and Britons." When we remember that he was but fifteen years of age at the time of his accession to the throne of Wessex, on the death of his brother Edwy, it is clear that he was, as Dr WUliam Hunt has said, " little more than a puppet in the hands of the northern party." Throughout his reign we find him apparently the docile instrument of such men as Dunstan, Bishop Ethelwold, and the ' half -king' Aethelstan, Ealdorman of East Anglia, and it is probable that he was in fact a weak andvpleasure- loving prince who, though he may be acquitted of some of the sins of wliich he has been accused, must also be 25 s HISTORY OF ENGLAND relieved of the honorific names which the later chroniclers were fond of showering upon him. This being the state of the case, we shall perhaps get a better view of these years by looking at the life of Dunstan, his famous archbishop, than by searching for scattered frag- ments of information about the King himself. Dunstan This saint was bom in 924 or 925, and gained his early education at Glastonbury. He was of high birth and most noble connexions, numbering among his rela- tives Ethelfled of Mercia, besides one archbishop and two bishops. In his youth he was frequently at the Court of Athelstan, whose favour he gained. He was, however, a highly strung and nervous lad, whose capacity for seeing visions and dreaming of terrible happenings was probably distasteful to his associates, who accused him of black arts and obtained his banishment from the Court. After this forced retirement he lived with his kinsman the Bishop of Winchester, whose exhortations, coupled with a severe illness, at last persuaded him to become a monk. For some years he lived the usual life of an anchorite. Much time was spent in craftsmanship ; many a mental fight was fought out with the Tempter, who apparently caused all the old hermits a great deal of unnecessary anxiety. We leave him wrestling with fiends and pass on to the time when he was called once more to Court, this time by Edmund. Again jealous tongues whispered in the King's ears unpleasing stories of the new favourite, and once more Dunstan was forced to depart. Now, however, a miracle happened which finally gained him the royal favour and placed him on the chair of the Abbot of Glastonbury. Edmund, while huntit^ the stag on the Mendip Hills, was carried by his horse to the very edge of a precipice. Fearing instant death, he attempted to recall any evil he had done, so that he might pray for forgive- ness. His banishment of Dunstan flashed into his mind, and thereupon he vowed, if spared, to recompense the 256 THE TENTH CENTURY saint, for such, he was convinced he must be. Spared he was, for .the horse, suddenly checking its career, stopped on the very edge of the chasm. The King, true to his vow, lost little time in raising Dimstan to the vacant abbacy — at the extraordinarily early age of twenty-one. From now onward much of the Saint's energy was devoted to the purification of the monasteries, a reform to which we shall advert later. For the present we confine ourselves to his work as statesman. With the accession of Edred he seems to have occupied a high position in the councils of the King, and, indeed, during that prince's reign Fdgifu, the Queen- mother, and Dunstan held the reins of government, and it was probably at Dunstan's suggestion that Ethelwold was created Abbot of Abingdon and that Wulfstan, the rebel Archbishop of York, was cast into prison. On the death of the I^ady Aethelflaed, whose heir he was, Dunstan became a man of great wealth, and everything seemed to mark him out for a .speedy advancement to the highest position in the realm, when the death of Edred, the accession of Edwy, and the disgrace of Edgifu brought about an entire change in the balance of forces at Court. Dunstan's position was rendered yet more difficult after his action on the day of Edwy's coronation in bringing the young King back, almost by force, to the banqueting-hall. Soon, as we have seen, he was compelled to retire and to leave the kingdom, but in less than two years he was back again, ranged on the side of the northern insurgents who were supporting Edgar against Edwy. Shortly afterward he was given the See of Worcester, and on the accession of Edgar he held this, together with the Bishopric of I/ondon, later being advanced to the Archbishopric of Canterbury on the expulsion of Brithelm. Throughout the whole of Edgar's reign Dunstan was the King's chief adviser and greatest friend, and it is generally accepted that the glories of that reign belong rather to Dimstan than to Edgar. Dr William Hunt would have us see his hand in the advancement of foreigners and Danes to important offices in the State, a policy for which the King has been fiercely R 257 HISTORY OF ENGLAND attacked by some of the later chroniclers. He it was, doubtless, who was responsible for the coronation of Edgar in 973 in the presence of Oswald, Archbishop of York, and all the bishops of England, a coronation from which some would date the first claim of a king to rule over a united England. This ceremony certainly seems to suggest the surrender by the Danes of the right to choose the king who should reign over them. He it was who, in conjunction with Ethelwold, took energetic measures for the rebuilding of the re%ious houses destroyed and ransacked by the Danes, and who steadily fought the claims of the canonici to be recognized as members of monastic houses. He it was who some time in Edgar's reign placed a penance on the King for an irregular union, and who strove throughout his life to cleanse the morals of King, Court, and cloister. On the death of Edgar, in 975, Dtmstan led the party which declared for Edward, and it was mainly owing to his support that that imfortunate King rather than his opponent Ethel- red was crowned. On the death of Edward, m. 978, Dunstan still remained m. power, and placed the crown upon Ethelred's head in the April of that year, but toward the end of his life he appears to have fallen from favour and never controlled in any degree the policy of the new xuler. Had it been other- wise Ethelred might never have earned the inglorious title of ' the Redeless,' for Dunstan was a man of counsel, ready with wise advice. Dunstan died in May 988. His last words, " The merciful and gracious Lord hath so done His marvellous works that they ought to be had in remembrance. He hath given meat imto them that fear Him," were tjrpical of his beliefs, for he held with a peculiar force the view that man is not the shuttle- cock of fate, but, beheving, may look for a certain aid and assistance from his Creator. He was buried near the altar of his church, in a tomb fashioned by his own hands. States- man, ecclesiastic, reformer, craftsman, he made his mark upon his times in a diversity of ways. In later years men were apt to attribute many things to him for which he was not respon- 258 THE TENTH CENTURY sible. Of his many miracles we need say nothing, but it is desirable to point out that of all the literary works ascribed to him none can be proved to have come from his pen, though he may have written the music of the Kyrie eleison, the words of which Eadmer asserts were revealed to the Saint in a dream and later were dictated by him. Regulars and Seculars By a canon or rule framed in the latter part of the eighth century by Chrodegang, Bishop of Metz, priests were admitted into religious foundations who, though sworn to celibacy, were not required to renounce all worldly goods. These men, half laymen, half monks, were known as canonici or seculars, in contradistinction to the ordinary monks or regulars. The new order, if such a word may be applied to them, seems to have caused great dissatisfaction among the regulars, who doubtless foresaw that the wealth of the seculars would in time overwhelm the poorer monks. An event which has direct bearing upon this dispute occurred in 910, for in that year the famous monastery of Cluny was founded. From that religious house irradiated a new spirit of piety and chastity, so that the Benedictine monk of the tenth century gained a reputation which was only matched by the Franciscan of the thirteenth century. It is possible that Dunstan in his exile came into close personal contact with the new movement. It is certain that the English monasteries were in immediate need of a complete and general cleansing, despite the efforts at reform which had been made by Odo of Canterbury. We thus find throughout the early years of Edgar's reign the good Dunstan, ably seconded by Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester (he had been Abbot of Abingdon), and Oswald, Bishop of Worcester, rebuilding the old abbeys that had fallen into ruins owing to the depredations of the Danes and driving from the new ones those canonici ^ ' It shoiild be added, for greater accuracy, that Ethelwold was responsible for most of the expulsions. Dunstan contented himself with disfavouring the seculars and persuading them to become regulars. 259 HISTORY OF ENGLAND whom lie regarded, rightly or wrongly, as subversive of monastic discipline. It is also possible that the regular foundations were reformed and some steps taken toward repressing the many vices which monastic life has ever led to in the absence of stern and relentless control. As to the mere fabrics of the older abbeys, they were in a more parlous state than even the souls of the secu- lars, for, speaking of the fine minster of Medeshamstede (later called Peterborough), the chronicler informs us that Bishop Ethelwold " found nothing there but old walls and wild woods." The monastery had, indeed, been destroyed " by the heathen-men." Under the new monastic move- ment, and helped by the favour and generosity of the Eling, the small band of reformers was soon enabled to rebuild and repair the churches, monasteries, and minsters which had suffered most severely during the raids of the preceding century. Political Events of Edgar's Reign When we turn to review the political events of Edgar's reign we find an extraordinary dearth of facts, a restdt of the unhappy condition into which the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle had by this time fallen. We read of Edgar's marriage to Elfrida, daughter of Ordgar the ealdorman, in 965,^^ and in the year following we are told that Thored, Gunner's son, devastated Westmorland, and that two years later Edgar ordered all Thanet-land to be ravaged ; but these are all the notices, save two, in the whole of this reign which do not relate to the Church, or to mere deaths of important people, or to plagues, fires, or famine. The two exceptions are to be found in the metrical verses under date 973, which, thot^h interesting, are not instructive, and in the very curious but welt-authenticated announcement under date 972 that in that year the King led his navy to Chester and there received the homage of six kings. It is almost certain that this date is 1 This was his second wife. His previous wife was Ethelfled the Fair, known as ' the Duck.' 260 THE TENTH CENTURY wrong, and that the famous meeting in the City of the I^egions belongs either to the year of Edgar's coronation (973) or to the year following. We are told by Roger of Wendover (who gives eight as the number and spells all their names wrongly) that the King, embarking with these sub-kings in a vessel and placing them at the oars, took the helm and, steering the vessel along the winding Dee, voyaged from his palace to the monas- tery of St John the Baptist, where divine service was held. The whole party subsequently re-embarked and returned to the starting-place, having been followed on both journeys by the principal nobles of the King's Court, It may be that this is a mere story, to be compared with the legend of Edgar's offer to meet the mighty Kenneth of Scotland in single combat because Kenneth had jested about the small and slender frame of the English King ; or with the tale of the tribvite of wolves which is supposed to have been exacted by the Welsh. The Chester meeting, however, is confirmed in a source which is not likely to romance on such a subject — ^the Welsh Chronicles of the Princes?- If true, this meeting of the kings at Chester shows Edgar to have been exceptionally powerful, for both Scots and Welsh kings there bowed the knee before him. It is to be observed, however, that so far as the Welsh were concerned there was not that intimacy with the Court of Edgar that there had been with the Court of Athelstan. In Edgar's charters we look in vain for the subscription of a Welsh king. To this scanty and jejune account of what was evidently an important reign we are able to add but one really considerable fact, which has been preserved for us by a later annalist, who probably had before him some of the earlier chronicles, now lost. He tells us that in 975 the King, " for the advantage * The Chronicles of the Princes puts the place of the meeting at Caerleon- upon-Usk, which is perhaps to be preferred to the Chester site if we regard the ceremony as connected directly with the coronation, which took place at Bath. In ow: Wales, p. 162 «., we have accepted the Chester site, con- tenting oxirselves with pointing out that it may have taken place at Caerleon- upon-Usk. The balance of probabilities is almost equal, though the Welsh sometimes referred to Chester as Caerlegion, which might have caused the confusion. 261 HISTORY OF ENGLAND and quiet of his realm, assembled 4800 strong vessels, 1200 of which he stationed on the east coast, 1200 on the west, 1200 on the south, and 1200 in the North Sea, for the defence of the realm from foreign nations." Although we must be forgiven for casting questioning eyes upon these numbers, the events of the remaining years of the century leave but little doubt in our mind that forebodings were already assailing the men at the helm in Bhgland. The precaution taken was one worthy of Edgar the Peaceful and his far-sighted adviser, Dunstan. Edward the Martyr In this same year (975) Edgar, " the flower and grace of kings, the glory and honour of England," died, in the sixteenth year of his reign, at the early age of thirty-one. His body, we are informed, was taken to Glastonbury, and was there biuied in a royal manner. His death seems to have been the signal for a renewal of the dissensions which had marked the reign of Edwy. The cause was probably the ambitions of Elfrida, King Edgar's second Queen, who put forward the claims of her yoimg son,^ Ethelred, in opposition to Edward, the eldest male child of the union between Edgar and Ethelfled, ' the Duck.' Dunstan, however, quickly took steps to give effect to the late King's expressed wish, and in conjunction with Oswald, now Archbishop of York, assembled the bishops, abbots, and nobles in the Witan, and having elected Edward, anointed him King. But there were murmurs among a portion of the people, and the whole of the reign is marked with grave internal animosities, due probably less to the antagonism between the King and Elfrida than to that which still existed between the regulars and the seculars, who now once more renewed the old dispute, the seculars apparently being favoured by the new King. We are informed that almost immediately upon Edward's accession " a number of the nobles and great men thrust forth the abbots and monks • He must have been less than ten years of age, since she was married in 965. 262 THE TENTH CENTURY from the monasteries . . . and restored the clerks [canonici] and their wives in their room." Time after time councils were held by Dunstan to attempt a settlement of the vexed question, but, despite several convenient miracles (one of which left Dunstan standing upon the only plank remaining in the floor of the upper room in which the council had been held, with the result that all the other councillors, regulars, and seculars were kiUed or sorely injured), it does not appear to have been definitely laid at rest. Murder of Edward Although, as we have suggested, the religious disputes were a serious cause of dissension, it is also manifest that EUrida was making every effort to secure the overthrow of Kdward and the succession of her son. It would seem, however, that Edward carried himself with such caution that he gave no opening either for the poison of jealousy or the sword of discontent. Thus baffled in her attempt to inveigle him in some unwise and fatal move, the ambitious woman, if we are to believe the later chroniclers, decided to employ open murder, and while the King, when on a visit to her at Corfe, in Dorset, was greeting her with kisses, her attendants stabbed him in the back. The earlier biographer of St Oswald^ who might have heard at first hand all the details in his youth, though agreeing that the blow was struck at Corfe, the Queen's residence, does not connect her with the crime, but assigns it to her butler and her thegns, one of whom kissed his King's right hand, while another, holding his left, struck at him with a weapon, whereupon the King cried out aloud, " What are you doing, breaking my hand ! " and, falling from his horse, expired. Whether EHrida was directly or only indirectly responsible, Edward was foully murdered, and it was but natural that the men of those days should regard him as a martyr at whose tomb many infirmities were healed. As for the murderess (if so she may be called), we are told that she performed a lengthy penance, notwithstanding which she was eventually 263 HISTORY OF ENGLAND eaten by worms. Her son, Ethelred, reigned for many a year disastrously. Ethelred The events of the next few decades are extremely difficult to explain for many reasons. We see a king coming to the throne amid, apparently, the acclamations of his people ; we find a country wealthy and prosperous, having benefited from the peace of Edgar's reign ; we have two nations, English and Danish, apparently living in harmony in this country. Suddenly all is confusion. The sea-rovers against whom Edgar had taken precautions burst through all opposition ; England is harried from end to end. Upon the landing of Svein, or Sweyn, King of Denmark, in 1013, Northumbria, Mercia, and East Anglia render him immediate submission. Following on the short reign of Edmund, Ethehed's successor, comes a Hne of Danish kings who rule over a united England until the gluttony and drunkenness of Harthacnut result in his death, and the sceptre passes, apparently with hardly a struggle, once more to the house of Cerdic. During Ethelred's reign we have incompetence bordering upon insanity ; we have timidity in King and nobles amounting to pure cowardice ; we have treachery in thegns nearest to the King ; we have an act of atrocity unequalled in this coimtry since Hengist's men struck with their daggers at the hearts of their British hosts. How comes it that Saxon society had so declined ? — that Dane and Englishman follow one another upon the throne of England without any mighty upheaval ? The conquests of Athelstan and the peaceful policy of Edgar had, undoubtedly, resulted in England's becoming wealthier than she had been for centuries ; perhaps we may say since the Roman occupation. At this time the country was occupied by some of the ancient inhabitants (most of whom were probably serfs), by Angles and Saxons, and by Danes. The latter still controlled and occupied East Anglia, Northumbria, and part of Mercia, and, although from time to time English kings gained suzerainty over the Danish portion, there is no 264 THE TENTH CENTURY evidence whatever that the Danish population were sensibly disturbed or their rights interfered with. Several results flowed from these circumstances. In the first place, the evidence of the cartularies is sufficient to show that the West Saxon kings were wealthy. The chroniclers persuade us that after Athelstan, with one or perhaps two exceptions, they were weak. We thus find, as we might expect, the flattery of sycophantic followers being purchased rather than the aid of warriors being won. By the time we reach Ethelred the English Court must have been filled by men who had been bought rather than by fighters, statesmen, or clerics who merited their position. Again, this wealth of the Court had a grave result upon the calibre of the men who ruled therein. Dr Hodgkin has suggested that the line of Cerdic was getting physically and mentally degenerate because it was an old line. The argument is not sound, in our opinion, for, granted freedom of marriage, all men have an equal ancestry and all houses are equally old. By this time {circa A.D. looo) it is clear that the king was not limited to a small royal circle in his choice of wife. On the contrary, Kthel- red's mother was simply the daughter of an earl, his wife was a lady of noble but not royal blood ; Athelstan's mother was possibly the foster-child of a king's nurse, and Edward's wife was the child of Godwin. There is, however, another reason to explain the Edwys and Ethelreds of the period, and it is to be found in the words of the chronicler, who tells us that Ethelred was overfond of wine and women, who more than hints at Edgar's lack of morals, and who has something to say adverse to their ijredecessors. In a \vord, these barbarian kings had been degraded by prosperity. The nightly orgies over the flagons of mead and the excesses which followed were, perhaps, natural and allowable to an age when they followed upon some heroic victory in the field or some fierce struggle with the perils of the ocean. A life full of hardship and adventure was apt to be balanced by occasional relapses from the standard of conduct set by the Christian Church. But when there are no hardships and no adventures, but 265 HISTORY OF ENGLAND simply licentiousness without excuse, the result has always been and will always be the same. In our view, then, England was rotten at the core. Her Church was feeble and divided ; the seculars were still in high places and the regulars have left us no great proof of either their piety or their learning. But although this explains the weakness in deed and in counsel of Etheked's reign, it does not explain how it was that the Dane followed Edmund as acknowledged King and was followed by Edward, a Saxon, without a struggle. Two explanations at least are open to us : (i) Swejm and Cnut were war-captains who by their own personal genius wrested the crown of England from the weak hands of the legitimate rulers; (2) Saxon and Dane were so equal in England long before Ethelred's day, both in numbers and in power, that it was a matter of indifference who was king, whether Saxon or Dane. In truth, we believe that the solution lies in a conjunction of these reasons. Sweyn and Cnut, especially the latter, by their military ability were enabled to claim all the men of England as their subjects — Northumbrians equally with Mercians, Mercians equally with East AngUans, East Anglians equally with West Saxons. Once that position was reached it appears to us that a transition from Saxon to Danish or Norwegian or Norman rule was reduced to a mere question of royal succession, which, when we remember the elective nature of Saxon kingship, is little more than a choice by the pubUc of rival candidates. This, although quite heterodox, is in our judgment an explana- tion not only of the strange change from Saxon Edmund to Danish Cnut and from Danish Harthacnut to Saxon Edward ; it also explains the equally strange ease with which the Norman WilHam conquered England. Harold Godwinsson, a Dane on his mother's side, was no more to the people of England than William the Norman, who was at least related to the wife and was the friend of a West Saxon king. When we turn to the actual events of Ethelred's re^ we simply find a forbidding Ust of acts of barbarism committed by the vikings upon a hapless people. Olaf Trygvesson, Swe}^ 266 THE TENTH CENTURY Porkbeard,, Thorkill the Tall, and, toward the end, Sweyn's son, Cnut, each is foimd leading his men throughout the length and breadth of the land, his passage marked by tke beacon-light of burning buildings. Ivondon alone resisted successfully their repeated attacks ; and when, in 994, Olaf Trygvesson and Sweyn made a descent upon London with ninety-four ships they were driven back with great loss, to wreak their vengeance on the southern counties, which they plundered and devastated. Maldon The latter years of the reign seem to be symbolized in the entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in which, after the an- nouncement that Ethelred was consecrated King at Kingston on a Sunday fourteen days after Easter, we read : " That same year was seen a bloody cloud, oftentimes in the likeness of fire ; and it was mostly apparent at midnight, and so in various beams was coloured : when day dawned, then it glided away." For a while after the boy King was anointed there was peace, but in his fifteenth year the storm broke. In 982 Dorset was invaded and Portland ravaged. I^ndon also was burnt, but whether by the pirates it is impossible to say. In the year following the weakling Elfric became Ealdorman of Mercia, a man who turned sick at the sight of battle and whose counsel was as weak as his digestion. In 988 Watchet, in Somerset, was ravaged. Three years later Ipswich shared the same fate, and a little later Brithnoth the ealdorman was slain, urging on his men to victory even as he lay dying. The victory, however, did not lie with the Saxon, for the noble epic. The Battle of Maldon, though it recounts the brave deeds of the hoary fighter Brithnoth and his squires, Elfnoth, Wulfmaer, and a young noble, Elfwine, also has to admit the cowardice of one thegn, Godric, who, fleeing on his leader's horse, created panic among the Saxon band, thus enabling the Danish leader, who may have been Olaf Trygvesson himself, to hold the field. 267 HISTORY OF ENGLAND # Tribute paid to the Danes It was as a result of this defeat that Archbishop Sigeric persuaded the Witan to pay tribute to the Danes in an endeavour to purchase freedom from further ravaging. This was probably not the first time the country had sought to buy off the enemy. Alfred may have adopted the same expedient. But now no serious effort seems to have been made to profit by the few years of peace which ensued. The defences of the kingdom were not strengthened, so that when the Danes once more returned to the attack, in hope of further booty or more peace-money, they found I/indsey and Northumbria tmdefended and at their mercy. The one result of Sigeric's advice was the imposition of a new tax upon the people of England called Danegeld, which during Ethelred's reign resulted in the payment to the Danes of what would be equivalent in burden to at least ,£200,000,000 at the present day.^ From 997 onward until the accession of Cnut hardly a single year passes without some raid, battle, or massacre. In 1005, when the Danes appear to have retired for a time to Denmark, death at the hand of the enemy was varied by death as the result of famine so severe " that no man ever before recollected one so grim." Two years later a little peace was purchased by a large payment of tribute (36,000 potmds of silver) — ^peace which lasted but two years, during which an attempt was made to re-create the fleet. With those three exceptions, every year has its tale of slaughter. Even the sudden effort at naval defence was rendered nugatory by the dispute between Brihtric, Eadric the ealdorman's brother, known as Streona or ' the Rapacious,' and Wulfnoth Child (Earl Godwin's father), a dispute which resulted in a naval battle between the contending parties and which caused the loss ' The amount was about ^425,000 = in purchasing power to-day ;£8,5oo,ooo. Granted then a population of 2,000,000, the burden is equivalent to about ;^2oo,ooo,ooo to-day. The figures 2,000,000 for the population of Bugland are based upon the results arrived at by McCulloch and Thorold Rogers. The present figures we take at 46,000,000. 268 THE TENTH CENTURY of eighty ships. It is curious, indeed, how throughout this unhappy reign the sinister name of Eadric appears in con- nexion with every disaster. Either by unwise counsel or treachery or cowardice he seems throughout the years to have thwarted every attempt made by the English to with- stand the Danes. It would be tedious and is unnecessary to recount all the places sacked and ravaged by the vikings. From Ipswich to Wales, from Taunton to Bamburgh, there is hardly a place which was not harried. Two events, however, stand out which must be mentioned in more detail : the massacre of 1002 and the martyrdom of St Alphege. The Massacre on St Brick's Day In 1002 Ethelred, in a momentary burst of wisdom, had endeavoured to strengthen his position by an alliance with Normandy. The result was his marriage with Emma, daughter of Duke Richard, a lady whom in later years he gravely ill- used, but who was able to give him during the years when Sweyn had driven him from his kingdom a place of refuge at her father's Court. Although in this union we see the signs of some wise cotmsel, later on in the same year the good impression is moire than obliterated by an act of senseless ferocity which caused the Danes to swear to drive Ethel- red from the kingdom and which made Sweyn his deadly enemy. It was upon St Brice's Mass-day in that year (1002) that effect was to be given to the order which had gone forth commanding each Dane in England to be treacherously slain by his neighbour. We cannot believe that every Dane was massacred or that the order was quite general, although the words of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle are : " And in that year the King ordered all the Danish men who were in England to be slain." Even if it applied only to one district or to one group of Danes the plot was infamous, and we know that it resulted in the death of Gunhild, the sister of Sweyn, who was slaughtered after she had seen her husband Earl Pallig, and 269 HISTORY OF ENGLAND her children butchered. This act of savage folly had the immediate result of bringing over Sweyn and Thorkill the Tall to ravage the south-east of England ; it had the indirect result of exiling Ethehred and of placing Sweyn's son, Cnut, upon the English throne. St Alphege * The other deed of which we have spoken, the martyrdom of Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury, took place ten years later. The good Alphege had been raised to the archbishopric in 1006, in succession to Aelfric. Five years later Canterbury was besieged by the Danes, and finally gained through the treachery of an archdeacon. Men were put to the sword, babes torn from their mothers' arms were tossed on the points of lances or cut into morsels, women were dragged by their legs through the streets and flung into the burning ruins of the buildings. Alphege was by no means permitted to escape, but, having been fettered, was dragged about, tortured, and finally imprisoned. It was in the year following that the end came. The Danes, furious at the withholding of ransom, and having drunk deeply of wine — ^pillaged, probably, from the French — gathered round their intended victim and, pelting him with the remains of their feast, bones, and ox-horn drinkii^-cups, tormented him cruelly until at last one of the number. Thrum or Thorm by name, taking pity upon him, ended his sufferings by cleaving his head with an axe. His blood, we are informed, falling upon a piece of dead wood, caused it to burst into leaf, and the body, now invested with the sanctity of a martyr's corpse, remained urrcomipted, and was later borne to its last resting-place at Canterbury. Flight of Ethelred to Normandy The year following (1013) Sweyn and his son, Cnut, came with all their available forces to Sandwich. Hitherto the Danes had contented themselves with plundering forays, and 270 THE TENTH CENTURY expeditions intended to extract more tribute from the unwilling Ethelred. Now, however, a serious attempt at conquest was made. At first the fleet, sailing from Sandwich, went up the mouth of the Humber, and the Danes, having landed, prepared to win Northumbria. The task proved simple. Earl Utred and all the men of that province quickly submitting. Sweyn now turned southward, being accepted as king by the people of I/indsey and the Five Boroughs. A little later all the army north of Watling Street came over to his standard, and hostages were given to secure obedience. Already, without, apparently, a battle being fought, Sweyn had gained as much as Guthrum ever did. Having obtained ample provisions and a supply of horses, the augmented force now turned south. Watling Street was crossed and Oxford reached. On the way, we are told, " they wrought the most evil that any army could do." Oxford, perhaps fearing the fate of Canterbury, soon submitted, and more hostages were given. Next Winchester was attacked, and similarly surrendered. With the old capital of Wessex in his power, only one city remained before Sweyn could regard England as at his feet. We therefore find him ttiming east- ward and making for I^ondon. The Eng, Ethelred, who had not moved a finger to protect his kingdom, had shut himself up in lyondon, trusting rather to a new-fovind ally, Thorkill the Dane, who had previously sacked Canterbury and had invited Sweyn to come and seize the kingdom, but who, appa- rently, had suddenly changed sides. At first the townsmen successfully resisted the attack, and Swe3m, having lost many of his men in an impetuous attempt to cross the river without using the bridges, turned to the west once more, took Walling- ford and Bath, and at the latter place received the submission of Aethelmaer and the West Coimtry nobles. Meanwhile, apparently either Thorkill once more changed sides or Etheked, fearing ultimate defeat, decided to make sure of his personal safety at whatever cost. Journeying by sea from I/ondon, he eventually arrived at the Norman Court, to which Emma, his wife, and the athelings Alfred and Edward had already 271 HISTORY OF ENGLAND been sent. The townsmen, thus bereft of all leadership and fearing lest Sweyn " should utterly undo them," threw open their gates and made submission. Cnut Leader of the Danes It was in the midwinter of 1013 that Etheked fled overseas. For a few weeks Swej^n was master of the whole of England ; but by Candlemas in the year following (February 2, 1014) his brief rule was over. On his death the whole of the viking fleet unanimously chose his son Cnut for leader. The English, however, determined to make one more bid for freedom. The Witan was assembled from all parts of the country, and both laity and clergy decided to send for Ethelred, for they declared " that no lord was dearer to them than their natural lord, if he would rule them better than he had before done." From Normandy came back a promise that their desire should be fulfilled, that the King would amend all the things they abhorred, and " each of those things should be forgiven which had been done or said to him, on condition that they all, with one consent, would be obedient to him, without deceit." As a result of these overtures and embassies full friendship was established between the King and his people, and " every Danish king was declared an outlaw from England for ever." Cnut meanwhile had mustered his forces at Gainsborough, the most important town in I^indsey, and had gathered in from the people of that district horses and food-stuffs. While these preparations were being completed Ethelred, in one of his bursts of fitful and misguided energy, swept down upon the tmhappy province, plimdered, burned, and slew, in order, apparently, to frighten others from aiding the Danes, but allow- ing Cnut, meanwhile, to raise anchor and depart with all his supplies and his hostages, and, having thus ravaged his own people without harming his enemies, completed the tale of folly by directing the Danish army under Thorkill to be paid 21,000 pounds of silver. Cnut by this time had dropped anchor once more at Sandwich, where he came ashore and had the hostages cruelly mutilated. 272 THE TENTH CENTURY The year following opened in a manner equally inauspicious. The thrice perj ured Eadric succeeded in betraying and murdering the chief thegns of the Seven Boroughs, Sigefrith and Morcar. These nobles' property was immediately seized by Ethelred for his own, Sigefrith's widow being appropriated by Edmund the Atheling. While these proofs of Ethelred's desire to be a ' loving lord ' were being shown to his people Cnut was busy ravaging the whole of the south coast, Dorset, Wiltshire, and Somerset. A little later the ealdorman Eadric ^ completed a list of treacheries which is, perhaps, as long as any history has to show by deserting Ethelred and, with forty ships, passing over to the side of Cnut. Wessex submitted, delivered hostages, and " horsed the army." It was now late in the year, and Ethelred lay dying at Corsham. The leadership of the Eng- lish, in consequence, devolved upon his son Edmtmd, called ' Ironside,' a brave and valiant fighter who might have re- established the West Saxon supremacy had not his life been cut short before a year had passed. Edmund Ironside In the very beginning of 1016 Cnut and Eadric crossed the Thames with their army and invaded Mercia. From Cricklade they pushed on to Warwickshire "and ravaged and burned, and slew all that they could come at." Edmund, meantime, was not idle, for, gathering his forces, he assembled them, waiting for the King (whose illness had not declared its fatal nature) to join him with the men of I^ondon. The King, ^ The character of Badric as painted in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is almost inconceivably base. Time after time we have such entries as this : " When they came together, then -would the ealdorman betray the Atheling, but he was not able : and they then parted without a battle on that account, and gave way to their foes." Even agreeing that the chronicler was trying to iind a scapegoat we cannot but wonder at the folly of a King and Witan that could give to such an oft-proved traitor the command of a large part of the entire defensive fleet. Roger of Wendover thus describes him : " A traito'r Badric, surnamed Streona, who purchased the King's favour, not by his nobility, but by his wealth. He was the very scum of mankind, the disgrace of Bngland, double-tongued, crafty, a betrayer of secrets, a practised dis- sembler, ready in inventing falsehoods ; he was often sent to the enemy as a mediator of peace, but invariably fanned the flame of discord." S 273 HISTORY OF ENGLAND however, was not there, and the assembled army refused to fight without him and was disbanded. Again they met together, but " it availed them nothing more than it oft before had done." So utterly disgusted were his subjects with the King's behaviour that revolt was openly spoken of. Edmund had apparently despaired of any assistance from Ethelred, and had left him to seek aid from Utred, Earl of the Northumbriarite. The two forces of the south and north now having joined, we find Edmund and Utred turning south in Staffordshire and Shropshire and Cheshire ; " and they plundered on their part, and Cnut on his part." The Dane had apparently made no attempt to meet his opponents, but, working up the east coast, penetrated as far inland as York. The capture of the capital town brought Utred hurriedly north. Having reached York, he seems to have realized that resistance was impossible, and, submitting to Cnut, delivered hostages and swore obedience. The false Eadric, however, fearing in others baseness equal to his own, counselled the death of this man who had in truth given himself into their power. Cnut, persuaded by the traitor's crafty tongue, put the earl Utred to death and appointed Eric to be Earl of Northumbria, or at least of Deira, in his stead. We now find both Cnut and Edmund turning southward for I^ondon, the Dane going by sea, the Saxon by land. The news had probably reached both of them that Etheked's illness had reached its final stage ; both expected that he who gained the brave I^ondoners had the better chance of wearing the crown. The race was won by Edmund, who was in I^ondon about the time when the King, his father, died (April 23, 10 16) and before Cnut's fleet had yet arrived. The nobles who were then ia lyondon, together with the citizens, immediately and unanimously chose Edmund for their leader and King, despite some doubt as to his legiti- macy. It was at once evident that the reins of power were in very different hands from those of the vacillatiug Ethehed. The gigantic frame of Edmund, which had earned him his title ' Ironside,' contained an energy which at least prompted him to act, if not always with great wisdom. leaving I^ondon, 274 THE TENTH CENTURY now partly invested by Cnut, Edmund gathered to his standard the men of Wessex, and battles were fought against * the army ' at Pen, near Gillingham, and at Sherston. None of them seems to have been at all decisive. By autumn, however, Edmund was strong enough to raise the siege of London and drive the investing Danes to their ships. Two days later Edmund met ' the army ' at Brentford, on the south-west side of the city. Again the Danes were beaten, but the English also lost heavily, owing, as the chronicler puts it, " to their own carelessness." Once more Edmund is found going into Wessex to raise forces ; once more London is attacked and surroimded ; once more the citizens beat off their enemies. Cnut, now turning for the moment from his main objective, took his ships up the Orwell and struck over into Mercia with his army, destroying and plundering as he went — " as is their wont," adds the chronicler, who was evidently writing of the doings of his own times. Food and cattle having thus been obtained, the fleet again turned south and made for the Medway, Edmund attempting meanwhile to strike through Kent and oppose their landing. A battle appears to have been fought at some place unknown, and the Danes were driven into Sheppey with heavy loss. ASSANDUNE Cnut, now realizing that the way to London was definitely barred to him until Edmund's forces were beaten, determined to march north once more and harry Mercia. Essex was entered, and the unhappy middle province was expecting yet further devastation when Edmund, leading a powerful army and hastening after the Danes, overtook them at Assandune, in the low-lying part of Essex which stretches between the Thames and the estuary of the Crouch. A long and bloody battle followed, in which many of the bravest of the English thegns were killed, including, among many other earls, Ulf- kytel of East Anglia, who had fought with exceptional bravery even in Ethelred's pulseless reign. The final victory at last lay with the Danes, in consequence, apparently, of Eadric's 275 HISTORY OF ENGLAND treachery in pretending that Edmund was dead, and so causing panic in the Enghsh ranks. As a result of the fight Cnut was able to exchange the rdle of pursued for that of pursuer. The Olney Meeting At last, however, again it would seem by the advice of Eadric, the two parties were reconciled and peace was made. Hostages were exchanged, arti at the meeting at Olney oaths of friendship were sworn and the tribute for ' the army ' settled. It was there agreed that Edmund should have Wessex and Cnut Mercia and the north. The arrangement, however, lasted but a short time, for in November of the same year, at St Andrew's Mass, the valiant Edmund died, or was murdered, and was buried at Glastonbury, near his grandfather, Edgar. With his death all hope of preventing Cnut from gaining the realm of England passed away, and in the year following the Dane was elected and raised to be Eing, or, in the old Anglo-Saxon words, gecoren and dhafen to cyninge, and was accepted as leader by all the English people. 276 CHAPTER XIV THE DANISH KINGS 1016-1042 EDWARD THE CONFESSOR 1042-1066 THE death of Edmund Ironside, whether it was the result of bodily weakness induced by the fatigues of the preceding years or whether the consummation of a plot evolved by Eadric, the traitor, and connived at by Cnut, left England at the mercy of the Dane. Since Olney, Cnut and Edmund had ruled as joint kings by virtue of the treaty then agreed to. There is no evidence, however, that there was any provision made for the succession by one partner to the share held by the other on the latter's death. But now, Edmund being dead, Cnut took steps to support his claim to the whole kingdom, seeking to bolster up a weak case by legal forms and false oaths rather than by force of arms. There can be no doubt that Cnut showed admirable wisdom in thus choosing the path of peace. England desired nothing more than repose and freedom from devastation. The chief who offered that, of whatsoever nation he might be, offered much and could count on much support. On the other hand, he who declared his intention to rely on the sword would but raise up a sword to defeat his intention. As a result we find this alien King being accepted as King by the people of England without any great attempt being made at resistance. Edmund Ironside had died on the last day of November, 1016, and Cnut allowed but little time to pass before he took steps to make good his claim to the crown of all England. 277 HISTORY OF ENGLAND The Witan was summoned to attend by Christmas, and during a session which extended on into 1017 the question of the succession was thoroughly debated. Whether at Ohiey Cnut had really been declared Edmund's successor or not, a matter about which there is much doubt, it is clear that Cnut asserted his right to succeed as a legal right capable of being perfected by a vote of the Witan rather than by force of arms. As for his actual election, nothing could have been more formally correct. Cnut was elected to the kingship and the sons and brothers of Edmtmd were expressly excluded. Thus established behind the walls of constitutional prece- dent, Cnut began still further to strengthen his position by removing all dangerous opponents. In the first months of 1017 we find Edwy the Athehng banished, to wander back and die heart-broken. A certain Edwy, King of the Churls, was outlawed. To the same period also belong the disgrace and death of certain prominent Saxon noblemen, foremost of whom was Ethelweard, Edwy's bosom friend and son of Aethelmaer the Stout, Ealdorman of Devonshire, of whose family we shall have much to say later, for Aethelmaer was the grandfather of that great EngHshman Godwin, whose deeds and ambitions claim far more attention than the colourless doings of the kings who ruled from Cnut to Harold II. Cnut, now established by the choice of the wise men and the overthrow of his rivals or opponents, appears to have felt himself strong enough to temper statecraft with mercy, and although he found it convenient to banish the yotmg princes, the sons of Edmund, there is probably little truth in the story that he requested the King of Sweden to have them put to death — a. commission which, it is said, the King avoided by delivering the children imharmed to the King of Hungary, in whose Covurt they grew up. In truth, Cnut had no need to request his brother monarch to commit murder on his account when he had near to hand that perfect assassin Eadric Streona, whose long life of treachery had now gained him the ealdormanry of Mercia. Eadric is indeed credited by Florence of Worcester with having coimselled the murder of 278 THE DANISH. KINGS the children, and it is probably a sign of magnanimity on the part of the King that their lives were spared. As for Eadric, his course was now run, for in this same year (1017) he was slain in London — " very rightly," as one of the chroniclers says. Elfgiva Emma and Elfgiva of Northampton We now come to an event of some importance and much obscurity, for under 1017 we read in one of the Saxon chronicles that " before the kalends of August the King commanded that Ethelred's widow, Richard's daughter, be fetched to be his queen." At this time Cnut was a young man of twenty-two years of age, while Aelfgyfu, or Elfgiva, or Bmma, the widow of King Ethelred, was a well-preserved woman of thirty-five with a somewhat numerous family by that King. Cnut had also entered into some sort of irregular union with another Elfgiva, known to history as Elfgiva of Northampton, who was destined to be the mother of Cnut's successor, Harold Harefoot, and of Sweyn, the sub- King of Norway. It is this Elfgiva who, according to Norse tradition, was the cause of jealousy and enmity between Cnut and Olaf the Thick of Norway, for Olaf had been her first lover and was ousted by the handsome young Dane. These two Elfgivas will be met with at many turns of our road, but for the moment we are content to point out the general effect of Cnut's inarriage with her whom we will call Elfgiva Emma, the daughter of Richard of Normandy. In the first place, Elfgiva Emma was the mother of sons by Ethelred the Redeless, one of whom, as Edward the Confessor, was destined to rule England. She was thus intimately connected with the English royal house and the fortunes of that house, now represented in the persons of her own children. Nevertheless, as we shall see, from the moment of her marriage with Cnut she seems to have lifted not a finger to advance the prospects of her first family. Alfred and Edward, her eldest sons, languished at the Norman Court for years after their mother was Queen of England, and the one returned to this country only to be foully done to 279 HISTORY OF ENGLAND death, while the other had to thank the astuteness of an ambitious statesman for his crown rather than the efforts of his mother, who yet by no means lacked power to persuade or talent for intrigue. Again, we must remark that after his marriage with EKgiva Emma Cnut's character seems, on the whole, to gain considerably in grace and breadth of view. Of EHgiva Emma's character very divergent views have been expressed, but to^us she appears to be a woman of much ability, a friend of the Church, of a scheming yet by no means tortuous type of mind. In her matrimonial ventures she seems to have had but little admiration for the vacillating Ethelred or his colourless son Edward, and the whole of her wifely and maternal love appears to have been devoted to her second husband and their children, Harthacnut and Gunhild. That she played a prominent part in the government of England for many years is probable. That she was the friend of Godwin and responsible to some extent for his meteoric rise is by no means impossible. Godwin The history of England for the greater part of the first half of the eleventh century is, indeed, less concerned with kings than with the progressive advancements of the Earl Godwin, whom Freeman, his great panegyrist, described as " the maker, the kinsman, the father of kings." Who the Earl Godwin was by birth and parentage the same authority declared to be ' ' utterly problematical," but if we accept the recently expressed opinion of Mr Anscombe,^ which, though not conclusive, has certainly some evidence to support it, he was no peasant's son, but a member of the cadet branch of the house of EthelwuH, the senior branch of which gave Alfred, Athelstan, and Edgar to the throne of England. According to the same authority, Godwin, Thane of Sussex, and later Earl of Wessex, was the son of Wulfnoth Child, Thane of Sussex, who flourished c. 1009, and was a yotmger son of that Aethelmaer, Ealdorman of Devonshire, whose son Ethelweard the younger is found ^ See "The Pedigree of Earl Godwin," Trans. R. Hist. Soc, 3rd series, vii, 129. 280 7^ ^^ 1 ii/m;m.-^,-N /•/ 4'^^ Pi,ATB XXIX. Cnux and Ewgiva Ejima pi,acing Goi,D Cross on Ai,tar 280 THE DANISH KINGS falling into disgrace on the accession of Cnut, probably as a resvilt of bis great friendship with Edwy the Atheling. If this be so, then Godwin was the nephew of Bthelnoth, Archbishop of Canterbury, and owned Ethelweard the historian as a collateral ancestor. One thing at least is certain : Aethel- maer, Godwin, and Wulfnoth are all named as beneficiaries under the will of Athelstan, King Ethelred's son, and from the form the will takes it would appear that at that time Aethelmaer was in disgrace with Ethebed. An Aethelmaer had, indeed, led the thanes of the West Country and had gone over with his following to SwejTi, King of Denmark, at Bath, in 1013, as we have said. Wulfnoth. Child had also rebelled against Ethelred, and had been deprived of his honours by that King. On the other hand, Ethelweard, brother to Wulf- noth and son of Aethelmaer, had suffered for his fidelity to Edwy the Atheling. In a word, therefore, we may say that Godwin was a member of a noble and semi-royal house, all the branches of which were powerful, some being the leaders of the loyalists, others playing a part against their own country- men by favouring or accepting the Danes. It is by no means improbable that the family had intermarried with the Danes, and as for Godwin, it is, of course, well known that his wife was Gytha, a lady of the Danish royal ^house, being the daughter of ThorgUs Sprakalegg and sister ot Ulf the Earl or Jarl, a brother-in-law of Cnut. The children of this union — Swegen, Harold, Tostig, Gyrth, l/cofwine, Wulfnoth, Ead- gylh, Gimhild, and Elfgiva — ^were thus partly English and partly Danish, as is apparent from their names. Even Harold, hailed by Freeman as the last great representative of English royalty, bore a Danish name,^ was the child of a Danish mother, and cannot be regarded as the legal representative of the royal house of Cerdic or of any other royal house. He was, in truth, half Englishman, half Dane, the child, the able and valorous son of a far-sighted, scheming, and ambitious politi- cian who from year to year had increased the family fortunes ^ The charters sometimes have the signature ' Harald,' the pule Danish form, sometimes ' Harold ' ; never ' Hereweald,' the English form. 281 HISTORY OF ENGLAND until their lands stretched over the larger half of England ; who was successively the chief adviser of Cnut and the bene- factor, friend, and chief minister of Edward the Confessor until his fall, and who passed on a great portion of his power to this Harold, destined to wear the crown for a few months and to lose it to the Norman William after laying down his life on the battlefield of Sandlake.* For the first jear or so of Cnut's reign it is probable that Godwin occupied no very prominent position. In the earliest of Cnut'schartersHaldeime andThorkill are seen to be the most prominent of the men around the King. Thorkill had, indeed, played an important if somewhat dubious part in the Danish conquest of England, and had once, as we have seen, thrown in his lot with Ethehed against his own people. On the accession of Cnut he occupied an extremely high position, and as late as 1019 his name is first among those of the dukes or leaders around the King. In 1020 he was co-founder with Cnut of the religious house at Ashingdon, and it is evident that in this year he was still high in favour. The next year, however, we find him banished with his wife, Edith (a daughter of Cnut), and although he was soon restored to favour, he never returned to England, but became Regent of Denmark. The way was thus open for the rise of Earl Godwin, who added to his advantages of birth and station great ability in battle and in the council chamber. Whether or not we are to accept the stories connected with his fight against the Wends or Swedes, which gained for Cnut a most important victory, it is clear that from 1019 at latest ^ Godwin had akeady reached the dignity of a dukedom, and even when he married (c. 1016-1018) his first wife,^ a daughter of Brihtric, brother of Eadric Streona, it is evident that he was one of the most power- ful men in the land, for his marriage articles were agreed to 1 Commonly known by the Norman-French name of Senlac, popularized by Ordericus Vitalis and Freeman. 2 The 1018 charter in which his name is given as dux is believed by Birch to be spurious ; we therefore date his elevation to that high rank at loig, the date of another and genuine charter. ' It is not certain that this was the great Godwin ; it is, however, probable. 282 THE DANISH KINGS before the King at Kingston and half the nobility of the realm. Since this marriage took place not later than 1018, it is apparent that Earl Godwin was from the opening years of Cnut's reign a man of great importance, and from 1020 to 1023 onward his name always stands first among those of the nobles in the charters of Cnut. Battle of Carham We do not propose to deal with Cnut's foreign expe- ditions. They were adventures of a personal nature which had absolutely no permanent effect upon English history. It is a matter for remark, however, that as early as 1019 Cnut felt himself strong enough to leave his recently conquered kingdom and sail with forty ships for Denmark, where he abode over winter. In the following year he returned, outlawed Ethelweard and Edwy, King of the Churls, and consecrated the minster at Ashingdon. In 1022 he was again absent in Denmark, returning the year following to be present at the christening of the babe Harthacnut, a ceremony which took place at Christ Church, Canterbury, and which was preceded by the translation to the church from lyondon of the corpse of the martyr St Alphege. Of the subsequent expeditions against Denmark and Norway we say nothing, but a battle fought at Carham against the Scots some years before, in 1018, had an important effect upon our history, and must be mentioned. In that year Malcolm, King of the Scots, combined with Owain, King of the Strathclyde Britons, to attack the Danes and English of Northumbria. At that time the Dane Eric was chief of the men of Deira, while Eadwulf, a Saxon, had succeeded his brother Utred (who had been assassinated, perhaps at Cnut's command) as chief of the Bernicians. The two forces met at Carham, not far from the site of the future battlefield of Flodden, and there a great slaughter of the Saxons was made. As a result of Malcolm's victory Dothian was lost to England and the dividing- line between England and Scotland was fixed at its present hmits on the east. 283 HISTORY OF ENGLAND Cnut's Saxon Favourites Apart from tliis defeat, the early years of Cnut's reign hold for us little of interest that is connected with the King himself. It is not, indeed, until his pilgrimage to Rome, in 1027, that we shall have occasion to consider the royal movements, but during the intervening years we must trace shortly the rise of the men whQ were later to control the fortunes of the country. By 1020 Godwin was already Earl of the West Saxons, and from 1023, at latest, he was pre-eminent in the State. Mean- while other Englishmen were also beginning to occupy high posi- tions around the King. Nothing is more strange, indeed, than that Danish Cnut should have found it desirable slowly to remove all his Danish followers and replace them by EngUsh- men. Of Thorkill's banishment we have spoken, and we have seen that Eadric, the traitor, had been promoted to the ealdor- manry of Mercia, to be later slain in I^ondon. He was followed by I^eofwine, a name which becomes prominent in the charters of Cnut about 1019. About the same time, I>ofric — ^the husband of the far-famed Godgifu, whose name appears in a charter of 1023, and who is known to all, under her I/atin name of Godiva, as the lady who gained for the citizens of Coventry freedom from a burdening tax at the price of riding through their streets clothed only in her tresses — ^became a chieftain of the Welsh border, though, indeed, it is not until 1023 that he is found signing as earl. In that year, however, he occupies second place to Godwin himself. It is probable that his advancement was due in part to the disgrace and death of Northman, the son of l/cofwine. Meanwhile Godwin had been created Earl of the West Saxons in 1020, and ThorkiU had been banished in 1021. It is possible that Eric was banished late in 1023, although his signature is found on a charter of that date, and six years later another important Dane, Duke Hakon, who in 1019 was second among Cnut's followers, was also compelled to cross the seas. This Hakon, ' the Dot^hty,' was the son of Eric, and later occupied an important place in 284 THE DANISH KINGS Norway until his death, in 1030. Five years before, Ulf the Jarl, a relative both of Cnut and Godwin, was mysteriously murdered at the instigation of the King. As Freeman says, " It is most remarkable, in tracing the signatures of the charters, to trace how the Danish names gradually disappear and are succeeded by English names." ^ Cnut's Administrative Reforms During these years, in which Englishmen were gradually displacing Danes in the highest positions in the State, Cnut seems to have pursued a policy directed toward establishing his grip on the throne by removing all possible claimants and by gratifying the national feelings of his subjects. The Dane- geld was still, of course, exacted. In 1018 no less a sum than 82,500 pounds was paid, of which burden I/ondon bore rather more than one-eighth. It is evident, however, that this heavy charge was used to relieve the kingdom to some extent of future exactions, a large part of the Danish fleet being paid off and sent back to Denmark. It is, again, a remarkable sign of Cnut's confidence in the stability of his position that one year after his election to the English kingship he felt strong enough to dispense with all but forty ships of the fleet, which had been mainly instrumental in gaining for him his crown. The forty ships which remained appear to have been used by the King for his own protection, their crews forming his personal bodyguard imder the title of huscarls, or housecarls. The first great step toward convincing the people that they had nothing to fear from the rule of the Dane was taken in this same year (1018), when the Witan was summoned to Oxford. Then it was solemnly decreed that the laws of King Edgar should be observed. This meant, as William of Malmesbury pointed out, that the new King was prepared to observe the laws which the English King had observed, and not necessarily that he subscribed in detail to the ^ In 1018 the signatures to a charter are Cnut, Emma, Haldenne, Thorkill ; in 1019 Thorkill, Hakon, Leofwine, Halfdan, Brie, Bthelred, Godwine, etc. ; in 1023 Godwine, I^eofric, Osgod Clapa; in 1035 Cnut, Blfgiva Emma, God- wine, I Or Griffith the son of I,lewelyii. 301 HISTORY OF ENGLAND immediately after the banishment of Godwin and the departure of Earl Swegen he reappeared on the scene. This was in 1052. In the intervening years many events had taken place on the border. Karl Swegen had been driven from Hereford, and his place had been taken by Ralph, son of the Comit of Vexin and nephew of Edward the Confessor. With him many important Normans had come and Norman castles were beginning to spring up. The Welsh chieftain no doubt viewed with anger this presence of a new and powerful group of nobles, and in 1052 he vented his wrath in a raid upon Herefordshire. From the return of GrufEydd to his people, loaded with spoil as a result of a victory at I X M i-t COMING OF THE NORMANS After the Battle : The MALFOssi: It was probably some time after the battle had been won ^ that the English, hastening by devious routes northward, closely followed by the victorious Normans, took refuge in an ancient fortification, where it may be they were reinforced by the men who were hastening from London to strengthen Harold's forces. One thing at least is certain : the Normans, at a spot known as Malfosse, received a sharp check. Most of the modern historians have described the reverse at Malfosse as an incident in the main battle, but, as Mr Stevenson says, " The account of the check of the Normans . . . endorsed by Orderic seems to imply that its site was some old fortifica- tion. From William of Poitiers, who refers this reverse in a marked manner to the night following the battle, it would seem to have occurred at some distance from the hill of Senlac or Sandlake." It is indeed probable that William now found the road to I^ondon barred by forces too strong to be overcome immediately. We consequently find him retiring on Hastings.^ There, according to Guy of Amiens, he remained for five days and then marched east to Dover, punishing en miie the men of Romney, who had slain some Normans who had landed there in error. At Dover he remained a week and a day, and in that time did such grievous harm to the surrounding country-side that ten manors lying north and east of that town, which before the invasion were worth £157 los., were valued at but £40 afterward. Having fortified Dover, secured a landing-place for reinforcements, and received the submission of the citizens of Canterbury, William turned north-east and arrived at Broken Tower (probably near Sandwich) , where he pitched camp. By now or within the next few days Pevensey, * See as to this Mr Stevenson's article in the English Historical Review, vol. xxviii, p. 292. * For our account of William's subsequent movements we are much indebted to Mr G. J. Turner's article, " William the Conqueror's March to I^ondon in io66,"in the English Historical Review, vol. xxvii, p. 209. It differs in many ways from that given by the Hon. F. H. Baring, ibid., vol. xiii, p. 18, an account based on Domesday Book and its tale of ravagings. Neither account can be regarded in any way as final. HISTORY OF ENGLAND Hastings, Winclielsea, Rye, Romney, Hythe, Dover, and Sandwich were in William's hands. Having thus gained possession of all the Channel ports, the Conqueror left the coast and marched on Canterbury. Here he remained, a prey to illness, for some three weeks, leaving the cathedral city some time about November 21. From Canterbtiry he marched on I/ondon, either by way of ]>nham or along the Roman road whicfi passed throt^h Rochester. Attitude of the Atheling's Supporters Meanwhile many things had been happening in I^ondon. With Harold and all the male members of the house of Godwin dead, save only Wulfnoth, men's thoughts naturally turned to Edgar the Atheling, who had previously been brushed aside by the usurping Harold. As to the Earls Edwin and Morcar, they were apparently playing a double game. Each desiring, yet despairing, of obtaining the throne for himself, they yet hoped by bargaining to gain the larger half of England, and not improbably offered to support Edgar on the terms that he should, when King, recognize them as practically in- dependent rulers of Mercia and the north. ^ As for the citizens of I/ondon, they were clearly on the side of Edgar. The clergy, on the other hand, were doubtful. Stigand, whose wide acres in Kent and the south now lay improtected before the Conqueror, and whose election was deemed invalid by Pope Alexander and William, hung irresolute between two fears. Aldred, the Archbishop of York, however, declared firmly on the side of the Atheling, and apparently won over several of the bishops to his side. Meanwhile mes- sengers had come from the Pope ^ urging the bishops to submit to William and forbidding them to participate in the coronation of the Atheling, now about to take place. The bishops seem to have obeyed the Pope's commands ; the 1 This is not, however, susceptible of proof. It seems to ns to agree with what we know of these Barls, their intrigues, and their subsequent actions. 2 This must be regarded as a tentative suggestion. See Mr Turner's article already referred to, English Historical Review, vol. xxvii, p. 213. 326 COMING OF THE NORM|ANS Atheling was never consecrated, and the Church, if it ranked itself on any side, chose in the coming struggle the frigid side of neutrality. Stigand, indeed, at this point was probably favourable to William — ^hoping, it may be, by a ready sub- mission to regain his high office. One thing at least is cer- tain : William's soldiery, drawn as they were from the ranks of bloody-handed adventurers and mercenaries, generally ravaged, burned, and slew wherever they went. When they approached the wide estates of Stigand an order went forth from William that looting was forbidden. As a result the whole army marched through Stigand's honour, manors, and farms without broaching a single cask of mead ! Stigand's land held to a shilling the same value after as before the visitation. William's March on London It was while the counsel of the realm was confused and cried with conflicting voices that William, early in December, drew near the city, marching along the southern bank of the river and making for Southwark. The citizens, from the earliest times zealous supporters of the rightful claimant to the crown, crossed over London Bridge, hoping to beat back the enemy. Their artless valour was, however, of little avail. They were driven back by the heavily armed Norman cavalry and suffered much loss. Nor was this all, for the Normans punished the hardy loyalists by burning all the houses along the south bank of the river. Edwin, Morcar, and Sticand Meanwhile Edwin and Morcar, who had already sent their sister, the Queen Ealdgyth, north to the family stronghold of Chester, appear to have definitely deserted the lyondoners and the Atheling and to have marched their army, not south to meet Duke William, but north to their own earldoms. When judging their action at this time we must remember that less than a hundred years before Wessex, Mercia, and North- umbria were different states, inhabited by men of different 327 HISTORY OF ENGLAND nationality. Even in the years when England seemed welded into a united kingdom it is fairly evident that rival factions existed which brought into frequent conflict the interests of these states. It may be that Edwin and Morcar, feeling themselves impotent among the men of Wessex, determined on the northward march in order to be able to raise the men of Mercia. It may be that, having failed to persuade the Iofric, and Siward were straining continually to increase their own fortunes, allying themselves when necessary with foreign invaders against their own king and their own country. The weakness thus created by faction was increased by ignorance and debauchery. The Chturch, cut off, it would seem, by its geographical situation from intimate contact with Rome, felt but weakly the movements which did much from time to time to cleanse the Continental system. The monastic houses, torn at times by the quarrels of regulars and seculars, seem to have put wealth before piety, purity, or learning. Fine abbeys, wide lands, they gained, but the men themselves were too often drunken, indolent, and souUess clods. It must not 330 COMING OF THE NORMANS be thought that the state of England was greatly worse than that of the Continent. We are dealing with the Dark Ages. It is manifest, however, that England was drifting away from the wider world. Her clergy were self-centred; her nobles were self-centred ; her kings were weaklings or men of alien race. As for the people, there was still much gold to be found among them, but it required refinuig. The lower ranks were slaves who did not count ; the higher ranks were becoming wealthy, for already England was proving her capacity for commerce. But the wealth thus gained could not but be ill-spent. We must remember how densely ignorant the people, peasants or nobles, were. It requires but little demonstration that he who has wealth without a know- ledge of how to spend it wisely will be the loser by his gains. Then, as now, gilded ignorance ran to vice. The time had come when a rigorous change was necessary if the soul of the State was to be saved. The change had come. No longer were lords to raise up internecine strife. No longer was the rudder of England to be held in a nerveless grip. No longer was the English Church to slip away from the rest of Christendom. Now a King had come who knew how to rule, who brought with him a new nobility who also knew how to rule, and new clerics who were remarkable for their knowledge and their piety. As a result, the Norman Conquest marks a great and decisive turning-point in the history of our country. Henceforward the outlook of England was wider. Her government, strengthened by a system of specialized feudalism, was more centralized and less diffuse. Her King, by virtue of his Continental dominions, far overtopped the most powerful of his barons. Such was the nature of society in those days that these were solid gains. To them was added the one peculiar excellency of the Anglo-Saxon polity. The old system of local courts and local administrations still lived on. As a result Englishmen gained that unusual political insight and acquaintance with the afEaifs of government which in later and more glorious years was to create from small 331 HISTORY OF ENGLAND beginnings the most splendid of Empires. For that heritage of political insight, priceless as it was, we must thank our Saxon forbears. For the controlling rule which organized the local units and enabled them to work together jointly for the good of the State we must thank the Norman. Both combined to create English statecraft and the English political system. Both were necessary before Magna Carta or a Bill of Rights or a Reform Act was possible. I^ooking back over the intervening centuries, it seems to us a matter for much thankfulness that William was the conqueror and not the conquered. Harold, brave man and gallant soldier though he was, could not have lifted the State out of the rut into which it had fallen. New methods, new ideals, new blood was necessary. All these were now present for our country's betterment. 332 CHAPTER XVI WILLIAM I 1066-1087 " A FTER his coronation at I,ondon, King William /\ ordered many affairs with prudence, justice, and L \. clemency. Some of these concerned the profit and honour of that city, others were for the advantage of the whole nation, and the rest were intended for the benefit of the Church." Thus does Ordericus Vitalis, who will be our primary authority for the events of this reign, sketch out the aim of the first measures taken by the new sovereign. It may be that it was now that the King granted to London the first of that long line of royal charters which established the liberties and rights of the metropolis upon such a firm basis. Of the contents of this charter we have no knowledge, for it has been lost, but in the division of the Liber Albus which contains the text of the charters granted to the city from Henry I onward we have at the commencement the entry, " Inprimis, Charia Domini Willelmi quondam Regis Angliae, in lingua Saxonica." This entry, of course, belongs to a much later age, when doubtless the original charter was already lost, but it records the existence of a document notable for two reasons : it tells of William's first efforts to win over the citizens ; it informs us that the Conqueror commenced his rule by granting charters written in the Saxon tongue. It is manifest, indeed, that from the outset the new-comer desired to impress the people as little as possible with the sense of change. The old English laws and customs were continued. The English legal system as it existed in the time of the Confessor was preserved, and in later years was reduced to 333 HISTORY OF ENGLAND the form of a bilingual code under the title of the Lcis Williame. When William promised to abide by the laws of Edward the Confessor it is probable that neither he nor the people had in mind any particular code of law pubHshed by that King. He simply meant his subjects to understand that the ancient stream of English justice was not to be diverted into fresh chatmels ; it was to flow on along its old course. In later years, when the monkish forgers of Henry I's reign were at work, an effort was made to create a body of law which was supposed to represent the system of Edward's time as amended by the Normans, and the code so formed later became known as the Leges Henrici Primi. We now know that this was a private compilation,^ and that the era of ordered expositions, or an3rthing more than the roughest codes of law, had not yet come. That was to await the genius of Ranulf de Glanvill and Henry de Bracton, and, in a fuller sense, the rise of the so-called English Justinian, Edward I. The chief constitutional changes introduced by WilUam belong to later years, and will be considered in their place. For the present the Conqueror was mainly engaged in making the necessary arrangements for the complete pacification of the country and for strengthening the bonds between himself and Rome. Already, as we have seen, splendid presents had been sent to the Holy See, and one of the first acts of the reign was the founding at Senlac of the Abbey of the Holy Trinity, better known as the Abbey of St Martin of the Battle, or Battle Abbey. There an altar was raised on the spot where the West Saxon banner had fluttered ; there in course of time a Norman abbot was installed. It seemed to men symbolic of a closer union between Church and State, between English and Continental clericism. But although the King was thus mindful of other matters than those dictated by military expediency, he never for a moment forgot that much yet remained to be done before the conquered country was reduced to full submission. WhUe charters were being given to the men of London, Norman * As were the Leis Williame, or Leges Willelmi. See p. 350. 334 w n •< S w ft o w w >-r WILLIAM I architects were busy on fortifications — a work which, as we have seen, had already been begun. While this was in progress the King quitted his capital and spent some days at Barking or Berkhamsted. According to Ordericus Vitalis it was now that Edwin and Morcar came to make submission. ^ Eadric the Wild, a relative of the infamous Eadric Streona, destined in future years to rebel frequently against the Nor- mans, also took the oath of fealty. The King now felt that the cotmtry was safe enough to allow him to make a progress through his new dominions. The tour was taken advantage of by William to settle the places at which new strong- holds should be founded. Many of his bravest followers were rewarded by grants of wide acres taken from the Saxon nobles who had opposed him, and in many places castles, nearly all doubtless of the motte type, began to spring up, whence the castellans could tame their enemies, suppress their equals, and oppress their inferiors. In particular a strong castle was built within the walls of Winchester, charge of which was given to William fitz Osbem, the King's friend since boyhood and his staunchest supporter. To fitz Osbem was also given control of the major part of the district which had once been Wessex. Few years were to pass before the heir to these wide estates, having succeeded to them on his father's death, seceded from his King, rose in rebellion and was crushed, bringing down with him for ever the fortunes of his house.^ While fitz Osbem was being installed in Winchester, Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, the uterine brother of the King and own brother to Robert de Mortain, was given the whole of Kent,^ which he ruled from the fortress of Dover. Odo, who, Orderic tells us, was " a prelate distinguished by great liberality and worldly activity," was to bring misfortmie to the realm, was, in the succeeding reign, to plunder his own ' As we have said, there is reason to believe that their submission took place before the coronation. See p. 328. ^ The family intermarried, with the Abergavennys ; apart from that practically nothing is known of its subsequent history in England. ' Orderic speaks of him as palatinus Cantiae consul, but it is doubtful whether he held the position of a palatine earl with the wide jura regalia. 335 HISTORY OF ENGLAND earldom and be sent a captive to Rochester, while the EngUsh cried, " Halters ! Halters for the traitor bishop ! " For the moment, however, he was high in favour and, with fitz Osbern, ruled England, in the King's absence, with the aid of Hugh de GrantmesnU, Hugh de Montfort, WiUiam de Warenne, and other leading warriors. That their rule was light cannot be beUeved, for even Orderic, who, though brought up in Shrop- shire,^ had Uved lomg in Normandy, received all his knowledge ia the schools of Paris, and was sympathetic to the Normans, tells us, when speaking of these Norman barons, that " some of them governed their vassals well ; but others, wanting prud- ence, shamefully oppressed them." The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle sotmds still more woeful, for there we read, imder date 1066 : " Bishop Odo and William the earl [fitz Osbern] remained here behind, and they built castles wide throughout the realm, and oppressed poor people ; and ever after it grew greatly in evil. May the end be good when God will ! " William's Visit to Normandy William had, indeed, departed for Normandy during the Lent of 1067. The Conqueror, taking with him Stigand, the Atheling Edgar, and Earls Edwin, Morcar, and Waltheof, among others, returned to his own duchy, there to hold feast and celebration in honour of his glorious adventure. It was while at Pevensey, preparatory to the crossing, that the King paid ofE a portion of the stipendiary soldiery who had accom- panied him, and who now returned to their homes laden with rich gifts. By March the King was in his old duchy, and thereupon began a series of regal processions which, we are informed, " filled the whole of Normandy with rejoicings." Splendid presents were made to the Church, and the feast of Easter (April 8) was kept at the Abbey of the Holy Trinity at Fecamp, where a great number of bishops, abbots, and nobles assembled. We must now leave the rejoicings in Normandy and return ^ What is believed to be his seal exists to-day in the Shrewsbury Mnsenm. He spent his early years at Atcham. WILLIAM I once more to England, where the people were groaning under the iron rule of Odo and fitz Osbem. Already, it would seem, the lesser lords had raised their wooden walls,^ and, thus protected, had commenced to enrich themselves by extor- tionate exactions. Their men-at-arms, we are told, " most outrageously robbed the people and ravished the women." It seemed that the Conqueror's injunction to his barons " to comport themselves with dignity, joining activity to right judgment," had been either forgotten or ignored. As a result, when William retirmed it was to a land ripe for rebellion. Secret meetings were held and a plan was formed for throwing off the Norman yoke. Sweyn Estrithsson, the King of Den- mark, was appealed to. Others of the English, despairing of liberty, sought a voltmtary exile, while the braver sort jour- neyed to Constantinople. There in later years they aided Alexius Comnenus ^ to beat off the attacks made upon him by another Norman conqueror, Duke Robert Guiscard. It was in this way that an Anglo-Saxon colony was founded in Ionia. For the time Sweyn felt himself unable to undertake an expedition to secure the proffered crown, and in the meantime the English, bereft of their native leaders, now practically hostages with William in Normandy, sent over to Eustace of Boulogne, who had quarrelled with the Conqueror. Eustace gave ear to the rebels, collected a force, embarked his troops, and set sail for England, where he landed in the dead of night. No sooner had his last foot-soldier been disembarked than a surprise attack was made on Dover Castle. The garrison, however, though taken unawares, resisted the assault success- fully. Odo had time to hurry up support, and Eustace's men, caught between a sally of the garrison and the onrush of a relieving force, were cut to pieces. The Count himself escaped, thanks to the swiftness of his charger, and lived to become reconciled with William. * Most of the early motte castles were of wood ; it was only in course of time that the stately stone castles began to be built all ovfer thp country. 2 Reigned 1081-1118. Y 337 HISTORY OF ENGLAND The first open rebellion had signally failed, but the news of it had sufficiently alarmed the King to make him determine on an immediate return. Taking horse on December 6, 1067, he arrived at the mouth of the B^thune, whence, setting sail, he returned to England, leaving Normandy in the charge of his wife, Matilda, and his son, Robert.^ With him came Roger de Montgomery, soon to be established at Shrewsbury as Earl and to attgmpt the subjugation of the warlike tribesmen of Wales. Revolt in the West The return of the Conqueror seems for a time to have stamped out the embers of revolt. The feast of Christmas was kept in peace and with courtesy in I^ondon. English nobles and bishops were received and steps were taken to remove the causes of the prevailing discontent. Around London and the home counties matters seemed to have calmed down, but in the west Eadric the Wild had joined forces with the Welsh princes Bleddyn and Rhiwallon, who attacked Hereford Castle, now in the charge of fitz Osbem. Meanwhile the men of Corn- wall and Devonshire were preparing to withstand the King in the city of Exeter. The reason for their revolt we are not told, but the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle hints at new and oppressive taxation. Against the men of Exeter the King marched in person, and with him went Englishmen, now used for the first time by the Conqueror against their own countrymen. With the approach of the royal forces the men of Exeter realized the futility of resistance, the city gates were opened, and messengers were sent offering hostages and desiring peace. The hostages were given, the envoys returned, and the King prepared to occupy the city, when the citizens, changing their attitude for some reason which we can only guess at, bolted their gates, manned their walls, and prepared to stand a siege. At first the King tried terrorism. Marching his army to within sight of the gates, he had the eyes of one of the hostages plucked out in sight of the townsmen on the ramparts. The result was ^ At this date a mere child only just in his teens, WILLIAM I to stir the people to make a desperate resistance, and for eighteen days Exeter withstood continual assaults. At last, however, the English leaders betrayed their followers and submission became inevitab}e. The city gates were opened once more, and in the manner then customary with capitulating cities a procession of the most beautiful of Exeter's women, together with the chief men of the city and the clergy, carry- ing sacred books and holy ornaments, went out to meet the King. Exeter having capitulated, William behaved at first with extreme leniency. Both the persons and the property of the people were spared. But it was otherwise with their leaders. Steps were taken to replace the Saxon nobles by Normans. Exeter itself was castled, Baldwin de Meules being left in charge of the work of fortification, while the Eling marched onward to the very toe of Britain, to the extremest point of Cornwall. By Easter William was back at Winchester, and his army was disbanded, but already the confiscations had been made and the steps taken to create that wide Duchy of Cornwall which was given to Robert de Mortain,^ and which later became the dukedom of the heir-apparent of the English throne. It is about this time that we begin to read of Saxon nobles choosing exile rather than to remain longer in their native land. Gytha, the widow of Earl Godwin, a woman of tragedy who had seen her nearest kin raised to the pinnacle of power only to be dashed down into the abyss of ruin, hastened from Exeter with a train of noble dames for Steep Holmes. There she remained whUe a fleet was prepared to carry her and her companions to St Omer. A little later the Atheling Edgar, with his mother, the Hungarian princess Agatha, his sisters Margaret and Christina, journeyed north to the Court of Mal- colm of Scotland, in the charge of the shire-reeve Merlesweyn and Gospatric. This second exile was the consequence of a ' This brother of Odo and uterine brother of William I gained more than any other private person from the Conquest. He held eventually 797 separate manors, less than half of which made up almost the whole of Cornwall. He held land in many other shires. 339 HISTORY OF ENGLAND rising, led by Gospatric, which had taken place in Northumbria. Before we pass to a consideration of this we must return once more to Normandy, to the Queen Matilda. The Coronation of Matilda Matilda, together with the child Robert, had been left regents of Normandy. As yet the state of England was too imsettled for "William to think it prudent to bring his Queen to reign over his new subjects. Now, however, that he had been the anointed Eang of England for well-nigh fifteen months, now that two small rebellions had been instantly snuffed out, one with the aid of English troops, it seemed no longer rash but politic to introduce his English subjects to their Norman Queen. Consequently, after Easter Matilda arrived in England, and was crowned Queen by Aldred, the Archbishop of York, on May ii, 1068. Before the year was ended the Queen presented her new subjects with a prince, destined to rule wisely over his people, and known to us all by the name he later bore of Henry Beauclerc. Rebellion Renewed Hardly had the ceremony of coronation been performed when new troubles arose to disturb the State. Edwin of Mercia, Morcar of Northumberland, Eadric the Wild, and Bleddyn of Wales rebelled, and, although William attempted to wean away Edwin with the promise of his daughter's hand, the promise was not kept, and Edwin, doubly infuriated, entered with the greater vigour into the struggle. The new movement was fraught with serious consequences. Edwin and Morcar, the representatives of the house of lycofric, were the most powerful of the Saxon nobility ; Eadric the Wild, if less noteworthy as regards possessions, was a fierce fighter ; and Bleddyn ^ was the strongest Welsh prince then ruling. At first the insurrection broke out with great violence north of * See the author's Wales, in this series, pp. 182, 184-196, for further details of this prince. WILLIAM I the Humber. York was in a ferment. The rebels abounded everywhere, fortifying themselves in cities and in places rendered strong by nature. The Conqueror replied in the accustomed Norman manner by castle-building. Apart from numerous smaller works, two strong fortresses were raised — one at Warwick, of which Henry, son of Roger de Beaumont, was given custody ; the other, at Nottingham, had William Peverell as castellan. At York itself two castles were raised, while at I^incoln and other places round about other fortresses were built. As a result of these defensive measures the rebels seem to have remained inactive for the time being. Edwin and Morcar submitted. York delivered up her keys to the King. The Atheling Edgar, with his supporters, made, as we have seen, for the Court of Malcolm of Scotland, who later married Margaret, the Atheling's sister. From some time now the Conqueror pursued a policy designed to strip the Saxon nobility of their land and enrich his Norman followers with the spoil. It would seem that there had been murmurings among his followers, and some had even threatened to return to Normandy. Perhaps they felt that theirs had been all the work and little of the profit. As a consequence William is found making enormous grants of lands and jurisdic- tions, at the same time promising still more when the country should be finally subdued. At this time it is clear that the lot of England was unhappy. The country w^as indeed " a prey to the ravages both of natives and foreigners." Hardly had the first northern revolt broken down than the three sons of Harold Godwinsson, who had earlier escaped to Ireland to the Court of Diarmaid, King of I^einster, raised a fleet of sixty-six vessels and riiade for Exeter. I^anding near by, they bitterly ravaged the coast until beaten off, with frightful slaughter, by Brian, son of Eudes, Count of Brittany, and William Gualdi.^ At the same time the north was ringing * The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gives a different story. The Irish expedition landed at the mouth of the Avon, attacked Bristol, which resisted, took ship, landed again and journeyed through Somersetshire, fought against Badnoth (Harold's staller), who was slain, and sailed away back to Ireland. HISTORY OF ENGLAND with the murder of Robert de Comines and his men. Robert had been given charge of the county of Durham, and had entered the county town at the head of five hundred soldiers. Hardly had the Normans settled down for the night when the men of Durham fell upon them and massacred aU but two, Robert falling with the others. This dark deed, which took place on January 28, 1069, was followed soon afterward by the assassination of Robert fitz Richard, the Governor of York, who was killed by the townsmen, together with many of his men. As Orderic says, " Oaths, fealty, and the safety of their hostages were of Uttle weight with men who had become maddened by the loss of their patrimony and the murder of their kinsfolk and countrymen." Meanwhile Merlesweyn, Gospatric, and Edgar the Atheling, together with other nobles, had assembled their forces and marched upon York. The castle was besieged, and WiUiam Malet, its defender, is found sending post-haste for immediate help. The King replied in person, hastening by forced marches to its reUef. The rebels were cav^ht unprepared, and were not spared. By Easter the King was back at Winchester, only to learn that York was again attacked. Once more he hastened northward, met and defeated the insurgents, and scattered their forces. Such was the state of unrest at this time that WUliam thought it prudent to send the Queen back to Normandy until the tumults should subside. The decision was a wise one, for later in this year a still more serious danger threatened the throne. The Danish Invasion We have already seen that in the first burst of despair the EngUsh had called upon King Sweyn Estrithsson for aid. At the time that aid had been withheld, but preparations had been made for the invasion of England on a large scale as soon as a suitable opportunity could be found. That Sweyn aimed at the throne cannot be doubted. Related as he was to Cnut, there had been in earlier years much talk 342 WILLIAM I of his succession to the English crown. ^ Now, having as- sembled the forces of his kingdom, and supported, according to Orderic, by Poland, Frisia, Saxony, and mercenaries from Lithuania, he prepared to launch a flood of pagans, bought with English gold, into this unhappy land. At first the Danes made for Dover, but were beaten off by the watchful troops of the Conqueror. The same thing happened at Sandwich. At Ipswich and Norwich landings were effected, but nothing was accomplished beyond some marauding expeditions, stopped in the first case by the valour of the country-people and in the second case by the energy of Ralph de Guader. Meanwhile the King, who was hunting in the Forest of Dean, hearing of these landings, dispatched messengers to York warning the garrison of their peril, and ordering the castellans to be on their guard and to send for help if necessary. The castellans returned a brave answer, saying that they had no need of aid for a year to come. The answer proved that the danger was not appreciated. Already Edgar the Atheling, with Waltheof , Siward, and others of the Saxonnobles, had joined the Danes, who had now landed at the mouth of the Humber. The Atheling's force seems to have been on the south side of the river, and was attacked and captured by the garrison of I^incoln, the Atheling and two companions alone escaping, but the main body of the Danes pushed on for York, which was invested. Now we find the names of Gospatric, Merlesweyn, and several Scots nobles among the attackers, and we catmot doubt that the numbers opposed to York were very great. It is, consequently, a matter for surprise that the garrisons of York's two castles were sufficiently foolhardy to risk an engagement in the open. But so it was. Emerging from behind their castle walls, they made a rash sally, were surrounded, and killed or captured to a man. The castles, now bereft of their defenders, lay open to the enemy, and when fugitives brought news of the disaster to the King terror had magnified it even beyond its just proportions. 1 See ante, p. 294. 343 HISTORY OF ENGLAND The King instantly raised a force with which to meet the invaders, and appears to have laid his plans so effectively that the allies fled at his approach, hardly attempting to contest with him for victory. But while the King was in the east rebellion broke out in the west, Dorset and Somerset rose up, while Eadric the Wild, aided by the Welsh and the men of Cheshire, attacked Roger de Montgomery's castle at Shrews- bvuy. GeofErey, Bishop of Coutances, put down the former rising, wldle back hurried the King to the relief of the Shrop- shire stronghold, at the same time ordering William fitz Osbern and Brian of Brittany to march to the reUef of Shrewsbury and Exeter (which was also now attacked). Hardly had the King reached Stafford and defeated an insurgent band when he heard that not only had Shrewsbury been burnt and sacked, but that the Danes, emerging from their hiding-places in the fen-land, had made for York. William immediately turned eastward, reached Nottingham, and pushed on to Pontefract. There he was held up by the river, now in flood, for three weeks before a fordable place was discovered. Finally after a dan- gerous march he reached York, only to find the city burnt to the ground, the monastery of St Peter gutted, and the old Archbishop, Aldred, who had crowned him King, dead of a broken heart at the miseries which had befallen his people. The Wasting of Northumbria There can be little doubt that the proceedings of this year had been enough to try the temper of a far less passionate man than WiUiam. The sight of the ruins of this second city of his realm and the remembrance of his slaughtered garrison may well have created in the King's breast a con- suming rage. Moreover, if EngUshman and Norman were not to drag out their lives in everlasting conflict a lesson was neces- sary. A lesson was given, as ruthless and as savage as any in history. In our view the devastation of the east coast from the Humber northward established finally the Norman power. The mere memory of those burning farms, salted fields, dying men, women, and children, slaughtered horses and cattle, and 344 WILLIAM I even dogs and cats, chilled the hearts of the bravest and long held rebellion in the throttling grip of fear. The Danes having been bought off, the King loosed his soldiery over the unhappy land. Such evil was done that, in the words of a contemporary historian, men " were hurried in crowds to hell." " To his lasting disgrace," says Orderic, " William yielded to his worst impulse, and set no bounds to his prey, condemning the innocent and the guilty to a common fate." Food and implements of husbandry of every kind were heaped together, fired, and destroyed. For hundreds of square miles Kngland was made a desert, and, as a consequence, in the ensuing years famine added to the woes of an imhappy people. As for the devastated region, not a living thing remained, and it is only within comparatively recent years that the last traces of this crime have ceased to be apparent. We, in this present age, with the remembrance of a devastated Belgium, can appreciate the feelings of that man of Shropshire whose words we have so often quoted when he wrote : " When I see that innocent children, youths in the prime of their age, and grey-headed old men perished from hunger ... I assert that such bar- barous homicide could not pass unpunished." The Rebels of the West Disperse The remainder of the year was mainly spent in driving to the fens and marshes the last remaining bodies of rebels and Danes. William himself pushed on as far as the river Tees, and there received the submission of Waltheof and Gospatric, the former appearing in person, the latter by envoys. Mean- while the Danes had been cut off from supplies, and, after suffering greatly from lack of fresh food, were compelled to set sail once more for Denmark, carrying back to SwejTi a sorry account of the expedition, which had been expected to prove the beginning of another Danish conquest of England. We must now return to the Welsh-English combination which, as we have seen, had been formed in 1068 between BleddjTi, Edwin, Morcar, and Eadric the Wild. For a time nothing had been attempted, and Edwin later made peace, 345 HISTORY OF ENGLAND but in 1069 Shrewsbury had been buriit to the ground before either William or his supporters could raise the siege. It is probable that fresh dangers were threatening and William found it necessary to undertake a march over the Pennines in midwinter. Unchecked either by the fury of the elements or the discontent of his soldiery, the Conqueror pressed on over hill and dale, now hidden under the snows of a bitter winter. The faint-hearted among his followers were allowed to desert if they would, and with the remaining loyalists, having conquered rain and hail, bogs and flooded streams, hunger and disease, the Kii^ arrived at Chester in the first month of 1070. There he built a castle, left a garrison, and pushed on to Shrewsbury, which he also fortified. It was in this campaign that the first effect of the ravaging of Northum- bria was seen. On the King's approach no attempt at resist- ance was made. The forces of Eadric and Bleddyn simply dispersed ; Eadric made terms and Bleddyn returned to Wales. LaN FRANC With the garrisoning of Shrewsbury the pacification of England may be said to have been completed ; the first stage of the Conquest was at an end. Hitherto force had called forth force and the lot of England had been a woeful one. Now we enter upon a new era, a time of reformation, when the Church was cleansed, the laws kept, and the constitu- tional changes made which centralized the system of govern- ment and laid the basis for the later feudal system. It may be a mere matter of coincidence that the new turn of affairs synchronized with the coming of I/anfranc, lately Abbot of Caen, to the See of Canterbury. It may be, however, that his was the mind which directed the ship of State along a better channel than that taken either by Odo or William fitz Osbem or William the King. It was on the octave of Easter (April 4) 1070 that Stigand, who still clung to the Archbishopric of Canterbury, was tried before a great synod held at Winchester. At that meeting 346 WILLIAM I three papal legates were present — Ermenfrid, Bishop of Sion, and John and Peter, cardinal-priests of the Apostolic See. Three charges were levelled against Stigand : (i) That he was a pluralist, having held the Bishopric of Winchester with the Archbishopric of Canterbury ; (2) that he had taken the Arch- bishopric although Robert of Jumi^ges, the true Archbishop, was still living ; (3) that he had accepted the pallium from the excommunicated Pope Benedict X. As a result of the trial Stigand was degraded (as was his brother Aethelmaer, Bishop of the East Angles) and the way was open for the appointment of a new Archbishop of Canterbury. Following the deposition of Stigand there came a whole string of dismissals. The Archbishopric of York, the Bishoprics of Winchester, Sussex, East Anglia, were each given to Nor- mans, three of whom had been chaplains to William. I^ater the King summoned I^anfranc from Normandy to occupy the See of Canterbury. I/anfranc, who was now some sixty-five years of age, was a I/Ombard by birth, being the son of Hanbald, a noble of Pavia, and Roza, his wife. From his earliest years he had devoted himself to the liberal arts. He was soon acquainted with Greek and I^atin, and became famous as a dialectician and orator. When some thirty-four years of age he set up a school at Avranches, and it was while there that he abandoned a profession in which he had become famous in order to don the habit of a monk, eventually seeking seclusion in the new and humble monastery at Bee. There he shortly became prior, opened a monastic school, and gained fame as a master to whom all eager for knowledge flocked, even from countries as far distant as Germany and Italy. Two of his disciples occupy a somewhat prominent place in our history, and both bore the name of Anselm. One, Anselm of Badagio, became the Pope (Alexander II) who supported William in his great adventure against England. The other, Anselm of Aosta, who was some twenty-eight years junior to I^anfranc, was his successor at Canterbury. We do not propose to touch on the meeting of William and 347 HISTORY OF ENGLAND I/anfranc or describe how tl|e two became enemies, later to be reconciled. By 1050 at latest priest and King were on cordial terms, and the position had been reached whence I^anfranc's activities were to broaden out into a wider field than that either of monastery or school. By 1059 Lanfranc had thrice defeated Berengar, who sought to maintain the doctrine of John Scotus relative to the Sacra- ment, and had pftbHshed his book De Corpore et Sanguine Domini, and a few months before William's departure for the conquest of Kngland he, at the Duke's request, left Bee and became Abbot of St Stephen's at Caen. On the death of Maurihus, Archbishop of Rouen, in August 1067, I^anfranc was elected his successor. It is probable that already I^anfranc was aware of Stigand's coining fall, and had been urged to undertake the reformation of the English Church ; it is certain that he refused the Archbishopric of Rouen. Lanfranc, indeed, journeyed to Rome, ostensibly to bring the pall for John of Avranches, noted for his arrogance, his quarrels, and his friend- ship with I/anfranc. John was now, in default of I^anfranc, installed at Rouen. So far I^anf ranc was famous for his learning — he was, indeed, the most learned man in Christendom — his piety, and his astuteness. He was soon to build up a more imposing name as a statesman of the highest order. In 1070, as we have said, he became, not without misgivings, head of the Church in England, and on August 29 of that year he was consecrated at Canterbury. From now onward he was the Conqueror's best friend and wisest adviser. Hardly had he become Arch- bishop than he showed that the Church in England had as strong a man at its head as had the State. After a short struggle York was forced to recognize the superior claims of Canterbury, and when, in 1071, I^anfranc journeyed to Rome for the palUum he was treated with marked honour. The Pope, his old pupil Anselm of Badagio, rose to meet him, and gave him two palls. The gift was in a sense symbolical, for I